THE HOLLYWOOD A Good Story To Learn English Level 1
chapter one
the place and the movies
what do you think of when you hear the
word
hollywood
do you think of wonderful films like
lord of the rings
star wars
titanic or gone with the wind
or exciting film stars like johnny depp
will smith
and marilyn monroe
perhaps you remember the hollywood sign
in big letters in the hills
or you think of famous roads like sunset
boulevard or hollywood boulevard
hollywood is different things to
different people
firstly
it is a place in california in the west
of the united states
but it is not a town
it is part of the big city of los
angeles
los angeles is the second biggest city
in the united states
and it has nearly 4 million people
about 200 000 of them live in hollywood
in the northwest of the city
of course
hollywood is not only a place
when we talk about a new hollywood movie
or the latest hollywood star
we are talking about the american film
industry
it is the most famous film industry in
the world
with a long and interesting story
today
most movies are made near hollywood
not in it
but everybody calls them hollywood films
and films and movies are the same thing
hollywood is not only famous for films
it is an important place for the music
television and radio industry
the television show hannah montana
with the singer miley cyrus
was made at a tv studio in hollywood
the movie industry began in hollywood
in the early 20th century
filmmakers came from across the united
states and made films here
but why did people first move to
hollywood
what was different about this small
place in california
chapter 2
the village
today hollywood is a part of los angeles
with many cars shops and hotels
but in 1853 there was nothing here only
one small house and lots of tall
cactuses
at first this place had the name
nopalera after the many no pole cactus
plants here
by 1870 farmers began to move to the
area and they called it the kawenga
valley
this part of california is famous for
its nice weather
the santa monica mountains to the north
stop the wind
there are more than 260 days of sun
every year
but only 37 days of rain
it is not cold in winter and it does not
usually go under 7 degrees celsius here
these early farmers brought orange and
other trees with them and the trees did
well in the warm sun here
soon more people heard about the
beautiful kawenga valley and its
wonderful weather
one man harvey wilcox and his wife
deider often visited the area on a
sunday
they loved the quiet roads with their
green trees
harvey bought land in the valley and he
made it into smaller parts
he wanted to sell the land to people for
houses
in early 1887 deidre went to see her
family in a different part of the united
states
on her visit she met a woman
this woman talked happily about her home
and her land near chicago
it was called hollywood
theodore loved this name and she could
not forget it
when diada arrived home she told harvey
about it at once
harvey liked the name too so he gave the
name hollywood to their land in the
kawenga valley
and so hollywood got its name people
think
by 1900 500 people lived in the area and
there was a small hotel some shops and a
newspaper the kawenga suburban
the most important street was called
prospect avenue
it was a quiet street with trees and
gardens along it
in 1903 a bigger and more beautiful
hotel was built
this was the famous hollywood hotel and
it had 33 rooms for visitors
soon rich people came to the area
they bought land and built nice houses
with wonderful gardens
of course all these gardens and trees
needed water and hollywood did not have
much at this time
so in 1910 the area became a part of los
angeles and it began to take some of its
water from the city
at this time prospect avenue changed its
name to hollywood boulevard
by 1910 5000 people lived in the village
of hollywood
but soon new people arrived from all
over the united states and other parts
of the world
what did they want and why did they come
here
chapter 3
the early days
the story of the moving picture
began in the late 19th century
with a number of different inventions
in june 1878
a british man
called edward muybridge
made a moving picture
of a horse in paolo alto california
in the early 1890s
w k l dixon
and thomas edison
of the new york edison company
made two
inventions
the kinetograph
and the kinetoscope
the kinetograph
was a big moving picture camera
and the kinetoscope
projected the moving pictures
in a box
but only one person at a time
could watch these pictures
soon after
in march 1895
the lumiere brothers
showed people in france
a new invention
the cinematograph
this was a moving picture camera
but it recorded
and projected the moving pictures too
it was better than the kinetograph
because it was smaller
and a lot of people could watch the
pictures at once
the new moving pictures
or
movies
were very popular
at first
people watched them in places like
hotels or shops
the movies were not very long
they were often
under a minute
in the 1895 film the sea
by the lumiere brothers
there were moving pictures
of people in the sea
the movie was only 38 seconds long
by the early 1900s
there were better moving picture
inventions
and a number of these
were under the name of the new york
edison company
but people needed to give money to
edison
when they used their new cameras or
projectors
when filmmakers
worked in the new york area
men
from the edison company
sometimes arrived and took away their
cameras
so people in the early film industry
moved far from new york
to places like
california
in
1910 the director
d w griffith
from the biograph film company of new
york
came to california with some famous
actors
lionel barrymore
mary pickford
and lillian gish
he made a film in los angeles
but he looked for other interesting
places too
one day
griffith visited the village
of hollywood
it was a truly wonderful place for a
film
he thought
the people were friendly to filmmakers
the weather was good
and there were interesting things near
here too
like hills
and mountains
griffith made the first movie in
hollywood
in february
1910
it was about california in the 19th
century
and it was called
in old california
like all films at this time
it was a silent movie
actors did not speak in films
for another 20 years
at 17 minutes
it was not very long
but it had a story
other filmmakers learned about hollywood
and the first film studio was built on
sunset boulevard in 1911
by the nestar motion picture company
the director
cecil b demille
opened a studio in hollywood
in 1913.
in
1914
demille made the first hollywood feature
film
a long film with a story
it was called
the man
and it was 74 minutes long
the movie was made for fifteen thousand
dollars
but it made nearly
two 250
000
in the new movie theaters across the
country
there was money
in these moving pictures
people quickly
understood this
everybody loved the silent movies
the stories were easy
and there was exciting music too
people could not hear the actors speak
but they could often read their words
under the pictures
soon actors and directors from across
the world
came to hollywood
one young british actor
charlie chaplin
arrived here
in the spring
of 1913
and his first film
making a living
came out
in
- in his next film
people met chaplin’s famous character
the
with his big trousers
small coat
and black hat
everybody laughed at his sorry face
the was a very popular silent
movie character
and chaplin became famous
all over the world
but he was not only an actor
he wrote stories and music for films
and he was a director too
chaplin opened a studio in hollywood
in 1917
and many of his movies
like the gold rush
of
1925 were filmed here
in 1917
a 22 year old italian man
came to hollywood
directors liked his wonderful
dark hair
and his beautiful brown eyes
and he soon had small parts in silent
movies
in the 1920s
he was the star of popular films
like
blood and sand
women all over the world loved him
and they cried at his films
what was his name
rudolph valentino
valentino was one of the first movie
stars
photographers ran after him in the
street
and his picture was always in the
newspapers
he lived like a true hollywood star
and often stayed in the hollywood hotel
always in room number 264
in 1918
a company built expensive houses on the
hills
near hollywood boulevard
this was whitley heights
the world’s first village for the stars
valentino moved here in 1922
and it was later home
to many famous people
but in august 1926
valentino suddenly became ill
and died
he was only 31 years old
when his body went through the streets
of new york
a hundred thousand people came
and said goodbye
friends later brought his body home
to the cemetery in hollywood
by
1925
130 000 people lived in hollywood
and over 800 movies were made here every
year nearly all films were black and
white in the 1920s
but the first color hollywood feature
film
the toll of the sea
came out in 1922.
people could see the actors in color
but they still could not hear their
voices
but in 1927
things changed
and many actors were not happy
chapter four
the big studios
in 1927 the big hollywood movie was the
jazz singer with actor al jolson
across the united states film directors
talked about it newspapers wrote about
it and everybody wanted to see it
but what was important about this new
film
when people went to see the jazz singer
they could hear the actors voices
it was one of the first talkies and it
changed the movie world
directors did not suddenly stop making
silent films but by 1929 most hollywood
studios made talkies
for silent movie actors the change was
not easy
some had bad voices and others could not
remember their words
a number of silent stars lost all their
work and never made a film again
later the wonderful 2011 french film the
artist looked back at this time in
hollywood
by the late 1920s there were 20 film
studios in hollywood
the most important were called
the big five
they were 20th century fox mgm rko and
paramount pictures
they owned buildings in hollywood but
they began to build studios in the
valleys near here too
these studios were very important at
this time
they made about 90 percent of the
feature films in the united states and
they owned nearly all the movie theaters
too when paramount opened a new movie
theater for example that theater could
only show paramount films
the studios often showed films for the
first time at hollywood movie theaters
these first nights or premieres were
sometimes at the famous grauman’s
chinese theater on hollywood boulevard
like many movie theaters it was
beautiful and very big
2200
people could watch movies there
the studios had long contracts with
their stars and actors often stayed with
their studio for years
mgm had the actors clark gable gene
harlow and greta garbo
when people saw them in a film they
understood at once
it was an mgm movie
thousands of people worked for the
studios writers directors drivers
builders and of course actors
there were famous stars and also extras
actors with very small parts
the director cecil b demille was famous
for his epics long expensive films with
lots of music and hundreds of extras
like his film cleopatra in 1934
people from across the world came to
hollywood
they all wanted one thing to become a
film star
they worked in old hotels or cheap shops
and then looked for work in the movies
many went to a company called central
casting on hollywood boulevard
central casting found extras for all the
big films
in the late 1920s the names of 17 000
people were on its books
the world of hollywood was not easy
only a small number of directors and
stars made a lot of money
in the early 1930s there was the great
depression in the united states
companies closed and people were without
work
at first things were not bad in
hollywood but by 1933
shops and hotels closed here too
but movie theaters were popular in the
great depression
when audiences watched a movie they
could forget everything for an hour or
two
there were different types of films
every type had its usual story and
audiences understood these
one type of movie was the horror film
people loved to feel afraid when they
saw these
in 1931 the first big talky horror film
came out
it was dracula with the hungarian actor
bella lugosi
his dark eyes white face and slow cold
voice became famous and soon he was the
star of many hollywood horror films like
son of frankenstein
in the 1930s hollywood made musicals
films with music and singing too
two famous actors in musicals were fred
astaire and ginger rogers
but they did not only sing they danced
beautifully too
their 1935 film top hat has one of the
most famous dances in the story of
hollywood
not all hollywood films had actors in
them
a young man called walt disney moved to
hollywood in 1923 and opened a cartoon
studio
he made small black and white cartoons
here with his brother
in 1934 they began a new type of cartoon
a color feature film called snow white
and the seven dwarfs
they finished the film three years later
in 1937.
when it came out the audiences loved
everything about it the music the story
and the beautiful colors
two big color movies opened in 1939
one was the mgm film the wizard of oz
the story came from a popular book by
frank baum and it was made into a
musical with actress judy garland
her character dorothy wore famous red
shoes in the film
the actors in this movie all had
exciting costumes and makeup
many of them needed to arrive at the mgm
studios at five o’clock every morning
and stay for hours in the costume and
makeup area
the second film came from a book two
gone with the wind by margaret mitchell
the movie was about the war in the
united states in the 19th century
and it was a true epic
it had 50 actors with speaking parts 2
400 extras 1 100 horses and it was 3
hours and 58 minutes long
millions of people saw vivian lee and
clark gable in this exciting love story
at the time gone with the wind was the
longest feature film and it made more
money than any other film too
1939 was the best year for films from
hollywood studios people say
but in the 1940s the part played by the
studios changed
chapter 5
changes at the studios
the second world war from 1939
to 1945
was important in the story of hollywood
in the years before the war
many european people
from jewish families arrived here
because of problems in their countries
two of these were the directors
fritz lang
and billy wilder
between 1939
and 1945
hollywood made lots of war movies
people can easily forget most of these
but everybody remembers one black and
white film
this is casablanca
from 1942
with humphrey bogart
and the swedish actress
ingrid bergman
it is a love story
in the dark world of war
not all movies were about war
one 1941 film
citizen kane
was about charles foster kane
a rich newspaper owner
many people call it the best hollywood
film of all time
the writer
director
and most important actor
was orson welles
he was only 25 years old
hollywood moved away from the happy
films of the 1930s
the new movies
were often detective stories with bad
cold characters
they were made in black and white
with the actors faces
sometimes half in the dark
people later called this type of movie
film noir
one film noir
was the 1946 movie
notorious
with ingrid bergman
and cary grant
this exciting film
or thriller
had a british director
alfred hitchcock
he made many hollywood thrillers and he
was famous
for his very small part
in every film
in 1948
the us government
made a big change in the film industry
studios could not own movie theaters
and show only their films in them
from this time
the studio stopped making lots of films
every year
and they stopped their long contracts
with the big stars too
this
was the end of the wonderful days for
the hollywood studios
the studios had a different problem too
this time it was not the government
it was a new thing
in people’s houses
the television
in 1950
about 6 million u.s homes had a tv
and by 1906
60 million homes had one
now
some people stop going to the movies
every week
many old hollywood film studios
began to make tv shows
some studios made bigger more exciting
films too
all in wonderful color
and epics were popular again
in
1959
there was the 15 million dollar movie
ben hur
about rome long ago
it was by the director william
weiler
this movie with actor
charlton heston
was made over seven years
with eight thousand extras
and a hundred
thousand costumes
in the 1950s
people wanted to forget the dark war
years
they were interested in happy films
again
like disney’s
1950 cartoon
cinderella
or the 1952 musical
singing in the rain
with actor
gene kelly
in
1959
audiences laughed for hours at some like
it hot
by director billy wilder
the film had the actors tony curtis
and jack lemmon
and a beautiful 32 year old actress
marilyn monroe
she became one of the most famous faces
of hollywood
but died in 1962
when she was only
36
other hollywood stars died young too
one actor
james dean
was called
the first american teenager
he was in only three films
most importantly
the 1955 movie
rebel without a cause
but he died suddenly
in a car accident before the film came
out
he was 24 years old
music for teenagers became a new
industry
music companies opened in hollywood
and studios soon made movies with
singers
like elvis presley
excited teenagers stood
and danced in movie theaters when they
saw his films
like jailhouse rock
in 1957.
but the 1960s was a bad time for the
hollywood film industry
the expensive
1963
epic cleopatra
with richard burton
and elizabeth taylor
lost a lot of money
and that year
was the worst for the us film industry
only
121 films were made
many old hollywood studios had money
problems
and they sold their buildings
land
and wonderful costumes too
in 1970
mgm sold two
of dorothy’s beautiful red shoes
from the wizard of oz
for fifteen thousand dollars
by the 1970s
hollywood was a different place from the
1940s
a big road now went through the area
and the whitley heights village was in
two halves
many old buildings were no longer there
in 1956
builders took down the hollywood hotel
once home to rudolph valentino
when visitors came to hollywood in the
1970s
many did not like the area
they found dirty streets
bad hotels and cheap shops
most film stars now lived in other parts
of los angeles
like beverly hills
the old world of hollywood was dead
chapter 6
new hollywood
by 1970 there was only one big film
studio in hollywood
that was paramount pictures
all the others were in places in the los
angeles area like burbank
in the 1970s new directors came to
hollywood like francis ford coppola
martin scorsese and george lucas
they went to film school and they were
interested in italian and french movies
from the 1960s
one young director steven spielberg made
a thriller called jaws about a shark in
the sea near a small american town
this 1975 film was very expensive at 9
million
it came out at a popular time of year
the summer and it opened in about 450
movie theaters at once
jaws was a new type of film a
blockbuster
these films need a lot of money but they
make a lot of money too and are very
popular
one 1977 blockbuster changed the film
world
this was the science fiction movie star
wars by george lucas
it became famous for its characters and
special effects
many of these special effects were made
with computers and people called these
moving pictures computer generated
imagery or cgi
after audiences saw star wars they could
go to the shops and buy star wars things
too
it was one of the first films with
merchandising
there were star wars pens watches clocks
bags and many other things
in 1972 the phillips company began to
sell home video recorders for about two
thousand dollars and families could
watch hollywood movies at home
home videos made lots of money for the
movie industry
when steven spielberg’s 1982 blockbuster
the extraterrestrial went to video it
made more than 75 million dollars in the
united states
one type of movie had merchandising and
was very popular on video
this was the superhero film like the
blockbusters superman in 1978 and
superman 2 in 1980
later in 1989 there was the first of a
number of big batman films and in the
2000s the x-men movies
in the 1990s there were big changes in
the movie world
firstly many movie theaters had a number
of rooms now and they could show more
than one film at once
this was called a multiplex
the world’s biggest multiplex opened in
madrid spain in 1998
it could show 25 different films at once
to 9 200 people
new digital technology was important for
filmmakers
directors could now put hollywood actors
into old films the 1994 film forest gump
showed tom hanks with famous people from
earlier times like john kennedy
other movies like the 1996 science
fiction film independence day were made
truly exciting with cgi pictures too
the biggest 1990s movie was titanic
this 1997 blockbuster by director james
cameron with leonardo dicaprio and kate
winslet told the story of the last days
of the ship the titanic
it was then hollywood’s most expensive
film of all time at about 200 million
dollars and it made the most money to
1.8 billion dollars across the world
digital technology came into the home
too in the late 1990s
people stopped using videos and they
bought dvd players
dvds had a better picture and often
showed more things from the film
cartoons changed with the new technology
and studios began to make cartoons with
computers in the late 1990s and 2000s
there were the four shrek films all with
the exciting shrek characters the toy
story films and finding nemo
when a movie was popular like shrek the
studios often made a film series a
number of different films about the
characters
other film series at this time were
pirates of the caribbean harry potter
and the twilight saga
in the early years of the 21st century
film companies made more movies in 3d
of course 3d technology was not new
audiences watched 3d films in the 1950s
but the 3d glasses were not very good
and people could not see the 3d pictures
well
[Music]
in 2009 everybody wanted to see one film
in 3d james cameron’s science fiction
movie avatar
after only three weeks it made more
money than his earlier blockbuster
titanic
3d films are not always popular with
audiences but some movie companies like
them very much
are there going to be a lot of 3d films
in the future
we can only wait and see
chapter 7
outside hollywood
not all hollywood films
are made in the united states
directors sometimes
take their actors
to a different country
because it is important for the story
in the 1950s
there were hollywood films and cities
like paris or rome
for example
the 1953
love story roman holiday
with gregory peck
and audrey hepburn
other directors are looking for a good
place
for their science fiction film
or horror movie
and they find this place
in a different country
parts of four star wars films
were filmed in tunisia
the three
lord of the rings movies
were made in new zealand
some of
the born legacy
was filmed in south korea
and parts of the twilight saga breaking
dawn
were made
in brazil
sometimes
hollywood movie companies
go to other countries because it is
cheaper
some governments want to bring
filmmakers to their country
because it gives work to their film
industry
these governments often give money to
the movie companies when they make films
in their countries
some hollywood films
are now filmed in canada
or perhaps australia
hungary germany
or the uk
the us film industry
makes about 500 films every year
but it is not the world’s biggest
filmmaker
india
makes more than a thousand feature films
every year
and many of these are made in
bollywood
bollywood is not a place
it is the name for the film industry in
mumbai
the biggest city in india
in bollywood films people speak hindi
people began to use the name bollywood
in the 1970s
and it comes from two different words
these are
bombay
the old name from mumbai
and
hollywood
bollywood films are very popular in
india and other countries
2009 people across the world bought 3.6
million tickets for bollywood films
in that year
people bought 2.6 million tickets for
hollywood films
bollywood films are different from
hollywood films
because there is always music and
singing in them
when a new bollywood movie comes out
people often buy the music
and listen to it at home
in india and other countries
bollywood film stars
are more important than any hollywood
stars
for example
the actor shahrukh khan
is in more than 70 bollywood films
and he is one of the biggest stars in
india
chapter eight
the oscars
every year in late february or early
march movie stars come to the dolby
theater on hollywood boulevard
the women wear beautiful dresses and the
men put on expensive suits
hundreds of photographers take pictures
of them when they walk slowly into the
theater
why are they here
it is time for the oscar awards ceremony
the true name of the oscar ceremony is
the academy awards ceremony
in the 1920s a number of important
hollywood people wanted to give awards
in the new world of film and they had
their first ceremony in 1929.
they gave out 15 statuettes
these were later called oscars
now there are more than 20 oscars
the most famous oscars are for the best
actor and best actress and the best
picture
but there are other oscars for example
for the best costumes and best hair and
makeup too
catherine hepburn has the most best
actress oscars with four and daniel day
lewis has the most best actor oscars
with three
the films with the most oscars are benja
titanic and the lord of the rings all
with 11 oscars
the oldest and youngest winners of an
oscar for acting are christopher plummer
at 82 and tatum o’neill at 10.
one oscar is for the best foreign
language film for films not in english
italy is the country with the most
movies with this oscar for example the
film life is beautiful won the 1998
oscar
when a person wins an oscar they come to
the front of the theater and take the
oscar statuette
of course the winners then need to say
something make a speech
actress grier carson gave the longest
speech in 1943 at five and a half
minutes
now the winners cannot speak for longer
than 45 seconds
the quickest speeches were from actor
william holden in 1954 and director
alfred hitchcock in 1968
they said two words
thank you
chapter 9
a visit to hollywood
hollywood is now a nicer place
than in the
1970s and millions of people come here
every year
in some streets
visitors can look up and see the famous
hollywood sign
14 meters tall
this was built in 1923
on mount lee
part of the hollywood hills
it was a sign for an area of new houses
and at first it said
hollywood land
but in 1949
it lost land
and became
hollywood
over the years the sign became very old
so in
1978
a number of film stars
gave a lot of money for it
now
it looks better again
visitors interested in hollywood stars
go to the hollywood forever cemetery
many actors and directors are here like
douglas fairbanks
cecil b demille
norma talmage
and rudolph valentino
there are famous stories about valentino
after he died on the 23rd of august
1926
a woman in a black dress
visited the cemetery every year on the
23rd of august
she put red flowers on valentino’s name
you can find wonderful photos of old
hollywood
at the lasky demille barn
this studio is important
because demille
made the first hollywood feature film
here
in 1914.
it is across the street from the
hollywood bowl
there you can sit and listen to music
under the night sky
for families
there is universal studios
near hollywood
it has over 4 million visitors every
year
universal is a working film studio
but there are many other things to do
and see
when visitors arrive
they sit on a little train
and then go through different places
from famous films
like hitchcock’s psycho
and spielberg’s war of the worlds
often visitors want to see movie stars
but this is not always easy
many do not live in hollywood
when they go out
they often arrive in a car with black
windows
perhaps the best times to see them
are premiers
or the ceremonies for a new star on the
hollywood walk of fame
chapter 10
changing of hollywood
in the early 1900s nobody knew about the
quiet village of hollywood
but in 1910 the first film makers
arrived and then the studios opened by
the 1920s it was more famous for movies
than any other place
soon when people talked about the
american film industry they said one
word hollywood
over a hundred years after hollywood
began its films never stopped being
popular in 2011 hollywood films sold
32.6 billion dollars in movie theater
tickets across the world
hollywood movies are becoming more
popular in countries like china with two
billion dollars in tickets sold there in
that year
but of course hollywood has problems too
people do not always watch films at the
movie theater on tv or on dvd now
some watch the latest hollywood films on
the internet and sometimes this is free
this loses hollywood billions of dollars
some people say and it is very bad for
the movie industry in the years to come
but hollywood is built on a long and
truly wonderful story of famous actors
directors and film studios and it is not
going to stop anytime soon
you