Being part of Hollywood in 1983
No, I was never in a movie, or a TV show, or anything like that. So when I say that I was a part of Hollywood in 1983, we have to take a closer look at the city of Los Angeles. Stay with me here, I want to move slowly through this - if you're already a Hollywood insider, you may want to skip down a bit.
I lived in an inexpensive apartment in Los Angeles the year after I graduated from college, and moved from Tempe, Arizona. My goal at the time was to see if I could land a job at an advertising agency, and to me there were two places I could go, either LA or New York. That is, Wilshire Boulevard or Madison Avenue. And since I never considered New York for an instant, I moved to LA. By the way, I never did work for an advertising agency, so when I tell people that I failed in Hollywood, that's what I mean. Of course most people imagine that I was seeking fame and fortune, but I wasn't, I was just looking for a job in advertising.
If you're confused at his point that I'm using Hollywood and Los Angeles interchangeably, it's because it's the same place. And I'm not trying to be mystical, or artistic here, Hollywood isn't its own city, it's just part of the City of Los Angeles. There are other separate cities in the LA area, like Beverly Hills, or Santa Monica, but they have their own mayor, police force, etc. The Hollywood cops are LAPD.
And while there are, of course, many people who work "in the industry" (which is how people there refer to jobs in movies, TV, etc.) the vast majority of people don't. I mean, it's a big city, and there are a lot of jobs there. Of course, the assumption is that you're just working at a job until you get the call back from an audition, but like I say, I wasn't interested in working in the industry.
The apartment complex where I lived was on Argyle just north of Franklin. If you're not familiar with the geography of Hollywood, don't worry, it was near Hollywood and Vine. The Pantages Theater was on Argyle and the boulevard. By the way, people in Hollywood didn't say, "Hollywood Boulevard", they just said "the boulevard". For example, Pep Boys was on the boulevard.
I became fascinated with what I call history adventuring when I lived there, and especially the lives of ordinary people, like me. For me, it all started with a visit to the library, and seeing an old black-and-white photo of the area while the Hollywood hills housing development was being built - it was called "Hollywoodland", and there was a big sign advertising it. Back in the '20s, that sign must have been visible for miles! And it was just advertising a housing division, because Los Angeles has been crowded for a very long time, and they had run out of level space, and had to build in the hills.
I left Hollywood the next year to take a job in Santa Barbara, so I really only spent a year there, but it made a big impression on me, as you can tell. I've gone back there to visit a few times, but mostly I visit in my imagination, picturing Hollywood in the 1940s with Philip Marlowe driving along Franklin (which is where his office was), then maybe following a suspicious character on the boulevard, or driving all of the way to Bay City (which is what Raymond Chandler called Santa Monica).
Overall, I'd say that Hollywood was just the same as any other neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Image at the top of this post: the photo that I saw at the library that got me started on history adventuring in 1983.
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