3942 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS February 29, 1984 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS A TRIBUTE TO SHELDON W. "And all those years, years that were lost "I remember when the mortgage rate went ANDELSON not only to me but to those I could have up to 6 percent, how mad I got. Now you'd contributed them to, to my city, my religion, need $250,000 for the same piece of proper­ my community." ty. HON. MEL LEVINE It has been an impressive statement. "I love real estate. It gives you such a OF CALIFORNIA It also seems to have been a calming one. great sense of roots. It means commitment IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Andelson-a compact, wiry man of 53, to Los Angeles. It means you believe in Los Wednesday, February 29, 1984 with a short-cropped brush of white hair, Angeles." trim and impeccable in a business suit and Andelson's entry into the restaurant busi­ e Mr. LEVINE of California. Mr. tie, though he's at home-pauses, relaxes a ness came about by accident. Two young Speaker, I rise today to acquaint my little in the oversized white chair in his mo­ men planning to open a restaurant came to colleagues with some of the accom­ dernly furnished living room. see him, wanted to rent a building, and plishments of a distinguished citizen He has already said he would have liked to needed a partner in the financial end. and a close personal friend of mine, be a U.S. senator. Now the question arises. He had never liked the restaurant busi­ If he hadn't been gay, would he have tried ness. It had been his father's business. And Sheldon W. Andelson. for that Senate seat? Mr. Andelson is a prominent leader he had "learned that it is not for anybody "Sure" he says, chopping short the words, who is sane." In fact, he said, it had always in the Los Angeles community. He is a his low voice dropping to a near-whisper. been his rule never to rent to restaurants. uniquely gifted man whose compassion Then he pauses. But, he recounted, he had agreed to talk for others has motivated him to cham­ "But I got the message early. There were to the men. "They were exciting and the pion important principles and whose places I couldn't go, things I couldn't do. I plans were exciting," he said. "In a weak skills have insured his success in a might not have been rich today. I had more moment, I agreed." wide variety of endeavors. time to buy property and get rich because It was the right decision. A southern California newspaper re­ there were so many things I couldn't do. The restaurant became Trump's on Mel­ "But I'm a survivor and an achiever. Not rose Avenue. cently shared some of Sheldon Andel­ everybody is. Some of them end up in the son's story with its readers. It is with " It turned out to be one of the top restau­ bottle. I'm a survivor." rants in California, a real good vehicle to great pleasure that I ask for unani­ He has needed to be. bring people together," he said. "I think it mous consent to include this article in Andelson was born in Chicago, his father's affected my public image positively. You the RECORD so that I may share it with home town, although he hates to admit it, know, you can be a brilliant Nobel Prize my colleagues. and says he will "usually just say I was winner, but if you own a good restaurant raised here and lived here all my life. Moth­ REFLECTIONS OF A GAY POWER BROKER er's family had lived here since the first you get just as much credit." (By Will Thome) Banking also came over early reluctance, World War." but it "came at the right time," he said. The Sheldon W. Andelson stands tall in Los He graduated from Manual Arts High Angeles, always did. School, went to Stanford a year and then to offer was made over lunch with a friend, an He heads a prosperous seven-member Bev­ USC, then "became a lawyer early and had offer so interesting that Andelson, who says erly Hills law firm where the fees run to a good home life when I was a child. he will "usually remember those things" - $250 an hour. He owns a Los Angeles bank "My family sought the highest and the can't recall what they ate, or where. worth $81 million. He may be the largest most out of me," he hurried on. "I was in my mid-40s then, and at that property owner in West Hollywood. He is "They didn't give me choices. I had a lot time I was going through what is classically the founder of a plush Melrose Avenue res­ of guidance, a lot of direction, always a deli­ known as a mid-life crisis," he said. "I was taurant where the dinner tab may be more cate balance between guidance and push­ looking for a career expansion. I didn't have than $100 a couple. ing." anything in mind, but this was how it came He is a regent of the nine-campus Univer­ His profession-the law-was also chosen together." sity of California. Known by a governor, by his family while he was still in grammar Andelson and a group of 13, including his congressmen and state senators. He has school, he said. He can't remember just who brother, Sherman, put the Bank of Los An­ been termed a "power broker" by the Los in the family, but he remembers that he geles together in four years, with $5.6 mil­ Angeles Times. He is an influential leader of agreed readily to the choice. lion. It now has $81 million and ranks 115th a 600-member political organization. "Everybody thought I might be a natural out of 384 in the state in size. He goes home to a $1 million-plus Medi­ as a lawyer and I thought I was a natural," Politics is an older Andelson interest. He terranean-style villa on a Bel Air hillside he said. "I wanted to do it all my life and I recalls winning the presidency of his class in which has a vast terrace overlooking the still want to do it. I still go to my law office grammar school and losing a campaign in high-rise towers of West Los Angeles, an on a daily basis and keep current my daily junior high, but adds that "I got a high ap­ outdoor sunken swimming pool, a fullsized reading." pointment-I was appointed editor of the bar stocked with chilled champagne, and a Graduating in 1955, he worked for a year school paper." dining room where he can, and often does, for famous Hollywood film lawyer Oliver host dinner parties for up to 72 people. An active public career looked impossible Schwab for the then-grand sum of $25 an by the time Andelson was 22, the age at Life has given Shelly Andelson a lot. hour. Then he hung out a shingle of his which he finally realized he was gay. But he But it has not been altogether kind, own in a Beverly Hills office building where became a campaign contributor and his either. the firm, in which his brother, Arlen, is a name became known among Democratic For he's gay. partner, is still located. Party leaders as a staunch party man. "When you find out you're gay, the stars There was little money in the family ("We "I have always identified the Democratic fall down out of the heavens, at least in my ate everything off our plates and didn't ask Party as the one that was concerned about generation," he says, intensely, with pas­ too many questions about what we were all the people," he said. "I'm talking about sion, almost with feriocity. "For 20 years I served," he recalled) and young Andelson minorities. I've always been a minority lived a closeted life." saved everything he could. person." "And let me tell you, it wears you down," "When I made a few dollars I did what my But it wasn't until the formation of Mu­ he says, clenching a fist, leaning forward in grandfather loved to do, buy real estate," he nicipal Elections Committee of Los Ange­ his chair. "Try and deny who you are for a said. "I started collecting it. What I could les-MECLA-in 1977 that Andelson became long time! Just try it! It erodes the innards, afford to buy, I bought, and if it had a nice active himself. He sparked the organization, it destroys all relationships." loquat tree or an avocado tree and looked formed to promote and protect political in­ He is not loud, not vindictive, not angry. like Los Angeles to me, I bought it." terests of gays, and has become its best­ But he is bitter. And sincere. He wants you "You could buy a good piece of ground known and most evident member, its main to believe him. then for $25,000 with 10 percent," he said. spokesman. e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. February 29, 1984 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 3943 Most people think Andelson founded I recommend to my colleagues the But it is fair to suggest that 20 years of re- MECLA, some of them think he did it f ollowing column, written by William fusing to talk about it seems to have made it single-handedly.