Hollywood Boulevard has always been a seedy place, or it has been since the late sixties. The Golden Age of Hollywood was the late twenties and early thirties, and the glamour peaked in 1939, Hollywood's greatest year, the year of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. It's been all downhill since then. The glorious old buildings filled with porn shops and tattoo parlors, half of the other buildings stood empty, and the homeless slept in the alleys. That's now turning around. There are new...
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Hollywood Boulevard has always been a seedy place, or it has been since the late sixties. The Golden Age of Hollywood was the late twenties and early thirties, and the glamour peaked in 1939, Hollywood's greatest year, the year of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. It's been all downhill since then. The glorious old buildings filled with porn shops and tattoo parlors, half of the other buildings stood empty, and the homeless slept in the alleys. That's now turning around. There are new clubs and one or two fancy new hotels, the three major movie palaces have been restored to their original splendor and there a new one that's home to the Oscars, but it's a slow process. For all the sunshine it's still a dark place. This was Tuesday afternoon, September 17, 2013.
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