LABJ’s LA STORIES
Hackett Hound
Local officials, celebrities and one famous pooch were on hand for the recent groundbreaking ceremony of a no-kill animal shelter the legacy of late comedian Buddy Hackett.
County Supervisor Michael Antonovich attended the event along with Moose, who starred on the TV series “Frasier.”
“The Buddy Hackett Singita Animal Sanctuary,” on 22 acres in the foothills of Angeles Forest, will take in animals, spay and neuter them, provide shots, and find homes in a cage-free environment, said co-founder Sherry Hackett, the comedian’s widow.
“Animals, like children, need to be nourished and loved and given kindness,” she said. “You can’t save everything but you gotta save what you can.”
In his later years, Buddy Hackett came out of retirement and organized comedy shows that raised almost $750,000 for the shelter, half its cost. (He died last year at age 78.)
Sherry Hackett will continue organizing the comedy shows to raise the remainder of the funds.
Kim Holmes
Waste Not
The California Water Resources Control Board and the public relations firm Rogers & Associates have launched “Erase the Waste,” a two-year, $5 million campaign to get people to put their cigarette butts in the trash and clean up after their dogs. The campaign features posters and promotional kits passed out across neighborhoods.
The problem is that the filth gets washed into storm drains and flows untreated into rivers and the ocean.
“Polluted storm water runoff is the greatest danger to water quality in Southern California,” said Arthur G. Baggett Jr., chairman of the state Water Board. “Research indicates that every month, Los Angeles County residents toss almost 1 million pieces of trash on the ground.”
Officials point out that contaminated water is expensive to clean up and can deter tourists from visiting the area another economic impact.
Kim Holmes
Cultural Contribution
The Annenberg Foundation has donated $15 million toward the preservation of the historic Beverly Hills Post Office and its transformation into a new cultural center, planned for 2006.
The center will serve as a venue for live theater, performing arts, cultural events, and a special children’s theater series. The project has been in the works since the Postal Service sold the building to the city in 1993. The city awarded a long-term lease to the Cultural Foundation in 1999.
“When you look around the west end of Los Angeles there is very little for theater or presentations or concerts,” said Bram Goldsmith, chairman of City National Bank. “So, utilizing the historic post office and converting that into a theater and building, in addition to housing practice rooms for rehearsals, became a very exciting opportunity.”
The Wallis Annenberg Cultural Center will feature a 500-seat jewel box theater and classrooms, plus dining and shopping areas. The original Italian Renaissance style architecture, which complements the old City Hall, will be preserved.
Kim Holmes
TV Try
Reality shows have made their mark on the network TV scene, and now they’re coming to cable access. A low-budget production featuring aspiring writers trying to sell their ideas to heavyweight agents from International Creative Management, “The Inside Pitch,” airs this week on LA36.
Christopher Lockhart, ICM’s executive story editor, and Jack d’Annibale, senior story analyst, met with contestants for the first LA36 show.
LA36 officials have their own aspirations. They hope that “The Inside Pitch” can move up to the major cable leagues, such as HBO, according to spokeswoman Janis Wong.
The winners get an exclusive power meeting over dinner with the ICM duo at a glitzy restaurant in the L.A. area. The first to get the dinner were Brian Diamond and A.J. Anderson for their “Fortune Forecast” script, a comedy about a weatherman searching for a psychic who had helped him with his forecasting, but then disappeared.
“The Inside Pitch” airs this week.
Pat Maio
OUT OF THE PAST
The $10,000 Computer
The Los Angeles Business Journal noted the retailing of computers for small businesses on July 21, 1980:
“A few years ago most small-business men or professionals could not afford to buy a computer; today many of them are considering a purchase a competitive necessity,” declared Gerald T. Moore, vice president, retail products group, Digital Equipment Corp.
“The marketplace is evolving so rapidly that current projections expect this business sector to increase tenfold in the next five years,” he said.
Capitalizing on this projection, DEC opened computer retail stores across Southern California. Though the price for small business computers ran at about $10,000 in 1980, down from $50,000 in 1970, Moore recognized that this amount was still a “significant cost to the small business.” He hoped that the advantages of the retail format would attract more customers and offset the cost drawbacks.
“The selling process for computers is not short, either over-the-counter or in the customer’s office. It may take four or five visits to our store by the customer before we make a sale. If we had to go to the customer’s office four or five times, the cost would be out of this world. We feel it is better to deploy our stores widely.
“The client is going to have to see the computer anyway, get hands-on experience. Such a display area as we have in Los Angeles provides that experience. We have a computer with self-paced programs which tells the customer exactly how to use the machine.”
DEC pioneered computer networking, but after 40 years failed as a business and in 1998 was sold to Compaq, which was swallowed by Hewlett-Packard in 2002.
Rebekah Sanders
“Out of the Past” is published each week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Business Journal.
