Graves Honored at Chamber Breakfast

Just three weeks after having his star cemented into the sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard, actor Peter Graves received a special honor from his hometown Chamber of Commerce last Friday at the Riviera Country Club.   Honorary Mayor Gavin MacLeod, on behalf of the Chamber, announced that November 20, 2009, was Peter Graves Day here in Pacific Palisades, in honor of an actor who has starred on stage, television (‘Mission: Impossible’) and in the movies (‘Airplane!’) during his 60-year career.   ’My mission here this morning is very possible,’ MacLeod said, who apologized that he couldn’t attend Graves’ Hollywood star ceremony. ‘I had a dentist appointment in Altadena. It sounds like a funny excuse, but it’s true.’   Presenting a handsome plaque to Graves, MacLeod said, ‘It’s not as big as your star in Hollywood, but this is given to you with a lot of love.’   An appreciative Graves, who was joined at the breakfast by his wife Joan, recalled how he first learned about Pacific Palisades as a fledgling stage actor in 1950, when he drove out for an audition for ‘My Sister Eileen’ at the New Horizon Theater on Via de la Paz (now the YMCA).   ’I made the long trek out here and I discovered this little Shangri-La,’ Graves recalled. ‘I got a part in the play, and a few years later, when my work got a little steady, Joan and I moved here.’   The guest speaker for the Chamber’s annual general membership breakfast was Jeanie Buss, executive VP of the Los Angeles Lakers, who was Miss Palisades in 1979 when her family lived in Rustic Canyon. (See story, page 6.)   In the audience were three other former Miss Palisades: Anne de Varennes (1972), Laurie Krantz (1978) and Jeanne Elfant Festa (1981).