The term "Hollywood" stands symbolically for American movies.
Hollywood is a district in the city of Los Angeles, California, the United States. Movies were first made in Hollywood before World War I. Since 1911, it has been the centre of the U.S. movie industry. The constant sunshine and mild climate of southern California made it an ideal site for shooting motion pictures. Hollywood’s fame and fortune reached its peak in the 1930s and 1940s, the golden days of the black and white movies.
Hollywood has been the home to many legendary film studios such as 20th Century-Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer(MGM), Paramount, United Artists, Disney, Columbia, and Warner Brothers. Most of the famous motion pictures corporations of the 1930s and 1940s, like MGM, Columbia and Warner Brothers are still very much in business. Great Hollywood stars like Greta Garbo, Marlen Dietrich, Charles Chaplin, Gary Cooper, and many others, have become immortal.
Hollywood is no longer the heart of the world’s movie industry. Most movies today are filmed on location, that is to say, in the cities, in the countryside, and in any part of the world that the script demands. The Hollywood studios are still standing, but most of them have been leased to television networks. About 80% of all American TV entertainment comes from Hollywood.
Yet Hollywood has not lost all its glamour. Many movie stars own homes there, or in the neighbouring Beverly Hills and many other communities near Hollywood.
Above all, Hollywood has the glamour of the past. It is a name which will always be associated with motion picture- making. And for many years to come the old Hollywood movies will be shown again and again in movies houses and on television screens all over the world.