The history of Malibu as we think of it, started in the 1930s when the owner of the land fell on financial hard times agreed to let a select few Hollywood movie stars lease land in the Malibu Colony area to build vacation homes. Among the first stars in the area were Clara Bow, Ronald Colman, Harold Lloyd, Delores del Rio, Constance Bennett, Jack Warner, John Gilbert, Gloria Swanson, Gary Cooper, and Barbara Stanwyck.