Flat Stanley is a figure that kids photograph on their travels. Flat Stanley Kramer is a variation: a paper cutout of the late film director that a Hollywood business improvement district photographed in various spots in the district to highlight the area’s resilience.

The Hollywood Property Owners Alliance, which manages the Sunset & Vine Business Improvement District, photographed Flat Stanley Kramer at new eateries, shops and properties that showcase the growth that is going on despite the recession.

A photo montage of Flat Stanley Kramer’s travels were shown to business owners at the business improvement district’s recent annual meeting, which was held, appropriately enough, in the Stanley Kramer Theater on the Sunset-Gower Studios lot. (Kramer is the late film director who shot “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” at Sunset Gower when it was Columbia Pictures Studios.)

“I thought it was hilarious when I saw that,” said Terri Melkonian, vice president of sales and marketing for the studios. Melkonian knows the Kramer family through a film series she helps manage at the studios. She’s been impressed with the changes that have taken place in the Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street area.

“The whole entire area has been cleaned up and the restaurants that have opened are first rate,” Melkonian said. “It is very exciting to be in the center of Hollywood.”

The Flat Stanley Project, based on a character from a children’s book, was created by a third-grade Canadian teacher in 1995 and has been used widely to promote education. Students create their own Flat Stanleys, take them on trips, and then mail them and accounts of their travels to other kids at participating schools around the world. The goal of the program is to promote literacy and build an international sense of community.

Sarah MacPherson and Katie Zandona of Hollywood Property Owners Alliance documented their travels with Flat Stanley Kramer to businesses including Caf & #233; Was, Tamarind Deli and the CNN Building. But it was Flat Stanley Kramer’s visit to K & L; Wine Merchants that was the most fun.

“We had Flat Stanley Kramer posed with a miniature bottle of bubbly,” Zandona said. “It definitely got some laughs.”