JAUNTS : Famous Romantic Film Gave Oceanfront Hamlet Its Name : Hollywood Beach was the site of 1921 filming of ‘The Sheik,’ starring Rudolph Valentino. Some of the period cottages remain.

People strolling by David Woolley’s Hollywood Beach house usually do a double take. There, embedded in the brick and stone wall, are an old porcelain hot water knob, Buddhas, a big-mouth fish, a pig with a derby and empty whiskey bottles.

For 15 years, Woolley has been adding, well, things to the wall, partly as a way of capturing periods in his life, like the old drinking fountain from the razed elementary school that his sons attended.

“A lot of it is just whimsical--the ramblings of a madman,” joked Woolley, who bought the nautically themed house on Ocean Drive in 1974.

The wall is rich with character--just like the rest of Hollywood Beach, a 1.3-mile-long stretch of Ocean Drive that starts just above Channel Islands Boulevard and goes south to the entrance of Channel Islands Harbor.

It’s an intriguing spot for a walk, if you don’t mind walking in the street. Sidewalks are scarce here, but no one seems to mind. The ocean and the beach are right beside you.

In fact, it was the beach, with its sandy dunes, that put this spot on the map in a way that only happens in the movies. Paramount Studios chose it in 1921 as the location for Rudolph Valentino’s steamy romance “The Sheik.”

It didn’t matter that this remote beach wasn’t the Arabian desert. The studio trucked in several hundred fake palm trees that were plopped in the sand wherever they were needed, according to local historians.

The movie was a smash hit and Valentino became a big star. Developers saw a chance to capitalize on all the hoopla. In 1924, they sold off lots in what was to become Hollywood Beach. The Silver Strand and Hollywood-by-the-Sea beach developments soon followed.

Most of the little cottages from that era are gone now, but a few of them remain, wedged in by huge, more modern million-dollar homes. Stories linger about which movie stars hung out or maybe owned property there: Valentino, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Eleanor Boardman, Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Jane Russell.

Valentino, always broke, probably never owned a cottage there. He was dead of a perforated stomach ulcer in 1926, and may have never returned to the beach after “The Sheik.”

But if you walk down Ocean Drive toward the harbor entrance, you’ll see a one-story, pink stucco ‘20s house that bears the name “Casa Valentino.” Some say it was built by the studio for the star’s use; others claim that it was already there and he only used it during the filming, and others contend that he was never inside it and that it was merely named in his memory.

Rosalie Vorburger, who has lived in the house for five years, believes that the studio owned it and made it available to Valentino. For its time, the four-bedroom, three-bathroom house was enormous and luxurious, unlike the little shacks and cottages along the beach strip. The bedrooms have doors leading to a secluded patio. The house was used in a brochure promoting the sale of Hollywood-by-the-Sea lots in 1939.

“There is so much history on this street,” Vorburger said.

Clark Gable liked the area because he could go duck hunting on nearby McGrath Lake, locals say. Just where he lived isn’t so clear. Two houses on Ocean Drive bear the names “Windy Gables” and “Sandy Gables.”

“I have a soft spot for the quaint, wonderful old beach houses, but most of them are gone,” said James Bennett, who has lived in the neighborhood 36 years.

The place still retains its own charm. “We’re all individualists,” Bennett said.

Walking down Ocean Drive, you’re sure to see “The Driftwood,” a vintage cottage “hand-built from junk,” according to Bennett and other locals. It was put together from scrap lumber, sandstone and beach debris, and features such oddities as a chandelier made from a steering wheel.

Another old-timer is the cottage with the sign “Grandma’s--Built in 1928 by Grandpa.”

You can take a break for coffee and breakfast at Mrs. Olson’s Coffee Hut, a casual, no-frills spot that draws a crowd on weekends. Another stopping-off place is La Dolce Vita, a deli that does a gourmet Italian dinner once a month on its patio.

At the end of Ocean Drive, where it meets the entrance to the harbor, take another breather at Channel View Park. You can see the breaking surf and boats cruising in and out of the harbor. People picnic and cast their fishing lines from the shore here.

Details

* WHAT: Ocean-side walk.

* WHERE: On Ocean Drive, starting just above Channel Islands Boulevard and going south to the entrance of Channel Islands Harbor.

* FYI: Other sights within walking distance include Channel Islands Harbor, Mandalay Beach and Oxnard State Beach.

* CALL: 985-4852 (Channel Islands Harbor Visitor Center).