The "Hollywood That Never Was" at Disney's Hollywood Studios is comprised primarily of Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. Collectively, these two neighborhoods transport us to the Golden Age of Tinseltown, a period primarily couched in the 1930s and '40s.
At first blush, this whole stretch of the park may seem pretty much the same, but the two areas are actually quite different. Hollywood Boulevard is representative of the Business District and calls up an earlier Hollywood when the town was full of promise and rapid expansion. It starts with Sid Cahuenga, who was here before the movie biz, and continues to the Pacific Electric trolley depot. One can literally go anywhere from here.
Sunset Boulevard has a completely different character. For starters, it's the Theater District. This is the place where grand movie palaces and live performance venues can be found; everything from Legends of Hollywood, based on the old Academy Theater:
To the Theater of the Stars, whose proscenium was inspired by the concentric arches of the band shell at the Hollywood Bowl:
Sunset Boulevard is set in the latter part of Hollywood's Golden Age. Throughout much of this corner of the park, from Rosie's All-American Cafe to the recruitment posters, it is most definitely the 1940s. War time. The world is changing. Hollywood will never be the same. The street does culminate, after all, in a dead end... an abandoned hotel.
But there's also hope and optimism here. Rosie and her neighbors have planted Victory Gardens in support of our boys on the front lines. New enterprises are beginning, and a degree of normalcy (Hollywood normal, at least) can be found in the glamour of a red carpet premiere.
The show must go on, and the Hollywood that never was always will be.
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