Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

These attention-grabbing Easter Island type statues are one block from my house. They are actually styrofoam props standing outside a prop house and are very lightweight. They look so good though.

Wherever you go in Hollywood, you are never far from a place of interest, particularly in connection with movies or music. Do you remember the Laurel and Hardy short film "The Music Box", in which the hapless duo try to move a piano up a long flight of stairs, only to have it go crashing all the way down? Well, these are the exact stairs that were used to film that comedy.

This to me is amazing - that I can stand at the very same spot where, 70 years ago, Laurel and Hardy produced such classic comedy. It's part of the magic of Hollywood to many.

Laurel and Hardy's movies are still shown here at the only silent movie theater remaining in the world, the aptly titled "Silent Movie Theatre" on Fairfax in West Hollywood. You can also see many other famous names from the silent era here such as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, to name a few.

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

At the southwest corner of the Paramount lot is what used to be the RKO studios. It has now been absorbed into Paramount, but you can still see the globe on the top corner of the building. 1941's "Citizen Kane", possibly one of the greatest movies of all time, was made here.

Talking of Paramount Studios, here's the front gate at 5555 Melrose Avenue.

Welcome to my haphazardly constructed web-site on what Hollywood, California, the place where I live, is like. All these photos were taken by me, incidentally.

This is as good a place as any to start. The Hollywood Forever Cemetery is just a block or two from my house and is the final resting place of many a celebrity - particularly from the old Hollywood days. People such as director Cecil B De Mille and silent movie stars Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks are buried here. The cemetery shares a wall with the Paramount Studios lot, and legend has it that Valentino's ghost can be seen travelling between the cemetery and the studios to this day! As I sit typing this, I am at home, just a block or two away, and I'm starting to feel a shiver running down my spine.........