Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/28575
plane in the hope of striking gold – maybe even in the shape of Oscar himself – and making it big in the home of the movies. Only a few of those people realize their dreams, though one family has been part of Tinsel Town for over 50 years. Teir success story is one that everyone who visits Hollywood knows, and may even have played their part in – if just for a few hours: “We are the American Dream. We never thought it would happen, but with hard work and getting help from lots of people here (in Amer- ica), it came true for us. You can do anything in American if you focus on what you want to do, be serious, be honest and be nice to everybody.” Tese are the words of Vahid Sapir. He’s not an actor or producer, yet back in 1963 he saw an opportunity that was written in the stars. Born in Iran, he’d come to Los Angeles as an exchange student to study engineering. He was working as a parking attendant at Grauman’s Chi- nese theatre when he got to know Bud Delp, a celebrity chauffeur. Years before, Delp had been given a tip by one of his clients – Sid Grauman himself, the man behind the idea of handprints and footprints in ce- ment outside his theatre – and from then on had driven excited tourists around Beverly Hills on what became known as the “Movie Stars’ Homes Tour”: “Everything was continues Starline Tours F The Dream of Vahid and Fred Sapir by James Bartlett or nearly 100 years, the search for the most glamorous and glittering side of the American Dream has bought countless people to Hollywood. People still arrive by car, train, bus and Vahid and Fred Sapir 34 DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD / SPRING 2011