Tour Diary: Los Angeles and Adieu To Ama
Tour Diary: Los Angeles and Adieu To Ama
My mom and I spent a fascinating day in LA hitting old movie sites and chasing the ghosts.
After the gig in Fresno, Ama and I hopped in the car and began the drive south to Los Angeles. While I would be in the city for a long weekend, mom and I would have just the one day together and we hoped to make the most of it. Aretha ferried southward late into the night until we stopped for a 1:30 am Denny’s cheeseburger and a few hours of rest.
The next morning, we were on the road just after 7:00 am, careening down I-5 to very light traffic. We entered the City of Angels form the north and eventually hit the legendary LA traffic on our way to our first stop for the day; The Griffith Observatory.
Despite the early hour and overcast skies, the area around the Griffith Park Observatory was quite busy with top of the day tourists. The observatory is an icon of the Los Angeles skyline. It has been featured in a number of motion pictures, including the famed climactic scene from A Rebel Without A Cause. Griffith sits on a hill overlooking the city and the surroundings valleys. One can also get a great vantage point for seeing the Hollywood sign.
After walking around the observatory and the attendant grounds, we made our way back down the long hill to the lot where we found Aretha waiting just as the sun began to emerge from the skimpy California clouds. I pulled up the GPS and plugged in a stop along the Big Bus tour so we could take in the city in a flash and get a bit of the tourist experience.
No less than 20 minutes later, we parked near a stop along the bus route behind the Paramount Pictures soundstages on Gower Avenue. As we waited for the bus to arrive, the day began to warm up and the city started to come more alive. After waiting close to a half an hour, our bus pulled up, and we hopped aboard.
I’ll acknowledge that these hop on and hop off buses are a hokey way to travel in a major city. However, they are an excellent way to get the lay of the land very quickly, and usually offer a chance to see a wide swath of a city in a short amount of time. Ama had thought this would be a superb way for her to get a sense of LA during her only day in town.
Seated on the upper deck of the bus, we fiddled with the complimentary earbuds and tuned in the voiceover portion of the tour. Almost immediately I knew that I wasn't going to be using the audio track for the tour. First, I earbuds are uncomfortable and ineffective for my ear shape. I find them truly painful to place in my ears and the sound quality is always utter garbage. Alas, even if I had enjoyed my experience with the earbuds, the pair of women that they chose to narrate the tour were both annoying and uninteresting. Furthermore, the audio program seemed to be off by several stops. I pulled out the earbuds, tossed them in my pocket and just gawked at the sights.
We came upon the famed intersection at Hollywood & Vine and pulled up in front of the Pantages Theatre for a brief stop. The Pantages is a stunning old movie palace that has been restored to its former glory. The corner also features a great view of the silo shaped Capitol Records building just down the street. Although, we had only been on the bus a few minutes, now it felt like we were in Hollywood.
From Hollywood and Vine, we inched our way through thick traffic to the main stop on the loop in the heart of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The walk stretches several attendant blocks in each direction from Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood Blvd. Ama and I hopped out of the bus and began the walk through the cavalcade of stars until we made it to the Chinese.
Grauman’s Chinese Theater was first opened in 1927 by theatre impresario Sid Grumman who had seen great success with his first Hollywood Theatre, The Egyptian. The Chinese has been the home to myriad premieres, events, and has even hosted three Academy Awards Ceremonies, yet what makes the theatre world famous is the cement out in front of the entrance.
In a courtyard on Hollywood Boulevard in front off a gorgeous, giant cathedral to cinema is a collection of Hollywood royalty literally captured in stone. The cement pads that make up the courtyard around the entrance to the Chinese have been signed, stamped, drawn in, and personalized by some of the greatest actors and filmmakers in the history of movies.
I stepped in Humphrey Bogart’s shoes and compared the size of our hand prints. I saw signatures and notes of well wishes from luminaries like Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Mary Pickford, Shirley Temple, Cary Grant, MarilynMonroe, and dozens more. At one point, while I stared at a set of footprints, Ama grabbed me to pull me back to the other side of the courtyard. She pointed to a pair of light red stones and tears began to form in my eyes.
On the left was a stone signed by Jack Lemmon in 1963, to the right was a stone signed lovingly by Shirley MacLaine, his co-star in The Apartment, one of my favorite films. Jack Lemmon has always been an actor I admired more than most, and his performance in The Apartment is maybe the finest moment of his brilliant career. But my love for that film and for Lemmon’s talent is not what made me tear up.
In addition to his signature and a date, Lemmon had written two words on his stone, “Magic Time”. During his career, Lemmon would often use that phrase, “Magic Time” to pump himself up before a take. It was a phrase I first learned when working in a community theatre group. I fell in love with the concept of Magic Time immediately.
Seeing that phrase written in stone by Lemmon himself felt like an affirmation of all of the effort, sacrifice, and pain that has gone into making these tours a possibility. While I no longer tread the boards as an actor, I believe I get my Magic Time every night for an hour or so in front of a new set of strangers who will become friends before the night is over. It seemed that one of my heroes was trying to remind me that making magic is what this life is all about. I wiped away the tears trying to not look as raw as I felt in the moment. Just looking back at the photo of Lemmon’s note makes my eyes well up. It felt so grateful to have that affirmation and encouragement.
Leaving the Chinese, we strolled back to the original bus stop a few blocks away to continue the tour. Ama and I hopped back on the bus and found a pair of seats on the top deck. Our route took us past a handful of other revived movie palaces like the El Capitan, and then we turned left toward the Sunset Strip. So much of the Hollywood strip is filled with souvenir shops and tacky stores. We meandered along the main streets of Hollywood finally making our way to Sunset and some of the iconic hotels, venues, and clubs that still thrive on that famed stretch of road.
We cruised past the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory. On our right, we spied the famed Chateau Marmont Hotel that has been home to myriad rockers and movie stars. In addition to the Chateau, we passed a trio of famed clubs in The Rainbow, The Roxy, and The Whiskey-A-Go-Go. The area was relatively quiet at midday, but when I would pass through at night later in the weekend, it would become a different scene altogether.
The Big Bus tour rolled on as we tooled through a small section of Beverly Hills to see how the 1% live. Most of the homes are screened by fencing or vegetation, but the homes I did see looked to be mostly uninteresting in design, or downright dated and ugly. It felt as though I was in a showroom of folks proving how much money they had. You can have all the money in the world, but you cannot buy taste.
After another half hour of rolling another half hour of the Hollywood streets, we hit the stop at Museum Row and made our way to the entrance of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. While we had discussed visiting the Academy Museum, it wasn't until the bus stopped just down the block that we made the final call to take the tour.
We entered the multi-level building to see a massive mural of Sidney Poitier painted on a far wall. To our left, a series of screens were playing clips from films famous and lessor known form around the world. After craning our heads around the lobby, we sauntered up and purchased a pair of tickets. What followed was a trip through a few of cinemas most luminary moments.
Early in our tour, we happened into a room devoted to the early Jewish pioneers of Hollywood. It looked at the incredible impact of early Jewish visionaries in the world of cinema like Louis B. Mayer, Adolph Zukor, The Warner Brothers, Harry Cohn, Carl Laemmle and many more. While much of the information provided was already known to me, it was wonderful to see and hear the personal stories of these early film pioneers. There was also a wonderful interactive exhibit that featured a lighted map of Hollywood that showed the transformation of the city during the early decades of the 1900s.
From there, Ama and I proceeded to a series of exhibitions that included a deep dive into the making of Casablanca, and the fascinating stories of its immigrant cast and crew. Both of Dooley Wilson’s pianos from the film have been preserved and are now on display, as are the doors form the set of Rick’s American Cafe where the majority of the action in Casablanca takes place. This is film that has been a part of my life almost as long as the concept of breathing. Now, to stand amongst its relics and feel the ghosts was incredibly powerful. Ama and I shared the goosebumps and read every word of the signage in the Casablanca exhibit. That alone would have been worth the price of admission.
As we continued to explore, we soon found ourselves inside the world of another film that changed my view of cinema completely. The centerpiece of The Godfather exhibit is the entire office set that was used to film the opening sequence of what may be the greatest movie America has ever produced. The dimly lit room is decked in deep wood trim and dark wall papering. The thick wooden blinds that brought in shafts of light in the first Godfather film almost come to life looking at the set. It was if one stood across the desk from Don Corleone himself to ask a favor of the Godfather.
The rest of The Godfather exhibit included the lighted sign from Louis’ Restaurant where Al Pacino’s character Michael kills a cop and a rival gang leader. There is an impressive collection of costumes from the opening sequence that evokes a physical sense of the wedding scene and places you there at Connie’s reception.
There were terrific exhibits on the history of animation and a series of artifacts from the original Disney Studios, including a gorgeous animator’s desk that had been designed by one of Disney’s animators. We stepped into a charming look at the films and life of the great French director Agnes Varda, and witnessed a lovingly curated retrospective of Pedro Almodovar’s work.
We saw Dorothy’s ruby slippers, took a deep dive into the history of color in film, and were subject to myriad short and experimental films from the 1890s through the 1950s. A few other highlights include a phone booth from Blade Runner, an original costume for C3PO, Kim Novak’s green dress from Vertigo, and even the destroyed mask of Darth Vader from Return of The Jedi.
Our afternoon at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures had delivered a rush of Hollywood history that was much needed. After the phony glitz and glamor of Hollywood Boulevard it was wonderful to be reminded why Hollywood matters in the first place.
Back on the Big Bus, we chatted and took in the sights as we made our way back to our original stop a few blocks from where Aretha waited for us patiently. In need of a toddy and a snack, I pointed us toward the Formosa Cafe, a Chinese restaurant and cocktail bar with a long history and a charming interior.
The Formosa was opened in 1925 and during its nearly hundred year history has hosted some of Hollywood’s brightest luminaries such as Bogart, Gable, and Sinatra. The Cafe was first opened as a train car turned diner and a larger permanent building was added later on with red lighting, banquette booths and a gorgeously decorated, Asian themed bar.
I had first heard about the Formosa the it was used as a location for L.A. Confidential in the late 90s. I figured we good grab a drink or two, enjoy a snack, and take in the scenery. We pulled up out front around 4:00 in the afternoon and I surprisingly found a two hour parking spot out in front of the Cafe. I swiped my car to fill the meter and we crossed the street and headed inside the Formosa.
The very kind hostess offered us our choice of a table or banquet and we opted for a small two-top back in the dining car. The banquettes were super cool and would have been a lovely place to settle in, but it seemed selfish for two people to take up an entire booth in the midst of happy hour. We plopped at our table down next to the window and immediately began looking at the faded photos above. There were images of fighters, directors, actors, and other LA movers and shakers from the first half of the 20th Century.
Ama ordered a glass of Riesling and I opted for a gin cocktail. We ordered a plate of dumplings and talked about our day in Tinsel Town. We had both loved the museum and had also found Hollywood itself to be a bit of a mixed bag. Early on in the bus tour, Ama had mentioned to me, “When you’re from an industry town, you can smell another industry town.”
I knew exactly what she meant. Whether you make Mustangs or movies, an industry town carries certain hallmarks. They are often filled itinerate folks who are only there due to the prospect of work in a chosen field. There is a veil of outsized impact from the industry leading a particular town; Be it film, automobiles, furniture, or produce, an industry town is led by almost exclusively the economic engine that runs it and that engines drives almost everything else in its wake as well. Detroit and LA might make a different end product, but they are much more alike than you might realize.
Back at the Formosa, Ama and I ordered a second round of drinks and made the decision to stay for an early dinner. We ordered a Kung Pao Chicken and a different set of dumplings and savored every morsel. To this point in my trip, and for virtually all of Ama’s time with me, the food had been a disappointment. At the Formosa Cafe, all of those memories of subpar meals melted away in a sea of pork, soy, ginger, and chicken.
With our tastebuds finally joyful and our bellies full, we pulled Aretha out into the Santa Monica Boulevard traffic and slowly wound our way out to the airport where we had booked a hotel for the night. Along the way, we got another glimpse of the Hollywood sign, saw a few more Hollywood spots and navigated the traffic to our hotel near LAX and Ama’s early flight the next morning.
After a full day of walking, driving, bus riding, museum hunting, and happy hour hi-jinks, we decided to make it an early night. We settled in at the Travelodge in El Segundo before the light had even fully escaped form the California skyline. I worked a bit, read, and caught up on the news that I was missing each day out on the road. Ama finished her daily set of word games and read silently.
Hollywood with my Mother had been something of a waking dream, it seems. we’d walked in the footsteps of heroes, stood inside the Godfather’s office and nearly reached out to touch Dooley’s piano from Casablanca. We’d been to the Griffith Park Observatory, and enjoyed a special meal in a special place. In just a few hours, Ama and I had been able to connect with a world that had been inside our dreams since birth. To walk through that world with my cinematic spirit guide was a treat I will never forget.
Cheers,
Matty C
Sounds like a great Hollywood experience! I've been there a couple of times in the last few years and always get a kick out of it. The Apartment is also one of my favorite movies!
Thanks for this! I lived in Los Angeles a long time and not far from the Formosa. My daughter was born there, and we moved away before she really knew where we were I’d love to take her back there and show her around You took me back, and makes me want to go visit my old stomping grounds