North Hollywood is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, California, located in the southeast portion of the San Fernando Valley. Its approximate boundaries are the Burbank city limits on the east, Sherman Way on the north, Laurel Canyon Boulevard on the west, and U.S. 101 on the south, in both its Ventura Freeway and Hollywood Freeway incarnations.
North Hollywood is home to quite a bit of commerce, much of it related to the film industry. Although Universal Studios gives its address as Universal City, it's technically located in North Hollywood; so, too, is the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Both Disney and Warner Bros., while headquartered in Burbank, also have office space in North Hollywood. In addition, there are plenty of production and post-production facilities, not to mention a variety of moderately priced restaurants that mainly attract the underpaid people who work behind the camera.
Many of those people also live in North Hollywood, which tends to have cheaper housing prices than nearby areas such as Burbank and Studio City. The residents are a mix of swinging singles and low-to-middle-class families. North Hollywood is also fairly convenient to downtown Los Angeles via freeway, and since 2000 has been the northern terminus of the L.A. subway. The parking lot at the North Hollywood station is filled with commuters' cars by 8:30 A.M. every weekday. There is also a subway station across the street from Universal City, with similar parking problems.
North Hollywood also has a number of small live theaters and performance spaces clustered in an area marketed as the "Noho Arts District."
North Hollywood began as a farming community in the latter half of the 19th century, when Isaac Lankershim and I.N. Van Nuys bought half of the San Fernando Valley and planted crops. It was incorporated as the town of Lankershim in 1890.
Public transportation first went over Cahuenga Pass linking Lankershim to Hollywood and Los Angeles in 1911, and Universal head Carl Laemmle established Universal City in 1915.
In order to be able to use the water from William Mulholland's Los Angeles Aqueduct, Lankershim became part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923, and it was renamed North Hollywood in 1927 to attract more filmmakers and associated businesses. The main north-south street, though, keeps the old name alive: Lankershim Boulevard.
Amelia Earhart is probably the most famous person to be from North Hollywood (or at least to admit it to someone). The branch library is named for her.
Actress Beverly Garland, who owns a Holiday Inn near Universal City, has been the honorary mayor of North Hollywood since 1973.
Much of the historical information came from the Universal City/North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce web site, http://www.noho.org