For the photographers themselves, the highlights of the shoot were many and varied.
”My morning started off with shooting this woman who regularly stands in front of Paramount Studios with a sign that reads `Please Hire Me,` ” reports Chicago-born photographer Mark Wexler. ”Next, I shot this look-alike of the Pope walking down Hollywood Boulevard meeting all the local characters. He ended up sitting down at this bench between a transvestite and a bag lady. It was an interesting juxtaposition of His Holiness.”
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Wexler wasn`t so fortunate with another assignment, a topless house-cleaning service accurately titled ”Busty Dusters.” ”We were all ready to shoot when the young lady in question decided she didn`t want to do it,”
he sniffs. ”It was a major disappointment.”
New York photographer Marcia Lippman`s first assignment was shooting the graves of such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Tyrone Power and Jayne Mansfield. ”I found it an interesting comment on Hollywood, because the graves were filled with artificial flowers,” she says. ”Even when you die here, there`s still that artifice.”
Lippman`s highlight was a visit to Western Costume. ”I got a group shot of everyone in the company, all 52 employees, from the janitor to the president, including the people who hand-sewed the original ruby slippers for `The Wizard of Oz` and all the gowns for `Gone With The Wind,` ” she says.
”Most of them have been there for 30, 40 years. That was something special.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer David Turnley, who is based in Paris, reports that his assignments ”spanned the entire spectrum of Hollywood. I started out early morning shooting homeless kids on the streets. They come from all over the country, lured here by the image of glamour and success, and their plight is a dramatic example of some of the things wrong with this country at the moment.
”Most of the kids I spoke to told me they`d either been abandoned as children or abused by alcoholic parents, and they`d come here because it`s essentially the end of the road. It`s the Pacific Coast and they can`t run any farther. And their image of Hollywood is so different from the common one. Most of them are very bitter and feel they`ve somehow been deceived.
”It was very depressing,” adds Turnley, ”not only because of the issue of homelessness, but because they are young kids starting out with the cards already stacked against them.”
In sharp contrast, Turnley next journeyed to the wealthy area of Pacific Palisades to photograph Goldie Hawn at her palatial home. ”You couldn`t find two more extreme situations, but I have to say I was quite impressed with her,” he says. ”She`s not only very bright and very driven, but she`s seemingly conscious of social issues and not in the least bit superficial.”