75. Never Been to a Library Like This or Where the Bleep is 9038 Melrose? Part 2

In Part 1, your CaliforniVacation SoCal gal, me, Lori Bjork, is in search of the 9038 Melrose Avenue mystery answer.  I had just left the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) offices, 8949 Wilshire Boulevard, on my way to the Margaret Herrick Library.

I travel the ten blocks east on Wilshire then turn right onto La Cienega Boulevard.  I pass Hayes and there on my right is a church looking building.  Only I don't know for sure if it is the building I am looking for because the writing on the building proclaims it as "Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study" with nothing about the Margaret Herrick Library.  The number above the door is 333.  That fits.  And there is supposed to be a parking structure.  I don't see it.

According to oscars.org, the building at 333 La Cienega Boulevard "is a restored, refurbished, and expanded Romanesque building that originally housed the City of Beverly Hills Water Treatment Plant No. 1.  Built in 1927, the building was abandoned in 1976 when Beverly Hills began to purchase its water from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District."

I drive around the block.  This has to be it.  Let me find a street parking space.  I do.  I walk to the entrance doors.  I ring the bell so the security guard at the reception desk will let me in.  I mention I am there to see the Margaret Herrick Library.  I am sure my voice goes up at the end making it more of a question than a statement.  I mean I know I wish to see the library.  I just don't know if I am at the right place.

Whether the security guard noticed, she didn't let on.  She asked if I was a first timer to the library.  When I nodded my head up and down, she proceeded to give me the "411".  First timers must fill out a form with information including name, address and phone number.  You need to sign in with the time you arrive (and sign out when you leave).  You must agree to their terms.  This is a reference library.  Nothing may be checked out.  You are given a key to one of their lockers.  The locker is for storing just about everything you may have brought with you.  The only items you are allowed to bring into the library are paper, pencil and you.  No pens.

As you walk toward the stairs, there is a monument to Douglas Fairbanks, the first Academy President.  I noticed a plaque on the staircase denoting a generous donation from Kirk and Anne Douglas, among other plaques denoting donations.  At the top of the stairs is where you trade your I.D. for your Margaret Herrick Library Card (which you trade for your I.D. and stays at the library when you are ready to leave).  The library looks very library like, although adorned with movie related artifacts.  There are tables and chairs.  Some tables have computers on them, which are available for use.

I asked where I might find out about 9038 Melrose.  The gal I was sent to knew the address without needing to look it up.  The building was demolished.  Mystery solved.  It felt a little anti-climactic at that point.

The librarian helped me look on-line to inquire about any available photos of the Marquis Theater.  She found two through AMPAS, but to clear copyright so I may use one was anyone's guess how long that may take.  I thanked her for her help.

Remember in blog post 72 when I mention seeing the huge statue of Oscar in front of the Kodak Theatre and how it is probably as close to an Oscar as I'll ever get, but you never know?  Well, at the Margaret Herrick Library...I got closer.

Before leaving, I walked the rest of the library and found at least four Oscar's on display.  The one I committed to memory is Edith Head's Oscar for Costume Design for the movie, "All About Eve".  You don't know how much restraint I needed to not reach out to touch and/or hold the 13 1/2 inch, 8 1/2 pound, gold-plated britannium on a black metal base statue.  Respect prevailed.  Or maybe it was the thought of the three people behind the reference desk who no doubt had their eyes fixed on me ready to do God knows what if I actually did touch and/or hold one.

Well...there you have it.  Sightseeing the current AMPAS offices.  Sightseeing the Margaret Herrick Library in the building that looks like a church, use to be about water and is marked "Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study" (the video is an outside, La Cienega side, view of the building).  And the 9038 Melrose Avenue mystery has been solved.  The Marquis Theater was demolished in 1976 after AMPAS moved its offices to Beverly Hills.

So...it would appear if I wish to sightsee the Marquis Theater, I would need more than a Hot Tub Time Machine (it only travels back as far as the 1980's).  I'd need a working DeLorean DMC-12 with a fully functioning flux capacitor.  Now that would definitely be psyched-worthy sightseeing!

74. Never Been To A Library Like This or Where the Bleep is 9038 Melrose? Part 1

Your CaliforniVacation SoCal gal was out on the streets of Los Angeles, the day before I write this, in search of 9038 Melrose Avenue.

You may be thinking and correctly so, "How hard can it be? GPS, right?"

GPS? Well, I ain't got no stinkin' GPS.  I don't need no stinkin' GPS.  I do have mapquest.com though.

Or perhaps you were thinking, "Why 9038 Melrose Avenue?"  Good question.  And I have an answer.

I mentioned in blog post 72 that I have a list of places I am psyched to sightsee.  Every place on my list has some sort of relevance to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Of the places on my list, I was particularly psyched about 9038 Melrose Avenue.  In 1946 AMPAS purchased the then Marquis Theater at 9038 Melrose Avenue to be their office headquarters (1).  This sight was also host for only one Academy Award ceremony on March 24, 1949 (2).  I had to really dig deep in Google to come up with the 9038 part of the address (3).  Most of what I found written about the venue only simply referred to the Marquis Theater location as being on Melrose Avenue. 

As I mentioned, I was really psyched as I set out to 9038 Melrose Avenue.  I would be sightseeing a venue on my list with three things going for it.  Clearly, in my mind, a sightseeing trifecta.

I reach my destination.  I don't immediately notice a building with the numbers 9038, but let me park.  I park.  I put two quarters in the meter.  What?  You never know how long these things may take.  I walk up the block.  I walk down the block.  Nada.  No building with the numbers, 9038.

I check the street sign.  It's a tricky area.  Maybe I thought I was on Melrose but I'm off a block.  Street sign
appears to be Melrose.  There's a man walking in front of me.  Maybe he knows.  I ask him if I am on Melrose Avenue.  Yes.  I am on Melrose.  No building with the numbers, 9038.

I get in my car and drive away.  What more can I currently do with my resources at hand?

As I proceed to the next destination on my list, I think about what just happened. I think maybe it would be far more interesting to write about what I saw even though it wasn't what I was psyched to see.

At my next destination, 8949 Wilshire Boulevard, I am again psyched.  See?  It doesn't take much.

I am at the location of the current AMPAS offices, which hosts two exhibits (each exhibit is refreshed with a new exhibit every three months) open to the general public (Tuesday through Friday 10 am to 5 pm, weekends noon to 6 pm).  This is the location AMPAS moved to on December 8, 1975 from the 9038 Melrose location.

When I walk into the lobby it appears a bit chaotic.  At the time it was Oscar week after all, which is the reason I was given why the two exhibits are closed to the general public during this week.  I'm not normally a crier.  At this point, though, I am close.  I ask to help myself to the marketing materials for the exhibits so I don't feel like my visit is a total bust.  As I do, a thought pops in my mind.  In hindsight, I'm thinking a stroke of brilliance.  You decide for yourself.

I ask the lovely receptionist with the faint, I'm guessing, Aussie accent; "Is there someone on staff who is an AMPAS historian?  I am writing and article and would like to ask them a question about 9038 Melrose Avenue."

The receptionist helpfully replies. "Oh.  You want our library.  The Margaret Herrick Library.  You know, she's credited with naming the statue, Oscar, but then so are some others."

I shout it out loudly (in my head), "YES!".  I say out loud, "That would be great."

I find out the Margaret Herrick Library is located at 333 La Cienega Boulevard.  As I start to deflate with the news the library is off site, I am informed the building is quite close (12 blocks) and open until 6 PM (Library Hourse: Monday, Thursday, Friday; 10 am to 6 pm - Tuesday; 10 am to 8 pm - Closed Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday).  I still have about an hour to get there and do my business.  I am once again psyched for I feel as if I went looking for one diamond only to find another diamond of greater value.  That's a good thing, right?

Fade to white.  Cue the dramatic music.  Cue the writing.

What will happen to your CaliforniVacation SoCal gal as she goes in search of the Margaret Herrick Library?  Will the mystery of 9038 Melrose Avenue be solved?  Do you care?  The conclusion to this riveting sightseeing tale may be found in blog post 75.