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Arts & Entertainment

Remembering Hollywood Outside of the Movie Industry

Author Paul Zollo tells us about his new book on the history of our town beyond the film business.

Paul Zollo is no stranger to Hollywood. An accomplished writer, photographer and musician, Zollo has been chronicling a living L.A. history through his many creative passions. Patch got the chance to sit down and chat a bit with this North Hollywood resident about his latest book, Hollywood Remembered, which explores the history of Hollywood outside of the movie industry. In more than 40 oral interviews with residents from all walks of life he aims to piece together Hollywood's story from before movies existed up until today. 

Hollywood Patch: Tell us a little about how Hollywood Remembered came about.

Paul Zollo: I moved here in 1981 from Chicago and I have been here for 31 years. And from the beginning I was fascinated by Hollywood but there were no books about it outside of the movie industry. And of course the movie industry is a big part of that story. So in Hollywood Remembered you have the whole history of Hollywood and the oral history as well from old-timers talking about Hollywood and explaining why Hollywood changed so much. The final chapter is an in-depth tour of Hollywood exploring every single landmark with all the history attached. I even touch on the landmarks that are now gone. People come to Hollywood all the time and I wanted to show what happened to it. How it has evolved. Downtown Hollywood is nice now but back when I first got here in the early '80s Hollywood was in bad shape. I just couldn't understand how Hollywood was allowed to go downhill so much. So part of the reason I did this book was to find out. In the process I found out that there was so much history that had happened on the streets we walk on every day.

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Patch: What did you find out about Hollywood?

Zollo: The book starts before the movies came to Hollywood. It was an interesting town before the movies. There were a lot of spiritual societies here. People believed that the hills of Hollywood were magnetically impregnated with spirits so there were these spiritual societies that came here way before the movies who built beautiful buildings up in the hills. All the technologies came to Hollywood and then of course the wars affected Hollywood so it is a pretty interesting story. There really is no place like Hollywood. Hollywood the town itself is different from the ideal that people have about it. Hollywood is both a metaphor and a real place. So it was a fun project to discover how did it get to this place, why Hollywood, why here. And what it was like back in the '20s, '30s and '40s. 

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Patch: Can you talk a little about North Hollywood and how it fits into that history of Hollywood?

Zollo: North Hollywood was definitely affected. They call out North Hollywood now but early on it was really two different towns: Lankershim and Tujunga. They started calling it North Hollywood because Hollywood was so famous that they wanted to get in on some of that Hollywood glamour. Same thing with West Hollywood. And a lot of the movie studios quickly moved into the Valley also when the industry started to expand.

Patch: You interviewed a lot of Hollywood residents for the book.

Zollo: I interviewed 41 people. I originally posted signs all around Hollywood asking, 'Do you remember Hollywood? And if so, do you want to talk about it?' (laughing) So needless to say when you post something like this in Hollywood you are going to get a lot of wackos. There were also a lot of old-timers. A lot of older actors who were in retirement and who were happy to talk about what it was like. I didn't want it all to be celebrities. I wanted people from all walks of life to contribute. 

Patch: Who are some of the people you interviewed?

Zollo: I interviewed Jonathan Winters, the comedian. I didn't have to ask him a lot of questions. He went into these long comedy routines for four hours straight. It was phenomenal! He came to Hollywood when he was just a boy visiting with his grandfather. And I got to interview Jerry Maren, who was one of the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. He is still around, about 90 years old. It was amazing talking to someone who was in The Wizard of Oz about what that was really like. Evelyn Keyes, who was in Gone With the Wind. I also talked to people like Tom Jones who was a carpenter for Charlie Chaplin. Karl Malden is also in the book. There are a lot of interesting perspectives.

Patch: You talk a lot about Hollywood's decline in the '60s. What did you learn about this time?

Zollo: It was a series of things. Before TV came, all the big radio stations were in Hollywood back in the '40s and '50s. When TV came, the movie industry kind of freaked out and they needed more space for TV studios so they moved into Burbank and the Valley. That is how it started to move out of Hollywood. In the '60s we see a depreciation of Hollywood due in part to the civil value and Vietnam War. So central Hollywood was almost abandoned in the '60s and '70s and a lot of the old great places like the Hollywood Rooselvelt Hotel became dilapidated basically. All the hip restaurants and clubs declined. But certain people like Johnny Grant (featured in Hollywood Remembers), who was the honorary mayor of Hollywood, worked to keep the spirit alive. He kept reminding people that stars were in Hollywood through his work on Hollywood Walk of Fame. He kept working for Hollywood to come back. Gradually things shifted and the Hollywood Highland was built and the Hollywood Rooselvelt was renovated as well as the El Capitan. A lot of people thought Hollywood would never come back but it has. There seems to be a new appreciation of Hollywood these days. 

Patch: There is some great architecture in L.A.

Zollo: People think a lot of old Hollywood was knocked down but if you go onto the hills and just off of the boulevards you see all those great buildings. Up in the hills there are all those great houses that were built in the 20s. There are so many architectural styles: Moors, Egyptian, Colonial all mixed together. There is no other place like it. The spirit of Hollywood is still very much evident in the hills. 

Patch: What are some of your favorite haunts in Hollywood?

Zollo: The Charlie Chaplin studio on Sunset and La Brea. It became A&M Records and now it is Jim Henson Studios. I am really thrilled they didn't knock that down because he made all of his famous movies there. Some of the first great Hollywood movies ever were filmed there. And I love that Paramount is still standing. And speaking of haunts, I love the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which is a very old cemetery. It was put there long before the movies in Hollywood. Paramount Pictures was built on the ground owned by the cemetery. They said it was unpopulated—that no one was buried on that ground—but there's not even a wall between the cemetery and Paramount, which I always thought was strange. You hear all these stories about how Paramount is haunted by the cemetery. And that has so much history in it! For a town that people say has no history go to Hollywood Forever Cemetery and all of the great early movie stars are there. For Hollywood history it is a glorious place. It was bought about 10 years ago and renovated and used in a lot of creative ways so that is probably my favorite haunt of all.

Patch: Any upcoming projects?

Zollo: I am actually working on a book right now called Angeleno—a photo book—and that is about Los Angeles too. Every kind of person will be in it from homeless to super famous. Everyone is included in it. Lots of creative and performing artists as well. 

Patch: What draws you to Hollywood?

Zollo: Well for me I'm in the entertainment business. I am a songwriter and of course this is a great place to be. Of course the weather is great. I love the ocean. But I love Hollywood in that no one—no matter who they are—is out of place. In Hollywood there are no rules. Anything goes. And it just keeps getting better and better.

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