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　　When we think of Hollywood mdash;a term I use loosely to describe American movie production in gener

　　When we think of Hollywood a term I use loosely to describe American movie production in general, not simply films made in Los Angeles we think of films aimed at amusing audiences and making money for producers.

　　During the early years of the new century, as workers won their demands for higher wages and a shorter working week, leisure assumed an increasingly important role in everyday life. Amusement parks, professional baseball games, nickelodeons ((美)门票一律5分的无分戏院 (电影院)), and dance halls attracted a wide array of men and women anxious to spend their hard earned dollars in the pursuit of fun and relaxation. Yet of all these new cultural endeavors, films were the most important and widely attended source of amusement. For a mere five or ten cents, even the poorest worker could afford to take himself and his family to the local ickelodeon or storefront theatre. Taking root in urban working-class and immigrant neighborhoods, cinemas soon spread to middle-class districts of cities and into small communities throughout the nation. Every little town that has never been able to afford and maintain an opera house, observed one journalist in 1908, now boasts one or two Bijou Dreams. By 1910 the appeal of films was so great that nearly one-third of the nation flocked to the cinema each week; ten years later, weekly attendance equaled 50 percent of the nations population.