The Valley’s Once-Mighty Tower of Pallets Has Fallen on Hard Times

France can boast of the Eiffel Tower, New York has the Empire State Building, and Sherman Oaks has the Tower of Wooden Pallets.

“I wanted to look out over all of the Valley,” explained Daniel Van Meter, who built the 22-foot-tall stack of platform materials, complete with walkways, in the 1950s (see photo).

Other Valley high-rises, most of them more sightly, would later obscure his view.

But the tower is one of the 700-odd (apt word in this case) historical-cultural monuments included in the new 496-page book “Landmark L.A.”

Jeffrey Herr, the book’s editor, said Van Meter applied for landmark status amid fears that the tower might be removed as a firetrap. “He did apply fireproofing material to it afterward,” said Herr, arts manager of the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

Alas, time has not been kind to the tower. Van Meter died two years ago, and when I visited his property the other day I found it padlocked. The crumbling tower had dwindled to about 5 feet in height.

When I interviewed Van Meter years ago, he laughed over the explanation that one former commissioner gave in hindsight for granting landmarks status to the tower landmark. Observing that the pallets had been obtained from a brewery, the official said: “Maybe we were drunk.”

Speaking of fixer-uppers: Reed Howard was driving through New Cuyama in Santa Barbara County when he saw a not-so-tempting welcome sign (see photo).

Spectacular spelling errors dept.: Today’s samples include a piece of jewelry that sounded like damaged clothes (spotted by C.G. Moe of Covina) and a dog whose breed evidently was lost in the translation (Kathy Yukl of La Crescenta).

Gourmet fare: Smogdance, one of Pomona’s greatest movie festivals, will present 39 short films Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the campus of the Western University of Health Sciences. (Everything at Cannes was booked.)

As with any glamorous movie event, catering plays a big part. And sure enough, popcorn will be served. Here are the dining entries in the program:

Intermission, Friday night: “Pristine carpet gets fouled with popcorn.”

Intermission, Saturday night: “Yesterday’s popcorn palmed off as fresh.”

Intermission, Sunday: “Popcorn vendor gets down to the crunchy stuff.”

Bon appetit!

MiscelLAny: I understand that most of the thousands of Barbies that were stranded offshore in container ships during the recent 11-day dockworkers lockout have made it to land in time for the holiday season.

It was a good thing for Barbie that the lockout came to an end. You don’t think worthless Ken would have come to her rescue, do you?

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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.