Another benefit of living in Southern California:Rush-hour...

Another benefit of living in Southern California:

Rush-hour motorists may have caught the announcement by KNX radio’s Bill Keene of a traffic jam on Pacific Coast Highway--phoned in by actor Chevy Chase.

Is once-laid back Southern California becoming snooty?

The latest incident involves actress Esther Williams, who says she was asked to leave a charity fund-raiser at the L.A. Country Club because she wore pants. We don’t mean blue jeans, either.

Williams showed up in an expensive Oscar de la Renta outfit of black pants, matching camisole and floral jacket. On her way out, she took the piano player’s microphone and said:

“I haven’t done anything to offend anyone here tonight, except that I have silk on my legs and they want my legs bare.”

Earlier this year, the fashion police at the new Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey angered yachtsmen by issuing a ban on sneakers and rubber-soled boat shoes in the bar. One reader complained to a local newspaper that the management would “be shocked to learn the price of a good pair of deck shoes!”

And, moving inland, a Stadium Club member at Dodger Stadium recently stomped out of the restaurant, where she had scheduled a birthday dinner, after her husband and daughter were denied admittance. The reason: They were wearing sneakers, verboten this year under the club’s new operators, the Marriott Corp.

So far, no footwear requirements have been instituted for Dodger Stadium’s concession lines.

List of the Day:

OK, funny guy Jay Leno will replace talk-show emperor Johnny Carson but so far no replacement has been named for Ed McMahon, Johnny’s faithful sidekick. To give NBC some guidance, we offer the names of some other well-known second-bananas in this town:

1--Jerry Brown, brother of state Treasurer Kathleen Brown.

2--Barney Rubble, Fred Flintstone’s neighbor.

3--Mark Fabiani, Mayor Tom Bradley’s chief deputy.

4--Don Drysdale, backup to Dodger announcer Vin Scully; formerly No. 2 Dodger pitcher behind Sandy Koufax.

5--Jon Peters, ex-hairdresser, ex-partner of movie mogul Peter Guber, and ex-boyfriend of Barbra Streisand.

6--Stu Lantz, No. 2 Laker announcer behind loquacious Chick Hearn.

7--Donald Duck, bitter rival of Mickey Mouse.

8--Robert Vernon, the LAPD’s No. 2 cop.

9--The Bean, overshadowed by FM radio partner Kevin (or is it the other way around?)

10--Spruce Goose, a mere jester in Queen Mary’s court.

Though Downey is chiefly known as the home of the oldest operating McDonald’s (b. 1953), the town was the site of a Bob’s Big Boy look-alike contest Thursday. The company, evidently attempting to start a new fad, also held a round of salad-dressing wrestling. “Not nude salad dressing wrestling,” a publicist hastened to add. After all, this was Downey.

miiscelLAny:

The largest crowd ever at the L.A. Coliseum--134,254--gathered in 1963 to see evangelist Billy Graham.