collections & exhibits
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Moving down to the second floor, you’ll find: |
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| There are special sections here dedicated to major actresses. A large display of Marilyn Monroe items comes complete with huge enlargements of her famous nude Playboy pose, costumes, and memorabilia such as what may be the last check she ever signed (to her housekeeper, just before her death). | |||||||||
| The Mae West collection is particularly large, including her trademark hats, “Diamond Lil” jewelry, and feathered boas. There’s even a “Mae West” life-vest, and a photo of her being presented with the inflatable preserver. Quite a few of these costumes come complete with photos taken from the films, with the actress wearing the same item of clothing, or a video monitor showing a clip from the film. The Lucille Ball display includes a large conga drum that belonged to Desi Arnaz, and a nearby monitor features a film clip of him playing a similar drum. (It would be ideal if all of the displays were identified in such a way.) | |||||||||
| On the ground floor, in addition to the Max Factor rooms, you will also find: | |||||||||
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The final trip down to the basement to see Hannibal Lector’s prison cell is almost worth the price of admission alone. One boards a room-size freight-elevator (complete with sparkle-ball, silent movies projected on the wall, and a scale model of the Eiffel Tower from "Moulin Rouge") and descends to the lower level. There one discovers not just Lector’s plexiglas cell, but the entire cell block used in the films "Silence of the Lambs" and "Red Dragon", complete with all the original furnishings and props. Even the small folding chair outside Hannibal’s cell has a story: it was the actual chair that Jodi Foster sat in when she met with Dr. Lector - it was cut to a smaller-than-normal size me make Clarisse appear smaller and more vulnerable as she faced Hannibal. And that is just some of the collection. |
directions
From San Diego
Take the 5 North to 101 North
Exit Highland Ave - Left
Head West about 1/2 mile.
Turn left on Highland Ave.
The Hollywood Museum is 1/2 block South of Highland Ave.
From San Fernando Valley
Take the 101 Fwy South
Exit Highland Ave - Right
Head West about 1/2 mile.
Turn left on Highland Ave.
The Hollywood Museum is 1/2 block South of Highland Ave.
From Downtown Los Angeles
Take the 101 Fwy North
Exit Highland Ave - Left
Head West about 1/2 mile.
Turn left on Highland Ave.
The Hollywood Museum is 1/2 block South of Highland Ave.
From Santa Monica
Take the 10 Fwy East
To the 110 Fwy North
The the 101 Fwy North
Exit Highland Ave - Left
Head West about 1/2 mile.
Turn left on Highland Ave.
The Hollywood Museum is 1/2 block South of Highland Ave.
PARKING
Available parking is located adjacent to
The Hollywood Museum.
All museum visitors will receive a reduced parking rate validation while attending the museum.
testimonials
“I hope members of the film community will contribute their resources and support to this long overdue endeavor.” - Francis Ford Coppola, Director and Producer |
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“The Hollywood Museum provides current and future generations an opportunity to observe, appreciate and enjoy those early halcyon days of Tinseltown.” - Johnny Grant, Honorary Mayor of Hollywood |
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“Hollywood should be so happy to have a world class motion picture museum right where it should be…in Hollywood.” - Dino and Martha de Laurentis, Producers |
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“we were simply knocked out!” - Alice and Leonard Maltin, Writer, Television and Movie Commmentator |
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“I’m so glad my costumes and memorabilia now have a permanent place for posterity.” - Shirley MacLaine, Actress |
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“A magnificent job of collecting! You have truly restored old Hollywood.” - Diane E. Watson, United States Congresswoman |
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“Donelles Hollywood Museum, like her spirit, is appropriately at the very heart of our Hollywood.” - John P. Connolly, National President, AFTRA |
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“The Hollywood Museum is dedicated to the preservation of Hollywood History.” - Donelle Dadigan, President and Founder |
contact
Phone: For more information, call (323) 464-7776. Parking: There is a paid parking lot on the south side of the museum. Validation at the museum will take $2 off the cost of parking. Admission Price: $15 for adults. $12 for seniors and students with ID. $5 for children under 5. Hours: Open Thursday through Sunday, from 10 AM to 5 PM. Closed Monday through Wednesday.
walk of fame
The Hollywood Museum is located just steps away from the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Explore the Museum and locate your favorite stars along this most famous street in the world
The Walk of Fame runs east to west on Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Avenue to La Brea Avenue and north to south on Vine Street between Yucca Street and Sunset Boulevard. The Walk of Fame is nearly a three and a half (3 1/2) mile round trip walk. Locations of specific stars are permanent, except when occasionally relocated for nearby construction or other reasons. To be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is considered to be as sought after as the Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards.
Each star consists of a pink terrazzo five-pointed star rimmed with bronze and inlaid into a charcoal square. Inside the pink star is the name of the honoree inlaid in bronze, below which is a round bronze emblem indicating the category for which the honoree received the star. The emblems are:
* Motion picture camera for contribution to the film industry
* Television set for contribution to the broadcast television industry
* Phonograph record for contribution to the recording industry
* Radio microphone for contribution to the broadcast radio industry
* Twin comedy/tragedy masks for contribution to live theater
There are a few exceptions. Disneyland’s star has an emblem of a building, and honorary mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant’s star depicts the Great Seal of Hollywood. Former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley has a star depicting the seal of the city of Los Angeles. Also, the crew of the Apollo XI mission are named in four identical moons at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine.
Nominations are submitted annually by May 31, and the Walk of Fame committee meets the following month to pick the next year’s group of honorees. Star ceremonies are open to the public and formerly were led by honorary Hollywood mayor Johnny Grant prior to his death in 2008.
news & media
Contact: The Michael Russell Group: (310) 939-9024
HOLLYWOOD MUSEUM PREMIERES
“IDOLS OF GAY HOLLYWOOD” JUNE 8
WORLD PREMIERE EXHIBIT PRECEDES
2006 LA PRIDE FESTIVAL (June 9–11)
HOLLYWOOD, CA, May 15, 2006 – For the first time in Hollywood history, a major museum pays tribute to gay themes in entertainment and the gay community’s celebrated icons with the world premiere attraction “The Idols of Gay Hollywood” at The Hollywood Museum in the historic Max Factor Building, it was announced today by Donelle Dadigan, President and Founder.
The exhibit will feature hundreds of items including costumes, memorabilia and photographs. In addition to the iconic shirts worn by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in “Brokeback Mountain,” there will be costumes and memorabilia of celebrities including Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Donna Summer, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Lucille Ball and Mae West.
There will also be a first-of-its-kind exhibit of the outrageous costumes belonging to famous innovative performers and illusionists including Charles Pierce, Charles Busch, Coco Peru and Jackie Beat. An archival exhibit of the gay pride movement with Morris Kight includes the outfits worn by last year’s Los Angeles Gay Pride Grand Marshalls Paris and Kathy Hilton. There will also be a exhibit (including gowns and memorabilia) devoted to comedians including Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller and an entertainment reporters exhibit (Mary Hart, Joan Rivers, Leeza Gibbons, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons). There’s also Cary Grant’s Rolls Royce!
“Thousands of GLBT visitors have visited and supported The Hollywood Museum since we opened our doors in 2003,” said Dadigan. “We are delighted to present this ambitious exhibit beginning on the eve of the 2006 LA Pride Festival in West Hollywood. Tourists and Southern Californians of all ages and backgrounds will be enthralled by this historic, one-of-a-kind undertaking.”
The exhibit was assembled by Bob Pranga, who has owned and operated with Debi Staron “Dr. Christmas,” a holiday decorating company in Los Angeles that provides custom Christmas and special events design and décor to celebrity clientele and businesses.
The Hollywood Museum in the historic Max Factor Building features more than 7,000 eye-popping exhibits that range from early film days to the present, including the original 3-strip Technicolor camera used to film “Gone With the Wind,” to “Planet of the Apes,” “Jurassic Park,” “Master and Commander,” “Moulin Rouge,” “Minority Report, “ and the Hannibal Lecter jail cell where Anthony Hopkins was incarcerated in his Academy Award-winning role in “The Silence of the Lambs” and the more recent “Red Dragon.” Another highlight is the array of Max Factor’s world famous makeup rooms (“Blondes Only,” “Redheads Only,” “Brunettes Only” and “Brownettes Only”) where Marilyn Monroe became a blonde and Max Factor had the inspiration to transform Lucille Ball into a redhead. Visit the historic photo gallery featuring the largest collection of b&w historic photos on public display. Enjoy viewing the largest collection ever assembled of costumes, props, and personal effects of hundreds of stars including Tom Cruise, Elvis Presley, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jim Carrey, Reese Witherspoon, Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Charlie Chaplin, and many more!
“The Idols of Gay Hollywood”
WHERE: The Hollywood Museum, 1660 N. Highland Avenue, Hollywood
WHEN: 10 am to 5 pm Thursday through Sunday- Begins June 8 and ends July 30, 2006
PRICE: $15 for adults; $12 for seniors and children under 12.
Public Info: (323) 464-7776
about
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The Hollywood History Museum is housed in the venerable Max Factor Building, where the wizard of movie make-up worked his magic on stars since 1935.
The lobby, basically unchanged from those golden days, is a polished Art Deco gem - a white & rose-colored oasis of lavish marble, crystal chandeliers, pastel hues, antique furniture, and potted palms. On the ground floor, you’ll find many of the same displays that used to make up the old Max Factor Museum (before it closed in 1996). But now that is only the beginning.
The new museum is considerably larger than it might appear at first glance. It features four floors of exhibits (two floors above the lobby and a basement below), offering a good 38,000 square feet of exhibit space.
To put that in perspective, it is seven times the size of the nearby Guinness World of Record Museum (5,200 square feet), almost four times the size of the neighboring Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum (10,000 square feet), and five times larger than the Warner Bros Museum (at 7,000 square feet). Yet that still isn’t really room enough to do justice to the thousands of items on exhibit here. And the size pales by comparison to the Autry Museum’s 148,000 square feet, or the massive Petersen Automotive Museum’s 300,000.
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After paying your admission at the desk in the lobby, just inside the front doors, you’ll be told to take the stairs up to the third floor and work your way down. It’s a self-guided tour, so you can spend as long as you like admiring any exhibit.
Each of the floors is different. The ground floor is made up of the gorgeous Max Factor rooms and a few large-scale exhibits from recent science-fiction films. The second floor is devoted almost exclusively to costumes by the stars in famous films. The third floor is a hodgepodge of Hollywood memorabilia, ranging from the earliest Technicolor film ever shot, to a Roman bed from “Gladiator”.
Taken floor by floor, here are just some of the highlights of the many exhibits:- Click Here
