This Year in History

1927

 

1958
Photo courtesy of the Philo T. and Elma G. Farnsworth Photograph Collection, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah  / Public Domain

This Year in History - 1927

  • Philo Farnsworth, then 21-years-old, demonstrates the first use of his electronic television in San Francisco. It is based on a sketch he had made in his high school chemistry class. He would successfully unveil his invention to the press the following year.
  • The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel – financed by prominent Hollywood figures Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Louis B. Mayer and Sid Grauman – opens on Hollywood Blvd. It would host the first Academy Awards two years later.
  • The University of California breaks ground in Westwood at the site of its future Southern Branch (later, UCLA).
  • Two memorable films debut in Hollywood. The Jazz Singer is the first talking motion picture, and The Second Hundred Years is the first film that co-stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.