Natives Share Philadelphia Stories : Reunion: City of Brotherly Love expatriates--including Police Chief Willie L. Williams--reminisce at 10-hour celebration. TastyKakes, hoagies, Italian ices and cheese steaks were on menu.

The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia and the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution there. But it took a 10-hour celebration in Studio City on Sunday to give the oft-bashed city the respect it deserves.

“It’s got history,” proudly proclaimed former Philadelphian Susan Yannessa, 40, of Beverly Hills. “It’s got the Liberty Bell.”

Yannessa was one of more than 400 expatriates, including new Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams, to attend a gathering where guests reminisced about their favorite city, its freezing winters and its small-town atmosphere while munching on cheese steak sandwiches and hoagies.

The “West Coast/Philadelphia Area Reunion Extravaganza” was organized “strictly for nostalgia” by convenience food executive and Philadelphia native Jerry Packer and two of his partners.

“Philly was a very, very good city to grow up in,” said Packer, who moved to California in 1977.

Tickets that cost $22.50 to $27.50 bought guests a taste of home with slurps of Italian ices and nibbles of TastyKakes, small frosted pastries popular on the East Coast.

They also had an opportunity to dance to the sounds of Philadelphia-based musicians such as the Hooters and Chubby Checker or to put their name into a drawing for prizes including a round-trip ticket to Philadelphia and gift baskets of wine and cheese.

Guests discussed the various circumstances that brought them to Los Angeles, including job transfers and divorces, but concentrated mostly on the good old times in the City of Brotherly Love.

Banners of Philadelphia universities such as Penn State and La Salle hung from the ceiling while a master of ceremonies yelled out the names of various high schools, colleges and neighborhoods to help people meet up with old friends, classmates or neighbors.

“It’s like walking into a South Philly wedding,” Joe Gatta Jr., 59, said of the party. “People are all warm and kind and there’s the food.”

Gatta had flown in from Philadelphia to join his son, who lives in Los Angeles, at the party.

Others made a shorter commute but also enjoyed the celebration.

Police Chief Williams said he started the day in a Philadelphia way, watching the Philadelphia Eagles rout the Denver Broncos, 30-0.

He said he was keeping with the day’s theme by “meeting some other people from my hometown, saying hello and talking about the Eagles’ big victory.”

Betsy Shore, 49, of West Hills said she was delighted to run into a high school friend, another woman who lived on the street where she grew up, and a friend from the temple she attended.

“Coming to a thing like this and seeing a girl I went to high school with--it’s a thrill,” Shore said.

Her husband, Steve, 52, formerly of Philadelphia, explained the phenomenon.

“When a Philadelphia native meets someone from Philadelphia outside Philadelphia, it’s like meeting a long-lost cousin from Sicily,” he said.

Some of the reunions were planned.

As soon as 23-year-old Richard Weitz heard about the party, he started telephoning friends from Philadelphia living in Los Angeles.

Word spread and eight people who grew up near each other, but had never gotten together in Los Angeles, showed up.

They included Weitz’s grade-school friend, his high school friend, two college friends, his old camp counselor and his camp counselor’s baby-sitter.

“Now we’ll see each other continuously,” Weitz said. “It’s that good feeling.”

Marvin Melaten, 55, of Marina del Rey was more interested in hypothesizing about why people had left Philadelphia in the first place.

“They came out because of marital problems,” he said. “That’s the truth. Either that, or they were escaping from the police.”