Take adventure through Hollywood with star maps

  Barbara McGuire   For directions of
other famous stars’ homes, e-mail [email protected] or go purchase a map
yourself.    

Star Maps. You see the signs everywhere and all you think is
fraud. After passing by the guy on the corner of Bellagio and
Sunset for the twenty-millionth time, I decided to play detective
for the day and see what the tourist craze was all about.

Making my way over towards Bel Air and Beverly Hills from West
Hollywood on a Saturday, I picked up my own “golden
ticket” for $7 at the corner of Gardner and Sunset, from a
boy who was no doubt breaking those ancient child labor laws that
must not mean a thing in Hollywood.

For some odd reason my friends were under the impression that
the star maps were run by an underground whore division
(don’t ask how), but I quickly learned otherwise as I saw
various children selling the maps at every single corner on
Sunset.

Upon pulling over and giving the map a good look, I realized
that this is a well-run operation, the map having a rather
professional appearance. I was honestly impressed. It was well
printed, published proudly by some Vivienne Welton, with graphics
and a detailed, well-drawn map with the street names very visible
and accurate — but not cheesy. UCLA was even given a home on the
map, which pretty much already made my day.

  RODERICK ROXAS/Daily Bruin Various trails to take were
also outlined in red for those who just wanted to take a general
tour of some star homes rather than selecting their own and going
from there.

Additionally, besides an impressive list of well over 200 star
homes, there were the locations of other tourist hot spots.
Categories included: “Famous Night Clubs and Cafes”
(The Palace and Planet Hollywood were a few), “Premiere
Theatres” (The Mann Chinese, the Pantages), “Places of
Interest in the Los Angeles and Vicinity” (Farmers Market,
Knotts Berry Farm, La Brea Tar Pits), and “Studios”
(Walt Disney, Twentieth Century-Fox).

And this wasn’t all. Buyers seriously got their
money’s worth, especially those out-of-towners, since most
locals know where all this stuff is located anyway. Me, being a
local and looking at this later, thought big whoop, but in my
tourist mode, I was amazed at all Hollywood and the surrounding
area has to offer, all the stardom, if you want to call it
that.

Anyway, I digress, back to the wonders of the map, because
I’m still not finished describing it. Flip the map over and
one finds “News of Interest Concerning Movie and TV
Celebrities,” with a side note that excused their lack of
“photos and other fancy frills,” explaining that they
had “been sacrificed here to provide the accuracy of renewing
this guide every 90 days.” OK, like we care.

What seemed to be missing back here, however, was any news. All
I saw were promos for movies which were and are to be released this
year. All right, interesting I suppose, though only six movies were
selected. And then finally, directions were given to the visual
centerpiece of Hollywood that is in every movie concerning the
town, the Hollywood Sign. These will be useful when I decide to go
out sight-seeing again, because I’ve always wanted to see the
sign, but never actually considered going up there. Now with
directions I have a no excuses.

Back to the actual map. The stars homes are located on the map,
which is placed on a grid with numbers and letters running along
the two perpendicular sides, by stars and according to a very
logical numeric system.

For example, Sylvester Stallone was number 98, (they’re in
alphabetical order) and his home is located at 1121 Beverly Dr., in
square J-2 of the map. Simple right? Well, though the map really is
self-explanatory, without the help of a knowledgeable navigator (my
assistant was not good with maps) and me stuck with my total lack
of a sense of direction I got lost a few times. My arms definitely
got a work out constantly flipping U-turns, but for the most part I
was always going in the right direction.

Just when I would think I was lost , suddenly there was the
street I was looking for, like a godsend. And let me tell you,
whether or not these houses that I was looking at were the real
thing, they were huge and beautiful amazing works of architecture.
I was a skeptic prior to my adventure, but now I am a believer.

The first home I hit up was Stallone’s, which you could
only see from the backside because it had it’s own special
driveway with well labeled “no trespassing” signs. This
one was oh, about a block long. It hung off the mountain like
something out of the movies, kind of ironic. My detective instincts
lead me to be fully convinced this is his home. I’m even
thinking about taking my investigation one step further and writing
him a letter there to see what happens.

Which leads me to another interesting issue. How are these
“mapmakers” allowed to print the addresses of all these
famous people? How are lawsuits not filed against them daily for
trespassers and other random stalkers?

Just from driving around to look at a few homes, the only people
on the streets seem to be other people with star maps (though I
tried to pretend I was not one of them). Not only were these people
slowly driving by the homes like stalkers, but many also got out
and took pictures in front of them (well in front of the beautiful,
decorative, protective metal gates). If I was a star, that would
bug the hell out of me, especially if I wasn’t but everybody
thought my house was owned by one.

Not all names were given the numbers and gird detection on the
map, but they were easy enough to find, at least for me with my
trusty Thomas Guide. The stars without the address and grid
locations were somewhat more up-to-date than the others, of which
many, many of the names I didn’t even recognize. The map
boast an original publishing date of 1937, which gives things a
shady tone, but I’m sure they update it yearly.

Interestingly enough, I noticed Brad Pitt’s name and
address (5769 Briar Cliff Rd. for those of you who are interested)
and wondered if that was how his stalker got onto his premises.

In conclusion, my detective workings really produced no results.
Half the time I couldn’t even see the house because it was
too hidden. For example, Nicholas Cage’s home on 363 Copa De
Oro Rd., right by campus, was completely masked by trees and
fences.

Additionally, the houses I could see didn’t have huge
billboards in their front yards saying “Yes, this is Sharon
Stone’s House.” So who am I to know the difference? And
who am I to even care? At least I had fun driving around looking at
the homes that I hope to one day own. Besides, its not like any of
the people who I brag to about seeing Elvis’s former home
will know the difference either.