The Melodies Linger On--for 50 Years

In the upbeat years before the Great Depression, the Columbia Broadcasting System began organizing a series of community concert associations around the country. It was a way of providing venues for its leading classical performers--and also giving smaller cities a chance at affordable, quality entertainment.

One of those associations was formed in Fullerton just as World War II was ending, and its first concert was held in 1946 at the Louis H. Plummer Auditorium. You’d have to say the concept caught on pretty well.

This Sept. 27, that same group, the North Orange County Community Concerts Assn., kicks off its next half-century of music, when it presents baritone Robert Sapolsky, formerly of the Metropolitan Opera, at Fullerton’s First United Methodist Church.

You can count on Marcelina Arroues Mulville of Fullerton being there. She’s one of three original members of the concert association who is still a subscriber after five decades. Her sister, Katherine Arroues, who died last year, was also an original member who’d stayed with the group all those years.

“I taught music back then and very much wanted to see good performers come to Fullerton,” said Mulville, who is also among the founders of the Pacific Symphony and is still active with that organization. “The people in the community concert series have just been marvelous to be associated with.”

Frank Chance of Fullerton, who was the association’s treasurer for 25 years, is also an original member. He used to take his fiancee, Josephine LaRue, to its concerts on dates. After they married in 1947, she became as involved as he.

“We’ve seen a lot of changes in Fullerton since that time,” Josephine Chance told me. “But this concert series is one thing that hasn’t changed. I think it’s because we had a nucleus of good people who really cared about it, and stayed with it.”

This wasn’t Frank Chance’s first community concert group. He had belonged to one in Santa Ana before that. In fact, there also have been similar associations in Laguna Beach, Corona, Garden Grove, Newport Beach and Anaheim. But the only one left in Orange County is the one in Fullerton, except for one at Leisure World in Laguna Hills.

The current president is John Jackson, a retired branch manager for California Federal Bank. He was elected to that post in 1977 and members have been asking him back since.

“We feel it’s still some of the best quality entertainment for what it costs,” Jackson told me.

What it costs is $30 for a series of three concerts this season, or $72 for a family. You can also pay what Jackson calls a “get acquainted” fee of $15 for the first concert, and if you want to sign on for the rest, that fee will go toward your total cost.

Despite the reasonable price, the number of members is down, from about 1,000 at its peak to about 400 now. Martha Lissi, vice president for membership, says that really shouldn’t be a surprise, with so many local colleges now providing similar entertainment.

“Most of our members are older,” she said. “We’d love to have younger people sign on, but that’s been a problem.”

To join, call Lissi at (714) 871-6632 and she will sign you up.

A New Buzz: Though everyone in my family loves to read, none of us are into science fiction. But former Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who lives in Emerald Bay, has a new book out, “Encounter with Tiber” (co-written with John Barnes), so I picked up a copy.

It has to do with the first city on Mars, which is beyond me, since I’m not over the shock that some of our real scientists say there was once life on Mars.

So far I haven’t read past the foreword, written by Arthur C. Clarke, a leading name in the science fiction genre. He writes about the book: “It’s true that Buzz collaborated with a master, John Barnes, but his own contribution is obvious throughout. To prove that I’m not the only one who’s enjoyed this book, let me quote from a letter I’ve just received: ‘I find [the Aldrin book] very engaging. Buzz has put many of his strategies into the yarn.’ It’s signed by someone named Neil.”

Neil? You may recall, Aldrin was on the mission when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. But then, maybe Arthur Clarke meant Neil Diamond.

Good Old Days? California historian Barbara Milkovich has taken her talents to Cal State Fullerton this year, where she’s teaching a course in community history. The class is almost entirely made up of graduate students, and the project she’s come up with will benefit a lot of people beyond the walls of the classroom: They’re going to produce an oral history of Huntington Beach and the city’s development after World War II.

To make a class like this work, of course, Milkovich needs people active in Huntington Beach to sit down with her students and their tape recorders, to provide first-hand accounts of the past. If you think you have something to offer--or know someone who does--you can call Milkovich at (714) 897-9766.

“We haven’t decided what we’ll do with the work yet,” Milkovich said. “But it’s bound to be meaningful for people interested in the city’s history.”

Free Pass for a Tiger? Sponsors of each of next year’s PGA tour stops are anxious to offer new golf pro Tiger Woods of Cypress (who says he’s Florida house-hunting) an exemption to play their tournaments. But tour rules will hold him out of many of them unless he can work his way up to the top 125 on the money list in the few events left this year. Woods is ranked 204th right now.

Here’s a new opinion on the subject: Lee Trevino, perhaps the most colorful golfer ever to play the tour, says Woods should be given his tour card privileges right now, without having to qualify.

“Hey, everybody wants to come out and watch Tiger Woods hit a golf ball,” Trevino told Golf World magazine. “This kid is the biggest draw since Arnold Palmer. . . .”

But Trevino also had advice for Woods, who’s already signed for at least $43 million in endorsements: “Hire a manager, a lawyer and a CPA. Then hire another manager to check the first manager, another lawyer to check his first lawyer, and another CPA to audit the first CPA.”

Wrap-Up: Among those who have performed for the Fullerton concert series: Leontyne Price in 1959, a year before she became famous for her performance in the opera “Aida” in Milan, Italy, and two years before she first played the Metropolitan Opera.

Other performers in this season’s series include cellist Zvi Plesser, (Feb. 25) a first-prize winner in the 1990 National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloists Competition, and organist Aram Basmadjian (May 12), as part of a 40-city concert tour.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com