37 Things You Didn’t Know About Hollywood

As early as 1915 an African-American film industry ran parallel to the Hollywood mainstream, catering to the community's segregated filmgoers. 'Race movies' had their own Black-owned studios, directors, and popular stars - though the majority of these early film reels are lost or damaged today.

27. In United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. the United States Supreme Court ruled Hollywood's Big Five could no longer own movie theaters, thus breaking up their oligopoly. Before its ruling, Hollywood studios controlled the filming, producing, printing and distribution of their movies.

28. Robert Zemeckis was so frustrated with the cliffhanger ending of The Empire Strikes Back that he purposely put the trailer and release date for Back to the Future 3 at the end of Back to the Future 2 so that the audience would know that the story would be completed in six months.

29. In the 40s and 50s, a man calling himself Prince Michael Romanoff, supposedly a member of the Russian royal family, ran a restaurant popular with Hollywood stars. Almost everyone knew he was a fake, but they just played along.

30. The 1931 Hollywood the English-language film “Dracula” was filmed by day, and the Spanish-language film “Drácula” was filmed using the same set by night. Director of Drácula based his shots on what he felt worked in the “day” film and critics praised Drácula far more than Dracula.

The movie 'Salt of the Earth' is based on a true story of a 15 month-long strike. It was blacklisted by Hollywood because its writer, the director and the producer were alleged members of the Communist party and its actress, Rosaura Revueltas, was deported for being in this movie.

32. "Hollywood" became "Holywood" briefly, when Pope John Paul II made a visit to the USA in September 1987.

33. Despite 'The Boondock Saints' being considered one of the hottest scripts in Hollywood, it was only released in 5 theaters and for a duration of just one week. The main reason for the limited distribution was the massacre at Columbine High School.

34. In most Hollywood movies any scene involving an animal is monitored by the Humane Society to ensure no animals are actually harmed in the making of the film.

35. Screenwriter Robert Towne so hated the finished Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan that he pulled his name off the film and credited his dog as writer. The dog, P.H. Vazak, ended up with an Oscar nomination.

Glorifying China in a Hollywood movie will increase its chance to enter the yearly quota (out of 34) to enter Chinese theaters.

37. The first film made in Hollywood was 'In Old California' (1910) and it was just 17 minutes long.