Via de las Olas residents are warning city officials that the wooden bulkhead supporting a section of the street between Lombard and Friends should be replaced with a more stabilizing cement structure. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
A group of Via de las Olas residents, fearful of losing their street and their bluff to landslides, prodded the Community Council last Thursday night to ‘advocate on our behalf’ for emergency action by the City of Los Angeles. Led by Bill Moran and Regina McConahay, the residents said that immediate rehabilitation efforts are needed along Via and the bluffs (especially between Via de la Paz and Friends Street), if the city hopes to forestall a landslide disaster similar to the one that engulfed PCH in 1958 just west of the current trouble areas. The residents urged ‘five critical steps to save the bluffs,’ including: 1. Re-engineer, repair and resurface the street. 2. Re-engineer, repair and rebuild the wooden bulkhead near Friends, the sewers and the storm drains. 3. Determine the presence and condition of hydraugers; establish regularly monitored, reported, and certified saturation by inclinometers. 4. Reinstate status of Via de las Olas as an official street warranting repairs and resurfacing. 5. Make this a priority in the city’s budget action plan. Last June, in response to homeowner demands and a request by City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the city’s Geotechnical Engineering Division and Bureau of Street Services submitted a report giving possible methods of repair and projected cost estimates to improve the stability and engineering of the roadway. Total estimated cost: $1,460,000. Following public discussion last Thursday, the Community Council unanimously recommended to Miscikowski’s deputy, Monique Ford, that ‘remedial action be given urgent status requiring imminent attention for funding and corrective action.’ The council also unanimously supported Miscikowski’s proposed action to make Via de las Olas an attendant project of the adjacent Potrero Canyon Restoration Project, which is nearing its final financing stage. The city plans to sell 35 lots along the perimeter of Potrero in order to complete the project and pay back its 20-year ‘investment.’ But Miscikowski reiterated last week that she will bring a motion to City Council to insure that Potrero revenues are also allotted to help shore up Via de las Olas before going to the city’s general fund. After the meeting, McConahay told the Palisadian-Post that while the Community Council’s proclamations were ‘wonderfully supportive, they do not translate into action without immediate funding. I’m scrambling to find other sources of revenue.’
Bill Rosendahl at his campaign headquarters in Mar Vista. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
‘I love the matzo ball soup here,’ said Bill Rosendahl, even though his serving was growing cold as he talked and an interviewer listened during a February interview at Mort’s Palisades Deli. ‘I’ve told Bobbie that if I win, I’m going to serve her soup at a City Council meeting.’ This is Bill Rosendahl, casually praising the popular deli owner, Bobbie Farberow, and trying to keep a local touch as he runs against Flora Gil Krisiloff and Angela Reddock for the City Council’s 11th District seat in Tuesday’s primary election. Another Rosendahl touch was the fact that, coincidentally, former Mayor Richard Riordan was eating lunch across the room. ‘Dick is a good friend of mine,’ Rosendahl said, noting that Riordan and his wife, Nancy Daley, hosted his first campaign fundraiser in March 2004. ‘What’s good about the Riordans’ support is that it symbolizes both political parties’Nancy is a strong Democrat, Dick is a strong Republican, and I see myself in the middle as a consensus builder. I’m a non-partisan guy; I think most problems can be solved without ideology if you just get people in a room and work on them.’ Of course, Rosendahl is a lifelong Democrat who worked on campaigns for Bobby Kennedy and George McGovern, but he still projects himself as an ‘objective,’ problem-solving politician who will draw on the skills he acquired as a moderator for more than 3,000 public affairs television programs for 16 years. The interview was interrupted for a moment by Phyllis Genovese, the town’s 90-year-old business legend (she founded The Letter Shop on Via de la Paz in 1947), who politely came up to Rosendahl and was introduced by a friend. Genovese said, ‘I just wanted to give you the word that I went over to our ex-Mayor and I asked him, ‘Whom do you recommend in the City Council election?’ and he said, ‘Bill Rosendahl’go over and talk to him.” ‘Well, God bless you,’ Bill said, and when he learned Genovese’s age, he asked, ‘So what’s the secret?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know’good hard work I guess,’ Genovese said. Rosendahl has always been accustomed to hard work, having grown up in New Jersey as one of eight children born to two Germans who immigrated here before World War II. ‘My father started here as a janitor with a 6th grade education, but he got himself schooled in bookkeeping and ended up being the vice-president of a cosmetic firm, the Wella Corporation. I was active in campus politics in high school and at St. Vincent’s College in Pennsylvania, where I got a degree in politics and economics. I also got involved in the civil rights movement, going down to Washington and hearing Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.’ In 1968, when Bobby Kennedy announced he would run for president, Rosendahl took a leave from graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and joined Kennedy’s campaign in Indiana. ‘I ran a congressional district for him in the primary and we bonded in that relationship,’ Rosendahl said. ‘He then asked me to work in his Oregon campaign for six weeks, before going down to California. I was in the hotel, waiting for him in the press room, when he got killed.’ Distraught, Rosendahl returned to graduate school to complete his master’s in social work, then was drafted into the Army. He spent his first year as a counselor at Ft. Carson, Colorado, ‘working with soldiers who had drug and alcohol problems, racial harmony problems, identity problems and morale problems. So I said to the general, at a little gathering, ‘General, we have a lot of problems here: AWOLs are up and new enlistments are down.’ ‘He said, ‘Come work for me,’ and I began advising him on how to improve the situation. We turned things around, and my picture ended up in Life magazine as part of a story on ‘The New Army,’ in early 1969.’ According to Rosendahl, ‘John D. Rockefeller III, oldest of the four brothers, read the Life article and asked me to work for him as an associate in New York. I managed his emerging interest in social change and proposed ways in which he could make his five foundations more sensitive to young people.’ In 1972, Rosendahl left Rockefeller to work on George McGovern’s national campaign staff. ‘After that election, I decided I needed to understand myself better and the world better, so I took a leave from our way of life and got a backpack and a sleeping bag and became a wanderer. I started in Europe, went to the Middle East, followed the Nile to Sudan, traveled across the Namib desert to Ethiopia, and then made my way down to South Africa, all by foot and local transportation.’ He then flew to Brazil and took planes to major cities in South American and Central America before returning home after 18 months and 39 countries. Back in the U.S.A., Rosenthal was still imbued with politics, and although he worked on two more unsuccessful political campaigns, he met Jimmy Carter along the way. This led to an White House appointment to the State Department as Chief of Operations for the U.S. Trade and Development Program. ‘When the president was defeated in 1980, I got a call from people at Westinghouse Broadcasting who wanted me to join the cable television business. They said, ‘It’s a lot of fun, we’re wiring the nation and we’re looking for people with your campaign experience because every city will be making a decision about who gets the franchise.” Thus began Rosenthal’s 22-year career as an executive with Westinghouse, Century Cable and Adelphia. When Rosendahl lost his job at Adelphia in 2003, he seized the opportunity to finally run as a political candidate himself. City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski was going to be ‘termed out’ in 2005 and the reconfigured District 11’shed of its San Fernando Valley voters’was now focused on the coastal area between Pacific Palisades and LAX over to the 405 Freeway. ‘I live in Mar Vista,’ Rosendahl said, ‘so I see myself as the guy in the middle of the district who wants to bring the whole district together. I’m running for City Council because I want to take my skills as the facilitator of a discussion and solve the many problems that we’ve been talking about in this campaign.’
Several Palisadians have recently been honored for their work in the film business, including three who won Academy Awards on Sunday night at the Kodak Theatre. Scott Stokdyk and Anthony LaMolinara were both first-time Oscar winners for their visual effects work on ‘Spider-Man 2.’ The two shared the honor with John Dykstra and John Frazier. The same group had been previously nominated for ‘Spider-Man.’ Santa Monica Canyon resident Stokdyk was the film’s visual effects supervisor, and is currently working on ‘Spider-Man 3,’ due out May 2007. A 1987 Palisades High School graduate, he was also nominated for ‘Hollow Man’ in 2000. Stokdyk was a city tennis doubles champion at PaliHi who went on to attend Harvey Mudd College, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. He and his wife Danielle have a 2-year-old son, Mason. He celebrated the win at a small company party and then the Vanity Fair party. ‘It was incredibly fun. It feels really amazing. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,’ Stokdyk told the Palisadian-Post Tuesday. ‘It’s particulary exciting for me because it’s the first Oscar for Sony Pictures Imageworks, where I work.’ Stokdyk has particularly enjoyed working with director Sam Raimi. ‘I read the Spider-Man comics when I was younger. I went from being enthralled with something that’s such a different world to helping create that world,’ said Stokdyk, who has been working on ‘Spider-Man’ films since 2000. His father John and stepmother Jane Stokdyk are longtime Highlands residents. Palisadian Anthony LaMolinara, the film’s animation director, has lived in the Palisades for seven years. He and his wife Marie have two children: Luca, 18 months, and Brando, 5-1/2 months. LaMolinara and the other nominees stood up onstage while waiting for the winner to be announced. ‘I had butterflies,’ he recalled. ‘I got really nervous right before they announced it. Once they announced it, and I walked out there I became calm, completely relaxed.’ LaMolinara was one of the first to arrive at the Governors Ball. ‘I speak a little German and I went over to Wolfgang Puck and he said, ‘come on into the kitchen.” When LaMolinara walked in with his Oscar, all the cooks applauded. ‘It’s the time to let your ego hang out, be soothed, massaged and loved.’ A Florida native and graduate of Florida State University, LaMolinara is currently working to set up a new studio at Disney where he will work on his next project, ‘Toy Story III.’ He has had a varied career in the movie industry, working mostly in animation, but also as a camera operator, and doing slow-motion films for the NFL and a live-action short. ‘I used a lot of what I learned shooting NFL films as a ground cameraman in the ‘Spider-Man’ movies.’ ‘The crew was great, the four of us enjoyed working together and the animators did some things that were never done before.’ Palisadian Bob Beemer won his third Oscar Sunday night for his sound mixing work on ‘Ray,’ an award he shared with colleagues Scott Millan, Greg Orloff and Steve Cantamessa. Beemer previously won the Oscar for ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Speed’ and was nominated for ‘Road to Perdition’ and ‘Independence Day.’ Beemer had several Palisadian colleagues on ‘Ray,’ including casting director Nancy Klopper, music editor/music supervisor Curt Sobel and film editor Paul Hirsch. Hirsch, an Oscar nominee for ‘Ray,’ won the American Cinema Editors’ award for best editing of a comedy or musical on February 20 at the Beverly Hilton. Sobel won the Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild’s Golden Reel award for best music editing in a musical film on Saturday night at the Century Plaza hotel. ‘How honored I was to be accepting an award on the same stage where George Lucas had just been acknowledged for his lifetime achievements,’ Sobel said, adding that he recalled meeting Lucas 10 years ago, and how he offered him a composing job. Sobel shared the evening with his wife, Connie, and his younger sons, Jay and Brett. ‘Following dinner, we rushed to Universal’s Pre-Oscar ‘Ray’ party at Spago. Earlier, Paul Hirsch had said I had better walk in to Spago with the Golden Reel statuette held high, or else. It was great not to disappoint Paul and to be able to share the award with those there who had made this movie such a success.’ Sobel also attended the Academy Awards ceremony, sitting next to fellow Palisadian Tom Newman’s family. Newman was nominated for his original score of ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,’ his seventh Oscar nomination. Other Palisadian Oscar nominees included Palisadian Graham King, the producer of ‘The Aviator,’ nominated in the best picture category; Don Cheadle, who was nominated as best actor for his role as Paul Rusesabagina in ‘Hotel Rwanda’; and Caleb Deschanel, a best cinematography category nominee for his work on ‘The Passion of The Christ,’ his fifth nomination. Costume designer Colleen Atwood was nominated for her work on ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.’ Atwood won the Oscar in 1993 for ‘Chicago’ and was previously nominated for ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ ‘Beloved,’ and ‘Little Women.’
The Palisades Junior Women’s Club awarded a record $96,350 to 40 local organizations at a reception Tuesday evening at the Woman’s Club. Recreation, public schools, community service and beautification groups topped the list of major award recipients this year. To help celebrate the event, 26 past presidents of the club, including Dotty Larson (1954-55) and Vonnie Flowers (1957-58) from the 1950s, participated in the festivities. ‘It has been a spectacular year,’ said current president Jenifer Byington, adding that the club had raised more money than in the past. ‘It’s not about how much each group gets, just the meaning for them. Some groups like the Oom Pa Pa Band or the Palisades Art Association ask for a small amount every year, and they are always so appreciative.’ For the past 19 years, the club has donated the proceeds from its annual Holiday Home Tour and Boutique to deserving nonprofit organization serving the Palisades community. This year for the first time, the club added an estate sale that netted over $5,000. The Junior Women’s Club was established over 60 years ago as a way to bring dedicated young women together to enhance and preserve the unique qualities of the Palisades community. The 2005 grant recipients included: Beautification: Palisades Village Green Committee’$2,500; Palisades Garden Club’$500; Palisades Beautiful’ $5,000; Palisades P.R.I.D.E.’$4,500. Education: Palisades High School Booster Club’$4,000; Paul Revere PRIDE Booster Club’$4,000; Canyon Charter School Booster Club’$4,000; Friends of Marquez Marquez Charter Elementary’$4,000; P.E.P. Palisades Elementary School’$4,000; Palisades Charter Schools Foundation’$5,000; Calvary Christian School’$500; Nature of Wildworks’$250. Community Services & Charitable Organizations: Sisters of St. Louis League $1,000; Palisades Hunger Walk’$250; Oom Pa Pa Band’$600′ Fire Station #69’$2,000; Fire Station #23’$2,000; Heal the Bay’$500; Palisades Americanism Parade Association’$4,000; Meals on Wheels’$400; Jules & Doris Stein UCLA Support Group’$750; Friends of Villa Aurora’$250. Chamber of Commerce: Disaster Preparedness’$500; Holiday Decorations’$1,000; Street Maintenance’$3,000. Boy Scouts of America: Crew 223 $1,000; Camp Josepho’1,250; Camp Managers Corps’$1,200; Kevin Niles Memorial Library & Learning Center’$500. Recreation: Palisades Art Association’$250; USC Thornton Music Program’$750; Chamber Music Palisades’$500; Palisades Symphony’$500; Friends of Film’$4,000; Palisades-Malibu YMCA’$3,500; Palisades Recreation Center’$4,800; AYSO Region 69’$2,500; USA Youth Triathlon’$100; Pacific Palisades Historical Society’$1,000; Field of Dreams’$5,000.
Karen Suell Raiford died February 23 at her home in Pacific Palisades, a victim of lung cancer. She devoted over 40 years to social work and management in Los Angeles County, working successively in the county Department of Social Services, and then with the Superior Court. She was born Karen Suell Kiersgaard in Glostrup, Denmark on November 30, 1932. The family moved to Virum (north of Copenhagen) before settling in Lyngby in 1953. Karen grew up during the Great Depression, and in Nazi-occupied Denmark during the Second World War. She was educated as a nurse in Roskilde following the war. Karen first came to the United States from Denmark in 1954 and resided in East Lansing, Michigan for four years, working in a hospital there as a nurse’s aide. In 1958 she moved to California. After a brief time nursing in Pasadena she enrolled at UCLA, graduating in 1962 with a B.A. in sociology; she received her Master’s of Social Welfare there in 1968. She started work with the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services (DPSS) in 1961, where she worked for the next 11 years, rising to the position of deputy district director. In 1972 Karen started with the Superior Court of Los Angeles as the director of child custody evaluations department. She headed that department until her retirement in September 1992. During her time with the court, Karen made frequent presentations at statewide as well as national conferences. She was part of the statewide committee that drafted the California Rules of Court setting standards for child custody evaluators. She also drafted the first standards for child custody evaluators for the Association of Family and Conciliation Court (AFCC), which were published in 1986. Karen served on the national and California board of directors for AFCC. She received the Distinguished Service Award in 1992 from AFCC for her contribution to the Child Custody Standard Committee and the National Board of Directors. Following her retirement, she continued to work for the department, and donated many volunteer hours recruiting and training new staff. She also provided training for the newly formed Riverside County Superior Court Child Custody Evaluations office. Karen was also very involved with her church, the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica. There she served on the personnel and ministerial committees, and as a mentor for four years in the church’s Discovery program. A memorial service will be held for Karen at the church, located at 1260 Eighteenth Street in Santa Monica, on March 20 at 2:30 p.m. In addition to her husband of 38 years, John D. Raiford, Karen is survived by her sister, Mary (L’sser) H’iler; a brother, Hanse Kiersgaard; two nieces; three nephews; three grand-nieces; two grand-nephews and one great-grand-nephew in Denmark. A daughter, Joan Mhoon (Ginga) Raiford, died in 1983. In lieu of flowers, donations in Karen’s memory can be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, P.O. Box 548, Montgomery, Alabama 36177; the Salvation Army; or Survivors After Suicide at the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, 4760 S. Sepulveda, Culver City, CA 90230.
Chase Pekar will make his debut on the international tennis circuit this summer as a member of the gold medal team. Along with 13 other top-ranked American juniors and two college coaches, the 14-year-old Palisadian will represent the United States as a tennis ambassador on a 27-day European tour which will include tournaments in Sweden, Germany and Holland. ‘I look forward to representing our great nation that I’m so proud to live in,’ Pekar says. ‘I’m eager to compete against top juniors half a world away from us.’ Pekar and his doubles partner Torsten Keil-Long of Claremont reached the finals of the War By the Shore junior tournament in Newport Beach last July. Pekar won the 14s division of the Palisadian-Post Tennis Open and reached the boys’ 12s consolation finals at the K-Swiss Grand Prix Masters in 2003. An eighth-grader at Corpus Christi, Pekar plans to enroll at Palisades High in the fall.
The Palisades High women’s soccer team advanced to the City Section finals on Tuesday with a 1-0 victory at Granada Hills. The Dolphins will play defending champion El Camino Real for the championship Saturday at 7 p.m. at East Los Angeles College. Impressive victories over Reseda Cleveland, Fairfax and Granada Hills Kennedy advanced Palisades to Tuesday’s semifinals. The Dolphins (11-7-1) got a measure of revenge against seventh-seeded Fairfax in the second round February 22 with a 3-0 win. Pali’s shutout victory avenged a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Lions two weeks earlier in league play. Palisades scored two goals in the first 10 minutes against Kennedy in the quarterfinals last Thursday en route to a 7-0 victory. Lucy Miller had two goals and an assist and Jennifer Wong scored the last goal on a penalty kick against the 18th-seeded Cougars. El Camino Real, which has won four consecutive City titles, defeated Western league champion Hamilton, 2-0, in the other semifinal Tuesday. Boys Soccer After its 1-0 upset of Los Angeles to open the City playoffs four days earlier, Palisades was hoping to keep its momentum going in the second round. Instead, the Dolphins’ season came to an abrupt end with a 2-0 loss at second-seeded San Fernando on February 23. Luis Hernandez scored in the 19th minute to give the host Tigers a 1-0 lead. Palisades (6-3-2), seeded 18th out of 32 teams, appeared to tie the score at the 59 minute mark but the goal was nullified by an offsides penalty. Two minutes later Moses Alvarez added an insurance goal for the Tigers. Rudy Marea of San Fernando and Pali’s Francesco Coco were each red carded in the 55th minute.
Co-coaches Kelly Loftus and Tom Seyler liked what they saw from their Palisades High team in last Saturday’s annual baseball alumni fundraising game at George Robert Field. Not only did the Dolphins’ varsity squad pound their elders, 15-2, they did so by playing well in every aspect of the game: pitching, hitting and defense. ‘We’re really tough up the middle defensively and we’re going to score some runs,’ Loftus said. ‘To be a great program you have to have balance and you look at our lineup and we have four seniors, four juniors and four sophomores. If our pitchers don’t walk anybody we can play 25 or 30 games this year.’ David Bromberg had a stellar day for the Dolphins, striking out eight batters in three innings on the mound and clubbing three solo home runs. Batting leadoff, Matt Skolnik singled, tripled, squeezed home a run and scored twice. Turhan Folse struck out five batters in two innings pitched and scored two runs. Seri Kattan-Wright pitched two innings with two strikeouts. The highlight of the day, however, was provided by short stop Dylan Cohen, who hit the second pitch of his second at-bat high over the hill behind right center field and onto Sunset Bouelvard. Tim Bearer (Class of 1975) pitched two innings of shutout ball and Jim Vatcher (Class of 1983) pitched three innings and hit a home run for the alumni. Brothers Brandon and Kevin Seto patrolled the alumni outfield well and Justin Wallace handled the catching. In the preceding junior varsity vs. old-timers game, PaliHi teacher Steve Burr (Class of 1988) threw out a runner at the plate for the second year in a row.
Sugar Ray Leonard Discusses His New Show, His Career and Boxing’s Future
Co-hosts Sylvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard stand with the 16 boxers vying to win $1 million in “The Contender,” a television reality show premiering Monday night on NBC. Photo courtesy of “The Contender”
Sugar Ray Leonard captured world titles in five different weight classes and is considered one of boxing’s all-time greats. His first taste of fame came at the age of 20 when he won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada. He launched his pro career shortly thereafter and stopped Wilfred Benitez for the WBC welterweight title in 1979. He lost the crown on points to Roberto Duran, but won a rematch six months later to regain his title. In 1981, Leonard beat junior middleweight champ Ayub Kalule, then knocked out Thomas Hearns to unify the welterweight title. An eye injury interrupted Leonard’s career for five years, but he returned to capture Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s middleweight belt in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Leonard made several more comebacks and won two more world titles before retiring for good in 1997 with a record of 36-3-1 and 25 knockouts. Named “Fighter of the Decade” for the 1980s, Leonard is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and remains one of the sport’s most recognizable and popular champions. He is currently involved in NBC’s reality boxing show “The Contender,” which premieres next Monday, March 7, at 9:30 p.m. The first episode will be reshown next Thursday, March 10, at 10 p.m. and subsequent episodes will air Sundays at 8 p.m. beginning March 13. Sports Editor Steve Galluzzo visited Leonard at his Palisades Riviera home to discuss his illustrious career and his new television endeavor… PP: How did you first get involved with “The Contender” project? RL: Jeff Wald [a fellow Palisadian], who is a friend of mine and also one of the producers of “The Contender” hounded me for years about a boxing TV show. I tried to avoid him for years until last March when he brought [executive producers] Jeffrey Katzenberg, Mark Burnett and Sylvester Stallone over to my house to let me know that “The Contender” was about to be born. And they wanted me involved. Thanks, Jeff. PP: What role do you play in “The Contender?” RL: I co-host the show along with Sylvester Stallone and serve as a mentor for these 16 incredible young boxers. I’ve been where they are trying to go. They are trying to become champions. I was a champion six times. PP: What makes “The Contender” a show people will want to watch? RL: The reason anyone, even men and women who are not boxing fans, will enjoy “The Contender” is that it is a feel-good show. If you look at the movie “Million Dollar Baby,” it didn’t win an Oscar because it was about boxing. It won because of the story behind it. It didn’t win because of Hilary Swank’s boxing ability, but because of her characters’ compelling story and the adversities that character had to overcome. PP: Can you relate to what the fighters on the show are going through? RL: Yes I can. I was once where they are now. The only reason I turned professional was to help my parents pay for their hospital bills. I had an athletic scholarship to the University of Maryland but I turned pro instead to help my family. PP: Are you impressed at how good the fighters in the show are? RL: Yes I am. These are professional fighters, not amateurs. But I was even more impressed with their dedication and commitment to use boxing as a means to get out of poverty and help their loved ones. PP: When one of the fighters, Najai Turpin, committed suicide a few weeks ago, was there any thought of canceling or postponing the show? RL: None whatsoever. It would be totally disrespectful to him and his legacy. We have not changed or altered any of the episodes with Najai. We want people to see the heart and soul of this amazing young man. And “The Contender” family has established a trust to benefit his two-year-old daughter, Anyea, to give her a chance at a better future. PP: How did you and the fighters on the show react to the news of his death? RL: Everyone in “The Contender” family was saddened and broken hearted by the tragic loss of this inspiring young man. He will be deeply missed. PP: Turning to your own career, in which fight do you think you were at your best? RL: The first fight with Thomas Hearns. I felt like I could have knocked out anyone that night. PP: What made you believe you could come out of retirement and beat Marvin Hagler? RL: The moment I realized I could beat him I was sitting ringside with actor Michael J. Fox at the Hagler-John Mugabi fight [in 1986]. I remember leaning over and telling Michael I could beat Hagler. Michael asked me if I wanted another beer and I said “Sure, but I’m telling you I can beat him.” PP: Have you kept in touch with any of the boxers you fought? RL: Sure. Tommy Hearns is a good friend of mine. In fact, he came to both my wedding and my 40th birthday party. PP: Of all the titles you’ve won, which one means the most to you? RL: Winning the gold medal in Montreal had the most significance by far for the simple reason that I was fighting for myself and my country. It wasn’t about the money. PP: Would returning to a unified title system with one undisputed champion in each weight class bring credibility back to boxing? RL: The simpler the better. I think there just needs to be one champion. At the maximum two because then you can unify the belts. That unification bout can be huge, like my first fight with Tommy Hearns. That was good for boxing. PP: Who would you rate as the greatest fighter ever? RL: Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, because they both transcended the sport of boxing. These two incredible men turned boxing into an art form that I tried to emulate. PP: What is it going to take to rejuvenate boxing so it becomes as popular as it was when you were fighting? RL: The only way to do it is to do what we’re doing with “The Contender.” Bringing the sport to NBC, to network television. You change boxing by reintroducing it to the public. And it’s going to take more superstars, which is what “The Contender” is creating. A caring fan is a great fan. People tune in not only because of the sport, but because they care about the individuals involved.
Aero Theatre owner Jim Rosenfield of J.S. Rosenfield & Co. sees movies at the newly reopened theatre about once a week. Photo: Tierney Gearon
‘What are the merits of saving an old-fashioned Art Deco, single-screen movie theater?’ Jim Rosenfield asks this question in the midst of our discussion about the January reopening of the Aero Theatre on Montana in Santa Monica. We are sitting in the office of his real estate company, J.S. Rosenfield & Co., which specializes in renovating unique retail properties and is located just a few blocks south of the theatre. Rosenfield answers his own question: ‘Saving the experience’ was the most important reason for preserving the Aero when he and his Chicago-based partner John Bucksbaum purchased it from Sandy Allen in 1997. ‘It’s about the collective, community experience shared with your neighbors and friends.’ But Rosenfield says he’s also nostalgic. A Los Angeles native, he lived on Euclid, around the corner from the theater, for 15 years and used to walk there to see movies, mostly first-run feature films at the end of their run. He didn’t want to see the Aero suffer the same fate as La Reina Theatre, the historic theater he grew up going to in Sherman Oaks, which became a GAP and then a flea market. ‘I remember driving by and the preserved marquee said ‘T-shirts $9.” The Aero was built around the same time as the La Reina, in the late 1930s, by aviation pioneer Donald Douglas, who designed and produced the first propeller-driven commercial aircraft. He started the original Douglas airplane factory in 1921 on Wilshire between 26th St. and Chelsea, the site of today’s Douglas Park, and advanced to prominence with the DC (Douglas Commercial) line in the 1930s. Douglas-built planes were the first used in round-the-world flights that took off from and landed at Clover Field (Santa Monica Airport). Hence, the name of his theatre was the ‘Aero,’ in reference to aerospace. Designed by architect R.M. Woolpert in the style of French Norman architecture, the theatre opened for business on January 10, 1940, and operated with a small staff, seven nights per week. During the war, Douglas’ factory workers could catch a flick whenever they finished their shifts. Aero programming then consisted of double features (that changed three times weekly), Kiddie Matinees and pre-show opportunity drawings for dishware. The theatre changed hands over the years but when it went up for sale in the late 1990s, Rosenfield worried that it would fall into the wrong hands and not be preserved as a theatre. ‘Making a building a landmark preserves the building and architecture but not necessarily the use,’ says Rosenfield, who joined the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission in the process of reviving the Aero. He’s been in the real estate business for almost 20 years, and also owns the Waterworks building on Montana and the Brentwood Country Mart at 26th and San Vicente. ‘I think a lot about what makes a street great,’ says Rosenfield, who was 27 when he started his real estate career by leasing a 70,000-sq.-ft. building in Fresno to Sears in the late 1980s. At the time he says he was financially backed in part by Palisadian Steve Soberoff, whose one-day UCLA class, ‘The Shopping Center Game,’ motivated Rosenfield to enter the shopping center business. Having already earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Berkeley, Rosenfield says he went to Soberoff, who gave him a $100,000 check and a year to prove himself as a successful businessman. The Sears account sealed the deal. Rosenfield, now 42, started buying and investing in properties in Santa Monica because of his connection to the history and love of the area. ‘I used to take the bus from Sherman Oaks to the beach,’ he says. ‘I thought this was heaven.’ After acquiring the theatre in 1997, Rosenfield began looking for an operator. The process took him a long but eventful six years, including trips to the Soho House in England and The Irish Film Institute in Ireland. ‘I decided I would meet with everyone who expressed interest,’ says Rosenfield, who also consulted with Bob Laemmle of the Laemmle Theatres and Robert Redford of Sundance Theatre Chain, in connection with General Cinema. When a lease with Sundance fell through, Rosenfield says he approached the American Cinematheque, a nonprofit organization that had previously restored/rehabilitated Grauman’s 1922 Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, which reopened in December 1998. ‘Jim liked the renovations at the Egyptian a lot,’ says Barbara Smith, director of the American Cinematheque. She thought that expanding their programming to the Aero would increase their audience. ‘A few things had changed in L.A. since we opened at the Egyptian,’ Smith says, referring to the traffic problem that made it difficult for people from the Westside to get to Hollywood to see a movie. ‘The main thing was realizing that we weren’t reaching a huge part of Los Angeles.’ In 2003, Rosenfield’s company signed a 15-year lease with the Cinematheque, which spent about 18 months renovating the Aero to improve its sound and picture. The theatre is now equipped with 70 millimeter projection capabilities as well as a 45-ft. by 25-ft. screen that is three times its original size. Upgrades also included a new high-performance Klipsch sound system with over 10,000 watts, improved acoustics, a new concession counter and more comfortable seats. ‘We really improved the quality of the presentation,’ says Smith, noting that they raised $150,000 on top of the $500,000 grant from computer industry pioneer and film producer Max Palevsky. He was part of the original group that launched the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. Rosenfield agrees that the renovations have been impressive. ‘Taking something old and making it work by today’s standards is tricky,’ he says. ‘I don’t think I could’ve found a better operator.’ Programming at the Aero began seven weeks ago and currently runs Wednesday through Sunday. The 70-mm film series, including the films of Marlene Dietrich and Joseph von Sternberg, has already been a big success, according to Smith. ‘No matter how many great DVDs people have, they’re not going to see a film the way it looks in 70 millimeter.’ Most series and individual film programs will play at both the Egyptian and the Aero, on different days, so that patrons have more than one opportunity to see them. The main difference is the theatres, Smith explains, since ‘the Egyptian is a big movie palace and the Aero is the reverse’it’s really a local, community theatre.’ Smith adds that neighborhood residents in Santa Monica tend to rely more on the marquee and want to see what’s playing when they walk or drive by the theatre, which is why the Cinematheque has replaced the antique set of heavy letters with a lightweight set that can be changed easily with a pole. In addition to the marquee, the iconic ticket booth was also preserved, as was the neon clock and the silver Art Deco ladies on each row of seats in the 437-seat theatre. Rosenfield says that even the bathrooms (including one that was added upstairs) ‘carefully replicate the original 1940’s style.’ The three-door entrance to the theatre opens to a new gray and maroon color scheme in the lobby with giant painted letters that spell ‘Aero’ in a streamline design down the east wall. A historian helped with the colors, says Rosenfield, who sees about one movie a week at the Aero. ‘I used to go alone a lot to the theatre and sit in the same place on the right-hand side,’ he says. ‘The other night, I went and sat in the same place and it was filled and everyone was laughing collectively. I work for that. I live for that.’ The historic Aero Theatre is located at 1328 Montana (at 14th St.). Tickets are $9 general admission. For information about American Cinematheque programs now playing at the Aero, go to www.americancinematheque.com or www.aerotheatre.com or contact (323) 466-3456. This weekend features a series of films starring Ronald Colman: on Friday, March 4, a double feature of ‘Lost Horizon’ and ‘Bulldog Drummond,’ 7:30 p.m.; on Saturday, March 5, a family matinee, ‘The Prisoner of Zenda,’ 5 p.m., and a double feature of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and ‘If I Were King,’ 7:30 p.m. On Sunday, March 6, the family matinee is ‘The Forgotten Comedy Genius of Silent Cinema: Harry Langdon,’ 5 p.m. followed by two of Langdon’s best-known films, ‘Tramp Tramp Tramp’ and ‘Long Pants,’ both with live musical accompaniment by Robert Israel.
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