Hollywood suggests glamour, a place where the young star-truck teenagers could, with a bit of luck, fulfill their dreams. (63) Hollywood suggests luxurions houses with vast palm-fringed swimming pools, cocktail bars and furnishings fit for a millionaire. And the big movie stars were millionaires. Many spent their fortunes on yachts, Rolls Royces and diamonds.(64) A few of them lost their glamour quite suddenly and were left with nothing but emptiness and colossal debts.
Movies were first made in Hollywood before World War Ⅰ.(65) The constant sunshine and mild climate of southern California made it an ideal site for shooting motion pictures. (66) Hollywood's fame and fortune reached its peak in the 1930s and 1940s, the golden days of the black and white movies. Most of the famous motion pictures corporations of those days, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia and Warner Brothers are still very much in business and great stars like Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, and many others besides, have become immortal.
(67) In those days Hollywood was like a magnet, drawing ambitious young men and women from all over the world. Most of them had only their good looks to recommend them and had no acting experience-or ability--whatsoever. Occasionally they got jobs, if they were lucky enough to be noticed.
(From Hollywood)