Tag Archives: movies

Museum of the San Fernando Valley

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Museum of the San Fernando Valley
Northridge
January 3, 2015

A brand new museum in the San Fernando Valley, near where Margaret lives? We are so there! We read about this museum in the Los Angeles Times, which ran an article when the museum opened in December.

SFValley2

The museum is in an office building, at 18860 Nordhoff Street in Northridge, in a relatively small suite on the second floor. Although it is not large, it is well laid out, and the exhibits are well labeled. The docents were friendly and very well-informed. There were three volunteers working the museum, basically one per room, and they were all enthusiastic. We think this museum has the highest docent per square foot ratio we have seen.

The World War II room has a corner devoted to the remarkable ace pilot Clyde East, including a piece from the fuselage of his fighter plane “Lil Margaret.” A QR code on the wall gave us a link to an extensive video about him. Clyde retired to the Valley after a long and distinguished career in the military and just passed away within the last year. Museum volunteer Art Sherman was on duty and showed us around that room, explaining all the items on display, including items he had donated to the museum from his time in the Army Air Force, as a bombardier and intelligence officer. Among various items in the room are interesting photos of the camouflaging on the Lockheed facility, several aerial maps, and photos of the “Wings over Wendy’s” veterans group which meets in West Hills.

SFValley1

Another room features photos and artifacts provided by the Westmore family, leading make up and hair design artists in Hollywood for many years. Other walls feature photos taken by leading photographers Leigh Wiener and George Hurrell, historical photos from the Valley News, and architectural photos of noted Valley buildings, both old and modern.

The final room is devoted to art created by Valley artists, most notably sculptor Henry Van Wolf.

The museum organization has existed for about a decade, but this is their first opportunity to display their collection in space of their own. They have done an excellent job. Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted. The museum is currently only open three days a week.

Wheelchair accessibility was fine, with an elevator up to the second floor. Parking was ample and free, at least on the Saturday we visited.

The website needs a little updating; it appears to date from before the opening, when the “museum” was just an organization with a collection but no site to display it. Hopefully the website will be updated soon, to reflect the recent opening and give potential visitors easier access to practical information like opening times.

We had lunch at Maria’s Italian Kitchen in Northridge before going to the museum. We have eaten there before, and other family members like it, too. Food and service were both excellent. Margaret had a chicken panini; Bob had a meatball sandwich; and Meredith had a salad. We were all pleased with our food.

Over lunch we filled Margaret in on family business. She was sorry to hear of her older sister’s recent hospitalization, and we helped her write a get well card.

Skirball — Films

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Skirball Cultural Center
November 2, 2014
Sepulveda Pass

We took Margaret to see the “Light and Noir” exhibit at the Skirball. For more information about that museum generally, see our post from July 2014. This exhibit was about émigrés and exiles who came from Europe to Hollywood, and about their role in making movies in the 1930s and 40s. It dovetailed nicely with our prior visit to LACMA, with its “Haunted Screens” exhibit about German expressionist filmmakers in the 1920s. (See the immediately preceding post.)

We followed a red carpeted walkway from the main Skirball museum over to its special exhibition space. The hallway was lined with movie posters from Academy award winning movies associated with émigrés and exiles, including for instance The Lost Weekend written by Billy Wilder. The first part of the exhibit had photos from the building of Universal City in 1915. Carl Laemmle, who founded Universal Studios, is a leading example of one of those who emigrated to the United States for better opportunities. The exhibit then shifted from émigrés to those who were exiled from Europe, that is who had to flee Nazi persecution. One display case had immigration papers for a number of well-known Hollywood personalities, including Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, and S. Z. “Cuddles” Sakall. There was a whole room given over to Casablanca, a movie whose cast was made up largely of exiles. We knew this from having read the book Round Up The Usual Suspects by Aljean Harmetz some years ago, but we love the movie, so it was fun to watch the film clips and see the rest of the items in that room.

In the main exhibition space there was a clever division, with one side given over to displays about comedy movies made by exiles and émigrés, and the other side given over to noir movies. The comedies included, among others, Harvey and It Started with Eve. The noir side included Mildred Pierce and Sunset Boulevard, another one of our favorites. Looking at the Mildred Pierce display, Margaret commented that she had never liked Joan Crawford. Meredith replied that was probably a common sentiment. Bob, the contrarian, suspects that was not a common sentiment until the biographical movie Mommy Dearest came out, based on the book by Christina Crawford.

The last part of the main exhibition had a section with displays about the Hollywood 10 and the House Committee on Un-American Activities and another section about the émigré salons and social life in Los Angeles.

We then returned to the main part of the museum and toured a related special exhibition about the “noir effect.” That exhibit featured contemporary art, such as paintings and graphic novels, which draw on the noir film genre. One wall had a large photo of a street scene, in front of which the visitor was invited to take photos. We did.

Skirball noir effect

We ate in the museum restaurant, which we have always enjoyed. Lately Margaret has seemed to want quesadillas whenever we go someplace that offers them. Zeidler’s does not. We had joked before we picked her up that maybe she would want a cheese blintz, which is the closest thing to a quesadilla on this menu. Without prompting from us, she did in fact ask for cheese blintzes when she saw them on the menu. She enjoyed them, as did Meredith. The blintzes were served with a large side portion of fresh melon and pineapple slices. Bob had a salmon pastrami sandwich, which he also enjoyed.

The museum was quite busy. In addition to many regular visitors like us, there was also a conference going on and a wedding party on the central terrace. Usually we visit on Saturdays, and we did not recall the museum being this crowded before. This time we went on a Sunday, and perhaps the facility is busier then, since it is not the Sabbath.

Parking is free, and there is a large parking garage. Wheelchair access is easy. The museum participates in the Bank of America Museums on Us program.

LACMA

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Los Angeles County Museum of Art
October 12, 2014
“Miracle Mile” Wilshire Boulevard

We took Margaret to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to see a special exhibition, “Haunted Screens: German Cinema in the 1920s.” The exhibition featured over 150 drawings and set photos from German movies of the 1920s, both silent and early sound era. There were also several screens showing clips from the movies featured in the exhibit, and a number of contemporary movie posters were displayed on the wall. We first heard about the exhibition through an article we saw in the Los Angeles Times. The set design drawings were quite evocative. Meredith was struck by the skill and artistry of some of the watercolors. Bob was amused by the directions written on some of them including the word “achtung.”

LACMA haunted-screens

We next went to see another special exhibition, “Big Quilts in Small Sizes: Children’s Historical Bedcovers.” The museum has drawn on some of its reserve collection and displayed a dozen quilts, mostly from the 19th century and a few from the 20th century, all handmade and small in size. This was the exhibit Margaret liked best. She has been quite adept at handwork of all sorts and particularly likes quilting. She admired the careful work on several of the pieces displayed. After seeing the quilts we strolled through some of the permanent collection in the Art of the America’s building, stopping to admire a gigantic mirror that once adorned a mansion in Menlo Park, then served as a Hollywood prop for decades, before finally joining the museum collection in the 1990s. On our way out of the museum complex we went through the Japanese art building and stopped to browse through the special exhibition of modern kimonos. We particularly liked the ones that illustrated abstract flowing water designs, especially one that had dragonflies on it.

The museum complex is quite large and encompasses nine different buildings. It has an impressive collection spanning many countries and eras. One could certainly spend a full day there and still not see everything. The museum is located at the west end of Hancock Park; the Page Museum, better known as the La Brea tar pits museum, is at the east end of the park. The park is a fun place to stroll, and features the novel sight of various tar pits large and small interspersed throughout the lawn area that makes up the park. The aroma of liquid tar may not be to everyone’s taste, however!

We parked at the east end of Hancock Park, in the lot that is actually associated with the Page Museum. That lot cost $9 – the weekend rate – and put us closer to our favorite area restaurant, Johnnie’s New York Pizzeria. (There is also parking in a garage at the west end of the museum, which costs a little more.)

We met up with our youngest daughter and her boyfriend for lunch at Johnnie’s before going over to the museum. Margaret surprised us by choosing something other than her regular dish, turkey panini. This time she had what Johnny’s calls its Italian quesadilla – thin pizza dough with melted mozzarella and pesto sauce. It was quite good. The young people had other plans so did not join us at LACMA. Discussion over lunch of our visit to the Torrey Pines reserve prompted Margaret to recall a very large white pine which grew in the yard at the Dresden Avenue home where she grew up, in Gardiner, Maine.

Admission to LACMA is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors. Bank of America customers who visit on the first full weekend of the month can get in free by showing a B of A debit or credit card. Wheelchair accessibility is good, although one sometimes has to hunt for the ramps and interconnecting bridges between buildings.

Will Rogers State Historic Park

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Will Rogers State Historic Park
Pacific Palisades
August 31, 2014

When I die, my epitaph or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read: I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn’t like! I am so proud of that I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved. – Will Rogers

(Bob wisecracks: I never met a museum I didn’t like.)

Will Rogers porch
We took Margaret to visit the historic Will Rogers house which is located in the state park that bears his name, in Pacific Palisades off Sunset Boulevard. Famous humorist, columnist, cowboy, movie star and stage entertainer Will Rogers lived there from 1928 until his untimely death in 1935. In 1944, his widow Betty donated the land, house, and contents of the house to the state in his memory. The house is a simple but large ranch house. It is an interesting site to visit because it is so well, and authentically, furnished. It is a wonderful time capsule of the 1930s. The kitchen features a period Frigidaire refrigerator and a Hotpoint range – brand new electrical appliances that were top-of-the-line at the time. The home also has wonderful artifacts and memorabilia associated with Will Rogers, such as Navajo rugs, sketches and paintings of Western scenes, and portraits of Will and Betty Rogers in the dining areas.

The main living room has a stuffed calf. Throughout his life, Will continued to practice the rope tricks that had first made him famous. He was constantly roping things, both inside and outdoors, including occasionally his guests! One friend of his sent him the calf with a pointed note about using it for roping practice rather than his visitors. Rogers later joked that he was the best dead calf roper around.

The house was built in several stages, so lacks a coherent plan. The first part built was a rustic six room cabin, intended as a getaway location and home for their horses when the Rogers family still lived in their main home in Beverly Hills. The family then moved into it as their main home, adding another wing with somewhat nicer (but still casual) finish and furnishings. Will also “raised the roof” on the original section of the house, adding a second story with several guest bedrooms. Eventually the house came to have 31 rooms, including 11 bathrooms, and 7 fireplaces.

Next to the house is a visitor center, in what was previously the garage. There are displays with a timeline and photographs from Will Rogers’ life, a gift shop, and a short video playing on a loop.

Because this is a historic house, much of it is not accessible by wheelchair. The park staff was very helpful and loaded Margaret and her wheelchair onto a cart which they then drove around to the back of the house. We were able to see the older section of the house including the main room and kitchen. Meredith and Margaret then watched the video the park service has for wheelchair visitors, showing the interior of the other part of the house, while Bob continued on the docent led tour of that section.

Will Rogers ranger cart

Will Rogers is one of Margaret’s favorite people of all time. She owns and has read several times Ben Yagoda’s biography of him. Although Rogers died in a plane crash two years before Margaret was born, he remained such a giant for people of that time that she grew up hearing him frequently quoted and referred to. She has visited the Rogers home before, the first time over 30 years ago, with her mother and sister, and again a few years ago with us, when she first moved back to Los Angeles.

The state park grounds also include the stables the Rogers family built and polo grounds, both of which are still used. There are hiking trails as well.

The house is kept locked. Docent led tours are given every hour at the top of the hour. Admission is free, but parking costs $12. There is no restaurant or snack bar on the state park grounds, so we ate in the Valley before we headed to the park.

Valley Relics Museum

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Valley Relics Museum
Chatsworth
May 31, 2014

We went back to the Valley Relics Museum in Chatsworth. This trip was our second visit; we first learned about the musuem through a Los Angeles Times article and visited last winter, shortly after it opened. Meredith’s sister Kathleen accompanied us this time. She follows the museum on Facebook but had not previously visited it. The museum is housed in warehouse space, with three small rooms and one large open space.

Meredith and Kathleen both attended high school in the San Fernando Valley, and we are comfortable there, but we do not tend to associate the Valley with museums or high culture. The Valley Relics Museum has a delightfully offbeat assortment of signs, photos, and assorted memorabilia associated with the Valley from the early 20th century on. Tommy Gelinas, the owner and curator, is very knowledgeable about the history of the Valley and various now-gone shops, restaurants, and other sites. When we arrived, he was in the lobby explaining several items to other visitors and answering questions.

The collection has expanded since our first visit just six months before, and the website has been revamped and expanded as well. The museum is full of the sort of things we used to see everywhere and take for granted, like signs for Green Stamps and an old Wurlitzer jukebox. One of the smaller rooms has lots of old black-and-white photos of Western movie stars associated with the Valley, and that room was of particular interest to Margaret, who is a fan of old Western movies. Bob and Meredith liked one of the new additions, a classic VW beetle that was hand painted by a local artist, with various historical themes on different parts of the car.

VRelics

The museum is on Marilla Street just beyond the end of Canoga Avenue. We had a little trouble finding it the first time because it is in industrial space and not marked prominently. There is no handicap cut out immediately in front of the museum. Tommy assisted us with getting Margaret and the wheelchair inside.

There is no café at the Museum. Prior to this visit, we stopped at the Bob’s Big Boy in Northridge.