Feb. 1, 1887: Harvey Wilcox files a map with county officials outlining his plans to subdivide some fig orchards he owns west of Los Angeles. Wilcox, a transplanted Kansan, names the new town “Hollywood” after he discovers the word spelled out in 50-foot letters on a local hillside. Wilcox quickly decides that the name fits perfectly with his dream to create a metaphor for glamour, fantasy and left-wing politics. Sure enough, many moguls soon flocked to the town and set about creating an industry that catered to Americans’ insatiable appetite for escapist entertainment provided by stars skilled in the art of convincing ordinary people to care about them. The new moguls also made movies. Today, of course, the celebrity industry outperforms the movie industry by many billions of dollars and movie stars no longer have a monopoly on public behavior that is despicable, yet strangely irresistible. And thanks to our capitalist system, which encourages cutthroat competition, the public can obsess over peccadilloes committed by a wide variety of disreputable characters—from pre-pubescent pop singers to geriatric corporate CEOs. Hollywood, though, remains the guiding compact fluorescent beacon for all social miscreants. —Jeffrey Kanige
Continue reading below
