History of Hollywood

Originally known as Prospect Boulevard (1887-1910), it changed upon Los Angele's annexation of the street: Hollywood Boulevard. In 1911, on the corner of Sunset and Gower, the Nestor Company opened the first studio in Hollywood, starting a trend in the industry:friendly weather allowed year-round filming, an environmental attribute not experienced in the upstate New York town of Ithaca, a previous hub of the silent film industry. The formerly agricultural land south of the boulevard was divided into housing for studio workers. During the 1920's and 30's hotels, restaurants, banks, and movie theatres were erected. The street became the new Broadway of Los Angeles with the construction of the Egyptian Theatre and the Gauman's Chinese Theatre. The intersections of Hollywood Boulevard at Vine, Cahuenga, and Highland were the first areas to be densely commercialized, eventually stretching farther to replace the remaining homes on the street. The Beaux-Art Architecture of the buldings and more formal styles fit in with an air of modernity and class, while other Spanish Colonial Revival architecture reflected the glamorization and extravagance of the era.

The iconic Walk of Stars began in 1958, first star was placed in 1960 to commemorate the artists of the entertainment industry. Before and during the implementation of the Walk of Fame, the real stars had been leaving to reside in places like Beverly Hills. The studios migrated to Sunset, leaving run-down tourist attractions amidst seedy shops. Although the glamour had moved to Beverly Hills, tourists still flocked to the center of Hollywood, thanks to the glamorized images of the street constructed in the 20's and 30's.

A symbol of the changing facade of Hollywood Boulevard, the Egyptian Theatre was built in 1922--the first movie palace to be constructed on the Boulevard. The
Egyptian was designed in faux-Egyptian architecture, with huge colonnades
framing the screen. The final movie premier to be shown was Barbara
Streisand's "Funny Girl" in 1968. The Egyptian closed officially after the
1992 earthquake in a state of disrepair, becoming a squat. With the new
"rebirth" of the Boulevard, however, the Egyptian opened once again in 1998,
fully restored, a symbol of the street's revival. It now houses the American
Cinematheque. Other rebirth efforts include:

-Disney's restoration of the El Capitan theatre, turning it into the most
profitable theatre in the country. A Disney store opened right next to it.

-The restoration of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

-$10 million restoration of the Pantages Theatre in anticipation for a
premier of Disney's Lion King musical (2000)

-The Hollywood Entertainment Museum

-The CIM group (owners of retail stores in Old Pasadena and The Promenade)
has invested $100 million, buying parcels of land and opening The Knitting
Factory, a music venue. CIM plans to open more attractions on the street.

-The remaining "problem" of tacky souvenir and sex shops is expected to soon work
itself out as the rebirth attracts more commercial investors, who will buy
them up and move them out. Score one for massive corporate interests!

The Boulevard has never been a real creative center for the entertainment industry. Most studios in Hollywood were found on Sunset Boulevard, even at the height of the 20's and 30's. Rather, the street functions historically as a showcase of the act of watching: tourists line the streets, continually adding to the mythology around buildings constructed for the distribution of entertainment, watching the palaces of watching.

Try a virtual tour of the Boulevard!

http://www.historicla.com/hollywood/map.html

Lyrics to Public Enemy's Hollywood intervention: Burn Hollywood Burn

CHUCK D:

Burn Hollywood burn I smell a riot
Goin' on first they're guilty now they're gone
Yeah I'll check out a movie
But it'll take a Black one to move me
Get me the hell away from this TV
All this news and views are beneath me
Cause all I hear about is shots ringin' out
So I rather kick some slang out
All right fellas let's go hand out
Hollywood or would they not
Make us all look bad like I know they had
But some things I'll never forget yeah
So step and fetch this shit
For all the years we looked like clowns
The joke is over smell the smoke from all around
Burn Hollywood burn

> ICE CUBE:
>
> Ice Cube is down with the PE
> Now every single bitch wanna see me
> Big Daddy is smooth word to muther
> Let's check out a flick that exploits the color
> Roamin' thru Hollywood late at night
> Red and blue lights what a common sight
> Pulled to the curb gettin' played like a sucker
> Don't fight the power ... the mother fucker
>
> BIG DADDY KANE:
>
> As I walk the streets of Hollywood Boulevard
> Thinin' how hard it was to those that starred
> In the movies portrayin' the roles
> Of butlers and maids slaves and hoes
> Many intelligent Black men seemed to look uncivilized
> When on the screen
> Like a guess I figure you to play some jigaboo
> On the plantation, what else can a nigger do
> And Black women in this profession
> As for playin' a lawyer, out of the question
> For what they play Aunt Jemima is the perfect term
> Even if now she got a perm
> So let's make our own movies like Spike Lee
> Cause the roles being offered don't strike me
> There's nothing that the Black man could use to earn
> Burn Hollywood burn

Presentation Material

Hi Everyone, I was trying to upload a sound clip that I want to share in class today, but I will just bring the cd to class because I can't figure out how to do it. Since I am on I should say a few words. I am interested in doing some kind of performance-based text/ sound piece and have been recently introduced and excited about the work of artist Janet Cariff who does walking tours through public spaces. I will maybe share something of hers in class today. Most of my data collection was a la flanuer style, and I am thinking about how to make this way of taking in information about a location accessible or valuable for passers-by. Also, I think Erving Goffman's "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" is a good text on this notion of public/private (we had a visiting scholar cite this work last semester in regards to the "Authentic Tourist"), and I got a lot out of Natalie's post of Acconci's public/private terms. See you all in a few hours with more. Danielle

Hollywood(s): Powers of Simulation

For the last seventy-five years there has been an uneasy fit between movie-made HOLLYWOOD glamour and the dowdy Hollywood district. Movie stars, of course, have never lived in the tenement flatlands, and most of the big studios moved long ago to the suburbs. The actual Hollywood of the 1930s was best described by Nathanial West: home of the "flea people" -- -the extras, laborers, grips and failed starlets.

The HOLLYWOOD in the imagination of the world's movie public, therefore, was kept tenuously anchored to its namesake location by regular rituals (premieres, the Academy Awards, etc.) and the magical investment of a dozen or so places (the Bowl, Graumann's, etc.) as tourist shrines. But over the last generation, as the real Hollywood has become a hyper-violent slum, the rituals have ceased and the magic has waned. As the linkages between historic signifier and its signified decayed, the opportunity arose to resurrect HOLLYWOOD in a safer neighborhood. Thus in Orlando, Disney created a stunning Art Deco mirage of MGM's golden age, while arch-competitor MCA countered with its own idealized versions of Hollywood Boulevard and Rodeo Drive at Universal Studios Florida.

Meanwhile, the elopement of Disney and HOLLYWOOD to Florida further depressed real-estate back in real-time Hollywood. After bitter battles with local homeowners, the major landowners were able to win city authorization for a $1 billion facelift of Hollywood Boulevard. In their scheme, the Boulevard would be transformed into a gated, linear theme park, anchored by mega-entertainment complexes at each end. But while the redevelopers were still negotiating with potential investors, MCA pulled the rug out from under Hollywood Redux with the announcement that its nearby tax-dodge enclave, Universal City, would construct a parallel urban reality called "CityWalk."

Designed by master illusionist Jon Jerde, CityWalk is an "idealized reality," the best features of Olvera Street, Hollywood and the West Side synthesized in "easy, bite-sized pieces" for consumption by tourists and residents who "don't need the excitement of dodging bullets ... in the Third World country" that Los Angeles has become. CityWalk incorporates examples of Mission Revival, Deco, streamlined Moderne, and "L.A. Vernacular" (the Brown Derby), as well as 3-D billboards, "a huge blue King Kong hanging from a 70-foot neon totem pole," and a sheriff's substation for security. To alleviate the sense of artificiality in this melange, a "patina of age" and a "dash of grit" have been added:
Using decorative sleight of hand, the designers plan to wrap the brand new street in a cloak of instant history -- on opening day, some buildings will be painted to suggest that they have been occupied before. Candy wrappers will be embedded in the terrazzo flooring, as if discarded by previous visitors. Hollywood redevelopers immediately responded to construction of CityWalk with a $4.3 million beautification plan that includes paving Hollywood Blvd. with "glitz" made from recycled glass. But even spruced up and glitzified there is almost no way that the old Boulevard can compete with the hyper-real perfection on Universal's hill. As its MCA proprietors have taken pains to emphasize, CityWalk is "not a mall" but a "revolution in urban design ... a new kind of neighborhood." -- an urban simulator. Indeed, some critics wonder if it isn't the moral equivalent of the neutron bomb: the city emptied of all lived human experience. With its fake fossil candy wrappers and other deceits, CityWalk sneeringly mocks us as it erases any trace of our real joy, pain or labor.

http://www.huzzam.com/etext/davmurbancont/Hollywoods.html

Hollywood Mythology: Bling Edition!

According to David Thompson, author of “America in the Dark: Hollywood and the Gift of Unreality”, Hollywood is largely responsible for the pandemic of materialism – our short chain to outer presentation and need for status symbols - in the U.S. The key in spreading this materialism is the mythology that the material object can substitute for or capture ontological value. This idea is nothing new, but I think Thompson’s address of how this mythology developed, and the thin line between industrious creativity and materialism, is intriguing. Here is a sample:

“…the factory is a deadly place in our culture, where people get a living in return for boredom, alienation, and withered self-respect. No one seems to have been bored by the Hollywood factory. Sensation was the product, melodrama its instrument, and excitement the mood in which people worked. Outsiders detected that extra zest and took it as one more proof – along with extravagance, mediocrities made wealthy, and indulged self dramatazation – that Hollywood people were crazy. But as Hollywood shrunk, these ways of life spread in California. …I may wonder how far expenditure as a form of identity, the gap between merit and awards, and the unrestrained outpouring of inner life are now modes in Califormia. That golden state is often attacked for crass materialism. But the facile turning dreams into possessed things shows allegiance to the imagination.”
(Thompson, 43-44)

In terms of Hollywood Blvd, the streets are literally lined with this mythology in the walk of stars. The setup is simple: name of a person in gold, indication of their field in a gold plaque, all encompassed within a star shape (gold) and lined up uniformly with other stars on the sidewalk for people to see. These objects are a perfect illustration of “expediture as a form of identity, the gap between merit and awards, and indulged self-dramatization” that Thompson mentions. They reduce the human identity to a dramatic material symbol (the star – singular, bright and shining against the abysmal night of community), and award people with little reference to their merit or substance. I wonder how much of this mythology, which equates being with having can be applied to our own intervention art - or any other discourse that deals with material objects and thier meanings, and its fascinating for me to consider that I am lumped into the very thing I am intervening on.

I would like to point out and apologize for my apparent need to end each and every one of my blog titles with an exclamation point. But I am easily excited and a word like bling demands more than a simple period, dammit.

Here are some other resources that deal in the realm of Hollywood materialism:

On Crass Materialism or Industrious Creativity?
"Sullivan's Travels" Director: Preston Sturges
"For Your Consideration" Director: Christopher Guest

LACE: A Brief History

LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) was founded in 1978 by LA based artists Richard Hyland, Ismael Cazarez, Guillermo Martinez, Marilyn Kemppainen, Joe Janusz, David Scharf, Alexandra Sauer, Ron Reeder, Barry Scharf, And Bill Fisher (see image). The group consisted mainly of recent Otis Graduates and artists from the East LA chicano community. The gallery's first location was at 240 S. Broadway, a 8,000 ft space above a downtown bridal shop ("lace" also references the material used in stitching bridal gowns). LACE was funded, in part, by the LA County Comprehensive Employment Training Act (initially, the group taught classes on mural painting), the LA City Council, the California Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In the early 1970s, the Pasadena Art Museum was closed and converted into the Norton Simon Museum, much to the dismay of local contemporary artists. MOCA would not open their doors until 1986. Nancy Drew writes, "LACMA was frequently being charged with neglect for its tentative commitment to contemporary art. Alternatives were therefore born out of LA's frustrated underground" (see Ruscha's LACMA Burning). When LACMA stated that they would not exhibit work by contemporary Chicano artists because they did not collect "folk art," LACE artist Harry Gamboa responded by signing his name with spray paint on the building's facade (see image).

LACE openned during a kind of NEA reinassance--in the same half decade, the Kitchen openned in NY, NAME in Chicago, and Beyond Baroque in Venice. Not-for-profit venues gave artists the ability to perform, make video, and create other forms of art that could not be purchased, or easily absorbed into the market.

Some noteable LACE exhibitions: Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler (By Products), 7.11.80, Paul McCarthy (Monkey Man), 5.19.80, Allan Kaprow (Exercise and Team), 5.25.80, Chris Burden (Solaris), 10.23.80, Nancy Buchanan (If I Could Only Tell You How Much I Love You), 1.25.07, Lari Pittman (Sunday Painting), 5.9.82, Elanor Antin (Recollections of My Life With Diaghilev), 10.30.82...

Well, you get the idea. I will also bring several LACE catalogues to class tomorrow--Dave.

On a related note...

I found this, it's a pretty big step up as far as interactivity of projection goes. There's a sensor that tracks the special green laser, which then is interpreted by the computer and projected (with a high powered lens) on the building. Seeems like a pretty advanced (and expensive) thing, just thought it was interesting.

Projectertising!

This ad campaign has taken projecting moving images in the public space a step further - moving while projecting moving images in the public space. God bless capitalism.

Hollywoooood photos

Hey Guys,

So I took alot more photos than this, butttt I went to Vegas this past weekend and forgot to upload my card before I left...so unfortunately I had to delete a bunch in order to take more! I do have a few of transportion options...ya know busses, subways, skateboards, cars, escalators and all that jazz.















Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority#Metro_Rail

L.A., Long Ruled by Cars, Becoming a Transit Leader
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600923_pf.html

38 people want to do this…
http://www.43things.com/things/view/178572

Subway fossils
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_n11_v53/ai_19256024




I also found it interesting how many distractions there were for such a tourist attraction, so I was thinking about maybe working with this somehow.





Another concept I was thinkng about, was with all the movie/music advertisements and how repetitive they are and why?




so yea...I do not exactly have a clear idea of what I will do just yet...but I am going to run with some of these ideas...that's about it for now. Have a good night!

Brittany M.

Friday Night, Oh Yeah

Whats up bloggers!

I thought I would check into the "blog cabin" and shoot out a post! Eileen and I walked up and down Hollywood Blvd. Friday night while classmate Danielle was at a poetry reading at LACE. I would have gone to the reading, but I'm not too keen on poetry. Anyway, I saw Natalie in the crowd, but I think we were in a rush [sorry Natalie]. Anyway, I had the chance to shoot some pictures, go for Thai food, get yelled at by a group of kids in a stretch H2, and rock with a riot grrl band at the local head shop! I am thinking about projecting a 16mm film, preferrably on any white facade on the street. The films I have been making demonstrate old optical tricks used in Hollywood to produce special effects. The one I am most happy with right now is one where I drop milk into tank filled with water. The milk stays suspended in water and disperses, producing something like smoke or clouds or Jean Arp objects. The milk is lit in front of black velvet. It's a very basic operation. I guess the "trick" was used last in Ghostbusters. I've been thinking alot about Jack Goldstein's films Knife and Dog, and how on the surface, they look like the most generic type of stock footage. Also, I have taken a recent interest in white walls and their relationship to Modernism, more specifically architecture and abstact painting. Mark Wigley wrote a nice piece called "White Walls, Designer Dresses" that I've been reading in regard to the color white and it's relationship to space. Here are some of the pictures I took [and sorry this post is so long].

thanks,
Dave

Hollywood Mythology: Red Carpet Spectacular!

With Oscar season upon us, the Hollywood red carpet shenanigans will soon reach thier annual critical mass. Hollywood Blvd. is home to the Kodak Theater (which hosts the Oscars), El Capitan, the Egyptian, and the Chinese; all of which share stake in promoting a form of Hollywood mythology via red carpet entrances to movie premiers and award shows. Just to be clear, I am defining mythology in this case as a set of beliefs about a situation, which are especially exaggerated or fictitious. The whole culture of the Hollywood red carpet promotes a set of traits – specifically beauty, fame, and wealth – which are considered exemplary, authoritative and laudable. I would assert that the importance of these qualities is exaggerated to mythic proportions on the red carpet. I am sure everyone is immediately familiar with this sort of Hollywood pageantry and the mythology associated with it, and it is likely that critics and artists alike have thoroughly covered the territory in some form or another. With that said, it is part of the context of Hollywood Blvd. and may be fruitful grounds to start for an intervention. Here are some interesting points of reference:

On the myth of celebrity authority:
Furedi , Frank. (Professor of sociology at the University of Kent) “The Age of Unreason” (2005)
http://www.frankfuredi.com/articles/unreason-20051118.shtml

On the construction of beauty (with reference to Hollywood and its myth of beauty):
Dyer, Richard. “The Glow of White Women” from the book White (1997)

On unfounded celebrity/infamy:
http://www.worldhistorysite.com/dysfunctionalcelebrity.html

Above Image: Actress Rinko Kikuchi arrives on the red carpet at the SAG Awards (AP/Chris Pizzello)

hawli-wud

Well, this didn't format right, and I don't know how to do it. But, I think that this is pretty self-explanatory:



These empty marquee signs were everywhere.
There was even one practically next to LACE.

There were these tree planters that were full of wet sand. Very malleable. Sand castles could be an option.

This blank sign was on top of a large building east of LACE I have no idea how to access it, I just thought it was interesting. There seemed to be a lot of blank signs around.










I had an interesting idea that involves these signs.












A multiplicity of scientology related buildings. Projection anyone?













Four of these at Holllywood/Vine. I don't know if they work or not, something to look for on a nighttime visit.
















The alley behind rippley's.

















On top.













Rawr.













Facing east. Large scientology building on the right.













Everywhere.

ornamentation | directives | shrines | the void

Hollywood Mythology and Homelessness

According to the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty’s 2004 study, Hollywood’s homeless population primarily consists of what they categorize as “unaccompanied youth” which stands between 4,800 and 10,000 people.

In doing research for the mythology of Hollywood Blvd, one of the things that stood out for me was how most of the websites I visited mentioned the population of young runaways that inhabited Hollywood – particularly Bob Hope Square on Hollywood and Vine. Part of the draw of BHS I think, is that it has gained a mystique as being the place to “get discovered”. This is perhaps because it has both been home - and in close proximity to a multitude of music and film companies like Tower Records, the original Lasky-Paramount Studios, NBC Studios, ABC studios, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The fact that Hollywood Blvd has become a popular refuge – a place to runaway to for youth - points very strongly to a mythology of Hollywood Blvd being a place which not only accepts, but venerates bold, rebellious youth as fuel for its star power. Furthermore, Hollywood Blvd as a location for celebrity recruitment, feeds a more general notion, which Thom Anderson mentions in his film, Los Angeles Plays Itself. In conjunction with the Hollywood Blockbuster culture of films like Die Hard, The Matrix, and Star Wars, Hollywood Blvd. promotes a myth of the heroic individual as being able to rise above all odds alone.

It is interesting to note that Hollywood’s homeless youth, in the early 80’s, spawned its own punk movement as not only a music subculture, but as a support network for shelter and survival. This subversion of the mythology of Hollywood as a glamorous sanctuary for rebellious youth into a gritty punk reality is a large-scale intervention in its own right, and might provide some insights for our own upcoming interventions.

Below are two links regarding homelessness and Hollywood for those who are interested:
http://www.weingart.org/institute/research/facts/pdf/JusttheFactsHomelessnessLA.pdf
http://www.cia.com.au/peril/youth/kurtbook.pdf

Above Image: Sean, a homeless teenager from Riverside, left, and “Arson,” another panhandler, hang out near the corner of Gower Street and Hollywood Boulevard.
(Spencer Weiner / LAT)

Monday LACE

Hi Guys,

I hope everyone had time to subscribe to the list. I'm just writing to remind you that we will be meeting tomorrow at LACE at 1:30 [address and directions listed on previous post]. About 8 people asked me for a ride last Monday. Unfortunately, I can only take 4 guests in my car. Please call me if you need a ride at 773.401.2239. If you call tomorrow [Monday] you can also call me in the Photo Cage at 661.253.7890. Most importantly, call Natalie or I if you cannot make it to class. Natalie's cell is 323.496.0848. Class will be dismissed at around 4, however if you have a 4 o'clock class, you may leave early.

thanks,
Dave

city poems --LA is missing.

poems in the public realm

BOMB! BOMB! no wait... it's just the Mooninites

It has been a few days since Boston's "overreaction" to a Cartoon Network advertising stunt which created a rush of panic in the city's streets. A box with LED lights, what made this simple form have a powerful affect on the Boston community? There were other cities hit by the advertising campaign but their reception of the LED boxes was unheard, so what happened to Boston? Could their panic be due to social conditioning, political climate, demographics, the location of the LED boxes, etc. What do you think? Do you feel this could have happened here in Hollywood? Lets create terror in Hollywood Blvd. or maybe just shake it up a little... you decide.

Please view for more information:
http://tinyurl.com/2yaspe
http://tinyurl.com/yv42cu
http://tinyurl.com/23hqwx

Theory of the Dérive

Theory of the Derive

Interventions: Tentative Schedule

Feb 5
Intro

Feb 12
Site visit
6522 Hollywood Boulevard LA CA 90028

Feb 19
pres day. no classes

Feb 26
present research and impressions
Prepare proposals for next week

March 5
Meet inside LACE: discuss ideas with Carol Stakenas- director of Lace

March 12
plan show/event
discuss proposals

March 19


March 26
Spring Break

April 2


April 9
Discuss/prepare projects

Thursday April 12 Install Lace
Friday April 13—Meet Woodberry architecture grad students? UCLA light class
Sat April 14 opening?
Sun April 15?

April 16
deinstall/clean up

April 23
Field trip: (Andrea Zittel-Critical Space)

April 30
critique

May 7
critique


May 14
critique

site map

Charles Baudelaire from "The Painter of Modern Life"

The painter of Modern life