Burbank, Ca to Buellton, Ca

There were a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings I wanted Morag to see before we left Los Angeles - The Ennis House and The Bradbury Building. We probably didn't have time to see both, so I opted for the Ennis house first. It's a bit run down, but has recently been purchased by an executive committed to its restoration. It was designed for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 (88 years ago!), and the futuristic Mayan-inspired Uxmal reliefs featured as Deckard's apartment in the movie Blade Runner (and a dozen other films).

This is the main gate - looking rather like the front of a Mayan temple. Not exactly your average suburban fortress off Loz Feliz Boulevard...

I won't bore you with the many other photos I took of this magnificent edifice... This is the view of Los Angeles the tenants of the Ennis House look out on. I believe the long street here is Vermont Ave, one of the longest in Los Angeles at 23.3 miles long.

Real Los Angeles bums! Sitting at an LA bus stop! Hollering at traffic! This is Los Angeles culture at it's finest - where the money really hits the streets. Couldn't stop now though, as we raced through West Hollywood to the Paramount Studios tour.

Here we are, in front of the 1912 main gate (before the studios were extended another block south down to Melrose Avenue). No, we didn't pay the full $45 they seem to be charging now - we got in for $15! So many personalities worked at Paramount: Cecil B. DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Elvis Presley, Audrey Hepburn, Steven Spielberg, Angelina Jolie, Harrison Ford all worked here. The original "Star Trek" and "Mission: Impossible" television series were shot in the back lot of Paramount, along with "The Brady Bunch," "Happy Days," and "Frasier" (among many others). If you look really carefully, you can see the Hollywood sign just by my right ear... oh, get me!

We learned a lot about the way studios worked - for instance, Lucille Ball constructed fake houses across from her office in the studio lot. This was because Hollywood did not like a working mother, so she would give the press exclusive interviews in exchange for photo opportunities that made it appear she was not working hard at all, and spending most of the days at home. In reality, she was one of the hardest working people in Hollywood!

This is in the backlot - a lot of TV and films use these pre-existing camera-friendly lots and dress them differently to get a unique feel. This set was used in The Royal Tenenbaums, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Seinfeld, and probably a few Friends episodes as well. For me though, they all looked like the original Star Trek episode A Piece of The Action (also known as The Spockranos, ha ha) when they end up in Chicago's 1920s mobster era.

This is our tour guide Ben (he wants to be an actor, then producer - he has a plan!), showing us the B-Tank, where water-based scenes are shot. You can just see the famous Paramount water-tower in the background - did you know the stars in the logo stand for the original 24 contracted studio actors and actresses? When not in use, they park cars there - of course. Famously, this is where the red sea parted in Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments. Epic!

"My name's Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump." Morag sits on the actual seat used in the movie. Our guide told us that Tom Hanks was on the lot one day a few months ago with nothing to do, so he got his old costume out of the wardrobe department and sat on this seat for over two hours with a real box of chocolates, telling Gump-isms for the entire time! We also got to see the 'Glee' set, as well as the sets of 'The Doctors' and 'Community'... woo-hoo! We haven't really seen any of these shows, but acted impressed anyway.

Next up, a tour of a different kind - throughout the real West Hollywood! Los Angeles has a thriving street art scene, and there were many examples - this photo was taken as our Hop-on Hop-off Hollywood tour bus passed through the extremely funky Melrose Avenue area. Melrose Place, home of the 80's Bevery Hills 90210 spin-off, is located a few miles away.

Finally, a photo from the bus was in focus! The infamous Hollywood sign, now in new and improved 40ft-high metal letters (each letter was donated by a celebrity - one by Hugh Hefner, another by Alice Cooper). It used to say 'Hollywoodland' and was put up by a real estate company - at other times it has said 'Hollyweed', 'Oil War' and 'Save the Peak'.

The Capitol Records building near Hollywood and Vine - designed to look like a stack of vinyl records with a turntable arm on top. The first day we were in LA, it had an inflatable pink pig on top, I was sure of it... turns out it's to celebrate the start of a 14 disc re-issue (they even re-created the iconic cover of Animals at Battersea Power Station!).

John Singleton - the iconic film director of 'Boyz In The Hood' and 'Higher Learning' had a nice little star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I also saw Mickey Mouse - between the black rapper Queen Latifah and singer Barbra Streisand - wow.

We were able to jump out of the bus to grab a coffee, then worry if we would get back to the Dress-for-Less carpark, which had a two-hour limit. This is the historic Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where most Hollywood films have their debut/premiere - people have been sticking their hands, feet and other appendages into the concrete here for over 90 years.

I thought this was one of the best concrete platitudes - 1977's Star Wars Episode IV (A New Hope), replete with droid footprints and Darth Vader's fake-looking signature. In the background, you can see Harrison Ford (here's a map of all of them).

When the Walk of Fame was extended recently, this exotic multi-ethnic sculpture was erected to show the western start. It is in honour of The Four Silver Ladies of Hollywood: Mae West, Dorothy Dandridge, Anna May Wong and Dolores Del Tio. The image at the top is of Marilyn Monroe, in classic Seven Year Itch repose.

The Chateau Marmont Hotel - John Belushi died here. Bob Dylan, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, Led Zeppelin, and the Jefferson Airplane all stayed here at one time or another. We hopped off the bus at this point, got a fast cab down Fairfax Ave to 3rd Street - where our faithful VW Jetta was still waiting for us. Then it was back on the freeway, and onto one of the best drives in the country - through Topanga, Malibu and the rest of the Pacific Coast Highway, through Santa Barbara to Buellton. Unfortunately, it was by this time pitch black, and we didn't see a thing. :o(