The birth of Hollywood

The Babylon set for DW Griffith's 1916 film Intolerance Photograph: Bison

The front entrance to Universal Studios, 1916 Photograph: Marc Wanamaker/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Undated still of Harold Lloyd in Harold Lloyd’s World of Comedy Photograph: Bettman/Corbis

Theda Bara in costume as Cleopatra, 1917 Photograph: Bettman/Corbis

Charlie Chaplin signs the first contract to establish United Artists, with DW Griffith (far left), Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Sr (far right), 1919 Photograph: AP

Douglas Fairbanks and wife Mary Pickford in a canoe in the swimming pool in their Pickfair estate, 1920s Photograph: Corbis

Charlie Chaplin on the lawn in front of his studio in Hollywood, circa 1921 Photograph: Condé Nast Archive/Corbis

The exterior of Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood, California, circa 1925. Canadian-born brothers Jack, Sam and Albert Warner founded the film studio in 1923 Photograph: Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive

John Douglas (Ronald Colman) holds on to Carla King (Blanche Sweet) in His Supreme Moment, 1925 Photograph: John Springer Collection/Corbis

Irene Rich (1891-1988), the Warner Brothers silent film star and one of the finest golf players in Hollywood, photographed circa 1925 Photograph: Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive

Vilmá Banky and Rudolph Valentino in a scene from Son of the Sheik, 1926 Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill, Jr, 1928 Photograph: Corbis

Undated photograph of Cecil B DeMille looking through a camera on set Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Movie premiere at the Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, 1933 Photograph: USC Digital Archive