Valley Tourism Chase Is All Over the Map

Ever feel sad that Van Nuys Boulevard doesn’t have a Walk of Fame? Or that the hillsides of Encino lack big white letters that shout ENCINO? Or that Universal Studios Hollywood isn’t called Universal Studios San Fernando Valley?

Neither do I.

But that didn’t keep me from asking why Universal Studios Hollywood doesn’t have a geographically correct name.

“Gee, you know when people talk about the glory days of MGM,” theme park spokesman Eliot Sekuler replied, “they don’t refer to the Golden Age of Culver City.”

Hooray for Hollywood, not just something that can be defined by lines on a map. The same goes for L.A., for that matter.

But hooray for the San Fernando Valley too. That message is being brought to you--and the whole wide world--by the newly incorporated San Fernando Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, an outfit determined to sell the Valley as a major international tourist destination in its own right.

I sincerely wish them luck--with or without the help of my second-favorite Los Angeles newspaper.

The secession-minded Daily News, you see, has this habit of equating the promotion of Valley interests with the bashing of Los Angeles. And now that the Valley has a tourist bureau to call its own, the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau has found itself in the editorial cross hairs of my employer’s worthy rival. L.A. ConVis, it is alleged, has failed miserably in persuading tourists to make the scene at Warner Center or stroll along the Juan de Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail Route.

“Selling L.A., Not the Valley”--that was the accusatory headline the Daily News put over its expose last Monday of a 2-year-old freeway map published by L.A. ConVis. “Tourist bureau under fire over map,” a subhead declared. And right there on Page 1 was Exhibit A--a color-coded freeway map with shades of blue, lavender, salmon, lime green and orange designating downtown, Hollywood, Westside, Coastal and the valleys.

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But what made some Valley boosters see red was the fact that, although many distinct communities (Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Sylmar, Northridge, Woodland Hills, etc.) are named, nowhere do the words “San Fernando Valley” appear. And, as the paper noted, there is this:

“The map places one of the Valley’s most popular tourist destinations--Universal City--not in the Valley, but in a pumped-up vision of Hollywood that looks like it’s on steroids and extends north to the 134 Freeway.”

Hollywood on steroids? Well, that is shocking--so shocking that, a few days later, the Daily News editorial page uncorked one of their fine Valley whines, so juvenile and yet so vintage:

” . . . The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau hardly knows the Valley exists.

“As evidence of that, just consider the remark by a bureau spokeswoman who told the Daily News that tourists ‘are not going to come on vacation just to go to the San Fernando Valley.’ ”

A funny thing happened before I read the editorial. I called up Joanie McClellan, president of the San Fernando Valley ConVis, and asked her whether her outfit was at war with L.A. ConVis. She told me that, to the contrary, L.A. ConVis had been “very gracious” toward the Valley upstart.

I also sought McClellan’s opinion of the comment that tourists “are not going to come on vacation just to go to the San Fernando Valley”--a quote that first appeared in the Page 1 story.

“Well,” the Valley ConVis president told me, “I agree with that.”

Here’s hoping that candor and common sense aren’t grounds for impeachment.

The tail does not wag the dog. Hollywood is the big dog in these parts, and people come from all over the world to pet it. So to promote the Valley, McClellan and her cohorts are, much like Universal Studios, promoting the glitzy allure of Hollywood. Alas, their slogan featured on their first map was the forgettable “L.A.’s Entertainment Valley.”

Michael Collins, chief operating officer for L.A. ConVis, seems to think the small, young Valley counterpart can help promote its turf. Balkanizing the grand L.A. marketing scheme would be foolhardy, he says, because so many travelers define L.A. as stretching from San Diego to Santa Barbara. The first task is to get those fat tourist wallets here, Collins says, then each region can angle for a piece of the action.

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Collins agrees with McClellan that the two groups have so far worked well together. In the fine print on that first “Entertainment Valley” map, L.A. ConVis is thanked along with the Daily News. But the Valley group is a potential political rival of Collins’ agency because it wants a share of the city hotel bed taxes that L.A. ConVis uses not only to attract tourists but also to market L.A.’s big downtown convention center.

Which reminds me of another funny thing. When I called directory assistance in search of Valley ConVis, I was mistakenly given the number for something called “the San Fernando Valley Convention Center.” That was news to me. So I called and heard a perky recording promoting this new facility. Twice I called and twice left a number. Nobody called back.

When I asked McClellan about this “convention center,” she told me that she understood it to be one company’s effort to market commercial space in Chatsworth where an indoor swap meet went out of business. The president of the Valley convention bureau wasn’t sure if the so-called Valley Convention Center is still in business or not.

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Whether the Valley should have a convention center to go with its convention bureau, McClellan told me, is among the items on the new group’s agenda. That should be red meat for the homeowners’ groups that kept the ’84 Olympics out of the Valley.

Still, Valley ConVis still has plenty to do. Among the good news is that “L.A.’s Entertainment Valley,” the slogan, is already history.

Says McClellan: “We’re calling ourselves now, ‘The Valley of the Stars.’ ”

Much snappier. And seriously, think of the possibilities. Imagine if Disney, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera and others put differences aside and helped create a Museum of Animation. Imagine if NoHo Arts District--the end of the Metro line . . . someday--fulfills its promise as a hub for live theater . . .

Or, failing that, just suppose you’ve got some cousins in from back East who’ve worn out their welcome. You might suggest they spend a day strolling on the Van Nuys Walk of Fame.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to him at The Times’ Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311, or via e-mail at scott.harris@latimes.com. Please include a phone number.