It’s easier to land on Easy Street...

It’s easier to land on Easy Street than we figured.

A road by that name can be found in Highland Park, as we mentioned the other day. But it’s not the only one, as we learned from the M.C. Gill Corp. at 4056 Easy St. in El Monte.

“I had a few misgivings when we first moved here (in 1960),” recalled M.C. Gill, the founder of the company, which manufactures flooring and lining for commercial aviation. “I was afraid my customers might feel I got on Easy Street by charging too much.”

But Gill came to like the name, which was a tongue-in-cheek idea of a 1950s developer.

In fact, he liked it so much that when the city contemplated changing it in 1970, he personally protested to the City Council. The name became an issue when El Monte attracted much unwanted national attention after a newspaper disclosed that the corner of Easy Street and Valley Boulevard had just become the location of a county welfare office.

The name never was changed. And so Gill’s business--and the welfare office--remain on Easy Street.

The changing personal ads posted in his front yard have made Harley Cobb of Pasadena a regular guest of Only in L.A.

His first appearance, you may recall, occurred about four years ago when Cobb, then a 55-year-old widower, advertised for an “attr. lady 40-60.” He thought he’d found Ms. Right, only to learn otherwise eventually. A sign that said, “She Didn’t Work Out,” followed.

He later married a neighbor, whereupon a sign appeared announcing the Cobbs’ desire to adopt a baby.

So what happened with the adoption plea? It hasn’t been fruitful, he says. Most callers were asking “$10,000 on up” for their offspring, he said.

Some scenes for a coming movie titled “Doctor Mordrid” were filmed in one gallery of the L.A. County Natural History Museum--on the condition that the three residents--roaring, robotic dinosaurs--be muzzled. The dinosaurs’ agents agreed.

Memo to Supervisor Deane Dana’s reelection team:

Maybe you should be more careful where you place those self-congratulatory campaign ads--unless you’re really proud of that vacant lot in north Long Beach.

Terry Donovan of Simi Valley and several other readers wrote about an ad in The Times for an institute that was headlined, “Significant Memory Loss?”

They pointed out that the ad forgot to give either the address or phone number of the institute.

miscelLAny:

Claremont recently finished in first place, ahead of more than 400 other cities with populations of 25,000 to 50,000, in the American Automobile Assn.’s Pedestrian Protection Program in recognition of its pedestrian safety innovations.