The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 30

I I I I I I I I I I I II I III! in ff $: 9 19ff 9 9 f'V'W fT j''r-fr)i iy B4 FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1995 LOS ANGELES TIMES METRO NEWS MUSEUM: Lawsuit i' 1 Continued from Bl addressed in the environmental impact report, in extensive legislative hearings, and extensive review by the attorney general's office prior to the signing of the demolition contract." Plaintiffs in the suit are the Society of Architectural Historians, the California Preservation Foundation, the West Adams Heritage Taxpayers for Preservation and state Sens. Milton Marks (D-San Francisco) and Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland). The suit asks for a temporary restraining order to halt any further demolition. The controversy surrounding the museum centers on two buildings that have been closed to the public since 1990 the Ahmanson and the Armory, both of which were opened in 1912.

In 1987, the Legislature authorized the preparation of a master plan for Exposition Park, which includes the museum. In 1990, architects examined both buildings as part of the plan's preparation and concluded that they would be unsafe in an earthquake. Further, they said that because more than 1,000 children visited the museum each day, the risk of keeping the buildings open was heightened. So in June, 1990, both buildings were closed to the public, though the staff still has its offices in the Armory. Four months after the closure, voters passed the 1990 Earthquake Safety and Public Building Rehabilitation Bond Act.

The act was a response to the Loma Prieta earthquake and was designed, in part, to repair several damaged state buildings in Oakland and San Francisco. But the act did not specify a geographical area. And it also said the money could be used to either repair or replace buildings that would be unsafe in an earthquake. Museum officials, casting about for funds, hit upon the bond issue as a source. In 1992, state Sen.

Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) introduced legislation calling for the replacement of the museum and asked that the funding source be the building rehabilitation bond act. The bill sailed through the Assembly and Senate. But last summer, controversy erupted over spending $45 million to raze much of the museum and build a much larger, modernized structure. It also turned into a north-south fight, with legislators from the Bay Area, including Petris, saying that Southern California was making off with money it did not deserve. As for why the suit was so long in coming, money seemed to be at least a part of the problem.

Lynn Bryant, the president'of the Society of Architectural Historians, said that, until recently, "no money had been raised to pay the lawyer." 11 toot 1. I Photos by KKN LUBAS Los AngelcsTimes Workers, above, unload storm control pipes near Grand View Drive. Below, southbound traffic sits at standstill while northbound commuters make their way on the single open lane shortly before 7:30 a.m. i in Obituaries STORMS: Rains to Start Today Continued from Bl As much as two inches of rain could fall in the foothill communities surrounding the Los Angeles Basin this afternoon, with perhaps twice that much on the lower mountain slopes. The National Weather Service said most of the precipitation above 5,000 feet should fall as snow, with a foot or more expected at mountain resort levels.

Jones said that after a break on Saturday night and Sunday morning, an "even bigger" storm should strike Southern California Sunday night or early Monday. "That one will bring two to four inches of rain to Los Angeles, and even more in the foothills and mountains," he said. "With the ground already saturated, that one will definitely bring some more flooding and mudslides. Very definitely." Jones said that, as they did earlier this month, the high altitude winds of the jet stream have swung south over the central Pacific Ocean and have begun to split into two arms, with the southern arm headed right for Southern California. As the tropical moisture carried by the southern arm collides with the mountain ranges of Southern California late this morning, he said, it will be deflected upward in a phenomenon known as "orographic lift," condensing as it cools and then falling as heavy rainfall.

"The rain will start falling at about noon," he said. "The areas hardest hit will probably be in Ventura County and in the San Gabriel Valley. There's the potential for some pretty heavy rains." The rain is expected to taper off to showers tonight and Saturday morning, with variable clouds Saturday night and Sunday morning. "Then, by late Sunday or early Monday, the next storm the big one still sitting north of Hawaii on Thursday will make landfall in Southern California," Jones said. "It'll be there in time for the Monday morning rush hour." i Jones said the rain will probably continue, off and on, through Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Civic Center rainfall total for the season which runs from July 1 through June 30--stood at 11.76 inches on 1 Thursday. That compares to a normal season's total for the date of 6.60 inches. Last year's total for the date was 1.60 inches. On Thursday, with telephone service still disrupted to more than 55,000 Southern California custom-. ers because of damage caused by the earlier flooding, officials for Pacific Bell and GTE said it prob-' ably will be two weeks before all the phones are working properly.

And that's assuming there isn't any more flood damage. David Dickstein, a spokesman for Pac Bell, said most of the damage occurred at individual businesses "when things that don't usually get wet, got wet." "The equipment down here isn't designed for that kind of weather," he said. Dickstein said that most of the problems have left affected customers without service, but some involve "scratchy" noises on the line and similar inconveniences. irnrr-ini mm Xsfj Topanga Canyon Closure Josef Glngold; Influential Teacher of Violin Josef Gingold, 85, the violinist who counted Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Joshua Bell among his students, has died. "He was certainly one of the most influential teachers of violin in our time," said Indiana University professor and music writer Peter Jacobi.

"That gives him a form of immortality. The products of his teaching genius will continue to make music for a couple of generations." Gingold, born in 1909 in Brest-Litovsk, Russia, immigrated to New York with his family at age 11. As a young man, he returned to Europe to study with famed Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaye. Gingold later played for Broadway shows and in the NBC Radio Orchestra, under the direction of maestro Arturo Toscanini, and was concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. He taught at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York, where his students included Perlman and Zukerman.

Gingold co-founded and judged the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis and led master classes at more than 25 universities and conservatories worldwide. In 1960, he came to Indiana University, where he maintained a heavy schedule of teaching until late last year. On Jan. 11 of a heart attack in Bloomington, Ind. Dorothy Granger; Actress in Many Movies, Short Comedy Films Dorothy Granger, actress dubbed "The Queen of the Short Subject Films" for her work in comedy "two-reelers" with Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, W.C.

Fields and others. She also was in scores of Hal Roach comedies. Miss Granger also won roles in about 100 feature-length films, including "Frisco Jenny," "The Sophomore," "Kentucky Kernels," "Naughty Marietta," "Diamond Jim" and "Show Boat." Known for her comic timing as well as her beauty, Miss Granger also appeared in comedies, including "The Paleface" starring Bob Hope. On Jan. 4 in San Bernardino.

Kay Aldridge Tucker; Actress, Model and Philanthropist Kay Aldridge Tucker, 77, a philanthropist, actress and model who was one of the most photographed women in the country during the 1930s. Tucker, whose stage name was Kay Aldridge, appeared on the covers, of Life, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook and Look magazines. She was screen-tested for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind" and appeared in the musicals "Rosalie" and "DuBarry Was a Lady." She also-appeared on stage, mostly in New York, in such plays as "Meal Ticket" and "Vogues of '38." Miss Aldridge retired from acting in 1945. On Jan. 12 in Camden, Me.

WASHOUT: Continued from Bl curves. As the 7:30 a.m. shutdown approached, California Highway Patrol Officer Fernando Martinez hurriedly waved latecomers through as workers hired for the $2-million project stood by and counted down the minutes. One happy motorist stopped long enough to reward Martinez with a huge cellophane-wrapped fruit basket, which he stowed in the center of the street behind an orange traffic cone. Other drivers could be seen mouthing the word "thanks" as they drove by.

"The storm changed all of our commutes," said resident Mark Mihelic, who waited 10 minutes to get past one washout. It now takes his wife, Adrienne, two hours to travel to USC through the San Fernando Valley instead of the usual 45 minutes via Pacific Coast Highway, he said. Martinez allowed the end of the line to pass before blocking off the boulevard with a "Road Closed" sign. "I think most people got the word about the closure schedule. The traffic just seemed to dry up A Valley when normally it's less than a 30-minute drive," Rollins said.

"Yesterday it took two hours for the high school car pool to get from Topanga School down to Pacific Coast Highway to catch the school bus," she said. Tami looked uncomfortable and glum when Rollins said with a shrug: "Well, it looks like we'll have to forget the Benadryl." Caltrans spokesman Russ Snyder said the 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. closure will continue daily until the work is finished. "Residents up there are real troupers," Snyder said.

"There is inconvenience there and we appreciate them rearranging their schedules." Along with canyon dwellers, Caltrans engineers will be anxiously watching the skies the next few days, Snyder said. Workers are prepared to labor through the rain. But new flooding could undo what they have accomplished since Monday. "The storm is a wild card," Snyder said. "It could throw a monkey wrench in everything." As far back as the 1950s, the group offered classes in "homophile studies," later conferring degrees.

While the gay movement grew and evolved, ONE stayed true to the vision of its eccentric dean, William Dorr Legg, who died last year at 89. Clinging to the old-fashioned term homophile and discounting more confrontational notions of gay activism, ONE and Legg were eclipsed. "He was a dedicated man," said John DeCecco, the head of gay and lesbian studies at San Francisco State. "But like so many people who get absorbed in one cause, he was never able to see the larger developments going on in gay, lesbian and bisexual studies. He became something of an anachronism." With Legg's death, ONE is working out a new identity.

The course offerings have been suspended. The group is selling its Country Club Park headquarters on the Milbank Estate to pay off debt stemming from a backlog of property taxes, said David Cameron, board president of ONE Inc. For Kepner, the merger of the ONE and international collections represents the closing of a circle. An early ONE member, he helped start the ONE library in the 1950s. "In a way it's like putting two parts of my life back together," he said.

Coming from a generation of homosexuals who experienced little but hostility from the institutional world, Kepner confesses some amazement at USC's willingness to take the material. "All of the public institutions for many, many years seemed like our enemies. So it's very astonishing." if a USC Will House Major Gay Collections How to go beyond today's news A quick guide to The Tunes electronic services right as we closed the road," said his partner. Officer Ben Moya. Workers from two construction companies handling the repair job for Caltrans swarmed onto the roadway and immediately began unloading huge culvert pipes near Grand View Drive as the last car in line disappeared from view.

At the curves, another crew began dumping 10-ton boulders over the side of the road to shore up the roadway there after the cars passed. Motorists arriving at Martinez's roadblock after the 7:30 a.m. cutoff seemed philosophical about the closure and the long detour through the San Fernando Valley. Topanga resident Jane Rollins was the first to have to turn around. She was attempting to drive to a store to buy some anti-itch ointment for her 11-year-old daughter, Tami.

Like many others living in areas that were flooded last week, the girl had come down with poison oak from the plant's irritants left behind in the mud by receding waters. "It takes an hour and a half to get to Santa Monica through the to open this spring, will be available to the public as well as to USC faculty and students. Williams said about 20 USC faculty members do research in the gay studies field, which is gradually gaining recognition. More than 45 American colleges and universities offer at least one course in the gay experience, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and at San Francisco State University, students can now earn a minor in the subject. Currently, Sipe said, USC has little in the way of gay-related archival and specialized material.

The addition of the collections will "greatly enrich the academic enterprise at USC for study in this area," he said. USC also is negotiating with other gay archives to house their material, including the June Mazer Lesbian Collection, now located in the same West Hollywood building as the international archives. "We would like to be connected with them and get more exposure for the Mazer collection," said Kim Kralj, Mazer board president. Much smaller than the ONE archives, the 14-year-old, collection includes books, magazines, unpublished manuscripts and photographs. The merger of the ONE and the international archives coincides with the end of an era for ONE, an early gay organization founded in 1952 as an outgrowth of the pioneering Mattachine Society.

ONE published the first public American magazine for and by homosexuals, even going to the U.S. Supreme Court to win the right to send it through the mail. is a Touch-Tone to gel information variety of topics, a free service of you access to information categories, stock quotes, updates, late surf and ski conditions, opera updates, and music TimesLine: 808-8463-from area 310, 714, 818 other regions, these area codes. toll charges key on your keypad and the for the category you of categories, For what's TimesLine, press on using the line, press ARCHIVES: Continued from Bl its origins to 1942. Jim Kepner, newly arrived in San Francisco from Texas, went to the public library, eager, he says, to know "what being gay was all about and where we'd been all those dark ages." He couldn't find anything, so he started collecting books on his own.

It was the beginning of his career as a pack rat extraordinaire. What others might have hidden or discarded, Kepner filed away. He was unable to resist any scrap of the gay experience, whether grand or trivial. Now the archives, run since the late 1970s by a nonprofit board, are a sprawling mass of material stacked floor to ceiling in rooms scattered throughout Los Angeles. history and sociology books cram the homemade shelves of the archives' main space in a leaky West Hollywood city building, while boxes of papers and battered filing cabinets line the aisles.

The memorabilia ranges from a 1906 edition of a German gay magazine to a pink leather motor-Cycle outfit worn at a Los Angeles gay charity event. Along with manuscripts, political posters and drawings by gay artists, there are videos, photos, letters and hundreds of matchbooks from gay bars. It is not simply curiosity that has driven Kepner and the volunteers who have devoted themselves to cataloguing and staffing the collections. They also are fired by a sense of history and community often denied gay men and lesbians. "One of our problems as gay and Line" on Demand" If you want a Times reprint or publication or for help searching our library -Times on Demand has two services: Reprints and Publications To order by phone 24 hours a day: Call 808-8463 and press 8630.

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new on 9110. 4. For instructions stock quote 2001. For a free directory, send envelope TimesLine, 1375 Costa Mesa, For help in TimesLine, call TIMES, ExL information on advertising, call lesbian people is finding our roots," said John O'Brien, acting president of the ONE Institute, the ONE Inc. affiliate that administers the merged collections.

"It's so important for people to know who and what they came from." These champions of gay history are acutely aware of how often it has been ignored or destroyed in the past. They speak of Nazi book burnings that reduced German gay collections to ashes. And they have no intention of relinquishing control of the archives. Another university had expressed interest in the material but wanted possession of it, Kepner said. USC, on the other hand, was willing to let ONE retain ownership.

USC also had Walter Williams, an anthropology professor who has served on the boards of both ONE and the international archives. Williams, who teaches in USC's Program for the Study of Women and Men in Society, used both collections for his research on homosexuality in non-Western cultures. "I realized how valuable these were," said Williams, noting that the archives contain information he could not find elsewhere. Knowing that the archives were in desperate need of more space, Williams approached USC officials and a deal was worked out: The collection would be given use of a campus building on a five-year, renewable contract basis. USC would provide maintenance, while ONE would renovate the former child guidance center, install security and staff the collection.

The archives, scheduled I TimesLine pocket a stamped, self-addressed to: Sunflower CA 92626 using 1-800-LA 65800. For TimesLine Ext. 657. Cos Angeles SUmes.