Page 29 -

Hollywood Underground

By Harold Aspinall

Los Angeles is famous for two
things: it is the movie capital of the
world (or is that now Mumbai?), and, it
is a city where the car is king. For the
city which once prided itself that
‘nobody walks anywhere in Los
Angeles,’ efforts have been made to
improve public transport in a bid to get
people off the choked freeways.
The city now boasts a very fine
underground rail system which is clean,
graffiti-free and, by all accounts, safe to
use. On a recent visit there I tried the
system on a few occasions and can
attest to its cleanliness and ease of use.
An all-day ticket costs just $3 -
something Melbourne could emulate.
All of the stations are decorated
with different themes, and when you
get to Hollywood/Vine, a surprise is in
store. The intersection of Hollywood
Boulevard and Vine Street is famous in
Hollywood folklore, although there is
nothing there today to indicate it’s once
glamorous status. The area is a bit
tawdry in fact. But the underground
station has been given over to a
celebration of sorts of the movie
industry.
As these pictures show the ceilings
and walls of the station are lined with
thousands of film spools. Not just any
spools, but Maspro spools. Anyone who
has ever been associated with
projection will recognise Maspro
spools. The station builders must have
ordered thousands of them, specially
made.
Where the trains pull in, the wall is
decorated with a film motif, complete
with frame-lines and sprocket holes.
Stars are sprinkled around on the walls
and in the middle of the concourse
there is a display of two rather ancient
Simplex projectors with Peerless lamp-
houses, on their pedestals.
Another wall is tiled with a
representation of a movie screen and
stage proscenium. How would Flinders
Street look given this treatment? ★

From the top:
Maspro spools everywhere, a cinema screen framed by curtains and a Simplex
projector with Peerless lamp-house, make the point that historically, above ground was
fantasy land.

CINEMARECORD 2008 29