Linda Palmer
From East Africa to Hollywood, From SoHo to NoHo
It’s a Jungle Out There interview by Jamie Lauren
“I want to give the people who come to my classes the best possible chance to make a career on the highest creative level,” says Linda Palmer, who has been teaching her Screenplay Development Workshop to a full house at UCLA Extension since September of 1990. The Writers’ Program at Extension brought Linda on board because she had been vice president of a movie studio and was also a full-time working writer, so she could give screenwriters advice from both sides of the desk.

A NoHo resident for a couple of years now (“I love being a Valley girl!”), Linda’s road to writing success was a long and winding one. She left the South at 18 to try her luck as a playwright in New York. She supported herself modeling for men’s magazines and apprenticed as a photographer, practicing on folk singers and zoo animals. Her wildlife photographs got her an assignment in Africa. “I was supposed to be there for three months and I ended up staying three years,” says Linda. “In those days there were a lot of magazines but not many photographers, so I had wildlife photographs published all over the world.”

When she returned, she wasn’t sure what to do with herself. At a party, Linda was introduced to a man she fell in love with and soon married. He happened to be a talent agent.“To keep me busy, he had me read scripts and discovered that I explained them well and could write up little synopses and give opinions that, when he read them himself, found he’d agreed with.”

They were together for ten years. When it ended, they remained on good terms and Linda married a mutual friend, producer Sy Weintraub. “It was a marriage on the rebound because I hadn’t even dated. But we were old friends and he was a good person.” Though it ended, they remained close friends until his death of cancer in 2000.

Her years as an emotional and creative support to both husbands put her behind the scenes on a number of film projects, ranging from Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon to Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon. She began writing on a dare from Gordy, who told her to stop criticizing other people’s work and write something of her own. She wrote a treatment for what she thought would be a television movie and gave it to social friends Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. They loved it and bought it as a two-part episode of their new TV drama, Family.

“I still get residuals,” Linda laughs. “The checks are down to about $2.85, but now and then you’ll get something like $250 because it’s suddenly playing in Sri Lanka.” Linda went on to write a novel, Runaway!, about the juvenile justice system, published under her married name of Linda Weintraub. By the end of the marriage, she was close to publishing her second novel, a fictional Hollywood exposé called Starstruck.

A friend of Linda’s, noted tax attorney and entertainment lawyer Gary Hendler, was asked to head TriStar, a new movie studio that was being financed by Coca-Cola, CBS and Time-HBO. “He had wonderful taste and we’d spent a couple of years discussing why movies worked or didn’t,” said Linda. Hendler was concerned he wasn’t up for the job. Linda, whose first husband went from being an agent to running a movie studio, knew the ins and outs and thought he would be perfect. He brought her on as a Production Vice President, where she was instrumental in helping develop such films as The Natural, Places in the Heart, Birdy and The Muppets Take Manhattan. After a couple of years, Hendler was let go and, subsequently, so were the people who had worked with him.

But Linda had met a lot of producers who had had her rewrite scripts that subsequently made it to the big screen. Even though she hadn’t written an actual screenplay, her work was known, and she was given one assignment after another.

She also wrote and coproduced what started out as a high-minded family film, The Garbage Pail Kids, but in the editing room, fight scenes were spliced in again and again, creating something more violent than had been intended. Linda still cringes. “The Herald Examiner had a list of the 10 Worst Films of the year. We were number one. We beat out Surf Nazis Must Die and Nice Girls Don’t Explode. My brother, who was production assistant on the film, had T-shirts made that said ‘We’re Number One!’”

A sense of humor is crucial to surviving in this business, Linda attests. “You must take joy in the work, because once it’s in someone else’s hands, you have no control. The bad things that happen will one day turn out to be very funny anecdotes. And you’ve got to remember that if something wonderful happens, it’s going to be followed by something terrible. But something terrible is probably going to be followed by something wonderful.”

Linda cites the phrase from Rudyard Kipling’s “If.” “‘If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same’ - that’s Hollywood for you. Success is an imposter; bad times are an imposter. And I don’t use the word ‘failure’ because bad times are temporary. If you hang in there, if you stay at it until it’s your turn to get lucky, you can have a career. I’ve managed to have a career by doing all kinds of writing.”

Linda and writing partner Wink Roberts wrote a feature length script called Marabunta, a thriller about killer soldier ants. Their agent sent it out and, within three days, a television movie company had bought it. Within five days, they had the money. An assistant at a feature film company passed it on to an assistant he was temporarily sharing an office with from a television film company and the rest, as they say, is history. Fox Television renamed it Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!

“I spend an entire evening drumming into my classes the necessity of interesting dialogue,” says Linda, “and here’s a movie I wrote where half the dialogue consists mainly of ‘Run!’”

Besides hanging in there -“not giving up until you truly don’t want to do it anymore”- the other thing Linda stresses is to be yourself. “Don’t try to write what you think THEY are buying, because what THEY are buying can change in an instant, depending on what’s successful. If you yearn and are passionate about writing a civil war story, don’t let people tell you no one’s going to buy that. Revolutionary War stories had not been successful, then along came The Patriot.”

One of Linda’s favorite success stories is about a young German student of hers who was writing in English as a second language. “In those three quarters with me, he wrote a World War I movie, when supposedly no one was buying those. And he rewrote and rewrote and rewrote. And Roland Emmerich bought it, and I am so thrilled.”

Don’t listen to paint-by-number advice, Linda cautions. “Don’t listen to advice that says your character has to have an arc,” she says. “Dirty Harry has no arc. I think he had an arc before we ever met him. But by the time we met him, something had already hardened him into a vigilante. You don’t want Dirty Harry to turn soft, because he’s a vigilante for good. But he doesn’t change from picture to picture - if he did, nobody would go. Some characters have an arc, some don’t. It depends on the character you’ve created and the story you’re telling.”

Linda’s book, How to Write It, How to Sell It: Everything a Screenwriter Needs to Know About Hollywood, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 1998. “I had always wanted to be a writer, but I gave up writing when I was about 18 because I thought I couldn’t write. I just didn’t realize that at that age, what do you have to say?” But now she has plenty to say, and aspiring screenwriters can benefit from the experience and insight she’s happy to share.

Judy Tenuta on Catholicism, Martha Stewart and El Lay
by Jamie Lauren
Judy Tenuta in The Vagina Monologues? It could happen! And it did. And she was as moving in her dramatic turns as she was hilarious in her comic bits.

“It's fun to do something different. But you know what’s so funny?” she says. “The producer says to me, ‘I really love the way you’re doing that birth and everything, but do you think there’s a place where you can bring your accordian out?’” She laughs. “Hello! Finally they’re convinced I can act, then they want me to do the accordian!” Her run at Hollywood’s Coronet Theater finished, she’s now off to Chicago, her home town, to reprise her role at The Apollo Theater. “We’ll see if the pigs come out. Richard Daly! That pig better carry me around the street and have a parade for me.”

Once described by a writer as “Haley’s Comet in a prom gown,” Judy admits “subtlety is not my strong point. Though I now wear more diaphanous gowns.” Her incarnations range from petite flower ("all men are begging to pollinate me") to saint ("I have the power to bleed from my hands and talk to small animals, especially critics"), all featured on her web site, www.judytenuta.com.

Her trademark accordian, which she affectionately refers to onstage as her IUD, and her gutteral “Hi, pigs” opening launched an unforgettable stand-up career that garnered her the first “Best Female Comedian” award at the American Comedy Awards as well as Grammy nominations for her albums Butt Pirates and Lesbetarians and In Goddess We Trust. On her newest album, Judy Tenuta: A Space Goddessy, she leaves no comic stone unturned, skewing everyone from Calista Flockhart (“there should be a law-you have to weigh more than the kid you adopt”) to the First Daughters (“the Bush twins-Heineken and Miller Light), and doing impressive impersonations of Cher and Streisand, which she means in a good way. “I met John Lithgow and he goes, ‘I’m really glad I haven’t pissed you off.’ But he was teasing. He goes, quote Actually I would really like to piss you off because I’d like to see how you would imitate me.’ But see, people misunderstand. A lot of times I do things about people I really admire. I mean, I LOVE Cher. Now Martha Stewart - I HAVE to make fun of her. I can’t believe she’s getting away with saying, ‘Today I’m going to teach you how to cover your hot water bottle in mink.’ Even all those recipes. Go to the damn bakery section at Ralph’s! You can get an Eli's cheesecake and look at the time you save. The thing about cooking is, you spend all that time making something and in two seconds they eat it, they burp it, they crap it out and it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, thanks.’ That’s why I like permanent art.”

A theatre and arts major, Judy has an exquisitely detailed, soulful oil painting on her wall, one she had done at 20. She had been going to auditions as an actress in New York and found it so depressing she decided to paint instead. “But I needed that audience gratification.”

When she would do plays in college, she was so funny people would often suggest that she do her own act. Around that time (1979-1980), there was a comedy boom in Chicago and a number of small clubs opened and anyone could take the stage. Judy hit them all. “I even went to this famous blues club and I asked if I could go onstage between all the blues singers. They were a great audience and I thought, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect blues fans to be into comedy,’ but they were all on drugs, so it kind of worked out.”

During that time, Judy formed her own religion-Judyism. When asked about the precepts, she replies, “You should chant my name until you become a human speed bump. You know, the regular things,” she says, citing her book The Power of Judyism. “But I don’t say, ‘Hey, you should give me all your money,’ cuz I want you to have your money. I believe a church should be inside of you. Not like, ‘Hey, the Catholic Church needs to build a new port-a-potty for the Pope.’"

Judy attributes her irreverent, in-your-face comic persona to her strict Catholic upbringing. “In my family it was always, ‘Shut up and go to Mass!’” Judy laughs. “Or ‘You’re not allowed to laugh in the living room-that’s the Lord’s room!’ So we would always be joking around because we weren’t supposed to. I was raised as a little girl slave in my house with six brothers, where the boys could do anything and I had to clean up, so why do you think I come out and say, ‘Yeah, pig! Kneel down and kiss my feet!’ But actually I love ‘em, and we do get along. And my parents were attentive parents. Not like today where kids can do anything. I give my mother a lot of credit. I have no empathy for those people-‘Well, you know, she has PMS.’ My mother had nine children and she didn’t sit on us in a bathtub til we died. I think it helped she didn’t home-school us. She kicked us out to the nuns.”

Judy has her own take on all the breaking pedophilia cases in the Catholic church. “What do they expect these poor priests to do? They dress ‘em in hot pink gowns and put em on an altar with 12-year-old boys and wine and candles."

Some of the funniest bits in her early act revolved around dating the Pope (“He wants to possess me!”). I ask how it’s going with the Pontiff. “Well, as you know,” she says, “He needs a lot of naps these days.” I ask her if she’s still using him to get to God. “Yes,” she replies, “but I think I’m working more in the direction of trying to use someone like Mel Gibson to get to Paramount.”

Judy recently played the lead in Desperation Blvd., a romantic comedy about a child star trying to make a comeback who takes some ill-conceived advice from her manager-everything from pretending to be a lesbian to holding up a liquor store a la Dana Plato for publicity. Written by Greg Glienna, the original screenwriter of Meet the Parents, it has a foreign distributor, Vision Films. “I’m a big star in Sri Lanka and Hungary,” Judy says. “I would be mobbed if I got off a plane there.”

Though it was before her time, she would love to have played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. “And I like guys’ parts. I wanted to be Spartacus,” she laughs. “We could do a remake-female Spartacus-Spartaca. If I could play the funny part, not the girl part, I’d love to have been in Groundhog’s Day. Bill Murray was brilliant. But I don’t want to be Andie MacDowell. Bend over!” She’d love to do a comedy like There’s Something About Mary, but she also appreciates the subtler, bittersweet humor of a classic like Midnight Run, with Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin. “They were a great team and it was a great script.” She also loved Thelma and Louise. “It’s great, and fun. And besides,” she says, sliding into a Southern accent, “I feel like I’m from the South anyway. I’m like Elvis-Janellvis, that’s what I call myself. And my name is Judy Lynn, like a Southern name. Judy Lynn Tenuta. It’s like a country and western mobster. ‘Hey, Judy Lynn Tenuta, you come over here and make some grits then rub someone out, yeah.’”

The idiosyncratic humor of Albert Brooks really appeals to Judy. She can’t get enough of The Muse (“Sharon Stone was such a bitch-it was so great!”) and she can quote scenes from Brooks’s film Mother at length. “He just takes things-like we all have a mom that does stuff like that-and he makes it so it’s all this other stuff. But he doesn’t do it in the same old hackneyed way. It’s always a fresh perspective.”

The dealmakers and wannabes are an L.A. phenomenon Judy enjoys. “I was at the Burbank airport and there was this woman who was about 2'1" and her cell phone was bigger than she was. And she talks real loud, and they know they don’t have to talk that loud. And she’s, like, ‘Yeah, I’m talking to Matt Damon and I’m talking with Jennifer Love Hewitt and it’s not the price...’ She was really begging for death.

“And then my favorite thing is, you go to every Starbuck’s, they’re making a movie deal. There’s a guy living in a shopping cart with a cafe latte telling you he’s got three scripts being optioned at Paramount. In L.A., everybody’s either on their cell phone making a deal or they’re coming back from the plastic surgeon. And you can tell even though you’re not supposed to be able to tell, but it’s kind of hard to ignore 48D breasts with hepatitis C bracelets on. And I hear guys say, ‘Yeah, I’m getting a calf implant.’ Oh, please! Go outside and rake a lawn.”

I had largely known Judy through her stand-up persona, so admittedly I hadn’t known what to expect as I showed up for this interview, wondering if she was always "on." She laughed. “Oh, no, I would be so tired. No, I have to have time to go shopping and unwind and...” “Just be a normal person?” I ask. She raises her eyebrows and gives me a look. “Well, I don’t know about THAT.”

KIRSTEN DUNST
Mary Jane Behind the Mask Interview by Lynn Barker

Ever since she blew us away as a child immortal in Interview with the Vampire, 19-year-old Kirsten Dunst has delivered solid performances in Bring It On, The Virgin Suicides, Crazy/Beaut-iful, Dick, and impressed with a knockout role as a teen prostitute on TV’s E.R. She takes on serious adult fare as early screen siren Marion Davies in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Cat’s Meow, now in theaters. She’s Mary Jane in Spiderman and we got the funny lowdown on that famous upside down kissing scene and learned why she thinks the actioner could be called…a chick flick!

While drinking diet Coke to stay alert, Kirsten admitted that she’s been working pretty hard lately. “I was challenged emotionally with the Marion Davies (role) and challenged physically in Spiderman.” It wasn’t just Tobey Maguire and the stunt “Spideys” in danger and discomfort. “There was this one shot where I’m dropping and miraculously I grab onto the pole of the tram and slap against it and I had blood on my hands, and then the harnesses were uncomfortable to be in also. The thing that I was most bummed out about was the rain stuff. That was miserable, those two days. I was freezing my butt off, so cold.”

Kirsten has had great success in smaller films. Why take on an icon? “I thought Spiderman had always been the most grounded and humanistic character of all the superheroes. The one you could relate to the most. And Tobey playing Spiderman is such a great choice because it’s different. I think it’s a good risk that the studio took because he’s a really good actor and with Sam Raimi directing, I knew it would be a quality big movie.”

Mary Jane was one role that Kirsten could really make her own. She told us exactly what makes this hot redhead tick. “In the beginning, she doesn’t accept herself and she puts up a mask and pretends she’s happy when she’s having a hard home life. The only person she’s really vulnerable to is Peter Parker. She dates a lot of guys who aren’t good for her but she learns her lessons and at the end you know that she’s going to be on the right track to becoming a woman and being secure in who she is.” But can Kirsten relate? “Yeah. It’s like being in high school. But I was very open with my friends. If I was upset, they knew it. I really didn’t have a hard home life like Mary Jane but I can relate to the part about making bad decisions in boyfriends and having learning experiences.”

Mary Jane isn’t always the most sympathetic character in the film. “I was wondering if people would think ‘oh she’s such a bitch because she obviously knows that Peter had some feelings for her and she can’t be totally oblivious and she’s dating his best friend.’ It’s not very nice. I wouldn’t do something like that but Mary Jane didn’t have good role models growing up.”

We had to ask about all those romance rumors. Were “Spidey” and Mary Jane really getting it on? “I was hired for the part because it just clicked. When we did the scenes together, it flowed nicely I think and there was a magic there where everybody in the room almost disappeared and it was just Tobey and I. I think you’re very lucky when you get to be with an actor and you don’t have to work hard at it. I know there are rumors about us dating but no, we’re just friends. I know in myself what’s true so whatever. It’s okay. Most of that was in rag-mags.”

Romance or no, there is one really unusual and hot kiss in the rain that flustered both stars. “In the rain scene I was doing my close-up and it was like 5 a.m. and the birds are starting to chirp and Tobey was off-camera dressed regularly. I’d be like blah, blah, Spiderman, you’re great’ and then I’d lean out (of the shot) and I wouldn’t kiss him because he’s off camera. It didn’t feel right so I just went for it and didn’t even warn him. I laid it on the boy. He was impressed I think (laughs).” But hey, was it that hot? “No. It’s kind of weird and it’s not really romantic either. Our situation was awkward too because he couldn’t even breathe because I had pulled the mask up to about here (indicates below the nose). He was (gasping for breath) and we’d make out and during our kiss he’d breathe out of the side of his mouth. It was an awkward, not very good kiss. I’m happy if it works. I always said to Sam (Raimi) ‘How does she know he’s not some 40-year-old dad?’ You lift up the mask and ‘okay, I guess not’ and put it back down again?”

Kirsten is ready for the fame that the film could generate but confided that she has no desire to reach cult status. “I’m very happy that it’s not my face all over the billboards like Tobey and Willem (Dafoe). It’s the masked superhero. That’s what the movie is about. I won’t be on any cans of soda. There is a Mary Jane action figure but I feel distance because she has red hair. I don’t really feel like she’s me. It doesn’t creep me out. If she was blonde, I don’t know.”

The film’s director Sam Raimi has a rep for being passionate about his characters. Kirsten agrees. “Sam really inspires you because he’s so passionate about Spiderman. He’s like a little boy.” Despite the love fest, there was a little good-natured ribbing on the set. “Sam’s wonderful and I just love him but he has an odd sense of humor. He’d tease me a lot and call me ‘girly girl’ and everybody on the set would start calling me that. One day I snapped back with ‘I have a name and it’s Kirsten.’ I deserve some respect. Girls are easily called a bitch if they show strength. Laura Ziskin (the producer) was really a good role model for me on set. If Tobey bitches and complains nobody calls him a little whiney bitch. Girls have to act all sweet but we’re really working the whole set.

“Some girls don’t think they’ll like Spiderman but little do they know it’s a chick flick in a way. It’s like a soap opera. (Peter Parker) says ‘It’s my power. It’s my curse’. You can’t always get what you want. It’s another life lesson for Mary Jane and will only make her a better woman.” We’ll see in the sequel.


Best Kept Secrets of North Hollywood
by Anna McWillie
It’s no secret to visonaries David Sanfield and Paul Hibler, founders of that venerable NoHo establishment The Pit Fire Pizza Company – NoHo is a hot bed. Hibler has even moved his abode into the neighborhood, into a vintage 1919 triplex, remarking that it may even be too late to buy into a real estate bargain. Paul Hibler of the Pit Fire, one of the current “anchors” of NoHo says, “Looking back, it’s come a long way, but we’ve reached a bulk head, we need an action - like when we put the restaurant there when there was nothing there. Someone needs to put something big - the neighborhood lacks things it needs.

“Until some big anchors go in – a big supermarket, record store, movie theater, The Gap, parking lots - it’s just going to not quite get there. The subway didn’t change anything. That historical building on Lankershim and Weddington could have a great tenant, but there’s no parking, there’s no parking for my restaurant! Usually when neighborhoods change, lots of vintage goes in, there’s not enough vintage here. Look at Vermont [Ave.], it’s like here but so cool, lots of stuff going on. Our infrastructure is screwed up…the big picture: parking. There are lots more spaces on Vermont. I wish there were more restaurants in NoHo - there’s not enough draw. If there were a Tower or Virgin Records, a Barnes and Noble or Borders Books, it would do everything. We have a Starbuck’s. People go somewhere else at night. Day is great. Plays are OK, before and after, but we don’t have people hanging out - that’s what’s missing. The bottom of the Academy could be a huge record store. Are the rents too high? No, they’re great, it requires vision.”

Having had good fortune in NoHo, and feeding our staff for the past 2 years, The Pit Fire Pizza Co. is expanding, a couple new sites will pop up in the next year. They’re looking into Orange County, the Westside, and Hollywood. “And we love NoHo>LA. We’ve spent half a million $ in this neighborhood,” says Hibler. (Hey, Paul, read story on page 5.)

Why has the Valley gotten so popular? One of the reasons is low density. The neighborhood expert on best buys in the best N.H. neighborhoods has got to be Barry Greene of Century 21 Greene Realty. He has lived in the east Valley since boyhood, remembers the glory of suburban Lankershim Blvd. where his dad operated a Kirby’s shoe store, and can never tire of looking at homes. He’s got the same laugh as Guy Weddington McCreary, our neighborhood historian and heir to Lankershim.

Beautiful homes on streets like Rhodes, La Tiara, Addison, Bellair, Babcock, Otsego, Teesdale, Beeman - Greene remembers when developers’ tracts went in, the custom homes, the building of neighborhoods. “Earl White built 1,000s of homes in the ‘50’s, including a beautiful tract from Saticoy to Roscoe and from Whitsett to Laurel Canyon. Most of them are 3 bedrooms, one bath. There were 3 floor plans, and brand new, they cost $8,500 for 1,000-1,100 square feet, now going for $240-250m.

“Later, White built a more expensive tract with forced air, south from Oxnard. The places are a bit nicer, two bedroom, den, 1 1/2 bathrooms, and fireplace, now in the $340m range. There is an Armenian migration into this part of No. Hollywood from Glendale and Hollywood. 90% are first time homebuyers. Earl White copied reknowned Valley developer of more expensive custom homes, Mellenthin, who used diagonal paned windows and put bird houses atop his roofs. White died penniless due to, the rumor, gambling. Other builders in No. Hollywood were Jules Weinstock, Coronet, and Kaiser.

Parts of the west part of No. Hollywood are referred to as Valley Glen, which really starts at Coldwater and heads west. Charming homes, some on double lots and with beautiful gardens are selling at today’s prices between $350-500m+. There was a Jewish migration from East LA and the Fairfax/Pico area in the late 60’s and 70’s. Adat Ariel was founded in the ‘50’s, the first Conservative Jewish temple in the Valley, and then later Shaarey Zedek temple and school on Chandler. This shaped the neighborhoods in Chandler and Magnolia Estates ($500m+), walking distance from those two shuls. Here you find an array of architectural styles: English Tudor, gingerbread, cottage, ranch, and a modern look cultivated by builder Kallenberg in ’68 & ’69 (Kallenberg Lane in Magnolia Estates).

There are quite a few Spanish style and custom homes in Valley Village, which is east of Colfax around Riverside and Magnolia. These are now running in the $500m+ range and many of the streets have no sidewalks or streetlamps like Magnolia Estates. Warner Bros. had a party house in this neighborhood, a moderne style bi-level with a pool , and a certain artist and fan of NoHo>LA lives there, keeping the party tradition alive in this City designated historical home.

Although NoHo is a mixed neighborhood – houses mixed with apartments – it’s desirability has mushroomed in just the past few years, and what used to be considered dumpy are now exquisite little architectural gems with leases to match. All in all, it’s probably the low density – fewer apartment buildings than single family homes – that makes the Valley so rare and special compared to the rest of the city. It’s peaceful, tranquil, uncrowded, and getting more expensive every day.

To go with the Valley lifestyle are some unique establishments, mostly that have been here since the early days and keep getting better and better.

A Few Favorites
• Le Petit Chateau Mon-Sat dinner, Mon-Fri
lunch, 4615 Lamkershim Blvd, NH 818-769-1812. The building that now houses Le Petit Chateau, an elegant little restaurant on Lankershim Blvd just north of Riverside, has had many incarnations in its history. It has housed a restaurant since 1940 when it was called Medcalf’s (see menu). In the late 50’s it became China Doll. And finally in 1964, François Circgant purchased the site and called his new French restaurant Le Petit Chateau. In 1972, a front section was added with a bar and banquet room. In 1989 Andrew Higgs and his wife purchased the restaurant, and it has thus remained the finest dining around, award winning and consistently excellent, traditional French cuisine. Regular patrons leave their own fine stemware at the bar for cocktails at the “Chalet,” as many of its patrons call it.

Medcalf’s Saturday May 26, 1945
Dinner 4-8:30pm
Choice of one
soup, salad or chilled fruit cup
Entrees
Fried Chicken 1.50
Smothered Rabbit 1.25
Fried Oysters 1.10
Roast Turkey, Dressing 1.35
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce 1.00
Fresh Vegetable Plate .85
Chicken Giblets with Rice 1.00
Baked Halibut, Creole Sauce 1.10
Ground Round Steak 1.25
Desserts (on the Dinner) 10c extra
Drinks: Coffee, Tea, Milk, or Buttermilk

Now the menu at Le Petit Chateau (formerly Medcalf’s) includes Beef Wellington, Duck a l’Orange, Chateaubriand, Bouillabaise, caviar, escargots, Steak Tartare, Crepes Suzette, and many other delectables, which are prepared each day under the supervision of Japanese floral-arranging expert and co-owner, Mrs. Higgs.
•The Pit Fire Pizza Co. The heart of NoHo, thin crust
gourmet pizza, salads, patio, wine and beer; lunch and dinner,
7 days; 5211 Lankershim Blvd., NoHo 818-980-2949
•Joe Peeps Best NY style pizza; 12460 Magnolia Blvd,
NH 818-506-4133
•NoHo Gym ‘50s era legendary workout gym, new
owner is remodeling; 5126 Lankershim Blvd. NoHo 818-766-8888
•North Hollywood Ice Company Bags of ice, dry or
hard, 24/7, delivery avail; 11317 No. Chandler Blv, NoHo
818-762-2237
•Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee Video Obscure art
titles, family run, very knowledgable staff; 5006 Vineland Ave, NoHo 818- 506 4242
•Herb Products Co. Family run since the ‘60s, fresh
herbs in bulk, all kinds; 11012 Magnolia Blvd NoHo 818- 761-0351
•Sandy Meyer Art Beautiful salon with 19th & 20th
century romantic and neo-classic, restoration avail; 11223 Magnolia Blvd.. NoHo 818-985-6630
•Hollywood Fancy Feather Co. Get your boas, turkey
feathers also, at a fraction of the cost found elsewhere; 12140 Sherman Way 818-765-1767
•Game Dude Buy and sell, largest selection off the web,
comix too; 12104 Sherman Way NH 764-2442
•Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio Numerous studios,
lots of action, built by the Burbank native herself; 6514 Lankershim Blvd. NH 818-985-3193
•MKM New owner of 3 great dance studios to rent. Lots
of great classes, showcase theatre in progress; 11401 No Chandler Blvd, NH 818-752-2616
•East Valley Animal Shelter Cuties waiting to love
you, take a look, go say hi; 13131 Sherman Way, NH 888-452-7381
•Barry Greene, Century 21- Greene Realty One of the
best kept secrets in the Valley, this guy will make a deal! 12519 Burbank Blvd, NH 818-980-6662


It all started in North Hollywood
by Anna McWillie & Vanessa Roveto

For years, I have described the Los Angeles area as a place without history. In Boston, you can walk on the path that Paul Revere rode that infamous night. In Philadelphia you can take cheesy photos of the Liberty Bell. In Louisiana, you can walk through the French Quarter and be transported back to 100 years ago. Walking down Lankershim to Starbuck’s never quite conjures the historian in me. I feel so ashamed now that I have uncovered the rich history of the North Hollywood area. The history is everywhere, if you know where to look.

Firstly, there is the epic story behind the Campo de Cahuenga. What happened at the Campo 152 years ago greatly affected the entire destiny of the United States. If you pay close attention, the little park off Lankershim across from Universal Studios houses an old adobe building sitting under four palm trees. There lies our destiny. Lurking under the asphalt of Lankershim Boulevard are the original stones and pavers of the Tomas Feliz adobe, at one time a mission where the Los Angeles River had been dammed to provide water for corn and staple crops.

When Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, relations with Mexico remained tense. President James Polk sent Captain John C. Fremont, military explorer and scientific surveying engineer, to check out the political situation. Fremont took part in an uprising of Western settlers against the Mexican government. He later became a Lieutenant Colonel and formed the illustrious California Battalion. They headed south to the City of Angeles in order to confront Governor Pio Pico’s forces, headed by General Andres Pico. While moving south to San Luis Obispo to capture cousin General Jesus Pico, Fremont unexpectedly became friends with his foe. Due to J. Pico’s connections to a woman, Doña Bernarda Ruiz, daughter of one of the most influential families of Los Angeles, Fremont turned to the tables. In his meeting with this wise woman, she told him something like, “It will be to your advantage to make allies of the Mexican Californios rather than having them murder you when you become governor of this great territory.”

Meanwhile Governor Pico, in order to bolster his troops for the fight, sold the San Fernando Valley for $14,000 to Eulogio de Celis. Fremont needed a conciliatory treaty. On January 11, 1847, he came to the San Fernando Mission where he informed Pico’s forces that he would grant an armistice. Fremont guaranteed them land rights in order to gain independence form Mexico. Two days later, amidst clouds of thick smoke wafting from the hills of Universal, the two sides met on the porch of the adobe and signed the treaty, thus ending hostilities in California between Mexican and U.S. forces during the Mexican War. The dream of Manifest Destiny, one nation extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, had finally arisen. It was this very treaty that led to California’s statehood. Every January there is a fiesta and reenactment of this fateful moment in the story of Los Angeles. The Red Line subway adjacent to the Campo is filled with architectural motifs relating to this rich history.

The town site, then named Toluca or “fertile valley” by the native Tongva Indians who had been its original settlers, started in 1888 with a general store and a hotel. Originally there were cattle farms, which ultimately gave way to sheep, which gave way to chickens and later orchards. By 1890 there were, at best, 10 families in the area. That same year, Iowa native Wilson C. Weddington made the decision to permanently settle in the San Fernando Valley. Weddington bought 12 acres of the future town site for $720 and later purchased an additional 20 acres.

Toluca was plagued with heavy flooding in 1890 and ‘91. The Cahuenga Pass, much like today, was a very hazardous trip. It was not uncommon for mudslides to push you off the road. It was a day trip to Hollywood. (Some things never change.) In ‘95 two posh British families brought tennis to the Valley, then a land of hoes, guns and plows, thus lending a bit of sophistication to the area. By ‘96, a post office, school and blacksmith had been added to this farming community. The tranquilly of fruit orchards dotted the landscape. The locals petitioned, and a town called Lankershim, after Isaac Lankershim, one of the earliest landholders and settlers, was born.

From peaches to poultry, Lankershim needed water. In the early part if the century, Los Angeles made a drive for annexation with the neighboring areas. In a close vote, Lankershim was annexed to the City of Los Angeles in May 1915, 175,000 acres total, after a decade long drought between 1913 and ‘23 in order to obtain constant water services. (Not that anyone drinks the water in this city anyway, but it was still a big victory.)

The 1914 population was 1,500, the same population at The Pit Fire Pizza Company at given lunchtime. There were visions of horseless carriages running down the streets. In 1916, the townsfolk could hear the nightly screech of Curley Stecker’s wild animals, used at Universal Studios. Carl Laemmle formed Universal Studios on March 15, 1915. It was the first self-contained, unincorporated community dedicated to movie making, and the oldest and largest existing motion picture studio of its kind in the area. The 230 acres were valued at $165,000.

In contrast, property on Lankershim was selling 6600 sq. ft. for $3,500. The first natural gas line ran in from Burbank to Lankershim, servicing 62 customers. Thanks to the availability of water, the number of homes, churches, orchards and chickens was on the rise. But Lankershim was still fiercely independent. The Chamber of Commerce requested that only teachers who lived in Lankershim be allowed to teach in their community. The theme of the ‘20’s was “Lankershim is Progressive and Impressive.” Edison opened an office, and power lines came from Los Angeles. Residents were asked to put numbers on their houses for identification. In 1927, the town’s name changed from Lankershim to No. Hollywood. (Thank goodness. Could you imagine Lank>La, the newspaper?).

And then came the floods. Between March 1 and 5 1938, 11 inches of rain fell. Homes flooded down the streets and people literally took to rowboats. The situation was so grave that Army engineers were called in to save the Chandler Bridge, which allowed trains to cross the Tujunga Wash. It was saved only to be lost to progress at a later date. In February ‘41, a heavy downpour flooded No. Hollywood yet again. There was an island in the River just off the Campo with about a dozen homes on it, which washed away downstream with their inhabitants. People died. This repetition of disaster led to the building of the Hansen Dam, completed in 1947. Water management in the Valley and all of Los Angeles would continue to be precarious for years to come. Heavy rains continually brought sewage from cesspools running onto the streets. Flood management issues ultimately led to the building of the terminally chic concrete retaining walls in the Los Angeles River and the Tujunga Wash in the 1950’s. Who says it never rains in L.A.?

WWII saw tremendous growth in No. Hollywood. The Aerospace industry and manufacturing lead to the designing of affordable housing for all the workers. Victory Boulevard was named after our boys fighting for our country, and Amelia Earhart became our own personal hero and symbol of the community.

Post WWII beginning in 1946 gave way to yet another rise in population explosion and affordable - suburbia, a “peach of a place to have a home.” By the close of the ‘50’s we had a population of 152,000. Progress went into full swing as there was a push to save the Pacific Electric Red Cars, get the trucks off Lankershim Blvd., widen Vineland Ave., and resurface Lankershim Blvd. The Red Car buckled under the tire and auto industry. Valley Plaza, that current wasteland soon to be redeveloped, became an entity in 1952, anchored by Sears. At the time, Valley Plaza and Laurel Plaza together were reported to be the largest suburban shopping center west of the Mississippi.

The 60’s saw urbanization as MCA started studio tours that now bring millions of visitors to Universal City each year. An important impact was the opening of the monstrous Ventura and Hollywood freeways on our bedroom community. By ‘79, the No. Hollywood community had a population of over 200,000. Lankershim Blvd. was a hub for shopping, at Rathburn’s, and movie going, at El Portal, but caved-in to flight and blight, turning into a mecca for hubcaps and hookers by the ‘80s. Theater rats began moving in. The ’94 earthquake just about leveled the remnants of this once fashionable suburban haven.

A group of theater owners and members of the local chamber of commerce, together with Lillian Burkenheim of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Loa Angeles (CRA) were meeting to decide what to do with this plagued neighborhood. They came up with “an arts district” called “NoHo,” and in a little more than a decade, the community has built back up this once vital commercial and residential area. The first projects were the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the shopping center on Vineland and Magnolia, and the Hewlett Packard building on the corner of Lankershim and Magnolia.

See article on page 5 about redevelopment projects to break ground within a year and (non) affordable housing in the area. As for the histoy of No. Hollywood, now that I’ve discovered what lurks under the pavement, I will continue to dig deeper. Don’t be surprised to see me in Starbuck’s looking for ghosts.