LA Tour

Sunday 19th September 1999

This morning all the lads were off to "The Shriner" - a huge memorabilia fair down in Hollywood, where there would be actors signing autographs, and all sorts of stuff for them to buy. The Shriner is the place where they hold the Oscar ceremonies. I waited for them all to go out of the apartment, before getting up at a far more leisurely pace than I had been in recent days. Lulu had stayed behind as well, and I decided I would spend the time while they were gone writing my postcards and having a rest. Then, it turned out, Lulu was getting ready to go to Church, which was in Glendale, and I asked how she was getting there, and she said she would take the bus. Since I wasn’t doing anything anyway, and the hire car was sitting outside, I offered to drive her to Church. Lulu insisted I didn’t need to come back to pick her up later - she didn’t know how long she would be, but she said maybe an hour, or an hour and a half. I returned to the apartment, with Lulu’s keys, and spent a while writing postcards. When they were done, I fetched all our dry washing and got the iron out and ironed them. When Lulu still wasn’t back by this time, I was getting a little worried. I was also hungry, and went in the fridge and found left over fajitas and guacamole, so I had a nice lunch with some of those. The lads arrived back about 4.00 p.m. and no sooner had they come in than Lulu walked in as well. I had just been telling them how I had dropped her off at Church and how I was worried where she was, but Nick didn’t seem worried, he said she sometimes got involved with looking after children at the church - like Sunday School, and so he expected that was where she was. So Tony, Vince, Ian and I took ourselves back to the Galleria.

Monday 20th September 1999

Tony was back at work this morning, and so, after much deliberation, wondering could we fit in Las Vegas or San Diego in the last few days, but as both those places were over 100 miles away, and as I had already driven to San Francisco and back, we settled on the Paramount Pictures tour. Before we went there, however, we parked the car down near Warner Bros., and took photographs of the painted billboards, and various other Burbank landmarks such as the Disney building, and the NBC building. I had worked out the route to Hollywood, via the Hollywood Freeway, and Melrose Avenue, where Paramount is, was just a few blocks away from where we left the freeway. We found that quite easily, and got into Paramount just a few minutes before they were due to start the next tour. We had to go through security scanners, and Ian and I had already left the digital and video cameras behind as we were sure we wouldn’t be allowed to use them, but Vince took his still camera. We were first taken to the gift shop to get our tickets, but the guides said we could come back here after the tour if we liked, and so we decided we would, as we weren’t sure what we wanted to buy until after we had done the tour! We waited a short while in the front of the store, while our group of about ten people assembled - we were designated a group by coloured wrist bands. Our guide was called "Nacho", which was short for something, but he was quite a character. First he showed us some little kiosks with loads of photographs of stars who had been at Paramount at one time or another. Then he told us to look up ahead, between two of the sound stages, and in the distance was the real Hollywood sign - but very small from this far away! He showed us around the Paramount lot, on foot this time, past some Star Waggons, and we stepped inside one sound stage which they were using for Star Trek:Voyager, although no filming was going on at the time. We could see the outside of the set for the inside of the shuttlecraft! (Which from the outside looked like a load of timber and board, roughly in the shape of a shuttlecraft!) We could see where all the sets were built, and some sets were just leaning against a wall outside.

We saw the Bronson Gate, (whereas the one we came in at was the Melrose Gate), and I wondered if it had been named after Charles Bronson - in fact it was the other way around! A struggling young actor who had been told several times by his agent to change his name was waiting in a casting queue, and saw the name on the gate and decided to change his name to Charles Bronson! Then he got his lucky break! We went inside the Paramount Cinema - a really luxurious movie theatre, where sometimes premiers are screened. It was nice to sit down and rest in there for a few minutes! We finished by returning to the Gift Shop, where we bought, yes, you’ve guessed it, tee shirts, sweatshirts, badges, and other souvenirs.

We returned to Burbank to find that the apartment was all locked up, and Nick and Lulu must have gone out. After waiting several minutes, we wandered round the corner to a diner / coffee bar, and decided to have our lunch in there. Here I had another delicious salad. After we had eaten, we walked back round to the apartment, and Nick and Lulu were just arriving back! Nick volunteered to take us over to Griffith’s Park that afternoon / early evening - as it was one of the most important places we still had yet to visit.

As we arrived at Griffith’s Park, it was clear something rather exciting was going on. We couldn’t drive right up to the front, because all the car park before the Observatory was full of "Star Waggons", and there were security and policemen everywhere. A security guard made us turn back in the car before we could get near the place. However, we could see that people were going in on foot, and so Nick drove back down the approach road, and found a place among the many cars that were parked down there already, on both sides of the road, and parked the car. We walked back up the hill, and went in past all the guards without a hitch. As we got closer to the Griffith’s Observatory, we could see there was some television filming taking place, and a small crowd was gathered around the edge. They were filming Pamela Anderson’s show, V.I.P.’s, although we didn’t see Pamela herself, but two of her co- stars were there. We stood and watched as they acted out several scenes, some more than once as they took several takes. The film crew did not mind us watching at all. After a while I drifted off to gaze at the surrounding scenery, and down the hillside were some beautiful flowers, on bushes similar to rhododendrons. But on the opposite hillside, closer this time, I could see the real Hollywood sign!

We climbed to the roof of the observatory and continued to watch the filming from there for a while. We stayed on the roof for ages, admiring the panoramic views over the city of Los Angeles, which, as dusk was falling, and the pinpricks of light began to appear, was becoming more and more beautiful. We could see the skyscrapers in the financial district, and in fact some of them were so tall, the tops of them were above the layer of smog, which, as the air was becoming cooler, was actually appearing to drop! We continued to watch the filming throughout this time, and we noticed that most of the equipment had been cleared away, with the exception of a few cameras, and a small pick-up truck, with some oil drums on the back. There was also a man, very busy hosing everywhere down, the trees, the bushes on the hillsides, and the lawns in front of the Observatory. At first we thought he was just watering all the grass and bushes, but after a while, Nick and Ian began to speculate on whether they were going to "blow up" the truck. Ian, in a most excited voice, said, "they are, I’m sure they are, they’re going to blow up that truck, that’s why he’s watering down all the grass, so it doesn’t catch fire!" Nick replied, "Naaah, we couldn’t be that lucky - they’ll film this here, then they’ll put in the truck exploding back at the studio with special effects".

We waited a little longer, with baited breath, and some of the film crew came up on the roof, including a cameraman and camera. One of the crew was moving everyone to the far side of the roof, creating an exclusion zone. We were now sure they were definitely going to blow up the truck. We couldn’t believe our luck! We had a really good view from up on the roof, and we waited while they added the final touches to the shot. One of the crew explained that, yes, they were going to blow up the truck, that’s why everyone had to be a safe distance away, and they only had one shot at this - so they had about five cameras in different positions to film the event from every angle. Finally the moment arrived. One of the actresses ran up to the truck, put a light in between the drums, and then ran away shouting, "fire in the hole!" A few seconds later, there was a huge explosion - far bigger than any of us had anticipated, and a mushroom cloud of flame and black smoke shot into the air, as high as we were, on the roof! We could even feel the heat of it from where we were! Then, in a millisecond, it was over, but what an exciting tale we would have to remember, and relate to everyone when we got back! Then, the crew immediately started clearing away, and the crowd drifted off, but before they did, the camera man beckoned Ian to come over, and they let him look right inside the film camera! As if there hadn’t been enough to make his day, that was the icing on the cake! We unfortunately had arrived too late to go inside the Observatory, still, maybe we will go back one day. What a great day! We stayed a little while longer, looking at L.A. by night, as it was becoming quite dark now, and the moon was up. Then we returned to the car and drove back to the apartment. When we got back, Tony was home from work, and we told him all about our adventures that day.

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	As we arrived at Griffith’s Park, it was clear something rather exciting was going on. We couldn’t drive right up to the front, because all the car park before the Observatory was full of "Star Waggons", and there were security and policemen everywhere. A security guard made us turn back in the car before we could get near the place. However, we could see that people were going in on foot, and so Nick drove back down the approach road, and found a place among the many cars that were parked down there already, on both sides of the road, and parked the car. We walked back up the hill, and went in past all the guards without a hitch. As we got closer to the Griffith’s Observatory, we could see there was some television filming taking place, and a small crowd was gathered around the edge. They were filming Pamela Anderson’s show, V.I.P.’s, although we didn’t see Pamela herself, but two of her co- stars were there. We stood and watched as they acted out several scenes, some more than once as they took several takes. The film crew did not mind us watching at all. After a while I drifted off to gaze at the surrounding scenery, and down the hillside were some beautiful flowers, on bushes similar to rhododendrons. But on the opposite hillside, closer this time, I could see the real Hollywood sign!
	We climbed to the roof of the observatory and continued to watch the filming from there for a while. We stayed on the roof for ages, admiring the panoramic views over the city of Los Angeles, which, as dusk was falling, and the pinpricks of light began to appear, was becoming more and more beautiful. We could see the skyscrapers in the financial district, and in fact some of them were so tall, the tops of them were above the layer of smog, which, as the air was becoming cooler, was actually appearing to drop! We continued to watch the filming throughout this time, and we noticed that most of the equipment had been cleared away, with the exception of a few cameras, and a small pick-up truck, with some oil drums on the back. There was also a man, very busy hosing everywhere down, the trees, the bushes on the hillsides, and the lawns in front of the Observatory. At first we thought he was just watering all the grass and bushes, but after a while, Nick and Ian began to speculate on whether they were going to "blow up" the truck. Ian, in a most excited voice, said, "they are, I’m sure they are, they’re going to blow up that truck, that’s why he’s watering down all the grass, so it doesn’t catch fire!" Nick replied, "Naaah, we couldn’t be that lucky - they’ll film this here, then they’ll put in the truck exploding back at the studio with special effects".
	We waited a little longer, with baited breath, and some of the film crew came up on the roof, including a cameraman and camera. One of the crew was moving everyone to the far side of the roof, creating an exclusion zone. We were now sure they were definitely going to blow up the truck. We couldn’t believe our luck! We had a really good view from up on the roof, and we waited while they added the final touches to the shot. One of the crew explained that, yes, they were going to blow up the truck, that’s why everyone had to be a safe distance away, and they only had one shot at this - so they had about five cameras in different positions to film the event from every angle. Finally the moment arrived. One of the actresses ran up to the truck, put a light in between the drums, and then ran away shouting, "fire in the hole!" A few seconds later, there was a huge explosion - far bigger than any of us had anticipated, and a mushroom cloud of flame and black smoke shot into the air, as high as we were, on the roof! We could even feel the heat of it from where we were! Then, in a millisecond, it was over, but what an exciting tale we would have to remember, and relate to everyone when we got back! Then, the crew immediately started clearing away, and the crowd drifted off, but before they did, the camera man beckoned Ian to come over, and they let him look right inside the film camera! As if there hadn’t been enough to make his day, that was the icing on the cake! We unfortunately had arrived too late to go inside the Observatory, still, maybe we will go back one day. What a great day! We stayed a little while longer, looking at L.A. by night, as it was becoming quite dark now, and the moon was up. Then we returned to the car and drove back to the apartment. When we got back, Tony was home from work, and we told him all about our adventures that day.