ABSTRACT
For the tourist in Hollywood who sets out to follow the legendary inscriptions on the Walk of Fame, the logical place to begin is at the corner of La Brea and Hollywood Boulevard. At this intersection stands a monument entitled ‘The Gateway to Hollywood,’ composed of four silver caryatids modeled to resemble the actresses Dorothy Dandridge, Mae West, Dolores Del Rio and Anna May Wong. The monument is intended to commemorate these actresses, whose different ethnic and racial identities are to symbolize the diversity of Hollywood itself. For others, however, it may have a very different import, serving as a less sanguine reminder of Hollywood’s tendency to absorb and commodify female ethnicity.
