Steven Taylor’s love for Los Angeles knows no bounds. Of course, that love is tested time and again through fun trivia nights together with the family. The kids would usually ask questions about Steven Taylor’s knowledge in this great city of California.
Steven Taylor, proudly born and raised here in Los Angeles, would regale them with my secret knowledge. But of course, a human being can’t know everything and there will always come a time where a person also has to do some research to learn new things. So when the kids suddenly asked about the original name for Los Angeles, Steven Taylor broke into a cold sweat. For the first time, Steven Taylor had no idea so the only option is to search for the answer online.
While reading up about the origins of Los Angeles, Steven Taylor also found other interesting and unique historical facts about Los Angeles.
LA was once known as “EPDNSRDLASERP”
Steven Taylor is not kidding. Back when Los Angeles was founded, it wasn’t called Los Angeles from the get-go. Instead, the founding fathers of LA named the place “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Ángeles Sobre el Río Porciúncula” during its founding in 1781.
The name was so strange that the Los Angeles Times wrote an article about the whole event.
Apart from the long name, the article also asserts its other name: “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reyna de los Angeles. - LA Times”
LA’s Hollywood sign originally said HOLLYWOODLAND
It’s unimaginable to recognize Los Angeles without its famous HOLLYWOOD sign. In the past, however, the sign actually spelled a different name. Instead of Hollywood, the sign actually read “HOLLYWOODLAND”. The sign was built in 1923 as part of what was a marketing stunt to advertise a “segregated housing development - Fodor” It was only in 1949 when the LAND part was taken down.
Steven Taylor imagines the whole housing development marketing campaign must’ve worked then.
The film industry moved to LA when Thomas Edison hounded them for the patents
When the film industry started, it was Thomas Edison who was poised to reap the rewards. And as history would have it about this particular man, he was known to be very demanding, especially when it came to intellectual property rights and his business style.
With his patent on the kinetograph, which is essentially the world’s first camera, Edison hounded filmmakers, demanding that every movie made from the device he patented should go through him first.
Filmmakers, of course, who didn’t want to pay Thomas Edison, left the East Coast to find an area suitable for making movies and far away to escape Edison’s clutches.
They found the perfect land; Hollywood. A once backward area that was bought by Harvey and Daeida Wilcox in 1886 and was being developed as a fig farm. When that didn’t materialize, the couple eventually divided and sold the property.
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