Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - Hollywood Divas

New murals go up in Hollywood all the time – just the old divas, as Marilyn Monroe's face is always somewhere. This one just appeared pretty much hidden in an alley a block south of Hollywood and Le Brea.

And out on the boulevard her face is everywhere. This graphic captures something or other about her. Think Andy Warhol on a very bad day.

Directly across the street, another diva and her limo driver –

How about these beauties gracing an old apartment building, "The Julie Lee" at 1665 Sycamore, just a block south?

"Bubbles" on the east wall of the famous Roosevelt Hotel is in fine shape – needing no service.

"Bubbles" as nightmare –

Nearby on La Brea, a nod to Hemingway amid all this -

To Have and Have Not (1937) was made into a film by the director Howard Hawks. They had become friends in the late thirties. Hawks also liked to hunt, fish, and drink, and the author got along with Hawk's wife Slim, who later said - "There was an immediate and instant attraction between us, unstated but very, very strong."

According to a story, Hawks had told Hemingway that he could make "a movie out of the worst thing you ever wrote." The author has asked, "What's the worst thing I ever wrote?" and Hawks said, "That piece of junk called To Have and Have Not."

"I needed the money," Hemingway said.

Hawks bought the rights to the novel.  Jules Furthman and William Faulkner slapped together a screenplay over drinks at Musso and Frank's – Bogart and Bacall starred – and on January 20, 1945, there was the movie, the only one, so far, involving two Nobel Prize winners in literature. And here is the Hemingway Building on La Brea.

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