【精英翻譯】的部落格

Hollywood—America’s Movie Wonderland  美國電影黃金國度 ── 好萊塢

精英翻譯社轉自https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0062/346652/web/

See how a one-time quiet little farming town became the playground of the stars.

瞧瞧這個一度沒沒無聞的農業小鎮是如何轉變成眾星雲集之地。

　　Everyone knows that Hollywood is the center of the universe when it comes to big-budget blockbuster movies. But have you ever wondered how this corner of Los Angeles became the home of the silver screen elite?

一提到高成本的賣座電影，人人皆知好萊塢就是這些電影的核心重鎮。但你是否曾想過這個洛杉磯的角落是如何成為電影界精英分子的所在地？

　　Back in the mid-19th century, Hollywood was founded as a farming community in Southern California. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that filmmakers started flocking in. They went out to Hollywood due to a rather strange cause: inventor Thomas Edison. Edison owned many of the patents used in film-making, and those patents were filed in New Jersey. Edison was known for suing movie makers who violated his patents. By coming out west, studio executives and directors could get away from Edison’s lawsuits.

　　遠在十九世紀中期，好萊塢是加州南部創立的一個農業社區。一直到二十世紀初，電影製作人才開始擁入這個地區。他們前往好萊塢是出於一個頗為奇特的理由：發明家湯瑪斯‧愛迪生。愛迪生持有許多用於電影製作的專利權，而那些專利權是在紐澤西州申請的。愛迪生以控告電影製作人侵權而聞名。透過來到美國西部，片商高層主管及導演得以躲避愛迪生的訴訟。

　　The first Hollywood film studio was founded in 1919, but was actually in Edendale, next to Hollywood. Many more studios followed, including those run by well-known filmmakers Cecil DeMille and Charlie Chaplin. The famous Hollywood sign—which originally read “Hollywoodland”—went up in the Hollywood Hills in 1923. From 1910 to 1929, around 40,000 films, most of which were silent, were made in Hollywood. Today, Hollywood still pumps out as many as 500 movies per year.

　　首間好萊塢電影製片廠創始於 1919 年，但其實它位於好萊塢旁的伊登戴爾。更多的電影製片廠也跟進，包括那些由知名電影製作人西席‧狄密爾以及查理‧卓別林等人所經營的電影製片廠。知名的好萊塢標誌（最原始的拼法為「Hollywoodland」），於 1923 年登上了好萊塢山莊。從 1910 至 1929 年，約有四萬部且大多為默片的電影產於好萊塢。今日的好萊塢每年仍出產多達五百部電影。