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businesses like lighting and post-production. Most movies have long been shot elsewhere
around LA, for example, in Culver City (at MGM, now Sony Pictures), Studio City (at
Universal Studios) and Burbank (at Warner Bros and later at Disney).
Moviemaking hasn't been limited to LA either. Founded in 1910, the American Film
Manufacturing Company (aka Flying 'A' Studios) made box-office hits for years, first in
San Diego and then Santa Barbara. Balboa Studios in Long Beach was another major
silent-era dream factory. Well-known contemporary movie production companies based in
the San Francisco Bay Area include Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope, George
Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic and Pixar. Both San Francisco and LA remain creative
hubs for emerging independent filmmakers.
The Los Angeles Economic Development Council reports that only 1.6% of people liv-
ing in LA County today are employed directly in film, TV and radio production. The high
cost of filming has sent location scouts far beyond LA's San Fernando Valley (where most
of California's movie and TV studios are found) all the way across the country and north
of the border to Canada, where film production crews are welcomed with open arms (and
pocketbooks) in 'Hollywood North,' especially in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
For stargazers or movie buffs, however, LA is still the place for a pilgrimage. There you
can tour major movie studios, be part of a live TV studio audience, line up alongside the
red carpet before an awards ceremony, attend a high-wattage film festival, shop at
boutiques favored by today's hottest stars and see where celebrities live, dine out, drink
and go clubbing in real life.
During the 1930s, '40s and '50s, many famous US writers - including F Scott Fitzgerald,
Dorothy Parker, Truman Capote, William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams - did stints as
Hollywood screenwriters.
Animated Magic
A young cartoonist named Walt Disney arrived in LA in 1923. Five years later he had his
first breakout hit, Steamboat Willie, starring a mouse named Mickey. That film spawned
the entire Disney empire, and dozens of other animation studios have followed with films,
TV programs and special effects. Among the most beloved are Warner Bros (Bugs Bunny
et al in Looney Tunes ), Hanna-Barbera ( The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear and
Scooby-Doo), DreamWorks ( Shrek, Madagascar, Kung-Fu Panda ) and Film Roman ( The
 
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