Back to All Events

Movie-Made Los Angeles

  • Laguna Art Museum Laguna Beach, CA (map)

Los Angeles was a cinematic city before the movies arrived. By the dawn of the twentieth century, photography, painting, and tourism in Southern California provided early filmmakers with a model for how to build a myth-making business and envision ideal moviegoers. In his new book Movie-Made Los Angeles, film professor and author John Trafton explores how Hollywood was the product of art forms that flourished here in Laguna Beach. Join us for a journey through Southern California’s rise to the movie capital. We will explore the first film shot in California (right here in Laguna), the earliest version of The Wizard of Oz (29 years before Judy Garland wore the ruby slippers), and World War I movies shot in Orange County’s sycamore canyons.