What’s Up, Tinseltown?

The top of our rented convertible was down, sunshine was ricocheting off shiny palm fronds and we were happily cruising through what some had called a dubious enterprise: looking for the glamour of old Hollywood.

“A weekend in Hollywood? And will you be touring Arcadia next?” asked one Doubting Thomas. After all, for most Californians there is a disconnect between the glossy Hollywood image and the area’s reality.

But we had heard tales of a renaissance, highlighted by the opening last month of the restored 1922 Egyptian Theater. My friend Shellee and I, both detesters of multiplex theaters with substandard popcorn, were here to experience the era of the movie palace. And we soon found that one could rummage through Hollywood’s clutter of wig shops and wax figurines and unearth legends.

Our hotel, the Clarion Hollywood Roosevelt, was the site in 1929 of the first Academy Awards, at which “Wings” won best picture. The restored lobby is a grand affair with recessed ceiling and hand-painted beams; the elegant tiled staircase is the very one where Bill “Bojangles” Robinson taught moppet Shirley Temple tap steps, according to the mini-history in the hotel guest book. A two-story cottage on the grounds, which rents for $1,100 a night, was once Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s love nest.

At check-in the clerk gave us a complimentary upgrade to a large room facing the swimming pool (usually $50 more than the $130 room rate we’d booked). “Oh, is that the wing that’s supposedly haunted?” I asked, recalling something I’d read. “Yes, the ghosts of Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift,” he said, as matter-of-factly as if assuring me that there was a blow-dryer in the bathroom.

We saw neither hide nor electromagnetic protoplasm of Marilyn or Monty, but when I stepped out of our room’s sliding glass door into a palm-tree-studded courtyard with pink walls, it was easy to conjure up Esther Williams making a perfect dive into the turquoise pool. Artist David Hockney painted the bottom of the pool in 1987--a swirling design of contrasting blues that’s since been faded by acid washes to control algae.

Our theme of historic luxe was sustained by dinner at Yamashiro. Built in 1911 as a replica of a palace in Kyoto, Japan, it perches high on a hill overlooking Tinseltown and was a private club for stars and moguls during Hollywood’s golden age. As we ate sushi and excellent salmon with sweet curry sauce, we watched the lights come up on the boulevard below.

Our entire second day was a litany of stumbled-upon stories, icons and places that looked familiar because we had seen them in the movies. At the Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop on Franklin Avenue we ate huge, creative omelets while sitting in the same red booth occupied by Vince Vaughn in the movie “Swingers” when he mistakenly believes a woman is making goo-goo eyes at him. Brad Pitt eats pancakes here, according to the cashier. Bruce Willis and Demi Moore used to stop in for family meals. But the story that most impressed me was that Vaughn and Jon Favreau, then unemployed actors, penned the “Swingers” screenplay in the diner while only ordering coffee.

In our made-for-sunshine car (red, of course), we sped by the Capitol Records Building on Vine, resembling a stack of records, and the Art Deco Pantages Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Turning off the boulevard, we were suddenly in a page from an art book. Here on a hilltop of olive trees was the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Hollyhock House, clean and spare and seemingly unconnected to the sprawl of mini-malls just below. Lunch was at Pink’s Famous Chili Dogs, where we stood in line in a forest of people talking on cell phones.

When night came and the neon marquees glowed, it was time to visit the movie palaces. First we wanted dinner and settled on the small, humble International Restaurant, which advertised “Lasagnia” in its Hollywood Boulevard window. Our dinners (spinach lasagna, salad, roasted potatoes, pita bread and a soda for $5.40) were really good; the place belongs on a “best meals under $6” list.

The nearby Egyptian Theater surprised us. It was beautiful, and as austere as a place can be that has frescoes of cartoonish Egyptians. But it was a great place to watch a movie, with a huge screen and stadium seating.

When we emerged after hours of cinematic splendor, the real Hollywood did look a little ho-hum. Maybe that’s Hollywood’s image problem. It holds a lot of colorful history, but it’s hard to live up to the movies.

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Budget for Two

Car rental: $187.68

Hotel, 1 night: 142.61

Parking: 9.90

Dinner, Yamashiro: 88.58

Breakfast, Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop: 30.89

Pink’s Chili Dogs: 10.80

Movies: 32.00

Dinner, International Cafe: 10.80

FINAL TAB: $513.26

Clarion Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 90028; tel. (800) 950-7667.