Buried Treasure Grades Yoshinoya Beef Bowl ►CULTURE in DOWNEY: the Death 7910 E Florence Ave
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018 Vol. 17 No. 22 EDUCATION NEWS NEWS ENTERTAINMENT ESPN honors Christmas Martha Sodetani Martina McBride Warren High concert is grand marshal in Cerritos SEE PAGE 2 SEE PAGE 3 SEE PAGE 3 SEE PAGE 8 Downey restaurant Buried Treasure grades Yoshinoya Beef Bowl ►CULTURE IN DOWNEY: The death 7910 E Florence Ave. of Hollywood great Miriam Nelson, a Date Inspected: 8/31/18 dancer and choreographer who lended Friday 87˚ Grade: A Weekend her talents to shows with the Downey Civic Light Opera, is another reminder at a Auntie Anne’s Glance of Downey’s further vanishing cultural life. 344 Stonewood St. Saturday 6892˚⁰ Date Inspected: 8/31/18 Friday By Lawrence Christon Grade: A Contributor Norms Restaurant Sunday 91˚ ⁰ 7955 Firestone Blvd. Saturday 70 DOWNEY – Every major Date Inspected: 8/30/18 newspaper in the country Grade: A ran a lengthy obit on dancer/ choreographer Miriam Nelson, who died on August 12 at the age Narai Thai Cuisine THINGS TO DO of 98 and whose seven-decade 7611 Firestone Blvd. career, as The New York Times Date Inspected: 8/30/18 put it, “spanned the golden ages Grade: A of Broadway, Hollywood and television.” El Sushi Loco Express She worked with Judy 102 Stonewood Street Spc 15 Garland, Bette Davis, Audrey Date Inspected: 8/29/18 Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman and Grade: A Jerry Lewis; she helped Shirley MacLaine perform a memorable Portos Cafe Resume-Building Workshop striptease in “The Apartment” 8233 Firestone Blvd. Saturday - The Collab in Whittier, in which MacLaine removed 10 am nothing but her necklace; she Date Inspected: 8/29/18 choreographed the whole cast of Grade: A A panel of entrepreneurs from PR, “Cat Ballou” in a number; and media and fashion offer advice and tips on resumes, interviewing, and how to she coaxed a terrified William Portos Bakery get noticed by an employer. Holden to dance with Kim Novak 8233 Firestone Blvd. in one of Hollywood’s immortal, Date Inspected: 8/29/18 sensually riveting scenes, in Grade: A “Picnic.” On Broadway, as a dancer, Mr Pete’s Patio she worked with Van Johnson, Miriam Nelson with then husband Gene Nelson on the Warner Bros. Studios lot in the 7811 E Firestone Blvd. Ethel Merman and Danny Kaye, 1950s. A dancer and choreographer, Nelson worked behind the scenes with the Downey Date Inspected: 8/29/18 and appeared in six shows, Civic Light Opera before the organization was disbanded. Grade: A including two by Cole Porter. As a film actress, she appeared in Los Pollos “Double Indemnity,” and “Lady Long Beach Comic Con in the Dark.” On TV, she worked 7940 E Florence Ave. Miriam Nelson would be All Weekend - Long Beach Convention on “The Red Skelton Show,” Date Inspected: 8/29/18 there too, friendly and beaming, Center “Father Knows Best,” “The Lucy Grade: A a genial part of the fun, even A celebration of comic books and pop Show” and “Murder, She Wrote.” though she had to drive home Marsha Moode Bob’s Big Boy culture, with panel discussions, meet Tall, slender, graceful, afterward to Malibu. was executive and greets, celebrity signings, and 7447 Firestone Blvd. outgoing and naturally So why do I mention all this? director of the movie screenings. $35-$70 aristocratic in bearing, she and Downey Civic Date Inspected: 8/28/18 then-husband Gene Nelson were, Because it’s a reminder Light Opera. Grade: A along with Marge and Gower of what Downey has lost, and Champion, among the premier an indication of a city moving Photo by Joan Wetzel’s Pretzels dance couples of Hollywood and in the wrong direction. I can Anderson, 132 Stonewood St. understand if local theater Downey Daily Broadway. Date Inspected: 8/28/18 audiences, to whom the DCLO is Photos For quite some time I’ve been already a distant memory, don’t Grade: A meaning to thank the Patriot for remember Nelson; she worked running that intriguing picture behind the scenes. Ta Carbon Mexican Taqueria (April 11) of Marsha Moode, 11219 Old River School Rd. But I’ll bet a hefty sum that Belmont Shore Car Show executive director of the Downey Date Inspected: 8/28/18 Civic Light Opera, taking tickets no one on the city council, whose Sunday - 2nd Street in Belmont Shore, at the door of the Downey Theater job it is to know what goes on in Grade: A 9 am to 3 pm the city, knew anything about prior to a Sunday matinee. Over 750 automobiles, vendors, the luminary in their midst, or Ono Hawaiian BBQ Moode, a former beauty restaurants and retailers near the coast for that matter, the pleasure 12028 Lakewood Blvd. queen and stage and film actress, of Long Beach. the DCLO brought audiences Date Inspected: 8/28/18 and the only Downey woman who drove in from as far away Grade: A beside Karen Carpenter to as Ventura. (Alex Saab would be possess star quality (though of a the exception; but he, like the Lucky Guy different sort), is dressed in an rest of the council members at evening gown in which she looks the time, didn’t take in DCLO 12801 Bellflower Blvd. perfectly comfortable. More performances; they didn’t show Date Inspected: 8/28/18 than a self-referential glamour up for the Downey Symphony Grade: A puss, she’s looking at one of performances either, unless they her theater patrons directly in were getting an award.) Wild Berry Yogurt the eye and smiling in the way 130 Stonewood St. Ranchos Walk 2018 she had of making everyone feel A city without a cultural life on in people’s minds, to show a poetry. I’m referring to the happy and personally welcome is a dead zone, and as I watch city presence. Sean Ashton has physical landscape around us, Date Inspected: 8/28/18 Saturday - 1200 Palo Verde Ave. in Long Beach, 8 am at a DCLO performance, which architectural atrocities like held a few meetings to hear what both natural and architectural. Grade: A consisted of a steady production the KB project on Paramount people have to say. Our political leaders have got Choose from a 3.5 mile, 6 mile, or 9.4 and 5th hog the landscape as to reverse the punishing trend mile walk through historic parts of Long schedule of the best musicals And the Downey arts Carl’s Jr. they metastasize in bulk, and of selling us out to real estate Beach and Signal Hill. ever staged from the golden age community, such as it is, 9002 Firestone Blvd. lament the short-sightedness developers. of Broadway musicals, including should be appalled at its own Date Inspected: 8/28/18 that created the semi-desolate works by Irving Berlin, Lerner & unresponsiveness to the There are a number of Downey Grade: Promenade—Downey’s last A Loewe, Rodgers & Hammerstein gestures Saab has made both in civic and fraternal organizations great shot at the stuff municipal and the Gershwin brothers meetings at City Hall, where the where people come together in dreams are made of—I see a Wingstop same 15 or 20 people showed hearty appreciation of living What’s the connection here? once-exceptional place bailing 8558 Firestone Blvd. up and offered little by way of a here, as in the recent tributes to on its future. Date Inspected: 8/24/18 For much of the final decade plan to promote their work; and Mary Stauffer and the celebration of the DCLO’s existence, Miriam I’ve lived here through more at the Downey Theater, where he of the historic McDonald’s on Grade: A Nelson was choreographer for Downey election cycles than I offered discounts and non-profit Lakewood and Florence. But if Moode and the DCLO, in which care to remember, and there are incentives to theater artists to you consider its leadership role, Max Fitness Depot The Hunchback of Notre Nelson’s style, experience and a few council members I’m happy make use of the space. Except for the city bungled the handling of 7320 Firestone Blvd. Dame brilliance seemed to make to see gone for the harm they’ve one or two whose sole purpose the Downey Art Museum, the first Date Inspected: 8/24/18 Saturday - Whittier Community each show more dazzling and done that lives after them. seemed to complain, the majority in L.A. County, so that it could be Grade: A Theatre, 8 pm infectious than the one before. But as I’ve observed the more sat in passive silence. They destroyed by the senseless ire of Mixing amateurs and pros, her Opening production of the musical recent parade of candidates pass wanted the city to do everything one vindictive blowhard. Though Doc Popcorn dance numbers became more based on the novel by Victory Hugo and through public scrutiny, each for them. the issue was complex, the city 251 Stonewood St. explosive, more confident and trumpeting the same tune about didn’t protect the DCLO from a songs from the Disney film.$20-$25 I can understand the city’s Date Inspected: 8/24/18 theatrical, full of the pizzazz of supporting police and business, management firm that said, in reluctance to work with this old Broadway at its most assured. business and police (as if a robust effect, our way or the highway; Grade: A bunch. Still, it has to do more. society consisted of nothing a firm, incidentally, that acts Long before its 2013 demise, a Without a cultural life, any urban else), I’m struck more and more basically as a pricey booking Vallarta Supermarkets DCLO production was one of the locale is condemned to poverty by the intellectual mediocrity, agency and does little to fulfill (Restaurant) few bright lights on what passes of mind and spirit, stripped of the absence of thought and the purpose of the Downey Civic 7900 Imperial Hwy.