Being a nobody in Los Angeles in the 1980s


One of the things that I remember distinctly from living in LA in the 1980s is that I was a nobody, and I'm inclined to think that it's still the same for people like me, and has been since the 1920s, when movies started to become very popular, along with movie stars, or "celebrities".

Whenever there was a gathering, or a party, in Los Angeles, people were always on the lookout for famous people, and if you walked into the room and weren't a celebrity, the eyes looked away in disappointment because you were a nobody. Personally, I never went to too many Hollywood parties, but I know people who did, and it really annoyed them.

You don't have to be a "Hollywood Insider" to know that even people who aren't "nobodys" are divided into categories, like "A-listers", "B-listers", "Has-beens", etc. so even if you were in a blockbuster movie, if it was several years ago, people would be disappointed when you walked into the room, or if god forbid, you were just a co-star. 

The photo at the top of this post is just me with my coworkers in the 1980s, and yes, we were all nobodys. It was probably in some hotel conference room in the San Fernando Valley, in Warner Center, and while celebrities did live around there, there wouldn't be any reason for them to wander in and sit down next to me.

The building that I worked in (Blue Cross) was often used in the background of TV shows that were being filmed in the '80s, and sometimes word would get out that someone famous was there. I definitely remember the girls getting all excited about Robert Urich (If you're saying "who?", you can Google him, he was big back then).

When I moved back to Phoenix the feeling of being a nobody left. No one expected Johnny Depp to walk into the room, and I liked that. And of course I did a lot more of what I did in LA, walking, which only a nobody does in LA!

Thank you for the encouragement! If you want to see daily pics of my adventures on my recumbent trike in suburban Phoenix (just for fun, of course!) you can follow me on buymeacoffee.com/bradhall, and you can buy me a coffee if you'd like to!

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