Edison had a lot of patents that covered nearly all aspect of motion pictures.

Because of this movie makers started setting up shop on the west coast where Edison's patents weren't easily enforced. The time it would take for agents of Edison to travel from New Jersey to California was excessive and gave the studios plenty of time to move/hide.

In addition California offered great weather and a wide variety of scenery. Mountains, snow, desert, ocean, islands, a little bit of everything.

Others started joining the early pioneers for much the same reasons and to be near the talent/suppliers that were nearby due to the influx of movie studios.

One thing led to another and before long it was Hollywood!

millions of sources both in all forms of media. As you can imagine the history of Hollywood is well documented on film.

One source is history of hollywood