Monday, January 09, 2006

Postcards on Parade ~ California


Top: The huge Bonaventure Hotel, where I stayed during a Special Event Convention, in the early nineties. You could get lost in that hotel very easily, and going up in their elevators was guaranteed to bring your stomach into your throat. Next: Downtown Los Angeles.

And now we enter Naomi's territory: Hollywood! Can we see your home from here? I used to think that the only place where houses were perched precariously on the side of a hill was in WV, but not so! Naomi mentions Ben Affleck's house in her post on 1-4-06 http://sitteninthehills64.blogspot.com/ and how it was built clinging to the side of the hill below her house. If you have ever been to Hollywood, you have seen the houses dotting the hillsides in places appearing to be impossible to build - but they do!

The angled card shows some of the embedded handprints and signatures of some of filmdom's finest: Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe, then Capitol Records headquarters, Mann's Chinese Theater and Mickey Mouse's star on the walk of fame.

The artist's drawing is of the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco, on Nob Hill, which I think was the model for the TV series "Hotel" that was on in the 90's. Even if you are not staying there, do go into the lobby and marvel at the fancy construction, and beautiful antiques.

Next is Mann's Chinese Theater, probably the most well-known landmark in Hollywood other than the Brown Derby Restaurant. I remember when it used to be Graumann's Chinese Theater, but I don't know why the name changed. Naomi, can you enlighten us?

13 comments:

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Yes indeed...The theatre had been built and owned by Sid Grauman and he is the one that started the Hand and Foot Prints in the cement...Somewhere along around,(NOT SURE OF THE TIMING HERE...) the late 70's early 80's, I think...a man named Mann, bougt the theatre...(Ted Mann, I believe is his name...Married to Rhinda Fleming(?) or Arlene Dahl..(Wel, you never see them together..) and because these things have a lot of ego attahed to them, HE, Mr. Mann, changed the name of this Landmark Theatre, having been Grauman's for around 50 years...(maybe more..). I hated that the name got changed, as did a lot of people with a sense of History..especially in an industry that is still pretty young...
But, Mt. Mann didn't give a hoot! So now EVERYONE thinks of this Theatre as Mann's Chinese, but it will always ALWAYS be Grauman's Chines to all of us Hollywood History people! And, I live practicly right above Grauman's...well, just a shade west of it and up that hill that is behind it...

Incidentally Judy, The Hollywood Sign is a few miles EASST of me and Grauman's....Now everyone Google this and see if my memory is truly gone!!!! (LOL)

Dak-Ind said...

greetings from michele!

los angels is only about 17 hours from here, and since disney is there, i have been there a few times. it is a rather daunting city and i find that i prefer san diego.

i love visitin naomi! she has such a wonderful blog, its awesome of you to "promote" it!!

OldLady Of The Hills said...

LOVE that we are still playing the comment game...

Michele sent me back her pretty quick!

LOL!

Peter said...

They just keep comin' from you Judy, as always interesting.

sage said...

Do you collect post cards of trains and ships (i've picked up a few over the years and keep thinking I'll display them, but have yet done it).

justrose said...

a place i have always wanted to see, and have never yet been.

srp said...

I've been to a couple of meetings out there. I loved the Santa Barbara area the best and the towns up in the hills. My aunt lives in San Diego and I took pathology boards there back in the dark ages when the exams lasted a whole week.

poopie said...

I've never been any farther west than Texas. I'm hoping to change that someday! Love prissy, by the way ;)

Jamie Dawn said...

Hollywood is fun to visit, but it really is a seedy, dive of a place. It's good to see the stars names on the sidewalks and take pictures, but I woudn't want to hang out on the streets there after dark.

Anonymous said...

interesting history Judy! Loved the Maxine comic below, too. Especially the last comment from you on the same post. How true that is!

Arethusa said...

This was great, I liked getting all the background history about the places featured in the postcards from you and Naomi--thanks!

I do still collect post cards so this is one thing I can relate to--and I have my mother's post card collection from all her travels to Europe and the Caribbean.

Anonymous said...

Just wait- I updated my system to Tiger today and scanning comes next...And here's the weather report for Ann Arbor, MI: 36F, mostly cloudy, 76% humidity, winds 8 mph WNW, and most importantly! the barometric pressure is 30.16 and rising. Have a great day and thanks for your visits and comments!

OldHorsetailSnake said...

I once visited the corner of Hollywood and Vine, just so I could say I did. Nobody was impressed.