Remembering the Day Bugsy Got Rubbed Out in Beverly Hills
Journalist Steven Herbert recalls that when his mother, Pat, brought his then-9-year-old brother Kevin to a birthday party in 1972, the owner proudly showed off the bullet holes in his mansion.
In Beverly Hills, yet.
Then, again, the mansion was the site of the Bugsy Siegel murder 50 years ago today.
No, the North Linden Drive site is not listed as a historic-cultural monument (L.A. does have standards). But, last we heard, the house is a regular stop for Grave Line Tours on its where-the-stars-bought-the-farm route.
K-P DUTY WOULDN’T BE ENOUGH? We came across an announcement that either contains a misprint or evidence that one ROTC school is really clamping down in the discipline department (see excerpt).
NOT-SO-SMART PAGES: Jon Merritt noticed a listing in a Westside Pac Bell directory for what appears to be an unusual baby-sitting service (see add). Merritt’s question: “Does the taxi leave the meter running?”
HOLLYWOOD ON CAMPUS: We mentioned that Cal State Northridge got a plug on TV’s “Murphy Brown” a few weeks ago. A local beach school also had its moment in the sun recently when Utah Jazz basketball player Bryon Russell moved broadcaster Bill Walton to exclaim, “Love those Cal State Long Beach guys.”
Of course, USC, being older, has several motion picture credits. Here are three favorites of mine:
* “He’s had bad luck--he was doing premed at SC . . . “--Barbara Stanwyck’s daughter, describing her low-life boyfriend in “Double Indemnity.”
* “I teach library science over at SC”--Young woman observing flying saucers with Gene Barry in “War of the Worlds.”
* “After we won the game we all sat around in the dressing room and we’d sing the old fight song. You’ll love this. It went like this: ‘Fight on for old SC . . .’ “--Don DeFore, trying to impress a woman in a bar in “A Guy Named Joe.”
WHAT’S NOT IN A NAME: Leaving his gym after a workout one night, Todd Piccus of Santa Monica heard a staff member say over the public address system:
“It is 7:30, and 24-Hour Fitness will be closing in 30 minutes.”
THE DRIVER DIDN’T WANT A STINGING REPRIMAND: A truck with a load of beehives crashed into a tree in San Dimas, leaving L.A. County sheriff’s deputies with a touchy task.
“There was a big old swarm of bees, making everything difficult to deal with,” said Deputy Mike Papp. “When we got there, there was no driver. He had left the vehicle. I could see why, having a whole bunch of angry bees.”
Deputies called for reinforcements--insect experts from the county’s Mosquito Abatement District.
What? You thought they’d call out the Swat team?
miscelLAny
Macho actor George Raft is said to have picked up his trademark habit of flipping coins from real-life tough person Bugsy Siegel. The two were friends. But make no mistake about who was the, uh, dominant partner in the relationship. In “Bugsy’s Baby: The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill,” author Andy Edmonds relates that once, when Siegel was moving out of a house in Bel-Air, he had some “old, weather-beaten gardening tools and lawn furniture” left over. Siegel ordered Raft to buy the stuff for $500. Raft didn’t haggle.