Hollywood, AL

Hollywood’s local history dates the community first as Samples, established on December 14, 1883, then renamed Hollywood on May 13, 1887. The town incorporated on May 24, 1897, held its first election that June, and still carries the “We’re The Real Hollywood” line on its water tower. A large sinkhole that appeared in 1892 is another piece of the town’s remembered history. Hollywood lies west of the Tennessee River and Lake Guntersville in Jackson County, with County Road 33 connecting toward U.S. 72.

ATTRSesamehoneytart / CC BY-SA 4.0

The Tennessee Valley Authority began construction of the Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station on the river’s eastern side in 1974. Construction stopped in 1988, and the plant was later abandoned after the TVA declined to extend its permits in 2021. That unfinished industrial site remains a major geographic reference for the town. Hollywood’s schools belong to Jackson County Schools, including Hollywood Elementary, an alternative school, and a technology center. Scottsboro, the county seat, sits nearby, so Hollywood’s daily map combines a small-town government with the larger county center and the Tennessee River corridor.