I'm still not sure how it happened, but a zine I published in1985-86 about BMX freestyle landed me a job at two BMX magazines in Southern California. I was 20 years old, scared to death of "crazy" Southern California, but excited as well. I flew from San Jose to LAX in late July 1986 with a BMX freestyle bike, an old suitcase of clothes, and $80. I was met at the airport by my co-workers, Andy, Lew, and Gork, from BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines. I moved into Gork and Lew's apartment in Redondo Beach, sleeping on the old couch. That began my life in Southern California.
Somehow, six years later, I was working on the stage crew of the hit TV show, American Gladiators. In the summers of 1992-1995, I worked in Studio City on the show, actually practicing the games with the Gladiators and contenders. While thousands of people my age were trying to "break into" the entertainment business, I stumbled into it completely by accident through BMX and skateboarding. I spent most of those years down in the Huntington Beach area, but stayed 2 or 3 months in the San Fernando Valley each summer working on one or two shows. I also lived up here in The Valley in 1991-92 for close to a year, working on supercross and monster truck TV shows, then at a video duplicator.
Where I lived down in H.B., my roommates were all top am or pro BMX guys, and a few BMX industry guys. Because of this, pretty much every BMX traveler from around the world stayed on our couches and floor when they came to Southern California. Being the one BMX guy around who worked in "Hollywood," I got the job of tour guide when any visiting group wanted to spend a day checking it out. But the best of these informal tours happened when my younger sister Cheri and her friend Heather came down from the Bay Area for a few days in 1996. They were in their mid 20's, out of college, single, and just starting their working careers. Cheri was a teacher, and still is, now in North Carolina.
We had some breakfast at my apartment in Huntington Beach, and I took the helm of their rental car, and we headed up to Hollywood (45 miles or so). Now everyone has the basic Hollywood things they've heard of that they want to see when visiting for the first time. We went to Hollywood and Highland, which was still being renovated at the time, I believe. We took photos of some stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, checked out the hand and foot prints as Grauman's (then Mann's) Chinese theater, and walked around that area for a while.
Then we hopped back in the car, and I took them to my "secret" spot to take a great photo with the Hollywood sign. It's the now very unsecret viewing spot that there's a blog post about elsewhere in this blog. Back in those pre-GPS days, it was a hard spot to find. The girls got cool photos of each other with the famous Hollywood sign big in the background, and they were stoked. The drive up there took us past the Hollywood reservoir, which few outsiders realize exists. It's a cool drive up into the Hollywood Hills.
From there, we headed just over the hill to Universal Studios CityWalk. For all the hype about Hollywood, it's a lot grittier, dirtier, and a more hardcore urban experience than most people think. With all its hype, many people think Hollywood Boulevard is practically lined with gold. But it's a weird and wild place, with all levels of society represented, from super rich tourists to homeless people, and everything in between. Universal's CityWalk, still fairly new at the time, is the totally tourist, almost Disney-esqe place where tourists feel much more comfortable. We walked around and checked out some of the shops there, and my sister and her friend bought a souvenirs.
Now those are the mainstream tourist places that anybody could take friends or relatives to, to show them "Hollywood." But I wanted to up the ante, and give Cheri and Heather a much more interesting day in Hollywood than normal tourists got. So we headed down into The Valley, along Ventura boulevard, to the CBS/MTM lot, as we called it then. Now it's officially known as CBS Studio Center. Having worked on the lot for four summers, and a couple of other times, I knew a few people working there. I drove right up to the gate, and managed to get us on the lot (don't try this now, it won't work). I parked where the guard told me to, on the lower level in the back, which was still pretty empty back then. New construction was just ramping up on that back part of the lot back then.
Cheri and Heather were tripping out that I was able to just drive onto a studio lot. I showed them the drained asphalt pond where the lagoon scenes for Gilligan's Island was shot many years before. There was a false front of an old mill with a water wheel there then. We walked up the little hill and I pointed out Stage 1, then being used for the Roseanne show, but used for the Mary Tyler Moore Show many years earlier. That was the "MTM" in CBS/MTM at the time. The other end of the Stage 1 building was Stage 2, where Tom Arnold's show was shot, a couple years before.I pointed out Seinfeld's stage nearby, and stage 3, where I had worked on American Gladiators and a knockoff show called Knights and Warriors. Gladiators shot in the summer, while most other shows were on hiatus (summer break). Since we had so many huge set pieces, we used Stages 1 & 2 for storage when shooting Gladiators, as well as the areas next to stages 1, 2, 3 and Todd AO/ Glenn Glenn sound studio, where the soundtracks for all kinds of movies and shows were recorded.
We headed into the commissary to eat lunch, which is near the middle of the lot. It was early afternoon, and it was empty. I was hoping we might se someone they'd recognize there, but no luck as we walked in. We got our food, cafeteria style, and were talking over lunch. My back was to the door, but I heard the door open and saw both Cheri and Heather's faces light up. The lead actor from The Single Guy peeked into the commissary, looking for someone, and smiled at Cheri and Heather, then shut the door, not seeing whomever he was looking for. I'd never seen the show, but they both had, and that moved my tour up a few notches in cool factor. We finished lunch, and headed back to the car, as I pointed out a few more places on the lot. The little fruit stand market often seen in Seinfeld was on the side of the commissary. Little did we know, my Hollywood tour was going to get even crazier, though I thought it was pretty much over.
I pulled out of the CBS lot, and headed down Ventura to Coldwater Canyon, and drove them up and over the Santa Monica mountains from the Valley. It's a really pretty drive, and one made mostly by locals, not so much by tourists. Coming down into Beverly Hills, I was going through a turn when I saw a white Mercedes convertible crossing over into our lane a bit, coming the other direction. I swerved to miss it, seeing only a blond woman driving. But Cheri and Heather's heads snapped in the direction of the Benz, eyes growing big. In unison they yelled, "That was Madonna!" Seriously. I didn't see the driver, but they swore it was Madonna in the white Mercedes. I just laughed, "Hey, when I give you a tour of Hollywood, I give you a fucking TOUR!" We all laughed. I can't say for sure if we just barely missed a car accident with Madonna, but I'll go with their call. The girls swore it was her.
We drove by Rodeo Drive, and around Beverly Hills for a bit, and then hit Sunset Drive, and headed west to the 405. The day in the Hollywood area had been off the charts for them, and for me as well. We got to Huntington Beach in early evening, and headed back to my apartment. With sunset coming soon, I took them to one of my favorite local spots for dinner, Papa Joe's pizza. It was a simple little storefront pizza joint on PCH then, with surfing posters on the wall, and a small Korn (the band) sticker on the mirror behind the counter. The band gave the owner the sticker when they first formed, 1993, I think, and hit it big a few years later. Mostly, Papa Joe's had good pizza, and looked out over the Huntington Beach Pier. We had some pizza, and watched the sunset out over Catalina Island, and talked about our crazy day.
After dinner, we walked out on the pier, and there was some type of TV or film shoot going on in the sand, on the north side of the pier. It turned out our crazy Hollywood day wasn't over. I'd never seen a film shoot in H.B. before that, it was a much more low key, surfer town then, not the world renowned, shopping mall by the sea it is today. We looked down at about six women, in evening gowns shooting a scene. One of the women was Pamela Anderson, they were shooting for Baywatch Nights. Cheri and Heather looked at me, "Did you know this was happening?" They thought I picked Papa Joe's for dinner for that reason. But I had no idea, it was just random luck. We actually heard the director tell the actresses, "OK, one more time, but with more jiggle." Yeah, cleavage still sells, at least when shooting a murder mystery lifeguard show, or whatever Baywatch Nights was supposed to be. Then we headed back to the apartment, pretty amazed at the events of the day.
Now if any of my friends from around the world come visit, I'll give you a tour of Hollywood, if I have the time to. But it won't be near as amazing as the tour I gave to Cheri and Heather in 1996. Sometimes luck is on your side, for whatever reason. As Hannibal from The A-Team used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."
Go to Hollywood tourist guide blog post (links to the main attractions)
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