People and Events

Bill Gordon, a recent arrival from Ohio, is making a mark with his book at last. It was only rejected 217 times, after all. He finally got disgusted and formed his own publishing company, selling the book by mail order.

For that, the 37-year-old Gordon learns, he is being cited in the upcoming 1989 Guinness Book of World Records for the most rejections on a book that eventually saw print. After he formed North Ridge Books in Akron and published the volume, it was picked up by the Writer’s Digest Book Club.

The Writer’s Digest publishing wing had been the first to turn down “How Many Books Do You Sell in Ohio?” a collection of quotes by writers on the trials of writing and getting published.

“I couldn’t be happier with the book,” says Gordon, who is staying with his sister in Palos Verdes Estates while job-hunting here. “I couldn’t believe the nerve of the industry for turning it down so often.”

At a booksellers’ convention, one publisher who had rejected the work used quotes from it in a talk. Gordon says, “That tells me it’s a good book.”

Actually, he claims, he was rejected about 260 times, but the Guinness people only gave him credit for written rejections. “They didn’t accept those that ignored me completely,” he says, “but they should have.”

Hollywood memorabilia dealer Malcolm Willits has another couple of Oscars for sale, bringing to three the number listed for auction. “That’s all we have,” he says with a shrug. “Nobody else has left any with us. People are holding onto them.”

Willits’ catalogue suggests a starting price of $4,000 for a 1938 statuette honoring Farciot Edouart for outstanding transparency special effects in “Spawn of the North,” which was about salmon fishing in Alaska. It starred George Raft, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour and John Barrymore.

Willits sets a possible price of $3,000 for an Oscar given to Twentieth Century-Fox for the introduction of Cinemascope.

He still has for sale the Oscar duplicate given to an outfit that distributed the 1961 Yugoslav animated cartoon “Ersatz.” As reported earlier, trophy possessor Robert Herts changed his mind and wanted to pull it off the market, but Willits said “no way,” unless Herts agreed to donate it back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The academy, which takes a dim view of such resales, had no comment, but one official suggested it might have something to say soon.

For the third time in as many years, the Southern California Rapid Transit District cranked up a campaign aimed at reducing vandalism and graffiti that now cost RTD $5 million a year in paint-up, fix-up money.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, TV actors Alitzah Weiner and Aaron Lohr as well as rapper Jazzy D were on hand at Virgil Junior High School with Raider players James Lofton, Don Mosebar and Linden King to show off some of the signs and posters that are going to be displayed throughout the area.

“Team Up--Stop Vandals Cold,” urge the signs, which show several determined-looking Raiders hip pad to hip pad.

An RTD spokesman noted that when the drive first started three years ago, vandalism repairs cost less than $1 million annually. A year later, the bill went up to $2 million. Now it’s $5 million.

That simply means criminal activity and problems of violence generally are worse, he said. It doesn’t mean the campaigns have worked in reverse.

Like other big-time law firms, Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg and Phillips has a squad of law school students working as summer law clerks. “We have 14 very bright, very enthusiastic, very energetic people,” says Dan Kelly, recruiting partner.

The Los Angeles firm is headed by Charles T. Manatt, former chairman of the National Democratic Committee.

Kelly says the firm offers the students--who have one more year of school ahead of them--a taste of “everything a young lawyer does,” including participation in depositions, meetings, negotiations and court appearances. It’s not all work. They also take in sporting events, the theater and parties.

As for one of the students, who is attending New York University Law School, Kelly says, “we are trying to let him look at whether he would like to work here and live in the Los Angeles area.”

He is John F. Kennedy Jr.