People and Events

The police bomb squad was busy at Los Angeles International Airport, where first an apparently abandoned briefcase and then an unclaimed suitcase drew some edgy attention Monday morning.

The briefcase was found on an outside walkway at Tom Bradley International Terminal. The area was cordoned off and firefighters stood by as police investigated. It turned out to be just what it looked like: a briefcase.

Airport substation Police Officer Al Harvey said a note attached to the case read, “Enjoy.”

Who wrote it, he didn’t know.

A short time later, someone left a suitcase at the Delta Air Lines ticket counter in Terminal 5. Again, no bomb.

Not even a note.

The Miss Tall International crown is up for grabs at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel, where more than 500 men and women are talking about what it’s like to live in a world populated by a lot of short people.

The 50th anniversary convention of Tall Clubs International opened Monday and will run through the week.

Twenty-three of the ladies--ranging from 5 feet, 11 inches to 6 feet, 4 inches tall--will be going through the swimsuit, evening gown and personality presentations tonight. Contestants won’t be required to sing or demonstrate theatrical talent but will have to talk for two minutes.

The contest folks don’t expect the kind of display that disrupted the recent Miss California contest in San Diego, where Miss Santa Cruz told everybody off and had to be dragged from the stage.

“Although you never can tell,” a staff member said.

The 100-voice Grace Korean Church choir, hot dogs and Texas baked beans were on the program as the Union Rescue Mission threw its annual Independence Day celebration for homeless men, women and children in an adjacent parking lot.

George Caywood, executive director of the mission at 226 S. Main St., noted that “it’s tough living on the streets and in the Skid Row hotels. Our purpose is to help lift people up, encourage them, love them.”

Publicity about outages caused by helium-filled metallic balloons snagged in power lines hasn’t even slowed down the problem, says the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s superintendent of electrical trouble. “Many persons obviously are still not getting the message.”

Grant Hanson reports that already this year the DWP has had to contend with 48 incidents in which metallic balloons have caused outages and downed wires. That’s as many as there were in all of 1986. Last year’s total was 91.

The metallic balloon covering, Hanson points out, is “an excellent conductor of electricity” and can cause a short circuit when it comes into contact with power lines. The resulting heat can damage equipment and burn wires, causing them to fall.

Old business:

As reported here last week, 102-year-old Edwina Barry fell and injured herself. Thus, she was unable to accept an Actors Fund honor as the oldest living ex-vaudevillian. Not mentioned, however, was the performer who stepped in for her at the Grand Peoples Breakfast Club program.

The substitute, Lottie Hicks, of Alhambra, was not in vaudeville.

She is, however, 103.

The breakfast club events are put on by the Grand Peoples Company, a nonprofit organization that also stages bus excursions and other activities to keep folks from settling too firmly into their rocking chairs.

It should be noted that Delane Balliot, 22, and Newcomb Munt, 28, ecdysiasts who work for a stripping-telegram firm, finally finished their on-and-off performance in the window of a Hollywood sportswear shop.

Whoever was counting says they got down to their underwear 432 times during four days and three nights.

They hope to make the Guinness Book of World Records.

Actually, they probably could have made do with a few minutes because there doesn’t seem to have been any previous record for the event.