Burbank’s Thomas Murphy is undoubtedly one of...

Burbank’s Thomas Murphy is undoubtedly one of the few current Superior Court judges who has been known to crack a whip--literally--during settlement conferences.

Murphy jokes that the whip, which he keeps hanging in his chamber, dates back to his days as a law clerk when he made ends meet by moonlighting as a lion tamer.

Actually, it was a gift that he employs as a way of reducing the tension of legal confrontations.

If a lawyer spots the whip and asks him about it, Murphy revealed a while back, “I just say I use it if I have to. Sometimes they actually ask me to snap it. I can snap it like a lion tamer.”

It’s only fitting, then, that Murphy has been scheduled to hear a case next month involving actress Juliet Prowse. Prowse is suing the “Circus of the Stars” television show over an incident that occurred during rehearsal. She was bitten by a leopard.

Crack!

There was Elvis, heading through Pasadena one last time Tuesday evening, his seaweed hair gleaming in the street lights. The post-Rose Parade view of the floats in Victory Park was over. Now the floral figures, accompanied by traffic cops with lights flashing, were being towed unceremoniously down Mountain Street to whereever it is that floats go to die.

Weary motorists heading home from that traumatic first day back at work seemed to take little notice. The holidays were gone. Now the things were just another traffic obstacle.

A visitor to the Beverly Center reported that a posh clothing store named Bernini displayed a sign in its window that said something like: “Now we cost only an arm--50% off on everything.” For instance, there was an $1,800 suit selling for $900. (We’ll pause here until you stop laughing.)

Anyway, when we phoned Bernini’s to verify the wording on the sign, a clerk said: “Uh, yes, it says something like that.”

He was told that The Times needed the exact wording.

“But the sign’s in the window,” he said wearily. “I really don’t have time to walk over there and take a look now.”

Photographer William Reagh’s stark black-and-white shots of the concrete and asphalt trails of L.A. during the last half-century have earned him the unofficial title, “Ansel Adams of the Angels.” His latest showing appears in a before-and-after calendar, “1990: The Changing Face of L.A.” In one shot, Reagh shows how the Bonaventure Hotel and other high-rises have replaced such eccentric low-rise rooming houses as the Saltbox (rooms $15 per month) in just 20 years, transforming Bunker Hill. Of course, 20 years in knock-it-down L.A. is equivalent to a century in some cities.

These are rather contentious times for the owners of the Happiest Place on Earth.

First, grammarians condemned the Walt Disney Co. for the movie title, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” (It should be “shrank.” Or was it “shrinked”? “Shrunkt”?)

Then, families of two or more weren’t so happy about Disney raising the price for adults and children by $2--to $25.50 and $20.50 respectively--just as the holidays began.

And now, the Disney-operated Queen Mary-Spruce Goose tourist attractions have fired four employees for refusing to shave their mustaches, including John Magness, the 65-year-old ship’s officer.

Magness, whose commanding officers didn’t object to him wearing his thin tuft in combat during the Korean War, pointed out to no avail that Walt Disney (the person) also adorned his upper lip, not to mention Spruce Goose designer Howard Hughes.

Incidentally, one of the corporation’s next projects is a Disney Classic college football game, tentatively set for August. It will feature two teams of clean-shaven, unshrunken kids.

Roger and Who?:

With radio traffic advisories detailing crashes every 10 minutes, we can’t help but wonder whether potential car-buyers might be a bit wary of the new General Motors car unveiled in L.A. Wednesday by Chairman Roger Smith.

Its name: the Impact.