Beverly Hills, California
Encyclopedia
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California
, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood
are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles
. To be specific, Beverly Hills is bordered on the northwest by the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air and the Santa Monica Mountains
, on the east by West Hollywood, the Carthay neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the Fairfax District
of Los Angeles, and on the south by the Beverlywood
. The area's "Platinum Triangle" of affluent neighborhoods is formed by the city of Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel Air and Holmby Hills
.
's land expedition arrived in the area on August 3, 1769. The group consisted of Portolà (the first governor
of the province of California), some Franciscan
priests and a cavalcade of leather-jacket soldiers and horses. On September 27, 1821, New Spain
became Mexico and the province of California quietly changed flags.
That same decade, retired Spanish soldier Vicente Ferrer Valdez and his wife, Maria Rita Villa de Valdez, settled on the 4500 acres (18.2 km²) Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas
. Rita did not care for the name, however, and chose to call it San Antonio. The Valdez adobe
home was built near what is the present-day intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive. Valdez died in 1828, leaving Rita and eleven children.
, marking the end of the Mexican-American War. It was admitted as a U.S. state on September 9, 1850.
In 1852 Maria Rita Valdez De Villa asked to purchase a league of land for $4,000. She called the land Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. It was later purchased by Major Henry Hancock
(of Hancock Park
fame), a New Hampshire attorney. He had come to the state during the 1849 gold rush. He used the land as a farm until 1868, when Dr. Edward Preuss, a native of Louisville, Kentucky
, bought the land.
A brief oil
boom raised interest in the area in 1865 when the Pioneer Oil Company bought the rights to drill wells.
On October 22, 1906, the community of Beverly Hills was declared open by the Percy H. Clark Co., managers of the tract of land. It was described as a "beautiful suburban residence between this city Los Angeles and Santa Monica." The community was designed to allow the buyers to build a custom house on the land they purchased in the new development. The Rodeo Land and Water Company (Burton Green) decided to name it Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms
in Beverly, Massachusetts
. Prior to this, the land was known as the Hammel and Denker ranch, which was one of Southern California's most fertile lands for growing lima beans. As an area bounded today by Wilshire Boulevard to the south, the foothills just above Sunset Boulevard to the north, Whittier Drive on the west, and Doheny Drive to the east, Hammel and Denker ranch was part of the land grant
known as El Rodeo de Las Aguas
(the Ranch of the Gathering Waters) and was purchased in 1906 by a syndicate of railroad magnate
Henry E. Huntington
, oil tycoon Charles A. Canfield, W G. Kerckhoff, W. S. Porter, Burton M. Green, and real estate developer Max Whittier
. It lies in the old Morocco Junction of the Los Angeles Pacific road, where the Hollywood and Colgrove branches connect. The investment company marketed Beverly Hills as "between the city and the sea."
In September, 1911, work began on the Beverly Hills Hotel
. The Los Angeles Times would call it a "monster hostelry" since it cost $300,000. At the time, lots were selling for around $2,000 each.
In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks
and Mary Pickford
bought land on Summit Drive and built Pickfair
. In 1921, they announced that they would build the home that they had been "dreaming" about in Beverly Hills.
Will Rogers
, a wisecracking political humorist, wrote of the land boom in 1923, "Lots are sold so quickly and often out here that they put through escrow
made out to the 12th owner... They couldn't possibly make out a separate deed for each purchaser; besides, he wouldn't have time to read it in the 10 minutes' time he owned the land."
The movie colony was well entrenched by 1928 when Harold Lloyd
('Greenacres'
), John Barrymore
, Robert Montgomery
, and Miriam Hopkins
built residences there.
The population in 1920 was 674; in 1924, it was 5,000; by 1930, it was 17,429.
The issuance of building permits in 1918 totaled $35,200; in 1919, $304,900; in 1921, $787,729; 1922, $1,838,994.
In early 1920, the Beverly Hills Speedway
, a 1.25 miles (2 km) wood oval track with turns banked 35 degrees was opened. Joe Boyer ran his race car 110 miles per hour (177 km/h) during the exhibition run. The races drew huge crowds and radio
broadcasts were on a par with today's Indianapolis 500
. There were also aviation
shows, another national craze. The speedway was closed in 1924 and the site was later subdivided for housing and businesses.
In 1923, annexation to the city of Los Angeles was proposed, but faced opposition. Residents Mary Pickford, Will Rogers and others mobilized local voters against the plan. Those for annexation argued that Los Angeles would provide an adequate supply of better quality water for growth. Workers left bottles of sulfur-smelling water on the doorsteps of every home in Beverly Hills with a label that read: "Warning. Drink sparingly of this water as it has laxative qualities." Despite the campaign tactics, annexation was defeated 507 to 337. The following year, the city voted $400,000 in bonds to purchase the water system from the Beverly Hills Utilities Company and drill additional wells.
This fight for an independent city was arguably the first union of show business and politics in the United States. When Will Rogers became involved in the local city government the community received international advertising. In 1925, Rogers was given the title "Honorary Mayor of Beverly Hills," becoming the first and (to date) only person so honored as such. The same year, the citizens of the city voted a $100,000 bond issue to purchase with Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice
385 acres (1.6 km²) for the building of UCLA
. There were 96 miles (154.5 km) of paved streets in the city limits by 1927. In 1928, the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard between El Camino and Rodeo Drives, part of the old Beverly Hills Speedway, was completed. That same year, Greystone Mansion
was completed by Edward L. Doheny, Jr., the only son and heir of wealthy oil man Edward L. Doheny
. And, in 1930, horses were banned in the City of Beverly Hills.
In the early 1930s, Santa Monica Park was renamed Beverly Gardens
and was extended to span the entire two-mile (3-kilometer) length of Santa Monica Boulevard through the city. At its Santa Monica and Wilshire corner, the Electric Fountain
, a constant symphony of form and color at night, was installed, with a small sculpture at the top of a Tongva kneeling in prayer, homage to the heritage of Beverly Hills as a wellspring of fertility and abundance.
In April 1931, the new Italian Renaissance
-style City Hall was opened.
By 1933, the effects of the Depression
were being felt in Beverly Hills. The city and school board cut salaries to save funds. In February, some 161 parcels of land were advertised for sale for delinquent lighting assessments. The Chamber of Commerce established an employment bureau, and the mayor requested a branch welfare office from the County of Los Angeles. By 1937, the city had weathered the storm of the Depression and was riding the crest of a wave of retail sales that reached more than $20,000,000, and bank deposits topped the $25,000,000 figure. Property values of that year showed a 30% increase over the previous year.
By the 1950s, small vacant lots remained and developers cropped whole mountains to ease the housing shortage. The stables and trails of the unusually large Doheny family estate; Greystone Mansion was bought by Paul Trousdale. The Trousdale Estates area was eventually annexed and an expensive housing development began to take shape in the hills above the city. Today Trousdale Estates is an enclave for Hollywood celebrities and media moguls.
Beverly Hills marketed itself as one of the most glamorous places in the world to shop
. The Golden Triangle, with Rodeo Drive
at its center, was marketed as the apex of chic
shopping and fashion
.
Via Rodeo was completed in 1990. The Spanish cobblestone
street leads to 2 Rodeo Drive, a "mini-mall" with upscale shops and restaurants. In 1992, the Beverly Hills Civic Center was opened. Designed by architect
Charles Moore
, it links the new public library, fire department, and police department with the historic City Hall.
Rodeo Drive, Beverly Drive, and Canon Drive all recently underwent construction to widen the sidewalks and beautify the streets. New construction that added more parking
for visitors to the famed shopping area has also just been completed.
. The precise limits of Beverly Hills are complex, and therefore hard to describe; however, the city limits can be roughly described as the area surrounded by the Los Angeles Country Club and Century Park Drive to the Southwest, Whitworth Drive to the South, at various points Doheny Drive/Robertson Blvd/San Vicente Blvd to the East, and the Hollywood Hills to the North.
Major east-west thoroughfares in Beverly Hills include Wilshire Boulevard
, Santa Monica Boulevard, and Sunset Boulevard
. Shopping is prevalent along Beverly Drive and the world-famous Rodeo Drive
. Coldwater Canyon Drive is the main road out of Beverly Hills to the north into the San Fernando Valley
. Beverly Drive and Roberston Blvd are the primary roads exiting the city to the south. Beverly Hills is one of the few cities in the Los Angeles area that is not directly served by a freeway.
In spite of the city's name, most residents live in the "flats" of Beverly Hills, a relatively flat land that includes all of Beverly Hills south of Sunset Blvd. The houses in the hills north of Sunset Boulevard have a much higher value than average houses in the rest of Beverly Hills, and the most expensive houses in Beverly Hills are all in the hills. Santa Monica Boulevard divides the "flats" into two areas, locally known as "North or South of the tracks," referring to the train tracks that were once used by the old Pacific Electric streetcar line that traversed Beverly Hills along Santa Monica Blvd. Houses south of Wilshire have more urban square and rectangular lots, in general smaller than those to the north. There are also more apartment buildings south of Wilshire Blvd than anywhere else in Beverly Hills, and the average house value south of Wilshire is the lowest in Beverly Hills.
Nearly all businesses and government offices in Beverly Hills are located south of Santa Monica Boulevard, two notable exceptions being the Beverly Hills Hotel
and the Beverly Hilton Hotel
. Just outside the city limits to the west lies the Los Angeles Country Club
. Other locations commonly associated with Beverly Hills include the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
and the Beverly Center, just outside city limits to the east.
was 5,973.1 people per square mile (2,306.2/km²). The racial makeup of Beverly Hills was 28,112 (82.4%) White, (2.2%) African American, 48 (0.1%) Native American, 3,032 (8.9%) Asian, 12 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 485 (1.4%) from other races
, and 1,674 (4.9%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,941 persons (5.7%).
The Census reported that 33,988 people (99.6% of the population) lived in households, 121 (0.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.
There were 14,869 households, out of which 3,759 (25.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 6,613 (44.5%) were opposite-sex married couples
living together, 1,354 (9.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 494 (3.3%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 460 (3.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships
, and 131 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 5,400 households (36.3%) were made up of individuals and 1,834 (12.3%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29. There were 8,461 families
(56.9% of all households); the average family size was 3.05.
The population was spread out with 6,623 people (19.4%) under the age of 18, 2,526 people (7.4%) aged 18 to 24, 8,540 people (25.0%) aged 25 to 44, 9,904 people (29.0%) aged 45 to 64, and 6,516 people (19.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43.6 years. For every 100 females there were 84.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.3 males.
There were 16,394 housing units at an average density of 2,870.9 per square mile (1,108.5/km²), of which 6,561 (44.1%) were owner-occupied, and 8,308 (55.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 8.0%. 17,740 people (52.0% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 16,248 people (47.6%) lived in rental housing units.
, there were 33,784 people. The racial makeup of the city was 85.1% White, 7.10% Asian, 1.80% African American
, 1.50% from other races, 0.10% Native American and 4.60% of the population were Hispanic
or Latino of any race. Beverly Hills is home to a large Persian
/Iranian
community. According to a 2006 NPR
article, Iranians represent 20% of the city's population and 40% of the students in its schools. This includes a large Persian Jewish
community. The Census Bureau defines the "White" race category as including "people having origins in any of the original peoples of the Middle East"
In the city the population was spread out with 20.0% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 26.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age for the city was 41 years old.
There were 15,035 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were married couples
living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.0% were non-families. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 3.02.
Of the 21,426 registered voters in Beverly Hills, approximately 50.3% are Democrats
and 25.9% are Republicans
. The remaining 23.8% are Independents or are registered with one of the many smaller political parties, like the Green Party
or the Libertarian Party
.
The heavy Democratic advantage makes Beverly Hills one of the more liberal cities in Southern California. In 2004, John Kerry
won 62% of the vote compared to 37% for George W. Bush
. In the 2006 state governor election, Arnold Schwarzenegger
got nearly 45% of the vote but won a second term by a state-wide majority, while Democratic opponent Phil Angelides
had just over 54%.
Beverly Hills is a general law city governed by a five-member City Council
including the mayor
and vice mayor. City Council hires a city manager
to carry out policies and serve as executive officer. Every odd-numbered year either two or three members are elected by the people to serve a four-year term. Each March the City Council meets and chooses one of its members as mayor and one as vice-mayor.
Barry Brucker is mayor and William W. Brien, MD is vice mayor. Jeff Kolin is city manager. The other three city council members are John Mirisch, Lili Bosse and Julian A. Gold, MD. In city council meetings, a few celebrities have shown up to speak on local political issues.
The Beverly Hills Police Department
and the Beverly Hills Fire Department serve as emergency response for the city. BHFD has the privilege of being distinguished as "Class 1" in fire protection by an insurance industry rating service.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
SPA 5 West Area Health Office serves Beverly Hills. The department operates the Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center in Santa Monica
, serving Beverly Hills.
In the state legislature
, Beverly Hills is located in the 23rd Senate
District, represented by Democrat Fran Pavley
, and in the 42nd Assembly
District, represented by Democrat Mike Feuer. Beverly Hills is located in California's 30th congressional district
, which has a Cook PVI
of D +20 and is represented by Democrat Henry Waxman
.
The United States Postal Service
operates the Beverly Hills Post Office at 325 North Maple Drive, the Crescent Post Office at 323 North Crescent Drive, the Beverly Post Office at 312 South Beverly Drive, and the Eastgate Post Office at 8383 Wilshire Boulevard. The Beverly Hills Post Office received listing in the National Register of Historic Places
on January 11, 1985.
Beverly Hills is home to one Fortune 500
company, Live Nation Entertainment
; other companies based in Beverly Hills include Platinum Equity
, John Paul Mitchell Systems
and Spark Networks
.
The Los Angeles-area offices of Aeroflot
and El Al
are in Beverly Hills.
At one point, Hilton Hotels Corporation
had its corporate headquarters in Beverly Hills. The original headquarters of GeoCities
(at first Beverly Hills Internet) was at 9401 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
Underneath the city is the large and still-productive Beverly Hills Oil Field
, serviced by four urban drilling islands, which drill diagonally into the earth underneath the city. The most notorious of these drilling islands occasioned a 2003 lawsuit representing former attendees of Beverly Hills High School, approximately 280 of which having suffered from cancers allegedly tied to the drilling operations.
, Colombia
, and Ecuador
.)
Beverly Hills is served by Beverly Hills Unified School District
, which includes four K-8 schools (Hawthorne, El Rodeo, Beverly Vista, and Horace Mann), Moreno High School, and the Beverly Hills High School
.
Good Shepherd School, a PreK-8 school in Beverly Hills, is a part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
.
Other Beverly Hills private schools include Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy, Emanuel Academy of Beverly Hills, and Page Private School.
, with an average high of 85 degrees in August, and an average high of 64 degrees in January. Beverly Hills also receives on average 18 inches (457.2 mm) of rain per year. Summers are marked by warm to hot temperatures with very little wind, while winters are moderate to cool with occasional rain alternating with periods of Santa Ana winds. During Santa Ana events, gusts up to 40 mi/h are common.
Snow has been witnessed only in 1882,1922,1932 and 1949.
and Beverly Hills Weekly
. Beverly Hills is served by the following magazine: Beverly Hills Times. The Beverly Hills Post
used to be one of the main newspapers, but it went out of business. The city is also served by all Los Angeles TV, radio, and newspaper media
Beverly Hills also has its own local television channel, KBEV. Run by the students of Beverly Hills High School
, it airs on Channel 6 (on Time Warner Cable
) to the residents of Beverly Hills.
In 2009, a small group of Beverly Hills residents created an online diary blog of their lives growing up and living in Beverly Hills called The Daily Truffle that has grown into a popular website for residents.
in southwestern Los Angeles County, has been dubbed the "Black Beverly Hills". Similarly, the city of Scottsdale
has been given the nickname "Beverly Hills of Arizona
" for its stately homes, high-end shops, the extensive Fashion square mall, Fashion week, resorts and high household income. Calabasas
, California
located in the San Fernando Valley
is considered the Beverly Hills of the valley. Beverly Hills, Michigan
is known for its large affluent office buildings and nice homes all located in the affluent areas of Metro Detroit
. Respectively, Buckhead
, the uptown district of Atlanta, has been dubbed "The Beverly Hills of the South" due to the large number (as well as the highest concentration) of upscale shops, elaborate homes, and high average income.
shows and movies set in Beverly Hills, including The Jack Benny Program
(1950 to 1954) (and on his radio program from 1932–1955), The Beverly Hillbillies
(1962 to 1971), the Beverly Hills Cop
movies, Beverly Hills, 90210
(1990 to 2000), and 90210
(2008 – ).
s for Beverly Hills, and perhaps its most famous, gaining popularity with the 1990s television series Beverly Hills, 90210
and its 2008 spin-off 90210
. Other series to feature it in its title are Dr. 90210
, a reality show featuring Beverly Hills plastic surgeons. and High Maintenance 90210
, also a reality show. Rapper Wale released a song called 90210 referring to a girl who wants to be famous.
Beverly Hills Post Office
is an area of Los Angeles that the Beverly Hills Post Office serves and carries the "Beverly Hills, CA 90210" mailing address. The other four, less-celebrated ZIP codes for Beverly Hills are: 90209, 90211, 90212 and 90213.
Another animated series "Beverly Hills Teens
" is about young teens who live in Beverly Hills in the 80's
The opening scene of The Andy Griffith Show showing Sheriff Taylor and Opie carrying fishing poles was shot at the Franklin Canyon Reservoir at the north end of town just west of Coldwater Canyon.
In Walt Disney's movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua
, The main character, Chloe, lives in Beverly Hills, 90210.
In the 2009 Simpsons episode, Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh
, there exists a spoof version of Beverly Hills, nicknamed "Waverly Hills".
Ted's of Beverly Hills is a fictional steak restaurant on the Phil Hendrie
radio show.
The first track on Weezer's
Make Believe album is entitled "Beverly Hills
" and is one of their most popular songs.
The 1965 Beverly Hills Public Library building facade was featured regularly on the Brady Bunch as Mr. Brady's office building.
The 1995 Film, Clueless (film) is set in Beverly Hills as is its 1996 TV Spin-off Clueless (TV series)
Season one of the The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
aired on Bravo in 2010 with part 1 and 2 of the Reunion show airing in January 2011.
People
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...
, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood
West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...
are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. To be specific, Beverly Hills is bordered on the northwest by the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air and the Santa Monica Mountains
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains are a Transverse Range in Southern California, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the United States.-Geography:...
, on the east by West Hollywood, the Carthay neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the Fairfax District
Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California
The Fairfax District is an area of neighborhoods in the Mid-City West area of Los Angeles, California.- Geography :It is roughly bordered by West Hollywood on the north, Highland Avenue on the east, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the west and Wilshire Boulevard on the south...
of Los Angeles, and on the south by the Beverlywood
Beverlywood, Los Angeles, California
Beverlywood is a district on the West Side of the city of Los Angeles, California.-Geography and transportation:Beverlywood is bordered by Century City on the northwest, Cheviot Hills on the west, Palms on the southwest, Culver City on the south, Crestview on the east; South Robertson on the north...
. The area's "Platinum Triangle" of affluent neighborhoods is formed by the city of Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel Air and Holmby Hills
Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California
Holmby Hills is an affluent neighborhood in the district of Westwood in western Los Angeles. It is bordered by the city of Beverly Hills on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, Westwood on the west, and Bel Air on the north. Sunset Boulevard is the area's principal thoroughfare which divides...
.
18th century
Gaspar de PortolàGaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...
's land expedition arrived in the area on August 3, 1769. The group consisted of Portolà (the first governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of the province of California), some Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
priests and a cavalcade of leather-jacket soldiers and horses. On September 27, 1821, New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
became Mexico and the province of California quietly changed flags.
That same decade, retired Spanish soldier Vicente Ferrer Valdez and his wife, Maria Rita Villa de Valdez, settled on the 4500 acres (18.2 km²) Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas
Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas
Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas was a land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in Maria Rita Valdez de Villa. Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas , is named for the streams that emptied into the area from out of the canyons above it, Cañada de las Aguas Frias and Cañada de los Encinos...
. Rita did not care for the name, however, and chose to call it San Antonio. The Valdez adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
home was built near what is the present-day intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive. Valdez died in 1828, leaving Rita and eleven children.
19th century
California was ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
, marking the end of the Mexican-American War. It was admitted as a U.S. state on September 9, 1850.
In 1852 Maria Rita Valdez De Villa asked to purchase a league of land for $4,000. She called the land Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. It was later purchased by Major Henry Hancock
Henry Hancock
Henry Hancock was a Harvard trained lawyer and a land surveyor working in California in the 1850s. He was the owner of Rancho La Brea, which included the La Brea Tar Pits.-Early life:...
(of Hancock Park
Hancock Park
Hancock Park is a park in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, area, which is the location of the La Brea Tar Pits, the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art . The park does not, however, lie within the Hancock Park neighborhood which is...
fame), a New Hampshire attorney. He had come to the state during the 1849 gold rush. He used the land as a farm until 1868, when Dr. Edward Preuss, a native of Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, bought the land.
A brief oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
boom raised interest in the area in 1865 when the Pioneer Oil Company bought the rights to drill wells.
20th century
Beverly Farms
Beverly Farms is an informally defined neighborhood at the eastern edge of the city of Beverly, Massachusetts. It is an ocean-front community with a population of about 3,500 which extends from the Manchester-by-the-Sea border to another informally defined section of Beverly known as Prides...
in Beverly, Massachusetts
Beverly, Massachusetts
Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,343 on , which differs by no more than several hundred from the 39,862 obtained in the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides...
. Prior to this, the land was known as the Hammel and Denker ranch, which was one of Southern California's most fertile lands for growing lima beans. As an area bounded today by Wilshire Boulevard to the south, the foothills just above Sunset Boulevard to the north, Whittier Drive on the west, and Doheny Drive to the east, Hammel and Denker ranch was part of the land grant
Land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate – land or its privileges – made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service...
known as El Rodeo de Las Aguas
Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas
Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas was a land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in Maria Rita Valdez de Villa. Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas , is named for the streams that emptied into the area from out of the canyons above it, Cañada de las Aguas Frias and Cañada de los Encinos...
(the Ranch of the Gathering Waters) and was purchased in 1906 by a syndicate of railroad magnate
Magnate
Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...
Henry E. Huntington
Henry E. Huntington
Henry Edwards Huntington was a railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Born in Oneonta, New York, Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate interests...
, oil tycoon Charles A. Canfield, W G. Kerckhoff, W. S. Porter, Burton M. Green, and real estate developer Max Whittier
Max Whittier
Max H. Whittier was an American real estate developer and a pioneer in the early California petroleum industry.-Biography:Max Whittier , was born to Charles G. Whittier and Ruth Keech, came to California from Maine at the age of 24 and settled in the Santa Paula region where he secured a job as a...
. It lies in the old Morocco Junction of the Los Angeles Pacific road, where the Hollywood and Colgrove branches connect. The investment company marketed Beverly Hills as "between the city and the sea."
In September, 1911, work began on the Beverly Hills Hotel
Beverly Hills Hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened on May 12, 1912 by Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel. The original main building of The Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena...
. The Los Angeles Times would call it a "monster hostelry" since it cost $300,000. At the time, lots were selling for around $2,000 each.
In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
and Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
bought land on Summit Drive and built Pickfair
Pickfair
Pickfair was a 56 acre estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California designed by architect Wallace Neff for silent film actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Coined "Pickfair" by the press, it was once one of the most celebrated homes in the world...
. In 1921, they announced that they would build the home that they had been "dreaming" about in Beverly Hills.
Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
, a wisecracking political humorist, wrote of the land boom in 1923, "Lots are sold so quickly and often out here that they put through escrow
Escrow
An escrow is:* an arrangement made under contractual provisions between transacting parties, whereby an independent trusted third party receives and disburses money and/or documents for the transacting parties, with the timing of such disbursement by the third party dependent on the fulfillment of...
made out to the 12th owner... They couldn't possibly make out a separate deed for each purchaser; besides, he wouldn't have time to read it in the 10 minutes' time he owned the land."
The movie colony was well entrenched by 1928 when Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
('Greenacres'
Harold Lloyd Estate
The Harold Lloyd Estate, also known as Greenacres, is a large mansion and landscaped estate located in the Benedict Canyon section of Beverly Hills, California. Built in the latter 1920s by silent film star Harold Lloyd, it remained Lloyd's home until his death in 1971. The estate originally...
), John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
, Robert Montgomery
Robert Montgomery (actor)
Robert Montgomery was an American actor and director.- Early life :Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the New...
, and Miriam Hopkins
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...
built residences there.
The population in 1920 was 674; in 1924, it was 5,000; by 1930, it was 17,429.
The issuance of building permits in 1918 totaled $35,200; in 1919, $304,900; in 1921, $787,729; 1922, $1,838,994.
In early 1920, the Beverly Hills Speedway
Beverly Hills Speedway
Beverly Hills Speedway was an American board track in Beverly Hills, California, USA. It was the home to speeding Model Ts and airplanes which cut through the airspace of Beverly Hills during the roaring 20s. Built in 1919 on what is currently the site of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and many shops...
, a 1.25 miles (2 km) wood oval track with turns banked 35 degrees was opened. Joe Boyer ran his race car 110 miles per hour (177 km/h) during the exhibition run. The races drew huge crowds and radio
Radio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
broadcasts were on a par with today's Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
. There were also aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
shows, another national craze. The speedway was closed in 1924 and the site was later subdivided for housing and businesses.
In 1923, annexation to the city of Los Angeles was proposed, but faced opposition. Residents Mary Pickford, Will Rogers and others mobilized local voters against the plan. Those for annexation argued that Los Angeles would provide an adequate supply of better quality water for growth. Workers left bottles of sulfur-smelling water on the doorsteps of every home in Beverly Hills with a label that read: "Warning. Drink sparingly of this water as it has laxative qualities." Despite the campaign tactics, annexation was defeated 507 to 337. The following year, the city voted $400,000 in bonds to purchase the water system from the Beverly Hills Utilities Company and drill additional wells.
This fight for an independent city was arguably the first union of show business and politics in the United States. When Will Rogers became involved in the local city government the community received international advertising. In 1925, Rogers was given the title "Honorary Mayor of Beverly Hills," becoming the first and (to date) only person so honored as such. The same year, the citizens of the city voted a $100,000 bond issue to purchase with Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice
Venice, Los Angeles, California
Venice is a beachfront district on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk, a two-and-a-half mile pedestrian-only promenade that features performers, fortune-tellers, artists, and vendors...
385 acres (1.6 km²) for the building of UCLA
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
. There were 96 miles (154.5 km) of paved streets in the city limits by 1927. In 1928, the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard between El Camino and Rodeo Drives, part of the old Beverly Hills Speedway, was completed. That same year, Greystone Mansion
Greystone Mansion
Greystone Mansion, also known as the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style mansion on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the residence and ancillary structures, with construction...
was completed by Edward L. Doheny, Jr., the only son and heir of wealthy oil man Edward L. Doheny
Edward L. Doheny
Edward Laurence Doheny was an American oil tycoon, who in 1892, along with business partner Charles A. Canfield, drilled the first successful oil well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field, setting off the petroleum boom in Southern California.At first he was an unsuccessful prospector in the state of...
. And, in 1930, horses were banned in the City of Beverly Hills.
In the early 1930s, Santa Monica Park was renamed Beverly Gardens
Beverly Gardens Park
Beverly Gardens Park is a park that stretches along Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California for . It was opened in 1911. The park serves to separate the residential from the commercial sections of the city. It features a two-mile jogging path, trees, gardens, sculpture, and a pond...
and was extended to span the entire two-mile (3-kilometer) length of Santa Monica Boulevard through the city. At its Santa Monica and Wilshire corner, the Electric Fountain
Electric Fountain
The Electric Fountain is a water fountain located in Beverly Hills, California on the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards. The fountain is illuminated by a changing pattern of colored lights. Made by WET, The sculpture and tiles that make up the design of the fountain and its base pay...
, a constant symphony of form and color at night, was installed, with a small sculpture at the top of a Tongva kneeling in prayer, homage to the heritage of Beverly Hills as a wellspring of fertility and abundance.
In April 1931, the new Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
-style City Hall was opened.
By 1933, the effects of the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
were being felt in Beverly Hills. The city and school board cut salaries to save funds. In February, some 161 parcels of land were advertised for sale for delinquent lighting assessments. The Chamber of Commerce established an employment bureau, and the mayor requested a branch welfare office from the County of Los Angeles. By 1937, the city had weathered the storm of the Depression and was riding the crest of a wave of retail sales that reached more than $20,000,000, and bank deposits topped the $25,000,000 figure. Property values of that year showed a 30% increase over the previous year.
By the 1950s, small vacant lots remained and developers cropped whole mountains to ease the housing shortage. The stables and trails of the unusually large Doheny family estate; Greystone Mansion was bought by Paul Trousdale. The Trousdale Estates area was eventually annexed and an expensive housing development began to take shape in the hills above the city. Today Trousdale Estates is an enclave for Hollywood celebrities and media moguls.
Beverly Hills marketed itself as one of the most glamorous places in the world to shop
Shopping
Shopping is the examining of goods or services from retailers with the intent to purchase at that time. Shopping is an activity of selection and/or purchase. In some contexts it is considered a leisure activity as well as an economic one....
. The Golden Triangle, with Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....
at its center, was marketed as the apex of chic
Chic (style)
Chic , meaning 'stylish' or 'smart', is an element of fashion.-Etymology:Chic is a French word, established in English since at least the 1870s...
shopping and fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
.
Via Rodeo was completed in 1990. The Spanish cobblestone
Cobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
street leads to 2 Rodeo Drive, a "mini-mall" with upscale shops and restaurants. In 1992, the Beverly Hills Civic Center was opened. Designed by architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Charles Moore
Charles Willard Moore
Charles Willard Moore was an American architect, educator, writer, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1991.-Life and career:...
, it links the new public library, fire department, and police department with the historic City Hall.
Rodeo Drive, Beverly Drive, and Canon Drive all recently underwent construction to widen the sidewalks and beautify the streets. New construction that added more parking
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
for visitors to the famed shopping area has also just been completed.
Geography
Beverly Hills is nearly entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, sharing only a portion of its eastern border, primarily along Doheny Drive, with West HollywoodWest Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...
. The precise limits of Beverly Hills are complex, and therefore hard to describe; however, the city limits can be roughly described as the area surrounded by the Los Angeles Country Club and Century Park Drive to the Southwest, Whitworth Drive to the South, at various points Doheny Drive/Robertson Blvd/San Vicente Blvd to the East, and the Hollywood Hills to the North.
Major east-west thoroughfares in Beverly Hills include Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire , an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. Henry Wilshire initiated what was to become Wilshire...
, Santa Monica Boulevard, and Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
. Shopping is prevalent along Beverly Drive and the world-famous Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....
. Coldwater Canyon Drive is the main road out of Beverly Hills to the north into the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
. Beverly Drive and Roberston Blvd are the primary roads exiting the city to the south. Beverly Hills is one of the few cities in the Los Angeles area that is not directly served by a freeway.
In spite of the city's name, most residents live in the "flats" of Beverly Hills, a relatively flat land that includes all of Beverly Hills south of Sunset Blvd. The houses in the hills north of Sunset Boulevard have a much higher value than average houses in the rest of Beverly Hills, and the most expensive houses in Beverly Hills are all in the hills. Santa Monica Boulevard divides the "flats" into two areas, locally known as "North or South of the tracks," referring to the train tracks that were once used by the old Pacific Electric streetcar line that traversed Beverly Hills along Santa Monica Blvd. Houses south of Wilshire have more urban square and rectangular lots, in general smaller than those to the north. There are also more apartment buildings south of Wilshire Blvd than anywhere else in Beverly Hills, and the average house value south of Wilshire is the lowest in Beverly Hills.
Nearly all businesses and government offices in Beverly Hills are located south of Santa Monica Boulevard, two notable exceptions being the Beverly Hills Hotel
Beverly Hills Hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened on May 12, 1912 by Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel. The original main building of The Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena...
and the Beverly Hilton Hotel
Beverly Hilton Hotel
The Beverly Hilton is a hotel located on an property at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills, California, USA...
. Just outside the city limits to the west lies the Los Angeles Country Club
Los Angeles Country Club
The Los Angeles Country Club is a golf and country club in Los Angeles, California.- History :In the fall of 1897, a group of Los Angelenos organized a voluntary association to further the cause of one of Southern California's newest sports...
. Other locations commonly associated with Beverly Hills include the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Originally established as Kaspare Cohn Hospital in 1902, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, tertiary 958-bed hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre located in Los Angeles, California, US. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over...
and the Beverly Center, just outside city limits to the east.
Demographics
2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Beverly Hills had a population of 34,109. The population densityPopulation density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 5,973.1 people per square mile (2,306.2/km²). The racial makeup of Beverly Hills was 28,112 (82.4%) White, (2.2%) African American, 48 (0.1%) Native American, 3,032 (8.9%) Asian, 12 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 485 (1.4%) from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1,674 (4.9%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,941 persons (5.7%).
The Census reported that 33,988 people (99.6% of the population) lived in households, 121 (0.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.
There were 14,869 households, out of which 3,759 (25.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 6,613 (44.5%) were opposite-sex married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 1,354 (9.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 494 (3.3%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 460 (3.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships
POSSLQ
POSSLQ is an abbreviation for "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters," a term coined in the late 1970s by the United States Census Bureau as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of cohabitation in American households....
, and 131 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 5,400 households (36.3%) were made up of individuals and 1,834 (12.3%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29. There were 8,461 families
Family (U.S. Census)
A family or family household is defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes as "a householder and one or more other people related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. They do not include same-sex married couples even if the marriage was performed in a state...
(56.9% of all households); the average family size was 3.05.
The population was spread out with 6,623 people (19.4%) under the age of 18, 2,526 people (7.4%) aged 18 to 24, 8,540 people (25.0%) aged 25 to 44, 9,904 people (29.0%) aged 45 to 64, and 6,516 people (19.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43.6 years. For every 100 females there were 84.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.3 males.
There were 16,394 housing units at an average density of 2,870.9 per square mile (1,108.5/km²), of which 6,561 (44.1%) were owner-occupied, and 8,308 (55.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 8.0%. 17,740 people (52.0% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 16,248 people (47.6%) lived in rental housing units.
2000
As of the 2000 censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, there were 33,784 people. The racial makeup of the city was 85.1% White, 7.10% Asian, 1.80% African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, 1.50% from other races, 0.10% Native American and 4.60% of the population were Hispanic
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
or Latino of any race. Beverly Hills is home to a large Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
/Iranian
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
community. According to a 2006 NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
article, Iranians represent 20% of the city's population and 40% of the students in its schools. This includes a large Persian Jewish
Persian Jews
Persian Jews , are Jews historically associated with Iran, traditionally known as Persia in Western sources.Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran. The Book of Esther contains some references to the experiences of Jews in Persia...
community. The Census Bureau defines the "White" race category as including "people having origins in any of the original peoples of the Middle East"
In the city the population was spread out with 20.0% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 26.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age for the city was 41 years old.
There were 15,035 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.0% were non-families. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 3.02.
Local government
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and 25.9% are Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. The remaining 23.8% are Independents or are registered with one of the many smaller political parties, like the Green Party
Green Party (United States)
The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...
or the Libertarian Party
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
.
The heavy Democratic advantage makes Beverly Hills one of the more liberal cities in Southern California. In 2004, John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
won 62% of the vote compared to 37% for George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. In the 2006 state governor election, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
got nearly 45% of the vote but won a second term by a state-wide majority, while Democratic opponent Phil Angelides
Phil Angelides
Philip Nicholas "Phil" Angelides is an American politician who was California State Treasurer and the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for Governor of California in the 2006 elections...
had just over 54%.
Beverly Hills is a general law city governed by a five-member City Council
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
including the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
and vice mayor. City Council hires a city manager
City manager
A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a council-manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief executive officer or chief administrative officer in some municipalities...
to carry out policies and serve as executive officer. Every odd-numbered year either two or three members are elected by the people to serve a four-year term. Each March the City Council meets and chooses one of its members as mayor and one as vice-mayor.
Barry Brucker is mayor and William W. Brien, MD is vice mayor. Jeff Kolin is city manager. The other three city council members are John Mirisch, Lili Bosse and Julian A. Gold, MD. In city council meetings, a few celebrities have shown up to speak on local political issues.
The Beverly Hills Police Department
Beverly Hills Police Department
The Beverly Hills Police Department is the police department of the City of Beverly Hills, California. The current police chief of the BHPD is David L. Snowden.-History:...
and the Beverly Hills Fire Department serve as emergency response for the city. BHFD has the privilege of being distinguished as "Class 1" in fire protection by an insurance industry rating service.
County, state, and federal representation
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
Health services to over 10 million residents in the Los Angeles County are provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Mental health services are provided by the County Department of Mental Health...
SPA 5 West Area Health Office serves Beverly Hills. The department operates the Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center in Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, serving Beverly Hills.
In the state legislature
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
, Beverly Hills is located in the 23rd Senate
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
District, represented by Democrat Fran Pavley
Fran Pavley
Frances J. "Fran" Pavley is a Democratic politician who currently represents Senate District 23, including portions of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties in the California Legislature. She previously served as a California Assemblywoman and as the first mayor of the Southern California community of...
, and in the 42nd Assembly
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
District, represented by Democrat Mike Feuer. Beverly Hills is located in California's 30th congressional district
California's 30th congressional district
California's 30th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California based in Los Angeles County. The district includes many of the upper-class suburbs of Los Angeles, most notably Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Calabasas, Agoura Hills,...
, which has a Cook PVI
Cook Partisan Voting Index
The Cook Partisan Voting Index , sometimes referred to as simply the Partisan Voting Index , is a measurement of how strongly an American congressional district or state leans toward one political party compared to the nation as a whole...
of D +20 and is represented by Democrat Henry Waxman
Henry Waxman
Henry Arnold Waxman is the U.S. Representative for , serving in Congress since 1975. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress...
.
The United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
operates the Beverly Hills Post Office at 325 North Maple Drive, the Crescent Post Office at 323 North Crescent Drive, the Beverly Post Office at 312 South Beverly Drive, and the Eastgate Post Office at 8383 Wilshire Boulevard. The Beverly Hills Post Office received listing in the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on January 11, 1985.
Economy
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
company, Live Nation Entertainment
Live Nation Entertainment
Live Nation Entertainment is the new corporate name and owner of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, who have merged. The leadership consists of John C. Malone Chairman of Liberty Media as Chairman and Michael Rapino, as President and CEO of the new company...
; other companies based in Beverly Hills include Platinum Equity
Platinum Equity
Platinum Equity, LLC is a private equity investment firm founded by Tom Gores in 1995. The firm focuses on leveraged buyout investments of established companies in the U.S. and Europe....
, John Paul Mitchell Systems
John Paul Mitchell Systems
John Paul Mitchell Systems is the company known for Paul Mitchell hair care products and styling tools. It was founded by John Paul DeJoria and Paul Mitchell in 1980 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills. Paul Mitchell also has beauty schools in multiple locations. The company sponsors a martial...
and Spark Networks
Spark Networks
Spark Networks owns many special-interest online personal sites, such as JDate.com, BlackSingles.com, ChristianMingle.com and LDSMingle.com; it also owns the general-interest site Spark.com. Spark was started in 1997 by Joe Y. Shapira. David Siminoff formerly served as Chief Executive Officer...
.
The Los Angeles-area offices of Aeroflot
Aeroflot
OJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines , commonly known as Aeroflot , is the flag carrier and largest airline of the Russian Federation, based on passengers carried per year...
and El Al
El Al
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd , trading as El Al , is the flag carrier of Israel. It operates scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights to Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East from its main base in Ben Gurion International Airport...
are in Beverly Hills.
At one point, Hilton Hotels Corporation
Hilton Hotels Corporation
Hilton Worldwide is a global hospitality company. It is owned by the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm. As of July 2011 Hilton brands encompass 3,750 hotels with over 600,000 rooms in 84 countries...
had its corporate headquarters in Beverly Hills. The original headquarters of GeoCities
GeoCities
Yahoo! GeoCities is a web hosting service, currently available only in Japan.GeoCities was originally founded by David Bohnett and John Rezner in late 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet . In its original form, site users selected a "city" in which to place their web pages...
(at first Beverly Hills Internet) was at 9401 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
Underneath the city is the large and still-productive Beverly Hills Oil Field
Beverly Hills Oil Field
The Beverly Hills Oil Field is a large and currently active oil field underneath part of the city of Beverly Hills, California, USA, and portions of the adjacent city of Los Angeles...
, serviced by four urban drilling islands, which drill diagonally into the earth underneath the city. The most notorious of these drilling islands occasioned a 2003 lawsuit representing former attendees of Beverly Hills High School, approximately 280 of which having suffered from cancers allegedly tied to the drilling operations.
Top employers
According to the City's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:| # | Employer | # of Employees |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hilton Hotel Beverly Hilton Hotel The Beverly Hilton is a hotel located on an property at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills, California, USA... |
1,093 |
| 2 | City of Beverly Hills | 1,080 |
| 3 | Beverly Wilshire Hotel | 750 |
| 4 | Endeavor Talent Agency | 750 |
| 5 | William Morris Agency William Morris Agency WME is the largest talent agency in the world, with offices in Beverly Hills, New York City, Nashville, London, and Miami. WME represents elite artists from all facets of the entertainment industry, including motion pictures, television, music, theatre, publishing, and physical production... |
711 |
| 6 | Beverly Hills Unified School District Beverly Hills Unified School District The Beverly Hills Unified School District, abbreviated BHUSD, is a school district based in Beverly Hills, California. It was formed in 1935.Beverly Hills USD serves the city of Beverly Hills. It consists of four K-8 schools, one high school and a special education school... |
600 |
| 7 | Beverly Hills Hotel Beverly Hills Hotel The Beverly Hills Hotel is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened on May 12, 1912 by Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel. The original main building of The Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena... |
520 |
| 8 | The Peninsula Hotel The Peninsula Hotels The Peninsula Hotels is an ultra-luxury hotel operator based in Hong Kong, part of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited. Their "flagship" hotel, the famous Peninsula Hong Kong, which opened in 1928, used to be known as the 'finest hotel east of the Suez'.... |
460 |
| 9 | Saks & Co. Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor... |
340 |
| 10 | Nelson Shelton & Associates | 300 |
Diplomatic missions
Beverly Hills has three consulates (BrazilDiplomatic missions of Brazil
This is a list of diplomatic missions of Brazil, excluding honorary consulates. Brazil has a large global network of diplomatic missions, with representations in over 125 countries.-Europe:** Vienna ** Baku...
, Colombia
Diplomatic missions of Colombia
This is a list of diplomatic missions of Colombia, excluding honorary consulates.-Europe:** Vienna ** Brussels ** Paris ** Berlin ** Frankfurt ** Vatican City...
, and Ecuador
Diplomatic missions of Ecuador
This is a list of diplomatic missions of Ecuador, excluding honorary consulates.-Europe:** Vienna ** Brussels ** Paris ** Berlin ** Hamburg ** Vatican City ** Budapest...
.)
Public schools
Beverly Hills Unified School District
The Beverly Hills Unified School District, abbreviated BHUSD, is a school district based in Beverly Hills, California. It was formed in 1935.Beverly Hills USD serves the city of Beverly Hills. It consists of four K-8 schools, one high school and a special education school...
, which includes four K-8 schools (Hawthorne, El Rodeo, Beverly Vista, and Horace Mann), Moreno High School, and the Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
.
Private schools
Beverly Hills also has several private schools.Good Shepherd School, a PreK-8 school in Beverly Hills, is a part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the archdiocese comprises the California counties of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura. The diocesan cathedral is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the...
.
Other Beverly Hills private schools include Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy, Emanuel Academy of Beverly Hills, and Page Private School.
Climate
Beverly Hills has a warm and moderate Mediterranean climateMediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
, with an average high of 85 degrees in August, and an average high of 64 degrees in January. Beverly Hills also receives on average 18 inches (457.2 mm) of rain per year. Summers are marked by warm to hot temperatures with very little wind, while winters are moderate to cool with occasional rain alternating with periods of Santa Ana winds. During Santa Ana events, gusts up to 40 mi/h are common.
Snow has been witnessed only in 1882,1922,1932 and 1949.
Media
Beverly Hills is served by the following newspapers: Beverly Hills CourierBeverly Hills Courier
The Beverly Hills Courier is a free weekly tabloid-sized print newspaper of circulation in Beverly Hills and the surrounding communities, and a daily web newspaper. The publication was founded by now-publisher emeritus March Schwartz in 1965 with the editorial guidance of his managing editor Arthur...
and Beverly Hills Weekly
Beverly Hills Weekly
Beverly Hills Weekly is the free weekly tabloid-sized newspaper serving Beverly Hills, CA. It was founded on October 7, 1999. The publisher is Josh E. Gross, son of television writer Jack Gross Jr...
. Beverly Hills is served by the following magazine: Beverly Hills Times. The Beverly Hills Post
Beverly Hills Post
Beverly Hills Post was the free weekly publication of Beverly Hills, CA. It was founded in 1928. The tabloid-sized newspaper stopped publication in mid-April 1994 because of a dispute between the owners, Margaret Harris, and her husband, Walter...
used to be one of the main newspapers, but it went out of business. The city is also served by all Los Angeles TV, radio, and newspaper media
Beverly Hills also has its own local television channel, KBEV. Run by the students of Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
, it airs on Channel 6 (on Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
) to the residents of Beverly Hills.
In 2009, a small group of Beverly Hills residents created an online diary blog of their lives growing up and living in Beverly Hills called The Daily Truffle that has grown into a popular website for residents.
Landmarks
- Beverly Gardens ParkBeverly Gardens ParkBeverly Gardens Park is a park that stretches along Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California for . It was opened in 1911. The park serves to separate the residential from the commercial sections of the city. It features a two-mile jogging path, trees, gardens, sculpture, and a pond...
- Beverly Hills High SchoolBeverly Hills High SchoolBeverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
- Beverly Hills HotelBeverly Hills HotelThe Beverly Hills Hotel is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened on May 12, 1912 by Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel. The original main building of The Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena...
- Beverly Wilshire Hotel
- Electric FountainElectric FountainThe Electric Fountain is a water fountain located in Beverly Hills, California on the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards. The fountain is illuminated by a changing pattern of colored lights. Made by WET, The sculpture and tiles that make up the design of the fountain and its base pay...
- Greystone MansionGreystone MansionGreystone Mansion, also known as the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style mansion on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the residence and ancillary structures, with construction...
- Greystone Park
- La Cienega ParkLa Cienega ParkLa Cienega Park is a public park in Beverly Hills, California. The park includes three baseball diamonds, two soccer fields, a jogging track, a playground, multiple tennis courts, and a community center...
- PickfairPickfairPickfair was a 56 acre estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California designed by architect Wallace Neff for silent film actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Coined "Pickfair" by the press, it was once one of the most celebrated homes in the world...
- Virginia Robinson GardensVirginia Robinson GardensThe Virginia Robinson Gardens are the period landscape, historic mansion, and botanical gardens located at the Virginia Robinson Estate in Beverly Hills, California, United States.-History:...
- GreenacresHarold Lloyd EstateThe Harold Lloyd Estate, also known as Greenacres, is a large mansion and landscaped estate located in the Benedict Canyon section of Beverly Hills, California. Built in the latter 1920s by silent film star Harold Lloyd, it remained Lloyd's home until his death in 1971. The estate originally...
- Beverly Hills Police DepartmentBeverly Hills Police DepartmentThe Beverly Hills Police Department is the police department of the City of Beverly Hills, California. The current police chief of the BHPD is David L. Snowden.-History:...
- Roxbury Park
- Will Rogers Memorial Park
- Beverly Hills City Hall
- Walden DriveWalden DriveWalden Drive, is a large street in Beverly Hills, California, and is one of the most attractive and remarkable streets in the California. It is a very popular location for the film industry, for films such as Beverly Hills Cop II. This is right next door to the Spadena House, one of the many story...
- Rodeo DriveRodeo DriveRodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....
- Via Rodeo and Spanish Steps
- The Peninsula Hotel Beverly Hills
- Beverly Hills Public LibraryBeverly Hills Public LibraryThe Beverly Hills Public Library is the public library for the city of Beverly Hills, California, the only public library of the city of Beverly Hills. It is located next to the BHPD headquarters.-History:...
Derivative nicknames
The name Beverly Hills has often been employed as a nickname for a fashionable, affluent area. For example, View Park, an unincorporated areaUnincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
in southwestern Los Angeles County, has been dubbed the "Black Beverly Hills". Similarly, the city of Scottsdale
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
has been given the nickname "Beverly Hills of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
" for its stately homes, high-end shops, the extensive Fashion square mall, Fashion week, resorts and high household income. Calabasas
Calabasas, California
Calabasas is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California in the western United States. It is located in the hills in the southwestern San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains between Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills, West Hills, and Malibu, California. As of the 2010 census, the city...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
located in the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
is considered the Beverly Hills of the valley. Beverly Hills, Michigan
Beverly Hills, Michigan
Beverly Hills is a village in Southfield Township, Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a suburb of Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,267.-Geography:...
is known for its large affluent office buildings and nice homes all located in the affluent areas of Metro Detroit
Metro Detroit
The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is the metropolitan area located in Southeast Michigan centered on the city of Detroit which shares an international border with Windsor, Ontario. The Detroit metropolitan area is the second largest U.S. metropolitan area...
. Respectively, Buckhead
Buckhead (Atlanta)
Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
, the uptown district of Atlanta, has been dubbed "The Beverly Hills of the South" due to the large number (as well as the highest concentration) of upscale shops, elaborate homes, and high average income.
Beverly Hills in popular culture
Beverly Hills has been featured in a number of televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
shows and movies set in Beverly Hills, including The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.-Cast:*Jack Benny - Himself...
(1950 to 1954) (and on his radio program from 1932–1955), The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....
(1962 to 1971), the Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American comedy-action film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy, Lisa Eilbacher, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, and Ronny Cox...
movies, Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
(1990 to 2000), and 90210
90210 (TV series)
90210 is an American teen drama television series developed by Rob Thomas, Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs, and the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise created by Darren Star. 90210 is the first series produced by CBS Productions under the company's re-launch, but is now produced by CBS...
(2008 – ).
90210
90210 is one of five ZIP codeZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
s for Beverly Hills, and perhaps its most famous, gaining popularity with the 1990s television series Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
and its 2008 spin-off 90210
90210 (TV series)
90210 is an American teen drama television series developed by Rob Thomas, Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs, and the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise created by Darren Star. 90210 is the first series produced by CBS Productions under the company's re-launch, but is now produced by CBS...
. Other series to feature it in its title are Dr. 90210
Dr. 90210
Dr. 90210 is an American reality television series focusing on plastic surgery in the wealthy suburb of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, Southern California. The series began its run in 2004. Dr...
, a reality show featuring Beverly Hills plastic surgeons. and High Maintenance 90210
High Maintenance 90210
High Maintenance 90210 is an American reality series that premiered on the E!: Entertainment Television network on January 1, 2007.-Synopsis:...
, also a reality show. Rapper Wale released a song called 90210 referring to a girl who wants to be famous.
Beverly Hills Post Office
Beverly Hills Post Office
Beverly Hills Post Office is the name given to a section of Los Angeles, California, that lies within the 90210 ZIP code, which is assigned to the Beverly Hills Post Office. Mailing addresses with the ZIP code 90210 are written as "Beverly Hills, CA 90210", though the properties themselves lie...
is an area of Los Angeles that the Beverly Hills Post Office serves and carries the "Beverly Hills, CA 90210" mailing address. The other four, less-celebrated ZIP codes for Beverly Hills are: 90209, 90211, 90212 and 90213.
Other pop culture
The animated series Totally Spies is set in Beverly Hills.Another animated series "Beverly Hills Teens
Beverly Hills Teens
Beverly Hills Teens is an animated children's television program which debuted in 1987, animated by DiC Entertainment. The namesake teenagers have exaggerated wealth, and face stereotypical teenage concerns. They represent a variety of European backgrounds. There are sixty-five episodes all in one...
" is about young teens who live in Beverly Hills in the 80's
The opening scene of The Andy Griffith Show showing Sheriff Taylor and Opie carrying fishing poles was shot at the Franklin Canyon Reservoir at the north end of town just west of Coldwater Canyon.
In Walt Disney's movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a 2008 family comedy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is directed by Raja Gosnell and released on October 3, 2008...
, The main character, Chloe, lives in Beverly Hills, 90210.
In the 2009 Simpsons episode, Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh
Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh
"Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh", or "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-", is the nineteenth episode of the twentieth season of The Simpsons...
, there exists a spoof version of Beverly Hills, nicknamed "Waverly Hills".
Ted's of Beverly Hills is a fictional steak restaurant on the Phil Hendrie
Phil Hendrie
Philip Stephen Hendrie is an American radio personality. He is best known as the host of The Phil Hendrie Show, a comedy talk radio program that is syndicated throughout North America on Talk Radio Network...
radio show.
The first track on Weezer's
Weezer
Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...
Make Believe album is entitled "Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills (song)
"Beverly Hills" is a song by the American alternative rock band Weezer. It is the first single from the band's fifth album, Make Believe. It was released on March 29, 2005...
" and is one of their most popular songs.
The 1965 Beverly Hills Public Library building facade was featured regularly on the Brady Bunch as Mr. Brady's office building.
The 1995 Film, Clueless (film) is set in Beverly Hills as is its 1996 TV Spin-off Clueless (TV series)
Clueless (TV series)
Clueless is a television series spun off from the 1995 teen film of the same name . The series originally premiered on ABC on September 20, 1996 as a part of the TGIF lineup during its first season...
Season one of the The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is an American reality series for the Bravo cable network. The sixth installment in the network's The Real Housewives of... franchise, production for the Evolution Media series began in March 2010. The show premiered on October 14, 2010...
aired on Bravo in 2010 with part 1 and 2 of the Reunion show airing in January 2011.
See also
- HollywoodHollywood, Los Angeles, CaliforniaHollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
- CannesCannesCannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, which is twinned with Beverly Hills - Kuwait CityKuwait City-Suburbs:Although the districts below are not usually recognized as suburbs, the following is a list of a few areas surrounding Kuwait city:Al-Salam ""السلام"" -Economy:...
, which is also twinned with Beverly Hills
People
- Clarence E. CoeClarence E. CoeClarence Elliot Coe , known as Clarence E. Coe, was one of the first settlers and farmers in Palms, California, and a member of the Los Angeles Police Commission from 1929 to 1931 and of the Los Angeles City Council from 1931 to 1933....
, owned much of the land that became Beverly Hills
External links
- Official Website of Beverly Hills
- Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau
- Beverly Hills City Photographs
- Beverly Hills Little League
- Official Rodeo Drive Website
- Beverly Hills Film Festival
- Beverly Hills profile from Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
- History of Beverly Hills
- Iranian Jew poised to become mayor of Beverly Hills
- The Daily Truffle (website) Beverly Hills gossip blogged by Beverly Hills natives, created 2009