Looks Like Dracula Has a New Career

Phyllis Waggner of West Hollywood has found the perfect use for the new stamp that shows Bela Lugosi appearing in “Dracula.”

Waggner’s going to attach one to each income tax return.

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SHAKIN’ AND BAKIN’: The turkeys will be fully dressed but not the dancers. The Jet Strip “gentleman’s club” is holding a benefit to collect food to feed 100 needy families Thanksgiving meals.

Customers will be admitted free to the Lennox-area strip joint when they show up with two or more canned goods, worth at least $5, today and Thursday.

The cans will be given to St. Margaret’s Center, an area community center, along with 100 turkeys.

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MORE FORMAL ATTIRE: You have to hand it to the leaders of the fashion industry the way they establish styles for nearly every activity. Betty Birney of Sherman Oaks, for instance, found an ad in a weekly newspaper for a striking ensemble for gardeners (see excerpt).

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OOH L.A. L.A.! “My sister’s furniture store in Belmont Shore received this flier,” said Kelly Fogarty, referring to a list of home accessories offered by one company. “I’m not sure we’d want the last item,” she added (see accompanying).

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ANGELENOS ON THE ROAD: Musician Stuart Hamm of Los Feliz was on his way from Dallas to Memphis, Tenn., for a gig when the bus “stopped at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. It was the middle of the night and I was restless, so I walked into a truck stop and asked the lady behind the counter if she had any newspapers. She looked at me for a minute and then said, ‘To read?’ ”

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TIME TO SIGN OFF: If someone suggests you buy that hot new book about Tinseltown with the “Hollywood” sign on the cover, you better ask for more details. There are three--David Thomson’s “Beneath Mulholland: Thoughts on Hollywood and Its Ghosts,” Lindsay Maracotta’s “The Dead Celeb,” and John Morgan Wilson’s “Revision of Justice”--with the ubiquitous nine-lettered landmark beside the title. Which prompts Steve Armstrong of West Hollywood to ask: “Is the ‘Hollywood’ sign all New York can think of when designing covers for books with Hollywood settings?”

Gee, how about an Angelyne billboard?

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BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL: Leo Danielian of Palm City, Fla., was in town for a reunion of the Dorsey High Class of 1942 when a tire on his rental car blew out on the San Diego Freeway.

He found a call box, explained his situation to the dispatcher, then added, “Could you kind of hurry? I don’t want to be late to my high school reunion.”

“What high school?” the dispatcher asked.

“Dorsey High,” Danielian responded.

“Dorsey High?” the dispatcher said. “That’s my old school. We’ll be right there.”

And a tow truck arrived within 15 minutes.

Danielian later said: “I always knew a high school education would serve me well someday.”

miscel LA ny:

A McDonald’s radio ad, obviously directed at Southern Californians, raises the question of what is most missed in L.A. A character in the commercial guesses, “Pro football.” The answer that’s given, though, is something called the McRib, a sandwich that is returning here. McRibs. Not to be confused with the disparaging name given one former pro team here--the L.A. Lambs.

Steve Harvey can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com and by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053.