Hollywood is one of the most famous places in
the world. But why did movies end up there and
not somewhere else? Today, you'll learn the real
history of Hollywood and the English people used
to talk about it. Welcome back to the Learn English
Podcast, the podcast teaching English in context
so you can learn naturally. If you are a regular
listener to this show, you know that I am from
Southern California and that I spent a number
of years living in Los Angeles. And one of the
most famous parts of LA is Hollywood. And with
the Academy Awards coming up this weekend, I
thought this was a great opportunity to talk
about Hollywood itself. By the end of the episode,
you will learn why Hollywood was created, when
it peaked, and why it's in decline now. You're
also going to learn the real English vocabulary
that people use when they talk about filmmaking.
Are you ready to practice your listening comprehension
and learn the vocabulary? Then follow along because
we're about to begin. Let's go back to the beginning.
In the 1900s, Hollywood was not famous at all.
it was farmland with orange trees and lots of
open land at the time the movie industry in the
united states was actually located on the east
coast in new york city and new jersey that makes
a lot of sense because even now new york city
is the most important and largest city in the
united states it makes sense that this new industry
of filmmaking was located there So why did filmmakers
leave it and travel all across the United States
to the West Coast? There were three main reasons
for this, and the first one surprises a lot of
people. It was because they were escaping from
someone named Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison is
one of the most famous inventors in American
history, but he's also a little controversial.
He helped popularize the electric light bulb,
and early filmmaking technology, which gave him
a lot of power. At this time, making movies was
very new and it wasn't really considered to be
art. People were still learning how cameras and
film worked and they were also fighting about
who was allowed to use this technology. This
problem became very important for the history
of Hollywood. A patent is a legal right as to
who controls a certain invention. And Thomas
Edison had a lot of patents for filmmaking technology.
He had patents for cameras, film projectors,
and other important equipment. This led him to
believe that his companies should be able to
control who made movies. He created a group called
the Edison Trust. And this group sued filmmakers,
which meant that they took them to court and
demanded money, or demanded that they stopped
filming. At the time, many filmmakers were independent,
which meant that they did not work for movie
studios, and they just wanted the freedom to
be able to make films. Instead, they faced lawsuits
and lost their equipment. Understandably, they
did not like this, so they left. They traveled
west to California where Edison had less power
and the courts were more relaxed. This meant
that they could escape much of his legal control.
Los Angeles' location was also another benefit
for this. If Edison somehow found them or was
successful in suing them in court, they could
quickly go across the border to Mexico and be
out of his reach. Moving from the East Coast
to California was not easy. This was the early
1900s, which meant that this was a long and expensive
trip. There were no flights that you could take
to quickly get from one coast to the other. But
as more and more filmmakers moved, Hollywood
slowly became the center of the movie business
in the United States. The second reason why Hollywood
was founded here was because of the weather.
Early movies depended on lots of natural light,
which is light that comes from the sun from being
outdoors. Remember, this was the early 1900s,
so strong studio lights did not exist. I know
that's kind of hard to think of now because every
YouTube or Instagram creator has a ring light,
but at the time, filmmakers really had to use
natural sunlight. If you are a longtime listener
to the show, you have heard me talk about the
weather in Southern California before. I have
said it in the past, but where I live in California,
it is sunny most days of the year. For example,
this past December, it was 22 degrees in Los
Angeles, which is about 71 degrees Fahrenheit,
and it was sunny. By moving to Southern California,
filmmakers were able to take advantage of the
sunny weather. They were able to film for more
days out of the year. That meant they were able
to make more films and, of course, more money.
And the third reason they came to California
is the geography. California has a lot of diverse
landscapes. We have beaches, deserts, mountains,
and cities. You might even see tourism advertisements
that say that In Southern California, you can
go surfing in the morning and skiing in the afternoon.
Now that would be a very exhausting day, but
it's true. From my house, within a two -hour
drive, I can go to the beach, I can go to the
mountains, or the desert. So this diverse landscape
meant that filmmakers could film many different
types of scenes without having to travel very
far. A movie could look like it was filmed in
many different countries, even if it was filmed
in just one state. This meant that filmmaking
was easier and cheaper to do. This saved them
a lot of time and money. By the 1910s, Hollywood
was the center of film production in the country,
and by the 1920s, studios like Warner Brothers,
Paramount, Universal, and 20th Century Fox all
were firmly established. Hollywood was becoming
an industry. Then another major change happened.
For years, movies were silent, actors did not
speak, and live music was played in theaters.
But this changed in 1927 with a film called The
Jazz Singer. It was the first successful studio
film, and it was a talkie. If you have listened
to my episode I did on 1920s vocabulary, you
have heard this term. A talkie was a movie that
had sound in which the actors actually talked
and spoke their lines. This was a major change.
Audiences were shocked and excited. Sound changed
how movies were made. Writers had to write dialogue,
not just actions. And actors had to speak clearly.
This meant that some silent film actors became
less popular because they had strange voices
or different accents that would not work on film.
And after that, silent films disappeared. After
sound films became popular, Hollywood entered
its most powerful phase, the golden age of Hollywood.
This period lasted from the end of the 1920s
to the 1950s. During this time, Hollywood was
dominated by five major film studios. MGM, Warner
Brothers, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and RKO.
These film studios controlled actors, movies,
theaters, and equipment. Every major part of
the film industry. This is called a monopoly,
when one group controls an entire industry. A
key part of the studio system was that actors,
directors and writers had to sign long contracts
with a film studio to be able to work. Studios
controlled what roles an actor was allowed to
play, how they looked and how they behaved in
public. This meant that the studio controlled
an actor's public image, which means how they
were seen by the world. They chose their photos,
interviews and even who they were dating. This
is how Hollywood created the idea of the movie
star. That freedom and independence that Hollywood
was built on was now gone. But the golden age
was Hollywood's peak in global entertainment.
During this time, studios produced a large number
of films every year, including classics like
The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, and Singing in
the Rain. These movies defined American cinema
and shaped how people around the world imagined
Hollywood. It also created famous stars like
Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn,
and James Stewart. Even Marilyn Monroe started
her acting career under the studio system. But
the Golden Age didn't last forever. Because film
studios controlled movies and where they were
shown, it was really difficult for independent
filmmakers to compete. Then in 1948, the U .S.
Supreme Court ruled that this system was illegal,
which weakened the monopoly. Actors began to
demand more freedom and started to renegotiate
their contracts so they could choose which roles
they wanted to take. Then in the 1950s, television
arrived. Families stayed at home and watched
TV instead of going to the movie theater. This
further weakened the studio's power and by the
1960s the studio system was mainly gone. And
that brings us to Hollywood today. Hollywood
is still famous but fewer movies are filmed there
today. In Los Angeles there is a line that you
will see in the news a lot right now. And that
line is, is that nothing films in LA anymore.
Before, if you were an actor, you had to move
to Los Angeles because the majority of films
and TV shows were filmed here. You really had
to live here if you wanted to work in the film
industry. Now though, less than 20 % of all TV
shows and movies are filmed in Hollywood. And
there are a number of reasons for this. The first
one is the expense. I've talked about this before
on an episode I did about California, but California
is one of the most expensive states to live in
in the entire country. And LA in particular is
a very expensive city. Labor is expensive, housing
is expensive, and there's a lot of regulations
and permits you need to get to film in LA. All
of that adds to the cost. Other places offer
tax breaks, which are government incentives to
help reduce the cost for film production. Places
like Georgia, Canada, the UK, and even Australia
have become popular filming locations because
of their tax breaks. Funny enough, New York is
one of the places that's been offering these
tax breaks, which has started attracting filmmaking
back to the state. The second reason for Hollywood's
decline is that technology has improved and has
allowed people to film basically anywhere Green
screens and digital effects means that you don't
have to film outside anymore You can go to a
studio in a cheaper location and get the same
job done This has led streaming services like
Amazon and Netflix to make their content in places
outside of Los Angeles California has tried to
reverse this trend recently our current governor
announced a few months ago that he was going
to increase the amount of tax incentives and
try to bring filming back to la but i don't know
how successful it's been and we will have to
see if this trend changes in the future today
many movies are filmed in other places but hollywood
is still important for business decisions money
and contracts I will say that I have a cousin
who is a lawyer. He is an entertainment contract
lawyer, so he works on the contracts that studios
have when they start film production. In recent
years, the amount of work that he has had has
really gone down. The amount of work that his
firm is getting has been decreasing because the
number of things filmed in Hollywood has been
decreasing. So I hope for him and for everyone
else who works in Hollywood that this trend does
reverse and that things start to film in LA again.
I hope you enjoyed this episode and I hope you
learned something new about the history of Hollywood.
But more importantly, I hope you learned some
new vocabulary terms that you can use in everyday
conversation. If you liked this episode, if you
want more of them in the future, please leave
a comment and let me know. A reminder to look
at the description of this podcast episode. There
you will find helpful links and the vocabulary
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