Long Beach's proximity to Hollywood has made the waterfront city a picturesque and easily accessed locale for hundreds of films and television shows. Silent movies produced by Balboa Studios here starred Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, and the city's resume includes the Oscar-winning best pictures The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and American Beauty (1999). Cameras continue to roll in the port metropolis, which has been host for such TV favorites as CHiPs and The Mod Squad and now twenty-first-century series such as NCIS, Dexter and CSI: Miami. Longtime newspaperman Tim Grobaty has been watching, in person and in his living room, and tracks the history of the city on celluloid in the comprehensive Location Filming in Long Beach.
