Nicknamed the Academy Awards of aviation, the annual Living Legends of Aviation ceremony honors aviation entrepreneurs like Richard Branson; astronauts such as Neil Armstrong; and celebrities who have a passion for flying, including Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
Now add 81-year-old Seymour “Si” Robin to the exclusive list of 70.
Robin, chief executive of Sensor Systems in Chatsworth, says he’s a low-profile person, best known in the business community as an inventor of antennas used on most commercial and military aircraft. A private pilot, he owns several vintage aircraft, such as a J-3 Cub and Beechcraft Staggerwing, and still flies twice a week. He has logged 8,000 hours in the air.
At a recent black-tie awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, Robin hobnobbed with the Millennium Falcon’s pilot, Harrison Ford, another recipient of the “Oscar” in aviation.
“He’s just the nicest guy and wanted to chat about piloting,” Robin said. “He’s great to speak with one on one.”
Did he get starstruck?
“No, I’m too old for that,” Robin said.
He quickly corrected himself, admitting it’ll likely happen when he meets later this year with Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III, who successfully carried out the emergency water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River last month, saving 155 lives.
“He’s my hero,” Robin said. “That’s a true legend.”
Good Show
As the 2008 chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Tim McCallion said he is proud of the organization’s accomplishments during his tenure, particularly with its work on Proposition 11, the redistricting measure that passed in November.
But it was while working on the Proposition 11 campaign that McCallion said he had one of his most memorable experiences: He ended up on national television an unusual occurrence for the Verizon exec. TV newsmagazine “60 Minutes” ran a story in December on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that included clips of a Proposition 11 press conference featuring the governor and McCallion, among others.
“I was getting calls from people from all over the country who saw me standing by Gov. Schwarzenegger,” said McCallion, adding that it was nice not to be the target of the show’s investigative team. “‘Sixty Minutes’ is not necessarily the place a businessperson wants to be seen.”
Courthouse Rock
A federal courtroom in Los Angeles was turned into the setting of a musical face-off last week as colored notes appeared on a TV screen and the rhythms of Steve Miller Band’s 1973 hit “The Joker” began to resonate. Rory Miller, an associate at Quinn Emanuel in Los Angeles, placed his fingers on a guitar-shaped controller and began playing along.
Miller, representing Activision Publishing Inc., was in court playing the company’s “Guitar Hero” game to show U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer that his client was not infringing on Gibson Guitar Corp.’s patent, as the instrument-maker claims.
Louis A. Karasik of Alston + Bird, representing Gibson, played audio recordings of Activision’s drum sounds to show that they match musical notes.
So it was sort of like a battle of the bands?
“I found the demonstration to be a bit unusual and amusing yet endearing” said Ciaran McEvoy, a Los Angeles Daily Journal reporter who was at the hearing. “I’ve covered a lot of court hearings. That was the first time I’d seen a video game played in a courtroom setting.”
Pfaelzer took Activision’s complaint for declaratory relief under advisement.
Staff reporters Francisco Vara-Orta and Richard Clough, and contributing reporter Yoo Mi Chin contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
