It's said that interesting places are actually characters in a story, and such is the case with Hollywood. Much of the satisfaction in writing a historical novel is getting to know the locations and what they were like at the time. Parts of Yours in a Hurry take place in Hollywood, and I was lucky to find the Hollywood Heritage Museum  (pictured left) and  experience its half-day behind-the-scenes historical tour of old Hollywood with  Museum General Manager George Kiel.  Richard Adkins, Museum Collections Manager, shared the following about Hollywood in 1910-1912 and how the museum keeps the mystique alive.

The Hollywood Studio Arrives
In 1910, Hollywood merged with the city of Los Angeles to be able to partake of the water and other city services available through the larger municipality. Hollywood was not yet famous for film, as its conservative prohibitionist founders had forbidden the exhibition of movies in Hollywood. Despite that restriction, film maker D.W. Griffith made the first film in Hollywood in 1909, "In Old California" starring Mary Pickford. Mr. Griffith used other locations, but his studio was located in the Edendale (now Silverlake) area of Los Angeles where it had been establish several years before. The prohibition of the sale or serving of alcohol in Hollywood inadvertantly gave birth to the first Hollywood Studio.

The Blondeau Tavern, at the corner of Gower St. and Sunset Boulevard, had been a popular tavern and roadhouse until 1903. Owner Rene Blondeau passed just after the birth of the new city. The tavern remained vacant until Fall of 1911, when David Horsley of the Centaur Film Company of Baltimore, Maryland, had a chance meeting on the train with Frank Hoover, a photographer with a studio not far from Sunset and Gower on Cahuenga Blvd. Hoover learned that Horsley was heading to Los Angeles to establish a studio and suggested that the vacant Blondeau Tavern would make an excellent studio as there was one large building and several small cabins circling and open courtyard. This configuration adapted itself to a studio administration building, dressing rooms, and a place for an outdoor stage, as most films were still photographed out of doors. Mr. Horsley named his new studio the Nestor Studio and began business there in October of 1911. Nestor shot one- and two-reeler comedies and westerns, the first of which were "The Heart of a Racetrack Tout" and "The Law of the Range."

Competition
Seven months later, Louis Burns and Harry Revier gave Nestor competition when they opened a studio at Selma and Vine Streets, just one block South of the newly-christened Hollywood Boulevard (formerly Prospect Avenue). Renting a horse and auto garage from Jacob Stern, Burns and Revier established the first rental studio in Hollywood. Cecil B. DeMille of the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company rented the studio the following December. Their project was to film a feature-length western at the studio, Hollywood's first feature-length film, "The Squaw Man." They started shooting December 29, 1913, and finished February 15, 1914. For their modest $3,000 investment, the three partners comprising the Lasky Company (Jesse L. Lasky; his brother-in-law, Sam Goldwyn; and Lasky's best friend and theatrical co-producer Cecil B. DeMille) made $300,000. Their success led hundreds of filmmakers to Hollywood. By 1919, Nestor became part of Universal Studio, and by 1917, the Lasky Company had merged with Adolph Zukor's famous player to become Paramount Pictures.

Hollywood
The couple purchased a large tract of land west of Los Angeles for $150 per acre. Harvey's plan to be a farmer didn't last long, and they soon began subdividing the land and selling lots for $1,000 each. The area was known as Nopalera (named after a local Mexican cactus species), but on a train ride back from visiting Ohio, Ida met a woman who called her summer home outside Chicago “Hollywood.” Ida liked the sound.

By 1887, their respective families joined them, and Ida's mother adopted a variation of the family name, changing it to Hartell. Rumor had it that Amelia thought it looked more refined for their new circumstances.


Philanthropists Extraordinaire
After Harvey died in 1891, Ida chose wisely again. New in town, businessman Philo Beveridge was blonde, 6'2", and outgoing in contrast to prohibitionist Harvey. They worked well together and had a huge impact on Hollywood.

Ida gave back to the Hollywood community, donating land, founding organizations, and influencing others to move there and succeed. She never took “no” for an answer! She donated land for the first schools, three churches, post office, and police and fire stations. She and Philo built Wilcox Hall where, on the second floor meeting room, leaders met and made decisions affecting the growing suburb.
Ida (my second cousin, three times removed) died in 1914 at age 52. If you want to visit Ida's resting place in the Cathedral Mausoleum in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, simply look on the map for Rudolph Valentino—Ida's just around the corner.

Sources:
Hartle Heritage, Richard Hartle, MD, Lancaster, Ohio
The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History, Gregory Paul Williams
Hollywood Heritage Museum
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2062 Photo of Daeida Hartell Wilcox Beveridge is used from this website with permission of the contributor.
Map of Hollywood- Los Angeles Public Library Collection, History Department (public domain)

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Next Time: Learn what Addison and Purl were reading in 1910. 

On April 15, 1912, the world opened newspapers to one of the greatest human tragedies when over 1,500 'souls' perished aboard the invincible Titanic. Three women awoke in France that day, expecting one of them to be an international front page sensation.
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Can you imagine being Harriet Quimby, first woman to fly across the English Channel, only to have your story in only a few lines in the international press? Although she was disappointed, I'm certain that as a famous journalist herself, she understood.

A Woman of Many Vocations
Addison and Anna meet Harriet in Yours in a Hurry through Hiram Cowell, Anna's mentor and   a friend of Harriet's parents. Harriet was famous long before she started working for Leslie's Illustrated Weekly--a journalist in San Francisco with Jack London, an actress and screenwriter with D.W. Griffith, drama critic, photographer for Around the World with a Camera (1910), and much more.  She was also beautifully photogenic—dark hair, green eyes, model perfect and sophisticated.  She is most remembered as the first American woman to achieve a pilot's license.

'I Have No Fear'
She became interested in flying by writing about it and being influenced by other aviators, especially John and Matilde Moisant. After an aviation exhibition in Mexico, her goal was to be the first woman to fly across the English Channel. She engaged aviator Louis Bleroit to assist and in spring, 1912, left with friends, Carrie Vanderbilt and Linda Arvidson, D.W. Griffith's spouse.

Disappointments
Her April 16 flight was successful, but the Titanic sunk shortly before her flight. The hoped for hero's welcome in New York was further delayed by a large, unpopular suffragist parade taking place in the city. The independent, confident Harriet was not popular with either side of the issue. She wasn't sympathetic to the crowd mentality of the suffragists, and New York was not in the mood to welcome an assertive woman. But, Harriet continued flying and writing winning articles about aviation, social causes and issues of interest to women until she died.

While researching women flyers of the period, I was fortunate to find a Harriet Quimby display at the International Women's Air and Space Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, including a replica of Harriet's signature purple flying costume.

In 1909 it's unusual for a smart, single woman from an established family to decide on her own to leave her small village and cross the country to start a new life. Anna Hartle has nurtured her siblings since their parent's unexpected death. But her fortitude is tested after leaving Ohio for California. Like her brothers, Addison and Purl, she is swept into the American western migration at the turn of the last century. 

Wyandot County, Ohio
When well to do Adam Milo and Rhoda Hartle died of pneumonia in 1901, their eight children are sent to live with relatives. Anna, the eldest at sixteen, abandons her plan to attend Oberlin College and becomes a teacher in a one room schoolhouse. By the start of the story in 1908, she feels the need to leave the confines of her small village. It's been hard to keep a distance from her students and school board members who are friends and family.

Los Angeles
During a real estate transaction she impresses the agent, Hiram Cowell, and he invites her to move to California with his family to help establish his business. Two fateful meetings change Anna's life—only one for the better. Hiram introduces her to Daeida "Ida" Hartle Wilcox Beveridge, a cousin she was unaware of, a founder of Hollywood, who helps Anna through difficulties in her new environment. Anna also meets Martin Jackson, five years younger, whom she unfortunately marries. Twists in the plot involve Martin's past. 

Dear Sister
Some of the action is described through letters among the characters, all far from home. Anna taught them well, so they are good readers and writers. Her brothers are always on the move, Purl in the Pacific with the Army Cavalry, and Addison, pursuing the fledgling aviation industry.

Metamorphosis
The photo of Anna the teacher on the 1906 class memory book shows an unpretentious individual. What a difference when her photograph appears in newspapers in 1911. The sophisticated Anna is the perfect Gibson girl. Her chestnut hair is in a pompadour. She's about 5'8", slim, and her long, graceful arms and legs give a healthy, athletic appearance. It's obvious that she has also learned the art of make-up.
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Regardless of the change in her appearance, one theme is consistent for Anna. To borrow from Thomas Wolfe, 'you
​can't go home again'.

In the next blog, one character's plans are affected by the Titanic disaster.