Hollywood (pronounced hol-ee-wood)
(1) A locality name shared by some two-dozen locations in
the US, most associated the neighborhood in north-west Los Angeles, the
historic centre of the US motion-picture industry.
(2) A locality name used by several places in England and
Ireland.
(3) As a metonym, the US motion-picture industry (not
necessarily restricted to LA) or the various cultural constructs associated
with the business.
(4) Of or characteristic of a motion picture which tends
to the type most associated with the mainstream US industry.
(5) In the beauty industry, a technique of waxing which removes
all of the pubic hair, contrasted usually with the “Brazilian” which leaves a narrow
strip.
Pre-1200 (in Ireland): In England and Ireland, Hollywood was used as a place name, based on the existence of established holly plantations in the region and it was adopted for dozens of settlements in North America although it’s not clear if the presence of holly plants was a prerequisite. The use of Hollywood as a metonym for the US film industry (and by film nerds specifically the “studio system”) dates from 1926, some three years after the big sign on the hills was erected.
Lindsay Lohan photoshoot in the Hollywood hills for Vogue Espana, August 2009.
Standing 45 feet (13.7 m) high and 350 feet (106.7 m) in
length, the sign originally spelled-out HOLLYWOODLAND and was intended as a
temporary advertisement to promote a real estate development but became so
identified with the place it was decided to allow it to remain.
As a temporary structure exposed to the elements, damage or deterioration
was inevitable and in 1949, after the “H” had collapsed, restorative work was
undertaken, the “LAND” letters demolished.
This work actually endured well but by the 1970s it was again quite dilapidated,
a rebuild completed in 1979 and periodic maintenance since has ensured it remains in good condition. There have been
instances of vandalism so perimeter fencing of the site has over the years been
increased but, as far as is known, only one soul has ever
committed suicide by throwing themselves from one of the letters. The
first known instance of the name being used is in local government planning
documents filed in 1887. Quite why the
name was chosen is obscure but there are a number of suggestions:
(1) Of the heteromeles arbutifolia. It’s said the early residents in the region
so admired the prolific holly-like bush (heteromeles arbutifolia, then commonly
called the toyon) which grew in the Santa Monica Mountains they fondly
re-named it the “California holly” and it was as this the plant lent its name
to the neighborhood. Easy to cultivate, tolerant
of the Californian sun and demanding only occasional water, the toyon can grow
as high as 18 feet (5½ m) high, the white summer flowers in the fall & winter yielding red
berries. The branches were a favorite
for floral centerpieces and during the 1920s their harvesting as Christmas decorations
became so popular the State of California passed a law (CA Penal Code §
384a) forbidding collection on public land or any land not owned by the person
picking the plant unless with the the landowner’s written permission.
Heteromeles arbutifolia (the toyon or California holly)
(2) More in the spirit of the American dream is that the
name was a marketing exercise. In 1886,
Harvey Wilcox (1832–1891) and his wife Daeida (1861-1914) purchased farmland
and fruit groves near the Cahuenga Pass, his intention being to sub-divide the land,
selling the plots for profit. A year
later, Mrs Wilcox met a passenger on a train who mentioned owning an Illinois estate
named Hollywood and she was so enchanted by the name she convinced her husband
to use if for his development, sitting on the land now known as Hollywood.
(3) A variation of this story is that Mrs Wilcox met a woman
who told her of her home in Ohio named after a Dutch settlement called
Hollywood and, without telling her husband, she bestowed the name on the
recently purchased land. Mr Wilcox
apparently didn’t demur and had a surveyor map out a grid for the sub-division
which was lodged with the county recorder's office on 1 February 1887, this the
first official appearance of the name "Hollywood".
Lindsay Lohan photoshoot in the Hollywood hills for Vogue Espana, August 2009
(4) Year another twist to the tale maintains a friend of
Mrs Wilcox hailed from a place called Holly Canyon and it was this which induced her to pick the name. This included the area we now know as Hollywood which was purchased as part of a
larger package by land developer Hobart Whitley (1847–1931) although there are
sources which give some credit to Los Angeles businessman Ivar Weid, this
linked also to the toyon tree.
(5) Some of the stories seem imaginative. One involves divine intervention with Mrs Wilcox
naming the area after attending a Mass of the Holy Wood of the Cross on the
site though if that’s the case, Hollywood may subsequently have disappointed God. There’s also a version with a phonetic flavor
and it’s said to come from Hobart Whitley's diary: In 1886, while in the area, Whitley
came across a man with a wood-hauling wagon and they paused to chat. The carrier turned out to be Scottish who
spoke of "hauling wood" which sounded to Whitley like "Hollywood"
and Whitley was attracted by the combination of holly representing England and
wood, Scotland; the tale reached Harvey
Wilcox, and the name stuck. An Irish
version of this says the name was based on an immigrant's nostalgic memories of
his home town: Hollywood in Wicklow, Ireland. The immigrant was Mathew Guirke (1826-1909)
who arrived in the US in 1850 and became a successful Los Angeles businessman,
owning even a racetrack. It’s said he named
his new homestead Hollywood in honor of his hometown.
The noun Bollywood dates from 1977 and was based on the construct of Hollywood. It references the Indian film industry, the construct being B(ombay) + (H)ollywood, because the city of Bombay was where the bulk of the industry was located’ it’s sometimes truncated as B'wood. Although the Raj-era name Bombay has formerly been gazetted as Mumbai and the name-change seems to be adhered to in the West, among Indians Bombay continues often to be used and Bollywood is so well entrenched it has assumed an independent life and nobody has suggested Mollywood. Historically, Bollywood was a reference to (1) the Hindi-language film industry in Bombay and (2) a particular style of motion picture with a high song & dance content but of later it (3) refered to the whole industry in India. Thus, as use has extended, the specific meaning has been diluted. By extension, slang terms to describe motion pictures produced in India in languages other than Hindi include Kollywood (Tamil film industry located in Kodambakkam in Chennai, southern India.), Tollywood (Film Nagar, the Telugu film industry located in Hyderabad, Telangana) and Urduwood (anything using the Urdu language), the last often used in a derogatory sense by Hindu Indians after the fashion of substituting “I am going to the loo” with “I am going to Pakistan”. Predictably, Nollywood (the construct being N(igeria) + (H)ollywood) was coined when a industry of scale became established there. Located in the Knoxville metropolitan area in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Dollywood is a theme park co-owned by country & western singer Dolly Parton (b 1946) and Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE).
Other linguistic inventions include hollyweird (said often used by respectable folk in the flyover states to decry the decadent lifestyles and liberal opinions held by those who live close to America's corrupting coastlines (ie not restricted to a condemnation just of a part of LA) and hollywoke, a more recent coining which links the liberal views held by the hollyweird with political correctness and wokeness in general. The "Hollywood bed" was a marketing invention of the 1950s which described a mattress on a box spring supported by low legs and fitted with an upholstered headboard, so-named because it resembled the beds which often appeared in Hollywood movies although, the term has also been used in the context of Harvey Weinstein's (b 1952) nefarious activities. Hollywoodian and Hollywoodish are both adjectival forms, applied usually disapprovingly. Beyond mainstream use, the ever-helpful Urban Dictionary lists a myriad of creations including hollywood hot-pocket, hollywood wife, hollywood hair, hollywood drone, hollywood douchebag, Hollywood zombie, hollywood vitamins, pull a hollywood, hollywood Nap, hollywood snow, hollywood republican & hollywood handler. Some are self-explanatory (at least to those who enjoyed a misspent youth) while others Urban Dictionary can flesh-out.
Hollywood is of course inherently associated with glitzy renditions
of fiction though it seems a bit rough that on-line dictionaries include
as synonyms: bogus, copied, false, fictitious, forged, fraudulent, phony, spurious,
affected, assumed, bent, brummagem, crock (as in “…of shit”), ersatz, fake, feigned,
framed, imitation, misleading, mock, pirate, plant, pretended, pseudo, put on, queer,
sham, wrong, deceptive, delusive, delusory, fishy, not genuine, not kosher
(that one a nice touch), pretentious, snide, soft-shell, suppositious and two-faced. Presumably the Republican National Committee
(RNC) didn’t write the list but it’s doubtful they'd much change it. In the same spirit, the antonyms include actual,
authentic, factual, genuine, honest, real, sincere, true, truthful & valid.
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