Hollywood

"'Of Course, Hollywood is not just another part of California, but the dream factory itself. As such, it is a place where both the hope of success and the potential for disillusionment are greater than elsewhere. For this reason, those who denigrate Hollywood depict it as a cruel scam, a town where beneath the false tinsel one finds only real tinsel.' Among those who succumbed to the siren allure of Hollywood during that national era of disillusionment known as the Great Depression were some of the finest writers of the twentieth century. These men came west to supply the additional dialogue that was required by the introduction of sound in motion pictures. Originally drawn to Hollywood by the promise of easy money and some time in the sun, they stayed long enough to feel artistically traduced and to vent their spleen in nihilistic novels which have made the Hollywood antimyth a permanent part of our national folklore."

Mark Royden Winchell's essay found in
David Fine's collection " Los Angeles in Fiction"