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Blosser Picks Princeton Soccer

Palisadian Caitlin Blosser will taker her talents on the soccer field to Princeton next winter.
Palisadian Caitlin Blosser will taker her talents on the soccer field to Princeton next winter.

Palisadian Caitlin Blosser, one of the top high school soccer players in the area, has formally committed to play at Princeton University next winter. Blosser picked Princeton over several other Division I programs including Notre Dame, Harvard, UC Berkeley and Santa Clara. Twice named to the Palisadian-Post’s athletes of the year list, Blosser is a four-year starter and current captain of the Brentwood School varsity team, having scored 40 goals in her high school career. She has also been invited to the 33rd annual Soccer Showcase game next Sunday at East L.A. College. Blosser is a three-time All-CIF and All-Olympic League selection. She is also captain of the Real SoCal club team, currently ranked 13th in the country, where she has been the starting center midfielder for the last five years and scoring the winning goal last May in the California State Club Soccer Championship. She also led Real SoCal to the semifinals of the Far West Regional Championships in Honolulu last June, the Coast Soccer Premier Championship in 2006 and Surf Cup Championships in 2007 and 2008. Blosser was voted Most Valuable Player at the 2007 United States Club Soccer North American Championships and was chosen to the U.S. Club Soccer Olympic Development Program in 2007 and the Cal-South Olympic Development Program state team/pool from 2004-06.

Bulls, Bathhouses, Hideouts and Speakeasies: The Santa Monica Canyon Story

‘The Canyon is our western Greenwich Village, overrun now by various types of outsiders, but still maintains an atmosphere of Bohemianism and unpretentious artiness.’ – Christopher Isherwood 
”The Shore,” Harper’s Bazaar, 1952 As the sun sinks into the Pacific Ocean, Randy Young and Doug Suisman kick back at a table on the patio of the Golden Bull on West Channel Road. It’s not by accident. Sipping on margaritas and mai-tai’s, the men hit the popular steakhouse-and-cocktails destination to indulge in the laid-back, Santa Monica Canyon lifestyle at what is arguably the beach community’s most storied restaurant. The Bull, after all, is where Steve McQueen once occupied an indoor corner booth (‘Because he could be invisible,’ Young says), where Palisadian Lee Marvin came in for a drink (‘A charming man”unless you were in a fistfight with him,’ Young says), where venerable actors such as Peter Graves and Peter Fonda have dined for decades, and where New Hollywood-types, such as the Wilson Brothers”Owen, Luke and Andrew”spend their down time in between movie shoots. Welcome to Santa Monica Canyon, a funky interstice of Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica, bifurcated by two parallel, restaurant-lined main drags”West Channel Road and Entrada Drive”and bordered by Pacific Coast Highway. Less than one square mile in diameter with a clear view of the Pacific, this overlap between chic ‘n single Santa Monica and the family-friendly Palisades has managed to carve an identity all its own into the canyon. Today, lifelong Palisadian Young, 57, and Suisman, 54, an urban planner and Canyon resident, discuss plans to adorn exterior wall space at Canyon School (where Suisman’s kids attend) with banners reproducing archival photographs, taken in the area a century ago. Young, a local historian and co-author of ‘Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History,’ has arrived with stacks of boxes brimming with old postcards and photographs of such landmarks as the Bull, Ted’s Grill, and the old Bundy Bath House. During the late 19th”/early 20th”century period, when the area was nicknamed Rancho Boca de Santa Monica (‘The Mouth of Santa Monica Canyon’), Spanish and Russian populations, a village at the Long Wharf at Potrero Canyon was home to 300 Japanese fishermen and their families, and a portion of L.A.’s Jewish community used to descend on the neighborhood right before Rosh HaShanah, to perform their pre-Jewish New Year tashlich ritual (a symbolic casting away of sins by throwing bread into the sea). At 212 Entrada, William Randolph Hearst erected an English-style structure, as part of the estate built on the beach in Santa Monica, for his mistress, Marion Davies. Created by Julie Morgan, the same architect who designed Hearst’s Castle at San Simeon, the 16-room guest house was eventually sold in 1945, reopened as a hotel, and renovated in 1993 by a screenwriter as a house dubbed ‘Rosebud’ (referencing the cinematic Hearst allegory ‘Citizen Kane’). ‘The Canyon is a very odd juxtaposition, a mix of restaurants, tacky ’60s apartments and Craftsmen homes,’ Young says. ‘Not the classic beach town.’ Back in the mid-20th century, ‘it was total anarchy, not [self-conscious] like Laguna Beach.’ Young describes the neighborhood’s hey day, not entirely tongue-in-cheek, as ‘a den of inequity. It had a naughty aspect,’ perhaps rebelling against the strict moral codes of the Methodist community that had populated the Palisades by the 1920s. Young notes that Santa Monica Canyon upholds a tradition of intellectuals, movie industry people, a European contingent (including German exiles), and a prominent gay culture that goes back to novelist Chris Isherwood. The Bull still enjoys a young, affluent gay clientele (among other demographics), as did one of the previous incarnations of neighboring bar The Hideout. ‘When [artist David] Hockney came to L.A., this was the first place he stayed at,’ Young says. ‘It was always very laid back in the 1960s and ’70s,’ says Don Cranford, owner of the Golden Bull. ‘In the old days you can walk down the street and walk into 10 parties.’ ‘It’s always been a mixed neighborhood, never exclusive,’ adds Suisman, a former New Yorker who moved to the Canyon in 1997 and chalks up his residency here to ‘undeserved luck.’ ‘I bought the house here as a bachelor, and when I moved here, I was the youngest,’ says Suisman, now a father of two. ‘There were no kids in the Canyon. Now there are more and more families.’ But the Canyon’s eclectic nature remains intact. ‘The thing I love most is the community,’ Suisman says. ‘The long history of creative people. The topography is non-conforming, and so are the residents here: painters, musicians, novelists, a lot of screenwriters.’ ‘Whereas the Palisades has more actors,’ Young says. The Canyon’s commercial center, surrounded by a hilly residential area with ocean views, is not without its problems. Pan-handling transients tend to gravitate to the busy intersection of W. Channel and Entrada at PCH, and the tunnels, intermittently flooded with water and/or the homeless, have seen better days. ‘We care about the tunnels,’ says Suisman, who cared enough to lead the charge with the Boca Neighborhood Association in the 1990s. ‘We got Cal Trans to pump water out of the flooded tunnel. ‘The beauty of the Canyon is that it’s walkable,’ he continues, describing some of its back channels and short cuts. ‘You have to sort of learn it.’ Young takes the Palisadian-Post on a walking tour of the neighborhood, beginning with West Channel. ‘The street used to be a channel (hence the street’s name), but it got clogged up and buried in six feet of mud,’ Young says. The original Ted’s Grill, owned and operated by Ted and Mabel Pemberton, was built by real estate developer Frank E. Bundy (as in Bundy Drive) in 1914. It originally stood at 170 W. Channel, the Golden Bull’s present-day address. In the 1920s, it moved to 146 Entrada, and a section of the now-defunct restaurant, dormant but still standing, remains the Canyon’s oldest structure ‘It’s always been a focal point of this community,’ says Young, who characterizes the Canyon’s business community as ‘very independent with no chamber of commerce.’ On Channel, there’s the upscale Italian restaurant Georgio’s, its fa’ade obscured by shrubs. The most famous and politically connected establishment, it’s known to be a favorite of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the 1920s, what is now known as the Canyon Lounge Hideout was Doc Law’s drug store malt shop. Moreover, during the Prohibition, it housed a speakeasy that became Will Rogers’ watering hole. ‘They had picnic benches out back and they drank out of tea cups,’ says Young, who shares a salacious story of how once Santa Monica’s chief of police and librarian were seen running out the back during a police raid. In the early 1950s, the bar began to go through a series of incarnations, including the gay-friendly The Friendship Cafe, before reinventing itself in 2007 as the Hideout, which today services a young college crowd with a thirst for such cocktails as the Hot ‘n’ Dirty, the V.C.R. and the Bikini Tini. Young greets Sam Elias, the ‘Sam’ in Sam’s Restaurant, standing at the entrance of his establishment, which is about to open for dinner. Elias was one of several partners when the establishment opened 12 years ago as a Mediterranean French restaurant. He took over the restaurant himself and ‘I converted it to my idea in 2000 to a French bistro.’ ‘You can’t ask for a better neighborhood,’ Elias tells the Post. ‘It’s the ideal place to live in all of Southern California,’ although his one quibble is the difficulty to park in the area. He suggests that the city create a parking structure to accommodate visitors, as the restaurant traffic easily piles up on weekends. However, the California Coastal Act of 1972 limits development on parking, as well as building up the area with hotels, condos, and skyscraper structures, so Elias’ point is probably moot. At the corner of W. Channel and PCH is a shuttered establishment that Young says had evolved ‘from a four-star restaurant to an A & W Root Beer in the 1960s, to the fancy French restaurant Cent’ni in the late 1970s, The Beach in the late 1980s/early ’90s and, most recently, the Brass Cap, before culminating with a dramatic conclusion worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. ‘A car drove into it off of PCH, right into the building, and the restaurant went under in 2003,’ Young says. As Young discusses the former restaurant, a pair of policemen haul away a transient loitering in front of it. The abandoned cardboard sign on the ground reads: ‘I miss my mom. Any kinda money will help.’ ‘The Canyon has a little bit of a big city that people should be exposed to,’ Young says with a devilish grin, relishing the grit that sometimes dusts the community like sand blown in from the beach. On the opposite corner, behind the florist at the corner of PCH at 101 Chautauqua, stands a building with an aquarium mural along its roofline. The edifice’s lower part used to be the Bundy Bath House, built by Bundy and managed by A. F. Young, from 1915 and through the late 1920s. It housed an open market in the late 1980s. Today, the building accomodates InTheCanyon.com and Canyon Service and Detail. At the corner of Entrada stands State Beach Liquor and Deli. ‘Ron Waller, the pro-football player who played for the Rams, opened it in the late 1950s,’ Young says. A dormant Ted’s Grill still stands at 146 Entrada. In the ’70s and ’80s, Rustic Canyon resident Bob Morris had taken over the address and opened Gladstone’s 4 Fish. ‘Gladstone’s was more tourist-y, and Ted’s was where all the neighborhood people went,’ Young says. ‘I remember when I was a kid, you could buy chicken for $1. There was a bar on the side, a deep dark bar, it was like a pit.’ Young dispels a myth that Entrada favorite Patrick’s Roadhouse, opposite State Beach Liquor, used to be a railroad station. The restaurant was built afterwards. Strolling up Entrada, Young points out Canyon Beachwear, ‘the first bikini in America was here.’ In the 1940s, painter Joe Lathwood, credited with designing the bikini, created them from her W. Channel apartment in the 1940s and sold them to area stores. As popular as Patrick’s is its neighbor, Marix Tex Mex. But the restaurant, which today caters to a UCLA college crowd, wasn’t always so hip, as its Pegoda-shaped exterior hints. In the early 1980s, the building opened as a traditional Japanese restaurant. ‘But it didn’t go over well,’ Young says. ‘It folded after two years.’ The best food for demanding epicureans, in Young’s opinion, can be found at Caffe Delfini, across Channel from the Bull. Once a branch of the Big Yellow House, Delifni is now a cozy upscale Italian bistro, where area celebrities go to enjoy the intimate atmosphere, the rigatoni gorgonzola and the fettuccine Bolognese, and a glass of Graham’s Tawny port. On a weekday, one can often find one of Delfini’s valets, a Peruvian fellow, leaning against a nearby parking-lot wall and serenading the setting sun with his bright orange accordion (on his breaks, as he does not perform inside the restaurant for diners). There’s something about the accordion’s lazy notes, intermingling with the setting’s sun’s long purple shadows, the perfectly sells the Canyon’s laid-back romanticism. The Golden Bull is a true survivor, having suffered damage during the great flood of 1938 and the 1994 Northridge Quake. Owner Cranford has worked at the restaurant for 42 years. For almost half of that time, he has worked as a bartender and manager. By the mid-1980s, Cranford reached a fork in his career. ‘When it came up for sale, I either had to look for a new job or buy the place,’ he says. So Cranford bought the restaurant from a partner of Glen Billingsley (who started Billingsley’s British-flavored restaurant, currently on Pico Boulevard in West L.A., and whose brother, Sherman Billingsley, opened the Stork Club in New York). ‘The Golden Bull started as a [California] chain in 1948,’ Cranford says. ‘It was a red-brick building, first it was a real estate office, then Ted’s Grill.’ And it was originally called Billingsley’s Golden Bull. But by the late 1960s, the 10 or so Billingsley’s Golden Bulls had died out, and Cranford’s Bull remains the only one still in business. The leathery, booth-filled Bull packs an old school, Rat Pack flavor, but Cranford chalks up the success of his establishment to its great prices, the menu, and the location. ‘If you have to live somewhere, it’s a great place to live,’ says Cranford, who has lived in the Canyon for years and commutes to work by foot. In 1994, the Northridge Quake devastated Santa Monica Canyon, indiscriminately taking down parts of certain establishments, including the Bull, while leaving other places intact. It took 20 months to rebuild and reopen. ‘We tore half the building down, it was originally all brick and it completely collapsed,’ Cranford says. ‘We lost the whole dining room. We were red tagged. It was very stressful. We didn’t know whether we were going to open or not. ‘But the people here were great. They came by every day to see when we were going to reopen. I had people sending me checks in advance for their first meal.’ Of course, the Bull did re-open…only to close again for a week ‘because the main shoreline collapsed and then we reopened again,’ Cranford says. ‘A lot of our old customers came back. The people in this neighborhood are just nice.’ Those people often include celebrities. ‘Chris Isherwood used to come in here, David Hockney,’ Cranford says. ‘That’s what this place was about in the ’50s and ’60s. Everyone was either a writer, an artist, was unemployed or had money. ‘We’ve got a lot of new actors come in, but we mostly get the old timers.’ In years past, Bea Arthur, Anne Baxter and Natalie Schafer (Mrs. Howell on ‘Gilligan’s Island’) were among the regulars. ‘We want to keep it low key,’ says Cranford, who admits he’s bad at recognizing celebrities. ‘I’ve only got two autographs all my life: Mae West and Betty White.’ The Bull was not the only location hit hard by the Northridge Quaek. The apartment building next door had to be rebuilt from its foundation. The Friendship, owned at the time by Cranford, closed down for two years. On Entrada, Canyon Athletics was hit hard. ‘Canyon Athletics used to be brick front,’ Young says. ‘It’s been rebuilt since the Northridge Quake.’ According to Young, in the early 20th century, it used to be the Golden Butterfly, ‘a dance hall and whorehouse. Edmund Goulding [director of ‘Grand Hotel’ and ‘The Razor’s Edge’] would have these orgy parties and they’d go there afterwards to continue the fun.’ Several incarnations later”which included a hippie restaurant called the New Hope Inn and a tool emporium”the storefront is peddling flesh once again, but in a legal, innocuous fashion as the area’s gym. Back at the Bull, Young and Suisman list the Canyon’s most popular culinary destinations: Patrick’s, Marix, Georgio’s, Delfini, Sam’s, and, of course, their current hangout. ‘It really has become a destination for really good restaurants,’ Young says. He later points across the street to a house on the hill, above where Short Street ends and just west of the Channel Road Inn: ‘That’s where Mae West used to live.’ It’s only fitting, notes Young, that the sassy, brassy film comedienne lived in this part of town: chickadees of a feather. ‘The Canyon is chi-chi and elegant and classy and tacky,’ Young says. ‘It’s still kind of avant garde, but it’s a younger crowd than the Palisades.’ ‘The Bull is the one place that’s the true neighborhood hangout,’ says Suisman, who will sometimes amble by and find Young entertaining friends on the patio. As if on cue, another friend arrives, joining Young and Suisman, and Young and the visitor decide to order dinner. Suisman admits that when he first moved to the neighborhood as a single man, he felt a tad lost. ‘Now you’ll have to pry me out with a large hammer,’ he says. ‘We leave our canyons in a box!’ says Young, laughing, as he clinks glasses with Suisman. CAPTION: The Golden Bullfrog? Not quite! The Toed Inn Barbecue, circa 1938, was a local example of California’s wacky restaurant trend, which popularity peaked by mid-century. CAPTION: The Canyon was no stranger to disasters. The fire of May 1916, started by careless fishermen, destroyed two hotels, a store and several residences. The Flood of 1938 (above) when everything changed so severely it closed the chapter on the frontier mood. Took out trees, straightened the roads. More recently, the Canyon was hit hard by the 1994 Northridge Quake. CAPTION: —The bath house which once stood at the corner of Chautauqua and PCH. CAPTION: Inside Doc Law’s drug store and malt shop, which, during the Prohibition era, fronted a speakeasy out back. CAPTION: Mabel and Ted Pemberton, owner of Ted’s Grill (inset). CAPTION: Patrick’s Roadhouse, circa 1980.

The ‘Mighty’ Palisades Connection of 2 Special Effects Pioneers

Ray Harryhausen animates Mighty Joe Young (circa late 1940s).
Ray Harryhausen animates Mighty Joe Young (circa late 1940s).

If you’re a member of Hollywood’s special-effects community, Ray Harryhausen needs no introduction.   The stop-motion animation master created celluloid magic for myriad fantasy films melding myth and monsters: ‘Seventh Voyage of Sinbad’ (1958), ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ (1963), and his final feature, ‘Clash of the Titans’ (1981).   But two motion pictures that weighed significantly in Harryhausen’s history starred overgrown gorillas: ‘King Kong’ (1933), with stop-motion special effects innovated by Willis O’Brien that forever influenced Harryhausen’s profession; and ‘Mighty Joe Young’ (1949), on which Harryhausen became O’Brien’s prot’g’.   What Harryhausen fans may not realize is that he and mentor O’Brien shared a Pacific Palisades connection.   Harryhausen’s life changed forever on a Hollywood afternoon in 1933, when he entered Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and fell under the spell of a new movie about the bond between beauty and beast.   ’I saw ‘King Kong’ when I was thirteen, and I didn’t know how it was done at the time, but I knew it wasn’t a man in a gorilla suit,’ Harryhausen, 88, said in 2007. ‘I finally found out about stop-motion and I started experimenting in my garage.’   Harryhausen remembers how he met his idol after a schoolmate toting a ‘Kong’ script urged him to contact the stop-motion master at MGM: ‘He invited me to the studio. I brought my dinosaurs in a suitcase to show him. His office was filled with wonderful drawings of [the never-produced] ‘War Eagles.’ He said, ‘Your dinosaur legs look like sausages!’ So I studied anatomy and kept in touch. When he started ‘Mighty Joe Young,’ I became his assistant.’   The ‘King Kong’ team” Merian Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack, Robert Armstrong, O’Brien” essentially remade ‘Kong’ with ‘Mighty,’ on which Harryhausen handled most effects.   Actress Terry Moore was 18 when she played Jill, ‘Mighty”s Fay Wray. ‘Ray was an assistant so we didn’t see that much of him,’ Moore, 79, told the Palisadian-Post. ‘I worked on a blank stage. When I threw a banana, I was throwing it at nothing,’ as special effects were merged later.   When ‘Mighty’ came out 60 years ago, it was a big hit, second only to ‘Sitting Pretty.’ It won the special effects Oscar.   ’It was the biggest event in my life to be able to work with the people who had made ‘King Kong’,’ Harryhausen told the Post by phone from his London home.   Harryhausen moved to Europe in the late 1950s because he didn’t want to interfere with O’Brien’s career: ‘We made ‘Three Worlds of Gulliver’ [released in 1960] in England. I met my wife Diana over here. She’s Scottish.’   In 1962, Harryhausen, shooting in Spain, heard O’Brien had died.    ‘I was sorry he had a lot of difficulty in Hollywood,’ his prot’g’ said. ‘He had so many movies that didn’t make it.’   For several years, Obie’s widow, Darlyne, lived in a small Hollywood apartment on a Social Security pension. Out of loyalty to his mentor, Harryhausen let Darlyne live in his Palisades home until her death a few years later.   ’She needed a house and we hadn’t been there for a while,’ Harryhausen said. ‘We had a lovely little house on Via de la Paz, a block from the bluffs, and we built a second floor. We still have that house. It’s rented.’   ’Mighty’ inspired a 1988 Disney remake (Harryhausen and Moore made cameo appearances), which, despite special-effects advances, could not match the original. ‘It’s like eating homemade fudge versus store-bought fudge,’ Moore said.   Now retired, Harryhausen bumps into Moore at conventions. His career is covered in Mike Hankin’s book, ‘Ray Harryhausen: Master of the Majicks,’ and Ray and Tony Dalton’s ‘A Century of Stop-Motion Animation.’   Today a Santa Monica resident, Moore had no idea while filming ‘Mighty’ the impact Harryhausen’s work would have on audiences”herself included.   ’I watch everything I can on gorillas,’ Moore said. ‘I may make a trip to Africa. While making the movie, I fell in love with Joe myself.’   Visit www.TerryMoore.com and www.RayHarryhausen.com.

Palisadians Go Hollywood At Oscar Night Festivities

Amy Adams co-starred in
Amy Adams co-starred in “Crimes of the Heart” at the Pierson Playhouse in Pacific Palisades in 2000. This year she received her second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, this time as Sister James in “Doubt.”
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

Pacific Palisadians were prominent in the Kodak Theater Sunday as Hollywood celebrated its biggest night. Composer Thomas Newman was nominated for an Oscar in two categories for his work on ‘Wall-E,’ while producer Brian Grazer received a nod for Best Picture contender ‘Frost/Nixon.’ Cameras caught actor Judd Apatow in the audience. Former Pacific Palisades honorary mayor Jerry Lewis received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, while another former mayor, Anthony Hopkins, introduced Best Actor nominee Brad Pitt, and Steven Spielberg announced Best Picture winner, ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ Palisadians also collected accolades on Sunday evening at Children Uniting Nations’ (CUN) 10th Annual Awards Celebration and Viewing Party, a Beverly Hilton banquet fundraiser to support CUN’s work with foster children.   The Palisadian-Post was present when artist David Russo arrived”with wife Elisabeth Leitz and daughters Taylor, 14, and Logan, 13”from their Palisades home. Russo created the colorful 20′ x 8′ mural in the lobby which greeted guests, who posed for photos in front of it. The crown jewel of the night’s silent auction, ‘The Mentor’ was listed with a $10,000 opening bid and $2,500 increments. (Organizers said that they will continue to take bids on the mural for several weeks.) Also available, at $500 a pop, were 16′ x 40′ prints from a limited edition of 120 signed by Russo. ‘It’s an amazing mural,’ said CUN president Lola Levoy, who attended last November’s Day of the Child event where Russo collaborated on the painting with dozens of foster kids. At the Oscar function, CUN founder Daphna Ziman singled out Black Eyed Peas (whose leader, will.i.am., attended Palisades High School). Band member Taboo accepted an award on behalf of his hip-hop group with a thank-you that included rap verses, rhyming ‘Joe Biden’ with ‘catching Osama bin Laden,’ who is still ‘hidin’.’ Recalling charities the Peas have performed for, Taboo told attendees, ‘Our hearts are always at the forefront of helping kids. We’re all about positivity. We’ve always made it a priority to give back.’

Temescal Hearing Assesses Money Woes in State Parks

Responding to the state’s projected $42-billion budget shortfall, a group of park advocates gathered inside Woodland Hall at Temescal Gateway Park on Monday evening to discuss the future of state parks. Traci Verardo-Torres, the legislative and policy director for California State Parks Foundation (a nonprofit that supports state parks), provided the latest updates on the budget and the challenges ahead. The Topanga Canyon Docents and Temescal Canyon Association hosted the advocacy briefing to educate park supporters and give them an opportunity to become more involved, said Lucinda Mittleman, vice president of Topanga Canyon Docents. ‘I don’t feel our battle is over for securing funding for state parks,’ Mittleman said. Last year, Will Rogers State Historic Park and Topanga State Park were among 48 parks that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had proposed closing because of the budget deficit. Local advocates collected approximately 17,000 signatures protesting the closure, and Schwarzenegger listened to his constituents. In the budget passed last week, legislators spared the Department of Parks and Recreation, which will receive $141 million from the general fund in 2008-09 and $145 million in 2009-10. The slight increase is to make handicap accessibility improvements and clean up a toxic site in the Sierra Foothills. Verardo-Torres said her foundation recognizes that state parks need a steady revenue stream and supported the State Parks Access Pass, which assembly Budget Committee Chair John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) introduced last fall. The concept is that every Californian who operates a non-commercial vehicle would be assessed a $10 surcharge on their vehicle license fee. This money would be used to maintain and operate state parks and provide residents with an access pass that would give those with a valid state license plate free entry into any park. The day-use fee of $6 to $10 would be abolished. The foundation conducted a poll in April and 74 percent of Californians supported the access pass, Verardo-Torres said. However, the proposal did not make it into the final budget. Additionally, in the budget passed last week, legislators decided to increase the vehicle license fee by a half percent to generate money for the general fund. The foundation is uncertain whether to continue pursuing the access pass, but plans to conduct another poll to determine if there is enough support. ‘We want to keep talking about it, and working on it,’ Verardo-Torres said. In December, legislators temporarily froze all bond-funded projects. This means that several projects in state parks came to a halt, including one in Topanga State Park to restore Trippet Ranch Nature Center. It took about five years to plan for the project, and work had just begun in November, said Lynne Haigh, president of the Topanga Canyon Docents. ‘California bonds are rated the lowest in the nation,’ Verardo-Torres said. ‘The state can’t sell bonds right now, so it can’t keep funding bond projects.’ At the beginning of February, state financial leaders instituted furloughs ‘ unpaid leave for government employees ‘ on the first and third Fridays of the month. The Department of Parks and Recreation has been exempted in order to keep parks open. Verardo-Torres encourages park supporters to become involved by participating in the 7th Annual Park Advocacy Day on March 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Sacramento. Advocates are invited to meet with policymakers throughout the day to discuss parks. Attendees will attend a press conference at the state capital and the foundation’s annual Legacy Awards reception at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts to honor legislators who have been committed to state parks. ‘It’s important for our legislators to see their constituents,’ Verardo-Torres said. Information: www.calparks.org.

Two House Fires Hit the Palisades

Early Saturday evening, a Palisades Highlands family was having dinner at Mogan’s Cafe when fire trucks from Stations 23, 69 and 19 drove past on Palisades Drive. According to Station 23 Captain Dan Thompson, the father reportedly said to his family that he hoped it wasn’t their house. Unfortunately, the family’s residence on Avenida de Santa Ynez had indeed caught on fire. According to Thompson, the fire started in the filtering system of the fish tank located in the living room. During the fire, the stand holding the tank burned and collapsed, causing the tank to crash to the floor. The family had three dogs; two were accounted for, but after the fire was out, firefighters found a seemingly lifeless dachshund in the bathtub. Firefighters covered the dog with a blanket and took him outside before the family returned. As they carried the dog, it started to move slightly, so the firefighters gave it oxygen and the animal came to life. Thompson reported that the pet was later taken to the vet, which pronounced the animal okay. The house was not okay, suffering an estimated $100,000 worth of smoke and water damage (from hoses as well as from the broken fish tank). Valentine’s Day was not a happy affair for a manufactured home on Bali Lane in the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park above Pacific Coast Highway, just north of Temescal Canyon Road. A faulty furnace is suspected to have started a fire that destroyed the single-family residence. Stations 23 and 69 responded to the 8:40 a.m. call. ‘The trailer was well-involved when we arrived at the site,’ said Captain Thompson, who added that it took just 10 minutes to extinguish the fire. ‘The manufactured homes burn like crazy because of how they’re constructed,’ said Thompson, who explained that the paneling inside the structures are like plywood and burn faster than drywall. The firefighters spent the next two-and-a-half hours sifting through the debris left on the home’s floor, and making sure there were no embers that could re-ignite. ‘We make sure that everything is out and cold before we leave,’ Thompson said. Palisadian-Post reader Wendy Anderson wrote in an e-mail to the Post, ‘Thanks to all the wonderful firemen that saved our park by containing the fire to one home. Fortunately, it was not a windy day or it could have been a much worse situation.’ Anderson also told the Post that the owner got safely out of her home, but that the owner’s two cats perished.

Large Gym Vandalized At the Recreation Center

Somebody broke into the large gym at the Palisades Recreation Center sometime Sunday night and sprayed the fire extinguisher across the wood floor, causing an undetermined amount of damage. The culprit(s) replaced the extinguisher and then left. The crime is under investigation and fingerprints will be taken. There was no sign of forced entry. Parks Director Erich Haas suspects that someone hid in a closet or a bathroom stall as the gym was locked for the day and, when no one was around, came out and sprayed the extinguisher. According to Haas, the residue needs to be cleaned up with a solution and the floor buffed. ‘Maintenance tried to mop it up,’ he said, ‘but the floor still feels gritty.’ Haas has been told the city will send a crew to the gym on Friday and they will use a solution on the floor, then possibly buff it. At that point, the exact cost of the damage can be determined. ‘Someone did a number on the gym, and I don’t understand why they would want to do that to us,’ Haas said. ‘We have local schools who have permits for the gym, senior fitness classes and about 400 kids in the basketball program who will be affected.’ The Rec Center is in the middle of its basketball season and since there was an earlier water leak in the small gym that caused the wood to warp, there is now no facility available for basketball. Haas has been told that the entire floor in the little gym must be replaced, at a cost of $50,000. He hopes that a temporary fix (replacing the warped boards) can be done for $10,000. On Saturday evening, someone also smashed a window by the entrance to the new gym. The recent vandalism will severely limit open gym hours, which are currently about 20 hours a week. ‘I don’t have the staff to sit in open gym,’ Haas said. ‘The people who use the gym will have to suffer for the acts of a few.’ Haas suggested that in order to continue open gym hours, one alternative is to get volunteers to register with the city, then take turns supervising in the gym. In the past month, vandalism also resulted in problems with the field lights, several of which wouldn’t turn on. Park staff discovered that somebody had stacked several metal garbage cans in order to gain access to the control boxes on the poles, which are 12 feet tall. The lights were then switched off on several poles. That will no longer be possible once the light boxes are locked in the near future. ‘I’m just glad whoever did it, didn’t fall off the cans and get hurt,’ Haas said. ‘We would have had a lawsuit.’ ‘We’re working hard to get this park back to what it should be for this community,’ the director said. ‘This vandalism is time-consuming, expensive and frustrating.’ Anyone having information about the person(s) who damaged the gym floor should call Haas or Jacki Kochi at (310) 454-1412.

Secret Origins, Alter Egos

Erin Clancey, curator of the Skirball's
Erin Clancey, curator of the Skirball’s “It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superheroes of Film and Television!”
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

You most likely have never heard of Robert Kahn, Jacob Kurtzberg and Stanley Lieber. But if you’re a comic book fan, you know them by their alter egos: Bob Kane, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee. As with their superhero creations, artists Kane (Batman) and Kirby (Fantastic Four, Hulk), and writer Lee (Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men) chose aliases; assimilated names to disguise their Jewish roots in an era when ethnicity could hinder careers. ‘ZAP! POW! BAM! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comics Books, 1938-1950,’ a new Skirball Cultural Center exhibit, chronicles a multi-million dollar entertainment industry (paralleling Hollywood) built on a notable and disproportionate contribution from Jewish-Americans. The Golden Age of comic book superheroes is actually happening now in 2009, but in the multiplex. Last year, ‘The Dark Knight’ became the second biggest of movie of all time. The second biggest 2008 movie was based on Marvel Comics’ ‘Iron Man,’ while the first movie to enjoy a nine-digit opening weekend was Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man’ (2002), which spawned a $2.5 billion-grossing trilogy. Next week, the highly-anticipated adaptation of DC Comics’ ‘The Watchmen’ hits theaters. Only recently, it appears, has Hollywood’s special effects technology caught up with the epic imaginations of Kirby, Will Eisner (‘The Spirit’), et al. But in 1938 through 1950, long before television, the Internet and video games eroded comic-book circulations to mere thousands, such titles as ‘Action Comics’ and ‘Detective Comics”’which introduced Superman and Batman, respectively”sold millions of copies per month. Right from the 1938 birth of Superman by teenagers Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the superhero idiom, a descendant of the Golem folk tale, has largely been a Jewish affair. What is the story of Superman, after all, if not a retelling of Moses: the lone baby floated out into the vast cosmos to become the larger-than-life deity among mortals. Superman was an immigrant from Krypton who assumed a new (WASPy) name and identity (Clark Kent) to fit into the mainstream; no doubt, an unconscious projection by how his Jewish creators felt about themselves, as they had cited in interviews how invisible they felt socially at high school. With Superman’s success, DC followed in 1939 with Batman, overseen by three young Jewish men, including ‘ZAP!’ curator Jerry Robinson [see sidebar]. The 1960s Marvel Comics architects were predominantly Jewish, as were DC and Marvel’s publishers and editors, many of MAD magazine’s creators, even the writers behind popular latter-day characters Wolverine and Blade. Former Marvel writer Danny Fingeroth authored the like-minded 2007 book ‘Disguised As Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation Of The Superhero.’ He spoke at ‘ZAP!’ at the William Bremen Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum in Atlanta, where the traveling exhibit originated. Fingeroth writes: ‘One can say that immigrants have an outsider’s view of a society and so understand it more clearly than someone born into that society. Still, one has to ask, how did Jews become so prominent in the entertainment area, more so than other immigrant groups? Maybe it was because where they emigrated from were not places where they felt any more at home than they did when they arrived in America.’ The beauty of ‘ZAP!’ is that it will appeal to the casual and diehard comic book appreciator alike. Family-friendly aspects include a rack of child-size costumes and ‘The Comic Studio,’ where kids can create their own superheroes. Installations recreating a World War II era newsstand and Superman’s phone booth, while ‘Batman’ and ‘Popeye’ themes play overhead, set the mood for visitors. A humorous high-point: the cute display of ‘Kryptonite.’ Of course, ‘ZAP!”s meat is the fantastic original art. The aforementioned creators are well-represented, topped by Shuster’s original Superman sketches and moonlighting cartoonist Robinson’s ‘Batman’ doodles on his college psychology-class notes. Other highlights: Robinson’s ‘Batman’ originals, a 1946 page of Joe Kubert’s signature Hawkman, and art by Mort Meskin (the biggest influence on original ‘Spider-Man’ artist Steve Ditko). Non-Jews are included, most notably: renowned fantasy artist Frank Frazetta’s cover art for ‘The Ghost Rider’ # 2; an ‘Iron Man’ page by co-creator Don Heck; and fan favorite John Romita’s ‘Spider-Man’ # 68 cover pencils. Fans of ‘Captain Marvel,’ ‘Green Lantern,’ ‘The Shadow,’ as well as ‘Popeye’ and ‘Dick Tracy’ strips, will also find plenty here. The Skirball’s own side-exhibit, ‘Lights, Camera, Action: Comic Book Heroes of Film and Television’ (included in the admission price), is a strong companion piece to the main event. It features vintage posters, the Batcycle from the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV show, Christopher Reeves’ costume from 1978’s ‘Superman,’ and Michael Keaton’s Batman costume, as well as myriad original first issues: ‘Fantastic Four’ (which launched Marvel Comics in 1961), ‘Spider-Man’ (this copy signed by Lee), and 1964’s ‘Avengers’ # 4 (in which Kirby revived his ’40s character Captain America). And then there’s the copy of the rare and expensive book that started it all: ‘Action Comics’ # 1. Fingeroth told the Palisadian-Post that ‘ZAP!’ benefits from ‘pioneer Jerry Robinson’s unique personal perspective. The show vividly demonstrates how and why the superhero became so prominent a part of the modern cultural vocabulary, not just of America, but of the world.   ’The show is both personal and universal,’ he added. Like the comics and its creators themselves. Through August 9. Tickets: $10 general; seniors and students, $7; children 2’12, $5; and free to members and children under 2. For information on the show, contact: 310-440-4500; www.skirball.org.

Batman and Robinson

Robinson's original 1940 conceptual sketch of The Joker, with a touch of red color pencil on the lips to denote clown's makeup.     Collection of Jerry Robinson.
Robinson’s original 1940 conceptual sketch of The Joker, with a touch of red color pencil on the lips to denote clown’s makeup. Collection of Jerry Robinson.

In 1940, artist Jerry Robinson, 18, was the youngest member of the trio creating the original Batman comics. National Periodical Publications (since re-named DC Comics) demanded a follow-up to its history-making Superman. After its smash debut appearance, ‘Detective Comics’ # 27 (1939), Batman’ created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger with contributions from Robinson’received his own series in 1940. ‘Batman’ # 1 gave the world its first supervillain: The Joker. The Golden Age of costumed superheroes was officially under way. In addition to naming Robin the Boy Wonder, Robinson is credited with creating Batman’s most famous adversary, which just garnered an Oscar for the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of him in ‘The Dark Knight.’ Robinson, set to discuss ‘The Golden Age of Comics Books’ at the Skirball on Thursday, March 5 at 8 p.m., spoke to the Palisadian-Post from his Manhattan studio. PP: Superhero comics are big on origins. So what is the origin of ‘ZAP!’? ROBINSON: The William Bremen Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum in Atlanta approached me to curate the show. It took us more than two years to put it together. It’s the first show of the Golden Age superhero era done with any depth. The show has since appeared in Jewish museums in Detroit, Miami and Cleveland [hometown of Superman creators Siegel and Shuster]. PP: Well, 2008 was truly the ‘Year of The Joker.’ How does it feel to have your character win the Golden Globe and the Oscar, not to mention highlight the second-biggest grossing movie in history? ROBINSON: It’s very exciting when you create something that comes to life on the screen and is given such a fantastic performance. You go through all of those feelings of pride and fulfillment. Like a child, you revel in his accomplishments. A fiendish one, but still a child. PP: The other side of the coin is that Ledger never lived to witness the acclaim. What went through your mind when you heard he had died? Did you worry it would dampen ‘Dark Knight”s reception? ROBINSON: It was very sad. I had no thought about the box office. But apparently, the public was able to accept the fact that he was gone. PP: Did you meet Ledger during filming? ROBINSON: No. When I went to London, he had finished his last scene the day before and he immediately took off. I did get to meet Christian Bale. A delightful guy. PP: You were 18 when you drew ‘Batman’ # 1 and introduced The Joker. ROBINSON: I also drew the first Penguin. I worked in tandem with Bob and Bill. Bob was 24, Bill, 25, the best writer of the time. Bill was crucial in the creation of the Riddler, Cat Woman, Penguin. We all lived in the Bronx. We ate, slept and dreamt Batman 24 hours a day. I was supposed to go to Columbia University’s journalism school. While taking classes, I volunteered to write one of the stories for ‘Batman’ # 1. I thought, fiendishly, that I would get paid for a story and also get credit in my creative writing class. Well, I knew from my studies that all great heroes had great antagonists. We had some reservations. Some thought it might overpower the villain. I felt differently. The stronger the villain, the stronger the hero. Don’t forget, we didn’t have the word ‘supervillain’ at the time. PP: Do you remember coming up with the first supervillain? ROBINSON: I wanted to make him bizarre and memorable. In my family were champion bridge players. I had my deck of cards with that classic clown card. PP: Historians cite ‘The Man Who Laughs’ as an influence on the Joker’s design. How relevant was that 1928 film to his creation? ROBINSON: I had never seen that movie at that point. Bill had been the only one who had seen it. When I showed him my first drawing of The Joker, he said that it looked like Conrad Veidt in ‘The Man Who Laughs’ and he showed me a newspaper clip. PP: You were pals with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. In the late 1970s, you and superstar artist Neal Adams helped shame Time-Warner (which owned DC) into giving the duo annual stipends and creators’ credits on all Superman movies and comics. ROBINSON: When I was working on ‘Batman,’ Joe worked at DC at the desk right next to me. On the other side was Jack Kirby, Mort Meskin and Fred Ray, doing Superman covers. Jerry and Joe would often be hanging out at my apartment. Jerry was married, but Joe was still single. So we’d meet women, go out on dates together. The ‘Superman’ and ‘Batman’ artists double dating! Tickets for Jerry Robinson’s ‘Curator’s Talk’: $10, general admission; $8, members; $6, students. Contact: (877) SCC-4TIX or visit www.Skirball.org

Will Rogers Docent Explores The Legacy of the Humorist

Leo Melzer sits on the porch at Will Rogers' ranch house in Pacific Palisades.
Leo Melzer sits on the porch at Will Rogers’ ranch house in Pacific Palisades.

Active, vital, funny and full of pep at 93, Leo Melzer credits his docent work at Will Rogers State Historic Park for his longevity. A volunteer at the park since 2002, Melzer is light-hearted about his age, surmising that it seems to be his most outstanding accomplishment to date. His secret: ‘Keep breathing.’ Melzer also holds the distinction of being one of the last few people living today who met the philosopher cowboy in person. His Civilian Conservation Corps duty took him from Gary, Indiana, to Lake Tahoe, where Melzer met Rogers in 1933 at a tree-planting ceremony. In 1940, after Melzer graduated from Indiana University with a business degree, he pursued a news career that included stints at City News Bureau in Chicago, United Press International, and the Los Angeles Mirror before joining the foreign service of the U. S. Information Agency in Washington, D.C. He served as information officer in Seoul, Korea, and Dusseldorf, Germany, before returning to Washington and retirement. Melzer has three children: son Mark, an Irvine-based architect, daughter Holly, owner of a tennis clothing company in Boulder, Colorado; and daughter Bell, recently retired from her career as a small-claims court referee in Christ Church, New Zealand. ‘Leo Melzer dazzles the public with his wit and humor,’ says State Park Interpreter Michael Allan. ‘Park visitors love to hear about his meeting with Will Rogers.’ Visitors can catch Melzer’s ‘Good Will’ tour on Tuesdays at Will Rogers State Historic Park and hear about his encounter with the man himself. Training is free. Contact: Michael Allan at 310-454-8212, ext. 103. Allan will be conducting a new docent class three Saturdays in March. Docents will give house tours either during the weekdays or on weekends. The 18-hour training program includes videos, VIP tours, activities and lunch. Volunteers will learn about life and times of Will Rogers, and study the art and artifacts that are on display in the house. The training dates: Saturday, March 14, 21, and 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.