Hitty Marie Curious with NancyB and the Quartet in California!
Sunday
Sunday began with a lovely morning as the sun shone brightly and the wind added just a nip to the air. After breakfast, the HittyBs took HMC to see the progress of the “Snow and Ashes” buildings going up beside the Santa Monica Pier on the North parking lot. The roof is white sheet plastic for both buildings. Two tall pillars stand at the ends of each building set out from the sides of the same white sheeting. They are very tall, 3-4 stories, and don’t seem very earthquake safe. The quartet wondered when it will open- its been months in the building. On our way home, we stopped by the site of the old Long Wharf for a group photo. It was meant to rival the Port of San Pedro, going 1 ½ mile out into the sea with railroad tracks all the way out for loading and offloading. A marvel of technology for its time, all that is left are 2 commemorative signs.
We went to church next. It’s a Craftsman –style building, very warm
to the eye, very inviting. The HittyBs proudly showed HMC the stone from Westminster
Abbey, set into the bell tower. On a less serious note, the church interior
was used in an episode of “Arrested Development.”
On the way walking home from church, the girls saw a clump of California poppies
in full bloom. What a photo opportunity! Further on they found stump just sprouting
mushrooms after the previous week’s rains. Another chance to experience
nature at the edge of the chaparral! (At this point a sweet lady on her way
to the Sunday’s farmer’s market asked me if I was OK. Just because
I was in the gutter peering at a tree stump! NB.)
As the fog tentatively slid tendrils inland, Mr. B arrived to take us to the
Self Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine. Built in 1950 by Paranahansa Yogananda
for group meditation, it combines a windmill, a houseboat, a “wall-less
temple” housing the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi, a sunken garden, and a waterfall,
which surround the placid lake. It was most calming as we watched two white
swans glide across its green spring- fed waters.
About ¼-1/2 miles up Sunset Boulevard are the remnants of the Bernheimer
Gardens. The front walls are all that remain of the original landmark. A month
after Mr. Bernheimer died, an enormous landslide took the acreage and slipped
it onto the Roosevelt Highway below (now known as Pacific Coast Highway). Roosevelt
Hwy. It had just been widened including the area below the Gardens. The Gardens
had been a marvel of Asian tranquility, but anti- Japanese sentiment of the
1940s and the refusal of the county to accept responsibility for the landslide
doomed its beauty.
What a day, we’d seen future, present, and past events! Time to rest a
bit!
For more pictures of the Long Wharf, the Lake Shrine, and the Bernheimer Gardens,
go to www.lapl.org and go to the Photo collection on the left of the main page.
Just input your search terms in the box. LA has a varied history!
Monday, Monday
After MrsB left for work, the quartet and MrB took HMC
out for breakfast at Randy’s doughnuts. This LA icon, a doughnut shop
with a giant doughnut perched on the roof, has great raised glazed doughnuts.
From there, they went to watch the planes land at LAX. The site favored by plane
spotters happened to be right beside the runway fence and the local In-N-Out
Burgers! Coincidence for sure! They also checked out the Googie-style LAX theme
restaurant, The Encounter, but didn’t stop by there or the control tower
to fly a couple planes.
Looking was fun, but Hittys need activity. There still was a high surf warning
in effect, so off to the seashore they went. Both the surfers and the tide were
out. This was good as the group headed first for the tide pools. Seagulls flew
above, white wings flashing in the sunshine as curlews poked their beaks into
the sand and among the rocks looking for food. The mussels, sea anemones, and
limpets placidly ignored them while the skittering crabs indignantly raised
their pinchers. This so startled HittyB that she fell backwards into the water.
Her rescue was quick but not before her dress was soaked. She definitely needed
a change and a dry off!
A change of scenery was available- the surfers. They let the
girls practice a bit on a surfboard. That was fun, but suddenly a distraction
appeared among the surfers. Oh my! One of the surfers was- Nicholas Brandon!
He held HMC in his hand. “Xander” whispered her heart, but she knew
it was not to be (those he loved on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” led
unfortunate lives.) Still it was nice to be introduced to a star.
On their way back to the B.home, there were lots of Star Wagons and a huge catering
tent at the corner of Temescal and PCH on the parking lot of Will Rogers State
Beach. It was the filming of “Because I said so”. The church parking
lot was also being used by vans from “Boxer”. It was quite a media
day.
Tuesday's Child
It was after breakfast that the girls and HMC drove to a secluded location in Westwood. Between the 20+ story office buildings of the Wilshire corridor, directly behind the newly built Westwood Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, is a bit of green. Its only access is a narrow driveway, slipped in between the tall towers. It is a peaceful place, this Westwood Memorial Park. The trees are oaks, green at this time of the year, and they lean gently down towards the springy grass. We'd come to view the final resting place of Marilyn Monroe. The girls located her easily thanks to the Internet map (see below). DH said that the blank space next to her has been purchased by Hugh Hefner for when his time comes. She was his first cover model. We couldn’t decide if his crypt would also become lipstick-marked, like Marilyn’s there were others there also, as Walter Matthau, who the Bs used to see walking his dog in the Palisades not that long ago. A recent wreath of roses shed dark red petals in front of Rodney Dangerfield’s memorial: “There goes the neighborhood” it read. The rich and famous rest in peace, in an oasis of tranquility within a busy city.
http://www.seeing-stars.com/Maps/PierceBros.html
Heading home we passed another film shoot: dozens of vans and equipment parked
on the athletic field and parking lot of the Middle School below Mandeville
Canyon. This is a busy time- it’s best to film without natural rain and
the coming weekend looks iffy. Mandeville Canyon is where our current California
governor (and former actor) and his family live, when they’re not in Sacramento.
The family was there even as we drove by; the governor and his son recovering
from a motorcycle accident over the weekend.
Though we lacked a StarMap, we decided to see the home of a local celebrity.
He lives about 8 blocks from the Bs. His gates were closed, but all the girls
crowded into Billy Crystal’s mailbox, hoping to be sent inside. It didn’t
work. They were retrieved after a group photo and it was pointed out to them
that they could read his article in the Sunday LA Times to get a true feel of
his life. They declined- too long!
The girls with HMC, continued down Sunset Boulevard almost to the coast and
the former site of Inceville. This was a movie lot, a colony, almost a precursor
to Universal Studios, but a working lot in the 19teens and twenties. Mr. Ince
built his permanent movie sets there. Now there is a Von’s Market, a 76
gas station, an apartment complex, and a bit of the SRF over the site.
Returning home we had a bit of relaxation over lunch before they helped MrB
take down the Christmas tree. Time for another nap- or five!
Wednesday is Close to Home
It was a day for staying close to the HittyB home. They did walking in the neighborhood, remarking on how green last week's rain had made everything. The Bs live in a climate marked banana belt, which is usually very mild. Bananas do grow there. There are hibiscus on either side of the front door and window. There’s a baby palm tree trying its best to push out a well-established bird of paradise beside the back door. Since there occasionally is “winter chill’ here, the apricot sometimes fruits, but the fig tree and pomegranates do better. Until they got too old, there was an avocado and a plum also in the back yard. Once the Bs saw a coyote walking the top of the side wooden fence, checking out the food situation, but he didn’t drop in for a bite. (They live very close to the chaparral here- the last brush fire here took 3 homes from the next street over). Mostly it’s scrub jays (who LOVE peanuts), feral parrots, and mockingbirds- with the occasional confused pigeon. In the morning one can see seagulls in groups riding thermals as they head inland. The group took photos of the local orange trees and hibiscus, but the macadamia nut trees were just too tall.
It probably was the climate that lured the Japanese fishing village here in
the first part of the 1900s. It was a working village of Japanese fishermen,
located just north of the Long Wharf. Today traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway
flows above where the fishermen hung their nets to dry. In 1914 part of the
village served as stand-ins for “squatters cabins” for the Mary
Pickford film, “Tess of the Storm Country.” (The ocean there served
as the “lake” for her scenes.)
Further north, above Sunset Boulevard, was the Thelma Todd Sidewalk Café,
beside the Roosevelt Highway (today’s PCH). The building with its attractive
tiled front still stands, now owned by the Paulist Fathers, who produce religious
programs for television. Thelma died under mysterious circumstances, party girl
that she was, in 1935. Her involvement with the film industry rather complicated
the inquest.
A link is at www.findadeath.com Click on the directory and scroll down to the
Ts until you find Thelma Todd. She lived wild and died young, only 29.
HMC seems to be enjoying both the climate and the history, so far. Who knows
what tomorrow will bring?