Tag Archives: television

Dream Machines

By | |
Comments Off on Dream Machines

Petersen Automotive Museum
March 7, 2020
Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles

We went to the Petersen auto museum to see the special exhibition Hollywood Dream Machines: Vehicles of Science Fiction and Fantasy.  Dozens of vehicles from science fiction themed movies and television shows are on display.  The exhibition was curated in collaboration with the San Diego-based Comic-Con Museum.  It runs through May 2020.

There are science fiction vehicles displayed around the lobby and even a couple in the parking garage.  The first car to meet us as we entered the main gallery on the ground floor was the familiar DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies.  We particularly enjoyed the numerous Batman related vehicles, not only the Batmobiles, but also Batman motorcycles, Joker cars, and models and images of the Batmobile over the years.

Meredith and her sister were taken by the Star Wars speeder on display. We rolled our eyes at the exhibit tag, though.  For all three of us the 1977 movie will always be Star Wars, and not The New Hope.

We also enjoyed seeing other non-Hollywood classic cars.  The Petersen has an extensive collection, which it rotates from time to time. Although we have been there before, there were many vehicles on display that we had not seen before, including the 1886 Benz Motorwagen pictured above.  The Motorwagen had 0.75 horsepower and could achieve a top speed of 10 miles per hour.  Although not the very first automobile, it may be the first practical one.

On our three prior visits, we went with Meredith‘s mother Margaret. Our most recent prior visit was to see the grand reopening in 2015.  Shortly before that the museum had remodeled its exterior; our blog post about that visit, including the architecture, can be seen here.  The year before that we went to the Petersen to see the Mustang exhibit, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ford’s release of the first Mustangs.

The museum’s collection is extensive, and not all cars it owns can be displayed at any one time.  The Petersen, for an extra charge, offers tours of its vault.  We have never seen the vault but think it might be worth doing someday.

We noticed the same deficits in accessibility that struck us when we last visited, with Margaret in her wheelchair.  Although there are no steps to climb inside the museum, the internal doors are heavy and do not have push button openers, and the parking garage lacks an elevator.

Parking is expensive, a flat $17 for the day, but that reflects the Wilshire location.  Other parking options in the area are in the same cost range.

We are thinking that our next Los Angeles museum venture will probably be to the Skirball in May, to see the Star Trek exhibition, which will open on April 30.

Woolsey Fire

By | |
Comments Off on Woolsey Fire

Paramount Ranch
Santa Monica Mountains
November 11, 2018

Once again Santa Ana winds are driving devastating wildfires in California. The Woolsey Fire started in Thousand Oaks, jumped the 101, and spread south and east, all the way to Malibu and West Hills. Meredith’s alma mater, Taft High School in Woodland Hills, is being used as an evacuation center. Friday brought the news that a place we had been with Margaret — Paramount Ranch’s Western Town, in the Santa Monica Mountain Nature Reserve — was destroyed.

Many films and television shows have been filmed in the area from the 1920’s on, not only on the Paramount Ranch property but also in nearby areas once owned by other studios. Films shot at least in part on the Paramount Ranch included numerous Westerns, especially in the 1920’s and 30’s, the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers (1932), Beau Geste (1939), The Love Bug (1968) and its sequels, and more recently American Sniper (2014). The Western Town part of the ranch included about 20 wooden structures built as a movie set in the 1950’s. That set was used for various productions for several decades, including the current HBO series Westworld and the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in the 1990’s.

We took Meredith’s mother Margaret there in 2015. It was a little challenging pushing her wheelchair on the uneven ground, but fun to walk through the “town” and see the set buildings up close. Our earlier post can be seen here.

The destruction of some movie sets, however historic, is trivial compared to the loss of lives and homes, still to be tallied up, but it makes the fire’s effect more real somehow, to know that a place we visited has been obliterated.

Hurray for Hollywood

By | |
Comments Off on Hurray for Hollywood

Hollywood Museum
Hollywood
September 2, 2018

We drove up to Hollywood and met up with Meredith‘s sister to tour the Hollywood Museum. We have been there twice before, both times with Margaret, but had not visited in several years.

The building itself is a wonderful thing to explore. The museum is located in the old Max Factor building in the heart of Hollywood, on Highland Avenue at Hollywood Boulevard. The ground floor still sports the beautiful marble lobby with the four parlors in which Max met with his celebrity clients. Each is painted a different color. There are separate rooms for blondes, redheads, brunettes, and “brownettes” (Factor’s term for actresses with light brown hair). The wall color in each room is designed to go with the skin tone which best matched the client’s hair. Since many actresses dyed their hair, Factor would adjust the make up for each, to get the right color to have the complexion match her hair.

The back portion of the building was where the Max Factor cosmetics were manufactured and packaged. Nowadays it is used as museum exhibit space.

The entire museum, which covers four floors, is jam packed with artifacts. There are many costumes from movies and television series, numerous props of various kinds, and many photos. The museum collection spans a century of movie and television production. There are several thematic areas, but the museum as a whole is not overly organized. Display cases are crammed full of things, and the visitor is constantly stumbling across artifacts from an old favorite movie or show.

We went this weekend to see the Batman 66 special exhibition, a collection of costumes and props from the old Batman television show of the 1960’s starring Adam West and Burt Ward. It was fun seeing the old villain costumes and a replica of the Batmobile. We learned that it was built on the frame of a Lincoln Futura concept car, complete with the bubble windshield. Several video screens were running clips from the old show. We were particularly struck by a sequence that had Batman and the Joker surfing side-by-side, apparently in some sort of competition, with board shorts worn over their regular costumes. Several display cases featured related collectible memorabilia from the time: action figures, trading cards, board games, buttons, and a variety of toys.

The old Batman TV show debuted when we were in kindergarten, and it was a sensation. Meredith remembers a “Bat Party” her mother hosted for her and her classmates, to which most of the children wore capes. Party games were Batman themed and prizes and favors were Batman items, like a 45 record with the Batman theme song.

After the museum visit we had lunch next-door at Mel’s Diner. Then Kathleen left, and the two of us walked over to Grauman’s Chinese Theater, to look at the celebrity footprints and handprints in the cement.

Adult admission to the Hollywood Museum is $15, and visitors should plan to pay cash in addition to park nearby in Hollywood. There is a small lot next to the museum and other parking nearby on the weekend at Hollywood High School.

Gillette & Paramount Ranches

By | |
1 Comment

King Gillette Ranch
Paramount Ranch
Santa Monica Mountains
February 21, 2015

We probably would not have thought of the Santa Monica Mountain nature reserve as a place with historical or cultural resources, if we had not seen the Gillette Ranch listed in the Passport 2 History. We have enjoyed exploring other historical sites we found in that booklet, and decided this time to visit the ranch. As we explored the National Park Service website in preparation for our visit, we read about the nearby Paramount Ranch as well, and decided to see both ranches.

The Gillette mansion was built by architect Wallace Neff in 1928 for King Camp Gillette, founder of the Gillette Safety Razor Company. Hollywood movie director Clarence Brown purchased the property in 1935 and added to it. It had a series of later owners including the Claretian religious order, which ran a seminary there and build a dormitory and some classroom buildings. The property has been part of the public park since 2005. The visitor center is located in what used to be the stables. It features an informative video about the entire Santa Monica Mountain park area and exhibits about the local environment. We went on Oscar weekend, so there was a photo exhibit set up showing still photos from various movies filmed in the surrounding area.

Gillette_Ranch

After we explored the visitor center we walked out and around the Gillette mansion and Claretian dormitory building, then went back to our car. From there we drove several miles over to the Paramount Ranch.

Several film studios once owned extensive acreage in the Santa Monica Mountains, including Paramount Studios. Numerous films and television shows have been filmed in the area from the 1920’s on, either on the Paramount Ranch property that we visited, or in nearby areas owned by other studios. The long list of films we perused on the park website, that were filmed at least in part on the Paramount Ranch, included (to name just a few films), Morocco (1930), several W. C. Fields movies, numerous Westerns in the 1920’s and 30’s, Beau Geste (1939), The Love Bug (1968) and its sequels, and most recently American Sniper (2014). The area we explored was the Western Town. Featuring about 20 wooden structures built as a movie set in the 1950’s, it looks like the stereotypical old western town. That set was used for various productions for several decades, including the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in the 1990’s. It is apparently still used from time to time for film shoots or other professional photography, requiring special permits from the National Park Service. A ranger said that visitors may take photos for personal use, however. (We are not entirely sure if we are allowed to post the photos we took at the Western Town, so will not do so here.)

The Santa Monica Mountains are a beautiful area with many hiking trails. We did not explore them with Margaret, of course, but we saw many other visitors out for walks and several equestrians. At the Gillette Ranch we stayed on paved paths. At the Paramount Ranch we were able to push her wheelchair over the hard packed ground in the Western Town.

There were no dining facilities at either of those stops, but there are a number of communities in and around the Santa Monica Mountain area. We decided to stop in Calabasas on our way, and we ate at the Sagebrush Cantina, a restaurant we know and like. Margaret was not in a decisive mood when it came to ordering lunch, but eventually she settled on the chicken mole enchilada, which she enjoyed very much. We each had carnitas tacos, which were excellent. Margaret was quiet at first, but then opened up to reminisce fondly about her grandmother, after Meredith mentioned a letter she had received recently from Margaret’s cousin Jocelyn. Margaret also remembered an archaeological dig she had been on many years ago in the Wood Ranch area of Simi Valley.

Admission to the two National Park sites we visited was free. However, the surrounding area also includes state and local parks. The ranger staffing the Gillette visitor center explained to another guest that there is a day use/parking charge at the nearby Malibu Creek State Park. The park staff at both sites were very friendly and helpful.

After our visit the Los Angeles Times wrote up the Paramount Ranch site — both the Western Town and surrounding trails — in its recurring “LA Walks” column.

Paley Center

By | |
Comments Off on Paley Center

Paley Center for Media
Beverly Hills
December 20, 2014

We went with Margaret to the Paley Center in Beverly Hills primarily to see a special exhibit, the Jay Ward Legacy. We had read about that exhibit in the Los Angeles Times. The exhibit featured original art from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show and the various related cartoons, such as Dudley Do Right, Mr. Peabody, and Fractured Fairytales. The lobby of the center was dominated by the Rocky and Bullwinkle statue commissioned for the special Sunset Boulevard block party Jay Ward staged in 1961 to promote the Rocky and Bullwinkle show when it moved to prime time.

A special treat we were not expecting also awaited us in the lobby: a Santa Claus was seated there entertaining the children who visited. Margaret was quite taken with him, and we waited our turn to visit with Santa.

Paley-Santa

After seeing the Jay Ward exhibit and visiting Santa, we went up to the second floor for another special exhibition, the Soboroff Typewriter Collection. Dozens of typewriters which had belonged to famous people were on display there, along with memorabilia such as vintage Time and Life magazines featuring the owners. We saw typewriters belonging to Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, George Bernard Shaw, Truman Capote, Ray Bradbury, and various other writers. The typewriter on which Orson Welles wrote Citizen Kane was on display, near the typewriter Jerry Siegel used for Superman and his other work. The Unabomber’s typewriter was on display. It was missing its cover; the docent explained that he had used it to make one of his bombs!

The docent encouraged us to visit the media library. This is a permanent feature of the center. There are a number of workstations, each with a large flat screen monitor and headphones. The visitor can search the center’s large media archive for television and radio shows and commercials. Inspired by the exhibit downstairs, we selected a Rocky and Bullwinkle episode, and the three of us watched it together at a station reserved for parties of 3 or 4 people.

There is a theater on the ground floor which we did not go into. It was showing a continuous loop of vintage Christmas cartoons when we were there. The same shows were running on video monitors in the lobby with the sound muted.

Admission to the Paley Center is free, as is parking. Donations are encouraged. The center is located on the southwest corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and North Beverly Drive. Parking can only be accessed from Santa Monica Boulevard. The center was fully accessible by wheelchair.

There are no café facilities at the Paley Center, so we had planned ahead to eat at a nearby restaurant, Walter’s Café. Our youngest daughter and her boyfriend joined us. Meredith first ate at Walter’s with that daughter, on a visit to L.A. several months ago. They found it through Yelp. The food and service were excellent on both visits. It is a family-run restaurant which has operated in Beverly Hills since 1949. The restaurant is small and casual, with an extensive sandwich and salad menu as well as various other offerings.

At the end of the day we met up with Meredith’s sister Kathleen at a Starbucks in the Valley. Margaret ordered her old favorite, regular coffee with cream and LOTS of sugar. We gave Margaret the Christmas presents we had for her, as did Kathleen.

Margaret’s energy level varied a bit today. She struggled with most of the transfers between wheelchair and car, except for the final one when we left Starbucks. We joked with her that it must be all the sugar that gave her the energy to climb into the car; she smiled and agreed. She struggled a little with aphasia while at Paley, pointing at items and not saying anything, although she seemed interested and curious. She did answer Santa’s questions, telling him she was from Maine, which is true because she grew up there, but we think she left him with the misleading impression she had just now come from Maine to L.A. for a visit. She was much more verbal at Walter’s and at Starbucks, telling us without prompting what items she wanted to order.