Buddy, the Fire Station 69 mascot. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
By HELEN HIGHBURGER Palisadian-Post Intern Fire Station 69’s beloved mascot, Buddy the Dalmatian, is the last surviving fire dog in the City of Los Angeles. He has lived at the station (Sunset at Carey) for nine years and when he passes away, the local firemen hope that a Buddy II can carry on the tradition. However, it’s possible the station will not be able to do so because of potential liability issues’dog-biting incidents, for example. So perhaps we have double the reason to treasure a dog who has become a great favorite with Palisadians of all ages, . Fire station dogs like Buddy have been a part of firefighting crews since the days of horse-drawn steam engines. Their original function was to guard the horses that pulled the huge engines firefighters used to get to fires. The fire dog would stay with the horses while the firefighters rushed into the burning building, keeping other dogs and people from spooking them. Since the advent of fire trucks, fire dogs have had less to do, but they still guard the truck while the firefighters are working. Fire Station 69 originally acquired Buddy as a puppy in 1995 from Sandra Jankowski of Brentwood, who breeds champion Dalmatians. ‘We’ve gone at least 10 years without a mascot, and kids have been asking about it all the time,’ said Capt. Ortiz at the time. ‘Now we have a real good one.’ The firemen held a contest to name the new mascot, inviting all kids 10-and-under to vote for either Sparky, Buddy, Smokey or Chief. A few years later they had a contest to count Buddy’s spots. He had exactly 278. Buddy has made news in other ways. In 1996, he not only was the star of a live Alpo commercial with Jay Leno on ‘The Tonight Show,’ he also appeared on the front page of the Palisadian-Post. The paper showed pictures of him getting rescued from the water after he slipped into the Los Angeles River during a routine river-rescue training exercise. A few years later the Post wrote about Buddy’s trip to the veterinarian to combat a brief bout with fleas, and later reported his emergency treatment for a dangerous urinary blockage. Buddy used to ride on the truck to fires, but today at the age of 9 he has arthritis, which has slowed him down somewhat. He can still go out to the fires if he wants to (wearing his own yellow brush jacket for protection), and he remains a great favorite at neighborhood birthday parties, the Fourth of July parade, riding with Santa at Holiday Ho! Ho! Ho! and fire station open houses. When Buddy gets up in the morning, he greets all the firefighters as they arrive and chases a ball while they exercise. Most of the day, he just hangs around the station, barking if people whom he doesn’t know arrive. A look into Buddy’s personal record book (just like the firefighters have!) shows that his top skill is ‘community relations,’ closely followed by ‘testing hydrant paint’ and ‘fetching a ball.’ According to one firefighter, Buddy’s ‘real job is PR, and he does it well.’ Buddy even has a girlfriend, a fellow Dalmatian named Desiree, who lives in the neighborhood. He keeps a photo of her pinned outside on his doghouse.
Citizen of the Year Mike Skinner receives his award from Palisadian-Post Publisher Roberta Donohue at last Thursday’s banquet at the Riviera Country Club. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
The spirit of dedicated volunteerism, a deep and vital force in Pacific Palisades since the town’s founding in 1922, was celebrated once again at the annual Citizen of the Year dinner last Thursday at the Riviera Country Club. The event was first held in 1947 and has been sponsored ever since by the Palisadian-Post. In recognition of his crucial leadership role in the $850,000 community-driven campaign to expand, renovate and vastly improve the four playing fields at the Palisades Recreation Center, longtime youth coach and businessman Mike Skinner received his Citizen of the Year award from Publisher Roberta Donohue. Also, Community Council chairman George Wolfberg presented his organization’s traditional Golden Sparkplug awards to Bob Jeffers and Roger Woods, both of whom ignited and completed important beautification projects along Sunset and at the Village Green. ‘Mike Skinner began pushing for the long needed overhaul of the antiquated and dangerous playing fields in 1999,’ Donohue said in her remarks. ‘When he realized that city funding for this project simply wasn’t going to happen, Mike came up with a plan to have the community raise the funds, hire a private contractor to rebuild the fields in accordance with city regulations, and then turn everything back over to the city.’ Once Skinner and the Palisades Pony Baseball Association (led by Bob Benton) received approval from the L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks last spring, they launched a fundraising campaign (under the leadership of Bob Levitt and John Bertram) and hired the company that built the famous ‘Field of Dreams’ baseball diamond in Iowa. ‘Miraculously,’ Donohue said, ‘the fields were ready for AYSO soccer games on November 8 and the bills were paid. The result of this enormous effort is a wonderful new park, with larger and safer playing fields that are available for the entire community to enjoy.’ Skinner’s committee has now raised just over $1,000,000, allowing for creation of a permanent maintenance fund. ‘This is a very humbling experience’doing something I love and having a lot of people help me do it,’ said Skinner when he received his award from Donohue. The 27-year resident thanked the ‘Field of Dreams heroes who stepped up to the plate,’ and noted that ‘it’s amazing how many good people are out there.’ He acknowledged the key people who participated in various aspects of the project, including L.A. Dodgers announcer and Palisades resident Vin Scully and his wife Sandra, whose major donation halfway through the campaign ‘gave us a shot in the arm.’ The father of three sons (Kevin, a fireman; Ryan, a senior at BYU; and Brendan, a volleyball player at Oaks Christian High School), Skinner also praised his wife Carey, a real estate executive with DBL Realtors, for her ‘patience and understanding through years of seemingly endless meetings and the turmoil that was going on at our house. Fortunately, she understood my priorities.’ Skinner received proclamations from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Mayor James Hahn, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and, in person, Assemblywoman Fran Pavley. ‘This is my fifth Citizen dinner and the only thing I’m sorry about is I don’t live here,’ Pavley said. ‘This is one of the few events in the District that my husband and I actually attend voluntarily. We feel we’re among friends.’ And in a tribute to Skinner, she said, ‘What impressed me is that his kids are older’he did it for the kids today and the kids of the future.’ When presenting her certificates to the two Sparkplug winners, Pavley emphasized the important role played by citizen volunteers in local beautification efforts. ‘In these tight budget times, we have to collectively take the initiative. The efforts by Bob Jeffers and Roger Woods help maintain the high quality of life that you treasure here.’ Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who has been attending Citizen dinners since the early 1970’s, agreed with Pavley. ‘The Palisades never ceases to amaze me’the amazing talent, the amazing dedication by residents who say, ‘I have an idea, I have a dream, I can make it happen.’ This community never stops,’ she told the audience. Fourteen past Citizens enjoyed the festivities, including Phyllis Genovese (1952), Dr. Michael Martini (1967), Bob McMillin (1975), Gloria Stout Nedell (1978), Joan Graves (1987), Roger Diamond (1988), Kit Festa (1989), Bobbie Farberow (1995), Hal Maninger and Chuck McGlothlin (1996), Bill Grieb (1997), Kurt Toppel (1998), Carol Leacock (1999) and Mitzi Blahd (2001). The invocation was given by Mike Skinner’s friend, Bob Williams, and the master of ceremonies was Michael Dunn, a local actor who (along with Lulee Fisher) sang one of the lead roles in the evening’s musical roast. The skit was conceived and written by Barbara Dawson, produced by Joan Graves, and directed and choreographed by Babs Warden Lebowsky. The pianist was Dr. James E. Smith. When Wolfberg presented the Sparkplug awards, a Community Council tradition for more than 30 years, he recounted the many obstacles Bob Jeffers had to overcome while spending nearly two years raising funds and working to replace 600 feet of unsightly asphalt median strips along Sunset (near Chautauqua) with dwarf bougainvilleas, day lilies, red-hot pokers and gazanias. In accepting the award, PPBA coach Jeffers first thanked Skinner: ‘My two sons are enjoying the fields’fewer bad hops and fewer bruises.’ He then recalled how he continually complained about the weed-infested medians to his wife until she finally said, ‘Well, why don’t you do something about it?’ And he said, ‘Maybe I will.’ Jeffers attended a PRIDE meeting and soon found himself VP of the median project. Along the way, he recalled, ‘we found old Sunset Boulevard below the asphalt [which required an unanticipated major expense] but Councilwoman Miscikowski came to our rescue.’ Ultimately, PRIDE raised $70,000 in community donations, including important checks from the Lions Club, Junior Women’s Club and Sue Kohl/Prudential John Aaroe. ‘This project shows how much a man can accomplish when he’s trying to make a point to his wife,’ Jeffers said. Roger Woods had somewhat the same experience as Jeffers when it came to getting quickly involved in the Village Green Committee. About seven years ago, after he retired from his private neurology practice, Woods began taking a horticulture class at Santa Monica Emeritus College, where he met Margaret Jose, who was then president of the committee. ‘I wanted to give back to the community and I loved gardening,’ Woods said in his acceptance speech. ‘So I joined their monthly Saturday work parties, and pretty soon I realized nobody was looking after the roses. I decided to adopt the roses. But I didn’t realize I was a sitting duck,’ he said with a laugh. ‘Within a matter of months I was vice-president,’ eventually to become the current president when he couldn’t come up with an exit strategy. In addition to reviving the Green’s rose beds, Woods began renovating first the drinking water fountain and then the decorative dolphin fountain’the centerpiece of the Green. This meant revamping the plumbing system, digging a deep trench and laying new pipes and electric lines, as well as designing and constructing a wooden housing for the pump and a new cement foundation. The project was finally completed last December, ‘and the fountain still works’it hasn’t plugged up yet!’ Woods said, amazed that he had become an hydraulic engineer in his retirement. ‘I especially enjoy watching the kids look at the dolphin. They’re mesmerized by the water, and this makes it all worthwhile.’ He added, ‘I can’t pass up this opportunity to emphasize that volunteerism is infectious; it rubs off on you. I haven’t regretted a moment.’
Emily Michelle Kay, daughter of Fay and Robert Kay of Pacific Palisades, and Michael Scott Tillman, son of Lynne Tillman of Long Beach and Jim Tillman of Brea, will be married on July 3 at Rancho Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano. Kay is the owner and director of Fancy Feet Dance Studio in the Palisades, where she has also been teaching for 12 years. She plans to continue teaching her students and running her studio, which is a home to over 350 Palisades children. She has invited all her students to participate in the wedding ceremony. The bridegroom is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a double major bachelor’s degree in history and rhetoric. At Cal, Tillman played on three N.C.A.A. Division One water polo championship teams. He is currently a professional cyclist. He was the first alternate on the 2000 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team and has won U.S. National Championship titles in that sport. The couple currently live in the Palisades, where they plan to continue living after the wedding.
Gregg Orenstein, son of Susan Orenstein and the late Dr. Martin Orenstein of Pacific Palisades, and Baoshi Liu, daughter of Shushan and Shuqin Liu of Harbin, China, exchanged vows in China on February 17. The couple met over a year ago on the Internet. Baoshi, an elementary school English teacher in Harbin, was looking for someone to help her with her English. Gregg, a kung fu enthusiast, was looking for someone to help him with his Chinese. After countless hours communicating over the Internet, and two trips to China for Gregg, the couple was married in Harbin in February. Gregg has returned to the U.S., and as soon as she obtains her visa, Baoshi will join him in the Palisades, where they plan to make their home.
Diane Arbus famously wrote: ‘A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.’ The same might be said about the current ‘Revelations’ exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The show gives rise to as many questions as answers regarding the short life (Arbus committed suicide in 1971 at age 48) of this groundbreaking artist who is best known for boldly documenting people on the fringes of society. ”Her equal opportunity lens focused on everything from debutantes to transvestites, side show performers to celebrities, with nudist camp enthusiasts and residents of homes for the mentally disabled also given major play in her work. Arbus’ pictures have the uncanny ability to make ‘normal’ people and scenes seem bizarre and to imbue the unusual with a sense of naturalness and beauty. ”Along with over 200 of her photographs, the diaries, notebooks, cameras and other personal effects of Diane Arbus also are on view in the exhibition. These three so-called libraries provide biographical depth beyond what’s ever been seen before, yet the artist’s presence is most deeply felt in her work, especially the compelling portraiture she created beginning in 1962. ”That was the year Arbus began working with a square format ( 2 1/4-inch twin-lens reflex) camera, leaving behind her 35 mm camera, the favored instrument of most documentary photographers of her era. The artist was seeking greater clarity in her images’she’d had a period of producing grainy ‘grab and shoot’ street photography’as well as fulfilling a desire to have a more direct relationship with the people she was photographing. ” The new camera, held at the waist, required Arbus to carefully frame her subject by looking down into the view finder. The method necessitated the cooperation of her subjects, many of whom became friends. Unlike rectangular images, which lend themselves to narrative interpretations, these new square portraits took on a formal, even classical quality. ”’They’re highly iconic and emblematic,’ says Robert Sobieszek, curator of photography at LACMA. ‘She photographed real people at a specific time and place, but made them into types. The guy in hair curlers becomes every cross dresser, the Jewish giant represents all giants.”’ ”These potent, unflinching portraits’particularly of ‘freaks’ and others outside society’s mainstream’are reflections, too, of Arbus’ own psychological frailty. ” ”’Diane Arbus Revelations’ continues at LACMA through May 31. Tickets are required. Contact: (323) 857-6000.
Native Palisadian Brad Holmes, third from right, is the editor of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” (Bravo, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.), and is shown here with the Fab Five: (left to right) fashion maven Carson Kressley; culture expert Jai Rodriguez; interior designer Thom Filicia; food and wine expert Ted Allen; and grooming guru Kyan Douglas.
Last April, New York City television editor Brad Holmes took a job that was supposed to last four months while he waited to start the master’s program in environmental policy at Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs in the fall. He was thrilled about starting school and possibly making environmental documentaries. But the temporary job exploded into the national phenomenon ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ which premiered last July. When Holmes had to write a letter to Columbia asking for a deferment, he wondered how he would explain he was working on this show. The administrator for Columbia called and said, ‘Of course you can defer. I love the show.’ Holmes, a Palisades native, is now senior editor for the Bravo series, and still hasn’t decided whether he’ll enter Columbia in the fall. ‘I’m still enjoying working on the show,’ he says. The program features the Fab Five’gay experts in fashion, grooming, interior design, food and wine and culture’who help make over a straight guy who needs help in these areas. The combination of entertainment, humor and useful information has made the show more successful than anyone anticipated. ‘I saw the pilot and thought it was hilarious, but had no idea how successful it would be,’ Holmes said in an interview by phone from his editing studio in Soho. Each episode (airing Tuesdays 10 p.m. on Bravo) is built around the personality of the straight guy, and the gay experts incorporate his interests and personality into the makeover. The hour-long show culminates with an event’such as a party or romantic dinner’where the straight guy reveals his new look and tries to incorporate all the information he’s learned. Holmes begins with about 25 to 30 hours of multi-camera footage for each episode, which is cut down to an hour in length, a process that takes about five weeks. The five experts are not actors. ‘The idea is to keep the show as organic as possible,’ Holmes said. ‘The show feels relaxed, it doesn’t feel rehearsed. It’s a big whirlwind when the five superheroes descend on the straight guy. It’s amazing the response. He gets a lot out of it. A few tears have been known to happen.’ The show has no script, so Holmes’ role as film editor becomes very important. ‘You get to create [your own] beginning, middle and end.’ The process begins with casting the straight guy, who should be fun and outgoing and have a good story to tell. Holmes divides the show into five acts. In the first 10 minutes, the Fab Five burst into the straight guy’s apartment, tear it apart and deconstruct the guy and his lifestyle. In the show’s signature style, each expert is caught in a freeze frame, then reintroduced with a graphic stating his name and expertise. Finding the right moment to freeze each expert is a challenge, but it usually pays off with a punchline’humor is a big part of the Fab Five’s style. In the second act, the Fab Five take the guy shopping in the New York City area, where the show is filmed, and meanwhile redo his house or apartment. Although the actual filming takes place over four days, it’s made to look as if it all happens in one day. In the third act, the man sees his new house and gets lessons. Chef Ted explains how to cook a simple dish, with the idea that viewers at home can learn from it, too. ‘You can watch it once, go into the kitchen and make it,’ Holmes said. Fashion expert Carson has the man model his new outfits and explains why they fit him well and were chosen. Grooming expert Kyan shows him how to use a new skin or hair product. ‘By this point, the straight guy is bombarded with information and completely overwhelmed,’ says Holmes, 31, who admits he has learned quite a bit about style, interior design and food from watching all the footage. The Fab Five then leave, and the man is ‘left on his own to fend for himself.’ In the fourth act, the man cooks, gets dressed and prepares for the evening’s event. Meanwhile the Fab Five watch along on video and comment on the inevitable mistakes and mishaps. In the final act, the big event happens. ‘It’s very hands off; what’s going to happen, happens,’ Holmes says. Some men are able to apply all the information better than others. In one of Holmes’s favorite episodes, Alan Cory was introducing his girlfriend’s parents to his parents. ‘He poured the drinks way too strong, and he used a sweaty rag to clean a plate. It was hilarious, very organic mishaps that were really fun.’ Casting was difficult in the first season, Holmes recalls. ‘There was a lot of hesitation for straight guys. Once the show took off, it wasn’t hard.’ Holmes calls the success of the show a ‘surreal experience. The timing of the show and the popularity of the show really coincide with gay issues in the country. Gay marriage and gay rights are becoming more mainstream. I’ve had grandmothers stop me and tell me they love the show.’ Holmes attended St. Matthew’s and Loyola High School before getting his college degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After college, he moved back to L.A. and started as a low-level runner for a movie trailer house. He stayed after work and taught himself how to use the editing machines, which led to his next job as assistant editor at a documentary company. He later became an editor working on hour-long shows for the History Channel, Discovery and A&E. He moved to New York’s West Village in 2000 and began working on MTV and VH1 music videos, programming and ‘Real World’ specials. ‘I learned how to do unscripted shows, which is a very different kind of editing.’ Currently, his editing job requires 12- to 13-hour days working along with three other editors. As for the stars of the show, he says ‘they’re all genuine, caring people and funny. That’s really who they are. There’s just a presence about the five of them that’s addictive.’ Holmes has even got his older brother Kevin, a composer, involved in the show, creating music for many of the episodes. Kevin, who lives in Silver Lake, talks to Brad on the phone and the two will discuss the particular episode and Kevin will come up with music themes to fit. ‘We get a dossier for each straight guy’his interests, his house, what his issues are, so to speak. We look at what his tastes are, try to figure out what the vibe of the show would be and make tracks for each guy,’ says Kevin, 38. As for Brad, he says ‘I’m drawn towards the reality format, non-fiction, but I am also very curious about doing features and scripted dramas.’ He’s also interested in moving into directing and has already completed an hour-long documentary on past-life therapy. Next month he will be directing an episode of ‘Queer Eye,’ which he will also be editing, with the goal of eventually move into directing permanently. No matter what he decides to do about studying environmental policy in graduate school, Holmes would like to someday find a way to combine his interests in the environment and filmmaking.
Palisadian Frances Fisher plays Sara Miller in ‘Laws of Attraction,’ opening Friday. Photo: 2004 Bernard Walsh/New Line Productions
As a child, Frances Fisher didn’t have the acting bug. Not until after high school, when she was working as a secretary at Firestone Synthetic Rubber and Latex Company in Orange, Texas, and played the ingenue Nellie in a community theater production of Tenessee Williams’ ‘Summer and Smoke,’ did the bug bite her. ”’I found it was much more fun to go work in the theater every evening than typing and filing and trying to pretend I knew how to take shorthand,’ Fisher says. ”She was inspired to become a theater professional by John Holland, a New York actor who had retired to Texas and who encouraged her. ‘If it hadn’t been for him, God knows where I’d be, but I don’t know if I would have become an actress. I realize how important the things adults say to children or young people and how it can change the course of their lives,’ says Fisher, a Palisades resident whose latest movie is New Line’s ‘Laws of Attraction’ with Julianne Moore and Pierce Brosnan. The movie, directed by Peter Howitt, opens Friday nationwide. ”In the film, Fisher plays the comedic role of Sara Miller, the mother of Ashley, the uptight lawyer played by Julianne Moore. Sara is a youthful, fun woman who looks like a contemporary of her daughter and is much more adventurous and free-spirited. ‘I love her spirit and her optimism,’ says Fisher. ‘She’s lived, she’s made mistakes, she’s moving forward, she’s not done in her 50s.’ ”In terms of casting, Fisher says she and Moore didn’t have any qualms about the fact that biologically Fisher’s not old enough to be Moore’s mother. In fact, Sara has Botox and plastic surgery to look as young as her daughter, which led to one of Fisher’s favorite lines in the film: when Brosnan’s character, lawyer Daniel Rafferty, asks Sara, ‘Are you really 56?’ she replies, ‘Parts of me are.’ ”In real life, Fisher, 51, lives in the Huntington Palisades with her 10-year-old daughter Franny. Franny’s father is Clint Eastwood, whom she sees often; she and her mother recently spent the Easter holidays with him. ‘We’re doing the modern nuclear family kind of life,’ Fisher says. ”Fisher, who is well known for her dramatic roles in films such as ‘Titanic,’ where she played the mother of Rose (Kate Winslet), ‘True Crime’ and ‘Unforgiven,’ says of ‘Laws of Attraction’: ‘I’m hoping it’s a movie that sticks around for a while so people can see I am funny.’ Other recent credits include ‘The House of Sand and Fog,’ ‘Blue Car’ and ‘The Lyon’s Den’ TV series. ”After leaving Texas at the age of 20, Fisher worked as an apprentice at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, which involved building and painting sets, sewing costumes, running props and lights and helping the director. ”One of the actresses she was cueing had a 3-year-old daughter and invited Fisher to come to New York City to study acting. ‘I found myself living in the maid’s room on Park Avenue, taking care of a little girl and taking classes during my down time.’ After that job ended, Fisher continued taking classes and acting in off-off-Broadway productions while tending bar to support herself. She broke into television doing commercials, then was able to quit her bartending job when she auditioned for her first soap opera and got the part of Deborah Saxon on ‘The Edge of Night.’ ”After the bohemian artist in her felt like she was getting ‘too settled,’ she quit the soap after four seasons and immersed herself in theater, studying with Stella Adler, and with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. ”’I think being trained in the theater was really the right path for me. I had some great teachers who just drilled into us: You have to really be there to represent the playwright’s thoughts and ideas; it’s not about showing off or being an exhibitionist for your own purposes.’ ”Fisher entered the film world through director Henry Jaglom, working as a production manager one of his movies. He later cast her in some of his improvisational films, including ‘Babyfever’ and ‘Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?’ Her first big-paying job in film came when Norman Mailer cast her as a former porn star who went into real estate in Santa Barbara for his film ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance.’ ”’I made more money in six weeks doing that movie than I had earned in a year doing theater. I thought maybe I should focus on film, so I could continue supporting my theater habit,’ Fisher says. ”’At 36, I came out to Los Angeles because I wanted to get myself into the film business, not realizing that 36 is a very ripe age in the eyes of people in the industry. But my mind didn’t work that way; it still doesn’t because I’m theater-trained, and I just see that I’m going to work forever.’ ”Fisher moved to the Palisades in 1996, looking for a place with a good school system to raise her daughter. ‘I looked everywhere from Malibu to Beverly Hills, then I discovered the Huntington. I kept focusing on one house and ‘I thought, man if I could have a house like that it would be perfect.’ It turned out that the house was for sale but had no for-sale sign. A realtor told her about it after she had looked at 40 houses. ‘It was so meant to be.’ ”She was also attracted to the community after coming to visit a friend for the Fourth of July parade. ‘The Fourth of July sold me. I felt as if I had gone back in time. I also love the Sunday farmers’ market. I think it’s a wonderful way not only to get fresh produce but to socialize and see each other,’ says Fisher, who also wouldn’t mind seeing a first-run movie theater in town. ”Fisher has been a judge at the town’s annual Youth Pageant the last two years. ‘I love being part of the pageant every year. It gives me hope for the future of young people.’ ”When asked about her advice for young people interested in acting, Fisher responds: ‘The advice I always give is that if you could think of anything else you might be interested in, pursue that also, because it takes so much willpower, dedication and perseverance to continue in this business. There are a few people who get lucky early, but to stay in the game takes a lot. ”’If you have a proclivity for loving acting, being creative and enjoying the process, you’re a good candidate for being in this business. If you’re there to become famous’get realistic, do something that feeds your soul, not your ego.’ ”Fisher has been showing her daughter old movies to give her a sense of show business history. ‘We’re on a Marilyn Monroe kick; she was a wonderful comedic actress.’ Franny attends public school here and has acted in local Theatre Palisades Kids productions as well as professionally. ”In addition to her work on television and in big-budget movies, Fisher continues to work in theater and on independent films. ‘It’s frustrating when you put your time and energy into something and nobody sees it,’ she says of her work on the 2002 feature ‘The Rising Place.’ ‘It fell through the cracks; it wasn’t edgy enough for film festivals, people didn’t want to see things with serious themes [treated] in a soft, gentle way.’ ”Fisher just wrapped the film ‘Mrs. Harris,’ which deals with the true-life story of Jean Harris (Annette Bening), who killed her former lover Dr. Herman Tarnower (Sir Ben Kingsley), the Scarsdale Diet author, in the 1980s. It was written and directed by Phyllis Nagy. ‘It was wonderful being on set with her,’ Fisher says. As a theater director, Nagy rehearsed the cast extensively. ‘We’d do things in two different takes and move on.’ This past week, Fisher and Franny traveled to Washington, D.C., to take part in the women’s march on Washington for reproductive rights. She is also a board member for the Screen Actors Guild, the Environmental Media Association, the Sherman Oaks Hospital Foundation, and she is a member of The Mother’s Council, whose goal is to create and sustain a culture in which all children flourish.
Local historian Randy Young who, along with half a dozen volunteers, stripped the interior of the 19 horse stalls in the main stable at Will Rogers last Thursday. He is pointing to one of the two remaining wrought iron horse ties that remain in the stable. Photo by Linda Renaud
Work on the $5.5-million restoration of Will Rogers State Historic Park, which up until recently proceeded at a snail’s pace for over a year due to changes in park management and bureaucratic delays, has finally jumped into high gear. While steady progress is being made in solving the park’s main problem’lack of proper drainage, which has plagued the 186-acre site since it was built in 1928’the real action last Thursday was taking place in the main stable. Half a dozen volunteers stripped the interiors of the 19 horse stalls, ripping off ‘anything that is not authentic, like the kick boards and plastic food bins,’ explained Randy Young, president of the Will Rogers Cooperative Association. Young’s helpers on Earth Day included three members of the Rogers family, each representing different generations: Judy, widow of Jim, the youngest of Will and Betty Rogers’s three children; Charlie, Jim’s middle child, who flew in from Arizona for the day, and Jennifer Rogers Etcheverry, one of Will Rogers six great-grandchildren. The volunteer work day was her idea. ‘After sitting through so many meetings in recent months I started thinking: ‘What could we do to speed up the renovation process?’ Well, we could certainly roll up our sleeves, which is something my great-grandfather would have done. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.’ Etcheverry, who lives with her husband and two children on an almond farm in Bakersfield, remembers coming to the ranch as a child. ‘We had family picnics on the lawn and watched the polo matches.’ Now she visits at least once a month to help out. Her job last Thursday was to remove nails from the pine boards, which will be recycled and used to build a barn dedicated to her grandfather, Jim. It will be located 100 yards from the main stable. ‘I think people need to know that the still family cares, a lot,’ said Etcheverry, 38, putting on her work gloves. ‘How are our children going to find out about Will Rogers? We have a chance to teach them right here at the ranch.’ Work on the Jim Rogers barn, a 16,000-sq.-ft. rectangular structure which will have six horse stalls, will begin in June with ‘an old-fashioned barnraising,’ Young said. ‘We want everyone in the Palisades to help by hammering in a nail so that they will feel a part of what is going on here at the ranch.’ Nearly a decade after Will Rogers died in a 1935 plane crash his wife Betty donated their ranch to the state with the proviso that should the property not be properly maintained it would revert back to the family. The dedication took place in August 1944 with Will Rogers’ favorite horse, Soapsuds, part of the ceremonies. Soapsuds is now buried on the lawn in front of the stable and all the horses are gone. Two years ago the commercial boarding operation was closed down, following allegations that it had become the private domain of a lucky few and that the runoff waste from the stable was polluting Rustic Creek below the park.
By BILL BRANCH Special to the Palisadian-Post This Memorial Day, May 29, on the Mall in Washington, D.C., dedication of the World War II Memorial will take place. The memorial will honor the 16 million American servicemen and women who served and fought and those who died in the war to secure democracy and liberate the oppressed. Knowing that not every Palisades WWII veteran could possibly go to Washington, American Legion Post 283 will host a corresponding event on that Saturday to honor Westside veterans and to observe the memorial dedication. The event on La Cruz will provide a venue for members of the WWII generation to gather together, record oral histories, share war stories, and enjoy WWII music. Prizes will be awarded to WWII veterans who wear their uniforms and are judged a ‘best fit.’ In addition, Palisades author Ken Wales will discuss his latest book ‘Sea of Glory,’ based on the true story of the four military chaplains who sacrificed their lives during the sinking of the USAT Dorchester in WWII. The festivities will begin at 11 a.m. on May 29 with a specially-produced satellite broadcast of the Washington dedication ceremony. At noon, Post 283 will host a patriotic program and luncheon, followed by the continuation of the satellite broadcast. Veterans who wish to attend or would like a Certificate of Appreciation should write to the American Legion at 15247 La Cruz Drive, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 and provide their name, address, phone number, branch and years of service, and whether or not they can attend.
During opening ceremonies for the Palisades Pony Baseball Association’s golden anniversary season in March, Mike Skinner was presented with a crystal ball. Hand-carved on the stand was the phrase: ‘If you build it, they will play.’ That was Skinner’s motto during his five-year quest to have a state-of-the-art ‘Field of Dreams’ constructed at Palisades Recreation Center, and his untiring devotion to the renovation project, completed last November, is the reason he will be honored by the Palisadian-Post as Citizen of the Year tonight at the Riviera Country Club. ‘We gave him the job. He took it, he lived it and he made it a reality,’ 14-year PPBA Commissioner Bob Benton said of Skinner’s dedication to the project. ‘None of what we see here now would have been possible without him.’ In addition to PPBA, the facility will be used for other sports, like AYSO soccer and flag football. Long after the project has been completed, Skinner is still hard at work raising money for the facility’s ongoing maintenance fund. In all, about $1,000,000 has now been raised. ‘This has been a community-wide effort,’ Skinner said. ‘A lot of people stepped up to the plate with generous donations to make this happen.’ A longtime youth coach and former chairman of the Park Advisory Board, Skinner was responsible for getting approval first from the Palisades Community Council, then from City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the Department of Recreation and Parks and finally the California Coastal Commission. Once the Community Council overwhelmingly approved the upgrade project (and a skatepark proposal) in May 2000, Skinner’s first priority was to convince residents near the Rec Center that renovating the fields would not adversely affect them. He did so by being organized, providing a scale model and computer-generated images of what the fields would look like upon completion, attending every public meeting and including in his proposal landscaping plans, sound mitigation and reduced light reflection. ‘This is a win-win situation for everybody’the kids, the parents, the park itself, the community as a whole and the neighbors,’ Skinner said to concerned homeowners at a public meeting in May 2002. ‘The fields will look great, they will be safer, the noise level will be reduced and the glare from the lights will be far less than it is right now. Also, construction will be limited to the summertime. You won’t see tractors and trucks cluttering the parking lot for six months.’ Skinner’s next hurdle was finding a suitable contractor. Again, his thoroughness payed off. He and Brian Sullivan ultimately chose Athletic Turfs, Inc.’the same firm that built a baseball diamond on the cornfield in Iowa used for the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ and worked on several sports facilities in Southern California, including Anaheim Stadium and UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium. Finally, there was the issue of fundraising. Again, Skinner never wavered in his belief in the project, its importance to the community and his faith that the $850,000 needed to complete the work could be raised. He insisted a Donor Wall be constructed to recognize individuals, families, groups or foundations who made financial contributions. In addition to the crystal ball he was given on PPBA Opening Day, Skinner also received a wood bat engraved with ‘A world of thanks.’ Tonight’s dinner is another opportunity for friends and neighbors to thank Skinner for overseeing a project that will benefit the community for generations to come.
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