Marjorie Bernice Fox, a former longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, passed away peacefully on December 22 in Carlsbad, where she had resided since July 1999. She was 98. ”Marjorie was born to Esther and Mowry Brown on October 1, 1906 on the family farm in Rockford, Illinois. In 1919, she and her parents, her four sisters and two brothers traveled by automobile to California and settled in Palms. She completed high school in Santa Monica and attended UCLA. ”Marjorie was married to Bernell Ross Fox, Sr. on June 21, 1927 in Palms, and they moved to the Palisades in 1930 or 1931, residing on Haverford. They raised two sons, Bernell Jr. and Lynn. ”Marjorie and her husband were members of First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica and, later in her life, the Palisades Methodist Church. She was also a member of the Palisades Woman’s Club. Perhaps her most strenuous activity was as den mother for Lynn’s Cub Scout pack. ”Aside from raising a family and satisfying her bridge addiction, Marjorie’s major life experience involved spending three years in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her husband had been tapped by Bank Indonesia to provide seminars and to offer problem-solving assistance in bank auditing and control procedures. During that time, Marjorie became fascinated with and knowledgeable about Indonesian culture, as witnessed by her diaries and the many letters she sent to family and friends. ”Marjorie was predeceased by her husband in 1995 and by her oldest son, Bernell Jr., in 1999. In addition to her son Lynn, Marjorie is survived by seven grandchildren (Randall Anthony, Terrance Anthony, Michael Anthony, Mary Catherine, Kimberly Sue, Susan Catherine, Douglas Michael), and nine great-grandchildren. ”Marjorie will be remembered for her kindness to and genuine interest in other people. She volunteered her energies in a number of venues over her lifetime, and went out of her way to make people feel accepted, comfortable and important. If it is true that we live on by the way in which we affect the lives of others, Marjorie will be with us for a very long time. ”At her request, no memorial service will be held. Donations can be made to a favorite charity in her memory.
Dr. Sherl Krell Shearer, a former longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, died at home in Rancho Mirage on December 30 of a heart attack. He was 80.’ ”Sherl was born in Peru, Iowa, on February 21, 1924 to Zella and Clyde Shearer.’He graduated from Simpson College in 1944 and from the University of Iowa School of Medicine in 1947. He served at the Naval Hospital in Camp Pendleton. ”A week after their marriage in 1947, Sherl and Cathie left on a Greyhound bus for Santa Monica, where Sherl began his internship at Santa Monica Hospital. In 1948 they moved to the Palisades and lived on Radcliffe until 1957, when they moved to their home on Toyopa, where they lived for 44 years. Their five daughters attended Corpus Christi School and graduated from Marymount High School. ”Dr. Shearer was a radiologist at Santa Monica Medical Center and was the Director of Radiology for 38 years. He served a term as Chief of Staff, was a member of the Executive Medical Board, and was a fellow in the American College of Radiology. He retired in 2001 and moved with Cathie to Rancho Mirage, where he enjoyed serving as a docent at the Living Desert Reserve. ” ”Dr. Shearer had a zeal for music and was a faithful member of many church choirs and local chorales. He also sang at all five of his daughters’ weddings, singing different songs at each one but repeating favorites such as ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ and ‘Ave Maria.”He enjoyed raising orchids, which were admired by friends and family. ”He loved traveling and spending time with his family, especially his 11 grandchildren.’Sherl had a passion for people, all of whom were treated with equal dignity and respect. He had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and childlike enthusiasm. He was a philanthropist and supported Santa Monica Medical Center, as well as giving anonymously to various organizations close to his heart. ”He leaves behind his wife, Cathie, of 57 years; his children, Terri Bribiesca, Nancy Sterrett, Michael Shearer (deceased), Susan Bischoff, Peggy Rose and Julie Senaldi; and grandchildren Kristin Kratochvil; Michael, Erika and Alicia Bribiesca; Kyle and Cody Bischoff; Kayla, Natalie and Collin Rose; Samantha and Alex Senaldi.’He also was brother to Marilyn Henery (deceased), Dawn Dixon and Carol Shaw. ”A memorial service was held on January 4 at Palm Desert Community Presbyterian Church, where the Shearers were members.’Memorial donations can be made to the American Heart Association in honor of Sherl K. Shearer, M.D.’Please make checks payable to the American Heart Association, 1710 Gilbreth Rd., Burlingame, CA 94010.
Lee Ann Ellis Feldmeier, a longtime Palisadian who most recently resided in the Riverside County area, passed away on December 28. She was 39. Born on December 21, 1965, she attended elementary school at Corpus Christi, and her family was very involved in the parish. She also attended Culver Academy for girls and graduated from Palisades High. Lee Ann was a prize-winning equestrienne, and will be remembered for her beautiful smile and boundless energy. She leaves behind two children, Griffin (6) and Savannah (2); her sister, Mary Jane O’Brien of Boston; and brothers Joe and John Feldmeier of Orange County and Jim Feldmeier of Sherman Oaks. Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, January 15, at Holy Cross Cemetery, 5835 W. Slauson Avenue in Culver City. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Ellis Children Fund, P.O. Box 2139, Duxbury, Massachusetts 02331.
Palisadian David F. Mohlman, 78, died on January 2, following a long illness. ”Born and raised in Chicago, he completed his high school years as a scholarship student at the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in mechanical engineering. ”He was associated with Bell and Howell in Evanston, Illinois, for five years and then joined the California aerospace industry in 1957. ”Mohlman was one of the first people to use a personal computer during his 30 years with Hughes Aircraft, and continued to enjoy the technology in his retirement. His additional pleasures were classical music and the various cats who were members of the household throughout the years. ”He is survived by his wife Carol; daughters Kay Mohlman of Singapore and Jan Mohlman of New York City; and a brother, William Mohlman of Cathedral City. In accordance with his wishes, no memorial services will be held. ”Memorial contributions can be sent to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, L.A., 5026 Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles 90016-3900, or to the Braille Institute, 741 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles 90028-3594.
L.A.’s Cultural Heritage Commission agreed last Wednesday that the historic service station in Santa Monica Canyon should be preserved as a city monument, against the wishes of the Marquez family members who own the land on which the station stands. While the commission’s decision was a victory for a group of canyon residents who had rallied in recent months to save the station, ‘it is far from a done deal,’ said Brian Clark, who until he was evicted recently, had been leasing the station from the family since 1995. ‘It still needs to be approved by L.A. City Council, and the community still has to find a way to buy the property,’ said Clark, who was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by the decision, after a decade of wrangling with the neighbors, the City and more recently the Marquez family to preserve the station. The property, which includes the gas station and one of the last remaining homes of the Marquez family, the original owners of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica land grant, is currently in escrow with a neighbor, Chris Hoffmann, who apparently plans to donate the gas station to the Petersen Automotive Museum and make the 17,000-sq.-ft. lot an extension of his back yard. The asking price when the property went into escrow in September was $2.3 million. While the station is in a residential zone (R-1), there has been a conditional use permit (CUP) since 1925 for the gas station to operate in this neighborhood. In mid-November, just as escrow was expected to close on the property, the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association (SMCCA) applied to the commission to have Canyon Service, the oldest full-service gas station in Los Angeles, declared a Historic-Cultural monument. Since that time no one has been permitted to demolish, alter or move the 1922 structure, which was recently fenced in. The station’s fixtures, including the Coke machines, the neon lights, the three restored orange-and-white gas pumps and the antique street sign, are currently in a storage facility. At the commission hearing the Marquez family, in their opening remarks, complained that SMCCA’s application had caused them ‘financial hardship,’ because they have not been able to complete the sale nor re-rent the station pending the landmark status. Clark, who was leasing for $2,000 a month, made a full price offer on the property in September but lost out to Hoffmann. ‘We still want to buy the station [property] if they will sell it to us,’ Clark said. If City Council approves monument status for the station, it would ‘buy some time’ for the community to arrange a purchase of the property, which local realtor Mike Deasy feels is feasible. ‘The majority of canyon residents want to see this station in operation,’ he said at Tuesday morning’s Optimist Club meeting. While he acknowledged that there are some residents who oppose keeping the station, ‘We think it adds to the charm,’ as do several other residents who have already donated funds towards a possible purchase. SMCCA (which represents neighboring residents), already has the backing of Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the Palisades Historical Society, the Palisades Community Council, the Society for Commercial Archeology and the Route 66 Association.
Local residents involved in a legal dispute over a Rustic Canyon home felt justice was finally served last month when the California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment in their civil suit against homeowners Mehr and Vickey Beglari and the City of Los Angeles. Now, the City of L.A. will be directed to revoke the permits issued to the Beglaris for the completed addition to their home at 909 Greentree, on the corner of Brooktree Road. The existing property is 14 feet closer to the street (Greentree) than permitted by the governing sections of the Los Angeles Municipal Code. Yet the five plaintiffs, who all live nearby, are still wondering why the City, including the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, the Planning Commission, the City Attorney’s Office and City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, didn’t respond to their complaints, beginning in 2001 to date. Neither Deputy City Attorney Michael Klekner nor Miscikowski returned phone calls to the Palisadian-Post. The plaintiffs are attorney Ronald Oster and his wife Superior Court Judge Diana Wheatley; attorney John Rosenfeld; and Superior Court Judge David Horwitz and his wife Jacki, a professor/journalist. (Jacki Horwitz is a Palisadian-Post columnist, but not an employee.) These neighbors have waged a four-year battle with the Beglaris and the City over construction of the house, which began in April 2001 when the couple started excavating the front of their 10,000-sq.-ft. lot to build an underground garage. The plaintiffs thought the Beglaris were digging too close to the curb and that the setback was not in keeping with those of nearby homes. They began contacting their Council office and Building and Safety by telephone and letters to learn how the expansion had been authorized. The Beglaris had obtained a permit in January 2001 from Building and Safety that authorized the construction of a 6,550-sq.-ft., two-story addition to their existing 2,000-sq.-ft. ranch-style house. Sometime around August 2001, when Building and Safety discovered that the Beglaris were in violation of the City’s Hillside Ordinance, which imposes special conditions on construction in an area like Rustic Canyon (regarding height restrictions, lot coverage restrictions, increased off-parking requirements, and fire and sprinkler requirements), it issued specific orders mandating that the addition be brought into compliance. The City gave the Beglaris the option of reducing the height of their house or raising the site by backfilling a driveway; they chose the latter option. A permit issued to the Beglaris in November 2001 authorized the movement of a side wall, and a permit issued in March 2002 allowed for an increase in the height of the driveway so the roofline of the addition would not exceed height limits measured from ground level. The plaintiffs then challenged the permits issued to the Beglaris in a series of administrative appeals, first to the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners (BBSC) in March 2002. Specifically, they claimed ‘1.) the height of Beglari’s proposed addition was excessive, 2.) the proposed addition would impermissibly reduce the front-yard setback because the prevailing front-yard setback had been incorrectly measured by Beglari, and 3.) the enlarged residence would impermissibly reduce the size of the required side yards,’ according to the Court of Appeal opinion filed last month. While the appeal to the BBSC was pending, the plaintiffs sued the City and the Beglaris ‘for declaratory and injunctive relief, asking the court to compel the City to revoke Beglari’s building permits and to issue a stop work order.’ The case was transferred from the Los Angeles County Superior Court to the Orange County Superior Court to avoid any conflict of interest, since two of the plaintiffs are Superior Court judges in L.A. However, the City refused to issue a preliminary injunction because the plaintiffs had not exhausted their ‘administrative remedies.’ Meanwhile, the BBSC rejected the plaintiffs’ challenges to Building and Safety’s determinations concerning construction of the home and, on August 19, 2002, Building and Safety issued a certificate of occupancy to Beglari. Despite further appeals to the Director of City Planning and the City Planning Commission, the only ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor came in October 2002 when Associate Zoning Administrator Lourdes Green, acting on behalf of the Director of City Planning, found that Building and Safety had not calculated the prevailing front-yard setback in accordance with the zoning code. The setback had been erroneously measured from the Beglaris’ next door neighbor’s detached garage to the curb instead of from the neighbor’s house to the curb, as required by law (a detached garage is not considered part of a house). According to Green, had the setback been properly calculated, the Beglari house would have had to be set back an additional 14 feet from Greentree Road. Plaintiff Rosenfeld, who grew up three doors down from what is now the Beglari residence, describes the zoning code in the Greentree Rd. area of Rustic Canyon as ‘the sole defense against overbuilding on lots. The zoning code is like a contract that everybody lives by and expects everybody else to live by.’ The Beglaris appealed to the City Planning Commission and in February 2003, a final determination rejected Lourdes Green’s decision and ruled in favor of the Beglaris on the setback issue. A month later, the plaintiffs filed an amended pleading to their lawsuit and, having exhausted their administrative remedies, got a court ruling. The September 11, 2003 ruling by Judge David C. Velasquez in Santa Ana found that ‘the city prejudicially abused its discretion in that it has not proceeded in a manner required by law. The city’s use of the ‘in-line’ theory of calculating prevailing front yard setback is not supported by any reasonable interpretation of the Los Angeles Municipal Code.’ The trial court ordered the City to revoke the three permits issued to the Beglaris. In an interview that month with the Palisadian-Post, Deputy City Attorney Klekner said he did not think the case would be resolved amicably. He was right. The City and the Beglaris appealed, and the cause was argued and submitted to the California Court of Appeal on November 17, 2004. ‘There was no consensus among the panel,’ Klekner told the Post just hours after the appeal was argued. ‘But this is a pretty quick panel.’ The three participants’judges Miriam A. Vogel, Vaino Spencer and Richard D. Aldrich’had 90 days to issue an opinion. On December 15, the initial judgment was affirmed unanimously in an opinion that read: ‘The City (joined by Beglari) contends the trial court exceeded its authority when it ordered the City to revoke the three permits issued to Belgari. The City’s argument misses the point’that (as Zoning Administrator and the trial court both found) there is no discretion involved in the application of the formula to the measurements at issue in this case.’ In an interview Monday, Bob Steinbach of the Department of Building and Safety, told the Post, ‘If a judge made a ruling, we have no choice but to go with ruling. We would have to issue orders [to the owner] to comply [with the ruling].’ The permits and certificate of occupancy originally issued to the Beglaris by Building and Safety will thereby be revoked unless the Beglaris appeal to the California Supreme Court or are able to obtain a variance. ‘I’d be very surprised if the Supreme Court has an interest in taking this case,’ said plaintiff Rosenfeld, who sold his family’s home at 848 Greentree last year. He now lives in Topanga. Rosenfeld also said that there is ‘nothing about the [Beglari] property that will warrant a variance.’ However, he admits that ‘it will not surprise me if the City makes findings and grants him a variance,’ which ‘we [the plaintiffs] will immediately challenge in court.’ The conclusion of the Court of Appeal opinion states: ‘While we agree that the proper calculations have to be made, we do not see any basis in law, fact, or fairness to allow the City or Beglari to keep the improperly issued permits in place so that they can become the foundation for the decisions that will thereafer have to be made…Under these circumstances, there is only one more thing to be said’that it is time for the City to amend the relevant portions of the Municipal Code.’ Asked if the opinion is groundbreaking in its affirmation of the initial judgment against the City of Los Angeles, Rosenfeld said, ‘If it’s making history, it’s a sad thing.’ Then, speaking for the plaintiffs, he added, ‘We were gratified. It pays to take into account the consideration that your neighbors raise.’ Despite repeated attempts to contact the Beglaris, they could not be reached for comment.
Terri Rock and husband Harry Papadopolous with daughter Melanie, the First Baby of the Year, at their home in the Via bluffs neighborhood. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Some time in July, Alexandra and Jordan Papadopolous discovered a paper stork hanging above the sink in the kitchen with a sign attached: ‘Guess what?’ Neither of them, who are 18 and 17 years old respectively, got it. Their parents Terri Rock, 46, and Harry Papadopolous, 47, were going to have a baby. ‘What are you thinking?’ Alexandra recalls asking her parents, who were, needless to say, just as surprised. Baby Melanie Verree Papadoupolous was born at 12:09 a.m. on January 8 and is winner of the Palisadian-Post’s First Baby of the Year contest in 2005. Her arrival will be celebrated by local merchants with gift certificates, baby gear and pampering for her parents. The fact that Melanie was not planned fits right into the Rock/Papadopolous philosophy. ‘I don’t plan things; it’s too scary if you do,’ says Terri, pointing to the couple’s elopement and joyful surprise of their first two children, who now attend Palisades High. Terri and Harry met in Nicaragua in 1981 as volunteer healthcare workers with the Christian Medical Society, who had been invited by the new Sandinista government. Harry went on to work as a Canadian Peace Corps volunteer, teaching science in a small village in Nigeria, while Terri completed medical school. They eloped to Palm Springs in 1985. While surprised at first and certainly out of practice as parents of a newborn, Terri and Harry have the benefit of experience with babies, both professionally and personally. Terri, ‘Dr. Rock’ to many Palisades families, has operated her solo family medicine practice in Santa Monica since 1990, the same year (Continued on Page 5) she and her husband moved to the Palisades. While she spends her days responding to the needs of various families, from kids to seniors’her oldest patient is 104’Harry manages the office, and for many years took care of the kids and the house. ‘One of the benefits of my practice and my patients is that they seem very accepting of the fact that Melanie is going to be in the office,’ says Terri, recalling that her older kids went on hospital rounds with her and visited patients in nursing homes. ‘In fact, when we went to St. John’s to deliver the new baby, some of the nurses remembered Alexandra and Jordan.’ For all her knowledge and experience with babies, Terri was in total denial about the baby from beginning to end, and elected to forego the natural childbirth route. As it turned out, Melanie proved to be a tough delivery and put her mama through a two-day labor. ‘After 39 weeks, we decided that it was time and induced her. She was moving a little less, and her heart rate was going down with each contraction,’ says Terri, who was well aware of the risks with an ‘old’ placenta. When the doctor decided to deliver the baby by Caesarean, the whole family was present to observe the birth. Melanie joins the Rock/Papadopolous clan as the youngest of the 26 cousins (Alexandra is the oldest). Terri, raised in Texas in a doctor’s family, is the oldest child of five girls. Harry, whose given name is Aristides, but changed it to Harry after his godfather in hopes that he would be able to assimilate more easily in his Greek family’s adopted country, Canada, is one of seven children. So the parents know about family and like it. ‘Apart from being tired, we now know how to do this,’ Terri says. ‘It’s fun, I do enjoy seeing them grow and develop and I love going to the kids’ activities. And, there’s no doubt about it, it will keep me young.’ Harry has been an active parent volunteer at the local schools, the YMCA and the Recreation Center. Although Terri admits that she was a bad patient, having persuaded the obstetrician to let her out of St. John’s a couple of days early, she appreciates the advances in technology that have made childbirth safer and more hospitable. The entire family responds in chorus about the new obstetrics wing at St. John’s, where every labor and delivery room is private and equipped with a comfortable bed for the father, a labor and delivery bed, prep area and best of all, according to Alexandra, a plasma TV, thanks to Governor Schwarzenegger. Apparently, the governor paid for the TVs, along with donating the new neonatal wing at the hospital in honor of his wife, Maria. While it looks as if Alexandra might trade her babysitting job with the next-door-neighbors for her own little sister, Jordan is still wondering how something so cute and little could have such a loud cry.
A mudslide bringing part of a patio and a tree from a home on Rimmer down the hillside into Temescal Gateway Park caused significant damage to an unoccupied building used by the Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center. The 25′ x 22′ room was filled with 3 to 4 feet of mud, and a couch and window were pushed from one side of the room to the other. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
The rainstorm conditions this week caused mudslides, felled trees and some serious damage to a preschool at Temescal Gateway Park. Although there was significant property damage, there were no fatalities or injuries. Between Friday and noon Tuesday, the Palisades received 9.15 inches of rain. According to rainmeister Carol Leacock on Bienveneda Avenue, 8.10 inches fell between Friday and Monday noon and another 1.05 inches between Monday and Tuesday. As the rain came down over the weekend, the land softened and became saturated. Late Sunday afternoon, a portion of the backyard patio of the home of Bill and Lori Reineman on Rimmer, about 100 feet above the park, slid down the hillside, and an adjacent pine tree was uprooted. The ensuing mudslide crashed into one of the buildings used by the Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center during the week and rented out by various groups for conferences on weekends. The building was unoccupied. Chabad of the Palisades rents the two buildings and the outdoor play space for their preschool program, located beyond the YMCA pool. Last weekend, the Polarity Healing Arts group had rented an adjacent classroom, but due to the pouring rain left early on Sunday, at 3 p.m., before the slide. Joyce Whitehead, the Temescal Gateway Park conference center coordinator, who had been checking different areas of the park throughout the day, came up to the preschool building around 6 p.m., and discovered that the furthermost preschool room was filled with about 3-4 feet of mud. A sofa that was against the far wall of the 25′ x 22′ room was pushed all the way to the other side as was part of the wall and window. About six feet of mud also filled a paved playground area next to the building where the school’s 50-plus preschoolers ride their tricycles. Whitehead called the park ranger and the fire department, and had the power shut off. She had already decided to close down both Seven Arrows Little Dolphins by the Sea Preschool and the Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center this week. She also contacted the Reinemans. Although Lori Reineman was home at the time, she was not aware of the mudslide until informed by the park. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy asked the Reinemans to drain their pool to reduce the possibility of that cement coming down also, although Bill Reineman stated that the pool and home are built on bedrock. ‘It’s a shock to have something like that happen, I’ve never seen so much water,’ said Reineman, who was told by L.A. Building and Safety inspectors that it was safe to remain on the property. ‘We have a drainage system, but it was overwhelmed.’ The entire park and the trails have been closed since midday Sunday, and will remain so, due to damage throughout the park, including a felled eucalyptus tree, a swamped sycamore grove, and other water and mud damage. The trails need a 72-hour drying out period after a rain before people can safely walk on them. The YMCA’s Aquatic Center was also closed on Monday as a precaution. There is a small mudslide above the pool area and others in various places throughout the park. The creek through the park has been rushing more than usual, but Whitehead didn’t feel it was in danger of flooding, although the bridge leading up to the Seven Arrows preschool was flooded earlier this week. Soils engineers and geologists and other experts have been inspecting the Reineman home as well as the Temescal Conference grounds in order to recommend about safeguards and reconstruction. Further information is needed before any decisions are made about reopening the grounds. Rabbi Zushe Cunin of Chabad is hoping the Early Childhood Center can eventually return to the Temescal Canyon location, but he is investigating temporary space for the preschool students to begin meeting next week. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Palisades, two large trees fell, causing considerable damage. At about 9 p.m. last Friday a eucalyptus fell across Sunset, between Marquez and Livorno, causing an estimated $20,000 of damage to the front of Miguel Oropeza’s 2000 BMW. Oropeza, who was traveling east on Sunset towards Gelson’s where he has worked for 18 years, said all he remembers is seeing ‘a wall of leaves’ in front of him. ‘My car ran through the branches. I was lucky I did not hit the trunk or the top of the tree or else it would have been a lot worse for me and the car.’ Oropeza, who had to crawl out of the driver side window, was concerned about being further hit by oncoming traffic. He was treated at St. John’s Hospital for back injuries and hopes to return to work by the end of this week. On Sunday afternoon at about 1 p.m., a 20-ft. pine tree suddenly tumbled down in the 100 block of Ocean Way in Santa Monica Canyon, its roots uplifting a brick stairway and its crown landing on a neighbor’s roof. Electricity, which was down for several hours, was restored by the Department of Water and Power by midnight. In addition, the rains triggered a crack at the top of the Asilomar bluffs, causing a 3-ft. movement of the land below in the Palisades Bowl, which houses 178 mobile homes. According to LAFD Captain Dan Thompson at Station 23, 13 people were ordered to evacuate the mobile home park, while the fire department is continuing to monitor the situation. ‘A geologist from the city came out to assess the situation, but felt it was not threatening enough to evacuate the entire park,’ Thompson said. ‘However, we know where the trailers are that might be most effected, who is ambulatory and who has kids, in case the situation merits more assisted evacuations. Station 23 Firefighter Greg Meliota lives in the park and reported that the emergency road behind the park is not usable and he saw water sprouting out of cracks in the ground.’ Captain Thompson could not give a date for the residents to return until the city decides the stability of the hill and how to remediate it. Other damage included boulders which fell onto Palisades Drive, and a mudslide that closed one lane in the 400 block of Paseo Miramar. In addition, Topanga Canyon Boulevard was closed Monday and Tuesday due to a three-story boulder which fell onto the road. This prevented Topanga students from attending school at Paul Revere and Palisades High. ‘Additional reporting by LINDA RENAUD and LIBBY MOTIKA
Palisadian Terry Sanders, president of the American Film Foundation, stands in his office in Santa Monica, surrounded by posters, including this one for the award-winning documentary on Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
By BRENDA HIMELFARB Palisadian-Post Contributor Filmmaker Terry Sanders tells a great story, which is why he has had such a rich and successful career as a documentary filmmaker. His talent lies in the story and the clear, uncluttered way he tells it. This is a formula that turned out to be exceptional’unexpectedly’from the start. Now sitting in his Santa Monica office, he is surrounded by posters of some of his films. Sound bites of a current production being edited can be heard in the background. ‘In 1954 my brother Denis, who was in UCLA’s film school, was getting ready to do his Master’s thesis film,’ begins Sanders who, at the time, was a UCLA undergraduate. ‘We both loved Civil War short stores, so Denis went into the UCLA library to find a story that would work,’ Sanders continues. ‘Because we had no money, we had to go for public domain material, which was anything prior to 1896. Denis finally found a gem of a short story called ‘Pickets,’ about advanced outposts where soldiers were stationed along rivers and roads to scout for anything unusual going on. It was a three-character story and was amazingly cinematic, and it all took place in one afternoon.’ According to Sanders, things could not have been more perfect. Denis wrote a screenplay, based on the story which he called ‘A Time Out of War.’ They found three actors from UCLA along with a location in the Santa Ynez River near Santa Barbara, where if you carefully excluded that which didn’t look like the south, made a perfect antebellum landscape. The film’s whole budget of $2,000 was supposed to be used to buy Kodak film. But instead the brothers shot what was called ‘short ends,’ which were little rolls of film that were discarded from the studios, that they could get for one or two cents a foot. They shot the film in four and a half days in May and spent the entire summer editing. And when it was finished, they sent it to the Venice Film Festival and were shocked when it won first place. The brothers were on a roll. Next, they qualified for an Academy Award in the Two-Reel Short-Film category. ‘It wasn’t a documentary, but a dramatic film,’ explains Sanders. ‘And we had to form our own distribution company, because you couldn’t qualify for an Oscar unless you had a distributor. The film got nominated for an Oscar for Best Dramatic Short Film, and we were stunned.’ Perhaps what shocked the Sanders brothers even more was that they won. It was quite a night. Marlon Brando won Best Actor for ‘On the Waterfront,’ and Rod Steiger and Edmund O’ Brian presented the Sanders brothers with their Oscars. ‘It was pretty exciting,’ recalls Sanders. ‘We found it was like being shot out of a cannon in a way, because it was a lot of success a little too soon.’ Quite a feat for the two brothers who, barely out of high school had filmed their first gig. ‘We had this tiny, little 16 mm camera and we were Hollywood filmmakers,’ laughs Sanders. ‘What we learned from that was how much we didn’t know. Out of that experience, we learned what we had to do.’ After the Oscar win, the two were bombarded with people who wanted them to write screenplays. As it happened, actor Charles Laughton had seen ‘A Time Out of War,’ and was getting ready to do ‘Night of the Hunter,’ which took place along the Ohio River. Terry was hired to direct the second production unit, that shot the river footage, and Denis was hired as the dialect coach. Then Laughton asked the duo to write the screenplay adaptation of Norman Mailer’s ‘The Naked and the Dead.’ They worked on the project for a year. ‘It felt like Laughton never wanted to finish it. It went on and on,’ Sanders says. ‘But ‘Night of the Hunter,’ which is now considered a classic, was not a financial success, at the time, and it crushed Laughton’s spirit. ‘Eventually the film was directed by Raoul Walsh and, although we got sole credit, anonymous writers had taken over and totally changed the script. When we went to see the film nothing made any sense. It was like an ‘out of body’ experience.’ The Sanders brothers decided to become independent filmmakers so they could have control of the material. They made two films. One was an adaptation of ‘Crime and Punishment,’ shot in 12 days in Venice, California which introduced George Hamilton. It was called, ‘Crime and Punishment’USA.’ The other was ‘War Hunt,’ which introduced Robert Redford and was named one of the 10 best films of the year by the National Board of Review. But, at the time, making independent films was not easy and the brothers made a decision to work separately. Sanders, 73, began working on documentaries with producer David Wolper, who was just starting out, and did five documentaries in two years, including, the highly-rated ABC special, ‘The Legend of Marilyn Monroe,’ before starting The Terry Sanders Company. Today the company is known as the American Film Foundation/ Sanders & Mock Productions, which is headed by Sanders and his wife, documentary filmmaker, Freida Lee Mock, whom he married in 1976. The couple lives in Santa Monica Canyon. Over the years, Sanders has made over 60 documentaries and has gathered numerous accolades. He was the producer/director of Emmy nominee, ‘Screenwriters: Word into Image,’ a six-part film series featuring the likes of Neil Simon, William Goldman and Paul Mazursky. Additionally, he produced the Oscar-winning, ‘Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision,’ a portrait of the artist/architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.; ‘Return With Honor,’ about U.S. fighter pilots shot down over North Vietnam, was the winner in the Doubletake Film Festival; and ‘Never Give Up: The 20th Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper,’ which was also an Oscar nominee. Three years ago Sanders decided to put documentaries on the back burner and concentrate on dramatic films. For his first project, collaborating with George Takei, best known as Mr. Sulu in ‘Star Trek,’ producer Doug Claybourne and mentor on this project, producer Fred Roos, Sanders has chosen, ‘TOKYO ROSE/American Patriot.’ The screenplay, written by Sanders, Pat Fielder and Richard Bluel, is based on the nonfiction book, ‘They Called Her Tokyo Rose,’ by Rex Gunn, who had been a reporter at the trial. TOKYO ROSE is the true story of the feisty, funny patriotic Japanese American girl, Iva Toguri, a UCLA graduate. who, under dangerous circumstances, worked with Allied POWs in Tokyo during WWII to sabotage Japanese propaganda. According to the Project Overview, ‘after the war, ignoring the truth and Iva’s real bravery and heroism, the U.S. government used evidence fabricated by two unscrupulous journalists to prosecute her for treason.’ ‘When I read Gunn’s book,’ says Sanders, ‘it made my blood boil. What happened to Iva Toguri was so outrageous and is so timely for today or any time when a war is on the horizon. When there is fear in the air, people can become scapegoats, people can lose their rights and governments can overreach. Then justice can go out the window. It’s never settled, it’s just there. You can’t underestimate something that makes your blood boil, as that’s what gets you out of bed in the morning; gets you going. Someone said to me, ‘Well, it happened a long time ago.’ But, until injustice is resolved, it’s always timely.’ It’s no surprise that their talented parents have influenced Sanders’ two daughters. Artist Brittany, whose work has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, makes books including one of watercolors and letterpress based on the Lewis and Clark journals. Just recently, daughter Jessica’s film ‘After Innocence,’ funded by Showtime, was one of 16 documentaries out of 600 entries, accepted for the Sundance Film Festival. The film is about men who had been in prison for 20 years or more, some on death row, who were exonerated with DNA evidence and how they deal with life after being released. ‘My work is fun and self-energizing,’ says Sanders. ‘I feel all the films that I do have a reason for my making them. They’re not copies of something else. They’re on subjects that most people don’t know about. The idea of retiring has no meaning to me.’
Internationally acclaimed entertainer Yve Evans, along with her world-class quintet company will appear on Sunday, January 9 at 4:30 p.m. at the Palisades Lutheran Church, 15905 Sunset. Evans was educated in the United States, Japan and Europe. She was mentored by internationally renowned choral conductor Jester Hariston and attended the UC Irvine School of Fine Arts where she studied opera and theater. Evans’ band coomprises some of the industry’s most accomplished musicians, each performance showing a dedication to the tradition and understanding of jazz and its timeless repertoire and the intention of sharing with the audience the sheer joy and freedom of the music. Evans the singer has performed with some of the finest vocalists in the world’Sarah Vaughn, Ernie Andrews, Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, Della Reese, Bobby Darin, Rosemary Clooney and Mahalia Jackson. Evans the piano player has leaned over the shoulders of, swapped chord changes with, and stolen licks from Dorothy Donegan, Bill Evans, Erroll Garner, George Gafney, Carmen McRae and Shirley Horn. Having spanned all forms of media, from stage to screen, Evans’ desire for live performance has not been deterred, as evidenced by her insistence on recording all five of her CDs live. Evans’concert is the kickoff program for the 2005 free concert series Second Sundays, conceived by Palisades Lutheran Church Music Director Eva DuPree. Future concerts include chamber music, bluegrass, gospel, barbershop, as well as a kid’s show. Contact: 459-2358.
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