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71
TOP IC 8. THE AR TS, MUSIC, THEATRE, CINEMA
Text 1. Hollywood and the motion picture industry
In the early 1900s, motion picture production companies from New York and New
Jersey started moving to sunny California because of the good weather and longer days.
Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately
expos e film; the best source of illumination for movie production was natural sunlight.
Besides the moderate, dry climate, they were also drawn to the state because of its open
spaces and wide variety of natural scenery.
Another reason was the distance of Southern California from New Jersey, which made
it more difficult for Thomas Edison to enforce his motion picture patents. At the time,
Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to motion picture production and, in the East,
movie producers acting independently of Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company were
often sued or enjoined by Edison and his agents. Thus, movie makers working on the West
Coast could work independent of Edison's control. If he sent agents to California, word
would usually reach Los Angeles before the agents did and the movie makers could escape
to nearby Mexico.
The first movie studio in the Hollywood area, Nestor Studios, was founded in 1911 by
Al Christie for David Horsley in an old building on the southeast corner of Sunset
Boulevard and Gower Street. In the same year, another fifteen Independents settled in
Hollywood. Creators of dreams began arriving by the thousands; cameras cranked away,
capturing images of cus tard pies , bathing beauties , comedy and tragedy, villa ins leering,
heroines with long curls and heroes to save the day; and they built a new world to replace
the lemon groves.
Thus, the fame of Hollywood came from its identity with the movies and movie stars;
and the word "Hollywood," a word that, when spoken in any country on Earth, evokes
worlds, even galaxies of memories, came to be colloquially used to refer to the motion
picture industry.
In 1913, Cecil B. DeMille, in association with Jesse Lasky, leased a barn with studio
facilities on the southeast corner of Selma and Vine Streets from the Burns and Revier
Studio and Laboratory, which had been established there. DeMille then began production of
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