People and Events
Patty Shenker wanted her folks to come here from St. Louis to see her marry free-lance movie location manager Doug Stoll over the weekend, but her 81-year-old father has been ill. “The trip would have been a little much,” the bride said Monday.
So the Saturday night Santa Monica wedding, which was attended by about 50 guests, was transmitted directly from a remote TV truck via satellite to a second dish-equipped truck outside the St. Louis home of Mr. and Mrs. Morris Shenker, where it was viewed by another two dozen guests. Shenker is the former owner of the Dunes Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas.
“They had their own party with cake and champagne,” the bride said. “We talked back and forth. They could see us, but we couldn’t see them. When you can’t have your family with you, it’s the next-best thing.”
The satellite transmission was a wedding present from the new Mrs. Stoll’s cousin, Ted Koplar, owner of St. Louis television station KPLR.
How much does a little gift like that cost?
Kevin Patsel, of IDB Communications, the Culver City outfit that set it up, declined to answer such a tasteless question. Instead, he said, “When you look at it in terms of having to fly guests out and put them up in hotels, it’s actually cheaper.”
Well, heck, Darryl Genis didn’t really want the job anyway.
Attorney Genis, who lives in San Pedro, was one of 16 lawyers who ran for the Catalina Justice Court bench in last week’s election.
He got zero votes.
C. Laurence Chamness at least got one.
Genis said he filed for the office, which would entail spending one day a week on Santa Catalina Island, “with a question in my mind.” He wondered whether it would interfere with his law practice. After the filing deadline he concluded that it would--basically because he would be pretty much on call to sit in various jurisdictions on other days.
Consequently, he did not really campaign, other than to appear at the Avalon Chamber of Commerce’s Here Comes the Judge Night, when he got No. 16 in the drawing for speaking order.
When the final results were in and he was the only one with a zero, Genis admitted, “It hurt a little--but only a 1 or a 2 on a scale of 100.”
It’s too bad he doesn’t live on the island, he was told, so he could have had one vote at least.
“You’re assuming I would have voted for myself,” Genis replied. “I probably would have voted for Pete.”
That’s Peter Mirich, a San Pedro lawyer who came in first with 322 votes and faces a November runoff with Joe Piro, a Los Angeles deputy city attorney from San Pedro who got 183 votes.
Tennis fans may be interested to know that the entry deadline for the First Annual Nate Holden’s 10th District Pro-Am Celebrity Tennis Classic has been extended until today.
The tournament, named after the Los Angeles city councilman and organized to benefit youth programs, is scheduled for the Rancho Cienega Tennis Club on Saturday and Sunday, and the following weekend.
It’s offering prize money totaling $675 and local pros won’t have to worry about competition from McEnroe, Lendl, Martina or Chris . . .
They’ll be at Wimbledon.
Just why a live starfish was wandering around on the pavement in Laurel Canyon the other day is a puzzlement for Patricia and Carl Earl, who found it in the middle of Lookout Mountain Avenue as they drove through a hairpin turn.
The Earls stopped, retrieved the errant creature and took it home to put it in a pot of water. Later in the evening they were advised by a family friend to lose the fresh water, which no self-respecting saltwater starfish would tolerate for long. They did.
To all appearances, the starfish survived. At least it held on fiercely to the bottom of the pot.
Attending a meeting of the Coast Guard Auxiliary the next night, the Earls took the thing to Terminal Island and set it on a rock at the edge of Cerritos Channel, where it was soon awash in oily water.
How did it happen to be on Lookout Mountain Avenue in the first place?
One of Patricia Earl’s guesses: Some mother bringing children home from the beach was suddenly aware of the extra passenger and shrieked orders to get rid of it.