He presided over hundreds of Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremonies, led the Hollywood Christmas Parade for many years and was the neighborhood's goodwill ambassador for decades. Johnny Grant, 84, died Wednesday. The L.A. Times writes:
In 1980, when he took over as Walk of Fame chairman, "you couldn't get anyone to come to Hollywood Boulevard," he told a reporter in 1997. "So I said, 'Why don't we really put on a big show when we have a Walk of Fame ceremony.' We had planes fly over, bands, etc."
His Hollywood's Welcome Home Desert Storm Parade in 1991 for troops who fought in the Persian Gulf War was a rolling, marching, flying extravaganza of military personnel and equipment that starred a Patriot missile. Grant reported attendance at 1 million, the same figure that he gave year after year for the Hollywood Christmas Parade. When a Times reporter applied a formula used by the U.S. Park Service to estimate crowds and informed Grant that no more than 500,000 people could fit along the Desert Storm parade route, he admitted his exaggeration.
"You know Hollywood," he said. "It's hype."
As Honorary Mayor of Hollywood for life (as bestowed on him by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce), Grant also had one of the sweetest living arrangements in all of L.A.: A penthouse lease for life in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Even after the hotel underwent a makeover earlier this decade, turning the once fading spot into a once-again vibrant and hip locale, Grant kept his digs.
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