I had spent ample time the night before getting ready for my Summer 2009 California journey, having packed all of my clothes, assembled celebrity photos that I needed to bring along, and had all of my incidentals ready to go. However, on the morning of Saturday, July 11, I made an almost near-fatal faux pas which almost wrecked the whole thing. I had set my alarm for 4:20 am with plans to head to my Dad’s house at 5:00, leave his place by 5:30, and arrive at the airport by 6am for my 7am departure. It was all mapped out and it seemed like a bulletproof plan.
I awoke that morning at 17 minutes after the hour, looked at the clock, and thought it odd that I woke up 3 minutes before the alarm sounded – then suddenly realized that it wasn’t 4:17…it was 5:17! I leapt from the bed, wiping away the cobwebs, and trying to come up with a sensible alternate plan to not ruin the whole trip. I started by washing my hair in the sink, scooping up my belongings and getting into my car at about 5:35. I called Dad and he agreed to meet me at the airport, pass off my boarding passes (which he had printed for me), and take my keys to return to the airport later in the day to get my car.
It almost all came off without a hitch – except for the fact that I forgot my camera battery charger, which would plague me for the entire trip. Dad picked me up at the long term parking area and drove me to the airport entrance. One other good thing was that I had crammed all of my things into the new bag that I had received for my 20-year anniversary at Kroger. The bag was small enough that I could carry it on, so I was able to proceed directly to my terminal.
My flight left at 7am and I arrived at my layover location in Cleveland at 7:52. The second flight departed at 8:55 and arrived at 10:36 (with a three hour time gain sandwiched in between). This long flight was quite bearable as I was sitting next to a very attractive gal named Frederica from Montreal. I arrived right on time and Bob picked me up at LAX and we set out for the first of our day’s adventures.
Within an hour we were pulling into downtown Culver City for the first time of the week, a place near and dear to my heart which I had visited on several occasions over my many trips to California. After we parked, we took a gander at the huge Laurel and Hardy mural that is located behind the True Value Hardware store. During my last visit here, I had noticed that they had added a garage door right in the middle of the mural. One big change this time was that the hardware store was now going out of business and the front facade was being renovated. During this change, the Laurel and Hardy plaque that had been placed here during the 1997 Way Out West 30th anniversary locations tour had been removed. It is currently unaccounted for.
With the great Laurel and Hardy painting on the back of the now-closed True Value. I wonder what the fate of the mural will be…
Bob was instrumental in getting the Laurel and Hardy plaque dedicated on this site. It has been pried off the building (see remains of the glue in the photo above) and is now missing.
One thing that I had never had occasion to do was to eat in one of the restaurants on Main Street, so we had lunch at La Ballona Mexican Restaurant. The storefront of this eatery can be seen in Laurel and Hardy’s silent film Liberty as well as in a production still taken of the boys in Angora Love. I had the lunch special – a chicken taco and enchilada.
Getting ready to dine in La Ballona, a Laurel and Hardy film location on Main Street in Culver City
Chowing down on our Mexican delights
After our lunch, Bob took me to the La Brea Tar Pits, an icon of Los Angeles that I had never had the occasion or the inclination to see in the past. Located in Hancock Park, the pits were interesting to see, if non-spectacular, and was generally a cluster of pits where tar had seeped up from the ground over the course of tens of thousands of years. So now I’ve been there.
Entering the La Brea Tar Pits, or at least the gate surrounding them
Me and the pits
It was around 1pm when we made our next stop, a location that I’d had on my must-see list: the Ozzie and Harriet Nelson house, located at 822 Sycamore Road. This was not only the house where the Nelson family used to live, it was the house that was used in the opening credits of one of my all-time favorite shows The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Although we couldn’t get a very good view of it due to the fences and trees surrounding it, from what I could tell, it appeared to look about the same.
The Nelson home as seen in the lead-in to their show
The same house today
We next made our way to downtown Hollywood, home of the celebrity walk of fame (I said hello to the Charley Chase star as I stepped out of the car), the Chinese Theatre, and other traditional Hollywood tourist traps. Our purpose here was brief – to scout for a few photos that we would be needing that day and later in the week. Between Larry Edmonds Hollywood Movie Memorabilia and Hollywood Book and Poster, I picked up six different shots – but only was able to use half of them during the week.
The Quinn Cummings photo would get signed later that day. The Louie Anderson photo can be used to line my cats’ litter box.
Hangin’ on Hollywood Boulevard
By about 2:10, we had worked our way to the Hollywood Forever cemetery for some grave scouting. I had made out a list of the the graves that I was hoping to see and of course, Bob added a few bonuses to our visit there. More details of our visit to Hollywood Forever can be found here.
Our next appointment was to attend the book signing of child actress Quinn Cummings who had been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in The Goodbye Girl. She did a reading from her new book Notes From the Underwire and then a book signing, where I got both a book and one of my six new photos signed. Further details of the book signing can be found here.
After the signing, we had time to stop by the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills cemetery to do a bit more grave scouting. Bob knows this one quite well and we toured one area of the cemetery. Stan Laurel is buried here, but we didn’t stop by his grave so that it would ensure that we would have to get back later in the week, to not only visit with Stan but find Ozzie and Harriet as well. Also noteworthy is that recently-deceased music icon Michael Jackson had his private family service here and it is presumed that he is currently interred somewhere in the cemetery. Further details of our visit at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills can be found here.
We spent about 45 minutes there and then went to grab some dinner in South Pasadena. Dinner was at Gus’s Bar-B-Q where I had a very good BBQ Seared Steak Salad. After dinner we went across the street to the Fair Oaks Pharmacy Soda Fountain, which we had attempted to visit during the Summer of ’07. This time we were successful and I enjoyed a nice ice cream sundae.
The good grub at Gus’s…
…and ice creams at the Rx
Nearby in South Pasadena was the Fremont Centre Theatre where we had tickets to see the premiere of the new Ray Bradbury play Yestermorrows at 8pm. After two unsuccessful attempts in 2007 to actually meet Ray Bradbury, this time I was successful and got my chance to not only meet him, but to sit directly behind him during the performance. The play was mildly entertaining, but I was so exhausted that we ended up leaving during the intermission. See more details of the play and my encounter with Mr. Bradbury here.
Intermission at Yestermorrows…and on our way out
From Pasadena, we drove back to Bob’s house in San Bernardino. I dozed in and out along the way. We got there at about 10:30 and stayed up for a while so I could go through some of Bob’s newest autograph acquisitions and his celebrity photos. By the time I hit the sack it was after midnight and I was still on Ohio time. Needless to say, I slept just fine.
We got an early start the next morning as we got up before 7am, got ready, and headed eastward toward Las Vegas. We pulled out of Bob’s place at 7:40 and I assisted with closing the famous gate.
Showing Bob that I still remember how to correctly operate the gate at his house
As we headed toward Nevada, we made a few stops along the way, the first being in Apple Valley, not far from Victorville. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are interred at the lovely but arid Sunset Hills Memorial Park. They have a very nice plot surrounded by artificial grass and are honored by a chapel in their honor. Oddly, although there were only a few other people in the cemetery, one of the guys had parked himself right behind the Rogers-Evans gravesite and we patiently waited for him to toddle off.
At the scenic Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Sunset Chapel at the Sunset Hills Memorial Park
The graves of Roy and Dale
Located in Yermo amidst the Calico Mountains, near Barstow, is Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner. Built in 1954, before the 50’s were even retro, the location has a nice ice cream fountain, a restaurant, and cool gift shop. Bob and I have stopped here on every road trip that we have ever taken to Las Vegas. He generally gets a malt. I stuck with the child size cherry amaretto ice cream cone.
Entering Peggy Sue’s
Betty Boop greets the visitors
Bob demands his malt
Enjoying the ice cream amidst the goodies
Some jerk prevents me from picking up this dummy
Saying farewell to the greeter as we exit Peggy Sue’s
Bob had me drive for a bit so that he could peruse the Las Vegas pamphlets and newspapers to determine some of the shows that we would be seeing. It was here that he made the fatal mistake of showing me that Penn & Teller were boasting five new illusions in their Las Vegas show. I drove until we reached Baker, the Gateway to Death Valley. At 10:30 in the morning, it was 103 degrees outside.
With the world’s tallest thermometer (literally!), currently reporting 103 degrees in Baker
We reached Las Vegas at around noon and embarked on our next series of adventures.
To be continued…
Bypass the trip and continue with 2009…
Hmm, do we have *issues,* as they say nowadays, with Louie Anderson? I trust we’ll hear all about those…..
Man, you travel a lot! I’m glad you go to so many interesting places, because that way I have all the fun vicariously and don’t have to leave my beloved little house, my beloved little cat, and my beloved little computer.
Randy Skretvedt
August 3rd, 2009