He Wrecked the Rig That Freed the Freeway Chickens

I’ve been pecking away at the saga of L.A.’s freeway chickens for several years. But I could only grudgingly agree with the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society--that exposer of urban folk tales--that I lacked certain pertinent details.

The society noted suspiciously on its Web site (www.snopes.com) that “in true folkloric fashion, though everyone ‘knows’ the chickens came to be where they are thanks to a poultry truck mishap in the late 1960s, no one can come up with the name of the farm the birds came from, who was trucking them . . . “

Now I have the rest of the story.

Reader Harvey Babbush referred me to his uncle, Joe Silbert, the truck driver who was carrying the birds on the Hollywood Freeway for the firm of J. Friedman and Sons.

“I tried to avoid a lady who cut in front of me and I turned over,” recalled Silbert, who lives in Laguna Woods. “I was taking anywhere from 500 to 1,000 chickens back from the Valley to a slaughterhouse in L.A. They were all hens. We never picked up roosters. These were hens that had stopped laying. They would eat but not produce, so they were costing farmers money. Anyway, I had a crate of eggs on the seat beside me, and when I turned over, my head fell into the crate. But I wasn’t hurt. I started chasing one chicken and it was on the TV news that night.”

Silbert estimated that at least 200 of the feathery prisoners escaped.

His nephew Babbush said one lingering mystery is that the escapees were hens, “yet they’ve been reproducing for generations.”

Well, that’s Hollywood for you.

ANOTHER MYSTERY: Robin Supak of Canyon Country and other readers sent along a sort of lost-and-found-and-borrowed ad (see accompanying).

I phoned the number (omitted here) and was assured it was no joke by Steve Munson of Lake Elizabeth, near Palmdale. He and his nephew, Eric Skiver, did indeed find a small aluminum craft “jammed up against some reeds with the oars inside.” Munson not only put announcements in some local advertisers, but also posted notices around the area.

He finally heard from the owner, who said some youths had apparently gone joy-boating in it.

And did Munson take it out fishing before he got the call? “Sure did,” he said. “It’s a nice little boat.”

TROTTED OUT FOR SALE: A horseshoe worn by Mr. Ed, the title star of the 1960s sitcom, is being offered for a minimum of $300 at Leland’s Entertainment and Sports Auction next week.

The New York auction house says the shoe has documentation from the first Mr. Ed convention, which was called, naturally, Edstock.

I just hope the sale isn’t hurt by the urban folk tale of a few months ago that charged that Mr. Ed was actually a trained zebra and viewers were unable to detect the difference because the series was filmed in black and white.

The tale, which began as a joke, was recounted more or less seriously in the National Examiner tabloid.

Wouldn’t fool anyone who had any zebra-sense.

miscelLAny:

A while back I talked about a Westwood restaurant patron who was irritated by a recorded message in the men’s room that cracked anatomical jokes while plugging a TV sitcom (“Norm,” starring Norm MacDonald). Have you ever wondered where TV folks come up with ideas like that? I did, too, until I saw my 7-year-old son’s favorite book (see accompanying).

*

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.