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Life & Times Transcript
10/1/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- How many lives does this cat have and will it block progress? Jim Childs>> This really, to me, is the peoples' monument. Everybody really loves the cat. Darryl Holter>> Maybe if I'd like to build a new facility, but I'd have to go through this long procedure with the city and it's too onerous and I can't do it, okay, we'll close it. Val Zavala>> And then, Cris Franco is going to the dogs and he couldn't be happier. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> Next to the Hollywood sign, it might just be the most recognized sign on the Los Angeles landscape. It's the Felix the Cat sign that hovers over a car dealership on Figueroa. Well, now the sign has earned historic landmark status and, along with it, some protections, but the owners of the car dealership are upset. Why is that? Sam Louie takes a look at this feud over Felix. Sam Louie>> From Victorian homes to downtown's famous Pantry Restaurant to City Hall, Los Angeles has more than eight hundred designated historical city landmarks, but few of them have the charm and popularity of this fifteen foot sign that looms over the Chevy dealership at the corner of Figueroa and Jefferson. Jimmy Burnett>> Felix the Cat is something to be cherished. It's a cartoon character. It's old memory. Sam Louie>> For many people, the sign is a physical landmark that they had arrived in Los Angeles since the sign can be seen from the highway when people are driving into town. For some preservationists, they see the sign as an indispensable Los Angeles icon, much like the downtown library and City Hall. Jim Childs>> If you ask me what I think the three most important monuments in this city would be, they would be the library, City Hall and Felix the Cat. Sam Louie>> And that's why preservationist Jim Childs has worked since 2005 to get the sign designated as a historic cultural landmark. Jim Childs>> I think the sign is important as a populist monument in that there aren't very many buildings of historic nature that people, when they look at it, just kind of laugh at and feel better for a couple of minutes. Sam Louie>> Jim is a thirty-year resident of University Park. He became a passionate preservationist when he saw irreplaceable old homes being demolished. Jim Childs>> When you see a beautiful building bulldozed, it's heartbreaking. Sam Louie>> Since then, he has helped save more than three dozen vintage homes in this neighborhood near USC. This July, he claimed another victory when the city's Cultural Heritage Commission voted four to one to grant the Felix Chevrolet sign landmark status. Jim Childs>> This really, to me, is the peoples' monument. Everybody really loves the cat. Sam Louie>> But not everyone loves the historic designation. Darryl Holter>> This is a photograph of Felix Chevrolet right when my father-in-law bought it in 1956, the opening day. Sam Louie>> Darryl Holter's mother-in-law is the owner of Felix Chevrolet, but Darryl runs the family business. He says that he loves the sign and puts out fourteen hundred dollars a month to maintain it. It was erected in 1958 when the late Nick Shamus took over the dealership. Darryl Holter>> People did identify with Felix and he was used in the Felix Chevrolet ads. So both Felix Chevrolet and Felix the Cat kind of grew up together. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> Felix the Cat was the world's first animated star. His long career began during the 1920s silent film era. By the 1950s, he had his own cartoon show on television. Darryl Holter>> Felix the Cat does stand for a cat who's very ingenious, very resourceful. Sam Louie>> After his father-in-law passed away, Darryl took the reins of the family business. Darryl Holter>> There was a time when Felix Chevrolet was the largest Chevrolet dealership west of the Mississippi. Sam Louie>> He credits much of the growth of the dealership to Felix. Darryl Holter>> Here's a happy customer here with his Cadillac Escalade. Sam Louie>> But now Holter says that the historic cultural landmark status makes any change to the dealership very difficult. Darryl Holter>> The only problem that we have is that the Historic Commission's actions would make not only the sign, but also the entire showroom a historical and cultural monument, which would mean that it basically has to stay the way it is. Sam Louie>> Not just the sign, but the entire car showroom was put under landmark protection, which means no changes or renovations can be made without going through a long approval process. Holter is worried that it will prevent him from making changes required by corporate headquarters. Darryl Holter>> It's not that I'm planning on demolishing the sign or the store. But if we were forced to build a new facility and we couldn't build it, we would be left with a very interesting sign, a very old showroom and no cars to put in it. Sam Louie>> And another thing. Felix, the once lucky mascot, is out of sync with Chevrolet marketing. Darryl Holter>> The corporate logo of Chevrolet is that bowtie that they use. It's looks like a bowtie. It's not a cat. Sam Louie>> But city officials say that historic designation doesn't prohibit demolition. Ken Bernstein is with the city's Office of Historic Resources, the agency which oversees the approval of historic sites. Ken Bernstein>> What designation provides is not an ironclad protection, but it provides for a process within which those discussions of preservation versus change can take place. Sam Louie>> The process, however, can stretch up to a year, precious time that Darryl Holter says Chevy headquarters may not put up with. Darryl Holter>> Maybe I'd like to build a new facility, but I'd have to go through this long procedure with the city and it's too onerous and I can't do it, okay, we'll close it. Sam Louie>> Holter says, with sales of American cars down significantly since the 1970s, headquarters may use delays as further reasons to shut down the dealership. Darryl Holter>> I would have to, you know, issue layoff notices for about two hundred people which, frankly, I'd rather not do. I'd like to keep us going here. I'd like not to have these kinds of restrictions put in the way of our future. Sam Louie>> But Bernstein reiterates that landmark status does not freeze development. Ken Bernstein>> The property owner has many rights in this process and remains in control of their property. There just would be a review process at the city level to ensure that there's a healthy discussion of how that proposal turns out. Jim Childs>> Part of my efforts have been to make sure that, if a historic structure is going to be demolished, there's dialogue about it and does it really have to be demolished? Is there some way to adaptively reuse it? If not, can it be moved off? Sam Louie>> So what lies ahead for the cat's signature sign and the car showroom? The historic designation is not official until City Council members vote on it in the coming months. The mayor's office is against the designation, saying that it would impede change in progress. Preservationist Jim Childs says that he's not against progress, but does have this warning. Jim Childs>> It's important that, in our development, we don't lose our past. Sam Louie>> What do you think about if that cat wasn't around? Alize Planparte>> I'll cry because I like that cat. Patsy Planparte>> It brings back a lot of memories when I used to watch the classical cartoon. That's basically my happiness there with that monument. Sam Louie>> Felix's stardom dimmed over time superceded by a mouse named Mickey and it's possible that Felix's spot on Figueroa could also be lost. But there are plenty who are betting that this cat has at least one more life left as a historical landmark, a survivor in the midst of the fast-changing Los Angeles landscape. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Val Zavala>> We'd love to know what you think about this story and you can post your opinion on our blog. Just go to kcet.org/lifeandtimes/blog. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> Most of us are familiar with Google Earth, the website that allows us to zero in on virtually any point on the planet. Well, now Google Earth is looking up and we can explore the universe like we can our own neighborhood. It's called Google Sky. Vickie Curry talked with two scientists at Caltech. They put to use photographs of the sky taken at Palomar Observatory's Samuel Oschin Telescope. Vicki Curry>> George Djorgovski, you are a professor of astronomy here at Caltech and you are part of this new Google Sky project. First, can you tell me what the Sky project is? George Djorgovski>> Well, it is a wonderful public outreach effort on the part of Google in which a number of astronomers have helped. Google Sky is a cosmic canvas, as we say, in which people can add their own interpretation, knowledge, interesting things and that's, again, something that we've been doing. I think it will be an unprecedented educational public outreach venue for astronomy. Vicki Curry>> Roy Williams, you're also an astronomer here at Caltech, but you're with the Center for Advanced Computing Research. So you're a little more of the computer expert. You've been working on this kind of technology for several years now. Is this what you've envisioned? Roy Williams>> This is exactly what we've been thinking about for many years, but have not had the resources to build. Now Google has finally made it and it's beautiful and it doesn't crash (laughter). It brings back the reason why we all started to do astronomy in the first place. You can swoop around the sky and look at these beautiful stars and galaxies and try to think about where everything came from and why it's there. Vicki Curry>> So what was Caltech's role in putting together Google Sky? George Djorgovski>> To make Google Sky, they had to have imaging of the entire celestial sphere, all the sky. So that requires what we call sky surveys that do cover all of the sky rather than just a tiny portion, which is what most astronomical telescopes including Hubble do. Caltech and Palomar Observatory have been in the sky surveying business from the very beginning. In fact, they've pioneered many of those things. So the last major survey that covered the entire northern sky was done at Mt. Palomar in the 1980s and 1990s. When Google needed images of the entire northern sky, they came to us and to Space Telescope Science Institute. They also needed the southern sky and we gladly provided them. Roy Williams>> The whole canvas is done with the Palomar imagery, but when you zoom into the certain interesting objects, it transforms over to the Hubble imagery. So here we see the Hubble Deep Field. The Hubble space telescope was pointed at this part of the sky for a very long period of time, and all of those photons added together. You can see that there's thousands and thousands of galaxies. They're like grains of sand on the beach. It's thought that all of the universe has this many galaxies. Even though, when you look in the survey image that was taken from Palomar, you see it's almost empty. In fact, this part of the sky was chosen as the Hubble Deep Field because nobody could see anything there. Vicki Curry>> Now the images on Google Sky are amazing. Is this real photography? Real images? George Djorgovski>> Oh, yes, of course. That's the real data, data on which astronomers are still doing research and making discoveries. This is not artist impression. This is the real thing. Roy Williams>> But I think the most exciting thing is the idea that other people can come along and add to it, which is why we call it a canvas. Just like with Google Earth, you can put down in a KML file where you went on your holiday. You put that KML file up on the web and everybody can see in this precise detail where you were on your holiday. It's like the old slideshow updated for the twenty-first century. Vicki Curry>> Right. They call those mashups, right? Roy Williams>> That's a mashup. That's right. Vicki Curry>> And Google included a couple of basic layers, or mashups, as part of the program. Roy Williams>> You can see where the planets will be as time goes on. There's a little slider up here that lets you move the planets into the positions they'll be so you can say to your friends that that's Jupiter and absolutely know that it is instead of just guessing (laughter). There's the back yard astronomy section which lets you see what's going on in the sky at your place in your time. George Djorgovski>> We have decided to provide another one of those. Most of the universe doesn't change very fast. Stars and galaxies evolve on a scale of millions or billions of years, so static pictures are okay. But there are things out there in the universe which change very quickly; cosmic explosions, super novas, gamma ray bursts, things we call gravitational microlensing events and a number of other mysterious things. They happen on scales of minutes, hours, days, and they have to be caught right on time. So now there are many experiments and surveys that chase after those, including some at Palomar itself. What we decided is to bring those to Google Sky so the general public can see these cosmic explosions happening as we catch them. Roy Williams>> It's sort of like a breaking news story. First, you don't know what's happened. There's a sensor on the spacecraft that says "I got something" and the way to understand those astrophysically is to get rapid follow-up with other telescopes and that's the infrastructure we're building and that's what's in our mashup, things that have happened in the last few hours in the sky. This is the event that it detected three and a half hours ago. You can see the sky really is changing. Vicki Curry>> So what are some of your favorite things on here? Roy Williams>> Let's start at the place we all understand, which is the constellations. Here's Taurus the Bull and Gemini the Twins and here's Orion over here with the famous belt. Over here is the Crab nebula, a leftover from a huge explosion that Chinese astronomers saw a thousand years ago. It is now seen in other wavelengths as this remnant. See how the names of the stars appear as we zoom in on this? Vicki Curry>> Wow. Oh, my gosh. Roy Williams>> A very exciting astrophysical object. Vicki Curry>> Oh, my goodness. Roy Williams>> And here's the resulting nebula that's left over. This is a very rich galaxy cluster and it is lensing some of the galaxies. It's when you have a mass in front and then light coming from the back and that light is gravitationally refracted around the mass and distorted. So you see quite obviously all the mass of this galaxy cluster in the front, but less obvious are these little streaks here. These are galaxies that are much, much further away whose image has been bent and refracted around these galaxies in the front. By looking at this light of these lensed galaxies, we can see all the way back into the very far distance right near the beginning of the universe. And you can zoom out from these very, very detailed Hubble pictures all the way up to the constellations that we see in the sky. So you can know up there that that's where that thing is. Val Zavala>> To explore the heavens, you'll have to download the latest version of Google Earth. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> If you're a dog, you don't have to die to go to heaven. You can achieve Nirvana just by heading to a park off of Mulholland Drive. Canine commentator, Cris Franco, takes us there. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Welcome to the happiest place on earth if you're a Los Angeles dog. This is the Laurel Canyon Dog Park, also known as Doggie Disneyland. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> It's a place where hounds and their humans get to talk, bark, fetch, vetch, sniff, drink, lick and run free, free, free. For over a decade -- that's like seventy dog years -- hundreds of pet owners have been bringing their dogs to these three acres of doggie heaven. I wonder how many acres that is in dog acres? The dogs were too busy enjoying each other's company to talk, so I made conversation with their masters. And what do you and Slim get out of coming here to the dog park? >> I get time off because Slim sleeps a lot afterwards. Cris Franco>> I hear a lot of the -- >> Yeah, he really works, and they go crazy. Cris Franco>> Yeah, they seem to adore the company of other dogs. >> Well, yes, they're dogs (laughter). [Film Clip] >> We come to the dog park because she insists on meeting other dogs and because she wants to prove that other people like her more than I do. Cris Franco>> Oh, and what Nina wants, Nina gets. >> What Nina wants, Nina gets. >> Because I think it makes them so much happier and healthier, you know, if they're not constantly controlled by the leash. Cris Franco>> Is she a good dog? Do you like her? >> She's a real sweetheart. You know, like she hasn't gone to obedience school, so sometimes she has a -- Cris Franco>> -- well, neither have I. What does Luca, Lorna, Liza do for you? >> Okay, the basic thing is, he definitely stays with me 24/7. He follows me. If I stop, he stops. He will go wherever I go. He's like a tiny little infant. Cris Franco>> Or he's stalking you. >> He's stalking me. Cris Franco>> I'm not sure. She's eating grass. >> And that's good. Cris Franco>> Is that good for her? >> Yeah, grass is supposed to be good for them, you know. It helps with the digestion. It has, I think, certain vitamins -- Cris Franco>> -- high fiber, high fiber. >> Our dogs get along really well with other dogs and other people and that's really why we're here, to let them run around and get some exercise. Our yard is, unfortunately, not this big, so it's a nice place for them to run around. Cris Franco>> Well, this is three doggie acres of doggie heaven right here. And right here includes a watering area, this arf gallery, a gated play area for small children and a special pen for small dogs. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Are you small or timid (laughter)? What if you're both? >> Then you definitely belong here. Cris Franco>> Here's another sign you'll see at the Laurel Canyon Dog Park. "Aggressive dogs are not allowed in the park. Dogs exhibiting unusually aggressive behavior are to be removed from the park at once." Can we get that applied to people? Dogs and human beings are ninety-five percent genetically identical, yet unlike us, they're nonjudgmental, reliable, honest, love unconditionally. Do you think that dogs should be our role models? Yeah. Do you think that dogs should be our role models perhaps? >> Well, dogs are in many ways examples of how I think humans are supposed to live. Cris Franco>> Bingo! >> Unconditional love and joy. Like the minister said, if you believe in reincarnation, his view of being born as a dog in a good home is like a highly-evolved, higher maybe than human. He was half joking (laughter). Cris Franco>> I mean, if you're Paris Hilton's dog, you're like going to all the stuff and you got bling. Dogs greet each other by sniffing, so in my efforts to get in touch with my inner dog, I asked a couple of people to do the same to see if we couldn't tell something about each other. Go right ahead and tell me what you think. Oh, sniff me. Oh, she's good at it. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Anything? >> Just a nice person, that's all (laughter). Cris Franco>> I'm a nice person (laughter). >> I don't know, like it's hard to -- Cris Franco>> -- I like that. Are you the alpha dog in this relationship? >> Of course, I'm the alpha dog. Cris Franco>> You're the alpha dog and he's -- what you're saying is that's the key to controlling your dog. You have to let the dog think you're in charge. >> I am the alpha dog, but he is spoiled. Cris Franco>> In fact, American dogs are the most spoiled pets on the planet with fawning masters who lavish them with toys, totes, houses, pet portraits and Fido fashions. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Do you ever dress your dog? >> I have to because -- Cris Franco>> -- uh-oh, she does. We got a dog dresser. >> Yes, she has more coats than I do. Cris Franco>> She's totally -- >> -- I mean, little black cocktail dress, and she's ready to go. Cris Franco>> But this club pup is not without controversy. There's a subject about which everyone is either pro or con. No one is neutral about neutering. Is Oreo neutered? >> He is neutered. Cris Franco>> So he's a he. >> Yes. Cris Franco>> Okay. How do you think he feels about having been neutered? >> I really don't think he pays much thought to it at all. Cris Franco>> Oh, really? >> He still marks everything he possibly can. I don't think he has any problems at all. He has no issues. Cris Franco>> He's a manly dog! He still marks. Is he your only dog? >> No. Our other one, Roxie, is running around over there. She's three years old. Cris Franco>> But she's not neutered. >> She's spayed. Cris Franco>> Spayed. So it's a different term? >> Yes. Cris Franco>> Didn't know. So women get -- bitches get spayed. >> Right. Cris Franco>> All the bitches get spayed. This is the only time you can say bitch on KCET, so I'm going to take every opportunity to say that the bitch is spayed. Don't you think that we should just preach abstinence to the dogs? >> I do. I preach abstinence and I keep my dog in on the weekends in fact. You know, basically I've cut up most of her credit cards and she has no email anymore. Cris Franco>> Body language is a dog's first language, but what do all these motions mean? If this dog licks me, is he saying that he loves me or that he loves what I had for lunch? I find it all hard to understand, but not most of the owners. Like what is he saying right now? What is your dog's body language saying right now? >> He's saying, "Daddy, does he have any treats for me?" Cris Franco>> Uh-huh. What's your dog thinking or saying, or what are you reading? >> "I don't want to go. Don't put me on the leash. I'm only coming to you because you don't have the leash on." Cris Franco>> The leash is bad. Bad leash. I think what most bowsers are saying is "I love the dog park because it lets me be all the dog I can be." [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> My afternoon at the Laurel Canyon Dog Park was beyond great. I got to be out in the sun and I got some exercise and I got to spend some quality time with an accepting, loving, intelligent, polite and supportive group -- and the people weren't bad either. Val Zavala>> And kudos to Cris Franco. That story you just saw won the Los Angeles Area Emmy Award for best light feature. Congratulations, Cris. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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