In 1926, some bright spark—a real estate developer, I imagine—got the inspired idea to develop a deserted stretch of the beach at Oxnard and rename it something more appealing: Hollywood-by-the-Sea. These days, the drive from Hollywood to Oxnard takes about an hour on the Hollywood Freeway, but back then, the real Hollywood must have felt like it was a million miles away. In the photo below, you’ll see that it was pretty sparse but all that wide open space and fresh sea air would have made a nice change from the bustle of the city. And the name stuck—sort of. It’s now called Hollywood Beach.

These next two shots were taken in 1929:

And what’s a California beach without a Californian bathing beauty:

The area as it is now:

Federico said: “Early Hollywood studios had trekked to the Beaches there for the expansive Sand, most notably part of production for Rudolph Valentino’s ‘The Sheik’ in 1921. Some scenes for it were also shot in the Dunes of Guadalupe, which is North of here in Santa Barbara County. All that was kind of the catalyst to create Hollywood by-the-Sea. And, being a pretty new resident in Ojai/Ventura County, there actually ARE some really nice parts of Oxnard, like Silver Strand and Hollywood Beach, as this area is known today. I was amazed, after back to school and end of Summer, there was just nobody around.” See also Rudy Valentino – The Sheik (Behind the scenes)