[music]
Welcome to Hollywood!
Los Angeles, the City of Angels and Oscars!
This is the largest city in California,
the second largest in the United States.
And for us, it was home for many years.
- Yes.
- Do you miss it? - I miss the weather.
- Yeah, I miss the weather for sure.
But it is a fun place to be. - Yes.
- For how long did you live here? - 16 years.
- Wow! - And I lived here for six years.
We know this place, huh? - A little.
[music]
I'm Renata and this is Gordon.
We both worked in one way or another in areas related to Hollywood.
Me in front of the cameras and Gordon behind.
Kind of what we still do today. - Yeah.
- So join us.
And this in my next few videos,
we'll show you some of our favorite things to do in Los Angeles,
and we'll bring you along, as we discover new attractions.
[music]
Here is our car.
Hey.
Yeah, when you come to L.A., you need a car to go sightseeing,
unless you're planning to only stay in a few corridors.
- Just get a car.
- But I have to say this, public transport has improved a lot
in the last 10 years.
And the city of L.A. itself has some decent options.
- I don't think it's reliable.
Too difficult to get from A to B...
to C to D.
- The thing is that when we talk about L.A,
we mean the Metro Area.
L.A. has a bunch of separate cities,
like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu.
And integrating public transport among different regions
with different administrations can be challenging.
- Oh! Anybody who says you'll use public transport,
you're going to be spending a lot of time.
It's not worth your time.
Just trust me, I lived here.
- And Uber can get pretty expensive because the L.A. area is very spread out.
And also, look at this...
you're constantly in traffic.
[music]
As L.A. is normally associated with movies,
we figured we'd start a series in Los Angeles right here in Hollywood.
[music]
Los Angeles is very well known for the Walk of Fame,
and here it is!
There are 2,700 stars over here.
So if you have a favorite celebrity, make sure you check in advance
where his or her star is located,
otherwise, you may walk forever and never find what you want.
On the internet, you can find a list of stars,
and also the list of events going on here.
You can check them out at walkoffame.com.
It's free to go, open to the public.
I've covered a few when I lived here.
It's always fun
[music]
Oh, Slash, baby. That's for you.
Look at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You like him, huh?
- It should have a guitar. - It should have a guitar.
But you know, there are only five symbols you can have here.
- Make it six.
- The sixth one should be YouTube
or the internet. - Oh, yeah.
[music]
The stars here are in five different categories,
and they are represented by different symbols.
Look at this.
There's movies, TV,
radio, theater,
and recording... for musicians.
Fun fact: The stars here are not free for whoever is receiving them.
They cost $50,000,
and the money goes to pay for the star itself,
and to maintain the Walk of Fame.
We got here at 9 in the morning, very early,
that's why it's still quiet like this.
Later it gets much busier.
When you come here in the afternoon,
look at the amount of street vendors over here.
But this early, the museums and shops are not open yet.
They open at 10.
So if you get here this early,
it's more to go for a stroll, see the stars.
Now this here is the prime location of the Walk of Fame,
where celebrities have their handprints and their footprints
right in front of the Chinese theater.
Michael Jackson,
Clint Eastwood.
- Yep, there's a Brazilian here.
- Who? - Oh, come on.
All this time living here, you haven't seen?
- Who? - Carmen Miranda.
Look at that, 1941.
- Look how small her feet are.
- Oh, my God!
No, it's not possible. Look at this.
Meryl Streep's size is more similar to mine.
[laughs]
These two here were the first,
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.
Guess when the first prints were left over here?
- 1934. - '27.
But most importantly, like in New York, the day!
- May 1st. - The day!
It's April 30th, baby.
[laughs]
It's my birthday.
May 1st is his birthday.
And then, there was a new one right here on April 30th as well.
There are nearly 200 signatures here.
This is one of the most traditional movie theaters here,
it opened in 1927.
You can do a tour inside the theater. I did already.
It's really nice if you're into movies.
Here inside, you see a few costumes and props.
Here is Marilyn Monroe's dress in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Not sure I agree with that. [laughs]
And why the theme Chinese?
It was considered too exotic at the time,
as very few people had had contact with the Chinese culture.
[music]
Another famous theater here is the Dolby Theatre,
former Kodak Theatre.
This is where the Oscars take place.
[music]
Look at this, a homage to all winners of Best Picture.
"Braveheart," this is one of my all-time favorite movies,
with Mel Gibson. And they are ready for years to come.
Look at this, 2030, '31, '32.
What happened to 2021?
February 2022 is Oscar 2021.
Yeah. - Oh, you're so smart.
Dolby Theatre is connected to Hollywood and Highland
which is this shopping mall here where we parked the car.
There's a nice viewpoint over there where you can see the Hollywood Sign.
When you come to the fourth floor
of the Hollywood and Highland Complex,
there's a nice homage here to Kobe Bryant.
And look at that, rooftop view of the Walk of Fame.
Totally free.
[music]
Vendor: Every item today, only $5 right now.
[music]
And the Oscar goes to...
Oh, best husband!
Oh!
Now find one for me.
Come on! It was right next to it.
- Here you go.
For you.
- Oh!
[laughs]
Fully agree.
[music]
There are a lot of these tours over here
that promise to take you to the celebrity houses,
but you can't see much, you know.
Most of the times, you just see walls.
You can't know for sure if they still live there,
and don't count on seeing celebrities.
Let me tell you the truth, don't expect to see celebrities here,
unless there's some kind of event going on.
Most movie productions don't happen here anymore,
and the studios moved out to different parts of the city.
Actually, the only "celebrities" you'll see here
are those dressed in costumes.
But try taking a picture with them, you'll probably have to pay like $10,
and they can be pretty aggressive.
In addition to the two theaters and the Walk of Fame,
you can also check out these museums here,
Hollywood Museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not,
There is the Wax Museum, Museum of Illusions over there.
So you got some pretty fun options.
The Walk of Fame extends for several blocks,
but most of the attractions are concentrated
around Hollywood and Highland,
maybe until Hollywood & Vine.
Outside of these blocks,
better avoid walking by yourself here at night.
Just saying.
- I worked with his mom. - No way!
- Really? - Yeah.
- How cool!
When you park in this complex here, Hollywood and Highland,
you need to validate your ticket in order to pay less.
So, nice excuse to sit down and get something very refreshing.
Just don't forget to ask for your discount voucher.
- $3.
Welcome to Griffith Park.
[music]
It is pretty expensive to park here.
Look at this, $10 an hour.
But here is the tip, come on a weekday,
because you only need to pay after 12 noon.
Here is the reason why everyone comes here.
Look at the Hollywood Sign over here.
Ta-da!
The sign initially read 'Hollywoodland'.
It was an advertising for a real estate company,
but then the part "land" fell down and only Hollywood stayed.
The community here enjoyed so much that they decided to leave it as is.
From here, it can actually hike
until very close to the Hollywood Sign.
You can go behind it. It is really cool.
We used to come hiking over here,
especially in those hills over there.
It is really nice. Good exercise.
[music]
The view here is already pretty good, huh?
But there are some places where you can get even closer.
I'll show you in the sequence.
Look at how spread out L.A. is.
This is downtown, right? - Uh-hmm.
- Over there, do you remember?
Century City. Westwood.
Westwood, it might be.
So my opinion, the best day to come here is Friday
because you can come earlier around 11 or maybe even 10,
park here for free, see all the area, all the exterior part,
and then the museum opens at noon.
You'd only be paying for one hour the time that you're inside.
Parking is expensive, but in the other hand,
you can visit the observatory for free.
Just pay attention at the opening times
as it's only open from Fridays to Sundays.
Here you can see exactly when it opens.
That line represents noon.
First astronomical telescope of L.A.
Here it explains, look at that,
in the late 1800s, astronomers came here to California,
and built the largest observatories in the world,
and made discoveries that transformed our view of the Universe.
Oh, remember the Periodic Table?
Here you can see which elements existed at what time,
for example, during the Big Bang.
Meteorites here found in California.
The vast majority around the Mojave desert.
Guide: All these little points of light you're looking at here
are all stars that are found within our Galaxy.
And it isn't actually... this isn't just art
or any arbitrary computer graphics.
And it is the largest image ever made.
- Very interesting, and certainly worth a visit.
Each of these planets are to scale by the way
Interesting that they maintain Pluto here,
although it was demoted, it's not a planet anymore.
People still love him.
This device here is what measures earthquakes.
Please stay quiet like this.
Wow, look at the last earthquake here in the L.A. area.
What happened?
This was in 1994.
Gordon remembers this.
- It was scary.
- Yeah?
- It was so scary I want to leave this state already.
- [laughs]
- Don't be here when big earthquake.
Now look at this.
If you say that you want to go to the Hollywood Sign,
look at what Google Maps does.
It takes you right here.
Although here is not the sign, the sign is over there.
See, they tell you you should park over here,
and then walk over there.
This is because people who live in this area here,
they were tired of tourists all over driving and looking for the sign.
- Yeah, I'd be tired, too.
- But I'm gonna show you another place right now.
[music]
- Hollywood Sign. - Yeah!
We're close.
Do you see how narrow the roads are?
Yes.
- That's why they don't want a lot of tourists driving here.
- Yeah, because they don't know what they're doing.
- Yeah.
- And then you have an earthquake, and then, oh, it gets really bad.
- Yeah.
It is a very curvy road.
You go through a residential neighborhood,
going up, up, up all the time,
about 20 minutes from where we were at Griffith Park.
But here it is, this is Lake Hollywood Park.
Just put on the GPS, Lake Hollywood Park.
it brings you right here.
And there's plenty of parking on the street for free.
- Less people than at the Griffith Park.
- Absolutely, absolutely.
This is just closer and fewer people,
and you don't have to pay 10 bucks an hour for parking.
- Yeah. - Save yourself some money.
There are two viewpoints, this one up here,
and then there's the park itself down there.
Welcome to Hollywood.
From down here, you got the green park,
so the picture is even prettier.
[music]
Now here is another tip.
It is much easier to drive to Lake Hollywood Park
coming from Hollywood,
as compared to coming from the Griffith Observatory.
Look at the road.
This is the Hollywood Bowl.
Very cool amphitheater.
Carlinhos Brown, Brazilian music, performance, stay there [in Portuguese]
Now as we're so close, let's go for a quick drive
along a very famous boulevard over here,
Sunset Boulevard.
- Guitar Center, that's where all the musicians went.
The cafe is still there.
I don't remember this.
Where's the Whisky a Go Go? Did we pass it?
That's where Slash and Guns N' Roses did their first things.
- My first internship was in a building back there.
- Yeah.
Did you hate it?
- No, it was fun. - Really?
- It was fun. Yeah. - What was it again?
- A talent agency. I used to select people for auditions.
Now if you go straight through on Sunset Boulevard,
you arrive in the ocean.
But for us, Sunset Boulevard means one thing.
I've been here very many times.
- Oh, look at the lineup.
- Yeah, huh, always, huh? - Not good.
Whenever we come to Hollywood, where do we stop by?
- In-N-Out. - Yeah!
- Yeah!
- Touchless, touchless.
In-N-Out is a California chain.
And I remember a few years ago,
that this restaurant right here was the busiest in the world,
probably still is.
- They only called 39.
- And we've been here for like 10 minutes, huh?
Officially, there are only three burgers here on the menu,
but there's a secret menu.
Actually, not so secret because you can read about it on their website.
I miss this so much.
Look at this burger inside.
It's toasted. Delicious.
Good?
- Your fries, yeah.
- [laughs]
Another very traditional place for you to eat here in this area
is Pink's Hot Dog.
There is always a line outside.
Today would be a good day to go, right?
We rarely see it like that.
- Yeah, get yourself a Pink dog. - Yeah.
- Pink's - It is very, very good.
This was just the first video. We just arrived here in L.A.
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