Most people, even in LA, equate Hollywood, for good or ill, with the actors who work there—enormous salaries, managed gossip for the fans, endless neuroses and public divorces, pontificating speeches at the annual awards, and tantrums in restaurant queues. The favorite non-movie line for such stars, brightly shining or otherwise, being an indignant, "Do you know who I am?"
But that's like sipping off the foam and tossing the rest of your venti-decaf-soy-non-fat latte with caramel drizzle into the recycle bin. The real Hollywood is a vast cash-, media- and movie-generating machine operating primarily out of six mini-cities in the Los Angeles basin—Fox, Universal, Paramount, Warner, Disney, and Columbia. Even with its recent struggles, it is still one of the most successful industries in history. And it employs thousands of genuine human beings just like you and us.
The industry's fingerprints are still found all over the western and northern stretches of LA County:
The physical studios themselves, with their massive canyons of sound stages and intricate backlot sets, representing just about every corner of human experience and/or fantasy.
The thousands of designers, costumers, makeup artists, grips, gaffers, and electricians rushing against the hyper-expensive clock.
The kitschy advertising mania that has seeped out into the local culture with some of the strangest art and architecture we’ve ever seen.
And yes, the producers, directors, and leading actors racing through the streets of Beverly Hills and Burbank, from meeting to lunch to meeting, in their gleaming Bentleys and Ferraris.
One major benefit--for residents and visitors alike--of all that money sloshing about has been the 20th century transformation of LA from a cultural backwater into a mecca for shopping and cuisines from all over the planet. The cooking might be derivative, even imitative, but the quality is as real and authentic as the original. Somewhere in and around Hollywood, you can find every type of food or goods from anywhere on earth.
On and off, we've worked in and around the studios for 32 years. We still love to eat at the commissaries and the low-lit three-martini lunch palaces that sprouted long ago outside their gates. One thing we've learned along the way is that everyone has their favorite Hollywood story. Here's ours:
In 1993, we were somehow invited to the taping of the final episode of the final season of the hit television sit-com, Cheers. The audience that afternoon consisted almost entirely of friends and family. After the taping, the producers put away their equipment, opened up the iconic bar, and invited all to join them. Woody Harrelson and his band provided the music from an adjacent stage, and everyone got happily sloshed reminiscing over a decade of what would be called an astonishing triumph in any business. And although the plot might have been Bostonian, the success story was all LA.