People and Events

When the Hotel Del Coronado asked former guests to submit photographs taken there over the years or to let the place borrow back items carried away as mementos, Phyllis and Seymour Prell of Studio City responded.

They spent their 1952 honeymoon at the San Diego Bay hotel and have returned many times--either by themselves or with their four children, now grown. It seemed appropriate that they send some of their romantic souvenirs to help celebrate the famed hotel’s 100th anniversary this past February.

Among their contributions was the $118 bill for their five-day honeymoon stay, tied in ribbon as the first post-wedding document listing them as “Mr. and Mrs.” They also sent back the wrapper from the complimentary box of candy and the Do Not Disturb sign that hung on their door.

Seymour Prell, 66, has now received a letter from the “Del” notifying him that the entry has won for him and his wife a free two-day stay (meals included).

Phyllis Prell, however, died last month.

“So,” says Prell, “I will delay my trip to the Del until I have had the opportunity to gather my thoughts. I just want to wait a little bit. It’s kind of soon.”

He thinks he might go at Christmas time, taking one of his four children.

Lancaster engineer Al Letcher is back on the warm ground of the Antelope Valley after his attempt to land his helicopter at the North Pole fell a little short.

He said he will try it again next year but will give himself more than the 10 days he set aside this time. “I had made up my mind I would spend no longer than that,” he noted. “I had to get back to work.”

The lone flight in his jet-powered helicopter was the 62-year-old Letcher’s idea of a great vacation.

But he was slowed by winds and cloudiness, he said, and--once he was up in Canada’s Northwest Territories--by snow. He got as far as Spence Bay inside the Arctic Circle, but “the weather forecast was so bad that . . . rather than get marooned for a week in an Eskimo village, I turned around.”

He wasn’t planning to spend more than five minutes on the ground anyway and wasn’t going to take a chance on shutting down the engine. There’s nothing at the pole to see except polar bears and seals, he conceded. “It’s really for the sport of the thing.”

With the Fourth of July coming up, animal shelters are getting ready to receive the usual number of terrified runaways. Independence Day, as anyone knows, is not Spot’s favorite holiday. And that goes for your cat, too.

For many dogs, says Ed Cubreda, executive director of the Los Angeles branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, fireworks “literally drive them nuts, and they’ll do anything to escape. They might go through plate-glass windows, jump over fences . . . that’s when we have a dangerous situation. They could be hit by a car or run away and never find their way home.”

If someone nearby is setting off fireworks, Cubreda’s advice is to stay with your pet and try to keep it calm. You might even call the vet and ask him to prescribe a tranquilizer (for the pet.)

The Southern California Veterinary Medical Assn. notes that the “sudden, sharp or prolonged noise from fireworks can cause extensive damage” to the nerves of pets and turn them into “nervous, frightened animals.” (Not to mention what it does to the owners.)

But taking the dog out of town isn’t the answer--at least as far as the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation is concerned. Spokesman Dyer Huston said dogs should be left “in familiar surroundings, with plenty of food and water.”

Speaking of getting out of town at fireworks time, three Los Angeles County supervisors have done so, prompting cancellation of the board’s Tuesday meetings this week and next. Although the offices of Supervisors Pete Schabarum, Ed Edelman and Deane Dana have not issued any detailed statements, it seems all three are in Europe on a trade mission.

Tom Flavin, executive vice president of the Economic Development Corp., which is sponsoring the trip, would say only that it “is basically to promote economic opportunities for the county.”

Judy Hammond, Schabarum’s press secretary, says her boss has a standing policy of not disclosing where he is traveling. Noting that one newspaper headline declared, “Some of Our Supervisors Are Missing,” she said her husband, Terry, plans to get an MIA bracelet engraved with Schabarum’s name.