My photographer and his wife were up early on Wednesday August 8, 2018 and after they enjoyed a small breakfast and a large conversation with Tom and Rhonda Currier, the three of us were headed for Hollywood. Although the traffic had been tolerable for us during our visit to Southern California, that fact changed as soon as we merged onto the freeway in Tustin. At first, the bumper-to-bumper congestion was backed up further than the eye could see. But thankfully, after about twenty minutes, we picked up some steam and most of the 42-mile drive to Los Feliz wasn’t as bad as the first five miles.
While Tom and Vicki were nearing the end of their 2018 vacation, our first stop was where the most famous vacation in movie history began in 1983. In the film ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’, the Griswold’s home was in Chicago. But in reality, the house where Clark, Ellen, Rusty, and Audrey Griswold first boarded the Family Truckster for their cross-country trip to Walley World was located in Los Feliz, California. With no place to park along North Vermont Avenue, Vicki stayed with the Mustang as she blocked the north driveway entrance to the famous two-story house. My photographer carried me to the southern driveway gate where he took a countless number of photos of the Griswold’s place – in each image he tried to match up with a scene in the movie. I was surprised by the fact that the house looked nearly unchanged since Clark backed the Truckster out of the garage 35 years ago.
When my photographer and I got back into the Mustang, I wondered if I would hear Lindsay Buckingham’s ‘Holiday Road’ playing as we headed to our next site, but the only words that popped into my head was: “Here’s the story, of a man named Brady; who was busy with three boys of his own. They were four men, living all together; now we’re in front of their home.” When Vicki parked the car across the street from the iconic ranch-style split-level house, there was no mistaking why we were there – it was the house used for the exterior scenes for ‘The Brady Bunch’ television show. Ironically, a few days earlier, my companions saw on TV that the house was purchased by HGTV for $3.5 million. The home-improvement reality cable network had outbid NSYNC’s Lance Bass and immediately planned to renovate the house to the way it appeared on the show in the ’70s. With me watching from an opening at the top of the camera case, my photographer carried me to the sidewalk directly in front of the famous house. While the three of us stood there watching for a thrown football to hit Marcia Brady in the nose, it was cool to see the huge smile on Vicki’s face as she posed near the home’s entryway. It was obvious that some of her favorite childhood memories had flooded back; her thoughts of Greg, Marcia, Bobby, Jan, Peter, and Cindy were from the times when the world seemed so innocent.
The neighborhood around ‘The Brady Bunch’ house was quiet and tranquil; and we were somewhat subdued to leave a place where time seemed to stand still. With Vicki behind the wheel of the Mustang, we headed north for nearly ten miles until she parked the car in front of the famous Van Nuys High School – a school where times weren’t so slow; at least in the movies. As the three of us walked towards the front of the building, there was no mistaking where we had seen it before – it was the school used in the 1982 movie ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’. I could see the joy in my photographer’s face as he snapped images of the famous school as ‘Fast Times’ was one of his all-time favorite movies. Although we couldn’t enter the building, it was almost as though we could hear history teacher Mr. Hand as he wrote the words “I don’t know” on the chalk board. “I don’t know, that’s nice. Mr. Hand, will I pass this class? Gee Mr. Spicoli, I don’t know. That’s nice, I really like that. You know what I’m gonna do? I’m going to leave your words on my board for all my classes to enjoy, giving you full credit of course, Mr. Spicoli.” After which Jeff Spicoli replied: “All right!”
During our time in Southern California, we’ve been able to find several filming locations that featured Marty McFly from ‘Back to the Future’. Once the three of us had returned to the Mustang and the flux capacitor was activated, we traveled to 1985 where we arrived in front of the McFly residence on Roslyndale Avenue in Arleta. While my photographer took numerous pictures of the house and street at various angles, I envisioned Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer as they walked out of the garage to greet Doc Brown who had arrived in his DeLorean time machine. After Tom was finished capturing images of the famous McFly home, my photographer once again asked his wife to get the car up to 88 miles per hour, even though he didn’t think the road was long enough to hit that speed. Then I thought to myself: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!”
It turned out that we did need roads to get to Hollywood – 12.8 miles of roads to be exact. My photographer had a few goals while we were in Tinseltown: he wanted his wife to see the hotel used in the movie ‘Pretty Woman’; to visit the Chinese Theater where a scene of ‘Blazing Saddles’ was filmed; and Tom wanted to photograph the sidewalk stars of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. It was roughly 12:15pm when we were parked a block away from Hollywood Boulevard and were walking to the hotel where Julia Roberts said to Richard Gere: “She rescues him right back”. Tom had left the top of the camera case open so I could see the sites of La-La Land and I nearly laughed out loud when the first star I saw on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated to “The Watson Family”. I didn’t realize that I belonged to a famous family, but there it was and it was located one block from the ‘Pretty Woman’ hotel.
One block from The Watson Family star, we arrived at the Las Palmas Hotel which was located in an area that seemed “sketchy” – at least at first. The Las Palmas was the hotel used for Vivian and Kit’s apartment in the movie ‘Pretty Woman’. As we stood across the street where Tom snapped a bunch of images of the famed hotel, it was as though I could see a white limousine as it approached with Richard Gere standing through the sunroof while Julia Roberts waited on the building’s fire escape. The only thing missing was the opera music. Perhaps the most memorable and iconic part of the hotel that was still in place was the fire escape ladder that Richard Gere pulled down with his umbrella.
My photographer’s wife loved posing in front of the Las Palmas Hotel, even though she knew there was no chance that Richard Gere would drive up in a white limousine. She was stuck with the chubby guy with the camera hung around his neck and the good-looking bobble head in his hand. It was lunch time and when my companions approached Hollywood Boulevard, they saw an unusual-looking diner called ‘Rusty Mullet’. The interior was interesting as it reminded me of a garage sale that sold food and drink.
At roughly 1:30pm, the three of us were ready for our walk along the famous Hollywood Boulevard – which wasn’t a glamourous as I would’ve guessed. We saw hundreds of stars in the Walk of Fame, and we stopped to admire the front of the Dolby Theater. The downside was the number of tourists that clogged the entre sidewalk and it seemed there were a lot of people begging for a handout. Some of the beggars were dressed as famous characters, while others were dressed as not-so-famous homeless people. It was sad to see, but at the same time the mooching became a bit annoying – at least for me. By the time we made our way to the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater, thousands of people were packed in front as they admired the concrete blocks in the forecourt that featured signatures, footprints and handprints of celebrities from the 1920s to present day.
Our time in Hollywood had gone perfectly; my photographer and his wife had enjoyed the sites that Tom had planned on the three of us seeing. But then it happened. As they stood across the street from the Chinese Theater, the two of them saw a TMZ tour bus go past – which peaked their interest. As fans of the television show by the same name, Tom and Vicki decided to buy a pair of tickets for the 3:00pm tour. They had hoped that they would see some famous Hollywood homes, as well as some infamous Hollywood sites; and maybe even a celebrity or two, but they were left very disappointed. While the two-hour TMZ shuttle bus ride through parts of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Sunset Strip were filled with so-called “hot spots” from their TV show, it seemed like we heard the Kardashian’s and Kanye West mentioned a lot, which I knew irked my photographer. I’ve heard Tom say in the past that he could never understand how people like them could make so much money with so little, or no, talent. There was one site that we passed, however, that did spark my cameraman’s interest – Doug Weston’s Troubadour. On August 25, 1970, Elton John performed in America for the first time at the Troubadour in front of 300 fans packed into the small West Hollywood club. After beginning his set with ‘Your Song’, the 23-year old piano-pounding Rocketman was launched into Rock and Roll history. The Troubadour, at least in my photographer’s mind, was a historical landmark and unfortunately it was barely mentioned on the TMZ tour. When we returned to Hollywood Boulevard and the TMZ Tour building where our two-hours of misery had begun, I heard Tom say to his wife: “That was a complete waste of money and two hours of our lives that we’ll never get back. I think I’ll puke if I hear Kim Kardashian’s name mentioned again.”
While there were no celebrity sightings on the TMZ Celebrity Tour, I thought maybe we would run into a famous person during our walk to our final Hollywood site – Capitol Records. My photographer was not only excited to see the famous circular building up close because some of his favorite artists had recorded there, he also knew that Buddy Holly’s Walk of Fame star was situated in front of the building. When we arrived at Capitol Records, Tom was able to capture images of the building that was designed to resemble a stack of records on a turntable, but the sidewalk in front of the structure was closed. After an attempt at seeing Buddy Holly’s star was stopped by security who had blockaded the entire sidewalk in front of Capitol Records, we headed for the car. It turned out later that Paul McCartney was at the recording studio where he was presented an award and also participated in an interview. Our Cricket encounter was squashed because of a Beatle.
Once we made our way back to the Mustang at 6:15pm, my photographer and his wife decided to visit The Grove where they thought they might see a celebrity or two. Not only was The Grove a trendy place to shop, it was also the site where the tabloid television show ‘Extra’ was broadcast from in 2010 to 2013. But when we walked around the overrated outdoor mall, we didn’t see any famous people – at least none that we recognized.
After Tom and Vicki took about a half-hour to decide what they wanted for dinner at The Grove, they sat and “people watched” while they ate. Once again, not one celebrity that they recognized walked past; and luckily a Kardashian didn’t wander by. Disappointed, the pair went back to the car and headed for Tustin where they knew a local celebrity legend lived – Mr. Plumber. We arrived at the Currier’s around 9:30pm and we sat on their patio for about an hour discussing the day’s adventure with Tom and Rhonda. When I was placed back on the shelf for the night, I knew that my photographer was as excited as I was about the following day. Tom had tickets to meet Ace Frehley after the former KISS guitarist’s concert at a small venue just north of San Diego. Even though we had been groovin’ in California for the past two weeks, it was almost time to New York Groove with Ace!
