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Places Continued from page 13 One of the two Hector Ponce's mural tribute to Hollywood icons can be seen traveling on Santa Monica Blvd. at Wilton. Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens 5333 Zoo Drive, (323) 644-4200. At Griffith Park. One of the world’s finest zoo; where the real wild life is! Open daily 10am-5pm. (See FAMILY) Madame Tussauds Hollywood 6933 Hollywood Blvd., (323) 467-8277. Get up close and personal with stars and famous person- alities from the past and present. Hollywood’s newest attraction, dates to 1770 and the original Madame Tussaud. Interactive fun for the entire family. Hours: Daily 10am-8pm. www.madame- tussauds.com Photo by Larry Underhill The Knickerbocker Hotel 1714 Ivar Avenue. Built in 1925, it was a glam- orous hotel popular with celebrities. Errol Flynn lived here when he first came to Hollywood and both Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley stayed many times. Harry Houdini stayed here and his widow held a séance on the roof in 1936. – Director D.W. Griffith (“Birth of a Nation” and “Intoler- ance”) lived here a mostly forgotten man until his death in 1948. Now a senior residence. Kodak Theatre 6801 Hollywood Blvd. (323) 308-6300. Inside the Hollywood & Highland complex. Home of the Acad- emy Awards. Guided tours 7 days a week from 10:30am-2:30pm. Tours depart every half hour from level 2 Entrance. Call (323) 308-6333 for reservation or email at groupesales@kodakheatre.com for groups. General admission: $15. Le Cirque du Soleil’s “Iris” opens this summer. www.kodaktheatre.com KTLA TV (Sunset Bronson Studio) 5800 Sunset Blvd., (323) 460-5500. Original Warner Bros. Studio where in 1927 the Magic Castle 7001 Franklin Ave., (323) 851-3313. 1909 Gothic mansion, once home to actress Janet Gaynor, now world-famous private club for magicians. Operated by the Academy of Magical Arts, non-profit organization of 5,000 magicians and magic fans for over 40 years.www.magiccastle.com Max Factor Building (See Hollywood Museum listing) 1660 N. Highland Ave. Opened in 1935 with a “premiere” attended by Claudette Colbert, Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland. Melrose Avenue A unique collection of restaurants, nostalgia shops, and boutiques with the newest and best of fashion for a hip and trendy look at what’s hot in L.A. first sound movie “The Jazz Singer,” starring Al Jolson, was made. After the advent of sound, studios needed more space, and Warners moved to Burbank, using the studio for production of cartoons Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. In the late ‘40s, the studio be- came KTLA, one of the nation’s first TV studios. Lake Hollywood A glimpse of this mountain “lake” nestled in the hills will make you forget that you’re in a major city. Used as a location for countless movies and TV shows - a replica of the dam cracked and burst in the movie “Earthquake”. Superb view of Holly- wood Sign. Sculptures at base of the dam. Lake Hollywood Drive. Daily 5am-Sunset. Las Palmas Hotel 1738 N. Las Palmas, (323) 464-9236. Julia Roberts’ humble digs before business with Richard Gere moved her “uptown” to Beverly Hills in “Pretty Woman.” Also Kramer’s residence when he moved temporarily from New York to Hollywood on TV’s “Seinfeld.” Los Angeles Fire Fighters Museum & Memorial 1355 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (323) 464-2727. The Los Angeles Fire Department houses its historic fire fighting collection dating back to the 1880’s in the 1930 Old Hollywood Fire Station No. 27. Out- door sculpture memorializes fallen firefighters. Open Sat 10am-4pm. 14 DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD / SPRING 2011 Mole-Richardson® Museum of Lighting 937 N. Sycamore Ave., (323) 851-0111. A his- tory of the evolution of lighting within the motion picture industry. The Mole-Richardson Company has been designing and manufacturing lighting in Hollywood since 1927. Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm. www.mole.com Montecito Apartments 6650 Franklin Ave. Fine example of art deco style with Mayan influence, listed in National Register of Historical Places. Was home to James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, George C. Scott, Ben Vereen and Ronald Reagan. Now a residence for seniors. Mulholland Fountain Los Feliz Blvd. and Riverside Dr. Dedicated August 1, 1940 as a memorial to William Mulholland, the man who built the 238-mile-long aqueduct that brought water to L.A. from the Owens River Valley. Its location marks the spot where the young Irish immigrant lived near the L.A. River as it flowed to the small pueblo that was Los Angeles. Mulholland Fountain Hollywood & Vine metro rail station features the art of Gilbert "Magu" Lujan, old movie cameras and other surprises. Museum of Death 6031 Hollywood Blvd., (323) 466-8011. This new museum displays many funerary items and mortician devices as well as war, autopsy, and famous crime and morgue scene photographs. Hours: Sun-Fri. 11am-8pm and Sat. 11am-10pm.www.museu- mofdeath.net Musso & Frank’s Grill 6667 Hollywood Blvd., (323) 467-7788. Holly- wood’s oldest restaurant, it was a popular hangout for writers. William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Chandler, Nathaniel West, Ernest Hem- ingway and Dashiell Hammett. (See DINING) Murals in Hollywood An array of murals provide diversion to the urban streetscape. Eloy Torrez “Legends of Cinema” graces the front of Hollywood High’s Auditorium on Highland Ave. with the recent addition of HH alum, John Ritter. On Hudson north of Hollywood Boulevard see Alfredo de Batuc’s “A Tribute to De- lores Del Rio”. Thomas Suriya’s “You Are The Star” is at southwest corner of Wilcox and Hollywood Blvd. For a mural that requires a little more thought, travel two blocks north on Argyle and Franklin see an untitled mural by the late Dan Collins. Noted marine artist Wyland has “gone Hollywood” painting a whale mural on Gower at Willoughby (on a Paramount soundstage wall). See George Sportelli’s Nancy Sinatra off Highland Avenue opposite Hollywood High, Tony Curtis on the Hollywood Freeway eastbound, Frank Sinatra on east side of Las Palmas, just south of Hollywood Blvd, and Johnny Cash at Bronson and Hollywood Blvd. Artist Hector Ponce’s 2-mural tribute to Holly- wood faces west near Santa Monica Blvd. and Wilton. An exciting aerosol art display can be seen on Gower just south of Santa Monica Blvd. Museums Refer to listings for American Society of Cine- matographers, Autry National Center, Guinness World Records Museum, Hollywood Bowl Mu- seum, Hollywood Heritage Museum, the Holly- wood Museum at the Max Factor Building, Hollywood Wax Museum, L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition, Madame Tussauds, Mole-Richardson Museum of Lighting, Museum of Death and Rip- ley’s Believe It or Not Museum. (Also see MORE MUSEUMS) of interest