06 August 2017

my idea of Hollywood

a Facebook friend just postd some screen captures of the William Holden episode of "I Love Lucy."  so I watchd that classic show again & laughd as deeply as I'm sure I did as an 11 year old.




when I lookd it up I saw its original showing was on 7 feb 55. that's a month after the first episode of "So This is Hollywood."  I've written before abt how influential that sit com was on my notion of what Hollywood was.



so the short-lived Mitzi Green series & the Hollywood episodes of "I Love Lucy" came together to inform my young mind abt the movie capitol of thw world.

after I grew up -- & startd visiting Hollywood regularly -- things changed. however on my walks of those old neighborhoods I'd think of Queenie picking oranges every time I passd a group of bungalows straight out of that series. & I bet that the first time I went to the Brown Derby on Vine I rememberd Bill Holden as I orderd Cobb salad.

in some ways Hollywood for me will always be that mythical place that it was when I was 11.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely post. I’m just a year or two behind you—but without your Hollywood experiences—and the Lucy Hollywood episodes are, still today, among my favorites and exactly my idea of Hollywood. I never did get there. And now I’m trying to identify the caricatures on the wall above Lucy and William. I can pick out, I think, Jimmy Durante, Perry Como, James Cagney(?), and Bob Hope, but none of the others.

Thanks for continuing to post. I’m pleased that you seem happy in your new home.

Rob2

richard lopez said...

i remember that episode of i love lucy also colored my own hollywood. when i did get to visit hollywood i was 16 and on a family vacation. i looked for the brown derby. it was closed, shuddered, but the shell of the building stood. a monument to old hollywood in the shape of a chapeau. perhaps if i managed to get to hollywood a couple years earlier i would have had the chance to dine at the brown derby. but alas, it was not to be, but why not. thru lucille ball, and loony tunes -- merrie melodies -- cartoons, and the great films made in hollywood, i can always visit the brown derby. and hollywood.

Alex Gildzen said...

good to hear from you Richard. it's been a while. hope all is well.