Tales Of A Hollywood Tour Guide
Author/Narrator Stephen Schochet researched Hollywood and Disney
stories and lore for 10 years while giving tours of Hollywood.
He had the unique idea the stories could be told anywhere and
that's what led him to create the critically acclaimed
audiobooks "Fascinating Walt Disney" and "Tales Of Hollywood".
Here he shares some stories that happened while he was actually
giving tours:
On one tour I pointed out the Fox Plaza, the building that was
blown up in the movie Die Hard. A tourist asked me "How did they
put that building back together so fast?" * On the tour we stop
at Rodeo Drive. The people were returning to the bus after their
visit and Steve Garvey came walking by. A life long Dodger fan I
said," Hi Steve." Happy for the recognition, he came over to
meet the people on the bus. Unfortunately, the entire group was
from England and Germany and not a single person knew who he
was. * The day after OJ Simpson was arrested, I was doing a tour
where we stopped in front of the Chinese Theater. My customers
were looking at the handprints and footprints, while I stretched
my legs near a row of parked tour buses. Two men, one with a
filming camera approached me. "Hi We're from CNN. Are you a tour
guide? We would like to interview you about OJ." "Sure." "Great.
Roll the camera. We're talking to a Hollywood tour guide. So did
your customers ask you today about OJ's house." "Well today my
people are from Romania. They are here for the World Cup. I
don't think they care about OJ." "Well will you be adding OJ's
house to the tour?" "Probably not because he lives west of the
405. We go east of the 405 and we are so pressed for time. I
wouldn't be surprised if we have some guys who point at any old
house and claim that it's OJ's!" I was kidding but the reporter
took me quite seriously. "So tour guides do that do they? What
tour company do you work for?" I thought, who does this guy
think he is, Mike Wallace? I pointed at one of the buses owned
by a rival tour company. * When I first started training as a
tour bus driver I rode with other guides to see how they did it.
One guy, unfortunately did not endear himself to the customers
with a patter of stale and sometimes sexist jokes. At one point
he showed the Hollywood Sign, and told the tragic story of
actress Peg Entwistle, who unable to succeed in the transition
from stage to screen, jumped fifty feet to her death from the
top of the letter H. He finished the tale with the tagline,"Of
course the last person to jump was a tour guide who didn't get
tipped." There was a pause and then an Australian customer from
the back of the bus shouted out," Oh yeah? Well there'll be
another one tomorrow!"