Dreamland: New Beginnings
by Dr. Gaelyn Whitley Keith
Find a comfortable chair and spend a few hours with HJ and Gigi Whitley—and if you're blessed in a magnificent way, you may encounter a world that can change your life forever. Have a good visit!
This is the story of Hobart Johnstone Whitley — The Father of Hollywood, a man of vision and grit whose life intersected with the birth of modern America, the railroads, and ultimately, the creation of a place the world would come to know as Hollywood. From his early trials of grief and ambition to his relentless drive to build towns from dust and orchards, Whitley’s journey is not only about land and commerce, but about shaping destiny itself.
Alongside him stands Gigi, whose voice and dreams guide the story down paths of foresight, love, and profound choices about what kind of world the future should become. Threaded throughout are whispers of dreams — not only the private visions of one man and one woman, but the greater American dream taking root in the West.
Their story asks: what power lies in belief, in words spoken with conviction, and in dreams that refuse to die? It is a reminder that innovation and enterprise are nothing without heart and purpose, that dreams are both compass and challenge, pointing the way while demanding sacrifice. Readers will be drawn into a tale that is at once historical and deeply human: a novel of ambition, faith, and the fragile choices that ripple across generations. To step into this story is to walk through the forming of Hollywood as both place and idea — a dreamland born from visionaries who asked not only what can be built, but what path mankind should choose.