Freedom of speech was the first great dream of America's founding fathers. Defending your clear path to Constitutional rights is every American's obligation. Whether it's illegal surveillance, a prison system that stays within the law, or the freedom to speak out against the illegal marriage of church and state, the Constitution expects victims of infringement to challenge their oppressors.
Of course, few of us actually do. The road to justice at high court levels is long, expensive, and fraught with too much legal mumbo jumbo for most of us to care whether or not we can carry baby formula through airport security, preach peace in favor of war, or even see a photograph of a soldier's casket. Today, most turn a blind eye, hoping that someone else will challenge injustice and turn our regressive country around. Some politicians help by offering loud, opposing views, but it's the small legal decisions that change things. Heroes are made out of ordinary names like Brown, Roe, and Miranda because they demanded their day in court. And add to that list a name you haven't heard of: Welton.
Each year millions of tourists pour into Beverly Hills to experience a smell of the stars and a glimpse of the good life. They ramble down Rodeo Drive barely shopping, but busy searching for a stray star or two. Easy to spot, Beverly Hills' tourists dress too well, drive rented, late-model domestic convertibles, and seem overly aware of the town spinning around them. Globetrotters keep the playground alive, bringing in money, hope, and open imaginations eager for an eyeful of mega-star magic.
Winding westward on Sunset Blvd., bold yellow placards reveal themselves, promising to sell you a star map in a decreasing number of blocks. If you make the right choice and a right turn, you'll swivel smack dab into history and the lady who sells the map to America's dreamland.
Linda Welton stands tall near the corner of Baroda and Sunset, greeting each visitor like the gate guard to heaven-on-Earth. "Welcome to Beverly Hills," she proclaims. "Pull over on this side of the street and I'll be right with you." With a highlighter marker as boldly colored as her personality, Linda leans into your car, customizing the map you'd be a fool not to buy.
The map unfolds to show a hand-drawn layout of Beverly Hills and beyond. Broken into a grid, its simple index is marked with names as legendary as Brando, and homes as gaudy as the latest American idol can dream. Mailboxes, gates, hedges, and carloads of fellow tourists are common sights, but a rare gander at a Hollywood celebrity occasionally greets those with the timing and luck to align the stars their way.
In 1926, Will Rogers was the honorary mayor of Beverly Hills. In response to a question about what his main duties were, he said, "Telling tourists where to find Pickfair!" In 1933, this task was taken over by Linda's grandfather Wesley Lake after he secured a copyright for what has become the oldest continually operated star map in Hollywood history. Starting in 1936, Wesley would regularly sit in a lawn chair near the corner of Baroda Drive and Sunset Blvd selling his maps to sightseers eager to meet their matinee idols.
In 1955, his daughter Vivienne inherited the job of tending the corner. She sold the maps, greeting Glamourland's guests for the next 40 years. Vivienne married and raised her daughter, always developing the business that made the family part of the neighborhood. Vivienne was well-liked by the residents, even having tea regularly at the Glen Campbell residence right up the street from her infamous post. Shortly before her death, Marilyn Monroe purchased one of Vivienne's maps. Clad in white, Marilyn was frustrated that she apparently hadn't recognized her. Vivienne admitted she couldn't help but recognize the legend, but had seen enough names come and go from her periodical map that she was unfazed by yet another blond bombshell.
In March of 1973 the long arm of the law reached too far when it declared Mrs. Welton was violating the law by selling her maps along the roadside. By 1978, the California Supreme Court proclaimed the law in violation of Welton's right to free speech. Hers was a landmark decision for the state. It stated that part of the LA Municipal Code prohibiting the sale of printed material on parkways and sidewalks violated the right of freedom of speech and was therefore unconstitutional. Welton continued to do business until her health and her daughter's willingness to take the reigns of the business forced her into retirement.
Paparazzi images of stars doing nothing flood pop-culture everyday. We no longer gawk at celebrities' homes, but their entire lives. Too much information has taken away the dream of a magic utopia hidden behind the high hedges. The probing paparazzi prove that, famous or not, we are all mere mortals. Vivienne's simple maps are the end of the road for the old-style Hollywood dream.
Vivenne Welton died last Friday at the age of 91. Her maps were her life, but her legacy is the spirit of fight that America once welcomed. For Vivienne Welton, the law had landed on her lawn chair. Win or lose, she demanded her day in court, and in doing so, she raised the bar for all of us to speak out to injustice wherever or however it affects not just the Hollywood dream, but the American way of life.