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The Hollywood sign debuted 100 years ago

latimes.com

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Re: The Hollywood sign debuted 100 years ago

#11

Post by qqtt »

echelon wrote: post #3
wogaf wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Very few industries have such an iconic name and emblem as Hollywood. The music industry doesn't. If I were to ask you to name the city, place, or thing most associated with music, I'd get different answers. Fashion, too. Sports. Wine. No Hollywood. Silicon Valley is a good comparison, but when you think of software, it's shifted to the Bay Area and other places. It's not the same magnitude of definitive. Hollywood i…

You'd probably get different answers for which city is associated with film, just like you'd get different answers for music. Lots of locations have risen up over the years, including Vancouver, and New York (which itself alone has about 1/3rd the productions of LA).

Lots of the major production companies have actually moved out of Hollywood itself, and are scattered around Los Angeles (and the broader US).

Hollywood as a term has evolved a bit to just mean anything associated with the USA film industry, including Netflix, which itself has very little to do with traditional "Hollywood" beyond using some studios in California.

"Hollywood" is a gold standard, like "the Rolls Royce of X" is a phrase - it has captured the brand of movies, but it's current state today like you say is very similar to Silicon Valley - a name mostly (and it's used in a similar way, 'Silicon Valley North' for Canada, 'Silicon Alley' for New York, 'Silicon Beach' for Los Angeles, etc.).

Edit: Just checked and the production volume ratio between LA and New York is similar to the # of unicorns ratio between Silicon Valley and the next highest city. Really interesting comparison, as Silicon Valley has spread to the greater bay area and Hollywood film production has spread to the greater LA area as well.

Re: The Hollywood sign debuted 100 years ago

#12

Post by andsoitis »

wogaf wrote: post #9
serf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's trivial, a mere signpost on a hill. many culturally significant things are like that -- valueless aside from some mythos or story that provides the value from somewhere other than worldy presence. The sign is trivial, but it symbolizes a lot of the same things that Hollywood itself has come to symbolize for many years. 'Going out to California to make it big' has been one of the slices of American Dream for a…

[flagged]

Hollywood is not only the oldest film industry in the world, it is also first in revenue.

I bet that people around the world know about Hollywood and the top actors just like they know Coke everywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_industry

Re: The Hollywood sign debuted 100 years ago

#14

Post by arrrg »

wogaf wrote: post #9
serf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's trivial, a mere signpost on a hill. many culturally significant things are like that -- valueless aside from some mythos or story that provides the value from somewhere other than worldy presence. The sign is trivial, but it symbolizes a lot of the same things that Hollywood itself has come to symbolize for many years. 'Going out to California to make it big' has been one of the slices of American Dream for a…

[flagged]

That seems like a weird assertion. I really wouldn’t downplay US worldwide cultural domination, whether you like that or not.

Especially since you are setting a very low bar here: merely having heard of Hollywood.

Don’t confuse what you might wish for with reality.

Re: The Hollywood sign debuted 100 years ago

#17

Post by Uehreka »

wogaf wrote: post #9
serf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's trivial, a mere signpost on a hill. many culturally significant things are like that -- valueless aside from some mythos or story that provides the value from somewhere other than worldy presence. The sign is trivial, but it symbolizes a lot of the same things that Hollywood itself has come to symbolize for many years. 'Going out to California to make it big' has been one of the slices of American Dream for a…

[flagged]

…seriously?

So I lived abroad for multiple years in Thailand. Learned the language, had conversations with people who had never met a foreigner, traveled to numerous surrounding countries. I’ve been to Europe multiple times and stayed with local friends of mine and met their friends. All this not to mention the number of people from around the world I’ve met at hostels and through activities like scuba diving.

People are fucking obsessed with Hollywood. For some people it’s a singular cultural reference point they ascribe to the entire country. When my Thai students were looking into studying abroad, their first questions about a location were about whether it was within traveling distance of NYC or Hollywood. I’ve seen people meet an American who has never even been to California and then jokingly refer to them as “Mr. Hollywood over here!” (And yes, I know that they know all of America isn’t literally Hollywood).

Like, I can understand not liking the amount of American media hegemony that goes on in global culture, that totally makes sense. But it’s definitely a thing.

Re: The Hollywood sign debuted 100 years ago

#19

Post by kingkawn »

qqtt wrote: post #11
echelon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few industries have such an iconic name and emblem as Hollywood. The music industry doesn't. If I were to ask you to name the city, place, or thing most associated with music, I'd get different answers. Fashion, too. Sports. Wine. No Hollywood. Silicon Valley is a good comparison, but when you think of software, it's shifted to the Bay Area and other places. It's not the same magnitude of definitive. Hollywood i…

You'd probably get different answers for which city is associated with film, just like you'd get different answers for music. Lots of locations have risen up over the years, including Vancouver, and New York (which itself alone has about 1/3rd the productions of LA). Lots of the major production companies have actually moved out of Hollywood itself, and are scattered around Los Angeles (and the broader US). Hollywood…

absolutely nobody would debate whether Hollywood or Vancouver was the center of film making
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