Hollywood Ups and Downs

 1886: H.H. Wilcox buys a 120-acre area of Rancho La Brea at $150 per acre and christens it Hollywood.

1889: The main street, Prospect Avenue (later changed to Hollywood Boulevard), is paved.

1893: Vine Street is named after former Senator Cornelius Cole’s vineyard.

1901: French painter Paul DeLongpre builds an elaborate residence and gardens, which become Hollywood’s first tourist attraction.

1903: Herman Janes purchases a residence on Prospect Avenue. In 1911 his wife and three daughters, the Janes sisters, start the prestigious Misses Janes School from their home, for the children of the Hollywood community, including those of Cecil B. De Mille and Charles Chaplin.

1903: The Hollywood Union High School District is formed; 30 pupils are enrolled.

1905: The Hollywood Hotel opens at 6811 Hollywood Blvd. Bought by chocolate heiress Almira Hershey, the hotel becomes the epicenter for Hollywood’s social scene; it is here in 1919 that newlywed Rudolph Valentino is thrown out of the honeymoon suite by his first wife, Jean Acker. Louella Parsons turns the hotel into a national institution when she begins her radio show, "This is Louella Parsons, broadcasting from the Hollywood Hotel." It will be torn down in 1956 and replaced by an office tower.

1910: Lack of water and sewage access forces Hollywood to annex to the city of Los Angeles. One of the last official acts of Hollywood’s Board of Trustees is to change the name of Prospect Avenue to Hollywood Boulevard.

1911: Al Christie and David Horsely of the Nestor Film Co. rent the former Blondeau Tavern and barn at the corner of Sunset and Gower, starting Hollywood’s first studio. In 1912, Nes tor merges with Universal Film Manufacturing Co., then in 1916 becomes ä Christie’s Studio, which it remains until 1938, when CBS builds Columbia Square at this site, 6101 Sunset Blvd.

1911: The Idyl Hour Theater, Hollywood’s first moving-picture theater, is built at 6525 Hollywood Blvd.

1919: John Musso and Frank Toulet open Musso & Frank’s Grill at 6669 Hollywood Blvd.

1921: At seven stories, the Security Trust & Savings Building is one of the first high-rise buildings on Hollywood Boulevard.

1922: Sid Grauman starts the tradition of announcing Hollywood premieres with spotlights crisscrossing the night sky at his new Egyptian Theater. The 1922 classic Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks is the first movie to premiere here.

1923: The Christie Hotel at 6724 Hollywood Blvd. is the first of Hollywood’s luxury hotels.

1923: Hollywood’s first nightclub, the Montmartre Cafe, opens on the second floor at 6753-6763 Hollywood Blvd.

1923: The $21,000 Hollywoodland Sign is erected by real estate developers atop Mount Lee to promote the subdivision at the tip of Beachwood Canyon.

1923: Henry’s Cafe & Deli — later changed to Sardi’s — opens a few doors down from the intersection of Hollywood and Vine. Charlie Chaplin is a regular.

1927: Cecil B. De Mille’s The King of Kings opens Sid Grauman’s second movie palace in Hollywood, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. It’s intended to be a monument to Chinese art, culture and architecture; official Chinese government authorization is needed for the importation of temple bells, pagodas, Fu dogs and other rare artifacts. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks are the first to immortalize their prints in cement, on May 18, 1927. ä

1927: The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, at 7000 Hollywood Blvd., opens.

1927: Located in the B.H. Dyas Building, the Broadway is the first major department store on the boulevard.

1927: Taking its name from the establishment’s trademark on the front marquee — a dancing, flute-playing pig — the Pig ’n’ Whistle restaurant and soda fountain opens.

1928: The first Santa Claus Lane Parade is held.

1929: Birthplace of the cobb salad (named for manager Bob Cobb), the Brown Derby, shaped like a fuzzy brown hat, opens at 1628 N. Vine.

1929: The first Academy Awards ceremony is held at the Roosevelt Hotel.

1929: C.C. Brown’s Ice Cream Shop, at 7007 Hollywood, is home of the hot-fudge sundae.

1930: The last and largest of a chain of theaters operated by vaudeville magnate Alexander Pantages, the Pantages Theater, opens at Argyle and Hollywood at a cost of $1.25 million as part of the Fox theater chain. From 1950–1960, the Academy Awards ceremony is held here. The Pantages will show its last film in 1977.

September 3, 1930: The first issue of the Hollywood Reporter hits the stands.

1932: Designed by famed architect Richard Neutra for Universal Studios founder Carl Laemmle, the Laemmle Building, home of the Melody Lane Cafe, opens at the corner of Hollywood and Vine.

1932: Struggling actress Lillian Millicent "Peg" Entwhistle gives her most memorable performance by swan-diving off the "H" of the Hollywoodland Sign to her death.

1933: The first issue of Daily Variety is published.

1936: Sixty-one years before the film L.A. Confidential uses it as a set, Crossroads of the World opens at Sunset and Las Palmas.

1938: The Larry Edmunds Book Shop, a theater-and-film-only bookstore, opens at 6644 Hollywood.

1938: During the ’30s and ’40s, the radio networks broadcast from Vine Street; ABC is located in the Hollywood Recreation Building, home to Louella Parsons and Tom Breneman’s popular radio show, Breakfast in Hollywood. The NBC Radio Studios are located at 1500 N. Vine during the ’40s and ’50s, with such legendary radio shows as The Jack Benny Show and The Bob Hope Show. The building will be destroyed in the 1960s. ä