Roberto Alvarez of Van Nuys CA

My best friend back at Hazeltine Ave. Elementary School was Roberto Alvarez. Roberto lived in our apartment complex on Sherman Way. Whenever I think back on those days I always think of Roberto and wonder what happened to him after we lost touch. His family moved away from our apartment and we kept in touch for a little while but eventually we lost track of each other.

I'm wondering if any of my fellow Hazeltine Elementary classmates remember Roberto, or might still be in touch with him. I would love to hear from you if you are. That is Roberto and me in the photo above pointing out toys guns at the camera. In spite of my German helmet we were pretending we were soldiers from the TV show "Combat" and we were killing bad guys. I should add that Roberto was originally from Argentina.

Roberto Alvarez 1960's

The Model Shop, an L.A. Movie

Late last night...well actually 4am, so early this morning I woke up in my living room chair and saw a movie playing on the Turner Classic Movie channel called "Model Shop" (1969). I have the movie before and always try to include it on my list of L.A. movies when someone asks for suggestions. The film covers 24 hours in the day of George Matthews, played by actor Gary Lockwood.

Matthews spots a beautiful woman dressed in white at a car lot. He is intrigued and follows her around until they eventually have a brief encounter. One film writer called the movie "a road movie that doesn't go anywhere." Consequently the star of the movie is really the Los Angeles of the late 1960's. For me that was the appeal of the movie. The story, script and performances are not compelling so you end up not caring about any of these people. Nevertheless it is an interesting depiction of our city and for that worth a bit of your time. Here is a link to the movie review on TCM:

http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=212818&mainArticleId=212815