A Guide to All of the Locations Based on Real Places in Netflix's Hollywood

Ace Studios didn't exist, but it's heavily based on Paramount Pictures. In one of the opening shots on the limited series, we see aspiring actors like Jack Costello (David Corenswet) crowding at the gates of Ace Studios to get picked as extras in movies. This really did happen back in the day at the Bronson Gate leading to Paramount Pictures' studio.

There really was a gas station that served as a cover-up for an underground escort service — indeed, Ernie (Dylan McDermott) is based on Scotty Bowers, a well-known Hollywood pimp. Bowers notoriously arranged hookups at a Richfield gas station on Hollywood Boulevard. The production design team for Hollywood found a home for the Golden Tip at a period automotive repair shop in L.A.'s Atwater Village.

Jack meets with Avis (Patti LuPone), his first Dreamland client, at the famous Beverly Hills Hotel. One standout detail that designers may know is the banana leaf wallpaper, which became a signature look for the landmark in the '40s. While we see the pink-and-green getaway and sign outside of the hotel, the bungalow was recreated on set.

Actors notoriously hung out at Schwab's Pharmacy, a drugstore with a big lunch counter — Lana Turner supposedly found her big break there. In the series, Henrietta (Maude Apatow), Jack Costello's wife, works at the counter. Unfortunately, the store closed in 1983, the building that it was housed in eventually destroyed for development.

In episode three, the guys get invited to director George Cukor's home, where a sexually charged Sunday party takes place. While it's widely debated whether or not Cukor's soirees were really as scandalous, Cukor was known for his gatherings that were labeled as "all-boys affairs." Because the Cukor home has been significantly remodelled, the Sunday bash was actually filmed at two different houses.

One of the production struggles for Raymond Ainsley (Darren Criss) was building a Hollywood sign on the set, as Peg Entwistle, the actress who the character Meg is based on, tragically jumped to her death from the letter H. No, the movie Meg never existed, but the Hollywood (formerly Hollywoodland) sign is, undoubtedly, real. The 1923 structure originally had over 4,000 blinking lights and was eventually renovated by Hugh Hefner.

The 1948 Oscars did take place at Shrine Auditorium, even if the night didn't go as the miniseries depicted, with the fictional Meg sweeping the nominations. Production designer Matthew Flood Ferguson used the Orpheum Theatre for the ceremony and recreated the Oscar in the middle of the stage with spray-painted Styrofoam.

El Cabrillo is a historic Spanish-style courtyard building constructed by Cecil B. DeMille in the '20s for out-of-state actors. In Hollywood, Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec) resides there in a garden apartment after being passed over for a role in The Good Earth. Unfortunately, there are no photos of the real building.