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Silver screen spots: 10 essential locations in Hollywood
No one could have predicted just how seismic Hollywood’s pop fascination would grow when a cohort of frustrated East Coast filmmakers and moguls first pitched their cameras in the surrounding Los Angeles.
Before long, the motion picture would explode and pull the world’s attention to the former agricultural community, swiftly standing as cinema’s global capital once war had battered formerly dominant European film studios. Coupled with reliable sunshine and a vast array of surrounding terrain and backdrops, every budding director was eager to shoot a silent cowboy feature or urban crime thriller, and they could make such disparate material all in the same side of town.
Even now, in a time where movie magic feels to have ebbed amid the swamp of franchise flogging and risk-averse universe models, those nine letters still spark a glittering sense of wonder for the dream factory where, for decades, Western audiences have laughed, cried and forgotten their lives for that brief, communal moment in the dark with a flickering projection of light unveiling a window into a world. It’s a beautiful thing Hollywood led the way for, a power that may be on its slow way out as the 20th century grows ever more distant.
Still, for any movie buff, Hollywood packs a dazzling blast of must-sees and famous film locales across its 3.5 square miles, still coated in all its mythos that can’t be shaken off for aeons yet. Join us as we peruse Tinseltown and wander the ten locations that form Hollywood’s rich and storied history.
