1957 (1956) (1958)(1950-1960)(1960-1970) Table of Contents
Los Angeles September 4, 1781 To September 9, 1850: An exhibition of paintings, documents and realia selected from private collections and those of the Museum, Los Angeles County Museum Septenber 11 through October 6, 1957, 31 pp.
Frank MacShane (ed.) Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, Columbia University Press: NY, 1981, 501pp., 1981, 1957 See Text
Christopher Knight Walter Hopps* [1932-2005] Curator Brought Fame to Postwar L.A. Artists, Los Angeles Times, 22/3/05, pp. A1, A19 2005b, 1999, 1954 See Text
James C. Miller, Ph.D. Obituary for Cecil R. Miller*, A.B., B.D., M.A., Ph.D. (1912-2002), 2002, 1965-1957, 1952-1950 See Text
Kenneth Patchen Reads His Poetry with the Chamber Jazz Sextet, 1957 See Text
Ed and Judy Pelletier Chamber Jazz Sextet and Kenneth Patchen Email 7/12/04, 2004b, 1957 See Text
Jenny Pirie,* Peter Kastner* and Jeff Mudrick* A Short History of Ocean Park, Ocean Park Community Organization, 1982, (With a 1983 update.) 15pp. 1983, 1982, 1957, 1950s, 1940s, 1920s See Text
Hall Tripp Sprague* The Mail The New Yorker, 22 August, 2005, p. 6 2005a, 1957 See Text
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp.,, 1957 See Text
Documents
Los Angeles September 4, 1781 To September 9, 1850: An exhibition of paintings, documents and realia selected from private collections and those of the Museum, Los Angeles County Museum Septenber 11 through October 6, 1957, 31 pp.
Frank MacShane (ed.) Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, Columbia University Press: NY, 1981, 501pp., 1981, 1957
"Dear Harwick [Moseley], (Jan. 5, 1957)
" . . .
" . . . I don't suppose that any mystery writer since Conan Doyle and perhaps Willard Huntington Wright (and what drivel he wrote) was ever a bestseller in a large way. (Wright wrote the Philo Vance detective stories under the pseudonym of S.S. Van Dine.) . . .
"Yours, Ray" [Chandler] p. 415
Christopher Knight Walter Hopps* [1932-2005] Curator Brought Fame to Postwar L.A. Artists, Los Angeles Times, 22/3/05, pp. A1, A19
James C. Miller, Ph.D. Obituary for Cecil R. Miller,* A.B., B.D., M.A., Ph.D. (1912-2002), 2002, 1965-1957, 1952-1950
"Dr. Cecil R. Miller was . . . From 1953 to 1954 he was a Research Assistant with the Los Angeles Board of Education, from 1954 to 1955 a Vocational Advisor for the United Cerebral Palsy Association in Los Angeles, from 1955 to 1956 a Personnel Consultant with the California Test Bureau in Los Angeles, and from 1956 to 1957 the Director of Staff Development, Nutrilite Products, Buena Park CA.
"From 1957 until 1965, he was a Human Factors Scientist at the Systems Development Division of RAND Corporation and then the Systems Development Corporation, Santa Monica CA. At SDC, he worked in the Field Operations Department under the USAF System Training Program (STP) checking out, installing and training trainers and programmers to use the Weapons Evaluation and Subsystem Training (WEST) in the North American Air Defense (NORAD) and Air Defense Command SAGE computer networks. He helped design Desk Top exercises: computer-simulated attacks on the entire North American air defense system. In conjunction with this work, Dr. Miller invented the Quadractor, a protractor with all 360 degrees represented in one quadrant that was used as a manual aid in the development of simulation problems (SDC Disclosure File Number 58, 1963).
"He completed his M.A. and his doctoral studies (ABD) in Clinical Psychology at UCLA in 1954; he received his doctorate in 1964. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Psychological Characteristics of Young Adult Cerebral Palsied Industrial Workshop Trainees" (Diss Abstr, v. 25, no. 9, 1965)."
Kenneth Patchen Reads His Poetry with the Chamber Jazz Sextet Cadence CLP-3004 (1957)
The Poet:
Kenneth Patchen was born. The place was Niles, Ohio. The date, December 3, 1911. He attended a small school somewhere in Arkansas. From there, he went to the Alexander Meiklejohn Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin. After one year he left to work in a steel mill. Patchen was seventeen.
All kinds of jobs followed. In recent years, however, Patchen has been writer and painter exclusively. At various times he lived in New York, Boston, Santa Fe, Phoenix, New Orleans and Connecticut. Currently, he's married and settled on the California coast.
Patchen is prolific. Since his first book of poetry won him a Guggenheim Fellowship, he's been publishing steadily. Some of his books are:
Kenneth Patchen's books have been translated and published in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Holland. Several have appeared in England. To date he has done some 508 volumes of his Painted Books series.
All the poems Mr. Patchen reads on this record are available in the third edition of The Selected Poems of Kenneth Patchen, published by New Directions.
Allyn Ferguson has been quoted as saying the Chamber Jazz Sextet was conceived with the purpose of synthesizing jazz and "serious music." To furthther this end, the group uses the tools of jazz to the utmost. These tools naturally include the instruments basic to the jazz medium, musicians well-schooled in phrasings and interpretations, compositions and arrangements, calculated to take full advantage of contemporary jazz sounds and techniques.
An extensive study of Western music gives the group a free familiarity with established musical forms. And they are not afraid to experiment with them. This comes from each of the six musicians being an artist in his own right-a student as well as a player of jazz.
The Pact:
When first discussing the possibility of setting poetry to jazz, Kenneth and I agreed that the usual procedure of setting text to music would have to be abandoned. The final product, we felt, should be conceived in terms of the poet's interpretation of the text. It seemed evident, however, that the music would be quite unnecessary were there no attempt to bring about a meaningful union between the two mediums. We decided, therefore, to tape-record the readings and underscore them. This procedure would have the double value of retaining the spontaneity of the original reading while still allowing freedom for the creation of a significant musical entity.
The music, them, was composed to the poet's readings-and designed to fortify the emotional content of the poetry. Musical material was borrowed for only one poem-The Lute In The Attic. The song When Corinna To Her Lute Softly Sings, by Thomas Campion (pub. 1603) was used as a theme for variations. No history of this enterprise would be complete which did not record the fact that it was at the home of Richard Bowman, the great jazz fan and painter, that the poet and members of the band first met and discussed what might be done in this new medium.
The end-product, however, came into existence throught the technical assistance and infinite patience of engineers Wally Kamin and Thorne Nogar. Albert Marx, who produced this recording, must be mentioned for his unfailing sympathy and faith in the entire project.
-Allyn Ferguson
Also by the Chamber Jazz Sextet Chamber Jazz Sextet Cadence CLP 1020
Ed and Judy Pelletier Chamber Jazz Sextet and Kenneth Patchen Email 7/12/04, 2004b, 1957
". . . I. . . pulled out my old Chamber Jazz Sextet albums, and was so excited to see a reference to a Cadence album they had done with Kenneth Patchen (CLP-3004). . . . (The Patchen connection, by the way, was merely a coincidence, since, while we had previously spoken briefly of POP and the Chamber Jazz Sextet, the conversation had never taken us into "Patchen land".)
"The CJS personnel you mentioned included the original trumpet player Robert Wilson. My friend was his replacement, Dent Hand, who is heard on a later CJS recording Pal Joey as the Chamber Jazz Sextet Sees Him (CLP-3015). Dent has several solos, but I always felt the the real star of the group was Mo Briseno on the baritone sax. He was only a teenager at the time (circa 1960), and I never heard of him again. Dent Hand was a law graduate . . . working for the Milk Advisory Board promoting the benefits of milk . . ., and I have lost track of him too. Allyn Ferguson became quite prominent in movie and television music composition/arranging, and may have been, if I recall correctly, connected as the musical director/arranger for Dinah Shore or Carol Burnett,. . ."
"I recall seeing the Sextet live with Patchen on stage at the old Ivar Theatre (I believe) on Ivar in Hollywood. I well remember Patchen's thunderous opening line to one of his readings..."Lonesome is a long, long time". Another was his lament "Egg into eggplant", . . . "
"The definitive CJS album is Cadence CLP-1020 (again pre-Dent Hand). The group was struggling, most of them living at Allyn Ferguson's house, circa 1960, and were willing to take almost any gig offered. Thus it came to pass that they were employed as a strolling Dixieland band for the grand opening of Pacific Ocean Park (straw hats, red and white striped blazers, white pants, etc.). I was amazed at how well they could play in this genre, given their background and preoccupation with the classical and jazz idioms. When we would go to the bullfights in Tijuana on Sundays, Dent would even sit in with the Mariachis and seemed just as comfortable there too. Hence my total awe of trained and talented musicians, and that extra gift that they have to hear and create music."
Jenny Pirie*, Peter Kastner* and Jeff Mudrick* A Short History of Ocean Park, Ocean Park Community Organization, 1982, (With a 1983 update.) 15pp. 1983, 1982, 1957, 1950s, 1940s, 1920s
" . . . With the City's blessings. Pacific Ocean Park was inaugurated in 1957, an amusement pier that harkened back to Ocean Park's pre-war "carnival" days. And the City took a major step toward assisting real estate development with the establishment of the Santa Monica Redevelopment Agency (RDA)."
Hall Tripp Sprague* The Mail The New Yorker, 22 August, 2005, p. 6
"When I joined the RAND Corporation, in the summer of 1957, Herman Kahn* was a commanding presence there. I recall him on the RAND patio playing-appropriately, perhaps-a game of kriegspiel, a German variant of chess, with the great mathematican Johnny von Neumann* . . . ."
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp.,, 1957
"With the advent of the council-manager government, however, law enforcement became more strict, and a new concept was developed for Ocean Park.
"The Los Angeles Turf Club, operators of the Santa Anita track, sought diversification, already having a project at Lake Arrowhead. Together with a major broadcasting system [CBS, KR], they launched Pacific Ocean Park, which was intended to provide family type amusement. They leased the pier, the no longer used municipal auditorium which had been built on the beach adjoing the pier, and some privately owned property along the Ocean Front Promenade.
"In setting up the project, it was evident that the operators had been encouraged by the success of Disneyland at Anaheim, and by Marineland on the Palos Verdes peninsula, and Pacific Ocean Park had some of the features of both.
"For a time, the operation appeared to be a success, but attendance began falling off, and a new organization took over, cutting the admission price and making most of the amusement devices open to all who had paid at the main gate, without further charge.
"The effort failed, and the operation went into a receivership. Almost endless litigation followed, so confused was the financial structure by that time.
"As of 1974 the whole pier and adjacent structures were in ruins, aside from a small area which was leveled by the owner. From time to time large parts of the pier had been falling into the ocean as timbers decayed, and three major and many minor fires have contributed further to the scene of desolation.
"Demolition has been determined to be the only solution, but the issue is somewhat complicated by the fact that the old amusement zone straddles the line between Los Angeles and Santa Monica. The Santa Monica City Council, however, ordered demolition within its jurisdiction."