Reading about the history of American cinema, I wondered what the existing inhabitants of Hollywood thought of the sudden influx of actors and directors and so on. Hollywood 100 years ago was I suppose only a small town or a sort of suburb of Los Angeles. Did they support and welcome the fact that their town was becoming the centre of the American film industry, or was there resentment?
There was considerable resentment.
The original meaning of the word "movie" was a person who worked in the motion picture industry. Often in the Hollywood of those years restaurants, apartments, and boarding houses would post signs reading: NO MOVIES ALLOWED.
This classic documentary by the Oscar-winning silent film historian Kevin Brownlow tells about Hollywood's early days.