By STEPHEN MOTIKA Special to the Palisadian-Post When literary critic Majorie Perloff published ‘Wittgenstein’s Ladder’ in 1996, the last thing she expected was to be asked to write a memoir. The book, which traces philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s influence on 20th century art and literature, includes a brief reference to Perloff’s own Viennese origins. James Laughlin, the founder and publisher of New Directions entreated her to write her own story for the press. At the time, she didn’t think much of it. Yet Laughlin had planted a seed, and when he died the following year, Perloff took seriously the idea of writing a memoir. Although she found many books about the Holocaust, none told the story of fully assimilated Jews who considered themselves Austrian before all else. Overcoming the fact that she was 6 when she emigrated in 1938, and had few memories of Vienna to relate, her chronicle would focus on the role of the ‘High Culture’ her family so enjoyed and their own relationship to race and identity. Furthermore, ‘what happened to Viennese culture when it was forced to assimilate into the democracy of the United States?’ The result, ‘The Vienna Paradox,’ has just been published by New Directions. Perloff, who has lived in Pacific Palisades since 1976, arrived in America as the German-speaking Gabriele Mintz, and from that moment on she badly wanted to be an American. When she entered the Fieldston School in the Bronx at age 13, she changed her name to Marjorie after she received a letter from her ‘big sister’ at the school, Margie Leff, who also happened to be the most popular girl in her class. She was eager to have ‘a golden Manhattan name rather than the ‘foreign’ Gabriele.’ Upon arriving in New York, Perloff’s father, who had been a successful lawyer, returned to university so he could make a living in this country. He then went to work for a Wall Street firm, while his wife returned to school, eventually becoming a professor of economics at Columbia University. Yet, for all their professional success, Perloff maintains that her parents never really belonged, ‘never felt at home in this country.’ Although they lived in post-war America, their hearts and minds remained in a Vienna long since gone. Perloff did not suffer from their hesitancy, and after high school went to Oberlin College before returning to New York to finish her bachelor’s degree at Barnard. Although she was an excellent student, her parents had little concern about what she would do with her life other than that she marry well. She met her husband, Joseph Perloff, a young doctor from New Orleans, and they married when she was 23. Two daughters soon followed, and although Perloff held several odd jobs, she knew she wanted to return to graduate school to study literature. Living in Washington D.C., at the time, the only university that offered a Ph.D. in literature was, ironically enough, Catholic University, where she was a student and later an assistant professor. After a long academic career spent at the University of Maryland, USC, and Stanford, where she is now professor emerita, Perloff will return to USC in the fall as a Scholar in Residence. In her critical work, she has focused on poetics, with books on Yeats, Robert Lowell, Frank O’Hara, and another half-dozen titles dedicated to avant garde poetry. Only in preparing to write ‘The Vienna Paradox’ did she read deeply in the Germanic literature and history, including the works of Robert Musil and Joseph Roth, that she had resisted as a youth. In addition to telling the personal story of her family, Perloff writes a great deal about the paradoxical reality of Vienna, at once ‘the great imperial city, with its opulent, gorgeous, erotic painting and design’ but also ‘Hitler’s Vienna, whose housing was so substandard that young men arriving to seek their fortune in the capital often ended up in bedbug-ridden shelters that were breeding grounds for violence and political upheaval.’ Perloff has wrestled with the city’s contradictions for decades, as recently as a couple of weeks ago when she read about the opening of the city’s Liechtenstein Museum. While she would ‘love to see it,’ she dreads traveling to such an anti-Semitic city, to a country that she believes never ‘de-Nazified.’ Trying to make sense of the complicated relationship between being Jewish and Austrian, Perloff’s cites her maternal grandfather, Richard Sch’ller, the Austrian foreign secretary under Chancellor Dollfuss and a special delegate to the League of Nations, who ‘was regularly begged by his superiors to ‘allow’ himself to be baptized.’ For his refusal, his wife was not allowed to attend the hundreds of state dinners he was obligated to attend. In fact, much of Perloff’s family seemed unaware of how anti-Semitism affected them, considering it ‘something that concerned other people.’ She writes in the book: ‘The Nazi takeover of Austria and immediate expulsion and torture of Jews came, as my mother notes, as a terrible’and unanticipated’shock.’ Still, her family was lucky enough to be able to escape Vienna, while many of her relatives did not. One, the painter Helene von Taussig, found refuge in a convent before being sent to die in a Polish concentration camp. Perloff also notes the hesitancy of intellectuals of the time to write about and protest Nazi policies. In the correspondence between philosophers Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin in the 1930s, there is little mention of the atrocities being committed against Jews by Nazi assailants. As Perloff has lectured from the book, she’s been surprised how many people conceive of the Holocaust as a single, unprecedented event. ‘It was a culmination of what had been happening for 10 years, not a unique concept. The world knew about these events; if you go back, you’ll find it all over the newspapers of the time.’ Her memoir has also changed the course of her own academic work. Perloff recently gave a paper on Samuel Beckett, stressing that his early writing was all about the war, not an abstract notion of alienation. She thinks the very fact that this has not been mentioned in the critical literature reveals just how many of the French were Nazi collaborators. ‘I think we’re at the beginning of a period of discussion that will ask what really went on during this time,’ she said. Perloff completed her book over two years ago, and feels like she would have been less laudatory of America if she had conceived of the book after 9/11. Although she thinks her family was fortunate to have emigrated here, she worries about our political climate and ‘American’s apolitical nature.’ In ‘The Vienna Paradox’ a critic has found a political voice, which stresses how important it is to privilege ‘diversity and democracy’ over a ‘high-art culture, a national culture.’ Perloff’s book reminds us how difficult it is to maintain the privileges of a free society. Marjorie Perloff will read from and discuss, with UCLA Professor Michael Henry Heim, ‘The Vienna Paradox’ at the Villa Aurora next Tuesday, July 20, at 8 p.m. Contact 454-4231 for reservations. Shuttle service starts at 7:30 p.m. on Los Liones Drive.
We Have Built It… Now, Please Come!
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
By Brenda Himelfarb Palisadian-Post Contributor Michelle Danner likes to tell the story about the first time she walked into the Santa Monica space that is now the home of the Edgemar Center for the Arts. As she speaks, her haunting brown eyes stare straight ahead while she recalls what she considers to be a magical moment. The space, she says, called out to her. ‘My dream of opening a place to keep on creating live arts began a long time ago,’ says Danner, who is the executive artistic director of the one-year-old theatrical center. ‘So, when I walked in here so many years ago with a flashlight, in the dark, I knew this was the space. There was a certain energy. Now that we’re open, the energy that I felt so palpably when I sneaked in here in the middle of the night is still here. And others feel it, too. So many people come up to us after a reading or a show and talk about what they feel here. There’s just something about this space.’ Now, we’re not talking just any space. We’re talking a Frank Gehry space. A retail and restaurant complex that this notable architect designed in 1989, and a portion of which was occupied by the Santa Monica Art Museum until 1996. What Danner explored that dark night, in 1999, was a bare, concrete shell of a building. True, there was an electrical system and a few flimsy walls. But there were no bathrooms. No offices. No nothing. She knew that there was a lot of work to be done. But Danner, as she says, heard the sound. Saw the light. She knew this was the right place. Eventually, Danner and her partner, acting coach Larry Moss, with whom she has worked since 1990, raised over $1.5 million from donors who include former students. There was Kate Capshaw, who had studied with Moss in New York. She and her husband, Steven Spielberg, contributed $500,000 towards the project. Contributors Patricia Heaton and her husband, producer David Hunt Jones, have dressing rooms named after them. And Jason Alexander, Tom Hanks and Neil Simon also helped get the ball rolling. Today, the 6,350-sq.-ft. Edgemar Center for the Arts is buzzing with creativity. The facility houses a 99-seat main stage for productions, as well as a 65-seat second stage that hosts solo shows such as cabarets, works in development and readings. Revolving art exhibitions from established and up-and-coming artists represented by Gallery C, dress the walls of the Bradley A. Jabour Gallery, which is the center’s lobby. There are a couple of small offices and dressing rooms. And, yes, there are bathrooms. ‘It’s amazing to know that none of this existed,’ says Danner, like a proud mother. ‘We sacrificed the offices to have a main stage, because we wanted a place for the art.’ The ‘we’ Danner is referring to is her management team that includes, along with Moss, the artistic director; Brian Drillinger, creative director; Deb LaVine, director of creative affairs and Alexandra Guarnieri, managing director. ‘The artistic vision of this center, lies in their hands,’ Danner says of her cohorts. ‘We’ve always planned on having this facility all encompassing,’ says Guarnieri. ‘It’s about theater, children. It’s about outreach to all.’ To that end, the center has collaborative partners for afterschool programs, including L.A’s Best and YMCA, each of whom does their own writing, acting and costuming for their productions. And Edgemar is the home of Assemblies in Motion, a nonprofit organization of hip-hop artists who perform at socially minded assemblies for high schools, detention centers and foster homes. ‘What I’ve always wanted for this space was collaboration,’ says Danner. ‘I wanted to reach out to programs that needed a space to do their work. We know we change children’s lives. In fact, we started many of these programs before we even finished construction.’ This summer, the center is offering acting workshops for kids and teens that include improvisation and on-camera work. Those in the acting workshop will perform a showcase for parents and agents at the end of the session. At the end of the on-camera workshop each student will have an edited copy of his commercial on DVD to add to his reel. A morning workout for actors called ‘Actor’s Daily,’designed as a ‘creative jump-start,’ is also in progress with unlimited classes at a minimal monthly fee. Some of the center’s presentations have evolved from workshops that focus on emerging artists and new works. An early production, ‘The House of Yes,’ evolved out of Moss and Danner’s acting class, as did ‘Counting for Thunder,’ currently playing at Edgemar. Other offerings have included a country jazz singer and classical pianists. ‘We also have a group of volunteers in our literary department who call agents and get scripts for consideration,’ says Danner. ‘Every script is read by three different readers and, if approved, a reading of the entire script with the writer and producer is done. We usually do this on a Sunday, and the place is filled.’ On tap, too, is ‘Edgefest,’ a film festival, as well as other events devoted to the works of Neil Simon and Tennessee Williams. And there is a plan to reach out to hospitals, convalescent homes and battered women, to teach them self-esteem through performance. But building an arts center from scratch is not an easy task and fund-raising is always a challenge. And like any other nonprofit these days, the center is always looking for funds and other donations. The entire space can even be rented for special events. ‘My position as artistic director is one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done,’ says the undeterrable Danner. In the center’s lobby a monitor plays a continuous video of celebrities who support the center and attended the grand opening of the facility, including Spielberg and Capshaw, Helen Hunt, Christian Slater, Kimberly Williams, and Sally Field. At one point Spielberg remarks to the interviewer, ‘Edgemar is a tremendous new watering hole for us to go fishing in.’ These words are music to ears of Moss and Danner. ‘Edgemar is the idea of bringing 42nd Street to Main Street (the street on which the center is located),’ says Moss. ‘Are you an actor? Are you a singer? Are you a writer? There are some kids who can’t be anything but artists. That’s who they are. This place is for them.’ As teachers, Moss and Danner understand that creativity, that drive. Their job is to support and feed that innate talent. One part of Edgemar’s mission statement reads ‘to invite the community to observe, engage and interact, to add its voices to our creative discovery.’ ‘We’re starting out. It’s just the beginning,’ Danner says. ‘We encourage the community to get involved in the theater and be a part of it.’ Danner and her team have lovingly built the center. Now they want you to come. For a performance schedule, contact 392-7327, and for class information, contact 399-3666 or www.EdgemarCenter.org. The Edgemar Center for the Arts is located at 2437 Main St., Santa Monica.
Polluted Pond Water Flows to Beach on July 4 from Santa Monica Canyon
Photo by Linda Renaud
On Sunday, July 4, one of the busiest beach days of the year, L. A. County Beaches and Harbors workers flushed thousands of gallons of contaminated water out into the ocean, near the intersection of PCH and Chautauqua. The water came the ‘mystery pond,’ a 350-ft.-long by 85 ft.- wide body of water which was once just an open trench running from the end of the Rustic Creek water channel into the ocean at the base of Santa Monica Canyon. Beaches and Harbors Division Chief Wayne Schumacher told the Palisadian-Post that he supervised the operation himself ‘at around 8 or 9 a.m.’ He added that he was responding to a request from the L.A. County Lifeguard Division, which was concerned about the amount of water that had collected in the pond. While the lifeguard division often requests that the pond be drained when the water gets too high, ‘concerned that beachgoers, particularly children,’ might fall into the 15-foot-deep pond ‘and drown,’ Garth Canning, captain with the County Fire Department, Lifeguard Operations, told the Palisadian-Post that the actual request to bulldoze the sand bar between the pond and the ocean to let the water out on July 4 came from the L.A. County Health Department. ‘People aren’t supposed to be in that water,’ said Bernard Franklin, Chief of Recreation Health Programs. ‘That’s why we have ‘No Swimming’ signs posted there, which people sometimes ignore. They are routinely posted within 100 feet of all the city’s storm drains leading to the ocean. It’s a matter of public safety.’ Asked if his department had tested the quality of water in the pond before requesting its release, Franklin said ‘No.’ When the Post asked all three officials if they were aware that the water was contaminated, all three said they were not aware. Last week, after discovering that no tests had actually been done on the pond water by either the city or the county, the Post had a sample tested by Baykeeper, an independent watchdog organization which monitors and patrols the beaches in Santa Monica Bay. ‘The pond is definitely a ‘hot’ spot,’ said Angie Bera, after performing the test at the Baykeeper’s in-house laboratory. ‘This means it’s polluted, and there’s lots of bacteria.’ While Bera found there was low salinity in the 100 milliliter sample (which indicates there is a combination of both salt and fresh water in the pond), the total coliform count, which measures bacteria from all sources (plant/animal/human) came in at 24,192 (the California limit is 10,000); E.coli, which is a direct indicator of the fecal count, came in at 10,462 (400 is acceptable); and enterococci bacteria, which like E.coli helps determine the extent of the fecal contamination, was 3,255 (a count of 104 is the most desirable). The Post had the water tested after receiving persistent complaints from Santa Monica Canyon resident Gregg Willis, who in the last few weeks alone has seen the water in the pond flushed out to the ocean on several occasions. ‘Anyone can see that the pond, which is not even supposed to be there, is polluted,’ said Willis, who has lived across the street from the area for 18 years. ‘So I wanted to know why they kept bulldozing it out, but no one could give me a straight answer. It’s a cesspool, and while everyone agrees it’s a problem, no one seems to be doing anything about it. First of all, I want to know where all of the water is coming from. If the low-flow-diversion project (LFD), which cost over $1 million, is working as it should, there shouldn’t be any water at all.’ For years Will Rogers State Beach at Santa Monica Canyon regularly received an F rating from Heal The Bay. This summer it has had only A’s. ‘The improvement can be attributed directly to the city’s low-flow diversion project, which is now fully operational,’ said James Alamillo, who monitors the beach reports for the non-profit organization. Before the storm drain was completed last fall, the location was considered one of the worst polluters of the bay, with an estimated four million gallons of filthy water streaming down the channel and into the ocean during the dry-weather season (April through October). The LFD project was designed to divert water run-off to the Hyperion Treatment Plant in El Segundo, where it is filtered before being discharged into the ocean. The drain was installed under the Golden Bull restaurant parking lot. So why is there a pond? ‘There are two factors,’ Alamillo said. ‘One is high tide (bringing salt water into the pond), the other is an excess of water coming out of the channel. The dry-weather diversion cannot handle the excess flows from Rustic, Sullivan, and Mandeville canyons. The City of L.A. engineered and constructed the diversion to handle an average flow coming out of Santa Monica Canyon. However, as with most natural systems nothing is ever in a steady state. The flows from the channel are at times greater than the capacity of the diversion, and when that happens, the flow bypasses the concrete berm and flows directly into the old depression on the beach.’ He added, ‘Because a lot of this ponding water comes from stormwater, and because it doesn’t get flushed out by natural tides, it also often has unsafe levels of bacteria.’ When asked about the July 4 draining of the pond, Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, said: ‘It should never have happened. Flushing contaminated water into the ocean is unconscionable and negates everything we are trying to do here. People should not have been swimming in the ocean after they released that water. And they should have at least been told that the water had been flushed out.’ The solution to the problem, said Gold, is to pump out the storm-drain water coming down from the channel ‘and to fill in the pond with sand during the dry season.’ While Schumacher agrees that there is some engineering needed to deal with the overflow of water coming through the channel, he said completely filling in the pond with sand ‘is impossible. There needs to be an open trench from the channel to the ocean’ in case of flooding. ‘When was the last time you saw a major flood in the dry season?’ asked Gold. ‘It just doesn’t happen. Isn’t protecting swimmers more important than worrying about something that’s not going to happen?’ ‘I have not been told by anyone that the water is contaminated,’ Schumacher said. County crews bulldozed the pond again last Saturday, allowing polluted water to once again reach the ocean.
Council to Debate Preferential Parking
A proposed preferential parking district on the streets surrounding the business district and the Palisades Recreation Center will be discussed at the Community Council meeting on Thursday, July 22 at 7 p.m. in the Branch Library’s community room, 861 Alma Real. Emilie Baradi, a transportation engineer with the L.A. Department of Transportation, will speak about the proposal by residents whose on-street parking has been diminished by spillover from the Palisades business district and activities at the park. Last December, these residents requested applications for preferential parking for the following streets: * Carthage between Swarthmore and Via de la Paz. Residents are applying to be exempt from the existing two-hour parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, plus no parking from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., except by permit. * Radcliffe between Haverford and Bowdoin, two-hour parking 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, except by permit. * Alma Real between Toyopa and Frontera, two-hour parking 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, except by permit. * Monument between Albright and Bestor, two-hour parking 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, except by permit. If approved, the boundaries for the preferential parking district will extend at least two blocks beyond the areas that have requested it. Now that the proposed district has met DOT criteria, the DOT will seek input from Cindy Miscikowski’s City Council office and will solicit feedback from the community before approving the establishment of this district. ‘The Community Council meeting is prior to the public hearing,’ said Monique Ford, field deputy for Miscikowski’s West L.A. office. ‘The DOT would like to get a consensus from community leaders.’ Depending on the response, DOT may rectify issues or, if there is strong opposition, they may not go forward. Otherwise, a public hearing will be set, at which time affected businesses and residents of the district (within 300 feet) will have an opportunity for comment. Jack Allen, the Community Council’s advisor on governmental affairs, has sent a report on the preferential parking issue to council members, detailing his opposition. ‘Once it’s allowed, it spreads like chicken pox and neighbors can’t immunize themselves against it,’ he argues. ‘Sure, all those parkers who clog up their streets now will be gone but residents must purchase permits if any vehicles are to be parked on the street.’ ‘The first problem to be solved,’ Allen says, ‘is the critical shortage of parking in the Village and at the Palisades Recreation Center.’ Council chairman Norman Kulla told the Palisadian-Post: ‘Jack’s memo certainly persuaded me to be cautious about preferential parking approaches. It has untoward affects and can make things worse. We have a huge problem already with respect to lack of parking. ‘On the other hand, the homeowners who have people parking in front of their homes have genuine concerns.’
Gloria Martinez Tapped for PaliHi Principal Job
Gloria Martinez, former UCLA professor in the Educational Leadership Program and Malibu High School vice principal, has been selected the new principal at Palisades High School. Martinez will become the first principal in the independent charter school’s new leadership team, which will also include an executive director. The West Los Angeles resident was chosen from a final field of four candidates who were screened and interviewed by the school’s Board of Governors last month. Born and raised in Whittier, Martinez earned her doctorate from UCLA in education with a focus on the so-called achievement gap in public schools. She then taught at St. Bernard High School, a racially diverse co-educational school in Playa del Rey, before moving to Malibu High eight years ago. She taught Spanish for five years, then served as vice principal. According to outgoing Principal Mike Matthews, who is now assistant superintendent with the Santa Monica School District, Martinez achieved two notable successes as an administrator. ‘Gloria is a very follow-through person and gets things done,’ said Matthews. ‘Her best work came in solving a crisis Malibu was having in Special Education. We were not doing what we needed to do. Gloria made sure that every teacher understood what the needs were and deserves credit for bringing our school from being deficient to being a model. She is a leader in special education and all the teachers appreciated her support.’ ‘Gloria wrote her dissertation on the achievement gap, but she didn’t just leave it in the academic realm,’ Matthews continued. ‘She found ways to implement it on a practical level. She brought the AVID (Advance Via Individual Determination) program to the school. This program targets kids with potential but who aren’t going to be college-bound unless intervention happens. Malibu is now on the way to become a demonstration school.’ Martinez will concern herself with the academic and student life at 2,560-student PaliHi. Monday night, July 19, the Board of Governors will meet to determine the new leadership structure particularly the role of the executive director.
Baskin-Robbins: 50 Flavorful Years Here
By ELAINE CHOI Palisadian-Post Intern Some of the fondest memories of childhood are those visits to the ice cream parlor when you watched through the glass as the server scooped out your favorite flavor, pressed it down into the cone, smiled and handed you this special treat. Palisadians have now been enjoying this tradition at the Baskin-Robbins store on Swarthmore for 50 years. With 31 ice cream flavors available from the nearly 1,000 choices that are continually rotated across the country, a customer can try a different flavor every day of the month. Of all those flavors, Mint Chocolate Chip and Jamoca Almond Fudge reign as the town’s favorites. Among the youth, flavors inspired by movies and holidays are the most popular, including the new Shrek flavors and rainbow sherbet. New flavors are constantly being invented and recreated such as the Donkey Gone Bananas Sundae, Fiona’s Fairytale (pink and purple swirled cotton-candy flavor), Puss in Boots Chocolate Mousse (white chocolate mousse, milk chocolate and chocolate ice creams loaded with chocolate chips and chocolate-covered pretzels), and Shrek’s Swirl (green-colored grape sherbet and purple-colored green apple sherbet loaded with popping candy). Baskin Robbins first opened here on March 31, 1954, nine years after the chain’s first store debuted in Glendale. There are now over 4,500 locations throughout the world, making it the largest chain of ice cream specialty stores. In the U.S. alone, more than 150 million ice cream cones are served every year. Chris Fracchiolla, a father of two and a Palisades resident since 1994, bought the store three years ago after a career in playwriting (notably ‘Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding,’ co-created in 1988 with his wife, Nancy Cassaro). ‘I wanted something else in the community that was especially around kids because I work a lot with kids,’ said Fracchiolla, who is a Sunday school teacher and children’s nursery leader at United Methodist Church. ‘I heard the store was for sale and it just felt like the right thing for me and my family. We have always loved this community and the ‘small-town’ qualities. For us the store has always been a kind of ground zero for that good old-fashioned Palisades feeling.’ The dieting craze that is sweeping the country has had little impact on his sales because ‘people still love their ice cream,’ Fracchiolla said. Nor did the Haagen-Dazs store on Sunset have much effect; in fact, ever since Haagen-Dazs closed in February, there has been virtually no change in the number of ice cream cones or cakes sold at Baskin-Robbins. Another popular ice cream franchise, Cold Stone Creamery, which opened in 1988 in Tempe, Arizona, and has grown to 650 stores nationwide, has also had little local impact because the Baskin-Robbins store here has been the Palisades tradition for such a long time. ‘Our store has become a hangout for kids,’ Fracchiolla said. ‘There’s also a lot of Pacific Palisades loyalty, so people continue to keep coming here. He added, ‘We have a big business in cakes too, especially for birthdays and graduations.’ June was especially busy because of all the end-of-the-year school parties and graduations. More than 120 unique cake designs are available, with different sizes to suit any occasion or celebration. In 2000, Baskin-Robbins launched its freeze-frame cakes to turn any picture into a cake design using edible ink and paper. Well before going into the ice cream business, Fracchiolla and his wife Nancy wrote their off-Broadway play, ‘Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding,’ which follows the nuptials of two working-class Italian New Yorkers and their wacky, diverse families. Among the bizarre events that take place, the father of the groom gets in a fist fight with the mother of the bride as the newlyweds take off together. The production ‘has played around the world as a cult classic for 15 years,’ the Hollywood Reporter noted a year ago. The Fracchiollas have two children, 8-year-old Alice and 10-year-old John, who attend Palisades Elementary. Nancy is still an actress (guest appearances in ‘Nip/Tuck’) and writer (co-credit on the screenplay for ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’) while Chris has become more involved in volunteer work. He helps run two after-school programs, and has also been coaching a Palisades Pony Baseball team (the Baskin-Robbins Indians) while staying involved in Cub Scouts. To celebrate his store’s 50th anniversary and maintain its ‘good old-fashioned’ feeling, Fracchiolla has begun a history wall at the store. Anyone with copies of photographs or favorite recollections of the store are encouraged to bring them to Chris.
James Andrew, 84; Active Resident
James D. Andrew, 84, a former longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, died peacefully at his Solana Beach home on June 18. Funeral services were held at the Mission of San Luis Rey in Oceanside. Born in Lakewood, Ohio, Jim attended Case Institute of Technology, where he earned an engineering degree. General Electric hired him out of college, just as he was engaged to Lois Jeannette Zurlinden of Cleveland, who shared his life for 62 years. They were married January 24, 1942, and Jim was promptly sent on assignment to Nevada to work on the final stages of the construction of Boulder Dam. Four children and new job assignments followed in quick succession as the Andrew family moved to Evansville, Cincinnati, Schenectady, Dayton, Detroit and Adrian. In 1953, Jim drove everyone from Michigan to California along Route 66, and they settled in the Palisades. He had been hired by Douglas Aircraft Corporation, but later also held exciting jobs at Space Technology Laboratories, Planning Research Corporation and TRW. He specialized in communication and encryption, which made much of his work top secret. However, a memorable and highly public moment occurred in 1972 when the Mariner spacecraft orbited Mars, sending back the first pictures from any planet’at four bits of information per second. Jim, in charge of that transmission, stood in the big room at Jet Propulsion Laboratories as the screen gradually filled in with the image of Mars. Given the intensity with which he pursued his occupation, many were surprised when, at age 60, Jim opted to retire, although for years he accepted consulting jobs. After moving to the Palisades, the Andrew family doubled in size and the eight children eventually dispersed around the globe. While maintaining close ties to Corpus Christi parish in retirement, Jim also recorded technical books for the blind and coached youth baseball teams’in addition to pursuing the temptation and frustration of golf. He and Lois also traveled to Greece, Spain, France, England, Mexico and Japan, often meeting up with their children. The couple moved to Solana Beach in 1986, where they joined the Lomas Santa Fe country club. Jim and Lois loved their new environment and were welcomed by the parish at Saint James, and a wealth of friends in the area. They greatly enjoyed their 50th wedding anniversary, which began with a carefully orchestrated surprise family reunion in Iowa during a snowy Christmas and culminated in a party at Lomas Santa Fe in early 1992. Two years later, despite a regular regimen of exercise, Jim suffered a stroke that left him completely incapacitated. Although confined to a bed and wheelchair, he saw and heard everything around him and interacted in his inimitable way with his wife, two caretakers, and all the visiting children and grandchildren. Jim is survived by wife Lois; brother Charles; daughters Patricia (husband Antonio) Andrade of Mexico City, Annette (Tom) Lesher of McKinleyville and Marcia (Ramon) Camacho of Forest Grove, Oregon; sons Dudley (Stephanie) of New Haven, Connecticut, Paul (Kyoko) of Ibaraki, Japan, Russell (Deborah) of Paso Robles, Mark (Debra) of Aurora and Philip (Michele) of Encinitas; 20 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Dean Detrick; Former Longtime Resident
Dean Seaver Detrick, Sr., a former longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, died on June 23 in San Luis Obispo. He was 91. Born in Long Beach, Dean grew up in Bishop where his father ran Detrick’s Photo Studio. In 1943, stationed with the Navy in Washington, D. C., Dean became engaged to Mabel Fowler in a city park near a statue of Admiral Farragut, whose famous words, ‘Damn the torpedoes’full speed ahead!’ became the couple’s motto for 58 years of marriage. The Detricks lived in the Palisades from 1946 to 1973, where Dean began a 40-year career with Bank of America. Always involved with community and youth organizations, he gave his deepest support, after family, to the Palisades Methodist Church. Dean and Mabel moved to Los Osos in 1973, where they joined the Trinity Methodist Church. Always entertaining, loving, and eager to share his faith, Dean will be remembered as a talented fly fisherman, nature-lover, gardener, friend, father, and devout Christian. He is survived by his four children Dean Detrick, Jr. of Hollywood; John Detrick (Vera) of Lakewood; Diane Detrick Bopp (Tom) of Fish Camp; Mark Detrick (Mika) of Brentwood; four grandchildren, Jill and Paul Detrick of Lakewood and Tyler and Emma Detrick of Brentwood; and a sister, Ursula Turner, 95, of Oregon. Services were held in Los Osos on June 28.
Youth Triathlon Full of Stars
A slightly overcast July 4 morning didn’t dampen the spirits of the more than 70 energetic kids who participated in the second annual Palisades/Malibu YMCA Youth Triathlon. Competitors ranging in age from 6 to 15 completed the three-stage event, which included a 5K bike ride, a 1.1-mile run to Temescal Canyon Gateway Park and a 150-yard swim in the Y pool. ‘We had 84 kids register for training clinics and the race,’ said USA Youth Triathlon Executive Director Deborah Hafford, who also directed last year’s inaugural race. ‘The event was an even bigger success this year, thanks to so many people in the Palisades.’ Parents volunteered to help out on the course and cheered the kids on, along with coaches, organizers and volunteers, many from the L.A. Triathlon Club. Both volunteers and entrants wore navy blue T-shirts that said ‘Bike Run Swim’ on the front, with icons for the three events, and ‘Every Finisher Is a Winner’ on the back. ‘The most important thing at the start is to be safe,’ Hafford’s husband, Doug, told participants as they waited eagerly on their bikes for the race to begin. ‘If you get past the start, you’re probably fine.’ Escorted by two policemen, the group followed the rabbit, Evan Bartelheim, a L.A. Tri Club volunteer who helped out last year by accompanying the last place winner. This year, ‘Those kids were nipping at my heels the whole way,’ he told the Post. With their race numbers written in black on their arms and legs, some of the leading athletes could be seen running up the Temescal Canyon dirt hill towards the pool at about the 16-minute mark. Among them were winners Starr Hathaway, who finished the triathlon in 23:21, and Courtney Knapp (23:30). Palisadian Hathaway, 12, said he trained for the triathlon by riding his bike every other day, going to the Y clinics and practicing the course. ‘An amazing genetic athlete,’ according to Deborah Hafford, Hathaway swims, runs track and plays basketball at St. Matthew’s School, where he will be a 7th grader this fall. He said that the swimming was the most challenging of the three stages for him because he was ‘really tired’ when he got into the pool. ‘It was the hardest six laps I’ve ever done.’ Hathaway ran the Palisades-Will Rogers 5K last year. Knapp, who just turned 14, beat her own winning time of 25:29 from last year’s triathlon. ‘The biking was the hardest because I’m used to swimming and running,’ said Knapp, a junior lifeguard who runs track and cross country and has run several 5K and 10K races. ‘I had adrenaline as soon as I got into the pool, and my close friends and family were cheering me on.’ ‘She’s a competitor,’ said Knapp’s mother, who was yelling, ‘Kick!’ as she watched her daughter swim. Knapp graduated from and graduated from Calvary Christian School and will attend Oaks Christian this fall. Several triathletes completed the event after running the 5K earlier that morning. Among them were Palisadian girls Catherine Price, 13, and Dylan Blakely, 12, who attend Calvary, and Carolyn Windler, 10, a Paul Revere student. Blakely (24:27) finished third in the Girls 12 and Above age group, and Windler (29:56) won Girls 10 to 11. Siblings like Isabella and Alexander Porter competed in the triathlon together. Both Isabella, 7, and Alexander, 9, enjoy playing sports at Crossroads School. Sisters Kennedy and Courtney Corrin, Marina del Rey residents and students at Curtis School, completed their first triathlon with mom, dad and their little brother cheering them on. ‘We’re just happy they finished,’ said mom T.C. Corrin, a personal trainer who teaches aerobics at the YMCA and chairs the Little Dolphins sports committee in Temescal Canyon. She is also a mountain biker and former American Gladiator. Dad Michael is a former collegiate track and field athlete. Kennedy, 8, and Courtney, 6, attended three of the Y clinics and trained with their parents for four weeks prior to the triathlon by swimming, biking and running on the beach in Venice. The girls, who enjoy gymnastics, soccer and basketball, among other sports, both said the swimming was the hardest part. After completing the triathlon, Kennedy stood poolside near her mom to support Courtney, the final finisher in Sunday’s event and recipient of the Best Effort Award. A special distinction also went to Palisadian Evan Shaner, 11, who took first place in the Boys 10 to 11 age group at 24:28, and was recognized with the Best Sportsmanship Award. Nicole Lotte (24:00) and Blakely finished second and third overall behind Knapp for the girls while Hathaway was followed by William MacMiller (23:31) and Igor Burks (24:15) in the overall boys standings. ‘I would like to encourage all the kids who participated to come back again next year and bring a friend,’ said Hafford, who is recruiting one parent representative from each local school to help promote this event next year. Interested parents can contact Hafford at info@usayt.com. Race results and photos will be posted on the Web site at www.usayt.com in the next week.
Kids Run for Fun
A surprise visitor awaited 200 children lining up for the start of the ninth annual Kids’ Fun Run Sunday morning, which followed the Palisades-Will Rogers 5/10K races. Despite the busy schedule to promote his new movie, which broke box office records when it opened in theaters last week, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man dropped by just in time to send runners on their way when the starter’s gun went off. The popular super hero (or someone disguised as him), easily recognizable in his bright red and blue costume, would’ve needed to spin his trusty webs to escape the hordes of kids as they charged past him, heading south down Ocampo Drive. Racers then turned east on Drummond, north on Toyopa and back to the disbanding area at the Palisades Recreation Center. It was hard to tell who was more excited about the race’the kids (ages 12 and under) or their parents, many of whom lined the streets of Huntington Palisades to cheer their kids along the flat 1/2 mile course. All finishers received a medal and a flag for their participation.
