A Pre-Oscar Salute to . . . Lakewood!

Welcome to Only in L.A.’s Fabulous Pre-Oscar column, which, according to my calculations, will be read by more than 100 million people in 115 nations (OK, I’m assuming the column will be passed around a lot).

Let’s start with a story from the new “Book of Movie Lists,” by Joseph McBride, about a trip to a cemetery.

It seems that after actor George Tobias died several years ago, his body was being transported in a station wagon when it was in a traffic accident on Sunset Boulevard. The driver got out to inspect the damage, whereupon two young men jumped into the station wagon and roared off.

At some point, however, the thieves happened to notice their cargo. They reportedly ran screaming from the vehicle, leaving the engine running and doors open.

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HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE: While elements of the San Fernando Valley only talk about secession, Los Angeles Fire Engine 82 has quietly shed the L.A. name and gone Hollywood, adopting the shape of the landmark sign (see photo).

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Y19K PROBLEM: Wendy Mollett and Doug Friedman noticed that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is offering members a real bargain--fork over $150 and your dues are paid up for the next 17,000 years (see accompanying).

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MAYBE I’M SPOCK, MAYBE I’M NOT: More blurbs from “Book of Movie Lists:”:

* Al Jennings, a bank and train robber in the Old West, became an actor and appeared in “The Bank Robbery” (1908)--playing himself.

* Wishy-washy Leonard Nimoy titled his 1975 memoirs “I Am Not Spock,” and his 1995 memoirs “I Am Spock.”

* Theaters were reluctant to show one award-winning short when it came out a few years ago because they feared that when the title appeared on marquees, people would think it was an announcement by management. The title: “Closed Mondays.”

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CELEBRITY INTERSECTIONS: If you really want to get a sense of Hollywood, the obvious place to visit is Lakewood. John Brossart of Cerritos found intersections there honoring Gene Autry and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and the characters on an old TV show (Amos Avenue and Andy Street), as well as Hackett Avenue, named after the comic, Buddy (see photo).

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SHAKESPEARE IN L.A.: One of the most suspenseful questions of Sunday’s Oscars--apart from whether Dennis Rodman will attend--is what will win for best picture. I’m rooting for “Shakespeare in Love,” because the Bard has so many references to L.A. in his plays. For example:

On smog: “The first time that we smell the air, we waul and cry” (“King Lear”).

On freeways: “Traffic’s thy god, and thy god confound thee” (“Timon of Athens”).

On building security: “Be ready to direct these home alarms” (“King Richard II”).

On sports fashions: “You may be jogging whiles your boots are green” (“The Taming of the Shrew”).

And, of course, on Hollywood Boulevard: “Is it not strange and strange? Nay, it is 10 times strange” (“Measure for Measure”).

miscelLAny:

A colleague was perusing the laws regulating this honorable profession and came upon this section of the California Labor Code: “No talent agency shall knowingly permit any person of bad character, prostitutes, gamblers, intoxicated persons or procurers, to frequent, or be employed in, the place of the business of the talent agency.”

The very idea!