March 2002 - Academy Awards Return to Hollywood; Boulevard Revitalizes
The 75th Annual Academy Awards on March 24, 2002 were notable not only for the Best Picture honors going to Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind," and both the Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars going to African American talent for the first time (Denzel Washington and Halle Berry, respectively), but it heralded the return of the Oscars to Hollywood Boulevard, at the newly-opened Kodak Theatre, a key moment in the long-anticipated revitalization of the area.
The return of the Oscars to its Hollywood birthplace was symbolic; the first award presentation was at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929. The 2002 Kodak Theatre ceremony was the first time the Academy Awards took place on Hollywood Boulevard since it was held at the Pantages Theatre in 1960.
The previous Academy Award venues, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Shrine Auditorium, both located in downtown L.A., gradually developed capacity and logistical concerns. In 1997, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approached commercial real estate firm TrizecHahn to develop a new home for the Oscars at their proposed Hollywood and Highland Center (opened 2001). The location was prime real estate for the awards show's return: Not only was it next door to the famed Graumann's Chinese Theatre, but across the street from the Hollywood Roosevelt. A 20-year lease was signed, and film manufacturer The Eastman Kodak Company, which produced much of the celluloid used in the motion picture industry, purchased the naming rights for $75 million. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy and audio technology company Dolby Laboratories agreed to a new 20-year naming rights deal, re-naming the venue as the Dolby Theatre.
The revitalization of Hollywood Boulevard, long discussed since the late 1970s when businesses began their exodus from the famed tourist destination due to increasing crime and blight, was prefaced by the 1991 renovation of the El Capitan Theatre by the Walt Disney Company, the 1999 opening of the Metro Red Line's Hollywood/Vine station, and the 2000 opening of the subway's Hollywood/Highland station.
But the 2002 return of the Oscars helped open the floodgates of redevelopment and revitalization along the boulevard, including the 2003 premiere of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," taped at a studio directly across the street from the Dolby Theatre and the 2009 opening of London's Madame Tussaud's wax museum just west of the Chinese Theatre. Most notably, numerous restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and retail stores have sprung up on Hollywood Boulevard since the early 2000s, re-establishing some of the glitz and glamor of Tinseltown and helping to re-invigorate Los Angeles' economy.
