Too Busy to Roll Your Own Rolodex? L.A. ‘Cityfile’ May Have Your Number
A Larchmont, N.Y., company is peddling a new gimmick to Southern Californians who are tired of letting their fingers do the walking through all those Yellow Pages or who have never gotten around to rolling their own Rolodexes.
Called “Cityfile,” it is a prefab, desktop directory that lists more than 5,000 telephone numbers and addresses on 3-by-5-inch removable cards, said Thomas Cushing, president of Superior Shopping, which researches and sells Cityfile. A related company called Metro Files markets and produces the card files.
The Los Angeles Cityfile, which also includes scattered listings for Orange County and other areas, is arranged by categories. Among them are Consumer, Emergency, Nightlife, Restaurants, Theater, Shopping, Museums, Media and Government.
The original Cityfile, which covered New York, was launched in December, 1985, by Tom Bernardin, who was a tour guide at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. A subsequent Washington Cityfile was released last fall.
“It’s done very, very well,” Cushing said.
The company also publishes the New York Food File, a directory of food sources compiled by Cushing and his wife, Margarita Silva Cushing, as an outgrowth of their own entertaining. Cushing said he and his partners, Richard Tremmel and Robert Sivori, recently bought out the company that produces Cityfile and Food File.
Cityfiles are being planned for Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago and Miami, Cushing said. A Washington Food File is scheduled to be published in May followed in June by a Los Angeles Food File.
The Cityfile’s numbers are compiled from existing directories, Cushing said. Local experts are used to help tailor the card files, he added.
The result is an exhaustive listing that ranges from the useful to the unusual. Everything from the Department of Water and Power’s kite removal service to 24-hour eateries are included.
But little goofs do creep in. For example, the Union Rescue Mission was listed as the United Rescue Mission and Tijuana’s Agua Caliente race track was christened the Aqua Caliente. The Huntington Sheraton in Pasadena was listed under Hotels-Premium even though the venerable hostelry has been closed since late 1985. (A seismic study determined that the 81-year-old main structure could not withstand a major earthquake).
Superior Shopping is now revising the Los Angeles Cityfile to clean up errors, Tremmel said.
The Cityfile is updated annually, Cushing said. It retails for between $30 and $35 at department stores, gift shops, stationery stores and book stores.
