Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - Cahuenga High Noon

Yeah that back wall reads Hollyweed.  On January 1, 1976, California got its new marijuana law, changing possession of marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor. The prison system was flooded and needed cleared, so this might help.  At the time one Danny Finegood was enrolled at Cal State University Northridge as an art major, and in his environmental sculpture class was given an assignment to create something relative to scale. He and his friends changed the famous sign that New Years Day. He got an A on the assignment. The sign was quickly changed back. Perhaps they're making a movie about it.

But the sad news earlier this year - "Danny Finegood, former CSUN student, artist and prankster behind the "Hollyweed" sign, died Jan. 22 at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital due to complications of multiple myeloma. He was 52." Sic transit gloria mundi and all.

Times change of course - the classic sitcom "Make Room For Daddy" (starring Danny Thomas) was made here, as well as interior shots for "The Andy Griffith Show" (the exterior Mayberry sets were at Culver Studios). This place was also home to "The Jack Benny Show" and "Our Miss Brooks" and "Hogan’s Heroes" and "That Girl" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

The back end is just industrial looking, but then there was some major star's trailer parked on the street.  There just wasn't any star around to photograph. Sorry. Hollywood isn't like that. People work.

The neighborhood is full of post-production shops of course. You have to love the cowboys at the LaserPacific Media headquarters, just across the street, at 809 North Cahuenga.  The basics on them -

LaserPacific Media Corporation, part of Kodak, is a post-production facility in Hollywood offering a variety of end-to-end services for the entertainment industry. It provides technological solutions, including services such as 16 and 35 mm film processing, telecine, film scanning and recording, digital intermediates (DI), multimedia, sound editing and mixing, as well as digital cinema packaging for customers ranging from independent filmmakers to major studios. Most recently, LaserPacific has created a new workflow for independent film makers called inDI. It was acquired by Eastman Kodak in late 2003.

The cowboys probably have to do with one of the recent three hundred fifteen films they worked on.  Maybe the cowboys are visiting from Kodak, in Rochester, New York.

Next door, Anderson Printing - 855 North Cahuenga - just has a cool wall.

On the way home, up on Sunset, some commentary on the movies - Mickey Mouse Gone Bad - on a beach towel in a shop window -

And some movies bomb - so here's a bomb (the store is Killer Toi - punk and Goth clothes) -

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the 'fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Most of these photographs were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  Earlier photography was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik