And for my friends who don't observe the holiday, here's hoping you enjoy that other fine yuletide tradition:  Going to a movie and then eating Chinese!

The street that I live on in Hollywood is called Bronson Avenue.  It was actually originally called Hartford before being renamed, when the citizens decided they would rather have plenty of water than their 7 year old cityhood, and allowed themselves to be annexed back into Los Angeles.

At it's northernmost it winds up into Bronson Canyon, becomes "Canyon Drive" and ends at the famous Bronson Caves.


This ubiquitous site was used as the bat cave in the Batman TV series.  It has been seen in everything from "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" to "Lost Horizon" to "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" to about a billion other things.  In the years that I worked in wardrobe, I personally have worked there on 3 different shows.

The section of Bronson that I live on (from Hollywood Blvd. south to Santa Monica Blvd.) is quite wide as it used to have a trolly line down the center.  Bronson dead ends at Santa Monica, interruped to the south by the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and then Paramount Studios to the south of that.  It picks up again south of Paramount (but who cares about that part).

At the Santa Monica Blvd. entrance, like any fine English country estate or exclusive gated community, there is grand statuary announcing it's commencement.  Well, statuary Hollywood Style:


That's right, four big ol' silly Tiki Gods.


Omega Cinema Props is, I believe, the largest prop rental company in town.  So large in fact, that in addition to their main building, there is also C.P. Two, C.P. Three and C.P. Four.    The Tiki Gods are in front of C.P. Three.

For history's sake, this address was the location of an independent production company, Bulls Eye/Reelart in the teens and early 20's where, among others, the legenday, notorious Texas Guinan made a picture.


Every morning the four Tikis get carefully rolled out and lashed to the wall where they enjoy a day in the sunshine and at night they are taken back in.  (Hollywood's answer to the Peabody Hotel ducks?)  I couldn't find a picture, but at Christmas time the fine folks of Omega put big red Santa hats on all four of them.  These guys are enough of an LA fixture that even if friends don't know where Bronson is, all I have to say is, "turn left on the Tiki Gods street."

All pretty perfect.  Until 10pm Wednesday July 14th:





The next morning this is what greeted me:


I was heartsick.  I'm pretty certain from the looks of it that all the inventory from this building is lost.  How many props, from how many years of films and television that I've watched, that you've watched, that we've enjoyed, are now ashes.  But first and foremost, what of my beloved, innocent, harmless Tiki Gods? I was so sad that I started taking another route to and from my house.

Then yesterday I walked (yes, walked. In LA! A whole 2 blocks!!) down there and............


......DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?!?!?!?  It kinda looks like only three, but maybe the fourth is still alive too!  I just hope they are as sound and undamaged as the seem to be.  And I hope, please Gods of the Tikis, that they will once again stand sentinel, someday soon.

I ran out of shaving cream, and as I was still a little kinked up from helping a friend move on Friday, I decided to buck the LA trend and 'walk it out' to the store.  It would be about a 30 minute round-trip walk and it's a beautiful day here today, so I thought it would do me a world of good.

The store I was headed to is the recently opened Trader Joe's located in the back end of the new Hollywood and Vine W Hotel complex on the corner of Selma and Vine.  As I walked up Vine Street I did what I always do (and don't think I'll ever tire of):  I read the names on the parade of stars in the sidewalk that were passing under my feet.  ...Fanny Brice, Chester Conklin, Tony Bennett, Clara Bow....  Why do I do this.  There is no meaning, it's not like they're buried here or that their spirit lives here or anything.  It's just some terrazzo and fake brass in a sidewalk.  ....Mae West, Billie Holiday, Yakima Cannut, Cary Grant....  I am unable to stop myself.  By the way, if your destination is the Trader Joe's, and you are walking north on Vine, simply make a right turn at Donna Reed.

Now, a word from our sponsor.  You really couldn't do better for your face (or legs, ladies) than Trader Joe's Honey Mango Moisturizing Cream Shave.  At just $3.49 for an 8oz. tube, it smells terrific, lathers luxuriantly, and leaves your skin soft as anything.  I can't recommend it enough.

Coming out of the store, I was suddenly completely aware of some loud swingin' music.  I looked across the street and saw:

  Today is the 50th anniversary celebration of the Hollywood Walk of Fame!  It started with a ceremonial prayer dance by a Native American Tribe.
I must be a shoe-in for evil spirits because I have never been able to stand the smell of burning sage.  Nonetheless, as the marquee on the Ricardo Montalban Theater above promised, the day of festivities kicked of with the dedication of Louis Prima's star on said Walk of Fame.

All the years I've lived here, I've never attended one of these ceremonies, so I hung out to let Louis take my cherry (so to speak) (to coin a phrase).  It was a mixture of Chamber of Commerce nonsense, and actual heartfelt emotion.  There were a couple hundred people gathered around.  A mix of tourists and neighborhood folks.  After city council members, Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge patted everyone (including themselves) on the back, Prima's children, Lena and Louis Jr. came up and made some very moving remarks.  Apparently, Louis Prima, Jr. and his mother have been working for years to get him a star and, appropriately, it happened this year during his centennial celebration.  They choked up and we, the onlookers, did too.  When the covering was lifted to reveal the star, a huge roar went up from the crowd and for a moment we were all huge Louis Prima fans.

It was starting to get a little hot in the sun, so I made my way back down the street toward home.  ...Louis Prima, Jackie Cooper, Dick Powell, Ann Southern....  And I couldn't stop smiling.

And as everybody knows, When You're Smiling; The Whole World Smiles With You.

Ok, I'll be the first one to admit that living in Hollywood is often...different than life in other places.  I have examples of this:

Example A.  One day, while driving down Santa Monica Blvd., approaching Highland Ave., ahead of me I spied what appeared to be road kill.  Some poor squirrel, possum or cat had met an untimely fate.  It wasn't until I was practically upon it that I was able to discern -- it was a wig.

Alright, maybe that wasn't a definitive example, but it was funny.

Example B.  Until as recently as a couple of weeks ago when they were banned for unsavory behavior, it was a constant fixture here in Hollywood to see men and women dressed in character trolling the sidewalk in front of the Kodak and Chinese Theaters posing in photographs with tourists for the consideration of cash tips.  Therefore, I was never surprised to see Charlie Chaplin or Captain Jack Sparrow or Wonder Woman strolling up Vine St. at around 9 am in the mornings, wearing their ipods and carrying their Starbucks coffee on their way to 'work'.

This brings us to Friday.  In the morning I ran over to the historic Farmers Market to hang out with some friends over coffee and fresh danish.  I needed to be back home by 11:30.  My dear friend of nearly 30 years, George, is visiting from DC and I was taking him for a tour of The Sunset Gower Lot (the original Columbia studios).  At the market, I asked my friend Travis if he would like to come over to the house and meet George and he said he'd love to.  So in true LA fashion, by 11:15 there were three of us all headed to my house; in three separate cars.  I arrived first to discover this parked in front of my house:

Just kidding.  It was this:

Still kidding.  It was this:

Not kidding.

 A 1911 Willys-Overland!

As I was going sightseeing, I had my camera in my bag and started snapping pictures.

By now, both George and Travis had arrived.  I made a hasty and distracted introduction and soon they had there iphones out, taking pictures.  People walking down the street had stopped and there was now a small crowd gathered, taking in the magnificence of this antique beauty.  I ran to my next door neighbors house to tell him about it, and it turns out he had a visitor who was the owner of the car.  It also turns out that this is one in a collection of 11 classic autos the man owns!  It further turns out that he was nice enough to offer to take a picture of me sitting in the car!

Me, pretending to drive the 1911 Willys-Overland.

It was all very exciting and the three of us retired to the house for a much needed cup of coffee. 

Now if you think that arriving home to find a 1911 Willys-Overland parked in front of my house is the conclusion of my example on how life in Hollywood is different than other places that I've lived, hang on Bosco the story's not done yet.  Not...quite...yet.  About 10 minutes into our coffee, George looked out the window and exclaimed, "Jesus Christ, it's Mary Poppins!"  Cameras and iphones in hand, back outside we went.  An attractive English woman in, what appeared to be, her early forties who lives around the corner was walking by and spied the car.  Well knowing that she had just the outfit for the moment, and obviously not being a gal to turn down an opportunity, she ran home, changed clothes, grabbed a friend with a camera, came back, hunted down the cars owner and asked permission for an impromptu photo shoot, which was granted.




The rest of the day was spent with the usual, boring and mundane - looking at Harry Cohn's office and Rita Hayworth's dressing room...

You've read here about Hollywood Forever Cemetery before.


One of my favorite things in the place is this gorgeous statue:

What a wonderfully chic day I enjoyed at Stirred Straight Up With A Twist!

That said, it is equally grand to be back home 'where any young mechanic can be a panic with just a good looking pan'.

The first post showed the embryonic beginnings of the Warner Bros. Studios in 1919. Here we have the newly finished Administration Building that fronts on Sunset Blvd. just four years later in 1923. It looks the same to this day.



I live in a very cool neighborhood.