Hollywood

Hollywood, district, Los Angeles, California, United States. Famed as a centre of the film industry in the United States, it is also a major centre of the American television industry and attracts thousands of tourists every year. The main thoroughfares, Sunset and Hollywood boulevards and Vine Street, contain well-known restaurants, nightclubs, and broadcasting studios. The Hollywood Bowl, a natural amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills, is the site of numerous cultural events. The community was planned in the late 1880s. Originally the name of a ranch, then of a village, it was consolidated with Los Angeles in 1910. The first film studio was established here in about 1911 by the Centaur Film Co; others quickly followed. Although some major studios have always been situated outside Hollywood, the name is often used to refer to the entire United States film industry, and even by extension to the standard form of film-making that was perfected in America during World War I. (See also Cinema, Early Development of; American Cinema.)