Hooray for Hollywood

When I came to this country at the age of two, I learned how to speak English by watching television. If you ever heard me speak it would explain a lot. Anyway, I used to watch old Hollywood movies. The classic black and whites entertained me for hours on end. I loved stars like Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis, Grace Kelly, Betty Grable, Sean Connery, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. And that’s my short list. My television favorites were Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, Dick Van Dyke, Carol Burnett and Tim Conway to name a few. I watched the Academy Awards and loved all the beautiful gowns the ladies wore. I often watched as stars placed their footprints and handprints in cement in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

So when visiting our son, I asked if he would take me to Hollywood. I wanted to go to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and see the Walk of Fame. It was nighttime and the streets were crowded. I kept snapping away pictures and my son made sure I was safe. He walked along on my right and my hubby on my left. My son walked closer whenever he didn’t like the look of someone. I never felt safer in my life walking around with my favorite two men in the world.

I’ll have to admit that I acted like a tourist. I know you are shocked. I know what you’re thinking. Nadine is too cool to be such a geek, but I couldn’t help it – I’m talking Hollywood here. I took some pictures of my favorite stars “stars.” Here’s just a couple.

Lucille Ball

This is a cool spray paint image of Lucille Ball on a security gate
You can’t forget Desi
Next up was Hollywood and Vine. Pictured is Tom posing for me. The men in my life really know how to humor me.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was great. It was smaller than I had pictured it in my mind as a kid. I didn’t see some of the footprints I expected to see. My son told me they exchange them from time to time. It was hard to get a whole cement block in one shot with my camera. But I did manage to get most of it. One thing I found interesting was how many female stars wore high heel shoes when placing their very small feet into cement. Here are a few pictured below.

Marilyn Monroe

Who could forget the famous “I Love Lucy” episode when she steals John Wayne’s footprints and then breaks it putting it back? Too funny.
My favorite actor of all time. . . drum roll please . . . Cary Grant.
Thank you son for taking your mom to a place she always wanted to see since she was a little girl.

The trip home is next up. Stay tuned. I’m not sure when I’ll post it. I’m teaching another class this weekend and will be busy from Thursday night through Saturday night. Until then have a great weekend.

© Nadine Z. 2007