CineSavant Column
Hello!
The Hollywood Reporter is particularly patriotic this week … Writers Scott Roxborough and Patrick Brzeski compile a not-bad list of movies familiar and obscure that just don’t like Nazis of any stripe.
It’s a cleverly-chosen list that includes, with good arguments, The Empire Strikes Back, Soldier of Orange and the misunderstood Starship Troopers.
And because we didn’t encounter any desirable film-related, non-political links, we’re trying an offhand photo feature …. residents of Los Angeles will find no revelations here — expect some nice boring notes. The photos are un-retouched snaps. They enlarge, if’n you should want a better look.
↑ Readers sometimes ask about ‘glamorous’ Hollywood, and I like to post pictures of The Hollywood Sign now and then. It’s a couple of miles North of CineSavant Central, and is our common checkpoint to see what the weather’s like. We walk out to the street, and if we can’t see the sign, there must be fog, smog, or a fire somewhere.
The first shot above is on Gower street almost at Santa Monica Blvd. We took these pictures because it was the first really clear day after the fires … everything looked uncommonly clean.
We do grocery shopping at 7am, normally … a COVID-era habit that showed us that 1) L.A. traffic is much more pleasant near the crack of dawn, and 2) Los Angeles looks great early in the day, too. On this morning we took a car for repair in Hollywood early, hence the non-grocery detour.
A quick check of Hollywood Blvd. looks very different than during the daytime tourist crush. Just above are the Hollywood Roosevelt and the marquee for Disney’s showcase theater the El Capitan, formerly the Paramount.
This is more or less what Grauman’s Chinese looks like now. The actual name changes every few years, changes we long ago decided to ignore.
I was an usher there for a few special events, back in 1972-1973. I’d say, “You know, Lock Martin once worked where we are working now.” Nobody knew what I was talking about.
When visitors come to Hollywood Blvd., they can be unimpressed, or even intimidated by the crowds on the street. Despite some flashy new developments it is still rundown, with many shuttered doors and most of its former picture palace theaters gutted. I snapped this clear picture of a distinctive building at the corner of Hollywood & Highland because the propmakers on 1941 duplicated it perfectly.
If you bring a small child to downtown Hollywood, their biggest memory may be this Dinosaur atop a novelty Museum. I kid you not. He is pretty cheerful. At Christmastime they affix a big Santa Hat onto the dinosaur, obviously imitating me and Gorgo.
And this is a real everyday photo from an early morning grocery run … my favored supermarket has a good view of the Griffith Observatory, a genuine Hollywood icon. Besides its role in many movies, the Observatory is a lasting Hollywood landmark, in a town where very little seems permanent … almost every place my fellow editors once worked ‘back in the day’ of film production has long since been obliterated.
I’ve kept these photos wide and loose in an effort to communicate context. We’re not saying this place is more desirable than others. In the last year we’ve visited the Washington D.C. area, South Bend Indiana, and always-beautiful San Francisco, and all have elements more attractive than my neighborhood.
Back to discs and thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson