People and Events

When Helen Ho Bottorff of Rancho Palos Verdes saw the Academy Award-sweeping “The Last Emperor,” she was particularly taken by the scene in which royal tutor Chen Bao Shen presents the boy ruler with a cricket in a jar.

Chen Bao Shen was her grandfather.

Although the film depicting the life of Emperor-turned-”re-educated” gardener Henry Pu Yi stresses the role of Scottish tutor Reginald Johnston, played by Peter O’Toole, Pu Yi’s autobiography makes it clear that Chen was also very important to him.

Bottorff, 62, who with her husband and brother own the Golden Lotus restaurant in Rancho Palos Verdes, says of her grandfather, “He is the family legend; the greatest man in my life.”

Chen Bao Shen died in 1935 at the age of 88.

Helen Ho was reared in Shanghai and moved to Taiwan, where she worked as a radio reporter and married John Bottorff, a U.S. foreign service officer. She made her first visit to the Forbidden City, the seat of imperial power, in 1979.

“It was very strange,” she says of that trip. “I said to myself, ‘My grandfather used to work here.’ ”

Los Angeles International Airport’s residential neighbors have been complaining about jet noise a lot more during the last two months, but no one is certain why.

It could be because of the closure of the “24 Left” runway for reconstruction work.

Or it could be the opening of a new hot line to receive complaints.

The hot line was installed in late January and the runway--one of the airport’s four--was shut down in mid-February.

In February, the airport received 266 complaints, contrasted with 63 during the same month a year ago. In March, there were 257 complaints, contrasted with a mere 90 during March, 1987.

Then it could be the recent warm weather. Officials say complaints usually increase when people spend more time outside or leave their windows open.

“I don’t think we have a scientific analysis of what’s causing it,” said airport spokesman Lee Nichols.

The airport people held a little ceremony Thursday morning, unveiling a plaque and watching the mayors of Los Angeles and Frankfurt, West Germany, write their names on an official-looking document. In addition to Tom Bradley and Wolfram Brueck, there were members of the airport authorities from both cities.

The gathering at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, said LAX public relations folks, was to mark a formalized agreement that “is intended to benefit both airports through a regular exchange of information and experience related to airport operations administration.”

What did that mean, exactly?

Bradley, Airport Commission President Maria D. Hummer and other local airport officials went to Frankfurt in February to hold a similar ceremony, said spokesman Tom Winfrey. “They had an agreement that pledges cooperation between the two, and continued contact.”

It just “cements the relationship a little tighter,” he said.

He didn’t say why they couldn’t just pick up the phone.

Stripping their former Rancho Palos Verdes home of its elegant furnishings right down to the onyx and hardwood floors will cost Harry and Vilumin McMullin a month in jail plus fines and restitution totaling more than $23,000.

The McMullins claimed that it’s all the fault of deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who allegedly prompted a Panamanian bank in which he held an interest to foreclose on them because they advocated his overthrow. They contended that the improvements were theirs.

Prosecutors said international politics had nothing to do with it.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Betty Seawell said the McMullins promised bank officials they would take only two chandeliers, carpeting, antique stained glass and furniture.

A Torrance Superior Court jury convicted them several weeks ago of vandalizing the home. Judge J. Gary Hastings has now pronounced sentence.