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by Pam Ripling

I mentioned earlier this week that I grew up in North Hollywood, California. I used this fact to garner envy and respect from my out-of-state pen pals, who didn’t know that North Hollywood is a completely different town, separated from its famous, parent-named city by a mountain pass. Although quite a number celebs did call the San Fernando Valley home, NOHO, as North Hollywood is now commonly called by today’s locals, was merely a bedroom community back in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

So, not counting my hometown, there are really two Hollywood, Californias. The physical one and the make-believe one. In the brick-and-mortar world of sidewalks and streetlights, Hollywood is a place I don’t like to frequent. First on my "hate-it" list is the traffic. Old streets, congestion, parking problems, never-ended street maintenance. Pan handlers, street entertainers who get into frequent altercations with each other. Buses, taxis, homeless. Many a tourist laments, “Huh? So this is Hollywood and Vine? What’s so special?”

Pop on those rose-colored glasses, Aunt Mabel. For here, on the streets of Hollywood’s fairy-tale image, are where dreams come true. Here is the Walk of Fame, which next year will celebrate 50 years of immortalizing celebrities with 28 new stars for Russell Crowe, Adam Sandler, Emma Thompson; Ringo Starr, Bryan Adams, Van Morrison and (posthumously) Roy Orbison, among others (see complete list here.)

Here is Grauman’s Chinese Theater, which furthers the magic with imprints of stars, forever “preserved” in concrete. So in love with its glittery, famed inhabitants, Hollywood makes room for their notoriety and their particular needs. Did you know that a tunnel exists below the Chinese, leading under the street and into the Roosevelt Hotel across the street? Sid Grauman felt it best to allow his famous clientele to escape the theatre peacefully after those big Hollywood premieres. (Note: The Chinese spans the generations... Gene Kelly's prints are right beside those of Daniel Radcliffe! See the map, here.)

As if Hollywood didn’t already pay enough glorious homage to its stars, entrepreneur Spoony Singh built the Hollywood Wax Museum “with the vision of bringing people close to their favorite stars. More than 40 years later, the Hollywood Boulevard attraction is the longest running wax museum in the nation.” If you can’t see them in person, you can catch up with their likenesses here, for around $13.

It’s often said that you can find anything you want in Hollywood, from the benign to the decadent. Tour stars’ homes, tour stars’ graves. Tour stars’ studios, and sit where they’ve sat at the bistros and clubs on Sunset Boulevard. Me, even though it’s only a 40 minute drive, I prefer to watch the glam from the comfort of my own living room—on American Movie Classics.


Pam Ripling is the author of middle-grade mystery, LOCKER SHOCK! Buy it at Quake, Fictionwise or Amazon today! E-book version now available for your Kindle! Visit Pam at http://www.beaconstreetbooks.com/.

Go-Go-Go-Godzilla Word Game!

Hollywood

Just the word "Hollywood" brings to mind sparkly stars. That's what we call "word association" and for my blog today, I think it would be awesome to play the WA game! Did you know that actors take Improv classes where they have to create the script on the spot? They often do this through WA-style games.

Here's the rules: You MUST type in the word that first comes to mind at the moment you see the last one on the page. So if Bandit is the last word and you automatically think of a hairdryer, then you have to write "Hairdryer" in the comments. That's why this game can be so funny and how so many professional comedians like Jim Carrey, Drake Bell, Josh Peck and Miranda Cosgrove can ad-lib with hilarious results.

Okay, so I'll start here to give y'all a look at how this works and let you finish in the comments:

Twilight: Vampires

Vampires: Lestat

Lestat: New Orleans

New Orleans: Flood

Flood: Disaster Movie

Disaster Movie: Godzilla

Godzilla:


Okay, now it's your turn! Have a blast!

J.R. Turner is the author of the Extreme Hauntings series. The first book, DFF: Dead Friends Forever is available at Amazon.com, Kindle, Fictionwise, and Echelon Press.com

The Dog Days of Hollywood

When I think of Hollywood nowadays, what unfortunately fills my mind is pictures of vapid actresses who need to be tied to a chair and fed a cheeseburger. But this blog deserved more than that, and so I decided to take a look further back at some of the most beloved, ahem, actors and actresses of all time.

Rin Tin Tin: Found as a puppy huddled with his mother and three siblings in a muddy German trench during WWI, Taylor Swift has nothing on this dog’s rags-to-riches story. At the age of five, he was signed by Warner Bros, commanding an unheard-of salary of $1000 a week, which he earned by doing all his own stunts.

Lassie: An unwanted dog named Pal who spawned—literally—a cinematic tradition. It was Pal’s problem with chasing motorcycles which dropped him in the laps of the foremost Hollywood dog trainers of the time, Frank and Rudd Weatherwax. Pal and his sons firmly entrenched Lassie in the hearts of Americans for almost 70 years and counting.

Toto: A female Cairn terrier named Terry, the poor dog actually had to be replaced midway through the film when one of the the Wicked Witch of the West’s guards stepped on and broke her foot. No matter, though…she made more per week than the munchkins, and had a resume of 13 films before she passed away at the age of 10.

Old Yeller: My personal favorite, Spike, as he was named in real life, was a rescued Black Mouth Cur (a breed I’d never heard of before today) who was initially too friendly to play the part of a stray prairie dog. His owner managed to finagle a second tryout, though, and a week later, a toughened up Spike landed the part. He starred in several more films, but Old Yeller is the one that made him a star.



Jacquelyn Sylvan is the author of Surviving Serendipity. Buy it now at Amazon!