Hollywoodland: Five Minutes From Hollywood’s Great White Way (1927) is a sixteen-page, sepia-toned promotional magazine created to market the new Hollywoodland residential development. Billed as “a pictorial record of actual photographs taken in this distinctive home place,” the booklet showcases more than eighty images that highlight the neighborhood’s Mediterranean-style architecture, terraced landscaping, and sweeping canyon views—all just five minutes north of Hollywood Boulevard.
Issued by community developer S. H. Woodruff with backing from newspaper magnate Harry Chandler and transit executive M. H. Sherman, the magazine positions Hollywoodland as an exclusive hillside retreat where “the sylvan beauties of the hills of Hollywood lend subtle charm to homes.” Each page pairs concise sales copy with photographs of model houses, stone entry gates, winding roads, and the distant city skyline, inviting prospective buyers to picture themselves living amid the area’s natural scenery and modern amenities.
Today the booklet stands as a remarkable artifact of early Los Angeles real-estate promotion and the origins of the famed Hollywoodland district—best known for inspiring the iconic HOLLYWOOD sign that once spelled out the tract’s full name on the ridge above Beachwood Canyon.