<P> Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality on November 14, 1903, by a vote of 88 for and 77 against . On January 30, 1904, the voters in Hollywood decided, by a vote of 113 to 96, for the banishment of liquor in the city, except when it was being sold for medicinal purposes . Neither hotels nor restaurants were allowed to serve wine or liquor before or after meals . </P> <P> In 1910, the city voted for merger with Los Angeles in order to secure an adequate water supply and to gain access to the L.A. sewer system . With annexation, the name of Prospect Avenue changed to Hollywood Boulevard and all the street numbers were also changed . </P> <P> By 1912, major motion - picture companies had set up production near or in Los Angeles . In the early 1900s, most motion picture patents were held by Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company in New Jersey, and filmmakers were often sued to stop their productions . To escape this, filmmakers began moving out west, where Edison's patents could not be enforced . Also, the weather was ideal and there was quick access to various settings . Los Angeles became the capital of the film industry . </P> <P> Director D.W. Griffith was the first to make a motion picture in Hollywood . His 17 - minute short film In Old California (1910) was filmed for the Biograph Company . Although Hollywood banned movie theaters--of which it had none--before annexation that year, Los Angeles had no such restriction . The first film by a Hollywood studio, Nestor Motion Picture Company, was shot on October 26, 1911 . The H. J. Whitley home was used as its set, and the unnamed movie was filmed in the middle of their groves at the corner of Whitley Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard . </P>

When did the movie industry moved to hollywood