Scope
This starter edition treats 1925–1965 as the main browsing window. It includes silent-era figures whose careers shape that period and follows some people beyond 1965 where necessary for basic biographical context.
Core reference institutions
Editorial expansion should prioritize primary and institutional sources: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Film Institute, Library of Congress, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Margaret Herrick Library, studio archives, historic-property records, and contemporary newspaper archives. TCM and established film scholarship are useful secondary references.
Map policy
Surviving venues use current street addresses. Demolished venues are labeled as historic sites. Pins for vanished buildings are approximate and should be checked against Sanborn maps, city directories, parcel records, or specialist Los Angeles history sources before the site is presented as a precision research map.
Images
This build deliberately avoids pulling random movie stills and celebrity photographs from the web. That keeps the starter package clean from an image-rights perspective. The next visual pass can use verified public-domain imagery, licensed collections, original illustrations, or properly licensed editorial photography.
Historical framing
The site should not romanticize the studio era by erasing its exclusions. Pages involving race, censorship, labor, stereotyping, or discriminatory industry practices should name that context directly and distinguish documented fact from Hollywood legend.