Pomona Fox Theatre

Pomona's architecture always surprises me--it's amazing what one city has not razed. OTOH, give 'em some time.

The Fox Theater at 3rd and Garey opened in 1931--that's the opening day picture at left. It cost $350,000 to build and had the first refrigerator air conditioning east of Los Angeles. (Pomona is still in the county, of course--cuz that's where the Fair is.)

The building was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Since 2000, the city of Pomona has been the owner of record, and Pomona Heritage is leading an effort to restore the Fox Theatre to its Depression Era glory. In those days, stars like Shirley Temple and Bob Hope used to appear at preview screenings of their films at the Fox, which was just far enough from Hollywood to reflect middle-American tastes. Besides the special appearances, movie stars and producers would be in the audience as well.

These pictures come from Pomona Heritage'swebsite about the building's history. In 1938, for example, all of Los Angeles and San Bernadino Counties suffered through terrible floods. The Fox Theatre, big enough to hold an audience of 1500 people, served as a shelter for 300 refugees.

St. Vibiana, Patron of Runway Models

Well, why not? Runway models need a saint to look after them, maybe more than the rest of us. Those spikey heels are treacherous!

According to one legend, Vib--or Bibiana, as she's sometimes known, was one of two daughters of Flavianus, a prefect who was banished by Julian the Apostate. Julian, the last pagan emperor of Rome, reigned only two years--but that was long enough to renew persecution of Christians. The virgin Bibiana was tortured and martyred. Why shouldn't she be safeguarding and guiding runway models?

So nice that the old Cathedral still finds a place in our modern world. Here's a previous blog entry.

Bing Crosby and a Barrel of Monkeys

On November 16, 1937, a subtle little ad appeared in the Los Angeles Times' lost & found column:

Monkeys Lost
$2 Reward for return of each monkey escaped from Major Pictures Corp.,
1040 N. Las Palmas.

(the picture shows the address today)

It ran for five days; no idea how many monkeys were actually turned in. The New York Times, on the 19th, ran a story claiming that Belmont High School students were offered $1 a head bounty for running down monkeys that had gotten lose during the filming of a Bing Crosby picture.

A gossip-column in the Los Angeles Times reports that 150 monkeys did indeed escape from General Service Studios, which (according to seeingstars.com) is exactly what that address on Las Palmas was in 1937. Today it's Hollywood Center Studios, and seeingstars has the building's bio, from its founding in 1919, its impressive early pedigree (Howard Hughes shot Hell's Angels at this studio), and its downfall into B-moviedom, which apparently began with the escaped-monkey movie.

The movie was Doctor Rhythm, and imdb says it ostarred Beatrice Lillie, Andy Devine, and Mary Carlisle. No mention of the monkeys, but our 1937 gossip columnist claims that most of the action takes place in a zoo--hence the simians.

Judy Garland's Home

Double-checking the BigTimeListings blog reveals more historic home action:

"An estate in the Lower Sunset Plaza area of Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills that once was owned by actress Judy Garland and her director husband Vincente Minnelli and that later was owned by actor Sammy Davis Jr. now is on the market"

The home sold for under $2.8 million, a bit below the $3.3 asked in July, and a lot under the $5 mil asked two years ago (the seller paid $.5 for it in 1995). But Judy Garland moved into it in September of 1944! Liza Minelli (b. 1946) learned to walk here! (It is referred to as pink stucco in a bio of Garland, clearly that's been changed.)

Built in 1941, the five-bedroom, 4,999-square-foot house at 8850 Evanview Drive has seven bedrooms, according to public records. However, listing information shows that it only has five bedrooms. Other features . . . 7-1/2 baths, public rooms with city views, maple floors, French doors, a large family room, a formal dining room, a library and a media room. Outside are a guest house, a pool, gardens and patios.

Historic Homes in Los Angeles

We all know they're endangered, right? Arrogance tops the list of predators, but there's also earthquakes, mudslides, floods, fires, and plain old time, all threatening L.A.'s older gems.

According to the Times, Danny Bonaduce is selling a "classic, Spanish Andalusian manion, built in 1926 by architect Harry Hayden Whiteley." RE Blog Your Mama has pictures--just in case you missed the house on reality TV. (Actually, skip the Times piece--the blog has more info, pix, and salacious gossip.)

More celebrity home-buying-selling is at Big Time Listings blog (just in case we have nothing else to do but drool), but all this is really a lead-in to a new, 2-volume book on the area's old homes by Sam Watters.

The books are written up in the Times. Watters spent six years researching Houses of Los Angeles, 1885-1919

and Houses of Los Angeles, 1920-1935. Why did it take so long? "We don't just tear down our treasures. We toss out all written records about them as well," he says.

About half the homes he features in the books are gone.

Las Vegas, Nevada, is about the only place I can think of more cavalier about its history.

Palladium, Pt. 2

Cecilia Rasmussen of the L.A. Times heard my whine about no stories on the Hollywood Palladium, apparently. Sunday's paper had a half-page history, with the news that Esther Rydell is making a documentary about the venue. Five pictures appear with the story, including this one of the Palladium under construction in 1940.

Torrance High School, TV Star

You've seen Torrance High, even if you've never been to the South Bay. Season after season, it appeared as the high school used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Beverly Hills 90210. It was also in the movies The Hot Chick and She's All That, according to imdb. Fast Times at Ridgmont High is not listed there, but I'm pretty sure that was Torrance High too.

Read more about the school's history at the THS website.

The school turned 90 on September 11, 2007, and is holding a fundraising antique car show on October 13, from 10-2. Donation is $5, or $3 for under-18. Cars from all decades, back to 1914, will be on display, and all the money goes to the Alumni Association. Raffles & Fud too. The school is at 2200 W. Carson St., between Crenshaw and Cabrillo--which is really Van Ness but changes its name.

Lebowski Fest

The Annual (5th? 6th? whatever) Lebowski Fest kicks off on Friday, October 12, at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Bowling will commence on Saturday evening at the Cat Bowl in Lakewood. A souvenir book will be available for purchase.

A Sunday tour of Lebowski sites is fully booked, alas. But you can visit Dinah's (off the 405 in Culver City) on your own, whenever you like--what do you need a tour group for?

Ceremonially swathe your toe in bandages and sit in a booth, order pigs-in-a-blanket (or fried chicken), and secretly enjoy the thrill. Or have an acid flashback; the choice is yours.

Hollywood Palladium

The Hollywood Palladium opened in 1940, with vocalist Frank Sinatra playing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. A few weeks later, they recorded an album at the Palladium.

The building was designed by Gordon B. Kaufman (who also designed Santa Anita Racetrack and the Greystone Estate), and it supposedly cost a cool million to build. It sits, according to the LA Times, on a lot formerly occupied by Paramount Studios.

On Saturday nights, from 1961 to 1976, Lawrence Welk and his orchestra played the Palladium. The Emmys and Grammys have been handed out on its stage.

Even though the acoustics are. . . poorly regarded, lots of groups followed Tommy Dorsey's lead and recorded live albums at the Palladium. Gene Krupa and his orchestra did so in 1945. Also: Keith Richards in 1988, Bill Elliot's Swing Band in 2000. Recordings of a 1971 Grateful Dead concert can be heard here.

Movies? The Palladium was the site of the Sci-Fi convention in Galaxy Quest. The Blues Brothers first concert (in the movie) was filmed here. The Bodyguard, F.I.S.T, Mr. Saturday Night and a bunch of other movies all list the site on imdb.

Besides two blog entries, though, precious little is written on the Palladium online or in books. It's got to be the most overlooked and under documented historic venue in Hollywood.

In April, LiveNation announced it would lease the Palladium (capacity 4000 guests) for twenty years. LiveNation will refurbish the huge theater, closing it after a Morrissey concert on October 13, and reopening (hopefully) in one year.

Southwest Museum Support Groups

From the 110 Freeway, the Southwest Museum looks impressive. Charles Fletcher Lummis, once the Los Angeles city librarian who edited the forerunner of Westways Magazine, founded it and began construction in 1913, supported by a "Southwest Society."

Lummis was a character and a half, in love with the romance of this area. This picture of him at age 24 (from the Autry website) was taken after he'd walked to California from Cincinnati, about 3500 miles.

Back to the Museum, though.

The Southwest Museum holds a quarter million artifacts of Native American origin--but has only enough room to display 2% of them. One of the reasons the Museum was up for grabs 4 years ago (The Autry now owns it) was that the museum building itself, physically run-down, put those artifacts at risk.

The Museum has been closed pending renovations, and that's expected to last till 2010--according to the website, which gives an overview of the damages done by flooding and insect infestation. The problems with the building and the preservation of the artifacts concerns everyone, but the Autry's responsibility and it's handling (not to mention placement) of the collection raises hackles in some circles.

That's all confusing enough. But newspapers now announce the birth of a new "Southwest Society" to raise money for renovations and expanded display space in the Southwest Museum. Huh? Wasn't that what the Autry was supposed to do? And weren't there grants and . . . all that stuff to pay for it? Definitely confusing.

Mayor Villaraigosa, Assembly Speaker Fabio Nunez are on board with the new Southwest Society, along with City Councilman Jose Huizar, Supervisor Gloria Molina, and others (the list is unofficially published at the Yahoo Group NELA). The Autry will provide staff for their fundraising activities.

Hopefully, they will issue a statement on the Autry site explaining what's going on, so that museum-lovers in Los Angeles will understand.

Here are some websites o' interest about Lummis and his museum:

• CharlesLummis.com, promoting a prize-winning biography of Lummis, with lots of pictures and data
  
• A 2005 article from LA Weekly about the Autry-Southwest agreement, exploring the question of cultural piracy.
  
• Friends of the Southwest Museum wants expanded space in a rennovated Southwest Museum. They are not mentioned in the new Southwest Society blurbs.