People and Events

While Broadway in New York has had some noted theatrical bombs, Hollywood’s James Doolittle Theater did them one better Wednesday morning even though there are no plays opening until January. The bomb in question was duly noted not by a critic, but by an attendant, who found what he thought was an explosive device attached to a pole in the adjacent parking lot. LAPD’s bomb squad arrived with the hero of the day--Felix, a four-foot tall green electronically controlled robot, which reached out with hydraulic arms, plucked the object from the pole, slam dunked it into a bomb-proof receptacle and exploded it with an electrical charge.

To everyone’s relief, the “bomb” turned out to be a glass jar containing blue ink with a toy rocket launcher attached. There was some propellant in the launcher, but not enough to do any damage, police said.

Incidentally, Marilyn Rice, operations manager of the Doolittle, predicted that the audience will get a bang out of “As You Like It” scheduled to open in January.

Pacific Bell and the FBI wishes that James Clark, a 47-year-old former Ohio machinist, would phone home. Clark likes to pick locks--specifically locks on pay telephones, authorities say. Since 1980, he allegedly has stolen an estimated $500,000 in dimes, quarters and nickels from booths in 24 states, and recently zeroed in on the Los Angeles suburbs.

While many people vandalize phones every year, Pacific Bell officials believe that Clark, who was a former die maker, is the only one to have fashioned a special tool to get into the coin boxes. Seven Bell companies are offering a $25,000 reward for his arrest.

Law officers say Clark is 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 165 pounds, wears his hair shoulder length, (sometimes in a pony tail), likes automobile races, drives a new dark blue metallic Chevy van, wears glasses, cowboy boots and baseball caps. Officials add that he usually wears his shirts untucked--so he can hide the coin boxes.

Wanted posters have been placed in local convenience shops and motels where he usually does business, using small change, of course. Described as armed and dangerous, he also has shown a certain sense of humor. He often registers at hotels under the alias James Able Bell.

William Speedie, who has been a legislative assistant to several Los Angeles City Council committees the last 21 years, says he’s never thought of changing his Scottish last name, even though as a child he was often referred to by friends as Speedie Alka Seltzer and other such monikers. These days, he’s in for even more ribbing. Speedie is in charge of writing up the Transportation and Traffic Committee’s report to the City Council on ways to cut down on traffic slowdowns. And, by the way, he says that his grandmother’s maiden name was Pace.

Burbank police, looking for a suspect who escaped from Municipal Court, checked the grounds of a local motel. They thought it strange when they saw a guy taking a dip in the motel pool in the early morning chill. They thought it even stranger when the swimmer volunteered to tell them that the suspect “went thataway.”

On closer inspection, they noted that the swimmer was wearing only boxer shorts (adorned with a green Christmas tree design.) They knew they had their man, police said, when they found his clothes stuffed under a chair nearby. Dennis Westerlund, 26, of Kona, Hawaii, who initially was arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant, was booked for investigation of felony escape, police said.