The Olympic Games and World Cup Soccer, two major international sports spectacles, will
be staged throughout the Los Angeles area, bringing with them millions of visitors.
The 12-story, 800-room Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, on the National Historic Register’s “Walk of Fame,” opened in 1927, and two years later hosted the first-ever Academy Awards ceremony.
Marylin Monroe lived in the Spanish Colonial-revival-style hotel for two years. Charlie Chaplin and Ernest Hemingway are also on the long list of luminaries who have lit up the Hollywood Roosevelt’s dark, ornate, perhaps haunted corners.
You can spot the Hollywood Roosevelt’s stylish interior in many movies, including Beverly Hills Cop 2; Catch Me if You Can; and The Fabulous Baker Boys.
However, in 2024, in a setting with a glorious past, it was the present plans for moving forward that were on the minds of the panelists who gathered at the Hollywood Roosevelt for the Chamber of Commerce’s annual “State of the State Luncheon.” And it was a full house.
Hollywood: Starring Tourists, Residents and Legislators
George Clooney had an award-winning performance in the motion picture The Descendants, the premise of which might echo in an idealized place such as Hollywood. In the opening scene, Clooney’s character says, “My friends think just because we live in Hawaii, we live in paradise: we’re all just out here sipping mai tais, shaking our hips and catching waves. Do they think we’re immune to life?”
Hollywood, like Hawaii, is not immune to life, and Tinseltown’s issues were center stage at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Issues like jobs, homelessness, crime and securing resources from the state government in Sacramento.
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve Nissen, formerly the senior VP of legal and government affairs for NBC Universal, opened the event after a period of mingling and networking. As a former senior official with Governor Gray Davis, Nissen knows the levers of legislature.
Nissen welcomed everyone and introduced Dea Lawrence, Chief Marketing Officer of Variety, the showbiz power publication serving as the luncheon sponsor.
No Script for Dialogue and Discussion
John Fenoglio, KTLA TV’s political reporter, served as moderator. He moved the conversation along between California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo, of District 26; State Senator Ben Allen, District 24; Assembly Member Miguel Santiago, District 54; and Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur, of District 51.
Reports from FilmLA indicate that on-location filming from April to June of 2024, for unscripted, reality television, for instance, fell 57 percent compared to the second quarter of 2023. Preceding numbers for the first quarter of the year were also down. Fenoglio asked the legislators about incentives and tax credits to promote the film industry.
“The tax credits we offer are too small,” Assemblyman Chavez Zbur insisted. “Georgia, New York, Canada and New Mexico generate more. Investment in incentives generate more than seven times the amount in state taxes, but we are on the precipice of the industry leaving.”
Senator Allen said, “Film industry incentive funding is always under threat in the state budget because some people see it as a boondoggle. But the benefits of having the movie business are not just the production and catering jobs; the industry affects tourism dollars. People want to come to Hollywood because of the movies.”
Senator Durazo assured the Hollywood Chamber attendees and business owners she would not back down on film industry incentives because they are job and career creators.
“You see the business going elsewhere. I have so many friends who work in the film business, and it has dried up significantly here. They’re worried. Georgia, Mississippi and other southern states are really trying to draw the film industry.
This is big business, and they want that business. Hollywood has forever relied upon it, but it really does feel like it’s hemorrhaging right now, “Fengolio told me when we spoke after the presentation.
Special Event Tourism in Tinseltown
The Olympic Games and World Cup Soccer, two major international sports spectacles, will be staged throughout the Los Angeles area, bringing with them millions of visitors.
“I read the Olympics will need 3,000 buses to transport everyone,” said Assemblyman Chavez Zbur.
His colleague, Assemblyman Santiago, pointed out that preparing to host major events is an opportunity. “Improvements to infrastructure and public transportation and addressing the homeless situation are measurable targets that could become permanent improvements.”
Senator Allen cautioned how other host cities, such as Rio and Tokyo incurred massive debt to host the Olympics. “Montreal just finished paying off the 1976 games,” he said. The difference for California is that Los Angeles has so many sports stadiums and venues built and in reasonable proximity. “The only way we will finish in the black is that we don’t need the big financial outlay like the other cities did.”
When London hosted the Olympics they created and dovetailed an adjacent major arts and cultural festival, an idea the panel seemed to admire. “We could do that here, powered by Hollywood creativity,” said Allen.
A Crime Drama, In Hollywood, Is a Reality Show
Tourists expecting to find a Hollywood version of Hollywood Boulevard can be surprised by the surroundings. It is real life, not make-believe, in a sometimes gritty, city environment. The legislators at the Hollywood Roosevelt discussed various elements of crime fighting and homelessness.
“There are widely-divided ideas and people are dug in their positions about crime,” said Santiago about the smash-and-grab theft and more. “Throw the book at them? Is a given crime a professionalized retail theft or a one-off? Should we make serial retail theft a felony?”
Senator Durazo was adamant. “Crime is unacceptable but we cannot ‘lock up’ our way out of it. We have to hold people accountable, but mass incarceration just doesn’t work.”
Advances in technology, in some cases, seemed to contribute to increased crime.
“Self-checkout registers meant fewer staff and more theft,” said Durazo, while Senator Allen pointed out the internet has made it so much easier to sell stolen goods in online marketplaces. “Perhaps third-party sellers should be certified?” he wondered.
Chavez Zbur talked about the value and comparative return on investment of rent subsidies to stave off homelessness – a position he described as “getting on his soapbox.” “Spending on prevention is key.”
Read more of Michael Patrick’s work at The Travel Tattler and contact him at [email protected] Order his book Travel Tattler – Less Than Torrid Tales at https://amzn.to/3Qm9FjN
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