Remembrances and Jokes Mark Start of Observance : Hollywood Festivities Honor a Hundred Hoorays

In the midst of thousands of balloons and gushers of champagne, comedian Bob Hope, film great Jimmy Stewart and many other celebrities joked and reminisced Sunday as they helped kick off a glitzy celebration of Hollywood’s centennial.

It was 100 years ago--Feb. 1, 1887--that Harvey Wilcox, a Kansas prohibitionist, decided to subdivide his 120-acre ranch in a sleepy section of Los Angeles.

Naming it after the summer home of a family friend, he called the 14 1/2 square-mile tract Hollywood. And the rest, as they say, is show biz history.

It was that show biz history, the glitter of Tinsel Town, and not its urban blight that was recalled and heralded Sunday.

“For those who say Hollywood is gone, I say you’re wrong!” an ebullient Johnny Grant, chairman of the centennial celebration, told a cheering crowd of 700 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

“There’s no ‘for sale’ sign on the Hollywood sign.” In what has become a Hollywood tradition, the festivities began amid pealing church bells with the dedication of a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. The star, positioned in front of the Roosevelt Hotel, where filmland’s first Academy Awards ceremony was held, honors the late film actress Natalie Wood.

Wood’s husband, Robert Wagner, looking solemn throughout the ceremony, crouched down on the sidewalk to help unveil the star. Surrounded by the late actress’ family, Wagner, in a soft voice, spoke only briefly.

“She was a wonderful lady,” Wagner said as dozens of cameramen and photographers jostled to record the event. “She meant a great deal to this industry and to us. To perpetuate her name in this way we are very honored and we thank you very much.”

Hope, Stewart and other celebrities joined the birthday party later by placing historical mementos in the Hollywood Centennial Time Capsule, a 5-foot-by-5-foot series of connecting boxes, which was unveiled Sunday.

Hope placed a special “Oscar” in the time capsule and then cracked, “This knocks me out. I finally get my hands on a real Oscar and I have to lock it away for 100 years.”

Hope then told the crowd that many had vied to place things in the capsule. “Five hundred forty seven actors offered their agents. Ronald Reagan offered Ollie North. And Vanna White offered the letter N.”

Scheduled to go on permanent display at the conclusion of the centennial, historical items will be added to the the capsule throughout the year.

Cowboy star Gene Autry, who arrived in Hollywood in 1934, donated a piece of the original Hollywood sign to the capsule. And Stewart added a congratulatory letter from President Reagan.

A photograph of “the barn,” the makeshift studio where Hollywood’s first motion picture was shot in the early 1900s, was included in the capsule as was a videocassette of “Wings,” the first motion picture to win an Academy Award.

Other festivities are planned throughout the year for Hollywood, which has been undergoing a face-lift through redevelopment that has triggered compliments and criticisms.

Centennial Weekend, which is tentatively planned for June 4-7, will feature pro-celebrity tennis tournaments, polo matches, an open-to-the-public lunch with the stars and walking tours of Hollywood.

A special Hollywood Bowl concert is in the works as is a one-day revival of the World War II-vintage Hollywood Canteen at the Bob Hope USO.

“And of course,” Grant said, “we’re planning the biggest street dance in the history of the world. Every community has one when it celebrates a centennial but we have Hollywood and Vine and that’s where ours is going to be.”

The cost of the various events is being underwritten by a variety of corporate sponsors. All proceeds will go toward the upkeep of the Hollywood sign and the maintenance and expansion of the Walk of Fame.