好萊塢的前世今生

Hollywood started as a small town in the California desert， and became the entertainment capital of the world. In the early 20th century， film industry pioneers drawn to the area’s mild climate， sunshine， varied terrain and large labor market set up studios in Hollywood and began producing movies. Throughout the Great Depression1 and World War II， Hollywood movies provided Americans with entertainment， distraction and information. When television emerged as the next great media format， Hollywood soon also became the center of television show production. Today， the term “Hollywood” has become synonymous with the entertainment industry， and the once-independent town—now a part of Los Angeles—is a major tourist destination.

Hollywood is a district within the city of Los Angeles， California， U.S.， whose name is synonymous with the American film industry. Since the early 1900s， when moviemaking pioneers found in southern California an ideal place for moviemaking， the image of Hollywood as the fabricator of tinseled cinematic dreams has been etched worldwide.

When Spanish explorers first entered the area now known as Hollywood， Native Americans2 were living in the canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains. Before long， the Indians had been moved to missions3 and the land which Hollywood now occupies was divided in two by the Spanish Government.

By the 1870s an agricultural community flourished in the area and crops ranging from hay and grain to subtropical bananas and pineapples were thriving. The first house in Hollywood was an adobe building （1853） on a site near Los Angeles， then a small city in the new state of California. Hollywood was laid out as a real estate subdivision in 1887 by Harvey Wilcox， a prohibitionist from Kansas who envisioned a community based on his sober religious principles. This area’s name “Hollywood” was christened by his wife. Within a few years， Wilcox had devised a grid plan4 for his new community， paved Prospect Avenue （now Hollywood Boulevard） for his main street and was selling large residential lots to wealthy Midwesterners looking to build homes so they could “winter in California.”

Real estate magnate H.J. Whitley， known as the“Father of Hollywood，” subsequently transformed Hollywood into a wealthy and popular residential area. At the turn of the 20th century5， Whitley was responsible for bringing telephone， electric， and gas lines into the new suburb. In 1910， because of an inadequate water supply， Hollywood residents voted to consolidate with Los Angeles.

In 1908 one of the first storytelling movies， The Count of Monte Cristo， was completed in Hollywood after its filming had begun in Chicago. In 1911 a site on Sunset Boulevard was turned into Hollywood’s first studio， and soon about 20 companies were producing films in the area. In 1913 Cecil B. DeMille， Jesse Lasky， Arthur Freed， and Samuel Goldwyn formed Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company （later Paramount Pictures）. DeMille produced The Squaw Man in a barn one block from present-day Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street， and more box—office successes soon followed. Hollywood had become the center of the American film industry by 1915 as more independent filmmakers relocated there from the East Coast. For more than three decades， from early silent films through the advent of “talkies，” figures such as D.W. Griffith， Goldwyn， Adolph Zukor， William Fox， Louis B. Mayer， Darryl F. Zanuck， and Harry Cohn served as overlords of the great film studios—Twentieth Century-Fox， Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer， Paramount Pictures， Columbia Pictures， Warner Brothers， and others. Among the writers who were fascinated by Hollywood in its “golden age” were F. Scott Fitzgerald， Aldous Huxley， Evelyn Waugh， and Nathanael West.

After World War II， film studios began to move outside Hollywood， and the practice of filming “on location6” emptied many of the famous lots and sound stages or turned them over to television show producers. With the growth of the television industry， Hollywood began to change， and by the early 1960s it had become the home of much of American network television entertainment.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame7 pays tribute to many celebrities of the entertainment industry. The most visible symbol of the district is the Hollywood sign that overlooks the area.

Hollywood has been anything but static， however， and after a few decades as the capital of film glamor， the neighborhood changed again. Although much of the studio work remained in Hollywood， many stars moved to Beverly Hills， and the elegant shops and restaurants left with them.

In the 1960s， music recording studios and offices began moving to Hollywoodan offshoot of the nightclubs further west on Sunset Boulevard. Other businesses， however， continued to migrate to different parts of the city. Hollywood today is a diverse， vital， and active community striving to preserve the elegant buildings from its past. Much of the movie industry remains in the area， although the neighborhood’s outward appearance has changed.

In 1985， the Hollywood Boulevard commercial and entertainment district was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places protecting the neighborhood’s important buildings and seeing to it that the significance of Hollywood’s past would always be a part of its future.

好萊塢起初只是加利福尼亞州沙漠中的一個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)成為聞名世界的娛樂中心。在20世紀(jì)初，電影工業(yè)的先驅(qū)們看中了此地溫和的氣候、充足的陽光、起伏多變的地貌和雄厚的勞動(dòng)力市場，便紛紛在這里建立工作室，開始電影制作。在經(jīng)濟(jì)大蕭條和第二次世界大戰(zhàn)時(shí)期，好萊塢電影給美國人帶來了信息、娛樂和消遣。而當(dāng)又一次媒體革命——電視出現(xiàn)時(shí)，好萊塢很快又成為電視節(jié)目制作的中心。今天，“好萊塢”這個(gè)詞已經(jīng)成為娛樂業(yè)的代名詞。這個(gè)一度獨(dú)立而現(xiàn)在隸屬于洛杉磯市的小鎮(zhèn)，已經(jīng)成為了著名的旅游勝地。

現(xiàn)在的好萊塢，作為美國加利福尼亞州洛杉磯市的一個(gè)區(qū)，已經(jīng)被認(rèn)為是美國電影工業(yè)的代名詞。自20世紀(jì)初以來，電影制作的先驅(qū)們發(fā)現(xiàn)加利福尼亞南部是電影制作的理想之地，好萊塢從而以華麗電影夢(mèng)的溫床形象得到了世界的關(guān)注。

當(dāng)西班牙殖民者第一次踏上這塊后來被稱作好萊塢的土地時(shí)，當(dāng)?shù)氐耐林€生活在圣塔莫尼卡山的峽谷中。不久以后，印第安人被強(qiáng)迫搬進(jìn)教區(qū)里，那塊土地被西班牙政府一分為二。

到了19世紀(jì)70年代，這里的農(nóng)業(yè)蓬勃發(fā)展，從糧食和干草到亞熱帶水果香蕉和菠蘿，各種農(nóng)作物被大量種植。好萊塢的第一間房子建于1853年，是居民房，靠近洛杉磯。而洛杉磯當(dāng)時(shí)只是新成立的加利福尼亞州的一個(gè)小城市。1887年，哈維·威爾科克斯，一個(gè)來自堪薩斯州的禁酒主義提倡者，想建立一個(gè)滿足他本人禁酒宗教原則的社區(qū)，因此將這里分割成一小塊一小塊土地進(jìn)行售賣。這片地區(qū)由他的妻子命名為“好萊塢”。幾年之內(nèi)，威爾科克斯為他的新區(qū)設(shè)置了交通路線，鋪設(shè)了一條“前景路”（現(xiàn)在的好萊塢大道）作為主街。他把面積較大的住宅區(qū)賣給那些想在加利福尼亞安家過冬的中西部有錢人。

隨后，被稱作“好萊塢之父”的不動(dòng)產(chǎn)大亨H. J.惠特利將好萊塢轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)閺V受歡迎的富人住宅區(qū)。在20世紀(jì)前后，惠特利把電話、電力、煤氣管線等引入了好萊塢這個(gè)新郊區(qū)。1910年，因?yàn)楣┧蛔?，好萊塢居民投票決定將其并入洛杉磯地區(qū)。

1908年，電影《基督山伯爵》在好萊塢殺青。這部電影在芝加哥開機(jī)，是最早的故事片之一。1911年，日落大道上誕生了好萊塢的第一個(gè)電影制片廠，這一片地區(qū)很快就成了約20個(gè)公司的電影制作場所。1913年，西塞爾·B.德米爾、杰西·拉斯基、阿瑟·弗里和塞繆爾·戈?duì)柕聹亟M建了杰西·拉斯基故事片公司，也就是之后的派拉蒙電影公司。德米爾在一個(gè)牲口棚里制作了《弱氣男兒》，那兒距離現(xiàn)在的好萊塢大道和藤街只有一個(gè)街區(qū)。更多的票房大片也隨之而來。到1915年，隨著更多的獨(dú)立電影制片人從東海岸搬到這里，好萊塢已經(jīng)成為美國電影工業(yè)的中心。接下來的三十多年里，從早期的默片到有聲電影的出現(xiàn)，涌現(xiàn)出一批電影界著名人物，諸如D. W.格里菲思、戈?duì)柕聹亍⒌婪颉ぶ炜?、威廉·?？怂埂⒙芬姿埂.邁耶、達(dá)里爾·F.柴納克和亨利·科恩。他們領(lǐng)導(dǎo)著那些優(yōu)秀的電影制作公司：二十世紀(jì)?？怂褂捌尽⒚栏呙冯娪肮?、派拉蒙電影公司、哥倫比亞電影公司及華納兄弟……而被好萊塢的黃金時(shí)代所吸引的作家則有 F. S. 菲茲杰拉德、奧爾德斯·赫胥黎、伊夫林·沃和納撒內(nèi)爾·韋斯特等人。

第二次世界大戰(zhàn)后，出于外景拍攝的需要，電影制片廠開始陸續(xù)搬出好萊塢，許多著名的拍攝場地和攝影棚由此空了下來，或者被改去制作電視節(jié)目。好萊塢隨著電視工業(yè)的發(fā)展也發(fā)生了變化。到了20世紀(jì)60年代初，它已經(jīng)成為美國多家娛樂電視臺(tái)的大本營。

好萊塢的星光大道上銘記了很多為娛樂業(yè)做出貢獻(xiàn)的名人，而好萊塢最醒目的標(biāo)志則是俯瞰著整個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)的那個(gè)牌子——HOLLYWOOD。

可以用許多詞來形容好萊塢，但其中絕不會(huì)有“一成不變”這個(gè)詞。在成為電影魅力之都的幾十年后，這里又一次改變了。盡管很多制片的工作依然在好萊塢完成，但是許多明星已經(jīng)搬去了貝弗利希爾斯，隨他們而去的是一批高檔的店鋪和餐館。

20世紀(jì)60年代，音樂錄制棚和相應(yīng)的辦公室開始搬入好萊塢日落大道西端夜總會(huì)群落的一角。其他的社團(tuán)也陸續(xù)遷移到城市的各個(gè)部分。今天的好萊塢不僅保持了過去的華麗建筑，同時(shí)又是一個(gè)百花齊放、生機(jī)勃勃的地方。很多電影工業(yè)還留在這里，盡管社區(qū)的外觀已然跟過去不同。

1985年，好萊塢大道商業(yè)娛樂區(qū)被正式列入美國國家歷史遺跡名錄。好萊塢的重要建筑得到了保護(hù)，而它過去的輝煌也將永遠(yuǎn)銘刻在它的未來中。

注釋

1. Great Depression： 大蕭條，特指發(fā)生于1929—1933年之間全球性的經(jīng)濟(jì)大衰退。

2. Native Americans： 美洲土著，指殖民者進(jìn)入美洲大陸之前生活在那里的種族和部落，以印第安人為主。

3. mission： 教區(qū)，這里指的是西班牙于18世紀(jì)后半葉開始在加利福尼亞州建立的教區(qū)，大部分分布在圣地亞哥市至索諾馬海岸之間的地帶。

4. grid plan： 一種城市規(guī)劃方式。街道之間互成直角，多以數(shù)字命名，比如，the 5th avene（第五大道）。

5. turn of the 20th century： 20世紀(jì)前后。turn of the n-th century指n世紀(jì)之前或之后某個(gè)不確定的時(shí)間，而沒有具體數(shù)字的turn of the century一般指19到20世紀(jì)之交。這是一種非正式的表達(dá)法，一般不出現(xiàn)在措詞嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)奈墨I(xiàn)中。

6. on location： 外景。電影拍攝上指攝影棚外的景物，包括自然環(huán)境、生活環(huán)境等；sound stages： 攝影棚。攝影棚內(nèi)布置的景物又叫“內(nèi)景”。

7. Walk of Fame： 星光大道，是一條沿著好萊塢大道和藤街伸展的人行道。路面上有數(shù)千顆鑲有好萊塢名人名字的星形勛章，以此紀(jì)念他們對(duì)娛樂工業(yè)的貢獻(xiàn)。