People and Events

Huntington Park tailor Nick Ioannidis threw his annual party to celebrate the anniversary of his naturalization. His shop was crowded, to say the least. He estimated that at least 1,000 folks dropped in for a taste of buffet between noon and 5 p.m.

It isn’t tough to discern that Ioannidis, 53, loves his adopted country. His stationery is imprinted with the American flag and the words Nick the Greek in America. He belongs to the Elks, the Kiwanis Club, the YMCA and just about everything else along that line.

Wednesday’s event was even more special to Ioannidis because it marked 13 years since he became a citizen. The fact that the United States began with 13 colonies did not escape him.

Didn’t it cost a lot to feed so many people?

“No matter how much it cost me,” he said, “I needed to work to put it all together, to make it nice and beautiful for United States of America.”

Ioannidis, descendant of a long line of tailors, immigrated to the United States from Greece in 1969. He arrived in Huntington Park with only 25 cents and knowing no English. He got a job as a department store tailor, saving enough to open his own shop two years later.

He couldn’t talk too long Wednesday morning, explaining, “Now start already the crowd.” With that, he rushed off to greet his friends.

Another anniversary was celebrated in Tarzana, where a restaurant staged its own first birthday party as a benefit for the End Hunger Network. It was Meatball Madness Day. Nine contestants--including fine arts students from local universities and colleges--sculpted the various presidential candidates out of meatballs.

Or raw meat, at least. An average of eight pounds per sculpture, said Willie Prymer, one of the managers of Toni and Luigi.

Jeff Phillips, a USC sculpture major, won with his depiction of Jesse Jackson.

The results were going on display at the restaurant, but Prymer stressed that none of them would end up as meatballs. “Too many hands touched the meat,” he explained.

In the past, says Capt. Bayan Lewis, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division, rollers and brushes have been used to eradicate graffiti on buildings and walls.

“That,” he notes, “takes forever. If you’ve seen some of the sophisticated graffiti on the walls, they’re using sprayers. We ought to at least have equipment as good as the enemy has.”

Mechanization is on the way. Through City Councilman John Ferraro’s office, the Thrifty Corp. has sent a check for $2,500 to purchase an anti-graffiti spray paint machine that can be mounted on a trailer and towed by police car along streets and alleys.

It will be part of the Rampart Division’s “Broken Windows” program, under which eight senior officers see to it that the appropriate people remove junk cars, raze abandoned houses, clean up trash and eliminate other symptoms of urban decay.

The program has been under way for six months. “I have no misconception that this is going to be instantaneous,” says Lewis, “but I’m already seeing some results. People say they feel safer.”

The Dodgers have made some changes this season in left field, right field and the bullpen.

And Nancy Hefley has replaced Helen Dell in the organist’s booth.

Dell, of Simi Valley, stepped down after 16 years “so I could have more time to myself.” Hefley, of Yorba Linda, was chosen over two other finalists off her recital during the Dodgers-USC game on Valentine’s Day. There were more than 30 applicants.

Dell missed only three games in her 16 years--one for her son’s wedding and two after a serious traffic accident. She showed up to play at the next home stand with a broken thumb, broken wrist, broken ribs and a broken clavicle.

Hefley now has completed her first home stand and is “loving it.” She says her style is a little different from Dell’s, perhaps a “little more up-tempo.”

She is no beginner, having subbed occasionally at Anaheim Stadium for the organist at Angels games. There, she was able to run off little bits of songs with meaningful titles just about anytime she felt like it. Because of National League rules, however, she plays at Dodger Stadium “strictly on command. When I’m told to play ‘Charge!’ I play.”