Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. Hollywood, California.

1936		Aus. Women’s Wkly 15 Feb. 12/2: O’Flaherty Takes a Tilt at the ‘Madhouse of Hollywood’ [...] The game of stripping the glamor from the tinsel town of the movies has resulted in many books.
1939		N.Y. Times 15 Oct. 14/1: She arrived in Hollywood one morning and, as nothing is incredible in Tinseltown, found herself working as his assistant the next.
1952		Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH) 20 Nov. 14/3: Hughes formerly reigned as the busiest romancer in tinsel town.
1965		Aus. Women’s Wkly 22 Sept. 41/1: I have lived in tinsel-town for many and many a year.
1974		TV Guide (US) 14 Sept. 34: You wrote me about checking maybe you could sign on with Les Brown if you decide to depart the Apple and come out here to Tinsel Town.
1985		F. Deford in Sports Illus. June 🌐 They loved him in Gotham, and they brought him to Tinseltown to play the title role in The Pittsburgh Kid, and later he spent a couple of years in Vegas.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 90: They’re all Australians who have hit the jackpot in tinseltown.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 179: I toodle down Hollywood Boulevard into the seedy loins of Tinsel Town.
2006		Guardian G2 19 Apr. 12: [caption] He’s up in court for bugging phones . . . and Tinseltown is quaking in its boots.
2012		Eve. Standard 16 Feb. 38: [headline] A Big Tinseltown Tease.
2019		Santa Monica Times (CA) 18 Oct. B4/2: Step back in time to the 40s and 50s in Tinsel Town.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1950		Waterloo (IA) Sun. Courier 25 May 3/1: Trembling with excitement, the voluptuous movie queen joined the ranks of other tinsel-town celebrities while her fans shouted: ‘C’mon sweater girl! Give!’.
1977		Aus. Women’s Wkly 16 Feb.10/1: In the can which is tinsel town talk for when a movie is ready for the public.
1998		Ottowa Citizen (Ontario) 23 Dec. 35/2: Mr Bronfman [...] treated market analysts to a marathon tinself-town style junket.
1999		Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 19: A thinly disguised bio-pic of Tinseltown magnate W.R. Hearst.
2000		Observer 9 Jan. 9: Brit pack in Tinseltown gold rush.

3. Manhattan, N.Y.

1964

E. Wilson Earl Wilson’s N.Y. 38: Manhattan’s a magnet – Tinsel Town, the Big Town.

4. (Aus.) Sydney.

2002

crikey.com.au 8 Sept. 🌐 Sydney-based Strickland is not what you’d call a probing journalist. Thalia’s colleagues in Tinseltown feel she takes leaks at face value and inflates them to get them up as news stories.