:: Lifting a $200,000 stainless steel pool on the roof of a 22-story condo isn't easy. Just ask pilot Glenn J. Smith, as the L.A. Times did:
As passersby craned their necks and cameras clicked, Smith began to lower the 3,700-pound piece of steel into a rectangular pool bed atop the building at the busy intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue.
:: Remembering the Bel-Air/Brentwood fire of 1961 -- and how it hit celebs hard. Can you imagine how our celeb-obsessed culture would react today if Lindsay's, Paris' and Jessica's homes all went up in smoke at the same time?
L.A. Then and Now columnist Cecilia Rasmussen writes:
Film stars stood their ground against the encroaching flames, alongside other residents. Maureen O'Hara and Kim Novak risked their lives to douse flames with garden hoses. Fred MacMurray took studio workers with him from the set of "My Three Sons" to help evacuate neighbors and his family from their two-story colonial house in Brentwood. Then MacMurray stayed to help firefighters cut down brush around his Halvern Drive home, confining the fire damage to a portion of his house.
Burt Lancaster lost his home on Linda Flora Drive, but not his $250,000 art collection, which happened to be on loan to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Comedian Joe E. Brown watched his home burn to the ground "just as quick as that," he told The Times.
Former Vice President Richard Nixon was in his leased home on Bundy Drive, working on his book "Six Crises" when the seventh crisis hit. After watering down the roof, he and his wife, Pat, hurried away.
:: Speaking of L.A. past, the Times marks what should probably be
considered one of the five most important moments in our city's history:
Nov. 5, 1913: Forty-thousand people were on hand in the San Fernando Valley to witness the long-awaited moment when water from 200 miles away in the Owens Valley reached Los Angeles via the city's new aqueduct, The Times reported under the headline "Silver Torrent Crowns the City's Mighty Achievement."
"From the mountain fastnesses of the snow-capped Sierras, through the world's longest man-made conduit of steel, cement and solid granite, sparkling water poured in a mighty torrent from the aqueduct's mouth," the newspaper said.
"It gurgled and splashed its cheerful message of good health, great wealth, long life and plenteous prosperity to Los Angeles and her people."
:: Most frustrating story in today's paper has to be the business section's profile of liquidator Great American Group, which buys bankrupt companies and sells off their wares.
Great American Group is currently selling off what's left of Tower Records. But while the story mentions the kind of ire liquidators like Great American sometimes catch from angry workers and patrons, it never mentions here why the Tower liquidation is particularly angering.
In Tower's case, at least one other company that came close to winning the auction for Tower's assets had planned on keeping at least some stores open, which would have at least allowed the Tower name to continue. But with its narrow win, Great American put the final nail in the Tower coffin. That's what's so angering about this company, but the story doesn't mention it.
Nor does the story explain the rationale behind the liquidation pricing. Initially, the discount at Tower was just at 10%. Why so low? What goes into deciding exactly how much to discount at first, and when to start really dropping prices?
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