Besides being a star hiker and a blue-ribbon real estate broker in downtown Los Angeles, it emerged over the weekend that obviously versatile Ed Rosenthal of Culver City — who gained heroic attention last week — is a musician, too.
“He was a student of mine about five years ago,” concert producer Gary Mandell of Boulevard Music told the newspaper after reading in the Los Angeles Times on Friday that Mr. Rosenthal nearly lost his life during an emergency 6-day hike in Joshua Tree National Park.
“He took a guitar class from me,” Mr. Mandell recalled of the brave sportsman who also is a recognized poet.
“I got to know him a little. He came into the store one time and told me he had been hiking in Topanga, I believe, and he’d had a heart attack while hiking. So he underwent bypass surgery.
“When I read the Times’ story, I was kind of surprised he would be hiking by himself.”
Mr. Rosenthal sounds like a personally and professionally successful gentleman who has splashed his way through life.
He was out in the desert in the first place to celebrate a signal real estate accomplishment, especially in a recession environment. The realtor was commemorating the part he played in selling the historic Clifton’s cafeteria in downtown.
Arriving in Desert Hot Springs a week ago last Thursday, he departed from the Black Rock campground the next day, but soon lost the trail and made a series of wrong turns.
Ever the witty one, Mr. Mandell said he was not surprised Mr. Rosenthal had toughed his way through a lost experience without material sustenance.
“Anybody who can survive the Beginning Guitar class can survive anything,” he said.
Was Mr. Rosenthal a good student?
“He asked some good questions,” Mr. Mandell said.
Miraculously, the 64-year-old enterprising entrepreneur, portrayed as a world-class hiker, survived such a terrifying flirtation with death that he had made out his will.
The last 4 days, he was without food, the Times said in its detailed report.
Dehydrated when found last Thursday, stranded in the wilderness, Mr. Rosenthal has been recovering under the watchful eye of medics. Meanwhile, his wife said her 5-foot-5, 155-pound husband “looks like he lost a lot of weight.”
