At least she didn’t deny it:After L.A....

At least she didn’t deny it:

After L.A. City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. spoke at a San Pedro Chamber of Commerce event this week, he was asked a question by resident Elizabeth Whatley.

Svorinich studied her for a moment, then replied with a question of his own. “Ms. Whatley,” he said, “did you go to San Pedro High?”

“Yes, I did,” she responded.

“Ms. Whatley, you were my prom date!” he said.

“Yes, Rudy, I was,” she responded.

It’s a small port after all.

MAYBE THE STUDENT REPEATED THE COURSE: Knowing that this column is always searching for tacky gifts for Only in L.A. contests, Michael Bird of Calabasas was kind enough to send us a dented relic of L.A.’s car culture--a placard he found in the street a couple of decades ago.

NO, THEY’RE SEPARATE BUSINESSES: A marquee in the South Bay has a juxtaposition of names that could give the wrong impression about some injury victims.

DATE FROM HELL: After we mentioned Harlan Ellison’s tale in a book of L.A. disaster stories, we came upon a piece of his in another volume that belongs in a section on TV disasters.

It was his real-life account of his tryout for “The Dating Game” in the 1960s. “Now bear in mind,” Ellison wrote, “this was all before ‘The Dating Game’ aired, so I didn’t know what the hell was going on.”

He quickly became disenchanted with the show’s personnel and format, as well as with his prospective date. That became evident when the young woman asked him during the taping what type of evening he could offer.

Ellison said he would pick her up in a tuxedo, “have the chef at Scandia prepare for us a picnic dinner of breast of guinea hen under glass and jeroboams of champagne--Tattinger’s Blanc de Blanc ’45 possibly--and then I would have us, with our dinner, chauffeured out to the city dump where, with ivory handled .45s, we would sip bubbly and amuse ourselves by shooting rats.”

“Shooting rats?!?!” the woman exclaimed.

It wasn’t long before Ellison heard a voice cry out, “Burn that . . . damn tape!”

The show never aired.

BILLBOARDS YOU’LL NEVER SEE IN DUBUQUE: A promo for the March 2 L.A. Marathon says, “Hone Your Theatrical Skills. Act like it doesn’t hurt.”

THIS HEART’S FOR YOU: As part of a movie promotion, skywriters spent several hours scrawling giant hearts in the Southland skies Friday morning. A colleague observed during her commute that no message had yet been attached to the heart above the Hollywood Freeway. She wonders if anyone else followed the lead of the morning disc jockey who told his spouse at that juncture that the airborne tribute was his surprise Valentine’s Day gift to her.

miscelLAny:

At a dinner establishing the Allan Malamud Scholarship Fund, ex-USC basketball coach George Raveling said he felt close to the late Times sports columnist because of the latter’s nickname--Mud.

Raveling said it reminded him of the tough schoolkids he grew up with. “One was named Scarface,” Raveling said. “Another one was Hook Nose. And another one was named Stinky. And they were the cheerleaders.”