# For those that have been to Hollywood, LA
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 20, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081 "2018-01-20T22:58:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/21 "2018-01-22T15:23:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> As a tourist I’ve been down Hollywood Boulevard…
If you’re looking for something to do, you’re on the wrong street. You have to go to Sunset.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/22 "2018-01-22T15:27:43Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> As a tourist I’ve been down Hollywood Boulevard, although it’s been many years. Even back in the early 1908s it was pretty seedy and rundown.
And it’s been going even further downward ever since talkies.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/23 "2018-01-22T15:53:18Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#):
>
> The simple fact is that Hollywood - for all its PR - is one more industrial district in greater Los Angeles. People go there to work, nothing more. The only difference is that they make movies and not widgets. And hell, a big chunk of the movies are made elsewhere - London, Vancouver, Atlanta, Toronto, wherever the big tax breaks are that year - these days.
Even within California most movie production occurs outside of Hollywood. Paramount is the only major studio that remains in the district, any with films and television increasingly preferring to film on location, you’re more likely to see celebrities in Pasadena or Santa Monica than slumming in Hollywood.
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> And it’s been going even further downward ever since talkies.
And color. Whoever told Billy Wilder to switch from black & white did the world no favors.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2018, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/24 "2018-01-22T23:17:32Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#):
>
> The simple fact is that Hollywood - for all its PR - is one more industrial district in greater Los Angeles. People go there to work, nothing more.
Well, Hollywood is also a very large residential district, spanning from the lower-rent neighborhoods toward Melrose, to the hills around the Bowl and Beechwood (though some consider those areas a separate district).A lot of people go there to _live_, because it’s centrally located.
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#):
>
> . . . So when you go there, you’re looking at the leftovers after the real glitz has headed out. The bottom feeders and grifters, mostly. If you want to see ostentatious wealth and celebs head for the hills or Malibu or Carmel or something. But the biggest, richest stars of movies don’t even live there. They live somewhere else entirely and fly to wherever they’re shooting.
I don’t think anyone today goes to Hollywood anymore hoping to see stars, unless it’s the Kodak theater on Oscar night.
Moreover, in the last 15 or so years there has been constant and extensive _ **non-tourist oriented** _ development in the commercial areas of Hollywood, with expansion and renovation of shopping complexes and new upscale housing. Essentially, Hollywood is starting to become increasingly more like West L.A.
> [@Stranger On A Train](#):
>
> Even within California most movie production occurs outside of Hollywood. Paramount is the only major studio that remains in the district, any with films and television increasingly preferring to film on location, you’re more likely to see celebrities in Pasadena or Santa Monica than slumming in Hollywood.
True, but–apart from actual production–a good deal of the ancillary business of film and TV production still remains there: pre- and post-production services, suppliers, etc.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/25 "2018-01-23T00:00:16Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> True, but–apart from actual production–a good deal of the ancillary business of film and TV production still remains there: pre- and post-production services, suppliers, etc.
I worked in Hollywood in the late 80s. I just checked a map to see the actual boundaries and I would have been all over the central part and at least driven through other areas from time to time.
There were a lot of those ancillary businesses located there, and a lot of small offices for related business located elsewhere. Everyone in the biz wants a Hollywood address.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/26 "2018-01-23T00:06:23Z")
I have been all over that town. And it has been all over me.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/27 "2018-01-23T00:09:00Z")
We went to Hollywood to see Garrison Keillor’s last show as host of APHC last summer, at the Hollywood Bowl. We stayed on Highland Ave, in walking distance.
While were were there, we did a Universal Studios tour, and went to the Magic Castle.
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### Author:  [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/28 "2018-01-23T01:33:49Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> Well, Hollywood is also a very large residential district, spanning from the lower-rent neighborhoods toward Melrose, to the hills around the Bowl .
The Hollywood Hills (if that is Hollywood) are still home to some of the most absolutely insane mansions in the world. Not that you would know it driving those streets. They are all pretty well hidden.
Also, I’m finding myself getting weirdly defensive about so many people calling Hollywood seedy. Not that they are wrong, but man, that’s my home town! (frankly it has gotten so plastic that I hardly even recognize it anymore when I go visit. Long gone it seems are the days of youth hostiles, dive bars and tourist traps.)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/29 "2018-01-23T02:48:08Z")
> [@NAF1138](#):
>
> Also, I’m finding myself getting weirdly defensive about so many people calling Hollywood seedy. Not that they are wrong, but man, that’s my home town! (frankly it has gotten so plastic that I hardly even recognize it anymore when I go visit. Long gone it seems are the days of youth hostiles, dive bars and tourist traps.)
Relax. Go have a pint at the Cat & Fiddle.
Oh, wait… ☹
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/30 "2018-01-23T02:51:18Z")
The Frolic room is the perfect touristy-ish dive.
Primetime is…a dive.
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### Author:  [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/31 "2018-01-23T02:57:33Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Relax. Go have a pint at the Cat & Fiddle.
>
> Oh, wait… ☹
I met my wife at Cat and Fiddle ☹ (sorta)
It’ll devolve back eventually. It’s just going to take another decade.
> [@snfaulkner](#):
>
> The Frolic room is the perfect touristy-ish dive.
>
> Primetime is…a dive.
Does the Frolic Room still exist? That’s cool.
The Powerhouse was my bar back when, but I think that’s gone too.
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### Author:  [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/32 "2018-01-23T03:02:24Z")
Yikes, I Googled the Powerhouse. There is a bar called that in the location of my bar… But it’s a crazy hipster cocktail lounge.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/33 "2018-01-23T03:03:31Z")
The good old dingy Powerhouse that opened at 6am is gone, sadly. But I think the new place might also be called the Powerhouse? But it is a hipster hell hole. I haven’t been in a few yrs.
Ha! nice ninja
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### Author:  [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/34 "2018-01-23T03:11:51Z")
Does GTA V count ?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/35 "2018-01-23T03:13:35Z")
I used to live two blocks from Hollywood blvd, on Cherokee. There is a place that serves great NY style pizza by the slice.
There is also Musso and Franks Grill, the El Capitan, girls dressed to kill and many many tourists and tourist traps on a Friday or Saturday nite. It’s fun.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/36 "2018-01-23T03:15:07Z")
> [@Declan](#):
>
> Does GTA V count ?
The Frolic Room is a tattoo parlor in GTA V.
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### Author:  [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2018, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/37 "2018-01-23T03:19:17Z")
> [@Declan](#):
>
> Does GTA V count ?
That’s what I was thinking. I think I’ve got a good grasp of the basic layout of LA from playing too much GTA V
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### Author:  [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/38 "2018-01-24T16:54:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Since there are no periods in ‘LA’, I thought the OP meant [Hollywood, Louisiana](https://www.mapquest.com/us/la/hollywood-283486863).
That’s what I thought too.
> [@Isamu](#):
>
> That’s what I was thinking. I think I’ve got a good grasp of the basic layout of LA from playing too much GTA V
That’s an understatement. I was feeling deja vu when I visited Los Angeles and we went to Santa Monica Pier. I knew I’d been there before and then it dawned on me it was because of GTA V.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/39 "2018-01-29T07:21:51Z")
I haven’t been to Hollywood in several years, but the last time I was there it didn’t seem so much seedy as a kind of tourist trap. If you’re interested in old movies – not that they don’t still make a lot of new movies in Hollywood as a metonym, then it’s probably worth checking out for an afternoon or a day. Go to a movie at the Chinese Theater, check out Madame Tussaud’s, and have drinks and dinner at Musso & Frank. Depending on where else you want to go in L.A., and on how much you want to spend on a hotel, the Roosevelt might be a good bet.
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### Author:  [@Kadmos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kadmos1)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2018, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-have-been-to-hollywood-la/807081/41 "2018-02-13T14:07:03Z")
[Google Maps](http://google.com/maps/place/Hollywood,+Los+Angeles,+CA/@34.094172,-118.3284605,14.02z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c2bf07045279bf:0xf67a9a6797bdfae4!8m2!3d34.0928286!4d-118.3286762) shows a pinkish-shaded area on what is considered Hollywood proper (the physical part of L.A.). Most films by big companies like the WB or 20th Century Fox that we put under the label of “Hollywood” films are outside that area. Of the Big 6 Amer. movie companies (Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures), only Paramount is actually in Hollywood proper.
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