Armed with my second printed tour/map, we set off. This one is a bit easier to follow, as, apart from the odd side walk (north or south) it is a walk along one street, Hollywood Boulevard, East to West. Incidentally, if you fancy doing these walk yourself, the website is;
http://www.angelswalkla.org/walks.html
Starting on the North side of the boulevard, we came to The Pantages Theatre. Built in 1929, like most of these old building, it has seen better days. In deed, it was the home of the Oscars during the 1950's. Passing the Capitol records building, which looks like a stack of vinyl records, a side stroll north took us the the Knickerbocker Hotel. Now private apartments, as a hotel, it had quite a dark history. Actress Irene Gibbons slashed her wrists here and jumped from the 11th floor (for good measure), whilst film director D W Griffith dropped dead under the chandelier. Although apartments, we were able to gain access and view the afore mentioned chandelier.
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| Knickerbocker Hotel Lobby |
Further along the boulevard, there's the 1927 Warner Pacific Theatre and the Janes House, the oldest house on the boulevard, having been built in 1903. It's described as the last Victorian Queen Anne house on the boulevard. make of that what you will. It has been moved back from the road and is now practically unreachable, certainly from a photo point of view. Least they haven't knocked it down, though it doesn't sit well with the sports bar now in front of it!
The Musso and Frank Grill, is a 1919 restaurant. My friend Carol had said we would like this place. It was nearing lunchtime, so we popped our heads inside. It retains that old world charm but is very much a silver service establishment, with waiters in proper uniform. The prices on the menu reflected its up market status and needless to say, we did not partake. I can see Carol prefers the finer things in life ;-)
Another side stroll on, Highland Avenue, took us to the Methodist Church, which featured in the 1952 War of Worlds Movie. Further up Highland is the Hollywood Bowl but this was a stroll too far in the heat, so we returned to the boulevard and continued, stopping of at McDonalds, where Catherine found they did a veggie wrap.
Back on the boulevard, we came to the busy end and the Kodak Theatre, the new home of the Oscars. This is very strange, as it is embedded in the shopping mall, so not obvious from the street. I'm not an avid Oscars watcher but I'd never guessed from the red carpet shots I've seen that it was like that. Up in the mall, there's the only real view of the Hollywood sign up on the hillside. It's an awful long way off but full zoom gets a decent enough photo. Right next door is Grauman's Chinese Theatre, with its hundreds of hand and footprints of famous actors and actresses in the pavement/sidewalk outside. Another Route 66 vintage place, opened in 1927.
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| Grauman's Chinese Theatre |
Reaching the La Brea Gateway, a tribute to the women of Hollywood, we started the trek back along the South side of the boulevard.
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