Tourists Ask Darnedest Things

Are tourists who are looking for the Hollywood lowdown in for a letdown when they hit Los Angeles?

There were no easy answers to that question Thursday as city and business leaders opened a new $150,000 visitors information center near Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

The center has actually been quietly operated in donated space at the Hollywood and Highland shopping center for several months. It replaced a smaller, more out-of-the-way tourist office that served Hollywood for about 20 years.

The new high-tech site is so far attracting four times more people a day than the old place. But judging by questions logged through Thursday by the center’s 11-member staff, some may be looking for more than the traditional Hollywood experience.

“Where can I buy hormone-free hamburgers?” asked one visitor. “Where can I find a clothing-optional RV park?” wondered another. “If I go to Rodeo Drive today, will I see George Clooney?” demanded a third.

Worker Mike Sametz was asked to give directions to “where they filmed that one movie, with that long-haired girl who shopped.” Asked another tourist: “Did you actually like the ‘Lion King’?”

“Why is it cold? It shouldn’t be cold. This is California,” a woman told Sametz. “Is prostitution legal in Los Angeles?” a man inquired.

“Why don’t you have information regarding Las Vegas?” a visitor asked Teresa Gilliard.

Another asked employee Ash Grijalva: “Do you know where there are any good strip clubs?”

Worker Summer Davis used one of the center’s computers in an unsuccessful attempt to answer the question, “Where can I buy palm trees?” Queried another visitor: “Are there any auto clubs around here? You know, places where people who like cars get together and hang out?”

“Another man asked me, ‘Who lives on Mulholland Drive?’ I told him lots of people do and he would enjoy driving its entire length,” Davis laughed Thursday. “Another one asked for the name of a good French restaurant in San Francisco. I recommended Chez Panisse. I’ve heard of that one because I’m into cooking.”

Visitors center manager Nicolas Niboucha said the most bizarre inquiry so far has come from a man who identified himself as a Saudi. “Where can I go to buy the Hollywood sign?” he asked.

“He wanted us to make phone calls to the mayor of Hollywood. He said he had a big income and could afford to buy it,” Niboucha said.

Information center workers will make phone inquiries and print maps and travel routes from the computer for visitors. They have a special two-handset telephone that they use to call translators for visitors who do not speak English. That service handles Hmong, Thai, Mandarin, Laotian, Arabic and 15 other languages.

About 400 tourist brochures and transportation-service schedules are stocked at the center, which operates from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and until 7 p.m. Sundays.

“This is the first step in having information centers all over Los Angeles County,” said George Kirkland, president of L.A. Inc., the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Question is, can they possibly attract visitors as colorful -- and as curious -- as those in Hollywood?