Matt Weinstock — July 25, 1959

Posted on July 25, 2009 by lmharnisch

New-Type Hero

Matt Weinstock If the situation
in Cuba seems chaotic, let writer Malvin Wald fill you in on some
details. He has just returned from five weeks in Havana getting
material for a film about Fidel Castro.

One time he and director
Dick Wilson had a dinner date with the director of prisons. He didn't
show and next day he phoned to apologize. There had been a riot in the
prison requiring his prior attention.

Another time they had an
appointment with Castro. After waiting several hours they were told he
couldn't make it because of a sudden crisis. His air force chief had
resigned and was believed to have fled the country.

Then there
was the case of the traffic officer who gave the prime minister a
ticket. Instead of being angry, Fidel praised him for his dedication to
duty and the conscientious cop became a front-page hero for a day.

As
a result all Havana policemen are on the alert for Castro's blue
Mercedes, hoping his driver will run a red light or park in a
prohibited zone so they can give him a ticket and become heroes, too.

::

CLOSER TO HOME,
an L.A. resident is unhappy about zealous Newport Beach authorities.
Policemen patrolling Balboa Island in an outboard last Sunday came
ashore and cited everyone they saw with a beer can in his hand.
Unannounced, they'd begun enforcing an ordinance prohibiting drinking
of alcoholic beverages in public — bail $25, which he forfeited.

Understand it's okay to eat a hamburger if you show your driver's license and take a loyalty oath.

::

SPEAKING OF hamburgers, Bobby Hammack,
ABC band leader and pianist, was eating one in a Vine St. restaurant
when he heard a waitress relay the order to a cook, "Cheeseburger, hold
the relish, onionsville!"

Bobby says, "I will stipulate that we are hung up with the suffix 'ville' as in

hotsville, coldsville, smogsville and so on during working hours, but when they invade my lunch hour, I'm hacked."

Like crazyville, man.

::

YOU CAN'T WIN
They've purified our cigarettes
We almost could relax,
If when they lowered coals and tars
They hadn't upped the tax.
    — PEARL ROWE

::

MOST VIVID
memory Gloria Saunders, actress and writer, brought back from Tijuana
was that of a battered 1954 Henry J on a used car lot not too far from
the bull ring. Across its windshield was written in bold yellow
letters, "Muy Bravo!"

::

ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD —
It isn't that people don't trust each other, it's just that they want
to make sure about things. Which doubtless explains the action of a
woman in a market who selected a hunk of cut, wrapped and labeled meat,
carried it to the hanging scale in the produce section and weighed it .
. . And there's a story going around about a colleague asking an
actor's agent if he'd seen the Laurel Canyon fire — to which the agent
responded eagerly, "Who do we have in it?"

::

PROF. Ulfert Wilke's final assignment to painting students at Claremont summer session was, "Go to the Watts Towers, 1765 E. 107th
St., and give impression of its miracle in paintings which may reflect
a little of its colorful glory, its feast of fantasy and human
dedication, its manifestation of idealism and hope. Pay homage to Sam Rodilla
, whose work should be preserved to give joy to others, yet who was
1,000 times rewarded by the bliss of his own labors in bringing forth
his vision."

::

FOOTNOTES —
Biggest horse show in the west, with 90 L.A. and Ventura County 4-H
clubs participating, will be held tomorrow in Malibu. Starts at 9 a.m.
with judging of halter classes which, some anonymous press agent wants
people to know, has to do with horses, not bras. . . During a Dodger
broadcast, Jerry Doggett said "pitchingwise."

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
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1 Response to Matt Weinstock — July 25, 1959

  1. Harpo in San Diego's avatar Harpo in San Diego says:
    July 25, 2009 at 5:02 pm

    Quoting:
    “They’ve purified our cigarettes
    We almost could relzx,”
    I’m guessing that the last word in the copied-and-pasted snippet is a typo, in which someone hit the key on the row below the intended key.
    On the other hand, maybe that’s what Weinstock or Pearl Rowe actually wrote way back then.
     

    Like

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