The Tournament of Roses Assn. is screening...

The Tournament of Roses Assn. is screening a Rose Bowl game retrospective for members of the media at the regal Tournament House in Pasadena today, but the film won’t be the only attraction there.

The former Wrigley Mansion also houses the Eisenhower John, as one room has been informally known since a New Year’s Day incident in 1964.

“Ike was grand marshal and we had a supper at the Tournament House after the (Rose Bowl) game,” recalled Lathrop Leishman, himself a former grand marshal. “We were having a good time until we noticed Ike wasn’t there.”

“We went upstairs, downstairs, outside,” added W. Reid Allen Jr., another tournament official. “We thought he might have wandered into the kitchen. They had Secret Service all over.”

After about 15 minutes, someone checked in one bathroom with sound-proof walls near the library.

“Suddenly, we heard this hammering and hollering,” Leishman said. “It turned out Ike was stuck in there. The john had a sliding door and apparently he forgot how to slide it open. He was exasperated but his people were relieved. Ever since then it’s been known as the Eisenhower John.”

Might be time to update--and edit--the “Welcome to Los Angeles” brochure given out to visitors at the Information Desk in City Hall. Pat Russell is still listed as a city councilwoman, though she was displaced by Ruth Galanter more than a year ago. Colleague Nate Holden is omitted completely. Colleague Marvin Braude’s name is spelled “Bradue” (you’d think they’d get it right after 23 years). And is that Mayor Bradley wearing a mustache in that photo? He hasn’t sported such an adornment in several terms.

Mini-mall developers would have to provide more space for parking, use smaller signs and develop a landscaping plan under strict regulations approved by the city Planning Commission. But still unsolved is one mystery inherent in the continuing proliferation of mini-malls in the city. As City Councilman Joel Wachs once expressed it:

“I simply can’t imagine who eats all those doughnuts.”

Dozens of dramas are acted out each week in the various chambers of the downtown Criminal Courts building but a portable stage in the lobby is never occupied by performers or anyone else. Why is it there?

“It covers an unfinished escalator,” says a spokesman for the county Facilities Management Department. “The escalator is supposed to be put into use when Phase 3 of the county mall development is carried out.”

Phase 3 calls for the construction of a parking structure and landscaping just south of the Criminal Courts building. The escalator would lead to the structure.

How long has the escalator lay unfinished pending the arrival of Phase 3?

“About 20 years,” said the spokesman.

A taxi that whizzed by City Hall with a child-seat occupied on the passenger side apparently wasn’t delivering a baby. It was probably a case of the driver taking Junior to work. At least, the meter was turned off.