Years in the making

1800s

1886 The wife of real estate developer Harvey Henderson Wilcox, Daeida, names her ranch “Hollywood.”

1900s

1902 The Electric Theater downtown charges a dime for admission to watch one-reelers.

1907 The Los Angeles Times decries motion picture shows, deemed to be firetraps and dens of iniquity.

1909 The first permanent studio here, Selig Polyscope Co., is established.

1910s

1910 Hollywood is annexed by L.A. D.W. Griffith makes “In Old California” for Biograph -- the first film shot in Hollywood.

1912 Universal Pictures is founded by Carl Laemmle. In quick succession, Adolph Zukor forms Famous Players, Mack Sennett starts the Keystone Film Co., William Fox forms the Fox Film Foundation and the Mutual Film Corp. is created.

1914 Mack Sennett makes the first feature-length comedy, “Tillie’s Punctured Romance.” Mary Pickford signs a deal for $104,000 a year.

1915 D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” is released, introducing story flashbacks, dramatic close-ups, cross-cutting.

1916 The Jesse L. Lasky Co. merges with Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players Film Co.; Paramount Pictures is formed. Charlie Chaplin signs a deal for $675,000 a year. Times editorials laud the industry’s help in local economic growth.

1918 Jack, Albert, Harry and Samuel Warner open their first West Coast studio. Grauman’s Million Dollar Theater opens at Broadway and 3rd with “The Silent Man.”

1919 Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford form United Artists in a bid to control their own work.

1920s

1921 Actress Virginia Rappe dies from a sexually related assault at a San Francisco party; comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle is indicted for manslaughter. He eventually is exonerated of the crime, but his career never recovers.

1922 Former Postmaster General Will Hays heads the new Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Director William Desmond Taylor is murdered; the crime is never solved. Rin Tin Tin appears.

1923 Warner Bros. is officially born. The Holly-

woodland sign is erected to publicize a new housing development. A 16-page tabloid magazine dedicated to film, Pre-View, appears in The Times.

1924 MGM is created from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and the Louis B. Mayer Co. Columbia Pictures, founded by Jack and Harry Cohn and Joseph Brandt, is formed from CBC Film Sales.

1927 Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opens with C.B. DeMille’s “The King of Kings.”

1928 Mickey Mouse appears in “Steamboat Willie,” thanks to the Disney Studios on Hyperion Avenue.

1929 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences holds its first ceremony in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt. “Wings” wins best picture based on production, and “Sunrise” based on artistic merit.

1930s

1930 The Hays Production Code is adopted. The no-nos include profanity, “licentious or suggestive nudity,” drug trafficking, scenes of childbirth, willful offense to any nation, race or creed. Garbo speaks in “Anna Christie”: “Give me a whiskey, ginger ale on the side. And don’t be stingy, baby.”

1933 Variety opens a West Coast office. The Screen Actors Guild is established.

1935 “Becky Sharp” becomes the first feature film to use Technicolor’s three-color process. A critic quips that the actors look like “boiled salmon dipped in mayonnaise.”

1937 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the first animated feature, is released.

1938 Jackie Coogan’s mother refuses to give her son his past earnings. Coogan sues and the California Child Actor’s Bill is born. It requires that 15% of a child’s earnings be set aside in trust.

1939 The proverbial “Greatest Year in Film History” includes such titles as “Gone With the Wind,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Ninotchka,” “Stagecoach,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Dark Victory,” and “Only Angels Have Wings.”

1940s

1940 Bugs Bunny says “Eh, what’s up, Doc?” in “A Wild Hare.”

1941 All Hearst publications ban advertising for the film. Greta Garbo retires at 36.

1942 Orson Welles, Hollywood’s new enfant terrible, receives nominations for producer, actor, director and writer for “Citizen Kane.”

1946 The Motion Pictures Code allows films to show drug trafficking as long as they do not “stimulate curiosity.” A strike over the status of set decorators results in 17,000 film employees not working. RCA Records introduces the 45-rpm record, presenting the three-minute popular song.

1948 The “Hollywood 10” are charged with contempt of Congress and jailed for refusing to answer the question “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”

1949 Ingrid Bergman runs off with Roberto Rossellini. Both are married at the time.

1950s

1950 Television rears its head, bringing declines in film attendance. Hollywood responds with more use of color, wide-screen presentations and gimmicks.

1951 Hearings resume on spread of communism in film industry; more than 200 people are blacklisted.

1952 James Stewart signs an independent contract to share in the profits of “A Bend in the River.”

1953 The Academy Awards are broadcast for the first time on television.

1955 Dorothy Dandridge becomes the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award (best actress in “Carmen Jones”). James Dean’s life ends in a crumpled 550 Porsche Spyder.

1956 The first film entirely dedicated to the era’s new musical phenomenon is “Rock Around the Clock.”

1960s

1960 The first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is awarded to actress Joanne Woodward.

1961 The first in-flight film is shown on a commercial airline -- MGM’s “By Love Possessed.”

1962 Marilyn Monroe dies of a drug overdose. Universal is purchased by MCA.

1963 “Cleopatra” joins the tradition of expensive zeppelins failing spectacularly at the box office. The 90-foot-wide screen at the Cinerama Dome opens as the world’s largest.

1965 “The Sound of Music” surpasses “Gone With the Wind” as the biggest box office hit of all time.

1966 The Hays Code is overhauled and standards are loosened. Most significant, it suggests that certain films be “recommended for mature audiences.”

1967 Clint Eastwood is the Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars” marking his exotic transitional period between Rowdy Yates in “Rawhide” and his triumphant career as a director.

1968 A new voluntary ratings system is adopted by the MPAA.

1970s

1970 Kirk Kerkorian purchases MGM, then downsizes the company and sells off studio acreage and classic film memorabilia. 1971 Blaxploitation films become part of film currency with Melvin Van Peebles’ “Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song!” 1972 “Deep Throat” is released and exhibited in many mainstream theaters.

1973 “The Godfather” wins three Oscars from 10 nominations. Marlon Brando sends Sacheen Littlefeather to decline his, in protest of government policies on Native Americans. George Lucas cuts a deal with Fox for the future “Star Wars” -- only $175,000 as a director’s fee but 40% of merchandising rights.

1974 Los Angeles-based Z Channel provides innovative programming, offering the presentation of independent and foreign films to cable viewers.

1976 “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is the first film since “It Happened One Night” (1934) to win best picture, best director, best screenplay, best actor and best actress Oscars.

1977 “Star Wars” is made for $11 million but grosses nearly $200 million. The film forever changes the concept of the slow summer season. Director Roman Polanski pleads guilty to unlawful intercourse with a minor, but flees to France before sentencing.

1979 Miramax Film Corp. is started by the Weinstein brothers in Buffalo, N.Y., when they convert a theater into an art movie house.

1980s

1980 Former movie actor Ronald Reagan is elected president. Sherry Lansing becomes the first female head of a major studio, 20th Century Fox. The daily Calendar section is first published in The Times.

1981 MGM acquires United Artists, rescuing the company after “Heaven’s Gate” nearly bankrupts it. MTV begins operating 24 hours a day, initially concentrating on music videos.

1982 Katharine Hepburn becomes the first to win a fourth acting Oscar, for her performance in “On Golden Pond.”

1983 CDs start to appear and gradually replace vinyl in the coming decade.

1984 The Supreme Court rules that home taping does not violate copyright laws.

1985 The Sundance Institute, under the guidance of Robert Redford, takes over the U.S. Film Festival, thereby turning it into a premiere showcase for “independent” film. Rock Hudson dies of AIDS at age 59 in Beverly Hills.

1986 Ted Turner takes over MGM. He astounds all by colorizing classic black-and-white movies.

1988 The Writers Guild of America goes on strike against producers and networks for 22 weeks.

1989 Sony Corp. buys Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. and Tri-Star Pictures from Coca-Cola for $3.4 billion. Warner Communications merges with Time Inc.

1990s

1990 The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) is born.

1992 Johnny Carson’s last “Tonight Show” is broadcast.

1993 Heidi Fleiss, the Hollywood Madam, spends time in prison for tax evasion, money laundering and attempted pandering. Eventually, she sells her life story to Paramount.

1994 Disney President Frank Wells dies in a helicopter crash and is succeeded by super agent Michael Ovitz. Jeffrey Katzenberg defects from Disney and forms DreamWorks SKG with director Steven Spielberg and record mogul David Geffen. It is the first creation of a major film studio in half a century. Turner Classic Movies, a commercial-free network programming classic films 24 hours a day, is created.

1995 Pixar, owned by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and specializing in computer animation, enters into a joint development, production and distribution deal with Disney for three feature-length animated films. The first is “Toy Story.”

1998 James Cameron’s “Titanic” stays afloat with a historical tie for 14 Oscar nominations and 11 wins. The American Film Institute announces the Top 100 American Films of All Time. No. 1 is Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane.”

1999 TiVo debuts, enabling home viewers to pause or rewind live TV.

2000s

2002 Two African Americans win best actor and best actress: Denzel Washington for “Training Day” and Halle Berry for “Monster’s Ball.”

2003 Exiled director Roman Polanski wins a best director Academy Award for “The Pianist.” Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes governor of California.

2005 Michael Eisner steps down as chief executive at Disney and is succeeded by company President Robert Iger. The sale of ring tones for cellphones reaches $4 billion.

2006 The Walt Disney Co. buys Pixar for $7.4 billion.