Hollywood Bonus Features: Time travel

So you have done Hollywood 101; maybe you have done it a million times. Once you have walked the Walk of Fame and marveled at the footprints in cement in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, you do not need to write off Hollywood completely. You may be wondering what you can do in Hollywood once you have done all of the touristy things. The remaining posts in this series will focus on what else you can do within walking distance or a cheap cab ride away.

In these next few posts, I will feature places that make you feel like you have time-traveled. The places I will talk about next have been part of the neighborhood for a hundred years, and although they are smack dab in the middle of the most crowded areas of Hollywood, they feel a million miles or years, away.

Egyptian Theater-ON HIATUS due to renovation. See below.

A couple of blocks east of Hollywood and Highland sits the location of the first Hollywood premiere. It was not at Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater, but the theater he built five years earlier the Egyptian. It was built during a time when all things Egypt were the rage in the Art Deco 1920s. The facades and interiors look like a pharaoh’s palace, with hieroglyphics and desert scenes hand-painted throughout the space. This landmark is still the site for films, retrospectives, and film festivals. The annual Turner Classic Movie Festival, and the American Film Institute Festival or AFI FEST are held here. This theater’s programming focuses solely on classic films. I recommend this theater for the film buffs in your life. Not only are you able to see movies like Lawrence of Arabia and the Red Shoes on the big screen, but you can also attend Q&A with actors, directors, and others that have worked on the film you are watching.

Hours, Cost, and other information

• Website: Calendar (yellow is for the Egyptian Theater)
• Cost: $10-$15 based on time and if there are special guests
• Calendar: http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/
• Getting there: A short walk from the Hollywood and Highland Center which is accessible by the following public transit options: The Metro Red Line and buses 780, 180, 212, 210, and the Hollywood DASH.
• Additional information: Both the TCM and AFI film festivals have a range of price tags from individual movies to multi-day passes. If you a local and wanted to save money, I would see how you could volunteer at either festival.
  • TCM festival dates: Annually in April
  • AFI Fest dates: Annually in November
• NOTE: AS OF JANUARY 2022, films are being shown at the Egyptian’s sister theaters.

Yamashiro

Perched high in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the hubbub of Hollywood and Highland sits Yamashiro, a place that seems like it belongs more in the Edo period of Japan than super touristy Hollywood. That is the magic of Hollywood; you only need ten minutes to get to feudal Japan from Egypt. If you want more information about this restaurant that was once a home, no one has done a more thorough job than Discover Los Angeles. I won’t even try. I will hold on while you read it. 

No expense was spared on the details of the main house and grounds. It isn’t like an amusement park set designed to look like a place, but close up you can see all of its flaws. Yamashiro was designed to transport you to the past. To be transparent, I haven’t eaten at the restaurant at Yamashiro in almost a decade, so I can’t really comment on the food. I remember the ambiance of the interiors and the grounds far outweighing anything I ate. In addition to the restaurant, the site is now the location of pop-ups

Hours, costs, and other information

• Website: https://yamashirohollywood.com/
• When: The restaurant is open Wednesday-Sunday, 5:PM-10:PM. The Hollywood Night Market is on Thursdays 5:PM-10:PM.
• Getting there: It is a thirteen-minute walk from Hollywood and Highland, but it is mostly uphill. It would be a quick cab or Lyft/Uber. There is limited parking.

Next up we travel to the year 1919.

All photos from today’s post are from Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain

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