My first regular, professional on-air role was as the “entertainment correspondent” for the Mark Shaw Program on WGCL. I was billed as Mister Hollywood, and every Friday I’d run down the new movies in theaters that weekend and shoot the shit with Mark about the week’s big pop culture stories.
What started as an ironic on-air handle soon became a full-fledged alter ego. Mister Hollywood embodied the self-serious bluster of a “big time” national entertainment reporter, despite only being heard on a low-power AM station.
In Spring of 1998, Mister Hollywood got his own, hour-long Oscar preview show; that same year, we had the first live Mister Hollywood Oscar Watch Party. It was a full-on black tie affair (at least for me) and became an annual tradition that continued until I moved to Los Angeles in 2003.
Gone, But Not Forgotten…
Stories of thin-skinned Hollywood gatekeepers torpedoing projects for the most petty and vindictive reasons are legion – and often true. As an aspiring screenwriter, I figured Mister Hollywood was more of a liability than an asset. The last thing I wanted was some snarky thing I’d written in character to cost me a shot at real work in Tinseltown.
But it turned out Mister Hollywood just wouldn’t stay buried, especially once I’d let go of the screenwriting fantasy. In 2007, I launched a new website, HollywoodBigTop. The idea was that Mister Hollywood would serve as ringmaster, with guest contributions coming from other folks I knew who were on the outside looking in.
Not even a month later, I was promoted to Entertainment Marketing Manager for the Los Angeles Times. I’d now be responsible for helping create six-figure ad packages to pitch to studios, networks, and live entertainment executives…which meant Mister Hollywood was once again a needless risk.
He vanished again, along with my plans for HollywoodBigTop. A few random pop-ups aside, he stayed gone for a good long time…
The Gratuitious Legacy-quel:
Old Man Hollywood
In 2018, Sara and I got together with a handful of O.G. Oscar show attendees for a 20th anniversary watch party (I didn’t bother with a tux this time). It was fun and, I figured, a one-off.
Then came COVID…and a lot of extra time around the house. It was during that time I did and animated short called “Future Shock,” featuring a conversation between then-present me and a time-traveling future version I dubbed Old Man Hollywood.
For whatever reason, the idea tickled me. I launched another website, OldManHollywood.net, where I could do commentary pieces and showcase my half-baked ideas and practice projects. Like a lot of COVID-era inventions, it was a better idea in theory than in practice. Eventually, I pulled the plug (again) and ported the most worthwhile content to my YouTube page.
And, with that, Mister Hollywood rode off into the sunset one final time, never to be seen or heard from again...
Jeff Dellinger 