TO stand before the Bronson Gate at Paramount Pictures is to be in Hollywood heaven.
For nearly a century, the imposing entrance has been the portal to a world of fantasy, art and glamour for thousands of would-be actors, screenwriters and directors, not to mention movie fans.
Paramount Pictures is the oldest movie studio still operating in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Hollywood.
The company dates back to 1912 and established itself on its present site in 1926. The studio quickly perfected a production-line style of movie-making, turning out scores of films each year.
That industrial scale of production didn't stop many of these from being artistic as well as commercial successes, and over the decades Paramount won many Academy Awards - one of which you can even hold when you go on one of their studio tours.
These tours have to fit in with the demands of Paramount Pictures as a working studio.
On a weekday, you're more likely to see people at work on the lots -maybe even stars you recognise - but you may also be prevented from visiting areas in current use.
On the weekend, the site will be much quieter: you'll have access to more places, but you're unlikely to see evidence of a production under way.
During our Saturday morning tour we're shown (from the outside): the costume department where the great Edith Head reigned, Elvis's dressing room, Hitchcock's office, and the famous Stage 18, where classics like Sunset Boulevard and Rear Window (1955) were made.
I get to sit on Forrest Gump's bench, walk through the uncannily convincing New York back lot (which represents nine different boroughs of the East Coast metropolis), and marvel at the illusionistic "Blue Sky Tank" where the Red Sea parted in The Ten Commandments (1956).
Next to Paramount Pictures is the beautiful Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where many movie legends were laid to rest. (If you're walking from one to the other, avoid Gower Street and take the much more salubrious and pedestrian-friendly Van Ness Avenue.)
The cemetery grounds are open to the public during daylight hours. and you can buy a map from the flower shop at the entrance to find individual memorials to luminaries like Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. De Mille, Judy Garland or Burt Reynolds. Or, simply wander through the green lushness of the park for serendipitous discoveries. Tyrone Power's lakeside grave with its poignant Hamlet quotation "Good night, sweet prince" is a gem, as is the tiny monument to Toto from The Wizard of Oz.
The cemetery has an excellent view of the Hollywood sign, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Six miles away in Burbank another centenary is being marked at Warner Bros, whose "Classics Made Here" studio tour offers its own unique experience of Hollywood nostalgia encompassing such iconic films as The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942).
