Weird Hollywood by Joe Oesterle
c.2010, Sterling Publishing
$19.95/$23.95 Canada
240 pages

There’s no doubt about it. Your favorite stars’ lives are nothing like yours.
They go out in public wearing designer fashions, while your clothes came off the rack at the store. Stars live in mansions that make your digs look like a doghouse. Though paparazzi follow stars everywhere, your mug might make it into the annual family group-pic.

Stars sparkle. They drive cars fancier than yours, they have furniture fancier than yours … and they live a life most of us would never truly want.
But the stars’ lives aren’t the only thing that’s unique. The place they live is pretty unusual, too, as you’ll see in Weird Hollywood by Joe Oesterle.
When you think of Tinseltown, you usually think of beautiful people, flashing cameras, lots of sun, and convertibles. But the truth is that, despite the reputation it has, Hollywood is just like your hometown: it has plenty of local weirdness.

Wouldn’t you, for instance, like to see mansions surrounded by statues or objects meant to “protect” the grounds? You’ll find a few of them in H-Wood, and Oesterle tells you where. You can also visit a half-nekkid, folk-sculpture near a college campus, several giant donuts, a pink playground whale, and a house that looks like it was put together by drunken gnomes.

You probably already know about Hollywood’s handprints-and-footprints sidewalk, but do you know how it all began? In this book, you can read the “official” story, and one that Oesterle said is much more likely. You’ll also read about famous buildings like The House That Nat Built and a locally well-known building decorated with a ballerina clown.

If you’re brave, you can visit Suicide Bridge, but beware of the spooky power it holds. You can rap with the ghost of Janis Joplin or tour any of several cemeteries where your stars rest forever, visiting Dean Martin’s mausoleum, Liberace’s resting place, Rodney Dangerfield’s grave, and more.

If you go, though, be sure to take your best manners along and don’t be disrespectful. Where else but in Hollywood can you visit a still-active tar pit? Why would you ever want to miss an interview with Eddie Munster, The Tattoo Girl, and the Brady Bunch’s cousin (all in this book)? Can you live without reading the story of Parkyakarkus and his deathly comic timing? Or the things found in Hollywood sewers?

You can’t. That’s why you’ll want this book. But first: a few need-to-knows…
Author Joe Oesterle presents Weird Hollywood, not as a guide to weirdness, but more tabloidish with personal stories included. There are a lot of events, people, and sites here that are obviously of higher interest to Hollywood residents than to tourists, which makes that portion somewhat like a private nudge-wink. Other entries – particularly those on big-headline scandals – seem a little stale.

Still, to a follower of Tinseltown (and who isn’t?), these things can be minor. I thought, overall, this book was fun and different, and I ate it up. Like the stars that live there, to a movie, TV or tabloid fan, Weird Hollywood sparkles.

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was three years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. She is also a contributor to the new book Armchair Reader: Vitally Useless Information, available through Amazon.com