Shawn Bean, author of the new book The First Hollywood, was the keynote speaker at an event and book signing presented by the Miami International Film Festival. The book details the quick rise and fall of the once booming film industry of Jacksonville, FL during the early 20th century. The little-known story began as an award-winning, four-page magazine feature and is now the author's first book.

"A couple years ago, there was an art exhibit in Jacksonville and they had these big, beautiful watercolor posters and they were film posters from the silent film era. All of them were posters for films made in Jacksonville," said Bean. "As a kind of a byline in the bottom of the literature for the exhibit, it said 'Jacksonville had a thriving filmmaking industry back in the early 20th century.' Well my writerly instinct kicked in, and I did a little digging and I found that not only did Jacksonville have one of earliest filmmaking hubs in the country, it had THE first filmmaking hub."

It wasn't occupied by small, independent studios. Bean revealed that some of the biggest studios got their start in the Florida city, including Fox and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.