As mentioned in passing elsewhere, Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was the creator of the cynical and wry private investigator Phillip Marlow, with his office high over Hollywood Boulevard and all that. His first Marlow novel was The Big Sleep (1939), but most folks remember the Howard Hawks movie (1946) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, with its screenplay by Chandler and William Faulkner, and scenes at a gambling joint "up in Laurel Canyon."

Laurel Canyon is the view from the living room here, and down the street we have Raymond Chandler Square - Hollywood at Cahuenga - with the "Cahuenga Building" where Marlow had his office (actually the Pacific Security Bank building).

This is it, Thursday, March 23, 2006. The sign telling you where you are was gone for months, but it's back, something to do with the LAPD setting up video cameras to keep an eye on the street.

The shot was taken standing on the "Walk of Fame" with its stars in the sidewalk, and specifically the Claude Rains star. You remember him as the cynical French fellow in Casablanca, where Bogart was cynical in a different way.

If you use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me.  

There is a copyright notice at the bottom of this page, of course.

These were shot with a Nikon D70 – lens AF-5 Nikor 18-70mm 1:35-4.5G ED

They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

The original large-format raw files are available upon request.