Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
as Thomas Edison. Palm Springs became a favorite weekend getaway for Hollywood stars,
partly because its distance from LA (just under 100 miles) was as far as they could travel
then under restrictive studio contracts.
Fans loved early silent-film stars like Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, and the first
big Hollywood wedding occurred in 1920 when Douglas Fairbanks wed Mary Pickford,
becoming Hollywood's defacto royal couple. The silent-movie era gave way to 'talkies'
after 1927's
The Jazz Singer,
a Warner Bros musical starring Al Jolson, was screened in
downtown LA, where the first big movie palaces stood on Broadway.
CALIFORNIA ON CELLULOID
Images of California are distributed far beyond its borders, ultimately reflecting back
upon the state itself. Hollywood films often feature California not only as a setting but as a
topic and, in some cases, almost as a character. LA especially loves to turn the camera on
itself, often with a dark film-noir angle. For classic 20th-century California flicks, here are
our top picks:
The Maltese Falcon
(1941) John Huston directs Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, the
classic San Francisco private eye.
Sunset Boulevard
(1950) Billy Wilder's classic stars Gloria Swanson and William Holden
in a bonfire of Hollywood vanities.
Vertigo
(1958) The Golden Gate Bridge dazzles and dizzies in Alfred Hitchcock's noir
thriller starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak.
The Graduate
(1967) Dustin Hoffman flees status-obsessed California suburbia to
search for meaning, heading across the Bay Bridge to Berkeley (in the wrong direction).
Chinatown
(1974) Roman Polanski's gripping version of the early 20th-century water
wars that made and nearly broke LA.
Blade Runner
(1982) Ridley Scott's sci-fi cyberpunk thriller projects a future LA of high-
rise corporate fortresses and chaotic streets.
The Player
(1992) Directed by Robert Altman and starring Tim Robbins, this satire on the
Industry features dozens of cameos by actors spoofing themselves.
LA Confidential
(1997) James Ellroy's neo-noir story deftly portrays the violent world of
deals, sexual betrayal and double-crossing by cops in the crime-ridden 1950s.
Hollywood & Beyond
By the 1920s, Hollywood became the Industry's social and financial hub, but it's a myth
that most movie production took place there. Of the major studios, only Paramount Pic-
tures is in Hollywood proper, albeit surrounded by block after block of production-related
