Kids, never look a gift UFO in...
Kids, never look a gift UFO in the mouth: Two L.A. police officers paid a surprise visit to an Atwater-area elementary school just before Christmas to hand out some toys--illuminated, beeping tops that resemble something E.T. might fly home in.
Officers Ray Yzguerra and Manuel Argomaniz later received some candid reviews of the playthings (and their sound effects) from the kids at Delevan Drive Elementary School.
Rommel Dimacali, for example, wrote that he made the mistake of allowing his brother to touch the toy (see letter).
Other reviews:
* “Thank you for the UFO top. I had lots of fun with it. The first time I tried it my mom thought it was a test on TV.” (Mark Gonzalez)
* “I am still playing with it. My mom thought the birds were whistling when it is still nighttime.” (Bogart Corpus)
* “I rather return it and get one with volume because my mom and dad say it’s too loud. Anyway, Happy New Year.” (Nick Prieto)
* “Thank you for the top. It hasn’t broke yet.” (Hector Ries)
Hector didn’t say whether he has a brother.
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This score just in: John Hendry of Van Nuys points out that USC fans can take comfort in the fact that the Trojans did play on New Year’s Day, if not in the Rose Bowl.
The Texas Metropolitan Opera Broadcast featured Berlioz’s “Les Troyens” (“The Trojans”) that day. Hendry couldn’t resist adding: “The Trojans lost in the opera--just as they might have done to Wisconsin.”
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The amazing colossal error: We recently mentioned that a KTLA (Channel 5) special on newsman Stan Chambers revealed that he had a bit part as a reporter in a ‘50s monster movie set in Griffith Park. The program said the movie was “The Amazing Colossal Beast.” We’re amazed to learn it was the wrong title.
“Your reference is sure to anger the tens, no, dozens, of Bert I. Gordon fans across the country,” writes Wayne Tanner of Culver City, one of two Gordon fans who wrote us. “Gordon’s 1957 opus was . . . ‘The Amazing Colossal Man’ and its climax took place not in Griffith Park, but in a cardboard approximation of Las Vegas.”
The movie in which Chambers appeared, Tanner writes, was a sequel, “War of the Colossal Beast,” in which “the 60-foot giant manages to escape from an airplane hangar at LAX and walk to Griffith Park without being seen by anybody (a neat trick that is never explained).”
We can explain it in one word: Smog.
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An almost colossal coincidence: The “Colossal” movies, by the way, may begin popping up on television soon, now that they have become unexpectedly topical. After all, the title character is an Army officer who assumes gigantic proportions, according to one movie guide, after being “exposed to massive amounts of radiation.”
miscelLAny:
Lee Estes and Christopher Starks of L.A. captured Roto Rooter’s nationwide Monster Root Contest by laboring more than 14 hours to extract a 103-foot-long branch from a small drain near the World Trade Center. A press release adds: “The Gargantuan root is available for photo opportunities.” We’d be especially interested if you persuaded the Colossal Man to pose with it.