Los Angeles - Day 2



Los Angeles - Day 2 (11/16/2006)

Today we walked from our hotel, the Vagabond Inn on Figueroa, to the campus of the University of Southern California, where Laura did research all of Monday (two days before I arrived). We then drove through the Hollywood Hills to the Warner Brothers studio for our VIP tour (a much-more scholarly tour than the game-park tour of Universal Studios). We actually passed right by Matthew Perry (of "Friends" fame) taking a break from filming his new TV show. We then drove to the northwest part of Griffith Park to a location never visited by tourists, Bronson Cave. It's the site of an amazing number of 1930s and 1940s cliffhangers (serials), and afforded a terrific look at the famous Hollywood sign. Finally, still not tired of driving, we found the site (just off Sunset Boulevard) of one of the greatest of all screen comedies, the Oscar-winning short film of Laurel and Hardy's entitled "The Music Box".

In the evening, we attended a showing of a documentary of silent film star Theda Bara at the historic "barn" (the first Hollywood studio, used by Cecil B. DeMille for "The Squaw Man"). The building is now the Hollywood Heritage Museum. Among the sixty or so present was Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy!

It was a busy day!

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Shrine Auditorium

Statue nearby

Doheny Library of USC

Bovard Administration



Doheny Library

Two gigantic banyan trees

Bicycles abound

 

George Tirebiter

Tommy Trojan

Bovard Administration

Giant cactus
 


Jefferson Blvd. entrance

Shrine Auditorium

Warner Bros. studio Gate 5

Warner Bros. historic water tower
 


Entrance to VIP tour

Costumes (Matrix, Terminator, Harry Potter)

Harry Potter car

"Friends" set
 


Warners backlots


Town square

"Little House on the Prairie"
 





Gangster streets
 



Fire road to Bronson Cave


Hollywood hills chateaus
 


First glimpse of the cave

Laura at the west entrance

Inside

Looking east
 


Laura in "The Searchers"

Eastern entrance

We met two actors

Smaller side hole
 


High nearby slopes



Good view of Hollywood sign
 




"The Music Box" steps

Filmed on these very steps
 


Memorial plaque


Looking down

Sign at the top
 

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