Think of a place where dreams can come true, where anything you can possibly imagine can come alive. Where else but Hollywood!
We had an enjoyable time visiting the home of some of our favourite movies. We spent a day walking first through North Hollywood and then through the downtown where we saw the sights and heard some interesting stories/facts about Hollywood. It reminded me of another Hollywood we had seen along our travels in Ireland…but this one is so different!
North Hollywood
Before Hollywood was the centre for TV and Film, New York led the way in these areas. Hollywood was not much more than some desert next to the ocean on the west coast. The weather in New York wasn’t always the most cooperative, and so the search began for a new location with fair weather allowing a longer filming season…and Hollywood fit the bill with over 325 days of sunshine per year! In those days a studio would produce several films per week! One of the recurring themes we heard as we learned more about Hollywood was its desire to be more like New York.
Apart from the weather we learned that another reason why film makers were anxious to get out of New York was Thomas Edison! Apparently Edison held the patents on 16 significant parts of the motion film camera, and he too was making films. If you wanted to use one of Edison’s cameras you needed to rent one from him. If you were late in paying your rent, he would send some “goons” (our guide’s words, not mine!) to “remind” you of your debt, which could involve breaking a piece of you or your camera! So, heading to the west coast didn’t seem like such a bad idea in order to get away from Edison!
Our first stop was the Capitol Records building.
This was the first record company to set down permanent roots in early Hollywood. The architect of this building, Welton Becket “accidentally” designed this building to look like a stack of records sitting on a record player’s spindle! The “spindle” at the top of the building has a red light that blinks the world “Hollywood” in Morse code, which was the company’s symbolic way of saying “we’re here to stay in Hollywood”.
We saw the Hollywood walk of fame, which goes down Hollywood Blvd. as well as Vine Street. There are over 2550 stars on the walk, and they are categorized into five different types: Film, TV, Radio, Recording Artist, and Theatre.
For an artist to get a star, they need to pay $30,000 and sign a contract that they will appear for the star’s unveiling. Sometimes the fee is raised by the artist’s fan club or sponsored in some other way. In terms of signing the contract to appear, previously several artists had paid to have their start commissioned, but failed to show up to the unveiling, which was embarrassing for the organizing committee.
The girls found one of their favourites…
We were also thinking there could be a 6th category for “World Travel”. Of course, if a star was unveiled for our global fieldtrip, we would definitely appear!
Of course there are all kinds of theatres throughout Hollywood.
This was originally meant to be in a Spanish style, but at the time the theatre was being built, King Tut’s tomb was discovered and there was a huge interest in everything Egyptian. So, the theatre exterior was changed to be Egyptian themed.
The Famous Chinese theatre was a sight to see as well.
Apart from the Chinese motif on the facade, this theatre is also famous for the hand and foot prints of various stars cast in cement in front of the theatre. The idea was started by Sid Grauman – the same person who the Egyptian Theatre is named after…
We found some of our favourites…
As well as many well known actors…
Next door to the Chinese theatre is the home of the Oscar’s Awards ceremony – The Dolby Theatre. Inside, there is a staircase covered with red tiles to give the impression that the red carpet is always rolled out. Along the sides of the staircase are pillars with each year’s winner of the Best Picture award.
How did the Oscars come to be? We heard that the actors were getting upset at their treatment…they felt that the studios were making all the money on the artists’ backs. They wanted to form a union in order to improve their situation. One evening a number of the various studio executives were together and the idea was hatched to give the actors an awards night…if they felt special, then they wouldn’t need a union!
It almost worked…but the following year the Screen Actor’s Guild was formed!
Downtown Los Angeles
Our second tour took us downtown…which isn’t somewhere we would have necessarily gone otherwise.
We started out by taking the metro to the downtown train station, and discovered a beautiful building!
From the train station we moved on through some parks and local markets as we made our way to the downtown core.
Finally downtown, we saw some more typical buildings…City Hall, the LA Times…more of the downtown LA that I expected.
And then something exciting happened…we got away from the ‘typical tourist’ hot-spots and heard some really interesting stories.
Our first really interesting stop was the Bradbury building. Bradbury was a millionaire who found his fortune in mining. He commissioned the building to be designed in 1892, and the building was completed in 1893. Unfortunately, Bradbury did not have the opportunity to see the construction finished as he died several months before the building opened.
From the outside it really isn’t anything spectacular, just a typical red brick building. But as you walk in through the front doors the magic begins. The building opens up 5 stories with a light and airy feel.
The intricate wrought iron coupled with the classic wood finish on the stairs, walls and hand railings are beautiful to behold. There is so much natural light coming in from the ceiling – 5 stories up – that you would not think you were inside a building at all. This is a real gem.
As we walked along we were brought to a courtyard off to the side which wasn’t really obvious. Here we saw a long concrete wall which was a monument to, and told the story of, Biddy Mason. Each section of the wall represented a particular period in Biddy’s life…
Between 1840 and 1850 she walked from Mississippi to California behind a wagon train…she was not allowed to ride on the wagon because she was a slave.
At this time California was a slave free state … any slaves brought into the state would automatically be free. Despite this, Biddy’s owner insisted that Biddy and her family were his property and he decided to head overland to Texas. He was stopped before he could do so, and in 1850 Biddy petitioned the California court and was granted her freedom.
Biddy worked for several years as a nurse and midwife and carefully saved her money, In time she was able to save enough money to become one of the first African-Americans to own land. In 1860 she was able to purchase land, and became quite wealthy. When I heard the story and saw the memorial I was immediately struck by how strong a woman Biddy would have had to have been to gone through what she did and still have the persistence to gain the freedom of herself and her family. She was very active in the LA community and has left a lasting impression on LA’s society.
The last stop on our tour was outside the Alexandra Hotel.
The Alexandria was constructed as a luxury hotel in 1906, and was used as such for many years. A local businessman, William Chick owned the land the Alexandria was built on and had an additional wing added to the hotel on his property. The exterior of the building was made to line up with the existing Alexandra facade. The rooms were accessible from the hotel and people renting the rooms would go through the hotel to get to this new wing. In 1938, the hotel and Chick got into a disagreement and the hotel simply bricked up all of the hallways from inside at the end of their portion of the property. Since the new wing had no stairs nor an elevator, the rooms were completely inaccessible!
This photo shows the current condition of the ‘new wing’…the open windows etc. on the right hand side of the photo are the section that was blocked off from the main hotel building.
The whole building was sold in 2012, and apparently when the new owners went into the old wing they found rooms completely untouched since 1938 including bedding, linens, clothes and suitcases from tenants. It had essentially been a time capsule for all those years!
Cruising the strip and visiting the beaches
We thought it would be fun to check out some of the other popular sites in the LA area as well. We drove down Sunset Boulevard and saw many of the well known clubs we have all heard about…
A quick left and a couple of right turns and we found ourselves in…
Eventually we made it to Santa Monica Pier. It was early evening by this time, and the street performers were out in full force!
After a brief stop to check out the action, we headed down to the pier itself. This isn’t a typical pier, rather an entertainment district complete with midway and small shops.
We found ourselves at the end of historic Route 66, which ran from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica.
In 1985 Route 66 was officially decommissioned and responsibility and maintenance fell to the different states along the route. Some sections have been maintained while other sections have either been decommissioned or worked into other state highways.
The next day we headed down to Venice Beach and took a stroll along the boardwalk.
We had an enjoyable time in Los Angeles and were able to get in a great mix of historic and “classic LA” sights.
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