Comments on: Driving in the shadow of giants

By: Movie_Dearest

Movie_Dearest — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:42:14 +0000

The “billboard queen’s” name is Angelyne. Here’s her Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelyne

She actually had a cameo (along with one of her billboards, if I remember correctly) in “Earth Girls Are Easy”.

- kch

By: rhsmith

rhsmith — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:15:11 +0000

No, it wasn’t especially foggy, Moira… it’s just me shooting through my (dirty) car windshield with an inadequate 3 megapixel digital camera. My good camera is on the blink (again), so it’s back to the old workhorse which seemed pretty rad in 2001 but now is like an old Philco (and about as big).

I don’t know who that poor soul was who bought up billboard space for herself… just another casualty of the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

By: moirafinnie

moirafinnie — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:58:29 +0000

While I enjoyed this virtual trip through the City of the Angels’ wall to wall advertising blitz, I don’t think I’d want to see poor Heath Ledger’s ghoulish visage looking down on me in traffic, though the Panda, (and the sight of a cartoon version of a Jack Black Panda) might just make me grin a bit. A couple of questions, please:

Was it a smoky day in LA due to all the fires in CA when you photographed these posters, RHS, or had a fog rolled in from the Pacific or was it the usual smog?

Are any of the posters on the buses or billboards ever defaced in amusing (and family friendly) ways by the public?

Please excuse my ignorance and faulty memory, but what was the name of the very buxom lady who bought many posters of herself to promote her imagined celebrity throughout LA several years ago? Was her name Angel? Thank you.

By: 42nd Street Memories

42nd Street Memories — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:22:11 +0000

I can vividly recall a flat bed truck driving around my neighborhood in 50′s NYC with RODAN in a crate. The same box had been on display in the lobby for weeks prior, playing the sounds of the quite upset RODAN. Now that was promotion. Jerry K

By: Medusa

Medusa — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:52:57 +0000

It’s been twenty-one years since I worked in Hollywood (on Sunset Blvd.), but I sure remember all the billboards! I don’t see many when I live now — what would they advertise? cows?? — but I do sorta miss them once in a while. It’s hard to believe that back when I was there billboards and TV, magazine & newspaper ads were about it for the marketers. So much less calculating than today, that’s for sure! And isn’t it amusing when a fast food outlet has managed to back the WRONG kids movie and all the cups bear the face of a turkey? Didn’t that happen with “Speed Racer” recently? I forget which movie, but it shows that it’s all often just a crapshoot with oversized egos calling the shots.