Though I usually try to avoid the tourist trap that is Hollywood, there are actually a few gems that are worth seeing for locals. If you dig really really deep underneath all the "fake for tourists" Hollywood glitz, you can find a few real, fascinating treasures. One of them is the Hollywood Museum, located at the tourist epicenter of Hollywood & Highland.
The museum boasts tens of thousands of different movie artifacts, props, costumes and other memorabilia, displayed over 4 floors and 35,000 square feet. The collections span from silent film posters to the costumes worn in the latest Twilight movie. My friends Barbara, Regina and I took almost 2 hours to go through the whole museum, and walked out with our brains full of old Hollywood trivia.
The entire second floor is currently dedicated to Lucille Ball and I Love Lucy displays, since 2011 would have been Lucille's 100th birthday. It was pretty special, since we (on accident), went to the museum on August 6th, which was her actual birthday. I was never a huge I Love Lucy fan, but it was pretty cool to see literally thousands of artifacts from her life and incredibly influential career. Fun trivia fact that I learned: in 1933, she was playing a bit part in the movie Roman Scandals, which required her to shave her eyebrows. They never grew back (!!!) and had to be drawn on for the rest of her career. Can you imagine?!
The basement featured more horror-centric items, like Hannibal Lector's cell from Silence of the Lambs, and costumes from Bride of Frankenstein (trivia: the basement of this building was a speakeasy during prohibition!). The top floor had the more current displays, like Glee, Twilight, Baywatch (see below!), Moulin Rouge and Dreamgirls (I still don't know how they got the gold Cadillac inside the building). There is also a section dedicated to Jean Harlow, whose 100th birthday is also this year. I never knew much about her, but learned that the terms "platinum blonde" and "blonde bombshell" were both coined to describe her.
But the real (and only) reason I would recommend anyone pay the $15 entrance fee, is for the first floor. The museum is housed inside the old Max Factor building, and the first floor contains his makeup rooms, where he actually used to work, restored to their original grandeur. There are four separate rooms, each dedicated to blondes, brunettes, brownettes (his term for light-brown hair) and red-heads. Each room is painted and has lighting considered most favorable to people of those hair colors and complexions, and he would only do a woman's makeup in her appropriate environment. Let me tell you, the light blue walls and yellow-ish lighting in the blonde room were most favorable!
Each room had photographs and memorabilia dedicated to that hair color's most famous sirens, all of whom Max Factor actually worked with directly. For the blonde room, of course Marylin Monroe and Jean Harlow were featured. For the brunette room, Joan Crawford and Elizabeth Taylor; for the brownette room, Judy Garland, complete with a pair of original ruby slippers (though I do doubt their authenticity, since another pair are in the Smithsonian???). The red-head room was dedicated to Ginger Rogers and Lucille Ball, and on the vanity was a display of Lucille's personal Max Factor brand makeup collection.
Not only was this guy a makeup artist; he actually single-handedly invented the makeup and cosmetics industries as we know it today. As we learned from the short film showing on a loop: as the film industry itself was evolving (from silent film to black-and-white to color films) he had to invent new products and looks to make the women continuously look perfect on-screen (trivia: in black-and-white movies, the women actually wore bright pink rouge and dark brown lipstick, which translated to a natural blush and red lips on film. But apparently in real-life they looked horrifying!) I could go on and on about his genius, but I learned that Mr. Factor invented lipstick, mascara, blush, lip gloss, fake eyelashes, compacts for powder, not even to mention completely revolutionized the cosmetics industry to make it possible for the everyday woman to buy and wear makeup. I'm not going to lie, my mind was a bit blown by the magnitude of how influential he was and still is on almost every single woman in this country (I won't even get into how he also invented the idea of the celebrity endorsement... it's just too much!!)
If this museum had only been the first floor, I would have still felt like I got my money's worth. Yes it was cool to see fancy costumes from Moulin Rouge and Planet of the Apes, but the truly fascinating insight into Old Hollywood Glamour that I learned from the Max Factor exhibits was much more interesting. I nerded out in a big way and LOVED it, and would highly recommend this museum to anyone who is actually interested in the real history of Hollywood and its original leading ladies.
Regina and me outside the museum
One of the original Baywatch swimsuits. The boobs were soooo big!
Moulin Rouge costumes
The peach-themed "brownette" room is most flattering to girls with light brown hair.
For Blondes only!
Though he never starred in a movie, he was given an honorary Academy Award in 1929 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1981 for his unparalleled contributions to the film industry.
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