SHOW ME THE MONEY, THEN
Those greenbacks certainly do some travelling. Journey to some parts of the Caribbean or Latin America and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the American dollar was legal tender. (In fact it is in Ecuador where they scrapped their own currency and instated the dollar instead). The dollar sign itself is thought to have its origins in the Mexican or Spanish "Ps" for pesos, or piastres. Theory has it that over time the "S" was gradually written over the "P", producing something like the modern "$" mark. The symbol was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785, and today the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington produces 37 million notes displaying the sign, with a daily face value of approximately $696m.
The bureau has printed currency for the governments of the Republic of Cuba (1934), Siam (1945), Korea (1947) and the Philippines (1928), and to meet increasing demands a second printing site opened in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1991. Both sites still use the traditional engraving tools that have been used for more than 125 years - the graver, the burnisher and the hand-held glass. The "In God We Trust" inscription on dollar bills only became a part of the currency's design in 1957, and, contrary to popular belief, the car featured on the back of the $10 bill is not a Model "T" Ford, but simply something that was dreamt up by the designer. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (001 202 874 3019, www.bep.treas.gov) offers tours Monday-Friday, 9am-2pm. Photo ID required.
ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?
One of the all-time biggest American exports is undoubtedly the entertainment industry, and it was here that the modern motion picture was born. As everybody knows, Hollywood is the epicentre of the movie business and, as Marilyn Monroe said, "Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul". Ever since the first producers set up studios at the beginning of the 20th century in Los Angeles, aspiring stars and starlets have beaten a path to Tinseltown in search of fame and fortune. From classics such as Raging Bull and Gone With The Wind to modern blockbusters such as Titanic and Batman, the dream factory just keeps rolling them out. Studio tours are one way of catching a behind-the-scenes look. Paramount Pictures (001 323 956 5000, www.paramount.com) 5555 Melrose Avenue, is the longest continuously operating film studio in Hollywood. Two-hour walking tours are offered Monday to Friday, with admission costing $15 (pounds 10). Universal Studios (001 818 777 1000, www.universalstudios.com), in Universal City north of Hollywood, offers studio tours and amusement park rides such as The Mummy Returns and Jurassic Park. Front-of- line passes cost from $45 (pounds 30). For further information contact the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau on 020-7318 9555 or visit www.lacvb.com
SO THIS IS THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE?
You better believe it. While sitting on a park bench waiting for his daughter to finish a merry-go-round ride, a man called Walt Disney came up with an idea that was to change the concept of a family day out forever. He dreamt of creating a Utopian theme park which could be enjoyed by all the family. The first Disneyland Resort was opened on 17 July 1955 in Anaheim, California, making Mickey Mouse a household name. Disneyland was followed in 1971 by Walt Disney World, Florida. The first Disney Resort outside America, Disneyland Paris, opened in 1992. For further information visit www.disneyland.com. A seven-night holiday at Disneyland Resort in California with Virgin Holidays (0870 2202782, www.virginholidays.com) costs from pounds 959 per person including direct flights from Heathrow to Los Angeles, car hire, seven nights accommodation at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel and an Ultimate Park Hopper ticket. Child prices (under 10s) start from pounds 349.
AND THE LAND WHERE THE CAR IS KING
Nobody thought so more than Henry Ford, the mass-producing father of the original big American automobile, the Model "T" Ford. Ford's hometown of Greenfield, Michigan, is now America's biggest indoor/ outdoor history museum. It houses exhibits exploring the integral role the automobile has played in American life, including an enormous collection of famous and infamous cars (among them, the limo in which President Kennedy was shot dead). Paying tribute to the work of all those average Americans- made-good, tradition has it that Henry Ford attempted to collect at least one of everything ever invented in America and place them for providence in Greenfield, where he relocated the original buildings from his family's farm, his first workshops and auto factories. Priding itself on being the "finest documentation anywhere of the American experience", Greenfield's exhibits depict the growth of manufacturing, transportation and technology in daily life including a recreation of Thomas Edison's laboratory where he invented two of America's most celebrated exports: the electric light bulb and the phonograph. Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village (00 1 313 982 6001, www.hfmgv.org) open Monday-Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 12- 5pm.
HIT THE ROAD, JACK
Neatly tying up a love of shiny material things with a yen for life on the open road: the Harley Davidson. One hundred years old next summer, the Hog is the ultimate machine for all those born to be wild - but only if supported by the sophisticated bottom-friendly suspension that defines the Laz-E-Boy of motorbikes. Next summer, Harley-Davidson enthusiasts worldwide will get their motor running and head out on the highway to celebrate the centenary of the Hog. Open Road Tours will take place throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Spain and Germany, culminating in a huge birthday bash, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (home of the Hog), with a three-day, two-wheel festival from 28-30 August. For more information, including tours and bike rental, go to www.harley-davidson.co.uk or call 0870 904 1450.
WHICH LEADS US TO THE ORIGINAL LONE RANGER
Forget silver stallions, for the authentic all-American rider nothing but the original Silver will do. The Lone Ranger was one of the first Westerns to bring the do-good cowboy to TV screens worldwide, loved by the 1950s parental moral majority and kids alike for its good-guy-always- wins formula and lack of violence. Originally made as a radio show, the adventures of the masked Texas Ranger and his horse, Silver, were transferred to new-fangled television screens in a series of half-hour films. Set in the Old West, much of the show was recorded within a lasso-throw of Hollywood at Melody Ranch, a movie studio ranch in the hills north of LA. Formerly Monogram Studios, Melody Ranch saw the making of hundreds of Westerns (including some 35 John Wayne movies) and today it remains a privately owned studio, open to the public one weekend a year for the annual Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival (26-30 March 2003). Along with some of America's best stetson-wearing performance poetry, expect square-dancing, trail rides and cowboy couture fashion shows. For tickets and information go to www.santaclarita.com/ tourism/ special.asp or call 001 661 286 4079.
I WAS BORN UNDER A WANDERING STAR
Even if you weren't, this autumn the music from thereabouts can be heard across the UK. After an 18-year absence, Dolly Parton, the rhinestone- crowned matriarch of country music, is back in the UK with a much-anticipated tour beginning in Manchester on 15 November (020-7316 4709, www.ticketmaster.co.uk). Also this November, for the second year running, London's Barbican Centre (020-7638 8891, www.barbican.org.uk) sees the return of Beyond Nashville, a music festival billing itself as the "twisted heart of country music" bringing together the best of alternative country. Alt-country is the ultimate American export in so far as those folks back home at American Billboard magazine don't go very much for this type of contemporary music, fusing roots, blues, folk and blue grass and incorporating such disparate groups as Los Lobos, Calexico, Lambchop and Ryan Adams. Yet over here, the success of the film soundtrack O' Brother Where Art Thou revived an interest in American roots and folk music, and we can't seem to get enough it. Beyond Nashville takes place 23 November-11 December.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ROCK AND ROLL?
The undisputed King of Rock and Roll is of course the one and only Elvis Presley, born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1935. Elvis quickly became a global sensation and one of the musical icons of the 20th century. Graceland (001 901 3323322, www.elvis.com/graceland), his home in Memphis, Tennessee, is a shrine to his memory, and tours run daily costing $25.25 (pounds 16.80).
