Making it in Hollywood: THE HEAVY HALF-HUNDRED

One-time next matinee idols” parking cars at Martoni s; the next blonde bombshell taking all-night orders at Denny’s until she can scrape together busfare back to wherever. . . these romantic images of failure have been as much a part of Hollywood as her overnight successes. A more contemporary setting would perhaps find a failed folkie washing glasses in the Troubadour kitchen, but the time-warped show biz axiom hangs on: it’s not only what you know, it’s who you know.

Even if the sum of your Hollywood experience is one four-day holiday at your grandmother’s in Pasadena, connections never hurt. If you wanna watch the parade at the Rainbow, it’s nice to have a ringside seat, right? Not everybody on this list can necessarily help you out at the Rainbow, but they all make some kind of contribution to the most frivolous scene in the Western world. If ten of these people will take your phone calls, you can consider yourself reasonably well-connected. If you know all of them, you should be on the list yourself. And if you know none of them, you might be just as well off.