People and Events

From Mayor Norris Poulson’s dressing-down of visiting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1959 to more recent City Council condemnations of Cuba, South Africa and the Soviet Union, Los Angeles City Hall has long demonstrated an activist foreign policy.

Lest anyone forget, City Councilman Ernani Bernardi stood up during the opening minutes of Friday’s meeting and declared that American figure skater Debi Thomas “got shafted” by East European judges during the previous night’s competition in the Winter Olympics.

Council President John Ferraro interrupted Bernardi, pointing out with a laugh that because Winter Olympics judging was not on the agenda, any discussion of the issue was a violation of the state’s Ralph M. Brown Act.

“White act, blue act, green act, I don’t care,” Bernardi responded, repeating, “The girl got shafted.”

The city councilman also trespassed on Mr. Blackwell’s territory by commenting that he had nothing against Thomas’ leading opponent, East German skater Katarina Witt, “in spite of that weird outfit she had on.”

No doubt thinking of Los Angeles City Hall’s tradition as world critic, Council President John Ferraro said: “Let the record show Mr. Bernardi thinks the girl got shafted.”

Skid Row types stood on both sides of 4th Street Friday morning, staring at each other in an art vs. life confrontation.

Those on the south side were actors filming the movie “Scrooge,” an updated version of the Dickens classic that stars Bill Murray as a television executive. (“ ‘The Perry Como Christmas Special?’ Humbug!”)

The scene called for Murray to stumble upon the prostrate body of a drunken man whom he’d fired.

Meanwhile, a real street person on the other side beat a pair of wooden drumsticks on the sidewalk and shouted, “Steal the scene! Steal the scene!”

Another man periodically yelled, “Who you gonna call? Who you gonna call?”--perhaps thinking Murray was filming a sequel to “Ghostbusters.”

Art director Jenny Randolph noted that occasionally a derelict tries to “kind of wriggle” into the action but is always caught. All the movie hoboes, she pointed out, first must “go through Wardrobe.”

“Hail the Motorman! He of Good Judgment: Quick Eye, Steady Nerve,” proclaimed the ads for the Pacific Electric Line half a century ago when rapid transit wasn’t a misnomer here.

The Red Cars are long gone (some were actually sunk offshore to provide cover for sea life). But the RTD has announced that it will daub a red stripe on the projected Long Beach-Los Angeles trolleys in order “to recall the history of the Red Cars.”

Graphic designer Leon Cooksey considered painting the trolleys entirely red as a nostalgic gesture but said a new, striped design on a white background was chosen because “we want to look ahead--we consider this the transportation of the future.”

Besides, he said, “there’ve been a lot of changes in the theory of red. It’s difficult to see at night, it deteriorates quicker than other colors and psychologically it looks uncomfortable--it’s reminiscent of fire and heat.”

Informed that King Mswati III of Swaziland is a long-distance runner who hopes to lead his country into the world sports arena some day, Mayor Tom Bradley tendered him a formal invitation to the March 6 Los Angeles Marathon.

The 21-year-old monarch, who reportedly has six wives, “does at least five miles every morning,” said Bruce Tenen, a marathon spokesman. “We’ve heard that he runs bare chested in a long skirt that is native to his country.”

Alas, Tenen said, the king emerged the other day from his monthly period of seclusion to declare that he’d have to take a rain check.

Spectators won’t see a royal runner but they will see a wedding at the finish line. Entrants Jack Wells and Bonnie Slater of Hampton, Ill., will tie the knot after the race, figuring “if they can go through a marathon together, marriage will be easy,” Tenen said.

The bride will be decked out in white shorts.