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Larry Berger, age 12, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

WHEN WAS THE FIRST HOLLYWOOD STUDIO BUILT?                                                                                                              

Hollywood, Calif., was incorporated as a city in 1903, but seven years later it gave up its independence when the citizens voted to join the city of Los Angeles. The reason they joined was to gain access to the abundant Los Angeles water supply. Today Hollywood is a very famous part of the Southern California city of Los Angeles. About 210,000 people live in the community that lies to the west of the central city.                                                                                                                                    

In the early days of motion pictures, Hollywood became the hub of the film industry because it was located in a mild, extremely dry area. Pictures could be shot all year around with weather rarely slowing down the action.

Hollywood also offered a great variety of locations. Within a distance of less than 100 miles it was possible to find almost every type of natural scenery. The vast deserts were only minutes away in one direction, while the world's largest ocean was minutes away in the other direction. High mountains with lots of winter snow were also close by.

The first motion picture studio was built by the Nestor Company in Hollywood in 1911. It wasn't long until the town became the motion picture capital of the world.

A Hollywood director by the name of D.W. Griffith is given credit for developing the making of motion pictures into an art. He came up with basic film making techniques that are still being used today. Although he didn't actually invent the close up, he was the first person to use the technique dramatically and expressively.

A Canadian by the name of Mack Sennett gave Hollywood another great boost. In 1972 he opened the Keystone Studio in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale. All of he the major silent motion picture stars of the day worked for Sennett including Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Chase, Marie Dressier, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, Mable Normand and Gloria Swanson.

Most of the major Hollywood studios had been established by the mid 1920s. Included were Warner Bros., Columbia, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Paramount, RKO, United Artists and Universal.

This year Hollywood is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the sound movie. In 1927 Warner's made a film called " The Jazz Singer.'' In it A1 Jolson sang a few songs and also spoke motion picture's first words.

By 1929 the North American population demanded more and more sound movies. Movie attendance increased from 60 million persons in 7927 to more than 770 million in 1929. Hollywood was quick to respond to the demand.Most popular Hollywood movies of the early 1930s were musicals, gangster films and movies featuring the activities of newspaper people.

 

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