Searching for clues at the Greystone Mansion

A murder-suicide back in the 30s scandalized this oil baron's prestigious hillside mansion overlooking the City of Los Angeles. Or was it a double-murder? Det. Sosie Shearer and Deputy Bill intend to get to the bottom of it, peeping through windows and walking the grounds of this expansive estate just off of Sunset Boulevard on Doheny Drive.
There's easy access to the site, now that the City of Beverly Hills has acquired the Greystone Mansion and opened it for tourism, special events. . . and sleuthing. Sosie and Bill checked for clues in the formal garden but found only a dozen turtles sunning themselves, and if they knew anything, they weren't saying.

You've probably seen the interior of this storied mansion many times, it's a popular filming site. Dozens of movies have used its dramatic settings. "Spiderman," for example.
Other films shot here include "What Women Want" (with Mel Gibson), "The Bodyguard" (starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston), "The Phantom" (with Billy Zane), "The Witches of Eastwick" (Jack Nicholson & Cher), "The Big Lebowski" (with Jeff Bridges), "All of Me" (Steve Martin & Lily Tomlin), "Ghostbusters II" (Dan Aykroyd & Bill Murray), "Death Becomes Her" (Goldie Hawn& Meryl Streep), "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (starring Whoopi Goldberg), "The Beautician And The Beast" (with Fran Dresher), "Guilty By Suspicion" (Robert De Niro), "Air Force One" (with Harrison Ford), "Nixon," "Batman & Robin," "Heat," "The Loved One," "Forever Amber," "The Winds of War," and "Dynasty, the Movie."
They shot an episode of "Alias" here. And back in 1991, they shot episodes of the vampire soap opera "Dark Shadows" here.
There's more, but that's enough for now. We're still working on the murder plot of "The Big Sleep."

What is so great about 30 inches square?

Fluent in English, Spanish, Italian and French, our architecture mentor, Elana,
opened our eyes to the shapes and materials around us at the Getty Center. 

We met under the sycamore tree on the plaza, joining a few others who wanted to understand something about the dramatic architecture of this wonderful place. Earlier, we wound our way down Sunset Boulevard, stopping briefly at the Doheny Mansion, then found ourselves in a confusing construction detour at Sunset and Sepulveda.

30x30 travertine
"Guillotine Cut"

But our driver Bill persevered and we soon found ourselves deep inside the mountain parking ramp. Or would that be parking hole. Anyway, it was a quick trip on a robotic tram to the hilltop where we figured the first order of business would have to be the Architecture Tour. 

Elana provided a snappy commentary and one of the first things she asked us to notice was the size and purpose of the square shapes we saw everywhere. Just about everything, we learned, measures 30 inches by 30 inches -- or multiples thereof. The buildings are of travertine -- smooth and rough -- and baked aluminium and glass.

Perhaps the most important element of the Getty Center is its hilltop site in the Santa Monica Mountains, just off the San Diego Freeway. From there, visitors can take in prominent features of the Los Angeles landscape--the Pacific Ocean, the San Gabriel Mountains, the vast street-grid of the city. Inspired by this interplay, architect Richard Meier sought to design the new complex so that it highlights both nature and culture, creating a synchronistic, organic whole.

See how the 30x30 squares help define human proportion?
(He's big. She's not.)

When approached from the south, the modernist complex appears almost to grow from the 110-acre hillside. Two three-car, computer-operated trams ferry visitors from a street-level parking facility to the hilltop site. The campus, clad largely in cleft-cut, Italian travertine, is organized around a central arrival plaza, and offers framed panoramic views of the city. Curvilinear design elements, like the circular Museum Entrance Hall and the canopy over the Harold M. Williams Auditorium entrance call to mind the Baroque. But there is also a bright openness to the complex, a horizontality reminiscent of the work of such Southern California modernists as Rudolf Schindler, Richard Neutra, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Yup. 30 by 30 inch windows looking out at Bel Air.

Elena told us that Richard Meier took many of his cues for the design from the site itself, and from the Trust planning team’s desire to retain the sense of openness found at the original Getty Museum in Malibu. The Getty Center’s six buildings follow a natural ridge in the hilltop. Working with this natural topography, Meier positioned the Center’s buildings at sites that are relatively public or private in character, depending on the needs of each. He also suggested a connection between the organization of the Center and the layout of the city’s grid. All six buildings are as open as security and conservation needs will allow.
Galleries, offices, and the Auditorium lead out to courtyards and terraces; all offices receive natural light. Because the Getty’s neighbors requested that the complex be no more than two stories above grade, all of the buildings extend underground and are linked with subterranean corridors that facilitate the moving of artwork and other materials.

We looked in amazement at one of the stone blocks containing a fossilized feather. Elana said it could be anywhere from 8,000 to 80,000 years old.

Yum.

The use of stone--1.2 million square feet of it--is perhaps one of the most remarked-upon elements of the new complex. This beige-colored, cleft-cut, textured, fossilized travertine catches the bright Southern California daylight, reflecting sharply during morning hours and emitting a honeyed warmth in the afternoon. The weather was perfect for a day on the plaza, Elana said, and we had to agree.

Elana used Stan and Kathleen as models to show her group all the advantages of the magical 30 inch dimension. Most memorable reason? Thirty inches is the exact length a Roman solider stepped off when marching. It is a natural gait. If you want other reasons, go on the tour and take better notes.
If you'd like to see all the pictures we took today and a bonus batch of pictures of the Doheny Mansion, click here, brave citizen.

Baked aluminum panels. A collage of five planes, Tension.

Apples, grape, blueberry, ice smoothie ala Sosie

Sosie packed along her powerful super-dooper Vita-Mix blender for her week in LA and this morning she treated us to a delicious round of smoothies as we prepare for our assault on The Getty Center and the Doheny Mansion today. Sosie and Kathleen discussed the virtues of this marvelous machine that Sosie acquired almost a year ago and uses at least four times a week.
Stan and Kathleen are on their fourth blender now, used mostly for making waffles. It is on its last legs. They would never consider grinding ice in it to make the wonderful chilled healthy drinks Sosie touts. So anyone thinking of a birthday gift for either of us should consider. . .
A Vita-Mix retails for $364 at Costco. But hey, when you care enough...

Bill and Sosie take us to The Gardens, The Ricardos

BREAKFAST IN BED
Mary Cassat is a favorite of Kathleen's as is John Singer Sargent.
She was pleased to see both represented at The Huntington.

Fortified by Sosie's homemade beef stew and supported by a cache of Advil, we decamped Randy's back yard retreat yesterday at about high noon, and set out for the famous Huntington Library estate gardens just a bit east of Pasedena.

Sosie (Stan's sister) and Bill are here for a week of frolic, arriving from their canyon home in the Bay Area during Randy's Super Bowl gathering at his Rowena digs. They enjoyed the party guests and the remains of the super buffet arranged by our host. After hearing guest Karri Turner (Lt. Harriet Sims, JAG) relate fascinating anecdotes from her 13 USO tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, and after watching Downton Abbey on PBS, we tucked the funseekers into our nearby Fawlty Towers unit and returned to Randy's for a sleepover in the Poker Palace Murphy Bed.
Bright and bushy-tailed, our guests returned to Randy's the next morning and quickly laid out the beef stew with hot bread.
Bill volunteered to drive and Randy volunteered to watch Birdie, and thus both earned a spot in Stan's Hall of Heroes for the day. We were soon floating down Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard, via the Rose Bowl Parade Route, finally docking at the much anticipated Huntington Gardens iron gates. It was great. If you're not familiar with this fabulous venue, please take the time to google it and we'll save some space here. If you'd like to view our entire exciting photo album (includes a picture of Katie with the Tidy-Whities man) click here. and then click on the slide show.

Katie's knee has been barking of late; no problem for us, we popped her into a complimentary wheelchair and briskly covered the expansive estate, from the desert gardens to the ponds and the Asian pagodas, thanks to the good offices of our personal guide, Heather, an eager volunteer who answered all our questions and showed us around.
(Kathleen's knee will be replaced when we return to Minnesota.)
Eventually we reached the Huntington art gallery to see exhibits that include the Blue Boy and the Green and Green Arts & Crafts Movement room. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to get over to the library to tear a souvenir page from the Gutenberg Bible sequestered there.

Monday during the winter season -- no crowds. We had
our lovely docent Heather -- and most of the grounds --
to ourselves.

Then Bill drove the old mini-van on to the city of Walnut, where Stan and Solveig's schoolmate, Cathy (Johnson) Ricardo (Mayo and Pearl's girl, you know) and her husband Ed had dinner prepared for four guests.  It's been a few years since Sosie last saw Cathy; Stan and Cathy figured it was about 50 years for them. It is actually less than that; Cathy (as well as Stan, Solveig and Linda Rolfsrud) attended Concordia College in Moorhead in 1967, before Linda graduated and Stan, Solveig and Cathy transferred to other institutions.
Dinner had a Mexican theme and was wonderful. A toast to old friends preceded a full-bodied soup, chicken enchiladas followed by a Mexican-style dessert that was so good we forgot to remember the name. A challenging word game, Quiddler, came out after dinner, (Stan won) as well as old stories centered on First English Lutheran Church and Central Junior High, Alexandria, Minnesota.

Cathy well remembered her 7th Grade English teacher, (Mister Rolfsrud) trying to motivate her to write more creatively. "I could put a bomb under your chair," he said to her, and she still grins today when retelling it.
Living room photographs of Cathy and Ed getting married three years ago include her 87-year-old mother, Pearl, who came out to California from Minnesota for the ceremony. She died a year later.
We parted fondly after the traditional Norwegian long goodbye on the steps of their beautiful home.
Then Bill turned his trusty van west toward tinsel-town, his long-time navigator with her I-phone map at shotgun, and gunned it down I-10 into the deepening night, ready for more adventure.

Classmates in the Front Row: Cathy, Solveig, Stan (Stan is one year older)
Back row are spouses Ed and Bill. Please note that Sosie still proudly
wears her Huntington Gardens sticker.

Hey. Pal. Didja hear about the time I busted outta here?

Bruno
St. Paul Katie may have seen him at the Como Zoo years ago
(Photos by Stan Rolfsrud)

This Minnesota native is now under daily surveillance here in LA.

The sign at the Red Ape Rainforest Habitat in the Los Angeles Zoo says that orangutans are patient problem solvers, intelligent decision-makers capable of using tools. Zookeepers routinely set up problems to challenge these gentle creatures.

The big guy out there is 31-year-old Bruno, born in a Minnesota zoo. Weighs 300 pounds. Not sure when he arrived in this pleasant climate, but our favorite son has managed to make a name for himself in this star-crazed city.

Look closely, there's a Baby On Board
Don't know if Bruno is the father. Could be.

Not long ago, Bruno broke out of the Red Ape enclosure located in the middle of the zoo property. He took off on a 25-minute jaunt, scaring the bejesus out of observers and getting enough media attention to make a Hollywood press agent drool on his I-pad.

Bruno's escape prompted a brief evacuation, but no one was injured and he was captured shortly after the break, at large just long enough to crank up the star-maker machinery.

Bruno was never aggressive and allowed a handler to inject him with a sedative. Just enough for a good buzz.

Zoo officials were not sure whether Bruno made the hole in his wire mesh enclosure or if the wire broke some other way. Orangutans are very bright, crafty and have the ability to use tools, zoo officials said.

"He was just in a place where he shouldn't have been."

Makes Minnesotans real proud. Don't fence us in, liberty, freedom and all that. Kathleen chatted up one of the docents seated in front of the exhibit this week. She learned that ever since The Great Escape, whenever Bruno is out in public view, someone is watching him. Yes, Bruno is now under constant surveillance.

"And then, I pulled the netting over just like this, revealing the opening I had cut out
earlier, by using the calf-bone knife I shaped with a flint-stone chisel. I tip-toed up the
rope and just eased myself through the hole. You can read the rest in the LA Times."

Not us. (Stan was just a bystander in the Gumby outfit)

Yes, we were on Hollywood Boulevard yesterday, but we didn't see a thing, officers:

The L.A. Times reports in today's edition:

LAPD seeks witnesses to Jack Sparrow, 

catwoman brawl in Hollywood

The Los Angeles Police Department is trying to sort of the details of a fight in front of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday evening involving several people dressed as characters.

LA Times Photo (Gumby has left the scene)

The incident was the latest run-in between characters who pose for pictures with tourists and then aggressively demand money.

In the most recent case, an unidentified man dressed as Jack Sparrow was pepper-sprayed by an attacker, police said. The attack occurred during a fracas involving people dressed as Catwoman, an alien and a second pirate, police sources said.

No arrests were made, and no one was seriously hurt, Officer Norma Eisenman said. But police are looking for witnesses and trying to determine if anyone in the tourist area took photos or video.

In September, a man dressed as SpongeBob SquarePants was detained by police outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood after an altercation with two women. In another incident, Spider-Man was led away in handcuffs

----------------------

You can't make this stuff up.

LA Limousine

Oscar, our new driver
We were his only passengers when we chatted near the Capitol Records building.

There's not a lot of honking in LA traffic. It's actually pretty laid back. But it's still horrible. Stan doesn't honk, but he often curses without remorse. Kathleen won't even attempt driving. The only thing worse is the parking -- or lack of it. (We went to the Price is Right for free. The parking cost $17.)
Today over the "Ultimate" breakfast on Vermont and Franklin, a sympathetic waiter suggested we DASH instead of drive. What? Yes, he said in some dialect, "You take DASH. Come by here every 20 minutes. Goes around and around. Another one goes around and around the other way. Cost 25 cents."
Incredulous, we googled LA DASH and, what do you know, our very own "Hollywood DASH," comes to the Fawlty Towers bus stop every half hour and drives you as deep into the madness as you want, for just 25 cents. And when you tire of it, you walk across the street and take the counter-clockwise shuttle back home. Another 25 cents. Sweet.
Giddy at this discovery, we immediately hopped on the shuttle like two astronauts headed into the unknown, blasting off at 11:45 a.m. today to take a full orbit of Tinsel Town. Took about an hour. A sweet surprise.
Now the myriad tourist treats are easy-peasey to reach in our $200,000 capsule, just two-bits a stop.
Just as sweet as this deal was our shuttle commander, Oscar, who pilots this behemoth through the madness every day. Do you ever get edgy? Tight? we asked. Oscar grinned and allowed that around 3 p.m. things do get a bit tense. But mostly he's got his circle route down pat.
Indeed. Our 25 cent dash was without incident. No stress, no anxiety and no naughty words. It's a good thing too. Company's coming on Sunday.

The Hollywood DASH route. We're in the upper right hand corner.

 Franklin and Normandie. Click to enlarge. Don't want to

WALK to the Hollywood Sign? There's a DASH for that too.

Zap

Stan,

Our dear Zap is no longer with us. She gave us everything that she had these past fifteen years, but she finally gave up this past week.

Nancy’s good friend, Deb, in a note of condolence, described her best: “She was full of manners, dignity, grace, speed and unbridled enthusiasm for all moving things to be herded—my best role model yet for 'giving your all' to daily jobs.”

We miss her greatly.

Nancy, Steve, Breck, Briggs and Ford

LA Zoo today

We met Bruno, a famous Minnesotan, at the LA Zoo today. Weather was
perfect, and there were no crowds, just a few lucky kindergarteners out on a
school field trip in their little blue shirts. We got a story and photo about
Bruno, but no time to tell it. Our next installment of Foyle's War arrived
in the mailbox today, so we have to watch it and get it back in the mail.
Oh yes. We also enjoyed the Chilean flamingos, above.