In the western Los Angeles sits the famous city of Hollywood, known as the global center of movie studios and film stars.
The Selig Film Manufacturing Company was the first major film company to come to Hollywood, shooting its first film entitled The Heart of A Race Tout in 1908. The next year the film company built the first permanent film studio.
Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film. The best source of illumination for movie production was nature sunlight. Besides the sunny weather, film producers were also drawn to Hollywood because of its open spaces and wide variety of natural scenery.
Another reason was the distance of Southern California from New Jersey, which made it more difficult for Thomas Edison to enforce his film patents. At that time, Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to film production. As a result, in the East, movie producers acting independently out of Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company were often accused by Edison. But in Los Angeles, things were different. If he sent his men to California, word would usually reach Los Angeles before they did and the movie makers could escape to nearby Mexico.
In 1911, a second movie studio—Nestor Studios, was founded. At about the same time, many film production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to sunny California because of the good weather.
The first Academy Awards presentation ceremony took place in 1929 in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Tickets were $10 and there were 250 people attending the ceremony.
From about 1930, five major "Hollywood" movie studios in Hollywood, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros, owned almost all large theatres throughout the country for the exhibition of their movies. The period between the years 1927 to 1984 was considered the "Golden Age of Hollywood".
