Los Angeles and the Movies

         Los Angeles, America's second city, was founded in 1781 by a group of Spanish and Mexican settlers who, because of its ideal location on the banks of a sleepy little river in a grassy valley between two mountain ranges, thought it would be a good place to raise cattle and sheep. And it was. After 1846, when California came under United States control and the Yankees (Americans, not New York baseball players!) began to pour in, oranges and then oil became L.A.'s principal appeal. Then with the arrival of the twentieth century, another element was to be added that would give the growing city a certain mystique not shared with any other--- the movies.

          Movies have been made in Los Angeles for over a hundred years. In 1909 Francis Boggs and Thomas Persons founded L.A.'s first movie studio on Olive Street near Seventh and began turning out single-reelers. Soon after that several independent producers, evading the East Coast based Motion Picture Company, known as the Trust, set up shop in Edendale just off Glendale Boulevard a little to the west of downtown. Los Angeles turned out to be a perfect place for filmmaking; the climate was mild most of the year, sunny days allowed shooting (which was done mostly outside then) to go on for longer periods of time, and the surrounding area presented terrain and natural setting that could easily stand in for most places in the world.

           When Edendale became a bit too crowded some moved even farther west and established themselves in Hollywood. In 1913 Cecil B. DeMille and Jesse Lasky began shooting The Squaw Man on the corner of Selma Avenue and Vine Street, and from that moment Hollywood--- and Los Angeles with it--- was on the way to becoming the heart and center of the American film industry.

             Film production soon brought the artists, technicians, and intellectuals who would give the city a quality not found anywhere else. This influx of creative people turned rather isolated L.A., stuck between the Mojave Desert and the Pacific Ocean, into a unique cultural center. It became an oasis of glamor and sophistication. Great writers like William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anita Loos and Bertolt Brecht; composers like Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Arnold Schoenberg; and painters like Salvador Dali all contributed to the creative and intellectual brain pool that existed in Hollywood during the first half of the twentieth century--- not to mention the thousands of actors, dancers, musicians, and singers who poured into, and continue to pour into the city to this day.

              Since the early days of Hollywood, L.A. has been a stand-in for many of the world's cities from Babylon

 (Intolerance 1915) and Casablanca (Casablanca 1942) to Tokyo ( Sayonara 1957) and Ancient Rome (Spartacus 1960). But the city itself has often been a character in movies produced within its environs. From the great films noir of the 1940s and 50s like Double Indemnity (1944) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955) to a musical like Singing in the Rain (1952), and a comedy like Clueless (1995), and some great sci-fi films like Them (1954), Blade Runner (1982) and The Terminator (1984), L.A. has reached an audience that has never breathed its air, felt its sun, or endured one of its occasional earthquakes, floods or fires. Many have come to know it, whether fairly or not, as well as they know their own towns and backyards.

               My intention in the following posts is to present an overview (not a review) of approximately fifty (and maybe more) of the movies I think best express the essence of what it means to live in America's second city. All the films overviewed are accessible from Netflix, I-Tunes, and Amazon. There are no best and no worst in this series; some are well-known classics, others, I'm sure, most people may never have heard of. The order of presentation is random, and views of life presented can be either actual or imaginary: actual as in The Exiles (1961) and Killer of Sheep (1977), or imaginary as in Blade Runner  (1982) and L.A. Story (1991). Some impressions will be positive, some negative, and some neutral. But they all tell us something about how Los Angeles is perceived by the world and experienced by those of us who live here. Comments and suggestions are encouraged. Feel free to join in and let me know what you think.

                I also hope to include, in time, visits to studios, location sites (both past and present), and other movie related places of interest along with interviews, if possible. But my main intention is to spotlight this unique place--- Los Angeles--- and the part it played and continues to play in American and world cinematic culture.