Hollywood Mythology and Homelessness

According to the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty’s 2004 study, Hollywood’s homeless population primarily consists of what they categorize as “unaccompanied youth” which stands between 4,800 and 10,000 people.

In doing research for the mythology of Hollywood Blvd, one of the things that stood out for me was how most of the websites I visited mentioned the population of young runaways that inhabited Hollywood – particularly Bob Hope Square on Hollywood and Vine. Part of the draw of BHS I think, is that it has gained a mystique as being the place to “get discovered”. This is perhaps because it has both been home - and in close proximity to a multitude of music and film companies like Tower Records, the original Lasky-Paramount Studios, NBC Studios, ABC studios, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The fact that Hollywood Blvd has become a popular refuge – a place to runaway to for youth - points very strongly to a mythology of Hollywood Blvd being a place which not only accepts, but venerates bold, rebellious youth as fuel for its star power. Furthermore, Hollywood Blvd as a location for celebrity recruitment, feeds a more general notion, which Thom Anderson mentions in his film, Los Angeles Plays Itself. In conjunction with the Hollywood Blockbuster culture of films like Die Hard, The Matrix, and Star Wars, Hollywood Blvd. promotes a myth of the heroic individual as being able to rise above all odds alone.

It is interesting to note that Hollywood’s homeless youth, in the early 80’s, spawned its own punk movement as not only a music subculture, but as a support network for shelter and survival. This subversion of the mythology of Hollywood as a glamorous sanctuary for rebellious youth into a gritty punk reality is a large-scale intervention in its own right, and might provide some insights for our own upcoming interventions.

Below are two links regarding homelessness and Hollywood for those who are interested:
http://www.weingart.org/institute/research/facts/pdf/JusttheFactsHomelessnessLA.pdf
http://www.cia.com.au/peril/youth/kurtbook.pdf

Above Image: Sean, a homeless teenager from Riverside, left, and “Arson,” another panhandler, hang out near the corner of Gower Street and Hollywood Boulevard.
(Spencer Weiner / LAT)