Los Angeles/Hollywood Tours

[cool_chick]

Ok, I was thinking of taking my mother to Hollywood so she can see remnents of old Hollywood, the movie business when she was a little girl.

Are there any tours that cater to the Ginger Rogers/Fred Estaire/Gene Kelly, etc., era? The set of Gone With the Wind, perhaps? The Wizard of Oz? Metro-Goldyn Mayer era stuff?

Has any of this been preserved?

Any help would appreciated.

[varmint]

one of my first desperate jobs after moving to los angeles was driving stars home tour. imagine two hours in a poorly air conditioned van surrounded by the sort of people who think seeing julia robert's house is a good use of vacation time.

and about two weeks in i found a book that showed two thirds of the information i'd been trained to say was bull.

if you have specific questions i might be able to help. most of the mgm stuff you're describing is long gone. a few rko remnants are now part of the paramount lot. but other wise get this book and drive around on your own.


http://www.nrbooks.com/hollywoodtour.htm

[cool_chick]

Thanks so much Varmint. I really appreciate it.

I'm going to pick that book up. And I was just hoping to find sites to "relive the old days". Does that book contain sites of old events, or just current stars?

I'm not the type of person that gets into all this (in the modern sense, I personally could care less where Britney lives LOL), but the old Hollywood stuff would be cool.

[Moses]

Your mom has a great daughter.

[rexav8r]

Here's a goofy little tidbit... I used to fly for a company called ATI (Air Transport International). Their maintenance hanger at LAX is the old hanger (Hanger 1) that was used in Casablanca with Bogey & the gang.

It was pretty much empty and messy with spare parts and tools and stuff laying around.

There was a sign out front (on the street side), I guess it's on the Historical Registry or something. The way I was told, the airport people would like nothing more than to tear it down and build a more modern building that was actually useful there, but they're not allowed.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Why on earth would ANYONE want to go within 10 miles of Hollywood?

I avoid that area like Chernobyl.

It is most certainly NOTHING like what it used to be years ago. Now it's mostly a ghetto populated by hookers, failed diner-employed "wanna-bes" who live in their cars, bums and drug addicts. Yeech.

[id10t]

Don't forget a dinner tour! Take her to a dinner at Lowry's Prime Rib, etc.

[rcooled]

Yes...I'm afraid that Porsche-O-Phile is right. The old Hollywood of your mother's childhood is long gone. Hollywood Blvd. is just another a sad, dirty street lined with cheesy shops and populated with gawking tourists and local burn-outs.
I hate to say this but if your mom wants a glimpse of the Hollywood of old, take her to Disney's California Adventure. There's a sanitized version of classic Hollywood in there which is devoid of all the sleaze found in the original.
There are still some icons of the old movie capitol to be seen in Hollywood though...Graumann's Chinese Theater, the Roosevelt Hotel, etc. and you can find out about these and more in one of the many guide books available.

BTW...the Warner Bros. studio tour over in Burbank isn't bad....not exactly Hollywood but lots of movieland history was made there. The newly-restored Griffith Observatory is worth a look, too. It was used for many movie & TV location shots over the years, including James Dean's "Rebel Without a Cause" and the view from up there on a clear day is spectacular. The 46,000 sq ft Greystone Mansion is pretty cool too and has been featured in many TV shows, movies and television commercials. The mansion itself is closed to the public but the surrounding park is open for free, self-guided tours.

On a gastronomic note....the best east-coast-style, thin crust pizza west of the Rockies can be had at Mulburry St. Pizza on Beverly Blvd.

[varmint]

i vaguely remember gene kelly's house was this modest white picket thing on rodeo near lomitas.

i live in hollywood. not nearly as disgusting as it used to be. still not anything to get excited about. every tourist i remember came away disappointed.

if you want to see a celebrity, go hang out in a supermarket in mailbu.

[techweenie]

There are a lot of alternatives. The 'old Hollywood' is visible in scraps and remnants throughout Hollywood and on into Beverly Hills. PM me and I'll give you a list.

[Noah930]

I live a block away from a house that used to be Ginger Rogers'. It's for sale, and that bit is posted as part of the house description on all the real estate flyers. If you and your mom make it out here while the house is still for sale, you could even walk through during a weekend open house.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Why on earth would ANYONE want to go within 10 miles of Hollywood?

I avoid that area like Chernobyl.

It is most certainly NOTHING like what it used to be years ago. Now it's mostly a ghetto populated by hookers, failed diner-employed "wanna-bes" who live in their cars, bums and drug addicts. Yeech.

I'm starting to think of you as the guy at the fork in the road who always lies. (At least when it comes to L.A.). There is plenty wrong with Los Angeles, and always has been, but the truth is that Hollywood proper has been getting developed and gentrified non-stop for the last ten years. Hollywood Blvd. and vicinity is just one huge mega-development after another, mostly old buildings being renovated into high-priced residential/commercial properties or new high-rises going up, complete w/ construction cranes, etc.

The area has been cleaned-up in a huge way, PoP's description is about 10 years out-of-date. A couple of the developments are actually quite nice examples of urban renewal of the right kind, particularly the mixed-use res/com giants going up right over red line subway stops such as Hollywood and Western and Wilshire and Vermont. L.A. used to only have development where it was least needed, (like Westwood and the west side), this is a positive trend.

Downtown L.A. has also been booming in this decade w/ lofts and major residential projects, and is more interesting than Hollywood, IMO. Museums, concert halls, Chinatown and great inexpensive restaurants. Plus there is always some great tawdry celebrity trial going on to drop in on. Right now it's the Pelicano trial, the PI to the stars who illegally wire-tapped everyone in town for the last 20 years. He's acting as his own lawyer, (dumb schit), and probably going away for 60-80 years.

Send me a PM if you make it to L.A. and if I'm in town I'll show you the sights. There is actually some old Hollywood left. If you want to see Long Beach, call PoP.

[tabs]

The places where alot of the old films were made is now suburbia. Gruman Chinese is a nice place to visit, The Gene Autry Museum Western Museum out in Griffith Park is good for old Western memorabilia. Rodeo DR and Wilshire is worth a look at...that was where I saw Eddie Fisher and Liz Taylor in a 57 Chevy at a stop light one Sunday afternoon when I was a kid. Union Station and Alvera St are good places to take a gander at. Go N and check out Hearst Castle..that is untouched from back in the day when the stars used to hang out up their on weekends.

I guess you can drive by the Paramount Studios, Culver Studios, the Burbank Studios. I don't know exactly what you are going to see though. Drive around BH with a map of the stars homes. U might say just about every house had a star living in it at one time or another.

I think you really looking for the way CA or LA used to be back in the day. If you look closely you can see it under the development and redevelopment.

One thing for instance is the highway that was described in Raymond Chandlers "Big Sleep" That is Valley Blvd. It would take you 3 or so hours to traverse the distance because it is all stoplights and traffic. But back in the day before freeways that was one of the ways to get out to San Bernardino and Riverside. The other was old Route 66...

Those old highways used to parallel the railroad tracks.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by rexav8r

Here's a goofy little tidbit... I used to fly for a company called ATI (Air Transport International). Their maintenance hanger at LAX is the old hanger (Hanger 1) that was used in Casablanca with Bogey & the gang.

It was pretty much empty and messy with spare parts and tools and stuff laying around.

There was a sign out front (on the street side), I guess it's on the Historical Registry or something. The way I was told, the airport people would like nothing more than to tear it down and build a more modern building that was actually useful there, but they're not allowed.

What part did they film at LAX? The ending scene was filmed at Van Nuys airport.

[DavidI]

How about a visit to Universal Studios as well?

That is a very good, safe and clean version of the old Hollywood, David

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Why on earth would ANYONE want to go within 10 miles of Hollywood?

I avoid that area like Chernobyl.

It is most certainly NOTHING like what it used to be years ago. Now it's mostly a ghetto populated by hookers, failed diner-employed "wanna-bes" who live in their cars, bums and drug addicts. Yeech.

Like Techweenie says below followed by Denis, if you have a local show you (just as anywhere), you can see some interesting things. But, the "old " Hollywood exists in books and on film, that's about it.

Originally Posted by id10t

Don't forget a dinner tour! Take her to a dinner at Lowry's Prime Rib, etc.

That's hard into Beverly Hills and a long cry from old Hollywood. Actually, many of the silent films were filmed right here in Long Beach when Hollywood was still just rural land waiting to be developed. And, today's studios are everywhere but IN Hollywood. Burbank, Culver City and in the case of Geo Lucas, NorCal.

[rexav8r]

SloDave...
I'm not a Bogey fan and don't even really remember the movie... I'm not really the type to get star-struck either...

Hanger 1 is there. It has a sign depicting that it's a Historical Landmark. It 'may' say something bout Casablanca... The guys I was flying with pointed it out to me while walking by... (which was about 9 years ago.)

Drive by over there and take a pic of the sign and post it. Maybe you can let me know what scene it's from.



Woody Harrelson went to my High School in Lebanon, OH, that's about all I got for sure. Same town where they filmed Harper Valley PTA and Milk Money, if you're interested in grain-fed Mid-West stuff.

[Hugh R]

Originally Posted by slodave

What part did they film at LAX? The ending scene was filmed at Van Nuys airport.

Dave, I believe you "Misspoke" it was filmed at the old Glendale airport at the Air Terminal which Disney is beginning to restore. Its now called the Grand Central Business Centre.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Dave, I believe you "Misspoke" it was filmed at the old Glendale airport at the Air Terminal which Disney is beginning to restore. Its now called the Grand Central Business Centre.

I stand by what I said, except 'the ending scene'.

Quoted from Wiki, but search Google and it's the same.

Legend has it that Burbank Airport provided the setting for Humphrey Bogart's famous goodbye in the film Casablanca. But the airplane that departed with Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, who played her Nazi-resisting husband, was actually filmed during a late-night shoot in Van Nuys, at what was then called Metropolitan Airport. All the runway scenes that included actors took place inside sound stage No. 1 at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, where technicians re-created a dim Moroccan airstrip.

I have a documentary on Van Nuys Airport and it also references Casablanca.

Next time I happen to be in the vicinity of LAX, I'll try and find the hanger that rexav8r mentioned.

Dave