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04/30/2008: "Hot Time In Old Hollywood"

Drive to the center of any small town in America and chances are good you find yourself on Main Street. It's the artery of the town, and probably has the only stoplight to be found for miles. As the towns get larger, finding that defining center becomes a little harder. For example, for all the streets names that appear within the borders of Los Angeles, there is no "Main Street".

But there are still iconic intersections that can be found in La-La. New York has Times Square; San Francisco has Haight and Ashbury. Los Angeles has Hollywood and Vine. It's one of those intersections that you can mention to most people without telling them the city and they already know it's the heart of Hollywood.

Of course, like most things SoCal, the reality doesn't match the perception. Many a bright eyed teen has gotten off the bus from Iowa seeking the bright lights of Hollywood only to find the seedy underbelly of town. Over the years, efforts have been made to improve the intersection, and now they're going to get a new chance, as a major fire has taken out a building on that corner.

For most of us, the fire at 6200 West Hollywood Blvd will have no impact. But if you're one of the young and pretty among the Hollywood elite, it's a tough day, as one of your trendy hangouts - the Basque nightclub - went up in the fire. This was the setting for Lindsey Lohan's supposedly dry 21st birthday party a couple of weeks back, and was seen in a scene in the George Clooney movie "Ocean's Eleven" a few years back. Only a few doors down from the iconic Capital Records building, it also served as the base of one of the famous billboards that line the boulevard. That one's been removed, though, to keep what's left of the building from collapsing.

As you might expect in LA, the politicians were on the scene before the flames had died, making speeches about the loss and the future of the intersection and Hollywood in general. Considering the amount of renovation going on around this building, which didn't really fit into the plans (it had a tattoo parlor, for example), you have to wonder what they'll find when the start to look for the cause of the fire ...