ON HOLLYWOOD Boulevard, reality felt more tenuous by the minute. I dodged crowds of tourists photographing their feet on the Walk of Fame, wove past Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and armies of panhandlers, then rode an elevator into a sprawling outdoor mall. The Hollywood and Highland Center is anchored by a towering gate and columns topped with rearing elephants—a loopy replica of the set from D.W. Griffith’s 1916 screen epic, “Intolerance”—one of the silent-film era’s greatest flops.
It is the ideal setting for the Museum of...