R+77 I Was Today Years Old When I Learned...

 ...that Hollywood and Palm Springs were unintended creations of Thomas Edison. 

Way early in the 1900s, Edison created the "Edison Film Trust" which was later reorganized along with Biograph into the "Motion Picture Patents Company" (MPPC). At that time, Edison and Biograph were the only game in town as they held the patents on virtually all movie camera technology and, more generally, on film-making. 

Edison, with his usual zealous assholery, AGGRESSIVELY pursued lawsuits against anyone who invented anything that even remotely looked like a movie camera or film that could be used in one. This effectively strangled the US film industry in its crib, as MPPC took to limiting how long the films could be (generally under 15 minutes), their content, and, in short, clearing every bit of it through New Jersey (Edison's headquarters) .

Rare Picture Of MPPC Enforcement Dickhead Fucking Up A Film In Progress

 

This annoyed filmmakers a good deal, and a giant wad of them moved out to a California orange grove town named Los Angeles where the weather and various landscapes made for good filming and, more importantly, where they were only 130 or so miles from the Mexican border. This was critical in that they could pack their shit and run when someone turned up to sue them and seize all their "infringing" equipment. 

The Mexicans had no dog in the fight, and would not enforce US patents or court orders, which incidentally resulted in their "Fuck Off, Gringo" attitude which persists to this day.

Locals Running New Jersey Process Servers Back Across The Border

 

OK, I made that last part up.

Anyhow, the long and short is that Hollywood was invented because you couldn't get much further from Edison and New Jersey (both salutary goals even if they hadn't been related) without actually being in the Pacific Ocean, which greatly diluted the likelihood that anyone was going to be able to surprise you with a visit since in those days just getting there was a multi-day train trip. 

This, combined with being in the jurisdiction of the 9th Federal Court of Appeals in California which wasn't a huge fan of patent claims, made Hollywood a done deal by the time the Supreme Court finally got around to bitch-slapping the holy-shit out of MPPC for illegal restraint of trade under the Sherman Act, effectively putting them out of business.

Once again we owe Edison, because without his genius the film capital of the world would probably have been in Camden, or worse.

MGM Studios, Camden NJ
(Alternate History Channel)

 

Oh, and Palm Springs? Well, after Hollywood snots got filthy rich from figuring out how to legally rip off Edison, they naturally started engaging in their own versions of zealous assholery. In particular they started inflicting what these days would be called illegally restrictive slave-contracts on their movie people. One of the provisions of these was commonly a restriction on how far they could go or live without permission from the studio. This was generally in the range of 100 miles from Hollywood. 

So, stars, actors, semi-stars and proto-stars found a mud-hut desert shithole exactly that far away. Voila! A getaway resort for the Hollywood crowd was invented and to this day remains some of the most expensive real-estate in the country for no apparent reason whatsoever.

Next time you're looking into the blazing pit of hell surrounding the Palm Springs oasis in all directions and wonder to yourself "WTF? How does this happen?" -- Blame Edison.

Also, if you're wondering what any of this has to do with anything, you're asking the wrong person. What can I tell you -- "Unintended Consequences / Real History" crap like this amuses me no end, and therefore it gets inflicted on you. Buck up, li'l camper -- it'll probably be a couple of months before I run across something else that seems worth the trouble.