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Chinese Theatre Footprints "Threatened," Backstreet's Back, and More: Frommer's' Travel Briefing

A roundup of travel news from all over
PETITION: HOLLYWOOD'S CHINESE THEATRE FOOTPRINTS AT RISK (Curbed LA)

Concerned preservationists took the TCL Chinese Theatre to task for dragging souvenir stalls over its prized collection of celebrity footprints in concrete.
 
The furor began late last week when Vintage Los Angeles, a civilian-managed Facebook page, posted a photo of the slabs for Jean Harlow and Lana Turner covered by a cart “full of souvenir junk.” The resulting uproar inspired a petition on Change.org that was directed at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation. 
 
The director of the Foundation wasn’t swayed. He responded: "The Chinese Theatre is a business, not a museum, and whether one person or a million people walk into the Forecourt to take a selfie with their favorite star's footprints, they make no money to pay for insurance, maintenance, upkeep or improvements." 
 
In the end, this was a case in which the Historic Theatre Foundation was more permissive than the theatre owner. Yesterday, KLM Equities, Inc., which owns the theatre and recently renovated and modernized the interior, removed the carts.

For our money, the question was never whether it's legal. It was about good stewardship of heritage. The Chinese Theatre, formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, opened in 1927 and right away the first movie stars, including Norma Talmadge, began visiting its forecourt and dipping their shoes and hands in wet concrete. That means some of the panels—there are now almost 200 of them—are nearly 90 years old. In the past decade, the neighborhood has been elevated to a major tourism hub (the Oscars are held in an adjoining shopping mall complex each year) but the increased traffic has not resulted in a reconsideration of how to preserve the panels. If the footprints were being truly honored, the stalls would never have been installed.
  
There are so many more landmarks we can ruin in the name of business. Billboards on the side of the Sydney Opera House's roof? Renting Monticello as a B&B? Taking money from a corporation to carve a fifth face on Mount Rushmore? Those are hyperbolic examples, but there does come a point when we need to possess the good sense to recognize American heritage spots that matter—and to know what should be done to preserve them without a public shaming.


Vintage Los Angeles/Facebook


SCIENCE: NOISE MAKES AIRPLANE FOOD AWFUL
(Daily Mail)

An academic named Professor Barry Smith, who founded something called the Centre for the Study of the Senses in the Philosophy department of the University of London, had an idea on a flight.  

He flew British Airways round-trip to Istanbul both with and without noise-cancelling headphones, and he ate the food.
 
That’s adventurous enough, you might say. But the learned man came away with a new discovery: Without the non-stop drone of the engines in his ears he was able to enjoy the food more. With more testing, he found a pattern.
 
“Apart from the dry air and the fact you are at high altitude in a low-pressure environment, white noise in your ear makes the tongue less able to discriminate between sweet and sour by about 15 per cent,” he told the Daily Mail.
 
“But it doesn’t seem to affect umami— the savory taste of foods such as strong cheese, shellfish, tomatoes and soy,” Smith claimed. “At the same time, droning sounds accentuate bitterness.”
 
The Daily Mail reported that British Airways responded to the discovery, which was published two years ago,  by using more foods with umami flavors.
 
But since then, British Airways has found an even better way to improve complaints about its food: Don’t serve any. The airline is ending free meals in coach on flights five hours or shorter.
 
For flights that do still subject you to their cooking, may we suggest ordering the headphones?

BACKSTREET'S BACK IN LAS VEGAS RESIDENCY

Everybody! (Yeah!)
 
The biggest boy band of all time, a group that has sold over 130 million albums, is the latest throwback act to announce a residency on the Las Vegas Strip. 
 
So rock your body! (Yeah!) Their show, “Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life,” starts at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino (where Britney Spears also did it again) beginning March 1, 2017 through at least July 1, 2017, but tickets went on sale last Saturday.
 
Oh, my god, they’re back again! Brothers, sisters—everybody sing! Cause they got it goin’ on again. 
 
Backstreet’s back. All right!
 


Our Travel Briefing appears regularly on the Frommers.com home page. Catch up on past installments by clicking here. For more updates, as well as vacation photos and travel tips, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
 
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