In case you were dying to find...

In case you were dying to find out, the world’s first rock seance was only a limited success.

The ceremony, convened in Hollywood (of course), was intended to lure the spirits of deceased guitarists Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman and others into making free guest appearances during the L.A. Guitar Show.

Seances, of course, aren’t new to Hollywood. They date back at least as far as the 1930s when, each Halloween night at the Roosevelt Hotel, various artists of the occult would try unsuccessfully to raise the spirit of magician Harry Houdini.

There was some controversy before the rock seance, however. One medium refused to preside because, he said, the late John Lennon had expressed annoyance over the commercialization of the event.

No tables shook during the ceremony itself. Two spectators did say they felt Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix speaking through them, promoter Loni Specter said.

However, the spirits of the guitarists evidently left their instruments behind. The seance produced no unworldly rock sounds. No doubt the spirits refused to play out of sympathy with the musicians on strike in Las Vegas.

Traffic Advisory: A camel draped in a banner proclaiming “California Loves Israel” will parade down Wilshire Boulevard this morning between 8:30 and 10 to promote travel to that nation. No doubt the beast will draw some looks when it reaches the vicinity of the La Brea Tar Pits.

“Earthquake” was a corny movie in which Charlton Heston tried unsuccessfully to stop a temblor from parting Hollywood.

“Earthquake: Disaster in L.A.” is a lesser-known film with no stars in the cast. But it does feature footage taken when the Whittier quake struck at 7:42 a.m. just over two years ago (Oct. 1, 1987).

It also includes post-quake damage shots all over the county, along with tips from Red Cross officials on how to protect against the next temblor.

“We saw it as both a memento and an educational tape,” said Mark Finley of Finley Holiday Film Inc. in Whittier.

The most stunning part of the tape, which is sold by Whittier’s Booklands record shop and by Finley ($24.95), was taken accidentally.

“A guy we know has an electronics repair shop and he had come in early (the day of the quake) to fix a VCR,” said Finley. “He turned it on to let it run for a while to see if it was working all right and went out for coffee. While he was gone the quake hit. You see shots of the wall shaking around, stuff falling from the shelves and you hear that awful noise that earthquakes bring. . . .”

Live.

The Georgetown Diner, a 34-year-old Eastern-style eatery with stainless-steel trim, is up for sale. Just one catch: If you want it, you gotta move it. Owner John Keith lugged it here recently on a flatbed truck from Georgetown, Mass. He’s asking $95,000 for it. He’ll throw in the pallets.

Noting that Washington, D.C., is holding a contest to come up with a nickname to promote tourism, USA Today newspaper published a list of unusual civic slogans around the country.

Southern California was sadly under-represented. In fact, the only city in the state mentioned was Castroville (“The Artichoke Center of the World”).

It’s a shame that several colorful local nicknames seem to have faded into history.

Paramount, in a more rural era, called itself “The Hay Capital of the World.” Bellflower used the slogan, “Twenty-Nine Churches, No Jails.” And Hermosa Beach used to call itself, “The Aristocrat of the California Beaches.”

Then there are local cities that have failed to capitalize on their distinctions, such as Norwalk, home of the Center for Bigfoot Studies.

Oddly enough, a city as famous as Los Angeles still has no nickname.

Claxton, Ga., has preempted one possibility.

Claxton is the Fruit Cake Capital of the World.