Hollywood's Golden Days

So today our love affair with LA continued. We used the Expo Metro line to get to Hollywood, joined by hundreds of sports fans who were amassing near the Science Museum for a tailgate party. Yep, the Rams were playing. Everyone was in good spirits and when we left the train at 7th Sreet, we easily transferred to a Red Line, bound for Hollywood and Vine. On arrival, we discovered tacky tourist central, again!

Anyway, we had a coffee in "Grind" ( a new and very smart coffee spot) and then headed for Highland Avenue and our ultimate destination, the Hollywood Museum. On the way, we passed the 'It House Experience' .... as it says on the can! And the queue was several blocks long! The Hollywood museum sits just off Hollywood Blvd, housed in a classic 1920's looking building. In fact, it was once the Max Factor headquarters, the must visit place of the leading movie stars, of the day. All the screen legends were regulars and the ground floor bore testimony to this fact.

The basement, however, housed a treasure trove of horror and Sci-fi movie memorabilia, The upper floors didn't disappoint, either! Filled with readily recognisable props from films made in Hollywood's golden days, TV classics such as the Beverly Hillbillies, and photographs of Hollywood Boulevard in its hey day, when the Brown Derby was the place to be seen at; when movie stars shopped and dined here, before the tourists came! Visiting the Museum is a must for anyone with a passing interest in cinema and far more 'real' than anything else in the vicinity! Nevertheless, we also made the effort to visit the famous Chinese Movie Theatre, before heading back to base.

The return journey went well and following a quick laundry run, we headed for dinner at the nearby Island Burger Restaurant, on Pico ..... the very first, founded in 1980!


And today's musical reminder? I guess it has to be Hooray for Hollywood!