Gower Street (Hollywood)
Encyclopedia
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
that has played an important role in the ongoing evolution of Hollywood, particularly as the home to several prominent Poverty Row
Poverty Row
Poverty Row is a slang term used in Hollywood from the late silent period through the mid-fifties to refer to a variety of small and mostly short-lived B movie studios...
studios during the area's Golden Age. It marks the eastern terminus of the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
.
Location
Gower Street begins at the corner of First Street in the Hancock ParkHancock Park, Los Angeles, California
Hancock Park is a historic and affluent urban neighborhood in Los Angeles, California roughly bounded by Van Ness Avenue to the East, Melrose Avenue to the North, La Brea Avenue to the West, and Wilshire Boulevard to the South.-History:...
district as a residential street, becomes primarily industrial, and then commercial as it bisects the Hollywood district, becomes residential again north of Franklin Avenue, and terminates in Beachwood Canyon at Beachwood Drive near the Hollywood Sign
Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign is a landmark and American cultural icon in the Hollywood Hills area of Mount Lee, Santa Monica Mountains, in Los Angeles, California. The sign spells out the name of the area in and white letters. It was created as an advertisement in 1923, but garnered increasing recognition...
. Gower Street marks the western boundary of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
just south of Santa Monica Boulevard.
Origin of the name
A farmer from Hawaii named John T. Gower brought in the area's first harvesting equipment and built his home near this street in 1890, a time when Hollywood was an independent city. Upon Hollywood's annexation by the city of Los Angeles in 1910, this street was named in his honor.Movie Studios
Many of the original Hollywood movie studioMovie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
s were located on or near Gower Street. The Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
lot sits on the corner of Gower Street and Melrose Avenue
Melrose Avenue
Melrose Avenue is an internationally renowned shopping, dining and entertainment destination in Los Angeles that starts from Santa Monica Boulevard at the border between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood and ends at Lucille Avenue in Silver Lake...
; further north, the Sunset Gower Studios
Sunset Gower Studios
Sunset Gower Studios is a television and movie studio at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, California. It continues today as Hollywood's largest independent studio and an active facility for television and film production on its twelve soundstages.The studios were...
(formerly the Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
lot) sit on the corner of 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...
and Gower.
First Studio
Gower Street was the location of the first motion picture studio built in Hollywood. Founded by Al ChristieAl Christie
Al Christie was a Canadian-born motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.-Career:Born Alfred Ernest Christie, in London, Ontario, Canada, he was one of a number of Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood who made their way to Hollywood, California, attracted by the newly developing motion...
in 1911, the Christie Studios occupied a building at the southeast corner of Gower Street and Sunset Boulevard. Later, this same location was home to the Columbia Drugstore, famous for a soda fountain, frequented by many young movie stars. The drugstore was also home to an outdoor magazine and newspaper vendor where many celebrities bought their hometown newspapers. At the same intersection was the studio of The Oz Film Manufacturing Company
The Oz Film Manufacturing Company
The Oz Film Manufacturing Company was an independent film studio from 1914-1915. It was founded by L. Frank Baum , Louis F. Gottschalk , Harry Marston Haldeman , and Clarence R. Rundel as an offshoot of Haldeman's social group, The Uplifters, that met at the Los Angeles Athletic Club...
, which was later bought by Paramount.
Gower Gulch
Beginning in the 1930s, Gower Street earned the nickname "Gower GulchGower Gulch
Gower Gulch is a nickname for the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, California. Since the days of silent film, the surrounding area had contained several movie studios, including the Christie Studios during the 1920s, then later, Columbia and Republic Studios to the...
" because of the many extras in Westerns who would dress in their cowboy costumes at home, then walk south to Paramount, Republic, and RKO studios, which were all located just off Gower Street south of 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...
. Today, a strip-mall named "Gower Gulch," built to resemble a Western set, sits on the southwest corner of Sunset and Gower as a reminder of that era. The phrase "Gower Gulch" is painted on an actual chuck wagon that sits on the site of the old "Copper Skillet" coffee shop, where the cowboys used to have their breakfast.
Gower Street became very well known to wartime movie audiences in the film "Thank Your Lucky Stars" (1943) when Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie visit "Gower Gulch." They hear Spike Jones and His City Slickers at the movie colony village situated at the northern end of Gower Street in the Hollywood Hills. Although the scene is a set built in the studio, it is a faithful replica of the actual village that stood there built from discarded movie sets.
Later, the street was the subject of a comic song heard in a 1951 Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
"Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
" cartoon called "Drip-Along Daffy". The song is called "The Flower of Gower Gulch" and was written by Michael Maltese
Michael Maltese
Michael "Mike" Maltese was a long-time storyboard artist and screenwriter for classic animated cartoon shorts.-Career:...
(1908–1981), though he is uncredited in the actual short.
The avenue was also featured in the Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
song Desperadoes Under the Eaves
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
(which runs east to west on Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
) begins at the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Gower Street.