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L.A. LIVE by June Rose Gader

L.A. LIVE

By

Pub Date: Oct. 10th, 1980
Publisher: St. Martin's

Los Angeles hardly twitches in this combination tourguide and book of lists. Gader, a native, opens with a mildly amusing visit to Psychic Fun Night at the Temple of Soul-Truth where the resident seer answers patrons written queries by calling out, ""Number one, no, definitely not. Number two, perhaps,"" and so on. But then the lists begin, with places for L.A. ""seekers""--Synanon, est, the Marina City Club apartments for the upwardly mobile, and such week-end attractions as NHL hockey and the Santa Monica Symphony. (Later, in describing South Bay cities, Gader lists titles from the region's magazine; and in discussing neighborhoods, she lists all 31 groups in the Federation of Hillside Canyon Associations.) Gader is also a travel guide, charting the excursions of a nine-woman touring club (""The Norton Simon Museum. . . has a fine art collection. . ."") and highlighting parts of town--East L.A.'s Chicano murals, Chinatown where a duck costs $3 or $4, Little Tokyo where ""Tokyo Kaikan and the Horikawa are two restaurants that draw the largest number of Caucasians."" The people profiled include Kathy, a career employee at Disneyland (somehow Gader makes this sound sinister); Leah, her maid, hostessing a black social club party where husband Ralph is ""one of the tuxedoed blackbirds""; a Beverly Hills matron whose story, conventionally, includes marriage, children, and divorce; and Stars--""Dennis Weaver does not seem at all 'Hollywood.' And yet, of course, that is exactly what he is. . . ."" Pap.