Note: This is an encore post from 2012.
Los Angeles and Hollywood have been the Mecca and Medina of movies, where their acolytes came to worship, work and learn in the teens and 1920s. After making movies, reverent places of worship were required to view them in style. Broadway in downtown became Los Angeles’ Great White Way, containing elaborate and beautiful film and legitimate theaters that drew thousands.
Most of the major theatrical chains built flagship theatres in downtown Los Angeles, palaces to host film premieres as well as screen their released product. One of the last to jump on the bandwagon was United Artists, founded in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith to own and control their films. Originally releasing only films by its four founders, the studio required films by other major stars to bring in enough revenue to cover production costs. Major stars such as Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton and Norma Talmadge joined the company, as well as producer Samuel Goldwyn, all creating quality film productions.
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