Arnold,

Those two articles were very interesting. I love anything to do with the history of LA, movies, books, sports, etc. LA Confidential, LA Story, The Big Lebowski, Gangster Squad, China Town, the list is endless of movies about LA. Only New York has more movies made about it or in it. There’s a great book called “The Show” by Roland Lazenby about the history of the Lakers from the Wiz Kid Sid Hartman who built the first NBA dynasty on a shoestring budget using his wits and persuasive abilities all the way to Jack Kent Cooke and Dr. Jerry Buss. Great anecdotes about the people behind the scenes in that one.

Hollywood is glamorous and sickeningly phony and cutthroat and yet incredibly fascinating in that you have the most talented and charismatic people in the world vying for world attention based on pure skill and ambition. The James Goldstein character is an interesting fellow in a marginal way I guess, another forgotten story along the way.

Some interesting quotes in the article you posted:

His home in L.A. is one of architect John Lautner’s legendary residential properties and has appeared in movies like The Big Lebowski (1998).

“I grew up in Milwaukee. I came out to California at the age of 18 to go to college, and then I stayed here.”

“I had grown up in Wisconsin and had been very much impacted by Frank Lloyd Wright, who was also from Wisconsin. My good friend in school lived in a Wright house a block from where I lived, and my father’s business was near the Johnson Wax plant, which was designed by Wright. Before I even closed the purchase, I contacted Lautner and found out more about him—like that he had been working for Frank Lloyd Wright and had the same mentality. My father owned a small department store in Racine, Wisconsin.”


Although I usually find the Hollywood “elite” and all their prancing about in public, desperate for the limelight, to be rather nauseating, I do find the people to be very fascinating once you get to know their real stories, how getting there was not so easy and usually took cunning and smarts and a few good breaks. The Lakers Seating chart, though having absolutely nothing to do with basketball, was also very interesting. I do find myself wanting to know who sits “on the wood” at Staples.

Now with Phil getting old and having cancer and Kobe getting old and having to overcome an impossible injury and the fact that Jim Buss has taken over, as I told bp, these guys are done for a good generation, unless some other Sid Hartman, or Jerry Buss/Jerry West combination should emerge, some impossibly random combination of luck, timing and greatness, should once again grace the franchise, youth coming in to replace the old greats who built this franchise. Buss came in with one goal, to supplant the Celtics as the greatest NBA franchise. Missed it by that much, one championship to tie, another to surpass.

This “LA Story” may sit dormant for a decade and to me it’s a shame. I love history and nostalgia but its no replacement for greatness.


California is the ultimate transient carpet bagger, making big money early in the last century and by war's end, able to buy many of the great sports franchises well established back east, the Lakers, Rams, Giants, Dodgers. A pre-fab paradise built by the Nouveau Riche under the sun. I'm glad I grew up there and consider it a blessing that my Father was able to transition from the RCAF in Ottawa to the booming Aero Space industry in Southern California. What a paradise to grow up in during the 1960's and early 70's, before the nation peaked and began to wither away the idyllic life we once had.