THE HOLLYWOOD MUSEUM’S “HOLLYWOOD GOES TO WAR” EXHIBIT OPENING
With tomorrow, November 11, being Veteran’s Day, and our country just having celebrated the eightieth anniversary of the end of WWII, (on September 2nd,) the Hollywood Museum appropriately opened their “Hollywood Goes To War” exhibit with a lovely reception. As the daughter of a WWII veteran, I was particularly grateful to be a guest at their tribute to Hollywood’s contribution to the WWII effort.
Portrait of my father, Martin Salkin, painted by a prisoner-of-war of whom he was in charge. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the one of the exhibit at the top of this page.
That night was my friend Diane’s first visit to the Museum, and she loved the entire experience! She was especially impressed that “all the personnel were lovely,” including the elevator guy, the bartenders, the servers, and even the woman at the check-in desk. That’s an assessment with which I wholeheartedly agree; I’m so glad she noticed that situation. Their events are always like that!
The fun began as we rode the humongous elevator up to the party and exhibit. The ride was made even more festive by having a bar right on it, to get the party started! And then, as we stepped off into the event space, the first thing we laid our hungry eyes on was a popcorn cart, offering us bags of freshly-made, specially-seasoned popcorn. And then came another bar followed by the sumptuous buffet, full of all kinds of treats, with an emphasis on snacks from the time of WWII. I sooo appreciated that creativity!
Part of the buffet, with the nice servers. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Among the choices were little quiches, pigs in blankets, chicken wings, and veggies in cups with hummus. The special ’40s fare included corn beef salad, (which we had never even heard of before!,) little bacon sandwiches, fried pickles, Jell-O with whipped cream, and my faves—the most delicious and fresh mini potato pancakes! Yu-um. And we liked all the desserts. In addition to the Jell-Os, there were zucchini muffins, tomato muffins, and delicious little crispy chocolate bites. Diane lauded the entire set-up, saying, “Everyone could find something they wanted, and that’s what a buffet should be. And it was easy to eat, too!” She is correct—it was almost all finger foods, and the couple of little cups that required a fork already had tiny ones in them!
But, of course, we were all there to celebrate how Hollywood has portrayed wars, and WWII in particular, in film and TV shows. To that end, the exhibit features costumes, props, and memorabilia from several of the various entertainments, including the classic film, Casablanca. There are also some more modern pieces from movies that were produced recently, but are about that period in history, such as Cate Blanchett’s wardrobe in Oppenheimer.
Photo by Karen Salkin.
Some of the highlights are personal items from stars of that time, such as uniforms worn by Jimmy Stewart and Bob Hope, whose Foundation is sponsoring this important exhibit. That’s fitting because I doubt there is anyone in history who traveled the world more to entertain the troops through the decades than Mr. Hope!
It was good to see all of these artifacts in one place like that. I feel that everyone needs to be reminded what war looks like, so we can vote out the people who are trying their best, (or worst,) to get us into yet another one!
On that important note, I’ll wish all veterans a very peaceful Veterans Day tomorrow, and I hope that every one of you will get over to the Hollywood Museum to see this one, and actually all of their wonderful exhibits, very soon.
Hollywood Goes To War exhibit
The Hollywood Museum
1660 Highland Ave. Hollywood
323-464-7776 www.TheHollywoodMuseum.com
