Hollywood in Florida

11 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  5 minutes

Boardwalk © Tamanoeconomico/cc-by-sa-4.0

Boardwalk © Tamanoeconomico/cc-by-sa-4.0

Hollywood is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is now the 12th-largest city in Florida. Hollywood is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census. The average temperature is between 68 and 83 °F (20 and 28 °C). Hollywood is a relatively small city that retains an old laid-back Florida feel to it compared to the larger cities in the area.   read more…

Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles

31 January 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area Reading Time:  9 minutes

Hollywood Walk of Fame © panoramio.com - Mickey Logitmark/cc-by-3.0

Hollywood Walk of Fame © panoramio.com – Mickey Logitmark/cc-by-3.0

Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the west as a winding residential street at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollywood Hills West district. After crossing Laurel Canyon Boulevard, it proceeds due east as a major thoroughfare through Hollywood, Little Armenia and Thai Town to Vermont Avenue. It then runs southeast to its eastern terminus at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district. Parts of the boulevard are popular tourist destinations, primarily the fifteen blocks between La Brea Avenue east to Gower Street where the Hollywood Walk of Fame is primarily located.   read more…

Chateau Marmont Hotel in Hollywood

30 January 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area, Hotels Reading Time:  9 minutes

© flickr.com - Tony Hisgett/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Tony Hisgett/cc-by-2.0

The Chateau Marmont is a hotel located at 8221 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The hotel was designed by architects Arnold A. Weitzman and William Douglas Lee and completed in 1929. It was modeled loosely after the Château d’Amboise, a royal retreat in France’s Loire Valley. The hotel is known as both a long- and short-term residence for celebrities – historically “populated by people either on their way up or on their way down” – as well as a home for New Yorkers in Hollywood. The hotel has 63 rooms, suites, cottages, and bungalows. In 2020, the Chateau Marmont converted to a private members-only hotel.   read more…

Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Florida

1 June 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month, Hotels, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  10 minutes

2019 © Dmoore5556/cc-by-sa-4.0

2019 © Dmoore5556/cc-by-sa-4.0

Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, also known as “The Guitar Hotel”, is a casino resort near Hollywood, Florida, United States, located on 100 acres (40 ha) of the Hollywood Reservation of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The property currently has one hotel tower, a 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m²) casino, large poker room, a 4 acres (1.6 ha) lagoon-style pool facility with a center bar and many private cabanas, restaurants, shops, spa, bars and nightclubs, and the Hard Rock Event Center. A large expansion project has been completed, with new facilities open since October 2019.   read more…

Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles

10 June 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area, Environment Reading Time:  6 minutes

© panoramio.com - Ameer Attia/cc-by-3.0

© panoramio.com – Ameer Attia/cc-by-3.0

The Hollywood Hills is a hillside neighborhood of the same name in the central region of the city of Los Angeles. The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Universal City and Burbank on the north, Griffith Park on the north and east, Los Feliz on the southeast, Hollywood on the south and Hollywood Hills West on the west. It includes Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the Hollywood Reservoir, the Hollywood Sign, the Hollywood Bowl and the John Anson Ford Theater.   read more…

Theme Week Los Angeles – Dolby Theatre

27 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries Reading Time:  7 minutes

© flickr.com - Adam Fagen/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Adam Fagen/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre) is a live-performance auditorium in the Hollywood and Highland Center shopping mall and entertainment complex, on Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Since its opening on November 9, 2001, the theater has hosted the Academy Awards ceremonies (the Oscars), initially held there in March 2002. It is the first permanent home for these annual awards ceremonies. The front of the theater is a part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The theater was designed by David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group, with Theatre Projects Consultants, specifically with the Oscar ceremonies in mind. Though the stage is one of the largest in the United States — roughly tied with the Elliott Hall of Music at Purdue University — measuring 113 ft (34 m) wide and 60 ft (18 m) deep, its seating capacity is only about half the Hall of Music’s, accommodating 3,332 people.   read more…

Theme Week Los Angeles – Griffith Park

10 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  10 minutes

Griffith Observatory © Matthew Field/cc-by-2.5

Griffith Observatory © Matthew Field/cc-by-2.5

Griffith Park is a large municipal park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The park covers 4,310 acres (1,740 ha) of land, making it one of the largest urban parks in North America. It is the second-largest city park in California, after Mission Trails Preserve in San Diego, and the 11th largest municipally owned park in the United States. It has also been referred to as the Central Park of Los Angeles but is much larger, more untamed, and rugged than its New York City counterpart. After successfully investing in mining, Colonel Griffith J. Griffith purchased Rancho Los Feliz (near the Los Angeles River) in 1882 and started an ostrich farm there. Although ostrich feathers were commonly used in making women’s hats in the late-19th century, Griffith’s purpose was primarily to lure residents of Los Angeles to his nearby property developments, which supposedly were haunted by the ghost of Antonio Feliz (a previous owner of the property). After the property rush peaked, Griffith donated 3,015 acres (1,220 ha) to the city of Los Angeles on December 16, 1896. Afterward Griffith was tried and convicted for shooting and severely wounding his wife in a 1903 incident. When released from prison, he attempted to fund the construction of an amphitheater, observatory, planetarium, and a girls’ camp and boys’ camp in the park. His reputation in the city was tainted by his crime, however, so the city refused his money.   read more…

TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles

20 January 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries Reading Time:  12 minutes

© sailko/cc-by-sa-3-0

© sailko/cc-by-sa-3-0

TCL Chinese Theatre is a cinema palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood in Los Angeles. There are nearly 200 Hollywood celebrity handprints, footprints, and autographs in the concrete of the theatre’s forecourt. Originally known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, it was renamed Mann’s Chinese Theatre in 1973; the name lasted until 2001, after which it reverted to its original name. On January 11, 2013, Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL Corporation purchased the naming rights to the facility, making its official name TCL Chinese Theatre. The original Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, which opened in 1922. Built by a partnership headed by Sid Grauman over 18 months starting in January 1926, the theatre opened May 18, 1927, with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille‘s film The King of Kings. It has since been home to many premieres, including the 1977 launch of George LucasStar Wars, as well as birthday parties, corporate junkets, and three Academy Awards ceremonies. Among the theatre’s most distinctive features are the concrete blocks set in the forecourt, which bear the signatures, footprints, and handprints of popular motion picture personalities from the 1920s to the present day. The Chinese Theatre partnered with IMAX Corporation to create the single largest IMAX auditorium in the world. The new theatre seats 932 people, and hosts the third largest commercial movie screen in North America.   read more…

Theme Week Los Angeles – Hollywood

26 December 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area Reading Time:  18 minutes

Universal Studios Globe © Pmlineditor/cc-by-sa-4.0

Universal Studios Globe © Pmlineditor/cc-by-sa-4.0

Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles. It is notable for its place as the home of the film industry, including several of its historic studios. Its name has come to be a metonym for the motion picture industry of the United States. Hollywood is also a highly ethnically diverse, densely populated, economically diverse neighborhood and retail business district. Hollywood was a small community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It officially merged with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, and soon thereafter a prominent film industry began to emerge, eventually becoming the most dominant and recognizable in the world. In 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera (Nopal field), named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished. The area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. There are differing opinions as to the true origin of the name “Hollywood.” According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the “Father of Hollywood”, on his honeymoon in 1886 he stood at the top of the hill looking out over the valley. Along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed. The Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, “I holly-wood”, meaning ‘hauling wood.’ HJ Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood. Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States. The name is also a reference to the Toyon, a native plant with bright red winter berries that resemble holly. Originally the name “Figwood” was to be used to name the area due to the surrounding number of fig trees. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley, president of the Los Pacific Boulevard and Development Company. Having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue / Hollywood Boulevard, which, still a dusty, unpaved road, was regularly graded and graveled. The hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitley’s company developed and sold one of the early residential areas, the Ocean View Tract. Whitley did much to promote the area. He paid thousands of dollars for electric lighting, including bringing electricity and building a bank, as well as a road into the Cahuenga Pass. The lighting ran for several blocks down Prospect Avenue. Whitley’s land was centered on Highland Avenue. His 1918 development, Whitley Heights, was named for him.   read more…

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