Cool Hollywood conference opens Friday

"Moguls, Millionaires & Movie Stars: Hollywood Between the Wars, 1920-1940" will be at the Huntington Library in San Marino on Friday and Saturday. Panels will explore the rise of the studios and the importance of moguls such Joseph P. Kennedy, Howard Hughes and W. R. Hearst, with William Randolph Hearst III delivering Saturday morning's welcome remarks. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West are putting on the conference. Participants include author and LA Observed contributor Cari Beauchamp as well as Neal Gabler, Richard Schickel, Sid Ganis, Kevin Starr, Taylor Coffman, Dennis McDougal, Robert Gottleib, Tim Rutten and Patt Morrison, among others.