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TAKE
A TRIP TO TINSEL
TOWN
Huge
billboards advertising the latest movies towered above us as we
drove to Beverly Hills. These are 'vanity boards' paid for by the
stars to drum up interest in their latest release.
I was searching for a bit of glitz and heading to where the celebrities
spend their dollars. On Rodeo Drive I struck lucky. A
fashion show was being held outside the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel,
where once they filmed 'Pretty Woman' The sun shone as the
catwalk girls modelled frocks from Saks of Fifth Avenue, oddly
it seemed to get warmer as they progressed to the swimwear. 
Further
down Rodeo Drive, under a yellow and white striped awning, a whiff
of intoxicating perfume drew me in to Georgio's. There they
have a beautiful art gallery, no doubt designed to keep you occupied
while your partner flexes the credit card.
It's how people live in, breathe and dress in California, in a
word 'expensively'
Back
among the plebs, £10 buys a one-hour sight seeing tour on
Trollywood tours. We passed a sign reading 'Hollywood and
Vine' which back in my boyhood cinema-going days was as familiar as
the High Street.
If
you want to see how the real stars live, a 15 seater coach takes you
round their homes as part of a three-hour tour. We drove up
Doheny Drive, where shady trees and bright bougainvilleas spill over
the security fences and into Sunset Strip. This famed boulevard was
given it's name because it runs from the 'sunset to the sea'. i.e.
downtown to the Pacific Ocean.
Folk
sit outs outside cafes at little wrought iron tables to see and be
seen. We passed the bar that was Dino's Dive and the commentary gave
us titillating tit-bits of movie-making history, such as "many
of you will remember the actor Hugh Grant getting busted with that
hooker, It was just here, to your left" and so it went
on. Now and then we passed studios with large enclosed lots or familiar
buildings like the one that was used in the Superman films as the
offices of the 'Daily Planet'
'Walk of Fame'
Eventually
we de-bussed and on the pavement followed the 'Walk of Fame'
More
than 1,900 Hollywood legends have been immortalised since 1958 on
the terrazzo-and-brass stars of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It
stretches along pavement in the Hollywood Boulevard from Gower
Street to Sycamore Avenue and along Vine Street to Sunset  Boulevard.
It is a favorite attraction, and while many visitors seek out the
signatures and hand prints of Marilyn Monroe,
James Dean or Elvis Presley.
My target, in what has to be the world’s largest
autograph album, was to locate a film legend and boyhood hero,
Roy
Rogers.
I found the singing cowboy’s personal signing and that of
his horse Trigger.,
It was next to
Humphrey Bogarts’
just outside
Mann’s
Chinese Theatre where the movies are premiered.
The
Hollywood Entertainment Museum
is just along the street. It is
certainly worth a visit. 
Star Trek enthusiasts will like ‘The Transporter’ that is
used to to beam
you aboard a film set of a space ship.
I
really enjoyed being allowed to sit in the command seat of the
Starship Enterprise and issue the command "Make it so." At
first glance it all seems so real, but when you get up really close
you begin to learn that the designers of the set have
a sense of humour. That large schematic representation on the
control deck that we are all so familiar with, reveals, on close
inspection, symbols showing the spaceship powered by a gerbil on
treadmill! Other signs include the Captain’s rubber duck and a
Porsche. But when you stand back, the whole thing is very impressive
indeed, as is the complete set of the bar from ‘Cheers.’
One of the
Hollywood Entertainment Museum's most popular attractions is The Foley Room where you get the chance
to add sound effects to a film and have the results played back. It
is an attraction that involves you and gives you a feeling of
achievement.
Everything
to do with ‘movie making’ is there and in addition to
memorabilia, you find cameras, make up, scene dock, and a back lot.
In one display there are phones that you can pick up and hear Jimmy
Stewart giving advice on acting., Buster Keaton on scripting, Cecil
B De Mille on the set, Disney on animation and Orson Wells talking
on movie money.
‘Actor
guides’ in costume are on hand to show you round and the ‘Wardrobe
Department’ there are fashions from the ‘twenties’ through to
the ‘sixties.’ Costumes
that you my recognise include a little number worn by Marilyn
Monroe, one from
Dustin Hoffman in ‘Tootsie’ and some dramatic Klingon gear from
the original Star Trek series. You can also visit ‘Special Effects’
to learn how men can become werewolves, or women can age fifty years
in one film.
After
years  of looking rather seedy Hollywood Boulevard is
on the way up
again and if you want to be in the heart of things yet still have
holiday comfort
The Roosevelt Hotel, .may fit the bill. It is just
across the road from the ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame.’ (David Niven
slept in the servant’s quarters at the beginning of his career.
The
trimmings include an Olympic size a swimming pool where Marylin
Monroe once posed for a suntan lotion advertisement.
There are also organised studio
tours like the one at Paramount Studios where enthusiastic
guides whisk you through fake streets and past the facades of
buildings that seem so familiar. Actors you don't see and assume that
they are in the big caravans or busy on the massive sound stages. 
If you are after a bit of history then there is the little
studios like the A&M Sound Stage
where Charlie Chaplin once made
his black and white films
Hollywood
of course is just one of the districts in Los Angeles. LA is big and
there is so much to discover that each time I go there I get the
feeling that I am visiting a different city. there is
a luxuriant warmth to the place that you feel as soon as the plane touches down, it’s
not everywhere that wild flowers blossom along side the runway.
If you
are looking for a spot to round the day off head up to Griffith Park
Observatory for views of the sparkling city below. Dusk is a perfect
time to photograph the famous Hollywood Sign and capture glittering
memories of ‘Tinsel Town’
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