People and Events

Probably the most calls from prospective bidders at the upcoming auction of a few thousand of Liberace’s precious possessions have been to ask the size of a pair of never worn cowboy boots bearing the late entertainer’s logo, says his longtime publicist, Jamie James.

“He had very large feet,” James confides. “Size 12. These are 10. Whoever gave them to him didn’t know.” On stage, in fact, Liberace wore size 13 shoes because he put on six pairs of socks so he could simply peel off the outside pair with each quick costume change.

Getting ready for the auction at the Los Angeles Convention Center April 9-12 has been a “colossal” job, James says. More than 22,000 separate items have been collected from five lavish homes.

Christie’s, the New York auction house that is conducting the sale with the local Butterfield & Butterfield, is being “very reserved, to put it mildly,” says James. “I’ve tried to handle it the way I think Liberace would do it--lots of show biz.”

It will cost $10 to get into the auction. Public viewing of the items will be April 5-8; admission is $6. The 275-page catalogue will cost $18. Organizers hope the event will bring in $10 million, enabling the Liberace Foundation for the Performing Arts to boost its scholarship grants to schools and universities.

For Pam American World Airways employee John De Tomaso, the verdict was a big relief, but he probably wonders if that’s finally the end. “It’s the third time my name has been cleared,” he says. “The label ‘thief’ has been taken off of me--again.”

De Tomaso’s troubles began nearly 10 years ago when Pan Am offered to sell employees bins of abandoned cargo, sight unseen. He paid $300 for three bins, the contents of which turned out to be 13,000 valuable miniature batteries used in watches and computers. Apparently the batteries were in the bins by mistake, for when De Tomaso tried to sell them, he was accused of stealing them and was fired.

He won a grievance hearing and got his job back by proving he had bought the batteries in good faith, but he said fellow employees continued to regard him as a thief. He sued the airline for defamation. A jury awarded him $565,000, but the state Supreme Court threw out the judgment because under federal law, many railway and airline workers may only challenge employer abuses through grievance and arbitration proceedings.

Once again, says De Tomaso, 45, fellow employees thought he must be guilty.

The high court, however, allowed De Tomaso to sue Pan Am for the value of the batteries it grabbed back from him. He did, and on Monday, a Torrance Superior Court jury voted 12 to 1 in his favor. He won a judgment of $58,500 for the batteries, plus interest since September, 1978.

“He has gone through 10 years of it,” says his lawyer, Robert N. Cleaves. “Everybody thinks he’s a thief. We win. It gets reversed and then they think he’s a thief again.” Cleaves says he is sure Pan Am is going to appeal.

The airline’s attorney did not respond to a phone call to confirm or deny that.

County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn appears likely to finish out March without any intersections in his district being inundated by rain. The National Weather Service says it should be mostly clear through Thursday, the end of the month. There seems little reason to doubt that.

Hahn, who previously promised $1 to anyone who could find a pothole in unincorporated parts of his 2nd District (a rash offer that cost him $3), said on March 2 that he would give $5 to anyone finding a flooded intersection in the same areas. The deal was good for the month of March only.

The Civic Center had .18 of an inch of rain on March 1. The next day, it had a mere .08 of an inch. Since then, nothing.

One woman did claim $5 for what she said was flooding at Firmona Avenue and Lennox Boulevard in Lennox on March 2. Hahn paid her.

“Kenny felt it was only worth about $3,” spokesman Dan Wolf said Tuesday. “It was not really impassable, but there was some bubbling there, so he gave her the benefit of the doubt and paid her $5.”

Sheriff’s deputies in Marina del Rey quickly mobilized when they received a call at 7:45 p.m. Monday reporting that about two dozen men were trying to tie another man to a cross in a field. Four carloads of deputies were dispatched, Deputy Hal Grant said.

What they discovered in the 12400 block of Beatrice Street was a scene pretty much as described. Except that the man being crucified was a volunteer. And the others were from a local church.

Practice for a very realistic Easter play, they explained.