Bear Searches for the Famous

When I left off yesterday's post, Bear and I were in Hollywood exploring the tourist trap area known as Hollywood Blvd. After taking a look at Grauman's Chinese theater, Bear wondered aloud "I wonder if Charles Martin Smith has a star?"

See his quizzical look as he ponders being able to have his picture taken with Charles Martin Smith (CMS)'s star.

Never one to be daunted, Bear and I decided to "take a look at a few stars" just to see if we could find one for CMS. (The following pictures are in no particular order.) So off we headed west on Hollywood Blvd. toward La Brea Avenue. We crossed over La Brea and headed back east on Hollywood, being sure to verify the name on each star in hopes of finding Mr. Smith. As we walked along, dodging people and hawkers, we started calling out names of the stars: Lucille Ball! Alec Guinness! HB Warner! Who?

I began to play a game with the Bear...pointing to various stars and asking if he knew who it was. He was embarrassed that he didn't and so I had an opportunity to show off my movie knowledge. I admit I was showing off a little. If he minded he didn't show it. It was much later in our walk that he practically peed his pants with excitement. Was this the holy grail of Walk of Fame stars - CMS?

No, it was Yma Sumac!

Yeah I didn't know who she was either. She was a Peruvian singer with an over 4-Octave range. Pretty amazing. Unfortunately, the pics didn't come out great because of the great shining sun :

I took a few pictures of the terracotta stars and we took turns posing with favorite celebrities:

Bear and Julie London!

Behr and Bonita Granville!

Bear and Boris Karloff!

Thoroughly Modern Bear and Carol Channing!

One of my favorite pics - Bear with Agnes Moorehead.

A Bear favorite - Fritz Lang!

On and on we scoured the stars looking for the infamous CMS. Along the way I mentioned I'd like to see Yvonne de Carlo's star...we found it about 20 steps later...with a man on a ladder on top of it! We laughed about that one.

We stopped at Larry Edmunds Bookshop where Bear bought a mini-poster of the 1960s release of Fantasia (very cool and psychedelic) and a dual picture of CMS from the two American Graffiti films.

Now let me tell you a thing or two about the Hollywood Walk of Fame...it's supposedly a little over 1.5 miles long...and that basically means if you walk each side of Hollywood Blvd and Vine St...you're walking about 3+ miles! Because the Behr is not as fit as the Bear, I began hobbling along and slowing down the hunt for CMS. So we stopped at Dillons Irish Pub & Grill for refreshments. Okay, we each had a beer. It was ice cold and tasted SO good. I wanted a second one but it had been a while since lunch (Starry Kitchen, remember?) so we decided to forge ahead.

On our continued walk, we came across a shop that had the following painted on one of its walls:

We both agreed it was probably Siouxsie Sioux. Cool pic, eh?

So we kept up the hunt until we found ourselves back in front of the Kodak. We searched also for Britney Spears (more on her later) to no avail. Apparently Charles Martin Smith has no star. Bear was outraged.

By this time we were both feeling a bit tired and peckish and we ventured down Highland Ave to Mel's Diner where we feasted on french fries and malts. Mel's is popular in San Francisco and evidently we have some here in So Cal (who knew?). It attempts to recreate that 50's diner feel complete with kitschy pictures of celebrities...look who we happened to find!

Okay so what's with the Charles Martin Smith fetish? I wonder how many of you have figured it out...yes, that's right...Bear is a/k/a Seth Rogaine, the absolutely talented blogger behind Charles Martin Smith is the Sexiest Man Alive. If you've not checked it out, please do! I swear you will fall completely in lust with CMS.

Because this was Bear's first visit, I wanted to make sure we saw and did as much as he wanted. During our fruitless CMS star search, we stopped at Graumans Egyptian and checked out their schedule, looked in a couple of souvenir shops, and basically played tourist.

Unfortunately, the Hollywood Museum was closed so we opted to hit the Hollywood Wax Museum. This one outdates Madame Tussauds - at least on Hollywood Blvd.

Really good Gandalf and Aragon.

The Behr and Jeannie!

Behrs and scarecrows and gay icons - oh my!

Linda Blair a la Exorcist....

Star Wars.....

Among the others represented were Matt Damon, Jennifer Garner, Harrison Ford, Adam Sandler, Marilyn Monroe, Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, and Cameron Diaz. It was completely cheesy and fun.

After the wax museum, we decided we'd had enough of Hollywood Blvd. and I suggested we take a drive down Sunset Blvd. For you movie buffs, you know the reference! So we hopped in the truck and drove to the ocean. We were going to stop at Santa Monica Beach and pier but there was some event going on and we'd both had our fill of crowds. I missed the Venice Beach turn off (home of Muscle Beach) probably due to tiredness. We both suddenly realized it was late and we'd been on the go all day so we headed home.

We both took showers (alone you perverts!) and both eventually went to bed. I know I felt good that Bear had had a wonderful first day in Los Angeles. But how to follow this act??

Coming up next: Bear Catches Up

PS: BEHR HUGS to me! I finally figured out what I've been doing wrong in how I've posted pictures since the inception of this blog! La la la la la - ON THE FLOOR!