Living it up
with Oscar
Living in Hollywood is always exciting but Oscar week is
unbelievable. Love to see and hear the tourists as for a week
preparations outside the Kodak Theater have them gasping at their
luck as they scramble for their cameras or run into a corner store
to buy a disposable camera. Large winches remove the giant Oscars
from trucks while smaller wenches are still drinking across the
street at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel bar. The Roosevelt is the
site of the first Oscars and you can see the small banquet room
where history was made. Just walk into the lobby, walk up a few
steps to the mezzanine and walk toward the Hollywood Boulevard side
and there is the Blossom Room which is no bigger than the dining
room of Hollister’s Paine’s Restaurant. Then walk across the street
to the Kodak where thousands are seated for the biggest television
event of the year.
Living it up
with Oscar
Living in Hollywood is always exciting but Oscar week is unbelievable. Love to see and hear the tourists as for a week preparations outside the Kodak Theater have them gasping at their luck as they scramble for their cameras or run into a corner store to buy a disposable camera. Large winches remove the giant Oscars from trucks while smaller wenches are still drinking across the street at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel bar. The Roosevelt is the site of the first Oscars and you can see the small banquet room where history was made. Just walk into the lobby, walk up a few steps to the mezzanine and walk toward the Hollywood Boulevard side and there is the Blossom Room which is no bigger than the dining room of Hollister’s Paine’s Restaurant. Then walk across the street to the Kodak where thousands are seated for the biggest television event of the year.
When famed minister Norman Vincent Peale’s wife died last week it reminded me of a stripper who took advantage of his fame. Saw her once at the old New President Follies in San Francisco. Norma Vincent Peel. Aye chee waa waa, no clothes mucho good.
My positive attitude toward life comes from my sainted mother and when I was a kid reading Dale Carnegie’s and Norman Vincent Peale’s books on positive thinking. Life is fun if you choose. If you don’t choose then life is rough and long. Why not choose to look at the positive? McCain or Hillary? It could be worse. It could?
I voted for Mitt Romney in the primaries as he was a vote for change on the Republican ticket and I hope the Clintons don’t find a way to steal the election from Obama. That is all we need, to once again disillusion the young voters. But I trust the Clintons, trust them to do anything to win the nomination. The good part for the Republicans is that the only person who can unite the party is Hillary. She has more negatives than a pregnant prostitute driving a Ford Pinto with a John Kerry bumper sticker. Aye chee waa waa.
Speaking of wicked women how about those wicked, wicked Hollister women spotted on the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood? They thought I wouldn’t find out but Hollywood, like Reno, is just a big little town. Denise Thome and Anne Stull were on that corner to see “Wicked” at the famed Pantages Theater. Denise and Anne are two of my favorite women and the sexiest I have ever known. Beautiful and intelligent. They enjoyed the hit show as how can you not at the Pantages with its huge Broadway-like stage. San Francisco has nothing to match the size and when you see the difference, size does matter. The last play I ever wanted to see was “The Lion King” but wow, what an experience at the Pantages. Ditto for “Hairspray” which we saw last year on the huge Pantages stage. The largeness of the stage just sucks you in. I like that.
The Pantages also holds a special place in my life of fond memories as it was the venue of the first televised Oscar show. The Pantages also has my second favorite bar in Hollywood right next door. The Frolic Room with its great neon sign which is bigger than the bar, a very small neighborhood bar where not only does everyone know your name, they know the last time you bathed and the last thing you ate. One of the greatest movies ever made, “L.A. Confidential,” filmed a pivotal scene in the Frolic Room where Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey listen to Dean Martin as they try to unravel a mystery more compelling than how did John Edwards remain a presidential candidate for so long.
But my favorite Pantages-Frolic Room story was the night we were leaving the Pantages and coming out of the bar was old-time move star Lawrence Tierney of “Dillinger” fame who was making a huge comeback due to his stealing Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” and playing Elaine’s dad on “Seinfeld.” The usual tough guy cracked me up as Jerry and George have to keep him company in a hotel lobby until Elaine arrives. Truly the funniest episode in the series.
As Tierney leaves the bar on Hollywood and Vine we see him walk to the side of a hotel building and relieves himself, then briskly walks into the hotel. The doorman is smiling and I tell him, “guess he couldn’t wait.” The doorman says, “not that at all. He does that almost every night.” Let’s see Paris Hilton try to top that.
Finally, my favorite Oscar story is when I lived in Hollister and five guys came in to return their video the day of the Oscars and proudly said they were not checking out a movie because they were driving down to Hollywood as they were sure there would be tickets available to the Oscars. Aye chee waa waa, only in Hollister.
