Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Shadows of a Famous Street

I have taken, of late, to looking at old videos of  various Hollywood Streets, but particularly, Sunset Boulevard, in the area which I currently haunt in my daily life, on YouTube.

The one featured in the link below is at the area of Sunset Plaza, circa the 1940s. What got me thinking was the several people pictured in the short piece, anonymous pedestrians, walking some of the same spots as I have, that I do, some 70 years later. We have a connection, we strangers, for we have lived in the same area, been in each other's footsteps, decades apart. I will never know who they were. They are long gone to their great reward, most likely.  What an odd kinship I feel! And it is so strong! People with dreams, with a need for purpose. Just like me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZCxP1JLNA8

So, yesterday, I had to go to a bank on Sunset, not far from my Church, and as I walked toward the Subway where I had my favorite six inch tuna, I noticed the shadow of my legs walking and decided to do a quick video of it which I posted on Facebook. Me, following a legion of others, wandering down Sunset Boulevard, toward the Whiskey a Go Go (I never have been inside, sigh. . . ) a most famous landmark in many of the videos I have sampled. I am a part of an ordinary, but historical line. Something felt warm about it. Strangely exhilarating.

Strutting on sunset.



'Strutting on sunset.'


The street is somewhat unrecognizable these days. Some of the best old buildings remain, like the Whiskey itself.



The Subway happens to be across the street from the Viper Room, a place for famous and infamous events.


I ate my tuna on Italian Herbs and Cheese, and read a bit of a book on my Kindle, and thought,
"Only in Hollywood".  A place of great weather, and amazing entertainment history. For that matter, another place for the history of the human race in microcosm.