Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., situated west-northwest of Downtown. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonym for the American film and television industry. Today much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as Burbank and the Westside, but significant ancillary industries (such as editing, effects, props, post-production, and lighting companies) remain in Hollywood.
Many historic Hollywood theaters are used as venues and concert stages to premiere major theatrical releases, and host the Academy Awards. It is a popular destination for nightlife and tourism, and home to the Walk of Fame.
Although it is not the typical practice of the City of Los Angeles to establish specific boundaries for districts or neighborhoods, Hollywood is a recent exception. On February 16, 2005, Assembly Members Goldberg and Koretz introduced a bill to require the State to keep specific records on Hollywood as though it were independent. For this to be done, the boundaries were defined. This bill was unanimously supported by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the LA City Council. Assembly Bill 588 was approved by the Governor on August 28, 2006, and now the district of Hollywood has official borders. The border is shown at the right, and can be loosely described as the area east of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, south of Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon, Cahuenga Blvd. and Barham Blvd., and the cities of Burbank and Glendale, north of Melrose Avenue, and west of the Golden State Freeway and Hyperion Avenue. Note that this includes all of Griffith Park and Los Feliz—two areas that were hitherto generally considered separate from Hollywood by most Angelinos. The population of the district (including Los Feliz) as of the 2000 census was 208,237. The median household income was $33,409 in 1999

History

Main article: Cinema of the United States Hollywood and the motion picture industry
On January 22, 1947, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, KTLA, began operating in Hollywood. In December of that year, the first Hollywood movie production was made for TV, The Public Prosecutor. And in the 1950s, music recording studios and offices began moving into Hollywood. Other businesses, however, continued to migrate to different parts of the Los Angeles area, primarily to Burbank. Much of the movie industry remained in Hollywood, although the district's outward appearance changed.
In 1952, CBS built CBS Television City on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard on the former site of Gilmore Stadium. CBS's expansion into the Fairfax District pushed the unofficial boundary of Hollywood further south than it had been. CBS's slogan for the shows taped there was "From Television City in Hollywood..."
During the early 50's the famous Hollywood Freeway was constructed from The Stack interchange in downtown Los Angeles, past the Hollywood Bowl, up through Cahuenga Pass and into the San Fernando Valley. In the early days, streetcars ran up through the pass, on rails running along the central reservation of the highway.
The famous Capitol Records building on Vine Street just north of Hollywood Boulevard was built in 1956 . It is a recording studio not open to the public, but its unique circular design looks like a stack of 7-inch vinyl records.
The now derelict lot at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Serrano Avenue was once the site of the illustrious Hollywood Professional School whose alumni reads like a Hollywood Who's Who of household "names".
The Hollywood Walk of Fame was created in 1958 and the first star was placed in 1960 as a tribute to artists working in the entertainment industry. Honorees receive a star based on career and lifetime achievements in motion pictures, live theatre, radio, television, and or music, as well as their charitable and civic contributions.
In 1985, the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places protecting important buildings and ensuring that the significance of Hollywood's past would always be a part of its future.
In June 1999, the long-awaited Hollywood extension of the Los Angeles County Metro Rail Red Line subway opened, running from Downtown Los Angeles to the Valley, with stops along Hollywood Boulevard at Western Avenue, Vine Street and Highland Avenue.
The Kodak Theatre, which opened in 2001 on Hollywood Boulevard at Highland Avenue, where the historic Hollywood Hotel once stood, has become the new home of the Oscars.
While motion picture production still occurs within the Hollywood district, most major studios are actually located elsewhere in the Los Angeles region. Paramount Studios is the only major studio still physically located within Hollywood. Other studios in the district include the aforementioned Jim Henson (formerly Chaplin) Studios, Sunset Gower Studios, and Raleigh Studios.
While Hollywood and the adjacent neighborhood of Los Feliz served as the initial homes for all of the early television stations in the Los Angeles market, most have now relocated to other locations within the metropolitan area. KNBC began this exodus in 1962 when it moved to from the former NBC Radio City Studios located at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street to NBC Studios in Burbank. KTTV pulled up stakes in 1996 from its former home at Metromedia Square in the 5700 block of Sunset Boulevard to relocate to the 20th Century Fox lot in Century City. KABC-TV moved from its original location at ABC Television Center (now branded The Prospect Studios) just east of Hollywood to Glendale in 2000, though the Los Angeles bureau of ABC News still resides at Prospect. After being purchased by 20th Century Fox in 2001, KCOP left its former home in the 900 block of North La Brea Avenue to join KTTV on the Fox lot. The CBS Corporation-owned duopoly of KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV moved from its longtime home at CBS Columbia Square in the 6100 block of Sunset Boulevard to a new facility at CBS Studio Center in Studio City. KTLA, located in the 5800 block of Sunset Boulevard, and KCET, in the 4400 block of Sunset Boulevard, are the last television stations with Hollywood addresses.
Additionally it has once served as the home of nearly every radio station in Los Angeles, all of which have later moved into other communities. KNX was the last station to broadcast from Hollywood when it left CBS Columbia Square for a studio in the Miracle Mile in 2005.
In 2002, a number of Hollywood citizens began a campaign for the district to secede from Los Angeles and become, as it had been a century earlier, its own incorporated municipality. Secession supporters argued that the needs of their community were being ignored by the leaders of Los Angeles. In June of that year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors placed secession referendums for both Hollywood and the Valley on the ballots for a "citywide election." To pass, they required the approval of a majority of voters in the proposed new municipality as well as a majority of voters in all of Los Angeles. In the November election, both referendums failed by wide margins in the citywide vote.

Hollywood History Books
One feature for Hollywood since the 1960s has been its attractiveness for desperate runaways. Every year, hundreds of runaway adolescents leave their homes across North America and the world and flock to Hollywood hoping to become movie stars, as portrayed by the lyrics of the 1960s Burt Bacharach song "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" whose lyrics include the words: "All the stars / That never were / Are parking cars / And pumping gas." Such individuals soon discover that they have extremely slim chances of competing against professionally trained actors. Many of them end up sinking into homelessness, which is a problem in Hollywood for adults as well as youth.
Some return home, while others linger in Hollywood and join the prostitutes and panhandlers lining its boulevards; others go to Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles; and yet others end up in the large pornography industry in the San Fernando Valley. This side of Hollywood was portrayed in Jackson Browne's 1980 song, "Boulevard", whose lyrics include reference to a notorious hustler hangout of the 1970s, with the words: "Down at the Golden Cup / They set the young ones up / Under the neon lights / Selling day for night." This phenomenon is also portrayed in the books of Charles Bukowski.
Richard Geib, a schoolteacher in the Ojai Valley, recalled his experiences with Hollywood mentioning runaways and gang members as major presences in Hollywood [1].

Runaways
After many years of serious decline, Hollywood is now undergoing rapid gentrification and revitalization with the goal of urban density in mind. Many new developments have been completed, and many more are planned, and several are centered on Hollywood Boulevard itself. In particular, the Hollywood & Highland complex, which is also the site of the Kodak Theater, has been a major catalyst for the redevelopment of the area. In addition, numerous trendy bars, clubs, and retail businesses have opened on or surrounding the boulevard, allowing it to become one of the main nighttime spots in all of Los Angeles. Many older buildings have also been converted to lofts and condominiums, and a W Hotel is planned at the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine, which will serve to even further revitalize the area.

Revitalization
See also:

Beachwood Canyon
Cahuenga Pass
Hollywood Downtown/Civic area
Hollywood Hills

• Hollywood Heights
  Laurel Canyon
  Mount Olympus
  Nichols Canyon
  Outpost Estates
  Sunset Hills
  East Hollywood
  
  
  
  • Little Armenia
    Thai Town
    Virgil Village
    Melrose District
    Melrose Hill
    Sierra Vista
    Spaulding Square
    Yucca Corridor
    City of Beverly Hills
    City of West Hollywood
    
    
    
    • Sunset Strip Hollywood neighborhoods & communities
      As of the census of 2000, there are 167,664 people in the Hollywood district. The racial makeup of the neighborhood is 42.82% White (non-Hispanic), 4.48% African American, 0.68% Native American, 8.98% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 22.23% from other races, and 6.76% from two or more races. 39.43% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. The income per capita was estimated at $26,119, putting it ahead of Burbank, California, and about the same as Arcadia, California.
      
      Demographics
      Students who live in Hollywood are zoned to schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
      Elementary schools:
      Middle schools:
      Hollywood High School is the sole zoned public high school in Hollywood.
      Christ the King Elementary School is a private school in the area.
      For many years, the motion picture Industry had its own private Industry-run institution for child actors, the Hollywood Professional School.
      Frances Howard Goldwyn – Hollywood Regional Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library is in Hollywood.
      
      Vine Street Elementary School
      Ramona Elementary School
      Gardner Elementary School
      Valley View Elementary School
      Cheremoya Elementary School
      Bancroft Middle School
      Le Conte Middle School
      Taylor Middle School Education
      
      Amoeba Music
      Barnsdall Park
      Blessed Sacrament Church
      Bob Hope Square (Hollywood and Vine)
      Capitol Records
      CBS Columbia Square
      Charlie Chaplin Studios
      Cinerama Dome
      Crossroads of the World
      El Capitan Theatre
      Frederick's of Hollywood
      Frolic Room
      Gower Gulch
      Grauman's Chinese Theatre
      Grauman's Egyptian Theatre
      Griffith Observatory
      Griffith Park
      Hollywood Athletic Club
      Hollywood Bowl
      Hollywood Forever Cemetery
      Hollywood and Highland
      Hollywood Heritage Museum
      Hollywood High School
      Hollywood Palace Theatre
      Hollywood Palladium
      Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
      Hollywood Sign
      Hollywood Walk of Fame
      Hollywood Wax Museum
      Janes House
      The Jester Comedy Club
      KCBS-TV
      KCET
      Knickerbocker Hotel
      Kodak Theatre
      KTLA-TV
      Lake Hollywood
      Lasky-DeMille Barn
      The Magic Castle
      Masonic Temple
      Max Factor Building
      Musso & Frank Grill
      Pantages Theatre
      Paramount Studios
      Pig 'N Whistle
      Pink's Hot Dogs
      The Prospect Studios (ABC Television Center)
      Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Odditorium
      Rock 'n' Roll Ralphs
      Rock Walk
      Runyon Canyon Park
      Shrine Auditorium
      Sunset and Vine apartment complex
      Sunset Gower Studios
      The Taylor Hughes Shrine
      Yamashiro Restaurant Landmarks and interesting spots
      
      Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade: The 2006 parade on Nov 26th, was the 75th edition of the Christmas Parade. The parade goes down Hollywood Boulevard and is broadcast in the LA area on KTLA, and around the United States on Tribune-owned stations and the WGN superstation. [2]
      CINECON Classic Film Festival & Exposition (Annual timing is five days --connected to Labor Day weekend) Classic film memorabilia, expert presentations, author signings, and movie screenings with celebrity guests. See also
      
      "Bollywood"
      "Dollywood"
      "Hollywood North"
      "Kollywood"
      "Lollywood"
      "Nollywood"
      "Tollywood"