Stop Four - Hollywood History Museum
Google Map for this location
Next, we head to the hear of Hollywood. Specifically, the corner of Hollywood and Highland. We did see some interesting sites along the way, though. While we were sitting in traffic, I glanced over and saw this building that I initially thought was an auto repair shop. But when I read the signs, I find that it is really a hair salon! A block or two later, while we were waiting at another light, I spotted this Thai food place with an enormous hot dog on the roof. I had to get a picture of that!
As it turns out, I had plenty of time to take pictures from the Element, because we got stuck in some horrible mid-day traffic. Chris said that he thought that he was not that familiar with that area in the afternoon, but he didn't think that traffic would have been as bad as it was. As we passed Grauman's Chinese Theater, we saw the signs that Johnny Depp was putting his hands and feet in cement that morning. The traffic must have been the after-effects of that event. Had we known he was going to be there, we might have made an attempt to see him. Stephie was particularly disappointed that we missed him, although, as I pointed out, he's no Pierce Brosnan.
We finally parked and headed towards the Hollywood History Museum. After a terrific lunch at the attached Mel's Drive-In, we toured the museum. Chris said that he always wondered what was in there, so we were a convenient excuse to check it out. Unfortunately, our cameras were confiscated at the front desk, so we don't have any shots of the contents, but here's some pictures of the building and the diner.
If anyone reading this is planning a trip to Hollywood, I would highly recommend a visit to the Hollywood History Museum. Located in the old Max Factor building, much of the first floor is contains what I found out later to be the contents of a Max Factor Museum, that used to be housed in this building. As we walked through the 'Blondes', 'Redheads', 'Brunettes', and 'Brownettes' rooms, we saw lots of framed makeup ads and makeup memorabilia. Once we got past the Max Factor stuff, we found a huge collection of autographs, photos, props, costumes and other Hollywood memorabilia.
Some of the stuff in there tied in directly with other stops on our tour. One wall had pictures of all the old Hollywood studios, including the Keystone studio. And one of the framed pictures (which wouldn't fit in Steph's purse!) had autographs of Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp and Joe Besser.
Chris and I wandered into this big room with a corrugated steel floor and huge movie posters going all the way up to the ceiling, which looked to be about three stories high. I noticed a plaque saying that the room was actually an elevator from 1918! Inside there was a model of the Eiffel Tower that was taller than me.
While we were wandering around, a guy approached us and said that he was starting a tour in a couple minutes if we were interested. He seemed a little on the shmoozy side, but we went anyway. When he gathered a large enough crowd, he took us down to the basement and showed us the jail set from 'Silence of the Lambs', then took us up in the big elevator to the third floor to continue our tour. Turns out it was the largest elevator on the west coast according to our guide. Before Max Factor bought the building, it was used for storing cars for various movie stars, and they could just drive the car into the elevator and park it on whatever level it belonged. Once Max Factor moved in, they kept it, because, as he said, they could just drive the delivery truck in and go up and down, making deliveries to each floor right from the truck! Much easier and cheaper than unloading on the ground floor and hauling the stuff around. And it turns out that the Eiffel Tower model was used in the movie 'Moulin Rouge'. We had only planned to spend a couple hours there, but we could have stayed all day. Check their web site for more information.
We left there and headed back to the corner of Hollywood and Highland. There is a Ripley's museum on the corner, and there's a huge T. Rex popping out of the roof, holding a clock. Check it out, as we walk towards our next stop.
On to the Next Stop
