Day in LA, Part 3, Paramount Studios 6-7

We were met at Paramount Studios by Rick Madrid the Head Investigator for Paramount. He and Captain Grimala often work in tandem with events or crimes at the Studio. He had lunch with me, Larry, Cliff Armas our official escort, Captains’ Beatrice Grimala and Peter Whitingham of Hollywood Division. We had lunch in the Dining Room, where there are often movers and shakers of Hollywood lunching, but we didn’t see any shaking at all. Lunch was wonderful with the most stunning raspberry, blueberry lemonade…fresh of course. Captain Grimala and Mr. Madrid entertained us with a few stories and the stuff that goes on that they sometimes have to deal with.

The Captain’s were called away…they are very busy, and Rick gave us a private tour of Paramount’s back lot. It is large and very interesting. These first pictures with the beautiful shrubbery and old buildings with such interesting facades were mostly offices, but of course are also used in street scenes of movies.

The back lot street facades are so real looking and all along the sidewalks are different sized capped holes where street lights, signs, trees etc can all be inserted for whatever look a movie maker is going for. I asked what was inside the buildings and Rick escorted us inside one and they are just a mass of steel girders. From in there they can have fires or explosions or silhouettes of people showing from the windows and it is all Hollywood magic, but on screen looks real.

It was all very interesting…we were even taken into the office where we were shown a few real Oscars. The entire place is very pretty, clean and well run, we enjoyed the tour, the walk and the lunch. Then it was time to get back to the Hollywood station for our next treat…Part 4.