I must start by apologising if I repeat tales from my past but now this column appears in several papers and online there are always new readers and thankfully older readers like me who forget things.

This time I am taking you on a rather long ramble down Memory Lane as it is 6,000 miles. I visited Hollywood three times in the 1980s and 1990s and would love to go again but alas it is now beyond me. I still think Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council should twin with Hollywood as both towns have so much film heritage to share, but I suspect this is beyond their imagination.

I always enjoyed my visits to Tinseltown and always stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel opposite the famous Chinese Theatre with the footprints outside. The hotel was the host to the first Oscar ceremony and is apparently haunted by Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, although the only spirits I encountered were the ones I drank in the bar. I once met Frank Gorshin there. You may remember him as the Riddler in the 1960s television series Batman, but he was a great impersonator. He did Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster for me - what a joy. Alas, younger readers may never have heard of them but they were once big stars.

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In those days I would get personal tours of the Hollywood Studios such as Paramount, 20th Century Fox, the old MGM lot and the real Universal Studios. I never took a camera as that seemed very unprofessional, which I now regret. I got to enter Louis B Mayer's former office and ride in his private lift. Unless you are a film buff of the golden years of Hollywood this will mean nothing.

I always dreamed that one day Hollywood with all its money would create a wonderful museum, but alas it has never happened. I discussed it with MGM star Debbie Reynolds at her Vegas hotel as she had bought many costumes from studio sales but alas it was all sold off to private buyers when she died. I suspect the same awaits my archive relating to the studios of Elstree and Borehamwood.

My first visit to a film set was at the top of my road in 1959 and it was a scene involving Terry Thomas getting onto a bus in School For Scoundrels. All these years later I have still never appeared on screen in a film or television series, albeit I have in many documentaries. I am a gun for hire and will donate any payment to charity. I can stroke a pussycat and look evil as in a Bond film or be a cockeny in EastEnders and say 'up the apples and pears' or 'okay copper you have got me bang to rights'. Alas, the young scriptwriters would never write such lines but if you look at the ratings then decide if you are chasing the wrong age group. Well, time for me to go as Matron calls so until next time, take care.

  • Paul Welsh MBE is a Borehamwood writer and historian of Elstree Studios