The Courier turns 50 Next Week, Party Tuesday!
BEVERLY HILLS NUMBER 29
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THIS ISSUE
CHARLESTON COURIER— Mayor Julian Gold and family visited Charleston, South Carolina this week and made many stops, including a chat with Charleston Mayor Joe Riley to send Beverly Hills’ condolences for the church shooting that rocked Charleston in June. Pictured above, from left, outside Charleston City Hall: Jeremy Friedman, Traffic and Parking Commission chair Lester Friedman, Recreation and Parks chair Simone Friedman, Rebecca Gold, Mayor Julian Gold, Michele Gold, Nancy Markoff, Alex Markoff, and John Markoff. To join Gold in the Carry The Courier club, take The Courier on your next trip, snap a picture and e-mail it to mlopez@bhcourier.com.
Longtime school supporter Franny Rennie celebrated her birthday with friends. 5
The Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau earned a special honor this week. 12
On Tuesday, July 21 The Courier invites our readers to come celebrate with us at Beverly Gardens Park. Beginning at 1:30 p.m., come meet Courier staff, Beverly Hills dignitaries and our mascot Bear at our special birthday celebration in front of the lily pond. Birthday treats will generously be provided by Hansen’s Cakes. Dog biscuits will also be provided for your furry friends! The first edition of The Courier appeared on July 22, 1965.
Beverly Hills Elder: Donna Ellman-Garber, Political Trailblazer, Mayor
Robbie Anderson writes a special column touching on tour bus activity. 15
Part 44 in a series on Beverly Hills residents who have grown with the Centennial City
•Fashion •Arts & Entertainment •Letters to the Editor
By Laura Coleman Next Tuesday, Donna EllmanGarber will celebrate her 90th birthday in the City she has truly grown with and helped shape. Indeed, as the second woman ever elected to the City Council, she not only helped create policies that shaped Beverly Hills, but also pioneered as a woman in a maledominated world. “I was trained to be very independent,” said Donna, who served as Beverly Hills mayor in 1976 and 1981 and was elected to the City Council three times. “I knew how to win elections,” she explained. “That was never a question in my mind about the campaign. I had a lot of question about serving on the council.” After Phyllis Seaton, who was Beverly Hills mayor in 1973, became the first elected woman here, she prevailed on Donna to take over the woman’s seat she had established. “That was not a happy situation,” Donna described of Phyllis’s
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George Christy, Page 6 The Art Crowd Gathered For Charlie Scheips’ Book Signing At The Rooftop Of The Gagosian Gallery, Of His Extraordinary Volume, Elsie De Wolfe’s Paris Frivolity Before The Storm
CLASSIFIEDS • Announcements • Real Estate • Rentals • Sales • and More
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July 17, 2015
Beverly Hills’ Goal For Transparency In ‘One Beverly Hills’ Development Process
901 Strada Vecchia was sent to the L.A. City Attorney for prosecution. 4
1-year-old Maltese pup Janet is one of this week’s Freshpet Adoptable Pets. 4
SINCE 1965
By Laura Coleman & Victoria Talbot Since the Wanda Group announced its plans for One Beverly Hills last month – the project set to take over the former Robinson-May department store at 9900 Wilshire Blvd. – folks have been scratching their heads about just how the Chinese developer will transform the 8-acre site already entitled for two luxury condominium towers designed by Richard Meier to include a 134-room boutique luxury hotel. On Tuesday, a consent calendar item to fund Rincon Consulting to discover if the
By Victoria Talbot A demolition permit for a historic home in Bel Air has raised the ire of residents fed up with mega-mansionization and the destruction of historic homes, ripping apart the fabric of world-renowned architecture that has made Bel Air so desirable. A notice of a proposed demolition at 420 N. Amapola Lane filed by Kelly Kaine, Project Coordinator at Crest Real Estate June 6 raised a lot more than eyebrows. Owned for decades by Bob Newhart, the home was built in 1941 by one of the entertainment industry’s favorite architects, Wallace Neff. With five bedrooms, six baths, a la-
Donna Ellman-Garber
time on the council. “She was a very bright woman but was a lady, in every sense of the word. They did not give her the credence they should have. She used to come down to the microphone and say: ‘Now I’m part of the public and you have to listen to me.’” Once on the council, Donna said she became a student of (see ‘ELLMAN-GARBER’ page 13)
project’s existing Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and existing entitlements are sufficient to warrant the change or if the additional work requires a supplemental EIR. Although it is the City that chooses the consultant that will perform the work, it is the developer’s responsibility to pay the consultant. City staff was originally notified on June 16 that Wanda was planning to change the specific plan. However, the City has yet to received a detailed plan as to just what is being proposed. “It could easily take six to (see ‘ONE BEVERLY HILLS’ page 18)
LADBS Grants Demo Of Bob Newhart-Owned House Without Regard To Historic Resource
Celebrity Photo Agency/Scott Downie
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goon pool, separated offices, and a covered outdoor entertainment area and guest apartment, the home sits on 1.37 acres. A unique property, it is the last Wallace Neff of the American Colonial Revival style in the area. In 2013 the home was on the market for $15.5 million. One neighbor has retained counsel on behalf of the historic property. “The existing residence on the Amapola Property is a historic resource. . . that should be evaluated for preservation, and the demolition of which would have a significant effect on the environment under the California Environmental Quality Act,” wrote (see ‘LADBS DEMOLITION’ page 8)
WOODY’S BACK— Parker Posey, Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone co-star in Woody Allen’s Irrational Man that opens this month. THey attended the premiere at the WGA Theatre with Sony Pictures Classics’ president Michael Barker, Adrien Brody with Lara Lieto, Chris Kattan, Francine York, Heinz Haas, Lauren Shaw, Gabrielle Garret, and more. For more photos, see George Christy’s column on page 6.