Whitley shared his plans for the new town with General Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and Ivar Weid, a prominent businessman in the area.

[7] Wilcox is quoted as saying, "I chose the name Hollywood simply because it sounds nice and because I'm superstitious and holly brings good luck.

It was not until August 1887 that Wilcox decided to use that name and filed with the Los Angeles County Recorder's office on a deed and parcel map of the property.

Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479, lay 10 miles (16 km) east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves.

A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent and the trip took two hours.

The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by Whitley, president of the Los Pacific Boulevard and Development Company.

Having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers.

The hotel became internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of movie stars for many years.

On January 30, 1904, the voters in Hollywood decided, 113 to 96, to banish the sale of liquor within the city, except for medicinal purposes.

[12] In 1910, the city voted for a merger with Los Angeles in order to secure an adequate water supply and to gain access to the L.A. sewer system.

To escape this, filmmakers began moving to Los Angeles, where attempts to enforce Edison's patents were easier to evade.

[16] The mountains, plains and low land prices made Hollywood a good place to establish film studios.

In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce entered a contract with the City of Los Angeles to repair and rebuild the sign.

The agreement stipulated that LAND be removed to spell HOLLYWOOD so the sign would now refer to the district, rather than the housing development.

After the neighborhood underwent years of serious decline in the 1980s, with crime, drugs and increasing poverty among some residents, many landmarks were threatened with demolition.

[29] Columbia Square, at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, is part of the ongoing rebirth of Hollywood.

[34] In 2002, some Hollywood voters began a campaign for the area to secede from Los Angeles and become a separate municipality.

In June of that year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors placed secession referendums for both Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley on the ballot.

[39][40][41] Other areas within Hollywood are Franklin Village, Little Armenia, Spaulding Square, Thai Town,[37] and Yucca Corridor.

The 2000 U.S. census counted 77,818 residents in the 3.51-square-mile (9.1 km2) Hollywood neighborhood—an average of 22,193 people per square mile (8,569 people/km2), the seventh-densest neighborhood in all of Los Angeles County.

[37] Mexico (21.3%) and Guatemala (13%) were the most common places of birth for the 53.8% of the residents who were born abroad, a figure that was considered high for the city as a whole.

[52] KNX was the last radio station to broadcast from Hollywood before it left CBS Columbia Square for a studio in the Miracle Mile in 2005.

[53] On January 22, 1947, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, KTLA, began operating in Hollywood.

[64] Hollywood residents aged 25 and older holding a four-year degree amounted to 28% of the population in 2000, about the same as in the county at large.

The event includes a Half Marathon, 10K, 5K, and Kids Fun Run along Hollywood Blvd., and is used to raise funds and awareness for local youth homeless shelters.