Hollywood | Unite, Heal & Disarm

There’s a way the air changes when you cross into Hollywood. A faint metallic shimmer, like heat rising off a boulevard that has seen too many arrivals and just as many exits. People talk about it as if it were a myth stitched into celluloid, but really it’s a neighborhood built on a long gamble: That stories matter.

You learn, after a while, that nothing in Los Angeles happens by accident. Not the palm trees that don’t belong here, not the sign in the hills meant to sell a subdivision but instead selling an idea. The first studio in 1902, tucked under the forgiving sky, was less a birth than a quiet suggestion. Filmmakers followed the way pilgrims follow rumor. They came for the sun and stayed for the dream of permanence.

This poem grew out of that long, bright spell. 

Out of the studios rising in 1911, out of the star factories and backlots and the odd conviction held through depressions and wars and the uneasy dawn of television that Hollywood would endure if it kept reinventing itself. It’s a history, yes, but also a question whispered through a century of film reels: What now, and what next?

Because the tension has always been there, just offstage. A country pulling itself apart. A world bristling with its own uncertainties. And Hollywood, with its strange gravity, asked again to do something it has done before: Offer a story that steadies us, or at least reminds us we are still part of one another.

This is where the poem begins. With the past laid bare, with the lights warming up, with the possibility, fragile, flickering, that narrative might once more unite, heal, and disarm.

Unite, Heal & Disarm

In the heart of Los Angeles rests a luminous jewel,

Hollywood, where dreams are spun and stories rule,

Synonymous with the film industry’s vibrant hold,

Its influence vast, its legacy untold.

At dawn of the twentieth, it set its stage,

The Selig Polyscope in 1902 lit the first age.

On this fertile ground, the industry bloomed,

With a climate so mild, creativity boomed.

Universal, Paramount, and many more

In 1911 opened their grand door.

Their studio system, complex yet divine,

Turned Hollywood into a global cinematic shrine.

High in the hills, the “Hollywoodland” sign stood,

A symbol of dreams, in the neighborhood.

Born to advertise, yet destiny had another plan,

It grew into an emblem, the film industry’s clan.

Golden Age of Hollywood, from the ’20s to the ’50s time,

Unleashed a burst of stars and films so prime,

Directors visionary, studios mighty and bold,

They etched an indelible mark, a story to be told.

Faced with the Great Depression and television’s dawn,

Hollywood evolved, and the show went on.

Its resilience remarkable, its spirit never tires,

Continuing to kindle global cultural fires.

Modern Hollywood, with its expansive reach,

Weaves tales that transcend, teach, and preach.

Its grandeur today, not merely a location,

But a symbol of excellence, an American sensation.

Yet, as we celebrate its century-long feat,

There’s a call for renewal, a drumbeat.

Can Hollywood leverage its creative might,

To motivate, celebrate, and bring us to light?

In films of old, values strong were reflected,

Unity and shared purpose well projected.

Can it not today, with its global stature,

Embrace this role again, and forge the future?

This is a call, not for propaganda’s scheme,

But for narratives that spark the American dream.

Reflect our complexity, our triumphs, and trials,

Our values of hard work, integrity, that run for miles.

In a world fragmented, filled with tension,

The need for inspiring narratives is beyond mention.

Hollywood, with your influence and creativity,

Rise to this challenge, with your innate proclivity.

For the power of film lies not just in its charm,

But in its potential to unite, heal, and disarm.

May Hollywood’s future, like its past, be so bright,

Continue to inspire, and bring America to light.

By Greg McNeilly