How did Hollywood get its name? From then our film industries got their names as _ollywood Bollywood, kollywood, Sandalwood?

Why this kolaveri Di! Silly doubt pops up in my head. It’s my mundane to spend time watching TV post supper.  It was my favorite actress Angelina Jolie’s SALT, one of the big hit in 2010, being played in Sony movie channel. SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce. Originally written with a male protagonist, with Tom Cruise initially secured for the lead, the script was ultimately rewritten by Brian Helgeland for Jolie. My pretty sis asked why these film industries are colloquially referred as Bollywood, Tollywood, sandalwood…

Upon some study easily came to know about Whitley father of Hollywood. Still I was keen on phrase “Hollywood land” because somewhere I had read that, there was suffix “LAND” in that hillside sign and it as fallen; no idea was that happened. There comes other legend behind the Sign of HOLLYWOOD and he is Wilcox, handicapped hungry bird. I’m unable to surpass background of Wilcox though Whitely was so called the father of Hollywood.

Harvey Henderson Wilcox was born in New York State and moved to Michigan during the 1830s and there he was raised on his parents' farm in Ogden Township, Lenawee County, Michigan. He was stricken with polio in 1845 at the age of 13^th as he couldn't work in the farm soon he started biz shoemaker. On December 26, 1861, he married Ellen and later he got into politics, he also gave up shoemaking to deal in real estate. Ellen contracted tuberculosis and passed away in 1882. Harvey married as his second wife, Daeida, a girl more than thirty years his junior, on December 6, 1882. in 1888 - A bucolic hillside area populated by citrus farmers is given the name "Hollywood Land" by Harvey Henderson Wilcox and his wife, Daeida, as part of a residential development. It is Daeida while on a train she became acquainted with a wealthy lady who often spoke of her summer home.

Hobart Johnstone Whitley was born in Toronto, Canada on October 7, 1847, of Scotish-English parentage. Whitley engaged in banking and land development and managed the H. J. Whitley Land and Mortgage Company. In 1887 he married Margaret Virginia Ross and had two children, Grace Virginia and Ross Emmet. Because of bad health, Whitley came to California in 1893 and the following year established the H. J. Whitley Jewelry Store, for many years the largest in the city. In 1900 he bought the Hurd property north of Hollywood Boulevard, between Wilcox and Whitley, south of Yucca Street, which he later subdivided into what became known as Whitley Home Tract. As a result of the success of this subdivision, one of the first in Hollywood, Whitley became known as the “Father of Hollywood.”

In 1905, Whitley and a group of Los Angeles investors undertook the development of 47,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley and carried through a similar project involving nearly 50,000 acres in the San Fernando Valley. Whitley continued his activities in Southern California property until 1922, when he completed the development of Whitley Heights, which was one of the first hillside subdivisions in Hollywood. 

There’s nothing much to puzzle you that how Indian film Indus got their names _ollywood.

Bollywood is Bombay Cinema which is more of the Hindi film production centered on Mumbai (previously known as Bombay). Some fun-loving cinema journalist first coined this funny word 'Bollywood' to imply its large production houses of Bombay.

Then, Telugu cinema news-magazines started mentioning Hyderabad Telugu film industry as Tollywood because they could not name it as ‘Hollywood’ from the initial alphabet of Hyderabad.

Similarly Mollywood came into use for the Malayalam movies, as they could not take 'T' from Trivandrum (now Tiruvananthapuram) in Kerala, because Tollywood was already in use for Telugu cinema.

Then came Kollywood, coined from the Kodambakkam's first letter and avoiding another Mollywood that would have formed from Madras which is now Chennai.

The Kannada film industry based in Karnataka, which is well known for its Sandalwood, is sometimes colloquially referred to as ‘Sandalwood’ aka “Chandanavana” in Kannada.