posted May 25, 2009 5:49 PM by Adrienne Crew
Here are some activities to enjoy 1. Cocktails in Historic Places™ Friday, June 19, 2009 at 6:30--6:45 p.m., event starts at 6 but I don't get off of work til 6 PM La Grande Orange Cafe 260 S. Raymond Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91105 626-356-4444 La
Grande Orange Cafe is housed in Pasadena’s historic 1935 Del Mar
station and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Dorothy
Parker frequently disembarked from the Pasadena station when taking the
train in from the East during the 30s and 40s. Legend has it that a car
from the Garden of Allah, DP's favorite Hollywood hotel, would collect
guests from this station. Who knows...
Let's join the Art Deco Society of LA for for no-host cocktails on
June 19th for an evening with like-minded people at their Cocktails in
Historic Places™ event for June. The event is open to members and
non-members alike and reservations are not required. Located near the
Gold Line, why not take the train?
2. If Pasadena is too far for you westsiders, let's reconvene on Saturday, June 20 at 4 PM at the charming La Senora Research Institute
in Boca Santa Monica Canyon. The Institute is housed in a home once
owned by Anita Loos and her brother. Peter Graves will be the featured
speaker at a screening of "Airplane" in the Institute's Teatro del
Canyon. Cost $20.75. You must pre-purchase tickets online. Hurry, seats fill up fast.
565 Dryad Road, Santa Monica La Senora is located in the
serene Santa Monica Canyon where lies the creek from which the City of
Santa Monica took its name. Legend tells that a Spanish Solider with
the first exploration party drank from the meandering creek running
through our Canyon and exclaimed that: "The water is as sweet as the
tears of St. Monica".
From the Coast Highway drive up the Canyon along Entrada to San Lorenzo. From
Santa Monica take 7th Street across San Vicente. Start down the hill
and, while on the big curve, turn right onto San Lorenzo.
http://www.lasenora.org/EventsAndActivities.asp3. Finally, let's have a picnic! I'm
soliciting dates for a fun picnic in July or August at the Coldwater
Canyon Park, just a few miles from where Mrs. Parker lived house off
Coldwater Canyon Blvd around 1938.
Let me know which month works and what dates work and we'll schedule it. Also taking suggestions for ways to celebrate Parkerfest West in October. |
posted Dec 29, 2008 10:46 PM by Adrienne Crew
Sara and Gerald Murphy were Dorothy Parker's best friends. She visited them in Europe often. Dandyism.net posts a 3 part examination of Gerald Murphy's sartorial style. Is that redundant? Enjoy, parts 1 and 2. Part 3 to come. |
posted Dec 21, 2008 4:15 PM by Adrienne Crew
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updated Dec 23, 2008 2:20 PM
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My Google Alert for Dottie has been working overtime. It seems as if when the going gets tough, the tough love to get in touch with their inner Dottie Parker. - Choreographer, Rudy Perez, debuts latest piece, "Surrender, Dorothy!" based on Dotie's poem, Surrender, in Los Angeles at the Highways Performance Space. Hmm, wonder how Dottie would have felt about a choreo-poem of her work. Guess we should call this experiment "for discolored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow isn't enuff" ...
- East Coast Parkerites better visit the Michener Museum in New Hope by Feburary 1, 2009 in order to see Al Hirschfeld Foundation curator/archivist, David Leopold's
installation, ''Creative Bucks County,'' an interactive shrine to
writer-wit Dorothy Parker, painter Edward Redfield and 10 other local luminaries. The New Hope branch of the James Michener Museum is closing due to lack of attendance. It will also be the last chance to see the museum's other permanent installation, "Artisit Amongst Us," a 125-square-foot mosaic with 103 swiveling triangles, each with three images that illustrate the Bucks County borough as a cradle of creativity. Dorothy Parker and her circle are featured prominently. And so it goes
- Carrie Fisher recently name checked our Dottie in an interview with Carolyn Kellog of the Los Angeles Times:....
- I never had the hutzpah to think that I would be able to do write. I
would underline words that I didn’t know and sentences that I loved. By
about 16 I wanted to be Dorothy Parker.
JC: You're about the closest thing we have.
Carrie Fisher: Aw. I figured out the ways I am like her. Do you want to hear?
JC: Yes.
Carrie Fisher: She’s short. She was half Jewish.
She had brown hair and brown eyes. She was an alcoholic or addict. And
she married a gay guy!
But she married the gay guy again, then died in a small apartment in
New York, with a bunch of cats. ... These things I don’t want.
Um, Dorothy died surrounded by DOGS, Carrie, DOGS. But we know you've lost many, many, many memory cells to electroshock therapy so we forgive you. |
posted Dec 19, 2008 4:29 PM by Adrienne Crew
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updated Dec 23, 2008 2:18 PM
]
The Dorothy Parker Society LA ended the year on a high note the night of December 17th with a round of drinking at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, site of a weekly gathering of Dorothy's friends and associates in the '30s. See previous post for the details on that.
This week, core members showed up for a quick drink before heading outside to tour the swanky store window displays.
Somehow the gang never made it outside into the chilly air, choosing to warm up with several rounds of martinis. New member Dan Cox posted his impressions on Mediabistro's Fishbowl LA . Participants, email me your own recollections and I'll post them.
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posted Dec 15, 2008 7:14 PM by Adrienne Crew
The LA Chapter of the Dorothy Parker Society will meet on
12/17 at 7:30 pm for a drink at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel,
9500 Wilshire Boulevard,Beverly Hills, minutes from Dorothy's many houses off Canon Drive, where John O'Hara
would often entertain her with his buddies who met there weekly for drinks and mayhem.
His regular
group included James Cagney, Sidney Skolsky, Robert Benchley, Clifford
Odets, Gilbert Roland, Cedric Hardwicke, Peter Lorre.
After a quick drink, we will walk down Wilshire Blvd
to admire the holiday windows of Saks and Barneys. The closest LA gets to
Manhattan at holiday time, especially if the weather is cold enough for
coats. |
posted Nov 3, 2008 6:49 PM by Adrienne Crew
Hello all, it's time for the LA Chapter to schedule events for 2008-2009. I am now taking suggestions from the floor. Here are some possible ideas for monthly meetings in December and early 2009 - visit to Clifton's Cafeteria for our own Algonquin Luncheon, possibly to commemorate 90th anniversary of the Algonquin Roundtable
- a new semi-guided tour of Mrs. Parker's Hollywood with new locations added to the driving tour
- games night comprised of Word Games and gags the Algonquin Roundtablers like to play at luncheon
- Smutzgig burlesque show
- Dorothy Parker Society-LA holiday party
- Progressive dinner featuring items from the menus at Dorothy's favorite LA restaurants: Don the Beachcomber, Lucy's El Adobe, Romanoffs, Chasen's, Players Club
- Chateau Marmont mayhem-rent a room at Chateau and have own cocktail party there
- Garden of Allah exorcism
- Depression-era flavored activities to acknowledge our current economic plight
- Picnic at Rustic Canyon park or Coldwater Canyon Park near her 1938 residence on Cedarbrook Drive
- jaunt to the Silent Movie Theater for movie and dinner at Canters
- Dash Races--scavenger hunt for DP related items while taking the DASH shuttle system along Sunset, Fairfax and Melrose
- Dinner at Lucy's El Adobe on Melrose
What else you got? |
posted Oct 27, 2008 6:38 AM by Adrienne Crew
One great pleasure in putting together the Dorothy Parker's Hollywood Walking Tour was finding the works of John O'Hara. I read Appointment in Samarra and the Big Laugh all summer. Didn't get to Butterfield 8 yet. So I was delighted when the president of the John O'Hara Society, Richard Carreno, phoned me in September. We had a great talk. Dorothy Parker and John O'Hara were best of friends. Seems like they were the only ones who could stand one another when blotto. Check out the John O'Hara Society. If you are an LA member of the Society, drop me a line at info at adriennecrew.com so that we can do joint events together sometime. |
posted Sep 30, 2008 2:56 PM by Adrienne Crew
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updated Sep 30, 2008 2:58 PM
]
Here's a recap of the LA Parkerfest walking tour from member Gretchen Parker. We toured Sunset and Havenhurst, exploring remnants of Dorothy's times at the Garden of Allah. I showed folks S.J. Perelman's old apartment house and John O'Hara's favorite restaurant. Then we caravaned in our cars to Beverly Hills for a tour of all of Dorothy and Alan's residences. We ended up on Norma Place and I showed the group businesses on Santa Monica Blvd that Dorothy and Alan patronized while living in the neighborhood in the early '60s. You can use photos posted by Gretchen's boyfriend on her site. Our next event is October 23, 2008, 9:30PM: El Cid Nightclub, 4212 Sunset Blvd., LA, CA 90029, (323) 668-0318 Doors 9:30, show 10pm, $12 cover ($9 if dressed to the nines - vintage '20s/'30s, that is) Join us for cabaret fun at Schmutzig, a 1920s-themed burlesque show at the historic El Cid nightclub Links: www.itsachick.com; www.elcidla.com |
posted Aug 18, 2008 3:42 PM by Adrienne Crew
Don't forget to sign up for the DPS West mailing list--send email to info at adriennecrew dot com |
posted Aug 18, 2008 3:17 PM by Adrienne Crew
I've always been charmed by the idea that when you think of a dead person, they wake up in heaven and enjoy the memory along with you. I got the idea from the Shirley Temple movie "The Bluebird." So as we advance toward DP's 115th birthday, here are some interesting facts to ponder, hoping to wake the cranky little lady up with our memories. She won't thank us for it...I bet.
- She often wore Coty's Chypre around the Vanity Fair offices, sez Marion Meade
- She liked soaps and perfume from Cyclax of London, favoring tuberose, sez John Keats
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