WI/AHC: US Cinema Centered In Texas, Not California

Pretty much as the tin says, the challenge is to make Texas the center of the US film industry rather than California and discuss the potential ramifications of it being based in Texas. I think Corpus Christi might make a nice alternative to LA/Hollywood in this regard. It's close enough to Mexico in a similar aspect as LA was.

So, let's say movie studios decide to set up shop in Texas, specifically Corpus Christi. How does that impact the industry and Texas?
 
It would require a pre-1900 POD, but a Galveston that built a huge seawall to protect against hurricanes and thus survived (though damaged) the Great Hurricane could be quite the choice locale. It was the richest city in America at the turn of the century.
 
The film industry settled in LA because it was incredibly cheap at the time, it had lots of sunlight which the film stocks at the time needed, and you had an enormous variety of landscapes and architectural styles and climates within easy driving distance.

Plus Los Angeles was cheap as all hell to travel to in the early 1900s, since ATSF, UP and SP all terminated in Los Angeles and they all were in a price war.
 
I'm trying to imagine the culture-war political speeches we'd be hearing if the movie industry was centred in Texas.

"What I'm hearing from my constituents is that they're sick and tired of Galveston shoving this deviant anti-family social agenda down everyone's throat!"

"Two guys making out on the street corner might be okay in Galveston, but it sure as hell isn't anything we want to see here in Hollywood!"
 
Austin is in the vicinity of quite varied terrain though. You could have, say, Corpus Chrisite be the prime area for water-related scenes if necessary.

I guess Austin being the film capital of the US would give new meaning to Keep Austin Weird
 
I was thinking that the whole area would get a boost. All that entertainment industry stuff being in SoCal certainly boosts LA county's population.

Definitely, production company studios, editing studios, music studios, acting companies, comedians, all the other supporting staff. It would be interesting to see how the entertainment industry would develop within a right to work state.
 
Definitely, production company studios, editing studios, music studios, acting companies, comedians, all the other supporting staff. It would be interesting to see how the entertainment industry would develop within a right to work state.
I wonder if TX would even be a right to work state in this world - if the film industry was big enough and powerful enough...
 
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