Can a Bakersfield Walk of Fame be...

Can a Bakersfield Walk of Fame be far behind?

Motion picture producer Charles Welty held a public hearing at a Bakersfield hotel Tuesday to unveil his plan to build an independent film studio in town.

Welty, a member of the Writers Guild of America, speculated that his proposed Golden Empire Studio could create numerous jobs in Kern County in addition to attracting other allied businesses. Who knows? Perhaps even a Frederick’s of Bakersfield.

Tom Spalding, the cinematographer on the original version of the movie, “The Blob,” and an associate of Welty’s, told the Bakersfield Californian newspaper that the film makers had forsaken Tinseltown to the south because of “the increased cost (of making) a good motion picture in L.A.”

Welty noted that Bakersfield boasts many attractions, including a surplus “of open space.”

His plan, which would require approval by the city’s Planning Department, calls for the studio to be built on 160 acres of vacant industrial property.

If that venture fails, perhaps the Raiders could move there.

It’s always heart warming to see old friends patch up their differences. When Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley signed an ordinance Tuesday banning the sale or possession of semiautomatic weapons in the city, he invited City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky to the ceremony and news conference.

It wasn’t so long ago that Bradley and Yaroslavsky were trading bitter insults. But all that’s changed since Yaroslavsky announced he would not oppose Bradley’s bid for reelection.

Funny thing about the ceremony, though--one person not invited was Councilman Nate Holden, a leader in the movement to ban the weapons, the guy who gained nationwide publicity with his offer to personally buy back any such rifles turned in to him.

Of course, Holden is running against Bradley.

He’s no Jack Kennedy, but . . . .

Long Beach’s Grunion Gazette recently ran an ad in its personals section placed by a man who described himself as a “Dan Quayle look-alike.”

Eight months ago, members of the Los Angeles City Council, at the urging of colleague Joan Milke Flores, agreed that they should start looking their constituents in the eye.

Ever since City Hall opened in 1928, the council’s horseshoe-shaped meeting desk has been positioned so that the lawmakers have their backs to citizens appearing before the body.

All, that is, except for the council president. But the man who occupies that position, John Ferraro, the former USC All-American, often has his view obscured by the Daily Trojan that he’s fond of reading during meetings.

The council has yet to make an about face.

Such a move isn’t “as easy as turning a few chairs around,” noted Olivia Rodriguez of Project Restore, a preservationist group that is renovating City Hall.

Rodriguez said the extent of “damage to the floor” would have to be assessed as well as the chances of persuading the state to supply funds for such a restoration.

“Some preservationists would object to such a project because they would see it as changing an historic space,” Rodriguez said.

Representatives of Project Restore and Flores will meet Friday to assess the project.

In the meantime Tuesday, visitors were afforded the usual view of the back of council members’ heads, including Flores’.

The good news: The Los Angeles City Council gamely agreed Tuesday to cut the time that each member can speak on an item from five minutes to three.

The bad news: The vote does not limit the number of rebuttals each member can have on an item.

Specialty businesses are flourishing, but a company called Earthquake Movers?

Marcia Hollett, co-owner of the Chatsworth concern, says:

“We actually do get people who call us and say, ‘Can you move us even though there hasn’t been an earthquake?’ ”