LOS ANGELES CITYWIDE HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENT Context: Entertainment Industry, 1908-1980 Theme: Industrial Properties Associated with the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1980 Prepared for: City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning Office of Historic Resources December 2019 SurveyLA Citywide Historic Context Statement Entertainment Industry/Industrial Properties Associated with the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1980 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 1 CONTRIBUTORS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 HISTORIC CONTEXT INDUSTRIAL PROPERTIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY, 1908-1980 3 Origins of the Entertainment Industry in Southern California 3 Entertainment Industry Development in the 1920s and 1930s 13 Entertainment Industry Development During World War II 59 Entertainment Industry Development in the Postwar Era 63 SUB-THEME: ORIGINS OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY, 1908-1919 72 Development of Industrial Districts and “Motion Picture Zones” 72 Development of Early Motion Picture Production Facilities 73 SUB-THEME: MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY: MAJOR STUDIO ERA – “THE BIG EIGHT,” 1919-1949 76 Development of Major Motion Picture Production Facilities 76 SUB-THEME: MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY: INDEPENDENT STUDIOS AND RENTAL PLANTS, 1919-1980 80 Development of Independent Motion Picture Production Facilities 80 SUB-THEME: RADIO BROADCASTING INDUSTRY, 1922-1945 84 Development of Radio Broadcasting Facilities 84 SUB-THEME: TELEVISION BROADCASTING INDUSTRY, 1931-1980 88 Development of Television Broadcasting Facilities 88 SUB-THEME: RECORDING INDUSTRY, 1925-1980 92 Development of Sound Recording Facilities 92 SUB-THEME: SUPPORT SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY, 1908-1980 95 Development of Support Service Facilities 95 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 101 SurveyLA Citywide Historic Context Statement Entertainment Industry/Industrial Properties Associated with the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1980 PREFACE This theme is a component of SurveyLA’s citywide historic context statement and provides guidance to field surveyors and others in identifying and evaluating historic resources relating to industrial properties associated with the entertainment industry. Refer to www.HistoricPlacesLA.org for information on designated resources associated with this theme as well as those identified through SurveyLA and other surveys.1 CONTRIBUTORS This context was prepared by Christine Lazzaretto and Heather Goers, Historic Resources Group, with significant guidance and input from Christy Johnson McAvoy. Christy is the founding principal of Historic Resources Group, with over thirty years of experience in historic preservation in Southern California. Christine is a Principal at HRG; she earned her Master of Historic Preservation degree from the University of Southern California, and has been practicing in the field since 2007. Heather is an Architectural Historian at HRG; she earned her Master of Historic Preservation degree from the University of Southern California and has been practicing in the field since 2012. INTRODUCTION The motion picture industry played, and continues to play, a significant role in the economic and cultural development of Los Angeles, and a large part of the city’s identity is tied to its role as a center of the entertainment industry. The relationship of Hollywood, the concept, and Los Angeles, the place, can best be described as symbiotic. As such, Hollywood is more than a geographic location of industrial building and production facilities. The movie studios and their accompanying support services that make up the “industry” are significant assets to Hollywood and Los Angeles. Over the course of the 20th century, new forms of entertainment found their footing in Hollywood and flourished. Film, radio, television, and sound recording all evolved into major forms of nationwide communication and entertainment under the Southern California sun. In doing so, these mediums transformed the landscape of Los Angeles, and Hollywood in particular, from a sea of citrus groves into a bustling hub of commercial and industrial activity related to the entertainment industry. This theme examines the development of the motion picture, radio, television, and recording industries as well as associated property types located in Los Angeles2 which include: major and independent 1 See also surveys of the Hollywood Redevelopment Project Area completed by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). These surveys were separate from, and not included in, SurveyLA. 2 Some resources associated with these industries are located outside of the city of Los Angeles. Locations include the cities of Burbank, Culver City, and West Hollywood. They are referenced in the context narrative where relevant, but are not evaluated as part of this context. Page | 1 SurveyLA Citywide Historic Context Statement Entertainment Industry/Industrial Properties Associated with the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1980 movie studios, radio and television broadcasting facilities, music studios, and support services. The accompanying eligibility standards provide a framework for their evaluation. Evaluation Considerations: This theme may overlap with other citywide historic contexts and themes as follows: • Properties significant for their architectural quality may also be evaluated under themes within the “Architecture and Engineering” historic context. • Industrial properties may also be evaluated under relevant sub-contexts and themes within the “Industrial Development” historic context. • Some properties may also be discussed in the ethnic/cultural contexts. In particular, see the “African Americans in Los Angeles,” “Asian Americans in Los Angeles,” “Jewish History,” and “Latino Los Angeles,” contexts. • Industrial properties may also be significant under the “Labor History” theme of the “Industrial Development” historic context. • Industrial properties significant for their association with individuals who were influential in the development of the entertainment industry may also be evaluated using the “Guidelines for Evaluating Properties Associated with Important Persons in Los Angeles.” Page | 2 SurveyLA Citywide Historic Context Statement Entertainment Industry/Industrial Properties Associated with the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1980 HISTORIC CONTEXT Industrial Properties Associated with the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1980 Origins of the Entertainment Industry in Southern California The most significant factor in the development of Hollywood in the twentieth century was the arrival of the entertainment industry. Regular motion picture production began in Hollywood in 1911, and quickly grew into a significant economic force. As the popularity of motion pictures grew, more physical facilities related to film production were constructed in Hollywood, and the industry contributed significantly to the area’s overall industrial growth. Origins of the Motion Picture Industry The origins of motion picture production in Southern California are rooted in the arrival of two men from Chicago: Francis Boggs and Thomas Persons. Boggs, an actor and director, and Persons, a cameraman, were representatives of the Selig Polyscope Company and traveled west from Chicago to Southern California in 1907 to film exterior location shots at Laguna Beach for The Count of Monte Cristo.3 As film historian Eileen Bowser notes, while Boggs was far from the first to actually make films in California – there had been films shot there in the previous decade – he may have been the first representative of a major company to travel there on location and then return to establish a studio.4 Boggs and the Selig company returned to Los Angeles in March 1909 and leased quarters behind the Sing Kee Chinese Laundry at 751 South Olive Street (not extant) in Downtown Los Angeles, constructing the first-ever movie set in the city. The first movie to be filmed at Selig’s temporary facility was The Heart of a Race Tout, which was released in 1909 and included location shots of nearby Central Park (now known as Pershing Square), and Lucky Baldwin’s Santa Anita Park racetrack recorded in the final three days before the park’s closure.5 The film, which is believed to be the first full-length picture shot entirely in the Los Angeles area, “inaugurated the Los Angeles film industry.”6 3 See also the “Filming Locations Associated with the Motion Picture and Television Industries” theme. 4 Eileen Bowser, The Transformation of Cinema, 1907-1915, vol. 2, in History of the American Cinema, ed. Charles Harpole (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990), 151. 5 Andrew A. Erish, Col. William N. Selig, The Man Who Invented Hollywood (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2012), 82. While some historians claim that the first movie to be filmed in Los Angeles was Selig’s In The Sultan’s Power, Erish’s examination of William N. Selig’s correspondence reveals that The Heart of a Race Tout was filmed prior to In The Sultan’s Power, but the latter was released first. 6 Erish, Col. William N. Selig, 82. Page | 3 SurveyLA Citywide Historic Context Statement Entertainment Industry/Industrial Properties Associated with the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1980 Scene from the filming of The Heart of a Race Tout, 1909. (Bruce Torrence Hollywood Photograph Collection) At the time, the great film centers in the United States were New York and Chicago, and their associated suburbs.7 Both of these locations, as well as those of the lesser filmmaking communities along the East Coast, such as Philadelphia, presented their own difficulties. Chief among