Hollywood is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The average temperature is between 68 and 83 °F (20 and 28 °C). As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817.
Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s and is now the 12th-largest city in Florida. Hollywood is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census.
Joseph Young arrived in South Florida in 1920 to create his own "Dream City in Florida". His vision included the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean stretching westward with man-made lakes, infrastructure, roads, and the Intracoastal Waterway. He wanted to include large parks, schools, churches, and golf courses; these were all industries and activities that were very important to Young's life. After Young spent millions of dollars on the construction of the city, he was elected as the first mayor in 1925.
This new town quickly became home to northerners known as "snowbirds", who fled the north during the winter and then escaped the south during the summer to avoid the harsh weather. By 1960, Hollywood had more than 2,400 hotel units and 12,170 single-family homes. Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920 and named his new town "Hollywood by the Sea" to distinguish it from his other real-estate venture, "Hollywood in the Hills", in New York.
During the early days of development here, 1,500 trucks and tractors were engaged in clearing land and grading streets; two yacht basins, designed by General George Washington Goethals, chief engineer in the construction of the Panama Canal, were dredged and connected with the Intracostal Waterway. A large power plant was installed, and when the city lights went on for the first time, ships at sea reported that Miami was on fire, and their radio alarms and the red glow in the sky brought people to the rescue from miles around.
Prospective purchasers of land were enticed by free hotel accommodation and entertainment, and "were driven about the city-to-be on trails blazed through palmetto thickets; so desolate and forlorn were some stretches that many women became hysterical, it is said, and a few fainted.
Young had a vision of having lakes, golf courses, a luxury beach hotel (Hollywood Beach Hotel, now Hollywood Beach Resort), country clubs, and the main street, Hollywood Boulevard.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood,_Florida
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