Time for the second course of News Chum. For your dining pleasure, we present a collection of articles dealing with history and Southern California:
- Going on a Trek. If you remember a few years ago, we had this little thing called a Space Shuttle go through the streets of Los Angeles. Trees had to come down, a special route had to be plotted due to the weight, all to move Endeavor from LA Airport to Exposition Park. Guess what? It’s happening again. This time, they are moving a 66,000 lb External Fuel Tank from Marina Del Rey to Exposition Park. The complicating factor here isn’t weight — it is that the tank is extremely fragile and could easily collapse. The tank sits outdoors at the Michoud facility in Louisiana, where it was built. It is huge but also delicate, covered by about an inch-thick layer of foam. It can be touched only in a few places during transport. It will be a complicated move: by barge from Louisiana to Marina Del Rey through the Panama Canal, and then by truck and dolly from the Marina.
- The Proud Bird. As the ET travels, it will go near a famous theatre is Westchester, the Loyola. Once a splended movie house (I went there a lot as a kid), it is now an odd-duck of an office building. When opened, the theatre’s baroque-modern architecture featured a stainless steel box office, an ornate marquee and a distinctive curved 60-foot high spire with a swan-like sculpture at its top. Inside, the theater had 1,200 seats, velvet drapes, hand-painting wall and ceiling murals and a variey of Art Deco fixtures. It also had a unique sunken circular concessions stand in its lobby area.
- Seeing Stars. Speaking of stars, have you ever wondered about the Hollywood Walk of Fame and how the stars get there? Wonder no more.
- Hitting Close to Home. Not that far away from where I live is Porter Ranch (oops) is Chatsworth, home to the former Santa Susanna Field Laboratory. Just the place to situate a housing development.
- In The Subway. No, not that subway. The original LA Subway. Here’s what the Subway Terminal looks like today.
- And Lastly. Photos inside the Last LA Bookstore. Cool. I must go visit there.
