People and Events

“Alien Nation,” the latest movie about Los Angeles, is set in the year 2000 and portrays the City of Angels as a dark, scary metropolis where life is made more complicated by the arrival of 300,000 hairless humanoids from outer space.

It isn’t the first unpleasant portrait of the city on movie screens. In fact, a brief Hollywood history of Los Angeles is nothing if not chilling:

- Circa 1934--A mob lays waste to human life and Hollywood Boulevard at a premiere of a movie starring Gary Cooper at Kahn’s Persian Palace Theatre. (“The Day of the Locust”).

- 1953--A Martian invasion destroys City Hall (“War of the Worlds”).

- 1974--The Big One knocks out the Capitol Records Tower and most everything else (“Earthquake”).

- 1980--A sewer-dwelling reptile, driven mad by pollutants, eats several residents near Echo Park Lake (“Alligator”).

- 1982--A gentle creature from outer space lands in Tujunga, but, weakened by exposure to the Valley’s air, heads home (“E. T.”).

- 2019--Killer androids run loose in Los Angeles, a wasteland of skyscrapers featuring a constant haze, never-ending acid rain and lighted message-boards hovering in the sky. (“The Blade Runner”)

Los Angeles ought to talk to its agent before it becomes type-cast.

Were cockroaches accidental victims of the latest dose of aerial

Monica Lewis and Charlton Heston in “Earthquake.”

malathion spraying?

Nancy Taylor, a Westside resident, says she found several dead ones in her yard Friday.

“I called the Medfly hot line, and they said that wouldn’t happen,” Taylor said, pointing out that a mass execution of cockroaches would raise questions about the dose and toxicity of the malathion.

“I don’t see any proof” that malathion was the cause, said Robert Donley of the county agricultural commissioner’s office. “Maybe a pest exterminator has applied a pesticide to her neighbor’s property. In 1980 and ‘81, we had people complain that it affected sparrows. . . . Nothing ever came of that.”

Joe Chizmadia of Dewey Pest Control said a heavy dose of malathion could snuff out a roach.

“But,” he added sadly, “roaches also get old and die.”

The championship-less Kings were the poor relation of local sports franchises until the recent acquisition of superstar Wayne Gretzky.

Suddenly, they caught the attention of Los Angeles County Supervisors Kenneth Hahn and Mike Antonovich (who’s in a tough reelection fight). The supes designated the team’s opener Thursday as Los Angeles Kings Day. No one in either office could remember when the Kings were last so honored. Funny thing, though--the event was canceled at the last minute. “Their (the Kings) PR people didn’t get around to setting it up in time,” an Antonovich spokesman said.

Aides in both offices say they’re waiting for a new date to be set. The Kings promise they’ll call.

Time literally runs out for the Tick Tock restaurant this morning. A Hollywood institution for 58 years until it closed in August, the eatery is auctioning off its 43 clocks at 11 a.m. at its Cahuenga Boulevard address.

The time-pieces include a hunter’s

Los Angeles Times

Couple of Tick Tock clocks to be sold.

c lock (topped by the carved head of a stag), a bugler’s clock (designed for a German general) and a 19th-Century French clock that strikes on the hour and at two minutes after the hour to wake up stubborn sleepers.

“I’ve heard stories that it’s called a prayer clock and a farmer’s clock,” auction spokesman Stephen Grove said. “It’s either a reminder to get up and pray or milk the cow.”

Too much of a green thumb can be a bad thing. Los Angeles police officers on a routine patrol in their car noticed some marijuana plants growing in the back yard of a house in Van Nuys. They ranged from 15 to 20 feet tall.

No one was at the home, Sgt. Frank Guarino said, and it will be up to the district attorney’s office whether charges are filed against the owner.

But the lesson to be learned, Guarino said, is simple: “Keep your hedges trimmed.”