Chapter 1 ~ Hollywood and Radio
1938
By the late 1930’s, Hollywood California was famous around the world as the movie capitol. It was also home to all the major radio studios that broadcast coast to coast some of the great personalities of the day, including Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Amos and Andy and Bob Hope. The area around Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street was coming of age. There was still room to build and the entertainment industry did just that.
The National Broadcasting Company, after moving from New York to San Francisco, opened it’s new Moderne studios at the intersection of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, California.
A block away, the Columbia Broadcasting System opened it’s new streamlined studios at Columbia Square. Across the street, on December 26, Earl Carroll opened his premier nightclub and restaurant, with the glamorous neon sign proclaiming, “Through these portals pass the most beautiful girls in the world.”
Two years later, the Hollywood Palladium set up shop between NBC and CBS, with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, featuring band singer Frank Sinatra appearing on opening night. On the northwest corner of Sunset and Vine was Music City and Capitol Records, operated by bothers Glenn and Clyde Wallich.
The American Broadcasting Corporation studios set up shop a few doors north on Vine Street and across Vine was the RCA building. Further up Vine was the Brown Derby Restaurant and on the west side of Vine were Clara Bow’s It Café, the Club Morocco and Tom Breneman’s Breakfast in Hollywood.
Somewhere along the way, radio personalities began repeating a popular new phrase, “meet me at Hollywood and Vine.”
It was a glorious year, 1938, for Hollywood and for radio. And, while NBC called their new studios Radio City, the entire area became famous across America and around the world.
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