Above: Hollywood Boulevard exit from the Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, California, c. 1962

As an agricultural statistician, California meant something entirely different to my dad than it has always meant to me. It was a vast area of prolific farm production, and the crops were his primary focus when he traveled for the USDA. But I don’t think he was completely immune to the attraction of the name “Hollywood.” This is one of the only photos he ever took within the city limits.

You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Some that you recognize, some that you’ve hardly even heard of.

–The Kinks, Celluloid Heroes