Exotic-Sounding Theft May Strike Some as Just Another Song and Dance
Some especially bold dance moves? A woman told police she noticed that $84 was missing “from a purse after four male exotic dancers performed inside a home,” the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.
Note to Sav-on officials: You might want to do something about the partly burned-out sign on the store that is visible from the San Diego Freeway south of Culver Boulevard. For several nights, its sign has read:
on Drugs
Old business: I held off sharing two police log items from 2001 (see accompanying), hoping that the mysterious thefts would be solved, but I can’t wait any longer. One, sent here by TV weathercaster George Fischbeck and retired Judge Phillip Petty, among others, involved a missing body. The second, contributed by Richard Geiger, involved a burglary that apparently wasn’t noticed right away.
Speaking of scant clues: Bob Hill noticed a sign above the ramp of an underground parking area that was apparently designed to keep van drivers in suspense (see photo).
Dumb names (cont.): Peggy Inman of Banning urged me to consider kitchen devices as well as automobiles, explaining that while “shopping for a new garbage disposal, my husband and I came across a Waste King model that we couldn’t resist. We are now the proud owners of a ‘Gourmet’ garbage disposal.”
Back to car names: I guess we’ve pretty much run out of candidates in the motor vehicle category, inasmuch as Dave Kase of Palos Verdes Estates had to reach back to the 1920s to find a nominee--the Model A Ford.
“It replaced, of all things, the Model T,” Kase pointed out. “To my mind, that constitutes a strange progression.”
Guess it’s too late for a recall.
Aging, Hollywood style: Actress Eileen Heckart, who died the other day, had one of her most challenging roles as the mother of Paul Newman in the 1956 boxing movie “Somebody Up There Likes Me.”
She was 37, while Newman was 31.
But then Hollywood has many cinematic family trees of a strange sort, usually intended to emphasize the youthfulness of the male star.
Newman, for instance, was 42 when “Cool Hand Luke” came out in 1967. Jo Van Fleet, his mom, was 45.
Other cinematic child brides included Sally Field (b. 1946) who was the mother of Tom Hanks (b. 1956) in “Forrest Gump.”
In the “Manchurian Candidate,” Angela Lansbury (b. 1925) had a son (Laurence Harvey) who was actually born in 1928.
Talk about child brides.
Even more ridiculous, 38-year-old Dick Van Dyke was the son of 38-year-old Maureen Stapleton in “Bye Bye Birdie.”
In “The Graduate” (1967), “older woman” Anne Bancroft was all of six years older than 30-year-old Dustin Hoffman, who was supposed to be a just-graduated college kid.
No wonder Bancroft was so depressed.
Weirdest of all: In “North by Northwest” (1959), Jessie Royce Landis played Cary Grant’s mother, though she was actually 11 months younger than Grant.
Let’s not even consider the implications.
miscelLAny:
If your spouse hasn’t taken down the Christmas tree yet, keep in mind that silent screen star Harold Lloyd kept a decorated Christmas tree up year-round on his Green Acres estate in Beverly Hills.
Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, 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.