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The Lar Angeles Story

2nd February 20242nd February 2024 funtime65

I’m curbing my own enthusiasm here as I get excited for the return of Larry David to our screens in what I’m calling The Lar Angeles Story.

Larry David, the curmudgeon for our times, paints high-end LA life with a brush stroke that is unparalleled.

Now having brushed up against high rollers there, in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica I have had some experience here.

But New Yorker Larry brings most of his angst upon himself.

By not clueing into the idiosyncratic LA way of life.

Although he has a point about pig parking where drivers leave bigs spaces between cars when parking, a gag he takes over on holiday to Italy.

A natural in LA

These words: With Natasha Bedingfield in Anaheim, California

But while New Yorkers are all about the angle in LA it’s the image.

And I proved a natural when I availed of the hair dye table.

Down in Huntington Beach at the Snoop Dogg beach party.

Where I purpled up and hit the zeitgeist when Natasha Bedingfield played for us back in Anaheim.

And she picked me out from stage as she played a rockin’ version of Prince‘s Purple Rain which the Great Man would look down proudly on.

While she doubled down on her compliment later at our meet and greet.

Star of David

Bandanaman; The star and the duck in Hollywood

Not that I’d want to tell Larry David how to act and interact…

He is surrounded by more stars than the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.

Like the rest of you I’ll just sit back and smile at his efforts on Sunday.

And remember much of The Lar Angeles Story is ad-libbed.

And look forward to getting back out there later this year.

America, Countries, Music

Don I love you so and Nashville

10th September 202310th September 2023 funtime65

People ask me why, well maybe not but stick with me because Don I love you so and Nashville.

We’re delighted to hear that the home of country music is to honour The Don on their Music City Walk Of Fame next month.

To go alongside his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the 2,700th recipient of such a glittering prize.

Producer John Waters will become the 2,763rd tomorrow although I can’t say right now which number I’ll be.

While the Hollywood Boulevard markings have stood out in our conscience for walks of fame they proliferate now… and more of that later.

The Music City

But it is only right to focus on The Don as he is honoured in Music City Nashville which prides itself as a musical crossover hub.

Now if some people only know The Don for his anthem American Pie then they’ll miss his country roots.

What we shouldn’t miss, of course, is that The Don’s heritage is a Scottish one.

Celtic folk, Scottish and Irish infuses country music and the offshoots.

And so those who have delved further into The Don’s back catalogue will know yeThe Don knew his Old Country standards.

With his rendition of Mountains of Mourne spreading that way and beyond its origins.

Yes, Don I love you so and Nashville.

And Don, of course, joins a stellar list which randomly in alphabetical order includes…

And in Music City the Music himself Buddy Holly under his band, The Crickets.

The Don will be joined in the naming ceremony by Darius Rucker (Wagon Wheel), Duane Eddy (Peter Gunn) and music executive Joe Galante.

Footsteps of legends

Of course we can walk in the footsteps of the legends by getting out there to Nashville.

With British Airways offering return flights from £499 return.

America

The ghost of Marilyn

27th October 20221st November 2022 funtime65

Her candle might not have gone out long ago then, particularly in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel where it’s said you can still see the ghost of Marilyn.

And Marilyn being Marilyn you imagine her ghost would steal any Halloween show.

Mazza is around many an LA corner the year round anyway… whether looking out a window in Venice Beach.

Or gliding along Hollywood Boulevard or posing for a selfie at her star on the Walk of Fame.

While you can lie with her (or at least on her bench) at her final resting place, the Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary.

The real Marilyn

But it you want to see the real thing then Marilyn has been hanging around the Hollywood Roosevelt for decades.

And, of course, she’s good for business.

After all who wouldn’t want to stay in a hotel where the world’s biggest-ever pin-up is a resident.

The story goes that you can see the reflection of Marilyn staring back at you.

As you sleep in the second-floor Cabana suite above the Tropicana Pool.

Where Marilyn did her first advertising shoot for suntan lotion on the diving board.

And the waitresses pay homage by wearing a version of her bathing suit.

The Cabana boasts a platform canopy bed nestled between padded white wall with a mirror-like black frame mounted on the ceiling.

Do not disturb

A room attendant is said to have seen Marilyn staring back at her.

When she went into clean (the attendant that is and not the actress).

And that she left the room screaming.

Though not rough-tough Matthew McConaughey, who checked into the suite when he got his star in 2014.

The Cabana suite’s place in Hollywood history derives from it being the hotel where Marilyn first met Arthur Miller.

A crucible of celebrity if you will.

A creepy cast

Marilyn isn’t the only ghostly reminder of the Golden Age.

Visitors have also reported mysterious trumpet music believed to be the spirit of Montgomery Clift who liked to practice in suite 928.

The Roosevelt continues to be a hang-out for modern-day celebs who like to channel their inner Marilyns and Montgomerys.

And hope that they get a sprinkle of the magic dust bestowed by the first attendees at the Academy Awards in 1929.

You can book a Deluxe Room in the Tower in the Roosevelt, starting from $311 per night.

But if you want the Marilyn suite, overlooking the Tropicana Pool, we were quoted $800 a night.

And we were reminded too that when Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were carrying out their affair in the penthouse of the Roosevelt it cost them just $5 a night.

And that same suite today would cost you $6,000.

So if you want to revive the spirit of the ultimate sex symbol, then the Roosevelt is where to go to for the Ghost of Marilyn.

America, Culture

Daniel Craig on my Walk of Fame

3rd October 2021 funtime65

He may be getting a star but I’m after five goldfingers on Hollywoood Boulevard.. take a stroll with me and Daniel Craig on my Walk of Fame.

Craig, as we all know, is bringing down the curtain on his 15-year service as 007.

And the hunt is on for the next James Bond.

I reckon I’m halfway there already with my name. and age is no barrier.

As my fellow Scot Sean Connery showed when he reprised the role in his late 50s.

For now I’m licenced to scroll instead of to kill.

Although I did get in some practice at Machine Guns Vegas in Neon City a few years back.

And I reckon I could give old 007 a run for his money.

Walk this way

Now seeing I have my eyes on a tribute on the Walk of Fame I’d better introduce you to some of Craig’s, and soon to be my, new neighbours on the famous LA street.

In a town where being first is everything there are various originals.

Eight stars – for Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward – were unveiled (temporarily) to the public on August 15, 1958.

While filmmaker Stanley Kramer, who directed It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, was the first honoree to have his star laid, installed on March 28, 1960.

All of which you already knew. Right?

Of course only true film buffs seek them out.. for the rest of us it’s the icons we want to be photographed next to.

And on the day that I visited they were all congregated around Michael Jackson.

Me, I felt sorry for Greta Garbo who just vanted to be left alone.

For the record Craig will become the 2,704th star to be recognised.

Something to ponder as you walk Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

And avoid the celeb lookalikes hustling for money.

Hands of gods and godesses

It’s worth remembering though that while it’s a star status that is afforded our celebrities, it used to be something different.

And here’s where the gold fingers come in.

So come with me to the Forecourt of the Stars outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

And you’ll see Marilyn Monroe‘s hands and Donald Duck‘s web feet and Alvin and the Chipmunks’ paws.

For Star Wars fans there are also prints of R2-D2’s wheels and C-3PO’s robot feet.

And you can see the real thing and enter into a Star Wars world at Galaxy’s Edge just down the road at Disneyland in Anaheim.