A CHRONICLE OF THE PASSING SCENE : A Can-Do Do-Gooder

William Malinoff, 77, of Encino can often be seen on the streets soliciting money.

He hangs out in front of grocery stores with a tin can. He rides his bike to construction sites looking for anything that he can sell for money. And he wins trips to Hawaii, France and Italy.

Malinoff and his wife, Cele, are dedicated City of Hope fund-raisers.

“I am dedicated; he is something else,” she says, with a laugh.

Some years, his personalized solicitations have raised more than $10,000.

“He doesn’t go into board rooms or talk to company presidents,” says Ruth Weinrott, a special events coordinator for City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte. The hospital works with people with catastrophic diseases.

“William Malinoff just goes out every day and figures out a way to make money, all of which he turns over to us,” she says.

Much of the money raised is from pledges taken for the 36-mile fall bike-a-thon that the City of Hope sponsors in Los Angeles. “We give the top money-raiser a trip someplace nice,” Weinrott says.

So far, there have been three trips to Hawaii, one to Paris, one to Milan and one to Epcot Center.

Why is Malinoff so obsessed with helping the City of Hope? He and his wife, an officer in a local support group, both became interested decades ago.

“It was about 1950-something when a group of our friends got together and organized a support group. So I have always been active in fund raising,” he says. Once he retired, his enthusiasm became a full-time charitable occupation. He now spends up to 40 hours a week raising funds.

Why does he feel so compelled to be such a do-gooder? “I don’t play golf,” he says.

On the Last Track

Director Lexie Lamborn says she has seen a lot of astonishing things in the six years that she has been with the North Hollywood office of the Protective Service Program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles.

The program provides financial guidance for the elderly who cannot manage their money themselves. As part of that program, the organization handles about 100 cases as court-appointed conservator for older people who are unable to manage.

Lamborn says her work has reinforced the strength of her belief in financial planning and in having someone trustworthy to advise you, now and when you get old.

“My father was retired from DuPont with a healthy pension and full medical and dental benefits. Few of us will be that lucky,” she says.

“Even those of us who do plan ahead may become confused about what they do and don’t have and how to get the most for what there is,” she adds.

As an example, she cites a widow who was a millionaire but living like a bag lady. “It was a case that points up one of the problems of growing old,” Lamborn says.

As she tells it, a couple was referred to her agency by a local retirement home about five years ago.

“Someone from the home called our office and said the couple had just shown up on their doorstep and needed help,” Lamborn says. “The couple apparently had no money and were living by checking into hotels and checking out without paying. The home wanted to know if we could find some assets so that they could take the couple in.”

The husband died within a year, but Lamborn continued trying to help his widow.

“Over the years, we were able to find that the couple had invested in T-bills, which were rolled over and, at the time of the wife’s recent death, were worth more than $1 million,” Lamborn says.

“The man had been a college professor and had carefully saved his money. But once he was retired and had no money coming in, he must have panicked.

“By the time the couple was referred to us, they were in their 80s and totally confused about their financial situation.

“It really pays to talk to someone who will give you sound advice,” Lamborn says.

Cry Me a River

Almost nothing makes a property owner feel more violated or angry than a burglary.

Jody Jill Greenwood, 37, of Valencia is no different than anyone else.

About a month ago, someone took three boxes from her garage that contained, among other things, camera equipment.

But what made Greenwood, a screenwriter’s assistant, cry was the loss of her Andy Williams collection.

“The thief took several boxes of albums. Among the albums were more than 50 by Andy Williams that I have been collecting since I was in junior high school in Oklahoma,” she says.

Along with many albums autographed by Williams, there were several autographed pictures and other memorabilia in the boxes.

“The other 100 or so records were from the ‘60s and ‘70s. You outgrow Herman’s Hermits, but Andy Williams is something else,” Greenwood says.

She didn’t have long to fret about the albums, which she hopes to replace with what’s available in stores carrying old records. She was too busy getting ready for her marriage to production assistant Kelly McIntyre at St. Nicholas Episcopal Church in Encino on Jan. 2.

Is there a bridal registry for Andy Williams albums?

P-38 Comes Home to Roost, Sort of

It’s a bird. It’s a plane.

It’s superplane come home to Burbank.

A 9 1/2-foot sculptor’s model of the P-38 World War II fighter and reconnaissance plane hangs in the lighted patio between Terminals A and B at Burbank Airport.

It is the wood and plastic prototype of the bronzed P-38 created by Colorado artist Robert Henderson for the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and is a piece of Valley history.

One of the Burbank-designed and manufactured P-38 Lightnings was the first American fighter to shoot down a German (Focke-Wulfe) plane in World War II over Iceland minutes after the United States declared war.

The plane flew higher and faster than any other plane of its time, according to Lloyd Levine, vice president of the P-38 Assn., headquartered in Burbank, which has 1,500 members nationwide.

Levine is one of many in the organization who flew the plane. Other members include mechanics, designers, Lockheed workers and fans of the Lightning.

Levine says Lightnings shot down more enemy planes in the Pacific than any other American fighter, adding that Maj. Dick Bong, who downed 40 enemy planes, flew only P-38s.

Most of the P-38s were built by Rosie the Riveter and her sisters, women in the 1940s who were pressed into building the craft when the men went oversees.

The craft is the first sculpture to go on display at the airport, according to Rand Berg, deputy director of the facility.

He joined R. C. (Chappy) Czapiewski, president of the Burbank Aviation Museum, in bringing the model to the airport.

Both called the location obvious since the neighboring Lockheed Burbank facility was where some 10,000 P-38s were made.

Overheard

“Never have so few spent so much, so ludicrously, on someone who professes to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and refuses to go to Hebrew school.”

--Woman talking to her friend at Le Cafe in Sherman Oaks about her son’s bar mitzvah