These photos show the glamour, tragedy, and secrets hiding in the land of the stars.
Ah, the glitz and the glam of Hollywood. It’s the place where many of the world’s most famous actors, musicians, and producers like to work hard and play harder – but it’s also a town all too familiar with tragedy and whimsical conspiracies. There are so many iconic locales in the City of Angels – from the peak of the Hollywood Sign down to the lush streets of Beverly Hills and over to the sun-soaked shores of the Santa Monica pier – Hollywood is a place bursting with rich history… and it’s undergone quite the transformation over the last 100 years. As these throwback photos of Hollywood reveal, Tinsel Town is in no short supply of film premieres and Walk of Fame ceremonies, so for fans of big movies and even bigger stars, consider this your ticket to the red carpet as we revisit Hollywood’s most notable moments throughout the years.
What is now one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world began as an outdoor ad campaign for a real estate company at the time named “Hollywoodland,” according to the Hollywood Sign’s official website. When it was decided that the sign would be a permanent fixture in LA, the “land” at the end was was dropped to make the sign cheaper to maintain.
Hollywood is known for its hilly terrain and predictably sunny skies. The hills surrounding the city have become the “it” spot to live if you’re a celebrity living in LA.
Warner Brothers Studios has been making movies for over 100 years. The premiere for its film My Man took place at the Warner Bros. Theatre, which closed down in 1975, according to the LA Conservancy website.
To this day, Paramount Pictures is one of the biggest production companies in Hollywood, bringing you films like Titanic, Top Gun, Mean Girls, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Forrest Gump.
It doesn’t snow very often in Los Angeles – almost rarely – but in January 1932, the City of Angels got 2 inches of snow, according to Weather Underground.
The Pantages Theatre can be seen looking down Hollywood Boulevard. It’s endearingly nicknamed “Broadway in Hollywood.”
According to the History Channel, the now-famous Hollywood Boulevard was known as Prospect Avenue at its inception.
Today, Hollywood Boulevard is home to the Chinese, Dolby, and El Capitan Theatres, as well as the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Mansions decorate the Hollywood Hills as far as the eye can see.
The Grauman’s Chinese Theater was officially labeled a Los Angeles Historical and Culture Moment on June 5, 1968, but it was a Hollywood icon for decades before that. The world-famous theater is home to many of the city’s film premieres and award shows.
This aerial shot of the original Hollywood Studios shows the three major production companies at the time: Warner Bros., First National, and Cosmopolitan.
As Hollywood has evolved, so too has the filmmaking industry. In order to shoot moving cars in the mid-1900s, film crews had to build tracks, as pictured here.
The Japanese submarine that was captured at Pearl Harbor after the infamous attack had its only showing at CBS Studios in Hollywood a few years later.
A group of people waiting for the bus at the corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga Boulevards read about the D-Day invasion.
Schwab’s Pharmacy was once a popular hangout for celebrities on Sunset Boulevard.
The Palladium is another famous spot on Sunset Boulevard. It’s primarily a concert hall, tailoring to rock musicians and pop stars.
Like most major production companies, Twentieth Century Fox was established on the East Coast and moved to Hollywood in the early 1900s.
Sunset Boulevard is one of a few major streets in Hollywood, Vine Street (pictured) is another.
People walk along Hollywood Boulevard at night.
Pop singer Joni James sits on a ledge at Ciros nightclub, one of the places to be seen in the ’40s and ’50s in West Hollywood.
Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Jennifer Anniston, Leonardo DiCaprio and Marilyn Monroe were all rumored to live in the Hollywood Hills at one point or another.
The iconic Hollywood and Vine street corner serves as the epicenter of Hollywood and is home to the Capitol Records building, designed in 1956 to look like a stack of records.
The Hollywood Hills neighborhood expanded greatly over the course of the 20th century, as seen in these land plots.
On May 13, 1961, a brush fire devastated several homes in the Hollywood Hills community.
The 35th annual Academy Awards took place at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on April 8, 1963. Lawrence of Arabia swept the categories, bringing home seven trophies, including one for Best Picture.
Crowds stand outside the Hollywood Palace Theater, waiting to attend a taping of the variety show of the same name.
The Hollywood Palace was an hour-long TV show that aired weekly from 1964 to 1970.
Many popular acts, including Alice Cooper, The Brady Bunch Kids, Elton John, and The Grateful Dead have performed at the Hollywood Bowl over the years.
Police comb the Hollywood hillside searching for clues in the Sharon Tate murder case at the hands of the notorious Manson clan. The Manson family cult terrorized the Hollywood community in the summer of ’69.
Charlie Chaplin poses near his star on the Walk of Fame.