Nobody Has This Mogul’s Number

In his new book, “Reel Gags,” author Bill Givens debunks a rumor about an inside joke that animators supposedly slipped into the 1988 film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” The story goes that it flashed by so quickly that it could only be glimpsed “on a laserdisc or a high-quality VCR.” But Givens found no evidence of the rumored scene--a men’s room wall that shows the graffiti, “For a Good Time Call Allyson Wonderland,” accompanied by the home phone number of Disney boss Michael Eisner.

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WHICH REMINDS ME: Have you heard of the new thriller flick “Urban Legend,” in which a fiend acts out some of those scary folk tales that are always making the rounds? I wonder if they’ll have the one in which horrified Nike officials are bombarded with packages of old tennis shoes from people duped by an Internet hoax into thinking the company will exchange them for new pairs.

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YOU CAN SEE THROUGH HIM: Some attorneys have been accused of charging an arm and a leg. But Robert Cohen of L.A., a personal injury specialist, offers you his leg--in a Yellow Pages ad. That is, his spiel includes an X-ray photo of Cohen’s broken limb (see excerpt). It’s difficult to believe that there was a time years ago when lawyers were forbidden to advertise--think of all the creativity that was stifled.

I was alerted to Cohen’s ad, incidentally, by Bill Cohen of West Covina, who emphasizes that he is no relation.

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I’M SURE THEY’RE STRAIGHT SHOOTERS: When Mike Haradon of Beverly Hills spotted the name of one financial management company (see photo), he quipped: “Be prompt with your payments. “

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MYSTERIOUS ISLAND: On a visit to Santa Catalina, L.A. County’s most populated island, Rudy Weaver of Hermosa Beach learned some of its quirky points from a tour guide. Weaver writes:

* “There’s a 3rd Street in town but it is the second street from the ocean. And there are no 1st, 2nd, 4th or 5th streets.

* “There is a Casino, but there’s no gambling” at the ballroom, or on the island.

* “Some of the coves around the island have attracted people to build little homes away from home. Have to conform to the county building codes, you know--so they are required to provide a garage or carport for each home. But there are no autos and no roads in these coves and no roads leading to them.”

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TO BE OR . . . President Clinton’s sober discussion of the definition of the word “is” in his televised deposition--”if it means is, and never has been, that’s one thing,” etc., etc.--reminded me of an old song that was performed at a UCLA theater a while back. Its title: “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?”

The late Times columnist Jack Smith used to argue with purists about the 1940s classic--mainly over the question, is it is or is it ain’t bad grammar? Smith took the position it warn’t.

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POMONA--FILM CAPITAL: My comment about the paucity of references to Pomona in motion pictures has stimulated something like a film festival in print. Dave Hite recalls that in the movie “1941,” the U.S. Army receives a radio call warning that the Japanese forces are assembling in alfalfa fields “outside Pomona,” preparing to invade L.A.

Andrew Cuk noted that in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” Katharine Houghton points out a boy in a photo album to her fiance Sidney Poitier and says, “If he’d played his cards right, you’d have never met me. But he fell for some girl from Pomona.” To which Poitier replies, “That’ll teach him.”

Finally, Adam Grosso says that in the movie, “Athena” (1954), Debbie Reynolds sings:

Would I love to see Paree?

Oui!

But I never felt better

So Pomona suits me.

(Debbie, is you is or is you ain’t being facetious?)

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“Barrymore,” the Ahmanson production that stars Christopher Plummer as the brilliant but self-destructive actor John Barrymore, includes a couple of colorful 1930s stories about local spots. There was the time, Barrymore admits, when he mistook a potted palm tree inside Chasen’s restaurant for a urinal. And there’s the tale of his breakfast at the Beverly Wilshire with a lady of the evening--well, of the morning, in this case--when he scolds a visitor, “I won’t have you speak in front of a whore that way.” Barrymore was never one for parsing his definitions.

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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.