Southern California: How To Keep Out-Of-Town Relatives Busy

Forbes

19-05-2025

Almost unnoticed, four decades in the City of Angels whizzed by like a Santa Anita racehorse while I was busy doing other things – raising kids, making music and bylines and playing too much golf and basketball. I'd left my birthplace, the mighty Motor City, just after college in pursuit of anything but a humdrum, suburban existence and got a little lucky in the iffy world of showbiz--all while the sun mostly smiled down through fires and earthquakes, traffic jams and riots. That's the price one pays for living in paradise, I guess.
The worst part of self-exile is leaving one's family behind, in my case three siblings and my adoring parents, and having to resort to snapshot-laden texts and emails to keep abreast of significant happenings back home. The upside of moving west was that it was always a great place to welcome guests in search of celebrity-sightings and a glancing glimpse of the fabled good life. But until my sister and her husband paid a recent visit, I had forgotten how diverse and stimulating was my adopted home, and how easy it was to amuse folks from elsewhere. The following is an appreciation of the wonders in one's own backyard.
It's always a safe bet to take visitors to Hollywood itself, which is home to vibrant street life and tacky tourist traps alike. Dress-up Darth Vaders and Michael Jacksons will expect tips for posing for photos, but avoid all that nonsense and head right to the TCL Chinese Theater and fit your hands and feet into the cement-imprinted extremities of folks like Clark Gable and Shirley Temple. The sidewalk Walk of Fame stars are bought and paid for by Hollywood publicists, and the souvenir shops sell gold letters for do-it-yourself wannabes to fool their Facebook friends into thinking they're famous. Kinda sad that is, Day of the Locust material, 86 years on.
Speaking of old-timers, just a half-mile down the boulevard stands the century-old watering hole Musso & Frank Grill, a magnet for true celluloid royalty like Chaplin and Sinatra, Bogart and Garbo, properly cherished for their old-school menu--Crab Louie salad and lamb chops--preceded by appetite-spoiling slices of chewy sourdough boule. But the food is just one aspect of M&F's allure, it's the ability to cozy up to the bar and order the same classic martini favored by Orson Welles and Dashiell Hammett--not the Kardashians, Dashiell, and vive la difference! Talk about time travel, a visit to Musso's is as good as it gets if you love the heyday of the moving pictures.
As long as you're in the neighborhood, thirty minutes east down Sunset Blvd. is downtown Los Angeles proper, which has gone from homeless haven to tony address for so many urban professionals in recent years. Decrepit office buildings and flophouse hotels have been remade into pricey lofts and townhouses, the coolest address being where prizefighters Depp and Heard went at it tooth and nail, an art deco masterpiece called the Eastern Guardian Building, with its eerie clock tower and greenish glow.
Another well-preserved echo of L.A.'s past is the Grand Central Market, an indoor culinary bazaar in the Beaux-Arts era Homer Laughlin Building, circa 1917. Home to some 50 vendors of everything from gourmet coffee and tacos to fresh fruits and nuts, and featuring one of the city's better sandwich joints. Wexler's Deli. But for those in search of truly legendary corned beef and pastrami, head a bit west to Langer's Deli, which may not be around much longer due to homelessness and crime. Go for the iconic #19, pastrami, swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian dressing on rye. Thank me later…
And for those who favor high culture to street life, downtown is also home to the city's finest art museums, most notably The Broad, a free, general admission treasure-trove of modern art by names like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ed Ruscha, Warhol and Lichtenstein. Architecture buffs will admire the frenetic concrete and steel latticed exterior, offset magnificently by its gleaming neighbor next door, Disney Hall, the Frank Gehry design that became home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. P.S., this is music director/conductor Gustavo Dudamel's last year with the outfit, so hurry down and catch a visionary artist at the height of his powers. He is a treasure and will be sorely missed.
Between the Broad and the Musuem of Contemporary Art across the street, you may have had your fill of fine art, but head down Wilshire Blvd. west and stroll through the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the adjacent La Brea Tar Pits to see how prehistoric stardom lived way before celluloid and scandal. It's a strange sensation to think that woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats once scampered where motorized traffic now just crawls past. You can avoid driving chores if you choose: L.A.'s public transit system is evolving and has its share of growing pains due to crime and vandalism, but will save time and frustration.
While the Universal Studios Tour is more like a theme park than a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Hollywood history, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour is for diehard film fans anxious to see where so many of the last century's classics were shot. You can stand on the sets of Friends and Big Bang Theory and make with the selfies to impress the rubes back home if that's your cup of java. Choose from the basic tour to the TCM Classic Films go-round, or splurge and go for the Deluxe, a six-hour odyssey--three of which are guided--with visits to the prop department and a meal at the legendary Commissary Fine Dining Room. Say hey to Bogey and Bacall for me…
Out of town guests aren't just interested in cinema history, though you'd be remiss not to take them for a tour of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wilshire Boulevard. The shining Renzo Piano-designed architecture is enough of a lure, but so are objets-de-tinseltown like Dorothy's ruby slippers or Gregory Peck's 1962 script for To Kill a Mockingbird, among 13 million artifacts from the town's most iconic industry. And while you're in the neighborhood, stop in for lunch or dinner at one of Century City's latest culinary sensations, Din Tai Fung, famous for their Xiao Long Bao (or soup dumplings). Family-style entrees like Shanghai Rice Cakes Noodles with Sesame Sauce are savory and delicious. A worldwide chain worthy of its Michelin recognition.
In a city blessed with over 260 sunshiny days per annum, it'd be a shame not to squire your visitors to the beach, if only to ogle the florid fauna of the Venice boardwalk, ever a colorful spectacle. The water may not be the world's most pristine, but the Pacific's cooling breezes can reduce summer inland temperatures by some twenty degrees. Those in the mood can skateboard, bike or roller-skate all the way south down to Rancho Palos Verdes or north to the fire-afflicted Pacific Palisades. Hunger will inevitably set in and will be well-rewarded at Dudley Market, a seafood-centric spot which also boasts one of L.A.'s best burgers. They operate their own fishing boat, so expect the freshest fare in the hood. The tuna crudo and twice-fried french fries? Yes, por favor!