Andy Warhol, Billy Al Bengston and Dennis Hopper at the opening of Marcel Duchamp's 1963 retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum. Photo: Julian Wasser

I came across this great photograph in a recent book review from the Wall Street Journal “When the West Coast Went Pop.”  It reminded me of the wonderfully rich and varied history behind the Norton Simon Museum, which perhaps, few people know.   In reviewing two separate books addressing the West Coast and Pop Art, the opening lines from the WSJ posit:

Where else would Andy Warhol have actually met his conceptual godfather,  Marcel Duchamp, in the flesh but in Los Angeles in the 1960s? The  occasion was the opening of Duchamp’s first American retrospective, in  1963, at the old Pasadena Art Museum.

The Norton Simon Museum has a long illustrious history dating back to the founding of the Pasadena Art Institute in 1924.  It became the Pasadena Art Museum in 1954, and concentrated its efforts on the acquisition and exhibition of modern art.  From the Norton Simon Museum’s website:

In 1964, the Museum decided to expand its programs. It commissioned the  Pasadena-based architectural firm of Ladd Kelsey to design a new  85,000-square-foot structure on the original Carmelita Park site.  On November 24, 1969, the new Pasadena Art Museum opened.  Purchases and donations of modern art included works by Larry Bell, Richard   Diebenkorn, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Ruscha, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.

Gallery of Andy Warhol exhibition, 1970, Pasadena Art Museum.

Over the next two decades the   Pasadena Art Museum earned an international reputation for organizing  and presenting critically acclaimed exhibitions of 20th century art.   They presented the first retrospective of the work of Marcel Duchamp  (with Duchamp attending), exhibitions of Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg,   Joseph Cornell, a landmark Bauhaus exhibition, and many others.

Read the entire history and how in 1975 the name of the institution changed to the Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena at www.nortonsimon.org/museum-history.

Don’t miss  Vermeer’s “Woman with a Lute” on Loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Norton Simon Museum through September 26, 2011.

We are long familiar with the wonderful archive maintained by the Pasadena Museum of History and have even used historic photographs from their research library on the elevator doors in the three Park & Walk garages, as well as on a photo-mural in the Schoolhouse garage entrance.   These photographs tell the rich story of Pasadena’s early years and so we are very pleased to announce the launch of the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration!  Now you can browse through hundreds of digital images of Pasadena people and places – for free online. Check it out at www.pasadenadigitalhistory.com or on Facebook under Pasadena Digital History.

Original Pasadena Schoolhouse - Park & Walk Garage mural

A partnership of Pasadena Public Library, Pasadena Museum of History and Pasadena City College’s Shatford Library, the user-friendly site makes it easy to browse through and download files from the collections of all three institutions. Their mission is to build the largest, comprehensive database of Pasadena images, stories and publications available for students, researchers and history buffs. The collections are currently divided into four categories: Tournament of Roses; Rose Bowl; Busch Gardens; and Old Town Pasadena.  There are currently 87 items in the Old Town Pasadena category, and you can browse them now here.

Help Identify Mystery Photos

Pasadena Digital History needs your help! If you recognize any people, places, or things in one of these photos, please share with them what you know on Flickr.

For more information, e-mail info@pasadenadigitalhistory.com or call (626) 744-4279.

This weekend marks the final weekend of free screenings for the third annual Old Pasadena Film Festival, but we aren’t going out with a bang… more like a shuffle and moan.  Saturday night, July 31st, we are inviting all zombies and their respective families to Central Park (click here for map) for an outdoor screening of the quintessential “zombie movie” George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead.  A $100 gift certificate for spending anywhere in Old Pasadena will be awarded to the most creative zombie attire!

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
(Central Park, 120 S. Raymond Avenue) 8:30pm
Bring your own chairs and blankets.
The first of six “Dead” films directed by George Romero, this 1968 black-and-white zombie movie is considered groundbreaking. It tells the story of Ben and Barbara’s efforts, along with five other people, to survive the night trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse avoiding the mysterious reanimation of the recently dead. Arguably the classic horror film, Night of the Living Dead is on American Film Institute’s list of 100 Most Thrilling Movies.

I was curious about the popularity of zombies in light of the recent record-breaking annual Zombie Walk in Seattle (final count of the undead was 4,233), the great enthusiasm with which the announcement of our movie screening was received, and the fact that there are 11 million results on Google for “Night of the Living Dead”  and 43 million for “zombie”.  Even communications students in the Elon in Los Angeles program will be attending the Old Pasadena Film Festival on Saturday with a choice of viewing NOLD (that’s Night of the Living Dead for the un-initiated) or All About Eve at One Colorado Courtyard (click here for map), arguably another must-see classic.

I checked the Google Trends for “zombie” and was intrigued to find that the Philippines beat the United States in search volume.  More importantly, even with all of the Twilight hype, I compared trends and people search on “zombie” one third more than “vampire”!  So now you know.

The Zombie Research Society informs us that May is official Zombie Awareness Month, and that many zombie films are set in May, including Night of the Living Dead.  As a point of reference, the Society’s mission is three-fold:  Science; Survival (and I quote, “surviving the coming zombie pandemic“); and Art.  I will end this post with their catchy slogan: “What You Don’t Know Can Eat You!”

Google image results for NOLD

Google image results for Zombie

In a letter from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, we learned that our plea for votes may not have gone unheard… well, maybe our plea and a few others. The National Trust for Historic Preservation won $200,000 in the Members Project from American Express and TakePart! And it gets even better… Because the intense competition in the Arts & Culture category ended in a tie between the two organizations, the generous people at American Express have awarded $200,000 to Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, too.

For more information, read MEMBERS PROJECT ANNOUNCES FIRST ROUND WINNERS TO SHARE $1.2 MILLION IN FUNDING FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS.

From the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s message:

Dear Friends,

After twelve long weeks and a photo finish, the winners have finally been announced in American Express’ Members Project. And we’re thrilled to announce that we won!

Voting ended on May 23rd with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy each showing 43% of the vote. After a week-long auditing of the thousands of votes cast, the official announcement came yesterday that there was indeed a tie in the “Arts and Culture” category and that both organizations would be awarded the $200,000 prize. We couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

It’s been tough battling with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy these last three months, since we are usually close collaborators. RTC sees unused rail corridors as literal pathways to our cultural past. By reopening these unused and often abandoned lines as public rail-trails, they’re not only re-stitching the transportation fabric of our country, they are preserving a tangible connection to our nation’s railroad heritage and improving our quality of life today. So we’re proud of our ally, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. But we’re proudest of a few other allies – our members and friends who took time out of their week to vote for us to win this generous grant from American Express. The picture in this email says it all to those who voted (as well as the many of you who attempted to vote and were thwarted): THANK YOU! We simply could not have won without the support of the folks who voted for us so faithfully. And since the voting ended in a statistical dead heat, we know that each and every vote mattered!

In a statement released yesterday, National Trust Acting President David J. Brown announced that we will use our winnings to expand our online education programs and reach new, younger and broader audiences with preservation’s message of sustainability and economic vitality. A very fitting use of winnings from an online campaign, since that medium will be critical to our efforts to introduce a new generation to historic preservation and the satisfaction that comes with working together to save places that matter. Again, thanks for your efforts on our behalf.

Gratefully, The National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Vertical Wine Bistro on Raymond Avenue

Old Pasadena is home to two varieties of the Tabebuia, or Trumpet Tree as it is more commonly known.  There are approximately 100 different species of the Tabebuia, mostly from South America and other tropical locales.  Tabebuia chrysotricha , one of the many species with yellow blooms, is the national flower of Brazil, and Tabebuia rosea, with a pink bloom, is the national tree of El Salvador.  The wood from the Tabebuia tree, known as Ipê, is in high demand for furniture, particularly in the United States, and conservationists have expressed concern that Ipê wood from the Amazon rainforest continues to be harvested illegally.

De Lacey Avenue

Currently the Golden Trumpet Trees along Raymond Avenue and the Pink Trumpet Trees along Holly, Union and De Lacey Avenue are in full bloom. Although the slow arrival of Spring seems to have impacted the timing and perhaps the amount of blooms this year, the vibrant color and quantity of blossoms are still glorious and well worth a visit to see.

Here are some photographs from our archives and some recent shots of our colorful flowering trees.

POP Champagne & Dessert Bar on Union Street

Lulu Brandt in the Van der Vort Building on Raymond Avenue

Bird Pick Tea on De Lacey Avenue

On Friday, January 1, 2010 at 8:00am, millions of spectators around the world celebrated the New Year with the 121st Rose Parade, themed 2010: A Cut above the Rest. With nearly a half mile of the 5.5-mile parade route and the greatest concentration of spectators along the route running through the heart of Old Pasadena, the volume of trash left behind is enormous. Yet before noon on New Year’s Day, less than two hours after the last float passed through Old Pasadena, the District was completely clean. With a team of less than 20 people, Anna Addis, VP of Operations for Old Pasadena Management District (OPMD) had the streets and sidewalks spic and span. By noon, merchants were able to open for business without their patrons having to step over trash and debris.

Anna developed her own post-parade cleanup plan three years ago. Using push brooms, leaf blowers, one street sweeper, trash bags and good old-fashioned elbow grease, Anna and her team of 10 Ambassador Guides from Block-by-Block and 3 Clean Street team members initiated the plan right after the end of the parade. Two Block-by-Block staff members were assigned to each block of Colorado Boulevard in Old Pasadena.

Anna and each Block-by-Block staff member were armed with a broom or leaf blower, and together they pushed all of the trash off the sidewalks into the street. From there, the Clean Street crew picked up the trash using the street sweeper and large trash bags. Before noon, the boulevard was clean and ready for business. The transformation is nothing short of amazing, as the attached pictures will attest. The work is not limited to Colorado Boulevard. All of the streets within the 21-block Historic Business District were addressed after Colorado Boulevard is clean.

Jack Huang, owner of several restaurants in the District (Villa SORRISO, Bar Celona, and ix-tapa Cantina), said that he cannot believe how quickly Anna and her crew got things back into shape in the District. “I saw Anna and the Ambassadors pushing brooms on New Year’s Day and it seemed like in no time at all the area was completely cleaned up. All you have to do is look across Arroyo Parkway from our new restaurant ix-tapa Cantina on Colorado Blvd. to see how aggressively OPMD attacks the issue within the District. Colorado Boulevard is a mess from Arroyo Parkway east. The difference is night and day.”

Alec Klebanov, Store Manager of Starbucks Coffee said, “Although we stayed open all night, we are so busy that we had no time to deal with the trash in front of our store, and it was terrible. The OPMD team jumped on it the minute the parade is over and we really appreciate their effort. It sure enhances the image of our store and Old Pasadena to have the streets and sidewalks free of trash and debris so quickly.”

This cleanup effort is just another example of the work OPMD does on behalf of the property owners, residents and visitors of Old Pasadena. Getting the clean up done so soon after the parade not only enhances the image of the City but it helps boost the revenue Old Pasadena merchants receive from the Rose Bowl events. It also makes it a more pleasant environment for our residents.

If you have any comments or suggestions with regard to this or any other subject, feel free to contact OPMD at (626) 356-9725 or email Anna Addis.

Happy New Year!

Posted by:  Anna Addis, VP of Operations, OPMD

For more photos of the pre-parade and parade spectacle, the LATimes has two comprehensive photo galleries online. Check out the gorgeous “panoramic views” that the LATimes has created in 360 degrees from several different points of view before and during the parade.  The Whittier Daily News also reported on the enormity of the post-parade cleanup.

Parade Route Campout

Clean Street Street Sweeper

Clean Street trash pick-up

Interesting Headline

From the Pasadena Star-News: Jennifer Jones Simon, Academy Award-winning actress who transformed the Norton Simon Museum, dies.

Until my boss Steve Mulheim pointed this out, I was unaware (as some of you may be) that Jennifer Jones was married to Norton Simon.  She is credited with bringing Frank Gehry on for the completion of the $3 million renovation of the Norton Simon Museum and with instituting a lending program to local arts institutions, including the Armory Center.  You can read her entire obituary here.

The Shops on Holly

Old Pasadena’s Holly Street, known for its unique independent boutiques and restaurants has been officially donned “The Shops on Holly.”  Signage has been installed on the brick building above where the delightful Lula Mae store is located.  I am told by property owner Jim Plotkin that soon to follow is a retro-styled clock installed at the corner of Holly Street and Fair Oaks Avenue.  We will follow up with a picture and more details when it is installed sometime within the next few weeks. To quote Pasadena Now: The street is perfect for shoppers seeking something different, a great foil to the chain stores on Colorado Blvd.

Holiday Spirit

I took a few photos of some holiday décor that caught my eye recently.  While checking on the new signage on Holly Street, I took a picture of the vintage Santa Claus and decorations in the always charming windows of Lula Mae at 100 N. Fair Oaks Avenue.  Along Colorado Blvd., I also found the ubiquitous blue boxes in front of Tiffany’s gorgeous art deco doors to be very stylish decked out with matching live Christmas trees (posted above).  Of course, these are only two examples of the wonderful holiday spirit that abounds in Old Pasadena.

Indiana Colony 1874 - Stereoscopic picture

1.     Present day Pasadena was settled by a group of Indianans seeking fairer weather following the exceptionally cold winter of 1872-73. The Indiana Colony was incorporated on January 31, 1874, and was later renamed Pasadena because the name “Indiana Colony” was rejected by the Postmaster General.

2.     The official paint color for all street furniture in Old Pasadena is “Tavern Square Green“, as stipulated in the Streetscapes and Alley Walkways Plan.

Original Schoolhouse

3.     The Schoolhouse parking garage is named for the Fair Oaks schoolhouse, which was relocated shortly after the turn of the century when it became exposed to the bustling activity of the developing center of town and potential danger to the children.

4.     The Old Pasadena Property-based Business Improvement District (PBID) was renewed by petition vote in 2005 for another five year term, by an overwhelming 94% approval by the property owners.  The Continuation Campaign is getting underway for the 2010 renewal.

5.     In 1929 Colorado Street (now Colorado Boulevard) was widened by 14 feet on both sides. Many of the elaborate Victorian faces of the buildings were lost to reconstruction and replaced with Spanish and Art Deco designs.

Old Pasadena Clean Team

6.     The annual Tournament of Roses Parade attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators to Colorado Boulevard and they begin lining the parade route at noon on December 31 in preparation for the New Year’s Day kick-off at 8:00am.  Old Pasadena’s Clean Team has the streets and sidewalks clean by noon so that merchants can open for business and visitors can enjoy shopping and dining.

7.     The Ambassador Guides patrol the District walking a total of miles in one year that more than circle the earth.

8.     Many people know the downtown area as “old town”, but the team of people working on the revitalization plan in the 1980s christened the area “Old Pasadena” to distinguish it from so many other “old towns” and mark the new beginning.

9.  17,434,560 square feet of sidewalk in Old Pasadena are pressure washed annually.

Rose Parade ca. 1905

10.  The first Tournament of Roses featuring rose-bedecked carriages was staged in 1890 by members of Pasadena’s Valley Hunt Club, former residents of the East and Midwest eager to showcase their new home’s mild winter weather.

11.  The intersection of Fair Oaks Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in Old Pasadena is the zero-zero, east-west, north-south postal division of Pasadena.

12.  The recently redesigned website oldpasadena.org receives as many as 1,300 unique visitors a day and the average time spent on the site is 10 minutes.

Armory Center for the Arts

13.  The building that now houses the Armory Center for the Arts on Raymond above Holly was originally built for the California National Guard.  The old brick building on Holly across from the Pasadena Senior Center was the National Guard motor depot.

14.  1,992,090 cars enter and exit the three City-owned Park & Walk garages annually: Schoolhouse, Marriott, and De Lacey.

15.  The Braley Building on South Raymond Avenue was originally constructed in 1906 as a bicycle factory and its “wheel-and-spokes” motif remains to this day throughout the architectural details, both inside and out. The building has just begun renovation by its new owners, the Church of Scientology.

Green Street - Ficus trees

16.  At the same time that Colorado Boulevard was being expanded in 1929, Kansas Street was also widened and renamed Green Street, now known for its gorgeous canopy of Ficus trees, which are now lit year round.

17.  Colorado Boulevard, which runs straight through Old Pasadena, was a segment of the original Route 66.

18.  123 trash cans are emptied twice daily by our Clean Team.

Williams Store

19.  Restaurant Barney’s LTD was named for “Barney” Williams, who did double duty as the postmaster, and ran the first general store.  His home place was on the site now occupied by Central Park.

20.     Old Pasadena receives 30,000 weekend visitors on average.

City Hall ca. 1902 - The Container Store today

21.  In 1902 City Hall occupied the building on the corner of Union Street and Fair Oaks Avenue.  City Hall was relocated several times.  In 2003 the building was retrofitted and remodeled to resemble the original building. It  is now home to The Container Store.

22.  Pasadena means “crown of the valley” in the Minnesota Chippewa language.  Dr. Thomas Elliott, one of the city’s founders, contacted an Indian missionary friend in Michigan who had worked with the Minnesota Chippewa Indians and submitted the name for translation.

Santa Fe Station is now the site of La Grande Orange Cafe.

23.  The Metro Gold Line Del Mar Station was originally the Santa Fe Depot of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway.  La Grande Orange Café now occupies the original station building.

24.  Built in 1887, the three-story red brick Victorian at 107 S. Fair Oaks Avenue was a showroom for a stage coach or carriage company. In the early 1900s it was converted to the Hotel Mikado and served the Japanese American community. In the 1940s it became Pasadena’s first black-owned hotel, the Hotel Carver which housed a prominent jazz club in the basement, and finally closed in 1985.  Now several boutique shops occupy the street level retail spaces including Jumping Jellyfish, Bianca Luce, Rising Sun Denim, Elements Kitchen, and Images Nail and Spa. Check out Pasadena Daily Photo’s blog post “Hotel Carver: Then and Now” with a great photo of the building.

Raymond Theater

25.  “Pulp Fiction” (1994) shot scenes in Kendall Alley (off of Union Street and Raymond Avenue) and the exterior of the Raymond Theater at the corner of Raymond Avenue and Holly Street.  The historic theater was also used in the filming of “Spinal Tap” (1984).  Kendall Alley was also a location for the filming of “Paper Moon” (1973) and more recently, “Live Free and Die Hard” (2007), which also featured Brenart Café.

Historic photos:  Courtesy of the Pasadena Museum of History Archives.

This year’s edition of the Old Pasadena Film Festival included a very special occasion.  We were offered the opportunity to present a recently restored version of the Mary Pickford silent film Daddy Long-Legs (1919), her 226th film appearance at the age of 27, with a newly commissioned score composed by Maria Newman.  This particular film coined Mary Pickford as “America’s Sweetheart” and one of the most beloved actresses in history.

The composer Maria Newman was born into one of the most famous and influential musical families in Hollywood. The youngest daughter of the nine-time Academy Award-winning composer/conductor, Alfred Newman (The King and I), she grew up in a family of renowned musicians and composers, including Randy Newman (Toy Story).  Ms. Newman has received numerous commissions from the Mary Pickford Foundation to compose original music for newly restored vintage classic films of the silent era.

So it was that on a balmy Saturday evening in Old Pasadena, members of the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra performed the exhilarating musical score to the silent film under the direction of Maria Newman.  On July 11th, the film was screened for  a capacity crowd in the Courtyard at One Colorado and the musicians received a warm standing ovation at the end of their performance.

We have received wonderfully enthusiastic praise for this event and heard from many people who treasured this magical evening. Don’t miss the last weekend of the 2009 Old Pasadena Film Festival featuring An American in Paris and Gypsy on Friday, July 24th, West Side Story and Twilight on Saturday, July 25th.

Due to the success of this first time event, Old Pasadena Restaurant Week has been extended another week until Monday, June 15th.  Don’t miss this chance to try a favorite locale or experience something new.  Either way, our restauranteurs have put together some very enticing prix fixe menu selections for you to choose.  Just check our online directory of participating restaurants and menus.  Best of all, 10% of event proceeds will go to Union Station Homeless Services.

Please help us to get your feedback and continue to improve this event for next year’s edition.  Take our short Restaurant Week survey and you will be entered into a drawing for a $50 Gift Certificate to the restaurant of your choice*.

We are so pleased to have received such a tremendous response from the public and from the media.  Here are just a few examples:

• LAist.com
• Hometown Pasadena
  
• Good Food on KCRW
• LA Times blog: Daily Dish

Those of us here in our Old Pasadena Management office have thoroughly enjoyed rediscovering the restaurants of Old Pas during this event. It has been hard to decide each day which venue to visit for our daily lunch outing. We have enjoyed confirming that there are some great options for eating out in Old Pasadena… and maybe even overindulged in our efforts. This has been a great excuse to enjoy a lunch time dessert since it is included in the three-course meal!

* Your choice of a restaurant that participated in Restaurant Week.