Hello, New York Is Calling

Ross HawkinsA&E

David Gobbeo, my film and video editor, and I were guests on the Alan Chan Show on TriBeca Net Radio in New York last night. Alan is an attorney and a comic who also wears the hat of producer/director of a quirky little film noir titled “Sakinara.”

“Sakinara” concerns a sake salesman who dies under mysterious circumstances. The police think he was murdered. The prime suspect is a call girl with a very interesting clientele.

“Sakinara” will be screening at the Backlot Film Festival on Friday, Feb. 2 at 10 p.m. at the Fine Arts Theatre, 8556 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. The complete list of screenings will be published next week.

Chan’s radio show is an irreverent, politically incorrect showcase for new talent, entertainers, artists and musicians that can be heard live on net radio at 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Budd Schulberg and The Garden of Allah

Ross HawkinsA&E

When we made the decision to invite writer/producer Budd Schulberg to become the second recipient of the Thomas Ince Award at the Backlot Film Festival (Jan. 30 – Feb. 3), I remembered a conversation I had with my mother in the kitchen of our home. This was back in July of 1959. I was reading an article in Time magazine that told about how the legendary Garden of Allah Hotel was being torn down to make way for a bank building.

My mother paused from fixing dinner to reflect for a moment. Unknown to me, she had worked briefly as a cocktail waitress at that famous watering hole where the likes of Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo, Laurence Olivier and W.C . Fields hung out. She remembered meeting " a nice young writer there who was working with F. Scott Fitzgerald . “He was trying to keep him reasonably sober," she said. The writer was Budd Schulberg. He was collaborating with Fitzgerald on a screenplay called "Winter Carnival," a light comedy set at Dartmouth where Schulberg had attended before returning to Hollywood as a screenwriter.

When I talked to Schulberg this summer, I told him my mother remembered him from "The Garden of Allah." He paused for a moment and then said softly, "I have a lot of memories of that place."

Something to Sing About: Wednesday’s Culver High Concert

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At the time of year when thoughts turn to joyous holidays, and to attending Culver City High School’s Winter Concert, Wednesday night will be the perfect time to get into the right spirit. As always, this year’s 7 p.m. concert will include the Concert Choir and Concert Band, with the Middle School Choir. Also, the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts music department will add its music to the mix with its Chamber Singers and Jazz Combo. Admission is free at the Robert Frost Auditorium, 4401 Elenda Ave.

The blend of music is exciting and diverse. Tony Spano will direct both the Concert Band and the Concert Choir. The Concert Choir will offer both new and perennial favorites: "Shalom," "Carol of the Bells," "Dashing Through the Snow," "African Praise Noel," and "Sing Alleluia, Allelu." The Concert Band will be playing Sousa’s "Liberty Bell March," "Hatikvah" and "Hymnsong Variations."

L.A. Philharmonic in Concert on Tuesday Night at the Robert Frost

Ari L. NoonanA&E

One of the outstanding cultural institutions in Southern California, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is coming to Culver City for the holidays — although Christmas music is not on the agenda. The L.A. Phil will stage a free concert, especially for the school community, on Tuesday night at 8 inside the vast Robert Frost Auditorium,4401 Elenda St., on the campus of Culver City High School. Since it is a school night, the concert has been timed for one hour. Billed as a Neighborhood Concert, the program will salute the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The Program

The Philharmonic, with German-born Alexander Mickelthwate conducting, will play three of Mozart’s compositions, including the Three German Dances, Exultate, Jubilate and Jupiter. Soprano Hanan Alattar will be featured. Mr. Mickelthwate, who becomes music conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra this season, has been promoted from Assistant Conductor of the L.A. Phil to Associate Conductor.

AVPA Performs Holocaust-themed Treehouses Tomorrow

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What is loyalty? 

What is love?
These are some of the themes the young actors at the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts of Culver City High School will bring to life in their production of Elizabeth Kuti’s Treehouses this week. The play, directed by Darryl Hovis, will be performed Wednesday through Saturday this week and next, at 7 p.m., in the Sony Pictures Theater, behind the Robert Frost Auditorium on the high school campus, 4401 Elenda Ave. Tickets are $15 general/$13 ASB, faculty, seniors. Seating is limited for this thought-provoking performance. Reservations are recommended (www.avpa.org).

‘All the Rage’ Is Gunning to Stress a Moral Point

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The stage is bare, except for some chairs. A sense of expectation is in the air. The lights dim, and an eerie quiet fills the room. And then, bang! The show takes off like a shot. Both proverbial and literal. It’s "All the Rage," written by Keith Reddin, playing at the Attic Theatre, just east of Culver City, 5429 West Washington Blvd. for three more weekends.

Winter Film Highlight: The 2nd Backlot Film Festival

Ross HawkinsA&E

With film festivals multiplying faster than termites at a lumber mill — three are currently running in Southern California — the question arises:

Can the Westside support still anotherfilm festival?

My Baby

I helped create the Backlot Film Festival to cultivate an appreciation of the rich heritage of the motion picture industry in this country and to bring a greater understanding of the debt current filmmakers owe to the pioneers. We don’t teach history in school anymore. In a recent conversation with a 30-year- old USC graduate, I remarked that Winston Churchill had written a romantic novel back in 1919. She asked, "Who was Winston Churchill?"

To this end — to explore the rich history of the major art form of the last 100 years — the BFF will honor a filmmaker who has made a major impact on the motion picture industry.

A Fiscal Mouthful Whenever You Need Stimulation

Ari L. NoonanA&E

Part II (Part I, “He Says He Can Unlock the Mysteries of ‘Wealth’ for You,” Oct. 5).

After you digest the mouthful title, what makes Prof. S.E. Harrison’s first book, “Plutonomics: A Unified Theory of Wealth,” fascinating is that he has chosen to write it epigrammatically. Dots and dashes. Chapters are too short to bore anyone. They run the length of one page. This succinct, quick-stop volume is designed for the curious reader who does not have a single compartment available in his or her life to benchmark one more book. This volume is tailored for those who are accumulating wealth but struggle with strategies for protecting what you have and growing it. Post your copy near a favorite resting station — in the bathroom, by your chair in the living room or at your bedside. Take a spoonful of Prof. Harrison’s unusual insightfulness whenever you are hungry for stimulation. Meant to be read chronologically, “Plutonomics,” like an anthology, can just as effectively be read episodically. The style that emerged, says Prof. Harrison of Culver City, “was a fortunate accident. I tried for years to write this book. I felt like I had a good theory.” Accessible style drives this thin volume nearly as much as content, which must be interpreted as a compliment. We are talking about plutonomics, which is unrelated to the former planet of a similar name that recently was demoted somewhere below the buck-private of erstwhile worlds. A young man, Prof. Harrison helpfully reasons in a straight line and speaks a transparent language. This makes a potentially dense tome available to those of us who may reason a step more slowly than the majority. His cleverness, gratefully, is confined to theorizing. After telling the curious reader he is offering “a brief, simple overview of the factors and the nature of wealth,” he re-swallows and takes another swing at a definition.

The Attic: The Hottest Little Coolest Theatre

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You’re driving on West Washington Boulevard, and you don’t see it. Did you pass it? Take another look. Something special is always worth taking an extra look. It’s there, waiting for you to discover it.

This special little gem nestled in a nice little neighborhood called The Washington Boulevard Arts Corridor. No, it’s not all gussied up like a seductive lipsticked woman. But it does have a wonderful bold appeal. There it is. You found it. You have discovered The Attic Theatre & Film Center, the hottest little coolest theatre in L.A. No flashy marquees or accoutrements, although pretty, can also distract from what a non-profit theatrical organization may find more meaningful.

One Night Is All It Takes

Connection between the cast and audience is The Attic Theatre’s focus and forte. Spend an evening discovering this theatre’s work,and you will be hooked. The Attic Theatre, co-founded by Patrick and Don Swayze, in the late 1980s, was part of Milton Katselas/Beverly Hills Playhouse. A hip place where actors and comedians studied and performed their craft. Names such as Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Courtney Cox, Noah Wyle, Charlene Tilton, Billy Crystal, Rae Dawn Chong andCynthia Gibb were a part of The Attic magic. James Carey, producing artistic director for The Attic Theatre & Film Center, worked and became friends with many fine talents during his busy career, including Susan Strassberg and Tony Grieco who coached and taught at The Attic.

Has Culver City Lost Its Heart?

Ross HawkinsA&E

Movie gossip columnist Hedda Hopper wryly observed in the 1930s that movie stars lived in Beverly Hills, vacationed in Palm Springs and worked in Culver City. Hollywood had the glitz, the glamour and the reputation of being the motion picture capital of the world. But it was in Culver City that more than 55 percent of all the films made in the U.S. were churned out, from the 1920s through the 1950s. It was in Culver City that the chariot race in the 1925 Ben Hur film was held, where King Kong ran amok, where Dorothy and her friends traveled down the Yellow Brick Road to see the "Wizard of Oz," where Rhett and Scarlett escaped from Atlanta in "Gone With The Wind," and where Gene Kelly sang and danced in the rain. Culver City was home to Laurel and Hardy, to Hal Roach’s "Little Rascals," to the Marx Brothers, and to Tom and Jerry. Culver City was where Orson Welles sent us searching for "Rosebud," where Fred and Ginger danced through eight unforgettable musicals, where Bing Crosby sang "The Bells of St. Mary’s," and where Gregory Peck lusted after Jennifer Jones in "Dual In The Sun."