For some reason I have been resistant to walk around in downtown Hollywood, but finally we took a day and explored it. I will say it was overall better than I expected and since we went early in the morning and left when it got super crowded from a congestion perspective it wasn’t that bad. The main thing I wanted to see was the Hollywood Museum (in the old Max Factor building) which is said to house the largest collection of Hollywood memorabilia. I don’t know if that’s true but it was definitely a funky place with several floors and a weird layout. I liked it though and thought it was an excellent bargain for the price. I can’t really explain it so let me just share the pictures.
The first floor was part makeup and part Hollywood starlets and each of the small rooms was dedicated to blondes, redheads, brunettes etc. It was a nice way to bring Max Factor and Hollywood memorabilia together and it was very well done in my estimation.
The upstairs has a really eclectic collection of memorabilia. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it all, but I especially enjoyed all the pieces from the Old Batman show. Loved that show as a kid. And in one corner they had all the different cat women outfits. That was a cool collection.
There was also a side section that had some sci fi stuff (including some Star Trek outfits) and a HUGE collection of autographs. What I liked best about the autograph collections were the framed collections from Gone with the Wind and the Wizard of Oz. This collector went to some time and trouble.
The absolute best part though was the basement. It was all monsters in movies and wow it was spookie. First of all it was all brick in the basement and it was on the dark side. Creepy but super cool.
The absolute best part of the basement was the recreation of Hannibal Lectors cell. It was extremely well done and Lee made me sit in the Clarice chair and that was waaay creepy. I was ready to go upstairs after that.
After we left the museum we walked straight into Mel’s Diner and I was pleasantly surprised. This Diner was the inspiration for American Graffiti and lots of other movies and I really enjoyed the food. As someone who loves diner’s it was great to go to such a famous one and I definitely wouldn’t skip it if you are in the area.
Next up I will cover the rest of the day including the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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