"Stars in the sidewalk, bars on the doors "
Hooray for Hollywood/ That phony super Coney Hollywood," lyricized Johnny Mercer 40 years ago in a sardonic paean to the legend: instant fame, endless sex and the money to pay for it all. Since then the illusion of celluloid glamour has turned into the tawdry reality of a Los Angeles neighborhood of 250,000 people harassed by crime and vice, mired in the flesh and drug trades and fast fading into the sunset of American cultural history. Now Hollywood is trying to stage a comeback—a drive to revive a decayed area that still attracts 3 million tourists a year eager to see such bits of Americana as Mann's—formerly Grauman's—Chinese Theater and the footprints and signatures of movie stars immortalized in concrete. Says Mike Sims, director of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce: "We've got stars in the sidewalk, but iron bars on the doors."
The chamber is spurring a campaign to lure legitimate business back to Sunset Strip and close down porn establishments. One of its favorite techniques: to ask the city to inspect buildings for safety and zoning violations. Citizens have picketed notorious crossroads like the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue in protest against porn, and some 160,000 people signed a petition complaining against the sex merchants. Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett narrated a slide show titled, appropriately enough, Hooray for Hollywood. The 40-member Revitalize Hollywood Committee, a community cross section of producers, actors and businessmen organized by Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson, puts on the show at local schools and community meetings —and then asks for cleanup suggestions. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley has belatedly appointed a task force of people from seven city and state agencies to investigate Hollywood's problems.
Reformers claim much of the credit for the departure since 1975 of 60% of more than 150 porn shops, X-rated moviehouses and bars that had sprouted on Hollywood's main streets. This week the Los Angeles city council is expected to vote on a temporary measure banning "adult" entertainment enterprises within 500 ft. of a church—or 1,000 ft. of each other. After four months the council would then vote on whether to adopt the measure on a permanent basis.
Yet Hollywood will never recapture the old glory. "I've seen stabbings, shootings, anything you want to see," says Jack Hines Jr., cashier and host at Miceli's restaurant, where business has fallen more than 50% in the past five years. "Hollywood is the sinkhole of Los Angeles."