1. Charles E. Toberman, “Father of Hollywood”
If I asked you who Charles E. Toberman was, you probably couldn’t tell me off the top of your head. But you would know what he did – Toberman helped develop Hollywood into what it is today. He was the mind behind many of Hollywood’s most famous landmarks including Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the El Capitan Theater, the Hollywood Bowl and the Roosevelt Hotel.
Toberman was born in Seymour, Texas, and attended Texas A&M in the early days of the school when it was an all-male military academy then known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. He did not graduate, though he attended for three years as an Agriculture major.
He left the school after his junior year and spent one year at the Metropolitan Business College of Dallas, which is no longer in existence.
Next: Ranking every coach in Aggie football history
So how did a small-town Texas become the “Father of Hollywood”? His uncle, James R. Toberman, was mayor of Los Angeles from 1872-1874 and again from 1878-1882.