Second in a series.
Re: “One Big Birthday Coming up”
Culver City history condensed into a single sentence:
“This community was the creation of a realtor, Harry Culver, who foresaw that between Los Angeles and Venice Beach there was an opportunity to grow a community,” Paul Jacobs was saying about Culver City’s birth in 1917.
In less than two months, on Saturday, Sept. 24, with Mr. Jacobs out front as the chair of the Centennial Year Committee, a year-long celebration leading up to Culver City’s 100th birthday in 2017, will commence with a spectacular parade from Vets Park to The Culver Hotel in Downtown.
One aspect of the brilliance of Harry Culver, said Mr. Jacobs, was that “he promoted the city.
“An important component of his promoting was to provide incentives to the movie industry to obtain property here.”
Once they did, Culver City blossomed swiftly as the original hometown of the fledgling film industry.
The Nebraska-born Founding Father would live another 29 years.
He would see both of his children – Culver City and motion pictures — flourish.
Long before his death in the summer of 1946, Mr. Culver’s genius in luring movie studios to his community was on daily display and repeatedly rewarded.
More than most cities across America, contemporary residents seem to have an unquenchable relationship with Mr. Culver. They know at least the outlines pf his life, where he was born, what he accomplished and about when he died.
The Heart of Screenland, the home of the movies from infancy to maturity, remains a badge that proudly is worn by many residents these 70 summers after his death.
For 70 years, the most glamourous industry in America and Mr. Culver’s namesake adopted hometown have strode hand in hand across the land, leaving deep footprints wherever they have gone.
(To be continued)
