Tag: history

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Winter party 2016



We loved our traditional Winter Party!

Mingling and a fine holiday meal at the Biltmore

We enjoyed the lap of architectural splendor as we got to know one another better and celebrated the holidays — at the beautiful downtown Millennium Biltmore Hotel! 

Across the street from Pershing Square, it is centrally located in downtown Los Angeles.

We love its frescos, murals, embroidered tapestries, carved marble fountains and columns, lead crystal chandeliers, cast bronze stairwells and doorways and more.

Here are a few photos from our tour — with thanks to the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Some photos from the party.

Date and Time

Wednesday, December 14

Mingling and no-host cocktails & book swap in the Rendezvous Court from 6 until dinner. Join us as you can.
or
6:15 p.m. —  Hour-long LA Conservancy-led Biltmore tour. Limited to 15 people, priority to first-timers.

7:30-10:00 p.m. — Dinner and door prizes.

Location

Millennium Biltmore Hotel:
Rendezvous Court & Smeraldi’s Restaurant

506 South Grand Avenue
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90071

Jump down to map

Main number: 213-624-1011

Our party area in Smeraldi’s Restaurant. Center tables will be moved together for group seating.
Our party area in Smeraldi’s Restaurant.

bookswap_300

Book Swap — a new feature this year

Have a book you’d like to share with someone? 

You can offer a book you wrote or one you’ve simply enjoyed and would like to pass forward. Or none.

This is optional and casual. We’ll use a table in the Rendezvous Court. You can drop off a book if you’d like or sit nearby. Pick one up if one catches your interest. When we move into dinner we’ll bring the books with us. Any unclaimed books will be donated to a book giveaway.

 

RSPV and Meal Selection

We did things differently this year, using a form which included meal selection. After submiting the reservation guests were taken to our payment info.

 

The Menu

Starter – you choose one upon reservation

  1. Insalata Cesare — Romaine heart, shaved parmesan, and truffle croutons
  2. Minestrone di Verdure — Mixed vegetable soup served with grilled focaccia (vegetarian: no meat, poultry, dairy)

Main Course — you choose one upon reservation

  1. Spaghetti alla Bolognese
    Spaghetti with minced beef in tomato ragout
  2. Ravioli di Zucca
    Pumpkin and ricotta filling, sage, butter and parmesan
    (Vegetarian. Can be made without butter if you require a vegan meal. Indicate on your reservation.)
  3. Soppressata di Pollo
    Pan-roasted chicken, soppressata di Calabria, capers, lemon, cheese polenta, grilled asparagus and sauce di nonna
  4. Salmone Grigliato
    Grilled salmon fillet, cheese polenta, herb zucchini and lemon-thyme sauce

Dessert

Gelato Artigianale — Italian homemade ice cream, made on location

Beverages

The waiters will offer each of us several non-alcoholic beverage options such as Iced Tea, Iced Coffee, Lemonade, Tea, Coffee, and Decaffeinated Coffee. Alcoholic drinks will be available for purchase from your waiter.

Door Prize Drawing!

Everyone receives a door prize ticket at check-in. If your ticket is drawn you may possibly win one of these great items. The odds are quite good, too!
(Click an image to view a larger version.)

NewerTech case & keyboardNewerTech items for Macintosh laptops, maybe smartphones & iPad. NewerTech is sold by Other World Computing.

trackr_package_party_2016TrackR Bravo
You can learn all about it at this link.
A tracking device on your key ring, one attached to your camera, one in with your handbag or briefcase… When I traveled last year if my device walked my iPhone would tell me. -Deb, your webmaster and prize solicitor

RadTech items for cameras, iPhones, USB devices and more:RadTech UHD Lightning cable

party2016_prize-imageTicket to attend Media Law for Journalists workshop.
“A workshop for freelancers, bloggers, reporters, editors in print, digital or video spaces, podcasters – any media worker without the benefit of a legal department.”
Friday, January 20, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
To be held at Southwestern Law School, 3050 Wilshire Blvd. This is the old Bullocks building, which in itself appears to be a treat to visit.

superduper_300pxSuperDuper! backup/cloning software for Macintosh
Experts say if your data doesn’t exist in 3 places, it doesn’t exist? If your writing — and other info — matters to you, you must have it backed up. But a clone is even better! And SuperDuper! is the simple, incredibly reliable way to do this.
A license awaits for one Mac user who values his/her data.

defaultfolder_300pxDefault Folder X5 is Macintosh filing at its most efficient. The Open and Save dialog box is so much better. Getting to a folder to save: if you can see it you can jump to it. And so much more.
We have a license available for a Mac user who appreciates efficiency.

Parking & Transport

Car parking:

  • Hotel Valet, enter on Grand, just south of 5th. (Grand runs southbound only.)
    $8 flat rate covering up to 4 hours. The fee is $4.75 for every 15 minutes past that 4 hour period, maximum $45.
    Credit cards accepted.
    The Biltmore does not have self-parking
  • Pershing Square garage across from the hotel under Pershing Square. Enter on Olive immediately after you pass 6th Street. You can also enter on 5th or 6th.
    $7 flat rate entering after 5:00 pm
    Credit cards accepted, fully automated, 24-hour security.
  • Pacmutual Garage, next door to the Rendezvous Court entrance. The garage entrance is on Olive. Travel north on Olive, pass 6th Street, and it’s on the left, just after you pass the entrance to the Pershing garage on the right.
    $5.00 after 3 p.m. There is a live person at the entry and you can pay with cash (fastest) or credit card. The entrance closes at 10 but the garage has 24-hour security and an exit gate that opens as you approach it, so you can leave anytime. After the party, you’ll leave by the Biltmore front door, turn left on the street and enter the garage where a valet and/or security guard should be present.
  • Other nearby private lots and garages.

By train:

  • The Red Line and Purple Line stop at Pershing Square station. Exit/Entrance at corner of 5th and Hill.
  • The Expo Line from Santa Monica and the Blue Line from Long Beach end at the 7th Street/Metro Center where you can transfer for free and travel one more stop to Pershing Square or enjoy a .3 or .4 mile walk.
  • The Gold Line from the San Gabriel Valley comes into Union Station where you may transfer for free to the Red Line and Purple Line stop at Pershing Square.

NOTE: As of 2014 Transfers between trains and even between buses and trains are free. This was verified in person but you can also read about it here. The TAP card stores your time of first entry, enabling you up to 2 hours to complete your 1-way journey. However, this does not work when you pay a bus fare with cash or a token. Read TAP FAQ here.

By bus:

  • Buses that stop on Olive across from the Rendezvous Court entrance:
    4, 70, 71, 76, 78/79/378, 770, Sliver Streak
  • Buses that stop on 5th across from the Valet entrance:
    37, 60, 70, 71, 76, 78, 79, 96, 378, 442, 460, 487, 760, 770

Carpool:
If you’d like to carpool consider posting on our Yahoo discussion group or on our Facebook page.

This photo slideshow will show some of the parking options.

 

Some Biltmore History

Originally known as the Los Angeles Biltmore hotel, it was the largest hotel west of Chicago when it opened with 1500 rooms in 1923. (As rooms have changed, it now has hotel 683 rooms.)

This elegant Biltmore, designated as a California historic-cultural landmark in 1969, has a lot of history.

It has played host to Presidents, celebrities, dignitaries, and more. Among other things:

  • Eight Academy Awards ceremonies (1931, 1935–39, and 1941-42) were held there.
  • WWII military stayed there on their R&R.
  • The 1960 Democratic National Convention, which selected JFK was held there. JFK have his acceptance speech there. He and his VP, Lyndon B. Johnson, had campaign headquarters there.
  • The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded there, in the Crystal Ballroom, May 1927.
  • In 1964 The Beatles stayed in the Presidential Suite during their first U.S. tour. Because of the fan mobs they had to use the roof-top heliport. (You can see it on Google maps.)

The Rendezvous Court, where we enjoy conversation and optional drinks before dinner, was originally the hotel’s lobby. Its decor includes a Moorish Revival styled plaster ceiling painted with 24 Carat Gold accents, two original imported Italian chandeliers from 1923, and a grand Spanish Baroque Revival bronze doorway with an astrological clock.

Smeraldi’s is named for Giovanni Smeraldi, the famed Italian artist who, in 1922, with assistance from his team,  hand painted the fresco mural ceilings of the main Galleria and the Crystal Ballroom, His other work includes murals in Vatican and the White House.

You can learn more at:

 

 

Special Thanks to the LA Conservancy

la_conservancy-_logoIWOSC offers a special thank you to the LA Conservancy for providing us with excellent tours of the Biltmore for all the years we’ve celebrated there.

The LA Conservancy offers many excellent escorted and self-guided tours of Downtown Los Angeles. The website also offers a wealth of information. And, of course, it works to preserve Los Angeles.

 

While You’re Downtown

If you’d like to take in downtown before the party there is plenty to see and do. Nearby you will find:


Posted on by

Winter party 2016



We loved our traditional Winter Party!

Mingling and a fine holiday meal at the Biltmore

We enjoyed the lap of architectural splendor as we got to know one another better and celebrated the holidays — at the beautiful downtown Millennium Biltmore Hotel! 

Across the street from Pershing Square, it is centrally located in downtown Los Angeles.

We love its frescos, murals, embroidered tapestries, carved marble fountains and columns, lead crystal chandeliers, cast bronze stairwells and doorways and more.

Here are a few photos from our tour — with thanks to the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Some photos from the party.

Date and Time

Wednesday, December 14

Mingling and no-host cocktails & book swap in the Rendezvous Court from 6 until dinner. Join us as you can.
or
6:15 p.m. —  Hour-long LA Conservancy-led Biltmore tour. Limited to 15 people, priority to first-timers.

7:30-10:00 p.m. — Dinner and door prizes.

Location

Millennium Biltmore Hotel:
Rendezvous Court & Smeraldi’s Restaurant

506 South Grand Avenue
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90071

Jump down to map

Main number: 213-624-1011

Our party area in Smeraldi’s Restaurant. Center tables will be moved together for group seating.
Our party area in Smeraldi’s Restaurant.

bookswap_300

Book Swap — a new feature this year

Have a book you’d like to share with someone? 

You can offer a book you wrote or one you’ve simply enjoyed and would like to pass forward. Or none.

This is optional and casual. We’ll use a table in the Rendezvous Court. You can drop off a book if you’d like or sit nearby. Pick one up if one catches your interest. When we move into dinner we’ll bring the books with us. Any unclaimed books will be donated to a book giveaway.

 

RSPV and Meal Selection

We did things differently this year, using a form which included meal selection. After submiting the reservation guests were taken to our payment info.

 

The Menu

Starter – you choose one upon reservation

  1. Insalata Cesare — Romaine heart, shaved parmesan, and truffle croutons
  2. Minestrone di Verdure — Mixed vegetable soup served with grilled focaccia (vegetarian: no meat, poultry, dairy)

Main Course — you choose one upon reservation

  1. Spaghetti alla Bolognese
    Spaghetti with minced beef in tomato ragout
  2. Ravioli di Zucca
    Pumpkin and ricotta filling, sage, butter and parmesan
    (Vegetarian. Can be made without butter if you require a vegan meal. Indicate on your reservation.)
  3. Soppressata di Pollo
    Pan-roasted chicken, soppressata di Calabria, capers, lemon, cheese polenta, grilled asparagus and sauce di nonna
  4. Salmone Grigliato
    Grilled salmon fillet, cheese polenta, herb zucchini and lemon-thyme sauce

Dessert

Gelato Artigianale — Italian homemade ice cream, made on location

Beverages

The waiters will offer each of us several non-alcoholic beverage options such as Iced Tea, Iced Coffee, Lemonade, Tea, Coffee, and Decaffeinated Coffee. Alcoholic drinks will be available for purchase from your waiter.

Door Prize Drawing!

Everyone receives a door prize ticket at check-in. If your ticket is drawn you may possibly win one of these great items. The odds are quite good, too!
(Click an image to view a larger version.)

NewerTech case & keyboardNewerTech items for Macintosh laptops, maybe smartphones & iPad. NewerTech is sold by Other World Computing.

trackr_package_party_2016TrackR Bravo
You can learn all about it at this link.
A tracking device on your key ring, one attached to your camera, one in with your handbag or briefcase… When I traveled last year if my device walked my iPhone would tell me. -Deb, your webmaster and prize solicitor

RadTech items for cameras, iPhones, USB devices and more:RadTech UHD Lightning cable

party2016_prize-imageTicket to attend Media Law for Journalists workshop.
“A workshop for freelancers, bloggers, reporters, editors in print, digital or video spaces, podcasters – any media worker without the benefit of a legal department.”
Friday, January 20, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
To be held at Southwestern Law School, 3050 Wilshire Blvd. This is the old Bullocks building, which in itself appears to be a treat to visit.

superduper_300pxSuperDuper! backup/cloning software for Macintosh
Experts say if your data doesn’t exist in 3 places, it doesn’t exist? If your writing — and other info — matters to you, you must have it backed up. But a clone is even better! And SuperDuper! is the simple, incredibly reliable way to do this.
A license awaits for one Mac user who values his/her data.

defaultfolder_300pxDefault Folder X5 is Macintosh filing at its most efficient. The Open and Save dialog box is so much better. Getting to a folder to save: if you can see it you can jump to it. And so much more.
We have a license available for a Mac user who appreciates efficiency.

Parking & Transport

Car parking:

  • Hotel Valet, enter on Grand, just south of 5th. (Grand runs southbound only.)
    $8 flat rate covering up to 4 hours. The fee is $4.75 for every 15 minutes past that 4 hour period, maximum $45.
    Credit cards accepted.
    The Biltmore does not have self-parking
  • Pershing Square garage across from the hotel under Pershing Square. Enter on Olive immediately after you pass 6th Street. You can also enter on 5th or 6th.
    $7 flat rate entering after 5:00 pm
    Credit cards accepted, fully automated, 24-hour security.
  • Pacmutual Garage, next door to the Rendezvous Court entrance. The garage entrance is on Olive. Travel north on Olive, pass 6th Street, and it’s on the left, just after you pass the entrance to the Pershing garage on the right.
    $5.00 after 3 p.m. There is a live person at the entry and you can pay with cash (fastest) or credit card. The entrance closes at 10 but the garage has 24-hour security and an exit gate that opens as you approach it, so you can leave anytime. After the party, you’ll leave by the Biltmore front door, turn left on the street and enter the garage where a valet and/or security guard should be present.
  • Other nearby private lots and garages.

By train:

  • The Red Line and Purple Line stop at Pershing Square station. Exit/Entrance at corner of 5th and Hill.
  • The Expo Line from Santa Monica and the Blue Line from Long Beach end at the 7th Street/Metro Center where you can transfer for free and travel one more stop to Pershing Square or enjoy a .3 or .4 mile walk.
  • The Gold Line from the San Gabriel Valley comes into Union Station where you may transfer for free to the Red Line and Purple Line stop at Pershing Square.

NOTE: As of 2014 Transfers between trains and even between buses and trains are free. This was verified in person but you can also read about it here. The TAP card stores your time of first entry, enabling you up to 2 hours to complete your 1-way journey. However, this does not work when you pay a bus fare with cash or a token. Read TAP FAQ here.

By bus:

  • Buses that stop on Olive across from the Rendezvous Court entrance:
    4, 70, 71, 76, 78/79/378, 770, Sliver Streak
  • Buses that stop on 5th across from the Valet entrance:
    37, 60, 70, 71, 76, 78, 79, 96, 378, 442, 460, 487, 760, 770

Carpool:
If you’d like to carpool consider posting on our Yahoo discussion group or on our Facebook page.

This photo slideshow will show some of the parking options.

 

Some Biltmore History

Originally known as the Los Angeles Biltmore hotel, it was the largest hotel west of Chicago when it opened with 1500 rooms in 1923. (As rooms have changed, it now has hotel 683 rooms.)

This elegant Biltmore, designated as a California historic-cultural landmark in 1969, has a lot of history.

It has played host to Presidents, celebrities, dignitaries, and more. Among other things:

  • Eight Academy Awards ceremonies (1931, 1935–39, and 1941-42) were held there.
  • WWII military stayed there on their R&R.
  • The 1960 Democratic National Convention, which selected JFK was held there. JFK have his acceptance speech there. He and his VP, Lyndon B. Johnson, had campaign headquarters there.
  • The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded there, in the Crystal Ballroom, May 1927.
  • In 1964 The Beatles stayed in the Presidential Suite during their first U.S. tour. Because of the fan mobs they had to use the roof-top heliport. (You can see it on Google maps.)

The Rendezvous Court, where we enjoy conversation and optional drinks before dinner, was originally the hotel’s lobby. Its decor includes a Moorish Revival styled plaster ceiling painted with 24 Carat Gold accents, two original imported Italian chandeliers from 1923, and a grand Spanish Baroque Revival bronze doorway with an astrological clock.

Smeraldi’s is named for Giovanni Smeraldi, the famed Italian artist who, in 1922, with assistance from his team,  hand painted the fresco mural ceilings of the main Galleria and the Crystal Ballroom, His other work includes murals in Vatican and the White House.

You can learn more at:

 

 

Special Thanks to the LA Conservancy

la_conservancy-_logoIWOSC offers a special thank you to the LA Conservancy for providing us with excellent tours of the Biltmore for all the years we’ve celebrated there.

The LA Conservancy offers many excellent escorted and self-guided tours of Downtown Los Angeles. The website also offers a wealth of information. And, of course, it works to preserve Los Angeles.

 

While You’re Downtown

If you’d like to take in downtown before the party there is plenty to see and do. Nearby you will find:


Posted on by

Writing History: Bringing It To Life

Panel
Writing History: Bringing it to life

Monday, November 25, 2013

According to polls taken in the mid-1990s 25% of college seniors could not pinpoint the date of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus; 40% couldn’t say when the American Civil War occurred, and fewer than 2% of American teenagers could name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court—but for all this seeming historical ignorance, works of history often show up on non-fiction best-seller lists. Either the polls aren’t telling the whole story, or there is a fanatic minority out there who voraciously eats up anything to do with the past.

This month’s panel on writing history will look at what’s happening now about the unpredictable past and explore the motivation, research, writing and publishing that go into creating the chronicle of who we have come to be.

Our panel of writers:

Cari Beauchamp is the author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and The Powerful Women of Early Hollywood and Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years. She edited and annotated Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction by the Creator of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary: Her Private Letters from Inside the Studios of the 1920s. Beauchamp’s works have made New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Amazon “Best of the Year” lists. She wrote the Emmy-nominated The Day My God Died and received a Writers Guild Award nomination for the Turner Classic Movies adaptation of Without Lying Down, which she wrote and coproduced. Cari has written for Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and has twice been named Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Scholar. Currently she is the Mary Pickford Foundation’s resident scholar. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a private investigator, a campaign manager, and served as Press Secretary to California Governor Jerry Brown.

Jim Dawson documents American pop culture—especially early rock ‘n roll and the history of flatulence. He wrote the best-selling Who Cut the Cheese? Other books include What Was the First Rock ‘n’ Roll Record? co-written with Steve Propes, cited by Mojo magazine as “one of the most impressive musical reads of the year,” and which remains a valuable resource for music critics and rock historians. His 1980 Richie Valens cover story in the Los Angeles Times Calendar led to the Rhino Records reissue of the entire Valens catalog (with Jim’s liner notes) and the 1987 biopic La Bamba, which utilized his research. Jim has written liner notes for roughly 150 albums and CDs, including Rhino’s Central Avenue Sounds, celebrating the history of jazz and early R&B in Los Angeles. His most recent book is Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction’s Mean Streets and Film Noir’s Ground Zero. He’s currently working on a novel about a 1920 coal mine war in his native West Virginia.

Steven J. Ross is Professor of History at USC, and has written extensively about working-class, social, and film history. His first book, Workers On the Edge: Work, Leisure, and Politics in Industrializing Cincinnati, 1788-1890, was adapted by Cincinnati unionists as the filmed documentary They Build the City: The Working People of Cincinnati. His second book, Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America (1998), received the prestigious Theater Library Association Book Award for 1999, named one of the “Best Books of 1998” by the Los Angeles Times, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in History. His latest book, Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics, received a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a Film Scholars Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Ross is now working on a book titled Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews and their Spies Foiled Nazi and Fascist Plots Against America (to be published by Bloomsbury Press).

Jon Wilkman began his career working with Walter Cronkite on the award-winning Twentieth Century and 21st Century television series with the CBS News documentary unit. He also worked on Of Black America, hosted by Bill Cosby, and wrote the book, Black Americans: From Colonial Days to the Present. In 1971 Jon formed Wilkman Productions, Inc. He worked as a program producer on the Emmy Award-winning Great American Dream Machine and the Sigma Delta Chi Award-winning documentary Attica for PBS. Recent projects include Moguls and Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood for Turner Classic Movies; Chicano Rock! The Sounds of East Los Angeles; The Port of Los Angeles: A History; With Heart and Hand: The Restoration of the Gamble House, and At Issue: Immigration. Jon is co-author, with his wife Nancy, of Picturing Los Angeles, and Los Angeles: A Pictorial Celebration.

He was a three-term president of the International Documentary Association, and founded the First Congress in association with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Moderator:
Robert S. Birchard is an award-winning film editor who brings to his chronicles of the movies an insider’s perspective and a great affection for the people who work in the picture business. He is the author of Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood, Silent-era Filmmaking in Santa Barbara, Early Universal City, King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies and is a contributing writer to the omnibus volumes M-G-M When the Lion Roars, Don Miller’s Hollywood Corral, The Encyclopedia of Early Film, and Hollywood: The Movie Factory. His articles on Hollywood filmmakers have appeared in American Cinematographer, Statement, Film History, The Moving Image, Griffithiana, Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Times Calendar, and others. He is a past president and board member of the preservation organization Hollywood Heritage, Inc., and is current president of The Cinecon Classic Film Festival, which has screened classic films over Labor Day Weekend for nearly half a century. He is currently editor of the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.