The Popular Show on Hollywood Boulevard

Johnny Depp's pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, Transformers, Samuel L. Jackson, Keith Ledger's Joker, Batman and numerous Spideys, and of course Marilyn, Michael and Prince impressionists fill the street in front of the Kodak Theater. Temporarily staying about a block from Hollywood Boulevard I am in another world—a surreal one, in the thick of things, along the Hollywood Walk of Fame where the meaning of edgy is full- blown. Tourists from everywhere, speaking a multitude of languages abound in this noir culture. They are witnesses, even voyeurs to cheesy carnivalistic displays that weave make believe and the fantastic with real-life dramas of "wanna be" actors and producers among others craving attention while the homeless and mentally-challenged walk the streets like zombies. Many are just trying to make a living in a town where it is easy to succumb to the lure of "making it." In a way, it is reminiscent of Berkeley, California's Telegraph Avenue without the intellectualism—alternative bookstores are replaced with shops hawking cheap T-shirts, postcards and other Hollywood paraphernalia.

This is the Hollywood that I frequented farther up the strip during my high school years in Los Angeles. Landmarks like Grauman’s Chinese Theater are still here on this star-studded boulevard but everything seems sleazier. I am seeing Hollywood Boulevard post-2000 revitalization—before things were much grimmer, much worse, I am told.

I look for Black people in this Hollywood experience, not just in passersby but also as street performers. I posed with Madame Tussaud's wax figure of Samuel L. Jackson and Snoop Dog and took advantage of a photo-op with a live white-gloved Michael Jackson look-a-like. There are "brothers" who perform mime and are variously in whiteface in black suits and donning black top hats as in minstrelsy or others who are painted completely in silver or gold. I wondered, "Is this their day job too?" I'd like to know more about Black street performers—how they get into it, how they survive doing what they do, and how long can they do it, and the responses to their street theater. I asked around and was told on the QT that because most of these black men have records of the jailhouse variety, street performing is one of the only types of jobs they can get. While I applaud their creativity in make-up and mime, their reality is a reminder of the state of young black men in America.

Postscript--

I recently moved into a residential West Hollywood adjacent neighborhood but when I leave my home, I still haven't grown accustomed to encountering Darth Vader, Prince, or Captain Jack Sparrow walking down one of the neighborhood streets or Marilyn strolling in the aisle of the Hollywood Fresh and Easy grocery store. I am eagerly awaiting a sighting of Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)—she's probably already on the Strip. As these sighting become more regular, the more bizarre out-of-costume residents surpassed even them.