Historic Hollywood

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Above: The Hollywood Guinness
World of Records Museum opened in
December 1991 in the historic 1913
Hollywood Theater. Closed in 1988,
Hollywood’s oldest theater was to
become a rug mart when the Singh
family (owners of the Hollywood Wax
Museum across the boulevard) bought
it and built the museum inside.
Restoring the 1938 Streamline
Moderne façade and neon lighting
that had both been severely altered in
the early 1970s, the “Hollywood”
marquee continues to be a world
famous landmark.
landmarks did not survive the 1980s. Other
landmarks did survive and were restored or
renovated and are still with us today. New
investment did come to Hollywood at this time
such as the historic El Capitan Theater being
leased long term by the Walt Disney Company.
Other businesses began to come to Hollywood
and create new attractions for the tourists. But
there would be still another decade of
development to make Hollywood a cleaner and
safer place for people to return to after so much
turmoil over the past twenty years.
Right: Sitting abandoned and
vandalized for several years since the
late 1980s, and surviving the 1994
Northridge Earthquake and two
major fires which burned out the
floor and ceiling, the 1935 façade of
the ABC/Merv Griffin Studio stood
its ground as developers planned
its demolition.
38 ✦ HISTORIC HOLLYWOOD