Location, Location, Location Trivia Quiz

Answer: Disneyland

Although Anaheim is not technically Los Angeles, Disneyland is a must-see attraction for any Australian family visiting Los Angeles! The original Disneyland opened in 1955, and has delighted millions of visitors in the ensuing time. Many expansions and renovations to exhibits have occurred over the years, and the current name for the original theme park is Disneyland Park, to distinguish it from Disney California Adventure which was constructed on part of the original parking lot. No matter how it changes, some things remain constant: Disney characters roam the park (and parade down Main Street USA at specified times); it's a small world [sic] introduces visitors to the national costumes of hundreds of different countries (while everyone sings along to the familiar theme); the Sleeping Beauty Castle provides a magnificent central feature to the park and the monorail (opened in 1959) takes tourists on a trip around a portion of the park, allowing an overview of the action below.

Answer: Universal Studios

Universal Studios first offered studio tours when it opened in 1915, but in 1930 visitors stopped being able to actually watch the filming - the advent of sound meant their presence would be disruptive. Tours started again in 1964, allowing visitors to have limited access to actual filming, and to explore unused parts of the lot.

The theme park had grown over the years, so that the tram tour has a lower profile than many of the staged events and rides. I vividly remember my five-year old daughter being terrified when King Kong loomed outside the tram window back in the mid-1980s; he seems to still (or possibly once again) be part of the tour, but many of the other current attractions are based on more modern entertainment icons, such as Harry Potter and the Simpsons.

Answer: La Brea Tar Pits

The La Brea Tar Pits (which, if you translate the Spanish into English, reads as The The Tar Tar Pits) are located in Hancock Park on Wilshire Boulevard. They were formed from underground tar seeping to the surface. When exposed to the air, the tar hardens somewhat, and becomes covered with leaves and other debris. What looks like a solid surface is a deadly trap for the unwary, and over thousands of years (at least 40,000 or so) animals have become trapped there.

While some of them may have come for a drink of surface water, most of the trapped animals are predator species, who may well have been trying to feast off another already-trapped animal.

The park contains a museum where you can see a range of specimens ranging from microscopic organisms (not as dramatic as the larger fossils, but extremely valuable for the information they provide about climactic conditions) up to the mammoths and smilodons (commonly called sabre-toothed cats), the latter of which is the state fossil of California. Life size statues of the animals found in the pits can be seen as visitors walk around the park.

Answer: Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Walk of Fame had its origins in an attempt at civic promotion in 1953, which eventually led to laying just over 1500 stars in 1960-61 on Hollywood Boulevard. The idea didn't take off immediately - it was another eight years before any more stars were added - but the Walk has since grown so that it covers at least fifteen blocks along Hollywood Boulevard, and another three blocks along Vine Street, and continues to expand. Each star is a five-pointed pink terrazzo star outlined in brass and embedded in a grey-black background. Each contains the name of the star being honoured, and an emblem indicating which of the five categories (motion pictures, broadcast television, broadcast radio, recording or live music, live theatre) is being honoured. Gene Autry was the first person to receive a star in all five categories, although many others have multiple stars.

Some stars are shared by more than one person - the most included in a single star is the Munchkins from the 1939 movie 'The Wizard of Oz', thought to be around 135 different individuals.

Answer: TCL Chinese Theatre

Formerly known as Graumann's Chinese Theatre, the site is owned by a Chinese company whose name officially appears on it, but many still use the old name. You will pass it as you follow the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. The theatre opened in 1927 with the premiere of 'The King of Kings', and has since been the site of a number of premieres and three Academy Award ceremonies. What brings the tourists, however, is the array of celebrity imprints in the cement blocks that comprise the restaurant's forecourt.

These include handprints, autographs and footprints of the stars, along with the imprints of items identified as trademarks for some celebrities - Groucho Marx's cigar, Harold Lloyd's glasses, tire prints for Herbie (you know, the VW Beetle who became a Disney star), Sonja Henie's ice skates, hoofprints for several horses alongside the prints of the stars who rode them.

Answer: Griffith Observatory

The Griffith Observatory is located in Griffith Park, on the south side of Mount Hollywood. (Griffith Park is also the site of the outdoor Greek Theatre, where Neil Diamond recorded 'Hot August Night', and a merry-go-round in the park is said to have been part of what inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland as a place for family fun.) It was the setting for two scenes in the 1955 James Dean movie 'Rebel Without a Cause', and has a wide range of scientific offerings in addition to its telescopes.

These include a planetarium, a magnificent Tesla coil, an exhibition on the history of the universe, a Foucault pendulum, and a scale model of the solar system. If you're hungry, you can visit the Café at the End of the Universe.

Answer: Hollywood sign

As most trivia buffs know, the sign originally read Hollywoodland when it was erected in 1923 to advertise a planned real estate development. Since all the letters are the same height, their positioning along the hillside results in giving the sign a distinctive curved appearance.

Originally, the letters were studded with lights that would flash, so that at night one would see, in rotation, HOLLY, WOOD, LAND, HOLLYWOODLAND. The sign was originally planned to be up for eighteen months, but never came down (although the final four letters were removed in 1949) - it just got shabby over the years before a restoration project in 1978 replaced the decrepit wooden letters with new metal ones.

Answer: Getty Center

The Getty Center in Brentwood contains one of the two branches of the J. Paul Getty Museum, based on the private collection of the oil tycoon. The Getty Villa, original site of the collection, currently holds the Greek, Etruscan and Roman parts of the collection; the rest has been transferred to the Getty Center, which has become one of the most visited museums in the US due to the extent and quality of the collection. According to the museum's publicity, the items on display include "pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs".

Answer: Hollywood Bowl

The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre with a distinctive shell covering the performance area, set in a bowl-shaped site on a hillside in Hollywood. In 1919, the site was chosen to be developed for use by the newly-formed Theatre Arts Alliance, who wanted a venue for outdoor performances, and the natural amphitheatre in Bolton Canyon was chosen.

The Bowl officially opened in 1922 with a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who have made it their summer home. There have been many other performances over the years.

The Beatles played there on 23 August 1964 and again for two concerts on 29 and 30 August of 1965. From these three concerts, George Martin was eventually able to edit together the tracks for a live album which recaptured those heady days of Beatlemania.

Answer: Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium was opened in 1962 as the home of the Los Angeles (formerly Brooklyn) Dodgers. It has been the site of a number of significant baseball events, including the LA Dodgers' first homeground World Series victory in 1963 (since their 1959 win occurred in Chicago), and twelve no-hitters (three pitched by Sandy Koufax) and two perfect games (one by Sandy Koufax for the Dodgers, one by Dennis Martinez for the Expos against the Dodgers). Of course, it has also hosted a multitude of other events over the years, despite having been purpose-built for baseball - any number of concerts, a papal mass, the start of a season of the television show 'The Amazing Race' and (my personal favourite) the third game of the inaugural Cricket All-Stars Series in 2015 have all taken place in Dodger Stadium.