Oct 20 2013
Hooray for Hollywood
I took a break from the stress of driving and took the Metro to the heart of Hollywood. I was lucky that the place I’m staying and the place I was going were both on the Metro line. Here’s the clean, lovely station at Hollywood and Highland:
After the hell of driving the past couple of days, it felt like science fiction to be whisked to my destination in a mere ten minutes, for $1.50. Practically teleportation!
I was headed to the Hollywood Museum, lodged in the old Max Factor building. Here is the glamorous lobby, which you can see is very Suzy:
The famous Make Up Rooms are still there, each painted with colors that would be the most flattering for different hair colors:
The Blondes room is dedicated to the greatest blonde of all, the immortal Marilyn Monroe. Several of her belongings were on display, including the iconic dress she wore when entertaining troops in Korea, and a delicate pair of see through shoes with rhinestone details, among other things:
It sounds silly, but somehow seeing her actual clothing which touched her living, breathing body made her seem like a real person to me instead of a legend. It was very moving.
Upstairs there was memorabilia from both TV and the movies, including the bottle from “I Dream of Jeannie”:
When I was a kid, I wanted to live in Jeannie’s glittery, purple velvet bottle. I still do.
I stopped by Grauman’s Chinese Theater:
to stand in Marilyn’s footsteps among the maddening crowds.
I had a commission from my beautiful niece to fulfill at Sephora. I was charmingly assisted by a fabulous gay Scottish guy. I asked him how he lived with the traffic and he said, “Medication, darling. Medication.”