Homes of the Stars…
We now have a middle name!
Our upcoming grandchild’s full name will be –
Landon Thomas Morrison
We left the rig about 10 am headed for Hollywood and our Movie Star Home Tour.
We got there early enough to have lunch so we decided to try the Hooters across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater where our tour would start.
One thing we’ve noticed is the Hooter’s hot wings out west are not near as hot as the Hooters in Texas. We both had ours at “911” which is their hottest normal temp. (Some Hooters also have off the menu temps called “Bentley” and “Elvis” which are hotter still.) But “911” out here is only about equal to ‘Hot” in Texas.
Anyway we got with our group and were led to our tour bus.
Since rain was forecast and it was sprinkling on the way in from Lancaster, we were a little worried, seeing as how we didn’t have a roof. But our tour guide said not to worry, that if it rained, he had a backup plan. Jan asked what the backup plan was, he said “We get wet!”.
Oh boy!
But off we went. And it turned out fine. The rain held off and the sun even came out for a while.
And now, in no particular order, here are some of the homes we saw.
Bob Barker of “The Price is Right” fame
The mountain-top retreat, high above Beverly Hills, has been owned by both Steven Spielberg and Merv Griffin. It’s up for sale now.
This is the entrance to Bill Cosby’s home.
This one is newly-built by Richard and Kathy Hilton, the parents of Paris Hilton.
This home was used both in Will Smith’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and in “Mommy Dearest”, with Faye Dunaway.
This under-construction mansion is rumored to be the new home of Arnold Schwarzeneggar, but it’s supposed to be a tight secret with a lot of security around it, even under construction.
This was Rosemary Clooney’s home.
This is one of the homes used in the Beverly Hillbillies.
This is the Beverly Hills Tower, home to Elton John, Cher, Sidney Poitier, and Matthew Perry, among others.
This is Nancy Reagan’s Nail Salon, where she has her nails done every Thursday.
This is all that remains of the location of “77 Sunset Strip”. It’s the valet parking area, and it’s not located at 77 Sunset Strip, anyway. It’s more like 4800.
This is the home of “Colombo’s” Peter Faulk.
And this is Helen Hunt’s home. And it’s up for sale, if you’re in the market.
This is the back of Johnny Weissmuller’s home. It has a quarter mile long swimming pool that winds thru the estate, with trees and vines so he could still play Tarzan. His family stills owns it.
This is the front gate of Michael Jackson’s home.where he died.
The balcony here leads into the bedroom where Michael’s body was found.
This was the home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez.
And right next door was Jack Benny’s home. It’s now owned by Jon Lovitz.
And right next door to that is Carol Burnett’s home. That’s some neighborhood.
This is Dr. Phil’s home, also known as the “House that Oprah built”.
This is Tom Cruise’s home, or what you can see of it.
And this home, complete with gargoyles, was the home of Dracula’s,Bela Lugosi.
This is a shot of the LA skyline, as seen from the Hollywood sign view point.
And, of course the Hollywood sign itself. It originally said “Hollywoodland” and was erected in 1923 as an advertisement for the Hollywood Land Co. The last four letters were removed in 1945, or destroyed by a rocket belt-wearing Nazi spy crashing into it in the movie “The Rocketeer”. Take your pick.
Back at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, there are always a bunch of movie characters in costumes for people to have their pictures taken with. We’ve seen Spiderman, The Hulk, Batman, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia, just to name a few. However, only in Hollywood would you find KFC’s Colonel Sanders and Jesus, walking and talking.
Seeing this made me want KFC for dinner, so we stopped and picked some up on our way home.
I wonder it I’ll want to go to church on Sunday, too.
Stopping at KFC, I finally got to try the new Double Down Chicken Chicken Sandwich.
It’s two strips of bacon, two slices of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese, and Colonel’s Sauce, between two chicken breasts. It’s messy to eat, unless you keep it in the wrapper, but it’s delicious.
And at 540 calories, it’s not bad calorie-wise, either. That’s 140 calories less than a Whopper and 160 calories less than a Big Mac.
And did I say it’s really, really good?
