Sunny California attracted a few minor film studios by 1910. But the small village of Hollywood outside Los Angeles was ignored until D.W. Griffith, who had appeared on the stage during his acting days several years before, remembered the beautiful winter days there as well as the diverse typography to shoot scripts using a variety of settings. Wanting to film outside but hating the Northeast cold, he got his employer, Biograph Studios, to agree with him to take his Ft. Lee, N.J., film crew and travel to Hollywood in February to produce several movies there.
The first movie he directed within Hollywood's village was "In Old California." Although technically the first film to be completed in Hollywood was Selig Polyscope Company's 1908 "The Count of Monte Crisco," this Selig film was partially shot in Chicago before wrapping it up in California. Griffith's "In Old California" was the first movie to be filmed, edited and released in its entirety in Hollywood.
Many have confused Cecil B. DeMille's 1914 "The Squaw Man" as the first film out of Hollywood. But that movie is a long feature film, creating the confusion for those who insist a full-length movie qualifies as the first produced in H'wood. Griffith's 1910 work is a one-reeler, 17-minutes in length.
"In Old California" was considered "lost" for decades until it turned up in the early 2000's. The film is currently being restored and will be available to the public sometime in the future. In 2004, a monument was placed on the location where Griffith's first Southern California film was made, on 1713 Vine Street, Hollywood.
Meanwhile, Griffith would return repeatedly to Hollywood to film some of his greatest works.
