A reason to go on living: The...
A reason to go on living: The Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace will offer free admission Friday, Saturday and Sunday to honor the birthdays of the shrine’s two most celebrated personalities: Nixon and Elvis Presley.
As you must be aware, a photo postcard marking a White House meeting of the King and the Prez is the biggest seller at the Yorba Linda museum (and an occasional prize in Only in L.A. contests).
So it’s only appropriate that on Friday--Elvis’ 58th birthday--the museum will place on sale “a limited series of the first-day-of-issue Elvis stamps bearing an exclusive ‘Nixon Library’ pictorial cancellation.”
And on Saturday, Nixon’s 80th birthday, free pieces of cake will be offered to the first 200 entrants. At 11 a.m., visitors will also be invited to sing “Happy Birthday” to the ex-President in New Jersey via a special telephone hookup.
Dissenters, we assume, can break into “You Ain’t Nothing but a Hound Dog.”
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The year’s first slam at L.A.: Was it some sly commentary on the short supply of sincerity in Hollywood? Ron Harris of Culver City sent along his Sunday edition of the New York Times, which contained a chart with a list of cities, including “Los Angles.”
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Same to you, fella! Betty Denne of West L.A. figures Montgomery Ward Life Insurance needs a new writer for its holiday greetings (see excerpt).
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Mysterious Alfred: We mentioned indications that a major literary character--Alfred E. Neuman--was born in L.A. He was on a postcard copyrighted by an L.A. company in 1932, almost two decades before he became Mad Magazine’s cover boy.
Now Claire Arias of La Jolla writes that she has a 1914 San Francisco lithograph of the big-eared lad, easily identifiable, though he’s “missing his left front tooth, not the (traditional) second from the right.”
So we still don’t know where Alfred came from. Or whether he ever posed with Elvis and Nixon, for that matter.
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An “O” for attendance: A prospective juror being questioned by Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger mentioned that he had once been inside a Winchell’s doughnut shop when it was robbed. Asked if he was satisfied with the police response, the man paused before saying yes. When the judge asked him to explain the hesitation, the man said, “Usually, there’s an officer in a doughnut shop and there was none there at the time.”
miscelLAny:
A Bell Gardens company is offering a line of “L.A. Riots commemorative collector’s” badges ($4 each) with designations ranging from “Police Officer” to “Survivor.” One wonders if anyone will select the badge that is titled “Chief.”