Historic Hollywood

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The Babylon Court of TrizecHahn’s
Hollywood and Highland Center is
surrounded by shops and restaurants
on four levels. The six-hundred plus
room Renaissance Hollywood Hotel is
seen in the background on the left, with
more shops at street level. The arch and
elephant towers are recreations of those
used in D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance
(1916), though the arch used in the film
was wider. Based on the city of Babylon
during its defeat by the Persians in 547
B.C., its authenticity did not include the
use of elephants. A favorite of Griffith,
elephants were unknown in Babylon.
The ones shown here are made of
fiberglass and steel, weighing 13,500
pounds each and standing 33 feet tall.
COURTESY OF HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND/
TRIZEC R&E, INC.
1921 Masonic Temple next to the El
Capitan, using it as an exhibit hall for special
film promotions, when a live show wouldn’t
work as well. In 2003 the facility was redone
as a television studio for ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel
Live, bringing “Live Television” back to
Hollywood Boulevard.
Even more intriguing were the developers of
the Hollywood & Highland project across the
street, who were originally involved with the
program to revitalize Times Square and came
back to Hollywood with Disney to look at
Hollywood Boulevard. Though Disney dropped
out of the project early on, that project has its
roots tied to the El Capitan restoration as did the
$7-million restoration of Grauman’s Chinese
Theater (negotiated by Hollywood Heritage as
part of the approvals for the Hollywood &
Highland Project) and the return of the Academy
Awards to Hollywood.
Hollywood has a long way to go, and not every
attempt has worked (i.e. the other 1991 project,
much heralded by those who opposed the
restoration of the El Capitan, the now mostly
empty Hollywood Galaxy) and Hollywood &
Highland is not yet what it can be. But Disney’s
going out on a limb in 1990 was the defining
moment for the “new” Hollywood, or rather the
“what’s old is new” Hollywood. It also helped New
York City and developed some great theatrical
productions. Other projects that emulated
Disney’s work in Hollywood: Pig ‘n Whistle
Restaurant, Hillview Apartments, Max Factor, and
Schwabs’ Men’s Store buildings, and the recent
renovations of the Ricardo Montalban (Vine
Street) Theater and the Henry Fonda/Music Box
Theater. If more people continue to follow
Disney’s lead, not just admire it, Hollywood will
once again be “The Entertainment and Glamour
Capital of the World.”
46 ✦ HISTORIC HOLLYWOOD