A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS: THE HOLLYWOOD CROSS TURNS 100 (2024)

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS is a 22-minute short movie available on www.movieguide.org, YouTube and Rumble about the history of Hollywood few people know, the erection of a lighted cross in 1923, the same year that the more famous HOLLYWOODLAND sign in the Hollywood Hills was built (the HOLLYWOODLAND is now simply the HOLLYWOOD sign).

Businessman and land developer Harvey J. Whitley turned Hollywood into a real estate subdivision in 1887. He also built the first movie studio in Hollywood itself in 1911. Over the years, it became Universal Studios.

The movie points out that Hollywood itself was created by very strong Christian believers, including Whitley, and was once considered rather prudish compared to Los Angeles. Ironically, Hollywood was intended to be a utopian Christian community, including a center for the arts. Churches were offered free land.

In 1919, after Hollywood was forced to incorporate as part of Los Angeles, Christine Wetherill Stevenson, a strong believer, and an heiress of the Pittsburg Paint fortune, helped established the Hollywood Bowl to produce Christian plays. When other people behind the Hollywood Bowl wanted to present Non-Christian productions there, she built her own Christian theater right nearby. Sadly, Christine died young at 44 in 1922, and, on a hill above the Hollywood Bowl, a lighted cross was erected in her memory in 1923.

This wonderful movie tells of the struggles many went through to keep the cross lit above both Hollywood and Los Angeles. The story of the cross roughly parallels the influence of Christians in Hollywood. It was erected at a time when Christian plays were popular and epic movies around the world told Bible stories. The lit cross was profoundly attacked after Christian advocacy groups closed up shop in the 1960s. Although the County of Los Angeles built a new modern cross after a brush fire destroyed it in 1965, a court ruling forced the county to cut all ties to the structure in 1979. Vandals and high winds destroyed the new cross in the Fall of 1984, but volunteers erected a temporary cross right away for the annual Easter Services at the Hollywood Bowl in 1985.

In 1993, thanks to several people, including High Adventure Ministries and legendary stuntman Bob Yerkes, a new cross was built, despite protests and a lawsuit. Now, thanks to a permanent endowment established by Church on the Way and other supporters, the lit cross is more sturdy and secure than ever. Also, Christian influence in Hollywood is growing again because of the efforts of MOVIEGUIDE® and its friends and supporters.

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS features amazing images from Hollywood’s beginning in 1886 to the present. It includes interviews with Conquest GBC contractor Jim Korkunis, the rebuilder of the current Hollywood Cross, and famed Hollywood stuntman Bob Yerkes (BACK TO THE FUTURE and RETURN OF THE JEDI), who helped set the rebuilt cross in place in 1993 against great opposition.

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS is a fascinating, profoundly Christian look at some little-known Hollywood history, and American history. It’s a short movie the world needs to watch because Hollywood often is seen as the great promoter of immorality, even though the culture around Hollywood, both in the United States and overseas, is increasingly rejecting immoral content. The movie quotes John 1:5, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” It also includes a rousing newsreel presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by the Rev. Billy Graham.

The major movie studios and television outlets suffer great loses when they promote promoting immoral entertainment. Each year, MOVIEGUIDE® does a comprehensive financial analysis of what movies and television programs are the most popular. Year in and year out, our report shows that audiences here and overseas prefer movies and programs with strong Christian, redemptive and morally uplifting content and entertainment with strong traditional, conservative values.

It’s time for all of Hollywood to realize the financial value of serving broad audiences that love God and have traditional, conservative values. If they fail to serve these viewers, other groups and movie and television artists will.