LA is a great big freeway
Put a hundred down and buy a car
In a week, maybe two, they'll make you a star
Weeks turn into years, how quick they pass,
And all the stars that never were,
Are parking cars and pumping gas.
Burt Bacharach
With an actor in the family it was de riguer that we visit one of the film studio's. After all, it's Hollywood's raison d'etre. We chose Paramount given it's rich and storied history and the fact that it's the last of the major studio's still on this side of the mountain and in Hollywood. It was founded by the original film making New Yorkers who moved from Brooklyn to California for the light, weather and space to make Westerns. Howard Hughes was once an owner of half of the 65 acres with RKO Pictures. He refused to rent out his studios to other production companies, so he used the studios to store airplanes. Not a profitable venture. One of the smartest folks in Hollywood history bought him out, Lucille Ball, then looking for a studio to film a TV series about her band leader husband. No one would open their studio to a multi-racial marriage in those days, so when opportunity presented itself, she struck a deal with Hughes. We learned that a driving force in Paramount for many years was Lucille Ball of I Love Lucy. Evidently one shrewd business woman not to be trifled with!
Paramount also offers small "VIP" tours versus the cattle call at Universal Studios. Plus, one of John's fav pictures is The Godfather so seeing the studio where it was shot was a real plus.
We saw the triple studio where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced across three sound stages in one continuous take, Ginger all the while doing whatever moves Fred did, only backwards!
We escaped the Dr Phil set with our psyche's intact. After visiting the set of Happy Endings we're intrigued to actually watch the show.
We managed to visit New York and Chicago during our tour, at least the back lot sets where we recognized many street scenes from films and TV land.
Glee is filmed here and we were shown the exterior sets of many scenes. The football stadium is in Long Beach which was news to us. Glee is very secretive, not even our tour guide has been allowed on the set much less a peek from the outside. They are so secretive that even the portable dressing room trailers are hidden behind fake tree's and shrubs. While Nip and Tuck is no longer in production, it's creator having moved onto Glee and now working on American Horror (get a part Jay!), we did see where it was filmed.
This two hour tour is relatively inexpensive and we highly recommend it to any film/TV buff visiting LA. We were able to make reservations on the same day.
Not so Jay Leno. After 6 weeks John had no response from the Leno show so he decided on a bit of LA sleight of hand. After all, everything in this town is an illusion isn't it? He used Jay's name and our West Hollywood address and viola! Our invitation to attend Tuesday's taping came in two days later. We're psyched. Look for us Tuesday, Sept. 27!
To top off a great day, on the way back to our apartment, Jay pointed out Mario Batali's Pizzeria Mozza at the intersection of Melrose and Highland Avenue as we waited on the light to change. Bingo! We waltzed in at 5 PM. OK, early bird time but the place has been sold out every evening we're here, the earliest reservation has been 10:15 PM. For those of you in Westport, it's where the Tarry Lodge concept was invented. Same set-up, pizza bar, bar bar and small room for table seating. Fabulous pizza, best crust ever! This place has been on our must go list since we got here but given the reservation list, we had resigned ourselves to miss it. Truly an A-list get!
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