Cinema of the United States that was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, "In Old California", a Biograph melodrama about California in the 19th century, when it belonged to Mexico. Griffith stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York. After hearing about Griffith's success in Hollywood, in 1913, many movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Thomas Edison, who owned patents on the movie-making process. Nestor Studios of Bayonne, New Jersey, built the first studio in Hollywood in 1911. Nestor Studios, owned by David and William
What Price Hollywood? wanted to cast Clara Bow as the female lead, but executives at RKO's New York offices were hesitant to invest in a Hollywood story because similar projects had been unsuccessful in the past. By the time Selznick convinced them the picture had potential, Bow was committed to another film. Constance Bennett considered "What Price Hollywood?" her best film. Four years after the film was released, Selznick approached Cukor and asked him to direct the 1937 version of "A Star Is Born" starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. The plot was so similar to "What Price Hollywood?" that Cukor declined. RKO