All posts by braddon

Aboard the Final Santa Fe Super Chief and the First Amtrak

By Braddon Mendelson

1971. My family was invited to Maryland to attend my cousin’s wedding, where my sister was to be a member of the bridal party. My mother decided it would be a great experience for us if we made a portion of the journey via train, a journey she had taken in the opposite direction as a young girl to visit her cousins in Los Angeles. On April 30, 1971, my mother, father, brother, sister, and I boarded the Santa Fe Super Chief passenger train #18 at Union Station in Los Angeles for a two-night excursion to Chicago (from where it would be a short flight to complete the second leg of the trip.)

Boarding coupon from the last run of the Santa Fe Super Chief. Now part of the collection at the California State Railroad Museum.

It was an exciting adventure for a nine-year-old boy. The suite we occupied in Pullman sleeper car #186 joined together bedrooms A and B.  It had eight bunks and two tiny bathrooms. Four of us slept on the lower bunks. My brother, Daryl, slept above me on an upper bunk, a memory he recalls vividly, recounting, “The ceiling was so very close to my face!”

I remember roaming through narrow passageways to explore different sections of the train: the dining car, lounge car, chair car, and observation car at the end. My favorite, however, was the dome car, the glass walls and ceiling of its upstairs deck affording a three-hundred, sixty-degree view of the surrounding territory. One could see whereto we were going and from whence we came. The beautiful vistas of the southwest surrounded us in hues of reds, yellows, and browns, canopied by a clear blue sky — a living diorama of color.

The whole family reacted viscerally to the power and beauty of transport by rail, the rhythmic clatter of the iron-on-iron wheels on tracks, the shifting scenery pushing past the windows in perspective — the closer landmarks at high speeds and the barely moving mountains in the distance – the sight of the last car following behind the arc of the train as we rounded a curve, but none of us fully understood at the time the significant role this particular ride would play in the history of the American railroad.

Snoozing in the Lounge Car. (l to r) My grandparents Jack and Sylvia Rose, mother Judith Mendelson, sister Margo Mendelson. Photo by Donald Mendelson.

On May 1, 1971, we woke up to find a notice had been placed under the door of our room, indicating that Santa Fe was officially out of the passenger train business, and operations were now effectively in the hands of Amtrak, a public-private enterprise. This would be the very last time anyone would ride aboard the legendary Santa Fe Super Chief.

To Passengers enroute Chicago:
Due to the operation of this train by AMTRAK, effective May 1st, you will arrive in Chicago at the Union Station, and not at the Dearborn Station.
If you desire, your train escort who will board at Kansas City, will be pleased to send a telegram on your behalf to notify friends or relatives who may plan on meeting you upon arrival.
We regret any personal inconvenience this may have caused you.

Santa Fe Railway

My parents later explained to me the historic nature of our ride, but it was not until research I did while sorting through photos and souvenirs after their deaths that I grasped the enormity of our adventure. The Santa Fe Super Chief was referred to as the “Train of the Stars,” the preferred manner of transporting Hollywood actors and executives across the country in style. The movie “3 for Bedroom C” starring Gloria Swanson was filmed almost entirely aboard the train. Presidents and dignitaries had used the Super Chief to traverse the nation from east to west and back. And my own family and I were on its very last run, an excursion indelibly etched into its history. We departed Los Angeles on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, and arrived in Chicago on Amtrak – a once-in-a-lifetime feat of railroad prestidigitation.

Reboarding the train, now operated by Amtrak, after stop at Albuquerque station. (l ro r) The author, his brother Daryl, mother Judith, sister Margo, grandparents Sylvia and Jack Rose, porter, unidentified. Photo by Donald Mendelson.

My mom saved everything from everywhere she ever went for her entire life, and ephemera from this trip was no exception. The receipts, ticket stubs and brochures were still in good condition. As they were of no benefit to anyone in a storage box in my garage, I scanned them for myself and then contacted the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. The curator agreed to accept the original items for their collection. These bits and pieces of a bygone chapter in the history of the railroad will be preserved forever, outlasting my memories.

As this fiftieth anniversary approaches, we can all wish a “Happy Birthday” to Amtrak, but let’s not forget it also marks the end of an important era in American transportation.

Related links:

California State Railroad Museum

Santa Fe “Super Chief” 1954 educational film

About Amtrak

Super Chief Wikipedia Entry

Judy Garland -  On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe (Harvey Girls, 1946)

Poetry Book


I took Jerry Danielsen’s photo for the back cover of “Background Noise,” his terrific book of poetry.

Jerry and I first met in 2013, and we have since collaborated on a number of projects.

Cover of Background Noise

If you would like to own a copy of “Background Noise,” you can purchase directly from Amazon.com

My Town

(Note: I wrote this essay in 2010 as part of a larger, satirical piece. Not much has changed.)

Whenever I describe my community to someone, I provide a disclaimer explaining that although we’re located within the Santa Clarita Valley, Stevenson Ranch is a suburb situated in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County and not in the City of Santa Clarita, itself.

For some, this distinction may seem minor, a tweaking of semantics. But the truth of the matter is the City of Santa Clarita is perceived as somewhat of a punchline to the rest of the world. Santa Clarita is an anachronism, a throw back to Mayberry, a place ruled by white, Christian townsfolk. But where Mayberry was quaint and benign in its segregated tales of small town life, the hate and discrimination spewing from the Santa Clarita City Hall makes for a backwards, out of-touch community to be avoided at all cost. (The tourism department can use that on their posters, if they want.)

Culturally, the City of Santa Clarita lacks an identity. On one hand, it wants to emulate the charm of Mayberry, with its cowboy poetry contests and Founders’ Day festivals. On the other hand, it strives to be Beverly Hills North, with upscale boutiques, exclusive clubs and spas. Perhaps this dichotomy, itself, is its identity. “The Town that Doesn’t Know What it is.” Which, I might add, sounds a lot better than “Awesometown,” the tagline heard and seen in recent advertisements, touting Santa Clarita as a great place to live.

To be fair, going by its physical attributes, alone, the City of Santa Clarita is a beautiful place. There are plenty of green, well-maintained parks, public swimming pools and a variety of massage parlors from which to choose, affording individuals the right to have one happy ending after another, at the time and place of their choosing.

But “awesome”? What’s so awesome about a city that has a councilman who refers to himself as a “proud racist,” and fellow council members who refuse to denounce him? What’s awesome about one of their colleagues who breaks campaign ethics rules to get elected and then pleads ignorance of the law?

When the city council voted unanimously to pass seven non-binding resolutions supporting discriminatory federal anti-immigration legislation — including “English only” — was everyone telling themselves how “awesome” they were? Under what section of their job descriptions does it instruct these city officials to endorse pending federal legislation on behalf of their constituents?

Council members should represent everyone under their jurisdiction, not just fanatical extremists. Their job is to build roads, maintain parks and keep citizens safe, and to pay for it all, they must collect revenues by attracting new businesses to the community. Unfortunately, when demagogic yokels are in charge, they have the reverse effect.

One can only imagine all the small businesses the council members have chased away by imbuing public policy with their own prejudices. Why would any company with a Spanish-speaking clientele, for instance, want to come anywhere near the City of Santa Clarita? Or what about the business people who already work here, who have to explain to their customers that the opinions expressed by their elected officials do not represent the views of their company?

There is a huge Latin American supermarket on Lyons Avenue. By all accounts, Vallarta is a successful operation that hires hundreds of locals, and serves the needs of the entire community, including those who speak Spanish. I am familiar with this particular establishment because my wife often sends me there to purchase a half-moon of delicious queso fresco, or, as the Anglocentric City Council would prefer to call it, “Cheese from that Place Across the Border.”

One of the ironies of the whole English-as-the-Official-Language movement is that English is made up of words and phrases that have been adopted from languages all over the world. Thus, which parts of the English language would EOL advocates choose to deem “official”? Which parts would they keep, and which would they toss out? If we were to remove the words that have permeated into our daily nomenclature from French, Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese and Greek, our lexicon would suffer and so, too, the continued advancement of our democracy.

English is a language in flux, continually developing, flowing like lava over the vastness of our ideas and thoughts, filling in gaps and holes, creating new words and phrases and assigning new connotations to old ones. The fact that most EOL Advocates don’t believe in evolution is immaterial; English is constantly evolving, with or without them. To aggrandize English over all other languages is to inhibit the flourishing of thoughts and ideas and progress.

The reason the Unites States has no official language is because for over two-hundred years we have been free to interpolate concepts and ideas drawn from every corner of the world into our own consciousness, facilitating our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness at a level beyond any other nation in history. And the only reason one would wish to make English “official,” is to institutionalize discrimination against those for whom English is not their first language — and in Santa Clarita, a large portion of those citizens happen to be Hispanic.

By passing these non-binding resolutions, the city officials are able to extol English-language superiority, while convincing themselves they are not engaging in discrimination. “You do not speak the Official Language, therefore you are less-than-equal to me, but I am not a racist.”

Did the council really think it was a good idea to endorse proposed legislation — non-binding or otherwise — that tells employees and customers of companies like Vallarta that they are not equal to everyone?

Right now, there is a greater than 60% vacancy rate for commercial property located within the City of Santa Clarita. Sure, some of it can be attributed to the economy, but a large factor is that many companies simply have not bought into the concept of “Awesometown.”

There is nothing awesome about discrimination; it is as bad for business as it is for humanity.

In the ten-plus years I have lived in the Santa Clarita Valley (in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County — not the City of Santa Clarita), there has been a movement by the City to annex my town — essentially transferring governmental responsibility for the community of Stevenson Ranch to the auspices of the City of Santa Clarita. It has shown up on the ballot in various incarnations every couple of elections.

Why would anyone vote for this? Right now we are governed by the five-member County Board of Supervisors, who do not try to force their opinions on anyone. It’s a very thin layer of bureaucracy, and relatively easy to get the ear of any of the supervisors. We enjoy protection of the county Sheriff and Fire Departments.

Does anyone really think our taxes would go down if we become part of Awesometown? Or that our home values won’t take a hit?

Our community of Stevenson Ranch — located in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County and not in the City of Santa Clarita, by the way — has done just fine without that added layer of awesomeness from them city folk.

BLM

Did MAD TV Rip Me Off?

After producing and directing “The Riot Act” — a live sketch comedy show in Hollywood in 1995 — I sent a couple of the sketches I wrote to the producers of MAD TV as samples of my work.  Years later, I discovered they had subsequently produced a sketch that was incredibly similar to one of the scripts I sent them.  I have assembled the two videos back-to-back for comparison.  You be the judge.  What do you think?

Santa Clarita Philharmonic

I was recently asked to photograph a concert performance of the Santa Clarita Philharmonic Orchestra.  In case you didn’t know that Santa Clarita has its own philharmonic orchestra, it is an incredible ensemble of local musicians, whose mission statement is to “preserve the art of orchestral music while providing the opportunity for amateur, retired, professional, semi-professional, and student musicians to have a rewarding outlet for their talent.”

It was a tremendous honor to photograph this event and I hope you enjoy some of the photos I took.

More information on the SC Philharmonic.

Typewriter

Diversity in Casting

(Stevenson Ranch, CA) — Writer-Director Braddon Mendelson today proposed a one-sentence notice for authors to add to their TV and film scripts regarding the casting of minorities in movies and television productions.

The proposed wording reads:

Author’s Note on Casting Diversity:
Where a specific character’s race or ethnicity are not pertinent to the story, the author encourages casting the role from a diverse selection of performers.

Mendelson said the statement could be contained on a page following the title page.

“While this won’t solve the problem of providing more roles to minority actors,” explained Mendelson, “my hope is that it will remind filmmakers to be conscious about diversity when making casting decisions.”

Mendelson has forwarded copies of the Author’s Note on Casting to the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA.

theater and marquee

UPA Documentary Website

Anyone who has seen a Mr. Magoo cartoon is familiar with the iconic mid-century modern style of United Productions of America, aka UPA Pictures.  Founded in the 1940s by former Disney employees, for over three decades UPA set the standard for artistic expression in animation.  In addition to Magoo, UPA produced hundreds of animated shorts, documentaries, commercials and a handful of features. A new documentary is in the works, “The Boing Heard Round the World,”  that will present the story of UPA to a mass audience.

I was honored to have been chosen to create the website for the documentary.  The site, in addition to promoting the film, is arguably the most comprehensive compendium of UPA history and information available on the web.  Perhaps that’s because the executive producer and director of the documentary — and the person who hired me to create the website — is Tee Bosustow, son of Stephen Bosustow, one of the UPA founders.  Thanks you Tee, for entrusting me with this project.

The three beautiful pages of artwork that bring you into the site were created by artist Fenway Fan and art director G. Garry Black faithfully designed with the mid-century modern look of UPA — with a tiny bit of added web animation done by yours truly.

Enter the theater and enjoy.

Woman Arrested for Counterfeiting Blames TheSkunk.org

A woman was arrested for counterfeiting in Tennessee after she tried passing off a fake five dollar bill at a market.  The clerk called police, who arrested her after discovering she was trying to make a purchase with a counterfeit bill, both sides of which appeared to have been printed with a home printer and then pasted together.   She was also in possession of a fake hundred-dollar bill in her purse that had been glued together with one side upside down.  Authorities subsequently found in her home a printer, reams of printer paper and thousands of dollars in fake bills that wouldn’t even be believable as monopoly money.

Her defense was that President Obama had passed a law making it okay to print your own money.  According to CBS Washington, she told police, “I don’t give a ****, all these other b****** get to print money, so I can too!” She was apparently referring to an article I wrote for TheSkunk.org in 2009 titled “Obama Wants Citizens to Print Their Own Money.”

It’s sometimes nice to see how far a reach my influence has.