Would you believe that Hollywood, the classic citadel of cinema, was originally the product of a Los Angeles land boom, a Kansas prohibitionist and an Ohio housewife? Well, that is exactly how it happened!

Harvey Henderson Wilcox

Daeida Wilcox Beveridge

Harvey Henderson Wilcox and his wife Daeida went west in 1883 looking for acreage where they could pursue land development ( Harvey) and horticulture (Daeida). In 1886 they found their dreams in a remote suburb of Los Angeles called Cahuenga Valley. The land was already selling for $100 an acre (up from $2 an acre in 1882) thanks to the decision of the South Pacific Railroad to make Los Angeles a direct link to the East.

Wilcox's map

Harvey scooped up 160 acres of prime real estate and set about mapping it out into lots, subdivisions and named streets (all laid out in strict rectangles). Since he was severely crippled after a bout with typhoid fever, Daeida did all the legwork, traveling back and forth from her hometown in Hicksville, Ohio with plans, plants and even a new name for their little ranch in the West. She heard the name from a fellow traveler who had a summer home called “ Hollywood” and so the Wilcox ranch now became “Hollywood Ranch”. She even ordered English holly to plant on the grounds.

Harvey’s subdivisions soon became a town with streets named and paved and commercial ventures encouraged. Wilcox died in 1891 but Daeida carried on with their dream. She donated land for 3 churches, the first library and city hall, a park and a school and even a police station. But liquor was still outlawed in the community. In 1894 Daeida remarried and, with her new husband Philo J. Beveridge (the governor’s son) she continued to help Hollywood grow. But one dream was dashed….Daeida never could get that darn holly to grow. Finally she just lined the streets with pepper trees! *

Hollywood in 1905. The Hollywood Hotel is far left

The Hollywood Hotel

In 1902 H. J. Whitley opened his “Hollywood Ocean View” tract and the Hollywood Hotel. Soon the residential restrictions were lifted on Hollywood Boulevard and commerce blossomed there. In 1903 Hollywood was annexed by the city of Los Angeles when a lack of water made that the only recourse for the burgeoning little town.

Then in 1908, way back east, the newly formed Motion Picture Patents Company (later called the “Edison Trust”) was making it very difficult for filmmakers to keep making their own movies. So the western exodus began as fledgling producers trekked toward the Pacific coast and eventually landed in…you guessed it…..Hollywood!

The DeMille barn today

The Horsley brothers (they founded the Nestor Co.) came from New Jersey in 1911 and soon others followed. Cecil B. DeMille came in 1913 and filmed “Squaw Man” with Jesse Lasky in a horse barn that cost him $250 a month! They were not received with open arms. It wasn’t long before signs were going up on hotels and boarding houses all over town …”No dogs or actors!”. But that didn’t deter them one bit. While most major studios later built their soundstages and make-believe towns on the outskirts, Hollywood was their home base. It was soon regarded all over the world as the heart and soul of the film industry.

Katharine Albert, an MGM staffer , wrote in the 1930’s that in the beginning Hollywood had been like a child, charming and naïve. “Now it is a woman of the world, sparkling, bizarre, hard and bitter, with a painted face and narrow eyes”. I would not be so critical. I see that Hollywood as a lady, vulnerable, saucy and sometimes naughty but always with a song in her heart. The “lady” that Hollywood became back then still stirs our hearts and we often regret that those days are gone forever.

Other pictures from those early days…..

The famous sign as it was in 1924 when it was put up to advertise a housing development. It was supposed to be taken down in 18 months but public outcry kept it in place.

The sign as it looks today minus the “land”!

Note: Had Daeida Wilcox looked harder, she would have found a native holly in the hills near by the ranch. It is called “toyon” and it grows into a dense tree up to 35” tall. Deer love the leaves and birds and squirrels feast on the long-lasting berries. It has showy clusters of white blooms in late summer. Imagine trees lining the streets that looked like that!

Toyon
	"Hollywood Boulevard"!