Historic Hollywood

1906 sold off most of the land, and with Louis’
having just moved his business, she was ready
to rent the former tavern space.
The tavern had suffered as Hollywood had
kept its ban on liquor sales when the city was
annexed by Los Angeles, in February 1910, the
only “dry” area in Los Angeles. So when Frank
Hoover recommended the site to David Horsley,
history was changed. Al Christie saw the site a
few days later and agreed it would work, a lease
at $40 (some reports have it at $30) per month
was signed and the creation of Hollywood “The
Entertainment Capital” was set in motion.
The new “studio” was christened Nestor
Studios, the west coast studio for Centaur. A barnlike
structure in the back became a lab to develop
film, as the negative would be cut and sent east to
be printed. Having arrived the week before, the
first production was finally started on October 27,
1911, with the company consisting of twentythree
employees. A 20-by-40-foot wooden
platform in the back became the first stage, and
wires were suspended 15 feet overhead to hold up
muslin diffusers to balance out the sunlight. The
first film was a one-reel western, a typical film
with a length of about twelve minutes, called The
Law of the Range, directed by Milton Fahrney and
released on December 13, 1911.
The successful films of Nestor Studios ignited
Hollywood’s development. Within 3 months,
fifteen production companies opened in
Hollywood and the Nestor payroll had swelled
to 123 employees. By December they were
looking for a larger, permanent, studio in
Hollywood, just as their first film was being
released (the studio would make 2-3 one-reel
films per week). But a problem occurred that
would continue for the studios in Hollywood
right up to the present day. The price of real
estate and land banking for speculation.
Moving Picture World reported on December
30, 1911, (page 1065) that, “The Nestor Film
Company, which is temporarily located at the
corner of Gower and Sunset Boulevard, recently
closed a deal…for a five and a half-acre tract on
Hollywood Boulevard, Benefit and Hoover
Streets,” which would be at the far eastern section
of Hollywood. New studios were locating in that
area by 1912, and the Monogram/KCET-TV (PBS)
Studios, as well as the former Vitagraph/ABC
Studios, still occupy space in that area.
It further states that they “tried to locate the
Nestor Film Company in Hollywood proper, but
were unable to on account of the high price of
acreage property which was held by a few
landowners, who refused to sell it at a
reasonable price.” Stating that the company had
a weekly payroll of $3,500 to $4,500, “which
would mean much to our city,” the article, based
on one in The Hollywood Citizen newspaper, also
referred to the newly arrived movies as “one of
the growing industries of our age.”
❖
The horse barn on the southeast
corner of Selma Avenue and Vine
Street became the birthplace of the
Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The
old barn was a Hollywood landmark
until it was moved in 1926 to the
newly relocated Paramount Studio on
Melrose Avenue. The barn became a
California State Landmark in 1956.
Called the Hollywood Heritage
Museum today and located on
Highland Avenue across from the
Hollywood Bowl, the barn is a
museum dedicated to early filmmaking
and the history of Hollywood.
Chapter II ✦ 11