A TOURIST IN 
On the return journey from my last trip to New Zealand I decided to stop over for a couple of days in Hollywood. I had been there once before, about 30 years ago, shortly after I had worked on The Danny Thomas Show European Holiday and was well looked after by the show producers during my stay. They arranged visits to the Disney Studios, the Glen Glen Sound Studios, and seats in the audience during the filming of an I Love Lucy show episode. This time I’d made no contacts and was going to be a tourist with the object of taking in the Warner Bros Studio Tour, and more especially, the Paramount Studio Tour. I was hoping to be able to see the studio main gate as seen in several Paramount movies but made especially famous in Sunset Boulevard when Gloria Swanson, playing the part of a faded silent star on a visit to her old studio, is stopped at the gate and is recognised by Jonsey, a security guard from her day who was still working there. The gate is still there, however, it’s now not the main entrance. When Paramount took over the adjoining RKO Studios, extra land was also acquired which moved the front boundary out to Melrose Avenue, where there is now a replica of the original gate. I was booked in at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, where the first Oscar Presentation Ceremony took place in 1929. The hotel is just over the road from Grauman’s Chinese Theater where the stars hand prints and signatures are set in concrete. What could be more touristy? Entering the hotel I passed a bronze statue of Charlie Chaplin, seated on a bench, with a live child either side being photographed by loving parents - obviously a favourite tourist spot. At the desk, along with my room key, I was handed a note informing me that that the swimming pool was closed for the day due to filming. Other guests expecting to lounge around the pool, sipping suitable syrups must have been disappointed. Not me. This might mean a chance to see a real live Hollywood crew in action and even talk sound to someone. Once settled into my huge old-fashioned but comfortable room with views of large neon signs (which undoubtedly, after dark, would flash on and off illuminating the room in the traditional Hollywood film noir fashion) I called up Warner Bros hoping to book in for a tour that afternoon. Not a chance! All tours for that afternoon or the next day, in fact for the rest of the week were fully booked. So that was Warner Bros off the schedule. A call now to Paramount. What if they were fully booked too? | But they don’t take bookings. “Come when you like”, said the voice on the phone, “Walking tours start from the Melrose gate every half hour from lOam”. So what to do with the afternoon? First have lunch and think about it. As I entered the hotel restaurant, there’s Charlie Chaplin sitting alone at a table having a drink! What a lifelike wax work I thought. Then as I waited to be seated ‘Charlie’ picked up his glass and drank from it. Clever animatronics I thought as the head waiter seated me at the next table. While I scanned the menu a person approached ‘Charlie’ giving him a sheet of paper mumbled something and left. That blew it, 'Charlie’ picked up the paper and peered myopically at it. He was real - a person dressed and made up like Charlie. After looking at the form for a few minutes, ‘Charlie’ turned to me and asked if perhaps I could lend him my reading glasses as he didn’t have his with him. Seems he was an extra, or rather she was, as it was a girl in the Charlie costume, on call with the unit filming by the pool. She needed to sign her daily chit, so I obliged with my glasses and was thanked by the Charlie look-alike, which was more fun than having my picture taken sitting by the bronze Charlie at the hotel entrance. 
After lunch I ventured out into Hollywood Boulevard. The brass inlays in the footway paving stones are still there but 30 years on from my last visit I hardly knew any of the pop and US TV starts that have been added over those years. I walked down to Grauman’s Chinese Theater to renew my memories and was horrified to find the entrance yard that has the hand and footprints of the starts covering the ground, crowded with souvenir stalls and even a photograph stand |
