80. Hollywoodland Experience

Currently nestled between the Hollywood Masonic Temple building, which houses the Jimmy Kimmel Live! studio where the show is taped, and Hooters; a single glass door with the numbers 6912 above it is the only sign for this historic address on Hollywood Boulevard.

6912 Hollywood Boulevard is the location of the first suite of offices rented and occupied by the then newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in mid 1927.

In November 1927, AMPAS offices moved to the next block to occupy space on the Mezzanine Level of the Roosevelt Hotel, 7010 Hollywood Boulevard.  I wrote a blog post about the Roosevelt Hotel as it was also the sight of the first Academy Award ceremony on May 16, 1929.

Then in June, 1930 in need of more space for the growing staff, AMPAS headquarters (HQ) made another big move west one block to 7046 Hollywood Boulevard.  This building is also known as The Hollywood Professional Building.

The Hollywood Professional Building designed by John Lautner (probably no relation to Taylor Lautner) in the style of Gothic Revival was completed in 1925 and has earned inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

 Since 1925 the building has had a face lift inside and out, including an earthquake retrofit in 1997.  The Hollywood Professional Building currently has retail, office and living space allowing one to both live and work in this historic setting so close to the hub of the Hollywoodland Experience also known as Hollywood and Highland.

In previous blog posts, I wrote about my quest for the fifth AMPAS HQ located at 9038 Melrose Avenue.  The two-parter included mention of the sixth and current AMPAS HQ at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard.  Going there helped me solve the 9038 Melrose mystery.

To be honest, I am getting a wee bit weary of writing about academy stuff (even though tomorrow I plan to briefly touch on the subject). I imagine you may be a little weary of reading about it.  Of course, I may be wrong.  Won't be the first time.  Certainly won't be the last.

Still, I did gather the info and took the time to visit and photograph all AMPAS HQs. So, I decided to briefly include location number four in this blog post, especially since its location is on another famous Hollywoodland corner, Hollywood and Vine, a mere .98 miles from 7046 Hollywood Boulevard.

If you wish to go to these first four AMPAS HQ locations yourself, but don't with to walk the distance, you might choose to subway it.  The red line (I wrote about in a previous blog post) stops at Hollywood and Vine.

In my photo, included in this blog, the camera is pointed north on Vine allowing for a glimpse of another famous Hollywood and Vine building, Capitol Records.

AMPAS moved to location number four in 1935.  The building known as the Taft Building, 1680 North Vine Street, was that corners first high rise at 12 stories, built in 1923 by architects Walker & Eisen in the Renaissance Revival style for A. Z. Taft Jr.

BTW, the transformation from Hollywoodland (as the original 45 ft. high white letters spelled out) to "Hollywood" took place in 1949.  In case you were wondering.

As Forest Gump, the fictional, not from the Hollywoodland Experience character was repeatedly fond of uttering, "That's all I have to say about that."