User:Extraball

Hollywood is a state of mind much more than it is a geographic location. For millions and millions of fans across the country and around the world, Hollywood, in the heart of Los Angeles, is home to movie stars' home to all the glamour, all the glory and, of course, all the gossip. Never mind that, in reality, the stars moved a few neighborhoods west a long time ago. People still come to Hollywood to find them. And when the tourists arrive, Starline Tours is ready to take them where they want to go.

First comes a visit to the kiosk in the forecourt of the Chinese Theatre. From that famous Hollywood landmark, Starline vans leave every half an hour for two hours of sightseeing through Beverly Hills and Bel Air. While star sightings are rare, the stars' homes are there to thrill the million visitors Starline escorts every year. Behind the gates and through the greenery, the mansions of the world's most glamourous people lure their eager fans, all hoping to catch a glimpse of the people who live in a style others only dream about.

Starline Tours has been in business since 1968, but the business of searching for stars' homes began some 30 years before. Back in 1935, a young man named Bud came west in search of freedom and adventure. What he found was a job as chauffeur to Sid Graumann. Old-time Angelenos remember the Chinese Theatre when it was Graumann's Chinese, and it was through his high-profile movie palace that Sid Graumann became associated with some of Hollywood's principal players. Actors, producers, writers, Sid Graumann knew them all, and the young Bug knew where to find them because he drove his boss to visit them.

A hint from Graumann got bud in business. Think of it, he was advised. All those tourists at Highland and Hollywood, they're just dying for a chance to find their favorite movie stars. Someone who knows where they live could make a pretty penny, even in the middle of the Depression. Bud took the hint, picked up his passengers, charged them a couple of dollars and showed them around. Eventually, Bud's Limo Service had four limousines and the license to drive the Beverly Hills route. (In those days, tourist routes were under the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission, or PUC, which controlled who could drive there, but more on that later.) Bud had good ideas but limited vision. A great tour guide, he wasn't an ambitious businessman. Bud's Limo pretty much ended up driving around in circles.

Enter the Sapir brothers. In the late 60s Vahid managed the parking lot at the Chinese Theatre. He figured out pretty quickly that Bud was on to a good thing but wasn't doing much about it. Besides, Bud was getting on his years. So Vahid and his brother Fred, both electronic engineers by training, convinced Bud to sell them his business. Bud agreed, and Bud's Limo became Starline Tours. That was in 1968, and the Sapir brothers wasted no time making a good business bigger and better.

First they spiffed up the limousines. Soon they bought new ones. Then they bought vans and buses. Starline accommodated more tourists, but the company was still limited to Beverly Hills and Bel Air. That was fine, but no fine enough for two enterprising entrepreneurs. Southern California was filled with places to go and things to do, from Disneyland to San Diego, and the Sapirs were determined to take Starline Tours where everybody wanted to go. All it took was the license, and that sas owned by the competition. To get a license of their own, they had to come up with something new and different.

That's where their engineering training came in. The Sapir brothers had the idea that non-English-speaking tourists would love to listen to recorded tours in their native language while they were Starline passengers. So, they invented foreign-language tour tapes which their clients could listen to with headphones. The Sapirs presented their invention to Southern California's major tourist attractions who understood immediately that tourists who were talked to in their own language would find a lot easier to visit all the exciting destinations around the Southland. The Sapirs had little trouble convincing the theme park operators to testify on their behalf, and the PUC, acknowledging the unique appeal of their proposed service, granted Starline a license to conduct tours all over Southern California. Starline Tours was on the move.

So successful was the strategy that Starline's major competition approached the Sapir brothers who acquired The Grayline in the early 1980s. Then Tour Coach and American Pacific became pat of the Starline fleet. The Starline vehicles combined the look and low cost with the power of American bus engines, guaranteeing sightseers a comfortable, dependable journey. Starline introduced its own exclusive and extremely popular tours of the Liberace Mansion and the Harold Lloyd Estate. Ever on the move, Starline's tours went further afield with excursions across the western United States, including Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Starline conducts its tours in partnership with major airlines and hotels. Starline tours of Hollywood has its own Charter Bus Services. They cover California, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon.

But the heart and soul of Starline Tours is in Southern California. By far the most popular of Starline's many offerings is the tour of Movie Stars' Homes in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Every day, visitors eager for a glimpse of the lifestyles of the rich and famous, indulge their fantasies in air-conditioned comfort, searching for stars in the company's mini vans which go where big buses are prohibited. The two-hour trip includes approximately 60 homes, featuring the most glamourous stars of yesterday and today. Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball and Ronald Reagan get top billing, but many more enduring legends are included along with today's big names in the movies and television. In addition to visiting the homes of the stars, Starline drives by famous film location sites as well as the Sunset Strip.

Visitors get to know the other Los Angeles with Starline's Grand Tour of Greater Los Angeles. Quaint Olvera Street, home to LA's earliest history, starts the tour which escorts visitors through Chinatown, the Observatory in Griffith Park, Sunset Strip and the Farmer's Market. Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills are included, as is lunch and shopping at the Farmers Market. For tourists who want to get to know Los Angeles as well as movieland, Starline offers a combination tour of the Stars' homes and a grand tour of LA.

Big on the list of LA's must see is Universal Studios Hollywood, and Starline obliges with two hour packages, one three-quarters day, the other for a full day. Starline allows visitors to avoid the hassle of navigating unfamiliar freeways, and the tour includes admission and all the shows. From the pyrotechnics of Backdraft-Live to the impressive shakeup of Earthquake - The Big One to Flying Home with ET, all the magic of Hollywood comes to life to thrill both locals and out-of-towners.

Once L.A.'s been discovered, visitors want to move farther afield, and Starline makes it easy to get to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. Both Orange County theme parke are world famous destinations, and their many attractions are easily accessible hen Starline makes the arrangements. During the summer, Starline makes it easy to stay late at Disneyland where fireworks and other evening treats add to the excitement of the Magic Kingdom.

Farther south, San Diego's Sea World and Mexico's Tijuana are served by Starline. The all-day trip to Sea World includes a ride along the beautiful Southern California coastline and an adventure with the ocean's mighty mammals Shamu and Baby Shamu, exotic bat rays and moral eels. Just across the border, colorful Tijuana offers a day's exploration of shops and restaurants, famous for leather goods, clothing and jewelry at bargain prices.

Back in Los Angeles, starline makes it convenient to visit Catalina with a first-class voyage to Avalon and the romance and beauty of the island just "26 miles across the sea." The day's trip allows visitors to explore the island's beaches and back country. Returning to the mainland, Starline conducts tours of the insider's Westside, home to some of L.A.'s most interesting attractions. Starline takes visitors to the Getty, Marina del Rey, the movie studios at Culver City to relive the making of Gone with the Wind, and finally to Venice Beach, with its world-famous street scene. And for those who can't get enough of amusement parks, Starline escorts them to Six Flags Magic Mountain, an easy drive north of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles has much to offer visitors who flock there from all around the world, and they know about Starline through the company's vast marketing network. Many major tour wholesalers sell the Starline services to thousands of travel agencies all around the world, and Starline is a major exhibitor at a number of large conventions, both in the United Stated and in London and Berlin. The company advertises regularly in leading tourism magazines, promising the very best service for the most memorable vacation in glamourous and exciting Southern California. Starline maintains a high-profile presence in the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Department of Tourism, and for immediate personal contact, Starline's brochures, offering more than a dozen tour packages, are available in hotels and tourist centers.

Just a Bud's Limo Service got its start at Hollywood and Highland, Starline Tours is poised for new growth with the rejuvenation of Hollywood from Highland to La Brea. Starline Tours with its headquarters right across from the Chinese Theatre, is in the heart of a massive redevelopment project which promises to reinvigorate that strip of Hollywood Boulevard, long tarnished through years of neglect. Hotels, a shopping center, and a 13-screen movie theater are all on the drawing boards. And the Academy Awards ceremony, for years past presented at venues in Downtown, will return to its own theater in the heart of Hollywood.

Home to the hopes and dreams of millions, downtown Hollywood will once again live up to its image of glamour and excitement. Fred and Vahid Sapir have been Hollywood players for much of Hollywood's storied history, and they have built a spectacularly visible and successful business that fulfills the expectations of all the star-struck fans who have flocked to Hollywood in search of the myth and the magic. Starline Kiosk has been located at forcourt of Mann's Chinese Theatre for many years where millions of tourists visit from all around the world.

Starline looks forward to a very bright future because as ling as there are movies, there would always be a "Hollywood". The tourist will come and Starline Van would be waiting for them.