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Take a look at this kitschy 1937 map sold to L.A. tourists identifying the homes and hang-outs of the era's top stars.
Don Boggs' "official moviegraph of the land of the stars" now lives in the Library of Congress, but it recently got some modern attention after being tweeted by L.A. history buff Nathan Masters and highlighted by Curbed LA.
Though aesthetically appealing in that old-timey way, it wouldn’t have been much use to The Bling Ring or anyone looking for exact locations. The map requires the user to match cartoon faces drawn around the border to the celebrities' bobble-head style representations on the map, which features only neighborhoods and iconic locations, but not many street names. So far, I’ve successfully identified Charlie Chaplin and… that’s it.
Nowadays, of course, the curious civilian can peep at aerial shots of celeb homes or browse galleries upon galleries of photos of them at the grocery store. (I’m looking at a creepy satellite photo of Kristen Stewart's house in Woodland Hills and a picture of Ryan Gosling at Gelson's right now!) Maybe there’s something to the ambiguous charm of a Depression-era escape into the lives of the rich and famous.
Check out a bigger version here on BigMapBlog.com.
