Filmmaker
Hollywood Theatre in Hollywood; courtesy the Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley
Hollywood – The Cinematic Capital
World War I (1914–18) shut down thriving film industries in cities such as Paris and Berlin, and production companies in Hungary, Germany, France, and Great Britain suffered great losses due to the war and political instability. In America, the success of the film industry transformed the part of Los Angeles called Hollywood into the new cinematic capital.
During 1915, moviemaking studios in Los Angeles employed more than 15,000 people and made as many as 75 percent of films produced in the United States. One of the top studios of the day, Universal, started moving production from New York to California in 1912. In 1915, Universal opened the world’s then-largest production facilities, just north of Hollywood. Universal Studios continues to film movies at that location today. By 1920, over 80 percent of the world’s films were produced in Los Angeles.
Individual filmmakers also began migrating to California. Directors D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille transferred their New York-based studios to Hollywood. Actors such as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin followed the filmmakers as they moved west. The media rushed to cover the lives of the stars, helping to create the enduring image of Hollywood as to the land of movies and celebrities, a world of sunshine, swimming pools, leisure, and glamour.