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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Ben Hair, an Epic Salon |
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Walk up to the window at Ben Hair, an Epic Salon. The artwork on the glass shows a Roman soldier with the most amazing pompadour. Admire what’s on display behind the window—classical busts with other wild hairdos. |
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Behind the busts, a display suggesting the pediment of a Roman temple reads “E PLURIBUS CUTUM.” The Us look like Vs in the tradition of Latin phrases chiseled onto ancient Roman buildings. The pediment is decorated with combs, brushes, shears, and other tools of the hair styling trade. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Salon with a barber pole |
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Does the name Ben Hair make you laugh? Or at least smile? It’s supposed to. After all, it’s one of the many puns here at Yester California Adventure. The name Ben Hair is a play on Ben-Hur, a movie title synonymous with grand Hollywood epics. Based on the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur was made as a silent movie in 1925. But the best-known version is the 1959 widescreen spectacular, which starred Charlton Heston and won 11 Academy Awards. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Dial M for Muscle, Workout! Upstairs! |
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Nearby, there’s an old-fashioned sign for Dial M for Muscle. A dial telephone has a dumbbell in place of a handset. It’s another pun. This one is based on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 crime thriller, Dial M for Murder. Enjoy the clever puns. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2004 La Brea Carpets, You’ll Dig our Rugs |
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Ready for another pun? Between the salon and the gym, there’s a carpet store, La Brea Carpets. It sounds like the La Brea Tar Pits, the Los Angeles archaeological site where scientists dug up the fossilized skulls and bones of long-extinct prehistoric creatures. Are you ready to get your hair styled? Work out upstairs? And buy a rug as a souvenir of your day at the park? Sorry. You can’t. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Just a façade |
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The “businesses” are just decorations on the building façade. The paint scheme and signage makes the façade appear to be two separate buildings. The brown part is the Argyle Building while the yellow part is the Whitley Building. Actually, the two parts together represent an actual building in Hollywood, the Baine Building at 6601 Hollywood Blvd. What about the four semicircular window awnings with the giraffe, zebra, jaguar, and tiger pelt patterns? They were never part of the real Baine Building. But, hey, they help make this park hip and edgy. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, Feb. 12, 2001—four days after the official grand opening of Disney’s California Adventure Not crowded |
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Just remember that this “punny” building façade is part of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. You’re supposed to feel as if you’re in a place where movies are made, not on a real street. Apparently there’s a Hollywood director making a movie about an alternate universe where businesses on Hollywood Blvd. have puns as names and where window awnings look like animal pelts. |
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Hollywood Pictures Backlot, which was one of the lands of Disney’s California Adventure when the park opened February 8, 2001, had two parts. One part, with Superstar Limo and Hollywood & Dine, was meant to look like a working movie studio. The other part was a boulevard, which tried to represent the Hollywood of the past, the Hollywood of today, and the false-front streets of a studio backlot—all simultaneously. Hollywood Pictures Backlot failed as a compelling, immersive theme park environment because there were too many contradictions and disjointed elements. It was not convincing as a movie studio or as anything else. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Mostly unchanged after almost a decade, but no giraffe awning |
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Some time around 2006 (give or take a year), a dark gray awning replaced the giraffe awning. Other than that, this part of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot essentially didn’t change for the park’s first ten years. As the 2012 openings of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land approached, the Hollywood Pictures Backlot became Hollywood Land. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2002 Ben Hair window in 2002 |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Hollywood Land window in 2013 |
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In spring 2012, the Ben Hair art came off the window. By midsummer 2012, the entire window had been redressed with a Hollywood Land theme. Hollywood Boulevard made progress toward a cohesive theme. Most of the signs and decorations that egregiously contradicted the early Hollywood theme were removed or replaced. With the elimination of the elephant-flanked Hollywood Pictures Backlot portal, Hollywood Boulevard became an extension of Buena Vista Street. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Red Car Trolley adding liveliness and kinetic energy to Hollywood Land |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 More like a street, less like a studio backlot |
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Disney removed the Dial M for Muscle sign. On the same building, brown awnings replaced the ones that had animal pelt patterns, and the gray awning was swapped to the other end of the building. Traditional window treatments replaced the red rug designs behind the glass. The window art for La Brea Carpets was gone; only its sign remained. That brings us to 2018. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2018 Former Ben Hair window now as a view into a messy Hollywood office |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2018 La Brea Carpets sign still on the building |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2018 Not convincing as a real street |
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Unfortunately, with the “it’s just a movie set” theme eliminated, the incomplete buildings on the boulevard now just look unfinished and cheap. Hollywood Land still has a long way to go. The Walt Disney Company began the rebirth of Disney California Adventure by investing in the parts of the park that needed it most. Now let’s hope that all of Hollywood Land is brought up to the high standards of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land. |
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© 2013-2018 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated November 2, 2018. |
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