Hollywood maintains glamour

Despite some wear and tear, movie mecca still has plenty of sparkle

BILL THOMPSON
The Post and Courier

Paramount Pictures, the home of “Indiana Jones” and “Star Trek,” offers daily tours of its sound stages and backlots.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Here, on the streets trod by Clark Gable and Greta Garbo, where Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn and Spencer Tracy sunk hands and feet in wet cement and beamed as their stars were laid on the Walk of Fame, now stride a kaleidoscope of actor wannabes, gawking tourists, hawking vendors and an only-in-California array of "colorful" eccentrics.

Though bustling Paramount Pictures maintains its enormous studio lot, the last to remain in Hollywood proper, most of the other studios have long since fled to Burbank and Universal City, and there is a theme-park feeling about the place, as if the locals and recent arrivals were straining to sustain a showbiz atmosphere that had migrated to other parts of Los Angeles.

Oh, there's still a portion of glamour, but it is a little frayed around the edges, and somehow the "See the Homes of the Stars" tours suggest the tawdriness of a carnival sideshow. You're beset with the sensation of being a voyeur, or worse, a paparazzo.

Noted. Get over it.

Set aside your disdainful "I'm much too sophisticated for this" attitude and try letting the spirit of the place infect you. Bad taste can be amusing.

Besides, the ghosts of the Golden Age haunt the avenues, many of the old signposts (such as Mel's Diner and the Roosevelt Hotel) are still in place, and the people watching is as good as it gets.

Curtain raising

The town dates to 1903, when Hollywood was established as a religion-oriented agricultural community. It became part of Los Angeles in 1910, and a year later the first movie studio came into being.

The first star-studded Hollywood film premiere rolled out its red carpet in 1922 at Grauman's Egyptian Theater. This is not to be confused with Grauman's Chinese Theater (6925 Hollywood Blvd.), where, undiminished by time and weather, one can peruse the concrete swath in front of the theater where more than 200 immortals of the silver screen signed their names and plunged appendages for posterity. Placing one's hands and feet in the cement became a tradition, legend holds, when actress Norma Talmadge accidentally stepped into wet cement just before the grand opening of the theater in 1927. These days, the restored movie palace showcases retrospectives and offers tours one weekend each month. Call 323-466-3456 for details.

The fabled Walk of Fame, which runs by Grauman's, extends for a mile along Hollywood Boulevard between Gower Street and La Brea Avenue, and along a portion of Vine Street on both the north and south sides of Hollywood Boulevard.

Coming attractions

Directly behind Grauman's Chinese Theater towers the multistory Hollywood and Highland Center, a retail, dining and entertainment complex that hosts open-air concerts and funky runway fashion shows but is best known for housing the Kodak Theatre, site of the annual Academy Awards ceremony.

Just around the corner on Franklin Avenue is the Magic Castle, an inn that doubles as one of the world's most famous nightclubs for magicians and magic enthusiasts. Some 150 feet above the inn along a winding road is Yamashiro, a tony Japanese restaurant with high-priced sushi and a broad, breathtaking view of Los Angeles at night.

Occupying the city's oldest studio building is the Hollywood Museum (1660 N. Highland Ave.), where pioneering filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille set up shop in 1913. The museum is in the historic art-deco Max Factor Building and contains original costumes, posters, props, scripts, antique movie cameras and other movie memorabilia. It's open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Call 323-464-7776.

The famous Hollywood Bowl (with its adjacent museum) is ensconced in a natural amphitheater in the foothills off Highland Avenue. Concerts are held from late June through early October.

But no Tinseltown gambol is complete without a studio tour of Paramount Pictures (5555 Melrose Ave.). Walk through Stage 32, where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made the musicals that had a magic all their own, or amble down the "New York" street where young godfather-to-be Michael Corleone waxed the men who shot his father. "Citizen Kane" was filmed here, as was "Sunset Boulevard," "Rear Window," many of the Marx Brothers' best and a hundred other pictures of note, not to mention scenes from the Indiana Jones movies, the various "Star Trek" series and films and a batch on ongoing TV series.

Call 323-956-5575 well in advance for reservations.

Getting there

If you're driving (and you just about have to), exit LAX and take the least congested route: La Tijera Boulevard to La Cienega Boulevard, then north for a straight shot into West L.A. and the Hollywood area. Global Positioning Systems for rental automobiles, in-dash or portable, are a godsend for those unfamiliar with Los Angeles' vexing avenues and freeways.

Hollywood proper should be explored on foot, but if you do choose to do some day outings in other parts of L.A. — pilgrimages to Beverly Hills, the remarkable Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the impressive Getty Center are highly recommended — avoid city streets during the ferocious rush hour periods (6:30-9 a.m. and 3-6:30 p.m.). Wherever you go, plan ahead; get a good map and have some alternate routes in mind in case of traffic gridlock.

Don't want to bother? Taxis are plentiful. And the Metro bus system is adequate if not scintillating.

Lodging, dining

If you can't afford to stay at the Roosevelt or the glittery Chateau Marmont, there are a surprising number of comfortable small hotels a few minutes' walk from the action, such as the modestly priced Hollywood Celebrity Hotel (1775 Orchid Ave.), just off Franklin Street across from the Magic Castle. Good restaurants are plentiful, ranging from the more creative emporiums, such as Ammo (1155 N Highland Ave.), to the most down-to-earth, such as the justly renowned Mel's Diner (1650 N. Highland Ave.).

Mel's, one of the inspirations for "Happy Days," has been a favorite of struggling and established actors for years. Who knows, maybe you'll meet the Fonz.

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.