Hey Buddy, You Don’t Have to Spare a Dime

Is Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren’s campaign chest so full that he’s begun taunting gubernatorial rival Gray Davis? You have to wonder based on the campaign mailing received by Nancy George of Ridgecrest. Why else would Lungren, the former Long Beach congressman, say in the letter that he would settle for a donation of “$0”? (see accompanying insert). Whatever, George commented: “I’m delighted to comply.”

*

NO LIGHTS! ACTION! “Lettice & Lovage” was light-less for awhile the other night. The Peter Shaffer comedy was being performed at the Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga when power failed in the theater. Topanga knows how to cope, though. While lights were being strung from a power source elsewhere on the property, members of the audience stepped in.

“A boy performed an impromptu cello recital of a Bach piece,” spectator Laura Kaufman said. “And then, a bearded fellow got up with a guitar and led the crowd with a sing-a-long of ‘I Am a Pizza.’ I don’t think anyone left. It was a lot of fun.”

*

TRANSLATION, PLEASE: Joe Simon of Beverly Hills noticed (1) a sign that announced there’s no parking on Thursday mornings, perched atop (2) a sign that said as a matter of fact there’s no parking any time except for two-hour periods on Monday through Friday (but what about Thursday?), perched atop (3) a sign declaring that vehicles with permits are exempted--from what? (see photo).

*

MOVING ON TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST PARKING LOT: A car ad on a billboard along the Santa Ana Freeway declared, “Life’s a Road And It’s Wide Open.” On the Santa Ana Freeway?

*

POMONA’S HONOR SAVED: I wasn’t flooded with correspondence, but I did hear from a couple of film buffs after saying that I knew of only one reference to Pomona in a film--in “War of the Worlds” (1953). Rick Mitchell of L.A. pointed out that in “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), “when actress Norma Desmond describes the awful ‘Salome’ script she’s been writing to submit to Cecil B. DeMille, writer Joe Gillis comments cynically, ‘They’ll love it in Pomona.’ ”

And Steve Kath wrote that while the Rat Pack is planning a multi-bank robbery in “Ocean’s 11” (1960) someone mentions a foreign country, at which point Dean Martin cracks, “Or maybe Pomona.”

*

KNOW YOUR L.A. HISTORY DEPT.: Three milestones listed in the book “Famous First Facts:

* Regular in-flight movie service commenced on July 19, 1961, on a Trans World Airlines flight between New York City and L.A. The movie: “By Love Possessed,” with Lana Turner. Despite that selection, in-flight movie service survived.

* The first “transcontinental eastbound airplane flight made in stages” was accomplished by Grant Fowler, who left L.A. for Jacksonville, Fla., on Oct. 19, 1911. It was a 65-stop flight. He arrived three and a half months later.

* The first “transcontinental car trip driven entirely in reverse” was accomplished in 1930 by two Maplewood, N.J., men who backed up a Model A roadster 3,340 miles from New York City to L.A. in three weeks “without once stopping the engine.” Wonder if they sang “I Am a Pizza” along the way.

miscelLAny

In a relocation services magazine, Deanne Bringle of Warner Bros. spotted an unexpectedly topical ad from United Van Lines that pictured the White House and said, “Relocating your new CEO? Been there. Done that.” Commented Bringle: “Probably seemed like a cute idea at the time.”