Like the Mack Sennett-produced Mabel Normand vehicle The Extra Girl, released in the same year, the feature-length comedy Hollywood is, as its title implies, an early self-referential take on the popular Hollywood myth of “making it big” in the movies. Director James Cruze cast aptly named unknown Hope Drown in the lead role of Angela Whitaker, a young hopeful who ventures to Tinseltown with aspirations of becoming a movie star. Joining Angela is her grandfather Joel, who hopes the California climate will prove beneficial to his health. In an ironic twist, Joel is the one who ends up acting in movies, while Angela’s own efforts falter. America’s film-making capital would time and again look inward for inspiration, with greater or lesser degrees of critical and commercial success, King Vidor’s Show People (1928) and Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) being among the most well-known examples. Like both these films, Hollywood notably features a parade of cameos from famous figures from the world of cinema. Today considered a lost film, only this short trailer for Hollywood is known to survive.

Oliver Hanley