Hollywood

Hollywood! For so many years the very word has evoked romance, glamour, and a place where dreams can come wildly true... the American dream, anyone's dream.

Hollywood has had an ever-changing history. Ironically, it was named by a couple of conservative prohibitionists in the 1880s. Harvey Wilcox, from Kansas, was selling lots to Midwesterners with the idea that they could winter in California. His wife met a woman on a train who had a home called Hollywood, and Mrs. Wilcox liked the name so much that she and her husband decided to use it for their project. In 1903 the region incorporated as Hollywood and then in 1910, to take advantage of the plentiful water in Los Angeles, it became part of that city.

The next year the first film studio opened, and over time Hollywood blossomed into the dream-maker that it would remain. Movie stars, elegant restaurants, nightclubs, romance and its shadow of disillusionment, palatial homes for those who had struck it rich and acres of more modest housing for the many workers in the film industry... Hollywood had it all.

Of course, films have always been made in other places, but Hollywood has always been more than a place. It's a frame of mind. Everyone understands that it's different from anywhere else.

Naturally, it's been a tourist Mecca. Hollywood posters and postcards capture the essence of Hollywood, the vintage look reflecting the dreams of a bygone era.

About the author: Rosana Hart is a reference librarian turned webmaster. Visit her site at http://www.infoandhelp.com/posters/ for a selection of popular posters and articles about their subjects.