Friday, August 31, 2007 – Hollywood Furnace

Back in 1932 Noel Coward gave us this ditty –

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,
The Japanese don't care to, the Chinese wouldn't dare to,
Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one
But Englishmen detest-a siesta.

It's not just mad dogs and Englishmen; it's the tourists in Hollywood too. This is the scene in and around the Kodak Theater at Hollywood and Highland, just after noon on the last day of August – ninety-seven in the shade, one hundred five in the sun, thunderheads building in the distance.  Nothing stops the tourists.

The lonely and quite awful guitarist on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the Kodak Theater

Shops

The eagles (with graffiti) on top of the Hollywood First National Bank Building, 6777 Hollywood Boulevard, at Highland (more here).

Water! The Hollywood and Highland complex was designed to look like the sets from D. W. Griffith's Intolerance, a 1916 epic filmed up the coast in Oxnard, so it has things like this.

In 1941 "Citizen Kane" had its premiere here, and then-Senator Richard Nixon delivered that Checkers Speech from this theater in 1952, when it was an NBC studio.  Now this, the El Capitan Theater - Morgan, Walls and Clements, 1926 (see Classic Hollywood).

Across the street…

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