Recently in Around Ontario Category

The official Set ONTario Free logo is above, designed by Ontario City Hall in support of its campaign to reclaim LA/Ontario International Airport.

Below is a response by Len Talan, who posted it on my Facebook page with the crack, "What the Set ONTario Free campaign is really about." He's a Venice resident whose page lists himself as a fan of LAX. I like the rats that replace the bird in flight.

The manger scene along the Euclid Avenue median in Ontario makes a nice image for today, don't you think?

Meanwhile, Sunday's column, about a particularly inspired Ontario council meeting, can be read here.

Photo by Kristine Suminski

This front-yard Christmas lights "runway" combines with a message aimed at the city of L.A., which owns Ontario International Airport. Even more pointedly, the whole thing decorates the house of Ontario Mayor pro tem Debra Dorst Porada. She's had the runway in past Christmases, but this year it fit perfectly with the message.

Now, can the message be read from airplanes overhead...?

The painter and Chaffey High alum was honored at Tuesday's Ontario City Council meeting. Here are links to Friday's column and to his website. I shot this photo in the City Hall lobby.

In a self-referential bonus, below is a photo of me taking photos. Put the two angles on this scene together and the result could be almost Cubist.

Photo: Otto Kroutil

Driving in northwest Ontario recently, I was surprised to spot these two Tyrannosaurus rex sculptures in a backyard amid jungle-like foliage at the street corner. After shooting this photo while at a stop sign (at 8th, if memory serves), I drove on, nervously.

Note the barbed wire. Presumably the homeowner put it there to keep the dinosaurs in.

Seen on Fourth Street in Ontario: a three-wheeled car.

Reader Chris Peterson found an Ontario Daily Report from Nov. 24, 1963 while cleaning a neighbor's garage and brought it by our newsroom for me (along with a Sept. 15, 1941 San Francisco Examiner).

The Daily Report issue is dominated by stories about President Kennedy's death two days earlier, among them a story with the prescient headline "Death Seen For Oswald." There's also an ad for "Lawrence of Arabia" at Ontario's Ritz Theater.

But Peterson drew my attention to a photo in the Sports section. Future Chaffey teacher, Ontario mayor and county supervisor Gary Ovitt was honored as Chaffey's junior varsity quarterback. He was described as "most inspirational." I'm not sure if this was a taste of things to come or a career peak, but there it is.

I emailed the clipping to Ovitt, who commented: "Who do I look most like from the Addams Family?"

A few small, family-run convenience stores hang in there, sometimes in older residential neighborhoods where 7-Eleven can't be bothered. Ontario's D Street east of Euclid had two such stores within two blocks of each other, Ryan's (at Campus) and Lisa's (at Monterey). Ryan's recently closed and is for lease. Lisa's remains in business.

Also breakfast and dinner. Shot at Ontario's Liberty Burgers.

Happy Independence Day!

This is La Loma "pure California brandy, 100 proof," manufactured in December 1930, according to the label, at "U.S. Fruit Distillery No. 400, Guasti, Cal."

Although the bottle says it's a full pint, there's only a smidge left after eight decades of evaporation and leakage.

I was gifted with the brandy, as were my colleagues Liset Marquez and Thomas Cordova, on a visit last week to the stately Latimer house in Ontario. The home at 945 N. Euclid Ave. had just received official recognition for its restoration and we wanted to see it.

The family, which made its money in citrus, has roots going back to the Chaffey family and has an appointed mayor, an elected mayor and a city treasurer in its family tree.

To cap our visit, Maggie and Frank Latimer gave us the brandy from the basement. Maggie's packrat ancestors had kept seven cases of the stuff and she and her husband hand them out to selected visitors.

I think my colleagues took theirs home, whether for libation or display purposes I know not. I'm keeping mine at my desk. As I don't drink it's not of much practical use, but I like the idea of playing old-time newspaperman by keeping some hootch close at hand.

Ontario City Hall underwent a $22 million renovation, as noted in Friday's column and in a story earlier this week. Here are two views of the building, one pre-renovation, the other after, both courtesy of City Hall.

I was catching up on John Bredehoft's quirky IE blog and found a funny post from October (read it here) about what happened when he Googled the Ontario appliance store Cagle's: Besides the address and phone number, he got information on how to get there via Amtrak. Heh heh.

(There are only two days per week that one could take the Sunset Limited from Tucson, Ariz., to shop at Cagle's, Bredehoft discovered. Good to know.)

You may recall that Ontario Music closed in July 2010 after 50 years of instrument sales, repairs and music lessons. The good news is the store reopened on Jan. 2 under new ownership. The new name, as reader Dennis Sampson's photo above illustrates, is Gard's Ontario Music.

Gard's is a longtime Glendora store that took over the Ontario location. Visit their website here. I'll have more about Gard's in my Sunday column.

When I wrote about Ontario Music's closing on my blog, it drew more than 40 comments of condolence, which you can see here. (My column with all the details also garnered comment too but those have disappeared.)

I'm pleased to announce the store's reopening here where its fans can welcome Ontario Music back.

Rob Strauss did a piece for the Pasadena NPR affiliate (89.3) about the Ontario Nativity scenes, and it turned out well, despite using me as a source. You can read the text and listen to the audio here.

The Royal Tahitian operated in Ontario from 1960 to 1967 at Whispering Lakes Golf Course. A history appears in my Sunday column.

At top is an undated postcard image; the reverse gives the address as 2525 E. Riverside Drive, the phone numbers as YUkon 4-4610 and NAtional 9-8487 and says, "Set Amidst 250 Acres of Tropical Plants and Lagoons." Above left is a 1965 ad from the phone book. Above right is a thumbnail image of the 1967 summer schedule; click on the image for larger view. Below is the James Brown portion of the ad. Ow! Good God. All these images are courtesy of the Ontario City Library's Model Colony History Room.

Below are photos shot Aug. 25 on my visit to the fenced-off building, which has been used as the golf course clubhouse since the late 1960s, until being closed and fenced off in April in preparation for demolition, which will occur any day now.

At top is an exterior view, looking north. Above is an interior view from within the pro shop, looking east. At left is the footbridge, a remnant of the Royal Tahitian days.

Did you ever visit the Royal Tahitian, or were you there later for golf, a wedding or a banquet? Leave your comments, please. The tiki gods demand it.

You can fly nonstop to Ontario! Yes, our Ontario, not the other one. Seen on East Burnside Road in downtown Portland, Ore.

Wednesday's column (read it on the jump) is about the circumstances in the 1960s that led Ontario to accept a takeover of Ontario International Airport by Los Angeles.

Two airlines operated at that time, Western and Bonanza. The only flights were to San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Phoenix and L.A. That's service to only three states, including ours! They don't make international airports like that anymore.

Do you remember the Ontario airport of the 1960s, '70s or even '80s? Clue us in -- what was it like?

After 50 years of instrument sales, rentals, repairs and lessons, Ontario Music, 215 W. G St., is closing. The final date is probably July 31. I'll have more about the store in Friday's column, but in the meantime, if you've ever visited the store, feel free to post a comment.

* January 2011: The store has reopened under new owners.

Reader (and friend) Jason Winston says:

"My wife saw this on her Facebook page, and we really were stumped at how many items could be on an Ontario bucket list."

Hmm.

1) Vince's Spaghetti letting you make the spaghetti.

Readers?

Friday's column about Bethel Church of Christ's history and bell tower had a nifty photo gallery by my colleague Jennifer Cappuccio Maher. Here's the link to the 28 (!) photos.

Geico doesn't seem to know it, but these "I'm here in Rancho Cucamonga" billboards are both placed miles from Rancho Cucamonga in Ontario.

The one at left is on Mountain Avenue between I and J streets (note the Mountain Avenue Car Wash sign), the one below on Vineyard Avenue at D Street. Thanks to reader Amado Cervantes for the tip.

Would you buy auto insurance from a company with such a poor sense of direction?

Did you hear about the so-called "monster train" that chugged through the Inland Valley on Jan. 10? This 3.5-mile Union Pacific test train, which traveled from Texas to Long Beach, was said to be the longest freight train in California history. At one point in its journey, the train spanned virtually the entire length of Pomona.

Well, an Ontario man named Joe Perry, who's a railroad buff, followed the train from Imperial County to Ontario, documenting various legs of the trip on his website, www.chasingsteel.com. Below is a video he shot from the Mountain Avenue overpass at about 2 p.m. The train, with nine locomotives and nearly 300 cars, takes almost five minutes to pass. You can read Perry's account here.

If you were in a hurry, you wouldn't have wanted to be among the motorists stuck at a railroad crossing. You can see them streaming across the tracks the last few seconds of the video.

"No Room at the Inn," circa 1967, courtesy of the Model Colony History Room, Ontario City Library. Below is the same scene in 2009.

The Nativity scenes in Ontario have been a 50-year tradition on the Euclid Avenue median. (See my Christmas Day column for more.) What you may not know is that all 12 scenes did not debut the same year; they were built as money could be raised from 1959 to 1968.

When did each scene debut? Here's a list pieced together from Daily Report stories in the Ontario City Library files.

1959: Shepherds' Adoration (Scene No. 4)

1959: The Nativity (Scene No. 5)

1960: Arrival of the Wise Men (Scene No. 7)

1960: No Room at the Inn (Scene No. 2)

1961: The Annunciation (Scene No. 1)

1961: Shepherds' Vision (Scene No. 3)

1962: The Presentation (Scene No. 6)

1962: Flight Into Egypt (Scene No. 8)

1963: The Holy Family (Scene No. 9)

1965: Jesus in the Temple (Scene No. 10)

1968: Come Unto Me (Scene No. 11)

1968: The Light of the World (Scene No. 12)

Any thoughts or memories regarding the scenes? Post away below.

And Merry Christmas!

Today's column is about Bumstead's Bicycles, the Ontario bike shop with the funny name and the distinguished pedigree. Founded in 1909, the store is the city's second-oldest business, after Graber Olive House.

Bumstead's is celebrating its centennial on Saturday with a 10 a.m. to evening party at the shop, 1038 W. 4th St. (at Mountain), and with a sale Dec. 4 to 6.

They'd like old-time customers to stop by to say hello and reminisce. In the meantime, or if you can't make it Saturday, how about reminiscing right here on my blog? Click "comments" to share your memories of the shop.

The photo at left shows fourth-generation owner Lloyd Bumstead in his shop on Wednesday. He took the business over in 1986 at age 23.

Below is a view of the 420 N. Lemon Ave. location circa 1960 when Bumstead's sold sporting goods as well as bicycles. The store was on Lemon from 1960 to 1986 before its move to 4th Street.

Happy 100th, Bumstead's!

Here's an architect's rendering of a portion of the under-construction senior apartments at Lemon Avenue and B Street in downtown Ontario.

The complex of 76 units will stand adjacent to the library, senior center and city hall, an especially prime location, not to mention only a block from the shops on Euclid Avenue. (If the seniors love Yangtze, the restaurant's entrance is less than a block away.)

Architect Dan Withee, of Torrance-based Withee Malcolm Architects, told me at the Oct. 9 ground-breaking that the design was "Wrightian," referring to Frank Lloyd Wright, clarifying that the arches and other elements are from Wright's Prairie style phase. In other words, no domes or falling water.

Well, the proof will be in the viewing, but the apartments have gotta have more visual interest than the parking lot they're replacing.

A new record store? In 2009? Second Spin is taking over the former Vans Skate Park slot at Ontario Mills, where the store will sell used -- not new -- CDs, DVDs and video games. I'll report more when I know more. Grand opening is scheduled for Aug. 27.

In the meantime, here are links to the store's website and to the Second Spin site. There are Second Spin stores in Costa Mesa, Sherman Oaks, Santa Monica and Denver. The owner is NY-based Transworld Entertainment, which owns Sam Goody, Suncoast, Wherehouse, Musicland and other chains.

They work fast at Channel 7: Hours after my Friday column on the liquor license application at the Ontario City Library's Page One Cafe, a report aired at 4 p.m. You can watch it here. As reporter Rob McMillan puts it, if the license is approved, "after you're done reading Shakespeare, you'll be able to have a cold beer."

The old Ontario Plaza was built starting in 1956 at Mountain Avenue and Fourth Street and expanded in 1959 down to I Street. The nearly six blocks of shops and services marked Ontario's transition away from the downtown core and into suburban-style shopping.

The Plaza was torn down in 1998 for a new development, also named Ontario Plaza, but with an Albertsons, Rite Aid and other shops.

Sunday's column talks about the Plaza and notes many of the stores that were there. Feel free to comment here about your personal favorites or about any Plaza memories.

The photo above was shot Friday morning on the northeast corner of Mountain and Fourth. It depicts what I believe is the only surviving portion of the Plaza. The post office and Laundramatic were original tenants, arriving shortly after the Market Basket supermarket, and the signs and architectural style look like they might be original, don't they?

Today would have been Marilyn Monroe's 83rd birthday. Did you know a small image of the young Monroe is on public display in Ontario?

The accompanying portrait hangs in the Ontario Museum of History and Art. It was done for the label of Dolly Madison brand wine (!) and certainly appears to depict a young Monroe (nee Norma Jean Baker).

I heard the story in 2006 from Terry Provonsha, a Washington State resident, who was contacting local winery officials to learn the whereabouts of the painting. He said his grandfather, Gordon Provonsha, painted it. As he told it, the elder Provonsha was a commercial artist in L.A. and his wife, Rae, was responsible for getting Monroe her first modeling job at age 9.

Circa 1945, when Monroe was about 19, Provonsha used her as the model for the Dolly Madison painting, the younger Provonsha told me.

As proof, he e-mailed me photos of Provonsha and a blonde Monroe standing by an easel that held a portrait of Monroe holding a glass of wine. I believe it, although the painting is not the one in Ontario.

The California Wine Association owned the Dolly Madison wine label. A member of the Biane family who worked for that association acquired the Monroe painting and it was hung in the museum of the Brookside Winery at Guasti for many years. When that winery closed in 1982, the painting was transferred to the Ontario museum.

The painting is displayed alongside a Dolly Madison wine bottle and a display card explaining the history.

Terry Provonsha was interested in seeing his grandfather's story told and gave me names and numbers of several family contacts in various states who could tell me more about Gordon Provonsha and Monroe.

My initial enthusiasm cooled after concluding, rightly or wrongly, that telling the story of a Culver City artist and his connection to Monroe was roaming a bit far afield. Becoming part of the Marilyn cult on this rather flimsy Inland Valley pretext made me uncomfortable, too. (I guess I wasn't cut out for sensationalism.)

But, to clear the books, so to speak, I'm happy to share the photo and this capsule history today. The museum is well worth your visit anyway, and if seeing the Monroe painting is an inducement, go for it.

Looks like we've missed "The Big Sleep" and "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" earlier this month, but two more Bogart classics are playing at the Ontario City Library, 215 E. C St., the next two Thursdays.

"Casablanca" is playing tonight and "The Caine Mutiny" rounds out the month. I love "Casablanca" but have seen it often enough that I'll take a pass. "Caine Mutiny," however, I've never seen. Barring complications, I'll be there.

Screenings begin at 6:30 p.m. and admission is free.

Spotted on the rear window of a vehicle in Ontario, the self-dramatizing logo: "Only God Can Judge Me."

Really? The court system might disagree with you, pal.

Which reminds me of the woman in a Pomona courtroom a couple of years ago who was there (as was I) as a potential juror. She said she would prefer not to serve on a jury because she didn't "believe in the court system." "It's here," the judge replied. "It exists. Trust me."

Marilyn Varney found a 1940s postcard on eBay for the Hotel Ontario, with photos of its dining room, bar and coffee shop. I have no information on the hotel, but the pictures aren't bad.

"Read David Allen" this week became "Laugh With David Allen." (Let's see what Charles Bentley can do with that phrase.) Better "Laugh With" than "Laugh At," I have to say.

When I took this photo Thursday morning, I heard an amplified voice say, "Good job, David Allen." I turned but saw nothing. Was it my imagination?

Later in the day, an Ontario police acquaintance phoned to ask if I'd thought it was the voice of God. It was him, speaking through his car's loudspeaker as he drove by. Except he really said, "Get a job, David Allen."

He then asked me if I was doing a comedy show at the Granada or something. Nope, they're just giving me a free plug. Again.

Let me return the favor by noting the venue's "Rock for Tots" concert tonight from 6 to 11 p.m., featuring eight local bands. Admission is $5 plus an unwrapped toy. The toys will be given to the police and fire departments for their toy drive, venue operator Dave Perez says.

Now playing at the Granada, 303 N. Euclid Ave., Ontario: a free plug. Thanks, guys.

The Virgin Megastore at Ontario Mills is closing in January, along with the Virgin at the Block at Orange. On the plus side, a huge closeout sale starts Friday. I'm not keen on hitting the Mills the day after Thanksgiving, but this music fan plans to circle the CD bins like a vulture in the coming weeks, just as I did at Tower Records.

Read about Virgin's pending demise Wednesday, as well as PFF Bank's fate -- the economy appears to have made me a business-humor columnist -- and other matters.
But first, a few more thoughts about Virgin Megastore.

Virgin is a mall anchor and was one of the hip stores when the mall opened in November 1996. I don't know if Richard Branson came out -- chime in if you know -- but I recall the mall hosting Wolfgang Puck when his cafe opened, and Steven Spielberg when GameWorks debuted. Off Rodeo Drive was a walkway with designer clothes. In the pre-Victoria Gardens era, having outposts of L.A. out here in the boonies was exciting.

With the later addition of a Vans skate park, which hosted Tony Hawk (I got to meet him), and the Ontario Improv, the Mills had an aura of youth and trendiness.

GameWorks and the Improv hang on, but Vans, Wolfgang Puck and Off Rodeo are long gone and Virgin is leaving. Besides the Improv, about as cool as the Mills will be at that point is, what, Fuddruckers?

Speaking of cool, this is my 500th blog post!

It's time to say farewell to Brix, a police service dog with the Ontario Police Department. Not that you probably ever said hello to him, unless you were one of the 1,398 suspects he helped collar in his nine-year career.

The German Shepherd has retired from the force at age 11, or "70-something" in dog years, as Mayor Paul Leon put it when Brix was honored at Tuesday's council meeting.

Tuesday's meeting was not the final one for Jason Anderson, the councilman. He anticipates the Dec. 2 meeting will be his last.

Well, it's good to space these farewells out.

Driving past Ontario's Granada Theater on Friday, I got a shock: The marquee reads "Robin Williams," with the theater promoter's phone number.

Surely not THE Robin Williams? But it is. Or at least could be.

Williams is mounting a tour of small comedy clubs. Granada operator Dave Perez read that Williams played at a theater named the Granada in New York. "My wife said, wouldn't it great if he played here?" Perez said. She phoned Williams' publicist and he expressed interest.

"Our confirmation meeting is next Wednesday," Perez said. "They said it's OK to put his name up there [on the marquee] -- just don't put up a date."

Caution will tell you that Robin Williams playing the low-budget Granada -- a former movie theater now used for church services, punk concerts and open-mic nights -- is unlikely. But who knows? And as Perez said, such a show "would put us on the map."

Anderson, the Ontario councilman who finished a shocking fourth in the election, phoned this afternoon for a chat. He's still trying to figure out what happened, and so am I. But he offered a persuasive theory.

Bear in mind that Anderson and incumbent Sheila Mautz vote alike and both are untouched by scandal. (How many Ontario council members can you say that about?) Neither has a Latino surname, which would seem to argue against that being the deciding factor; after all, Mautz beat both Porada and Avila to be the top vote-getter while Anderson fell behind all three.

But Anderson is guessing that how each campaign treated first-time voters, many of them Latinos turning out to vote for Obama and against Proposition 8, may have made the difference.

"We targeted high-propensity voters," Anderson said of his campaign mailings, "and they were no-propensity voters." In other words, he didn't send mailings to every single registered voter, just ones who've voted before.

Did Mautz target everyone? "She did," Anderson said. "Her mailings went out to everyone in Ontario...That was a miscalculation on my part."

A deputy district attorney and single-term councilman, Anderson said life will go on without being on the council, although he's clearly hurt. Who wouldn't be? It's gotta be tough coming in behind Paul Vincent Avila, a school board member prone to tantrums and unusual behavior.

"Politics is a fickle business," Anderson said. "I can live with it. People call me up and they're more depressed than I am. I tell them, 'it's not that bad.'"

There's a tip-a-cop fund-raiser at the Ontario Applebee's, 1051 N. Milliken Ave., tonight from 5 to 10 p.m.

Councilwoman Sheila Mautz announced the event -- in which police officers act as food servers, with the tips going to various nonprofit organizations -- at Tuesday's council meeting, urging people "to tip a cop, and tip a cop well."

"Is that anything like tip a cow?" Mayor Paul Leon quipped.

"Jeff," Leon said, indicating a police employee in the room, "would you like to come up and demonstrate cop tipping?" Apparently he didn't.

Cow tipping is a prank based on the notion that, since cows sleep standing up, it's possible to approach them in the dark of night and tip them over.

Ontario police are, of course, harder to tip because even in their sleep, they are on the alert 24/7. Right? Better to just give them money at Applebee's.

There's an open house at the Citizens Business Bank Arena on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This may be your only chance to explore the arena without buying a ticket for country music, Metallica or hockey.

I can't explain where the arena is located -- unless 4000 E. Ontario Center Parkway means something to you -- but you can find a map on the arena's website.

Now, what are we to call this facility with the unwieldy name? I know Citizens Business Bank ponied up money for the naming rights, but we have to be practical.

At the arena, employees are said to be unofficially calling it "See-buh," a phonetic pronunciation of CCBA.

Sports editor Lou Brewster's column Tuesday suggests "The Bank." He also says the shorthand version may show up in sports stories too.

I've since pointed out to Lou that I suggested The Bank as a nickname in a column on March 9, 2007, right after the ground-breaking.

"Who reads that?" Brewster replied.

Oh.

In (ahem) news from the Aug. 19 Ontario council meeting:

Fullmer Construction donated a building to Ontario for use in fire-training exercises. In response, at the meeting a Fuller rep was given a large, horizontal plaque with a gold-plated fire ax attached.

Photos were taken, handshakes were exchanged, Councilwoman Sheila Mautz hugged everyone and seats were resumed.

Then one worry was belatedly expressed.

Mayor Paul Leon said, "Councilman Bowman is concerned we just gave Fullmer the ax."

What with heavy traffic on Mountain Avenue in Upland on Tuesday, I wasn't able to get into the freeway lane to head back to work. So I hung a left on Sixth Street in Ontario and took it east. Much to the consternation of Sixth Streeters, I'm sure, who don't like it when their quiet street is used as a freeway alternate.

That's why "traffic calming" devices were installed a decade ago. These were small planters in the middle of the street that make motorists to pay attention and slow down. (Whenever I mention traffic calming, I always get an amused note in the mail from Sixth Streeter Bruce Henning, who finds the islands slightly ridiculous. We'll see if he finds this online.)

The islands to the west are small and rather ineffectual, as they're easily maneuvered around; the islands east of San Antonio Avenue are bracketed by curb extensions that do force you to go slow.

I was in a state of zen-like calm, lulled by the traffic island greenery and the mature trees along the right side of the street, until I looked ahead and saw a sudden lack of greenery. Namely, the green light at Euclid a block away was turning yellow. Oh well. It just gave me more time to admire Sixth Street.

Darn the luck, my vacation means that hot on the heels of missing Monday's Pomona council meeting, I missed last night's Ontario council meeting.

This one I kind of regret, given the events at the last meeting, but oh well. I look forward more than usual to hearing what I missed.

Driving west on Holt Boulevard in Ontario on Friday, I noted once more the welcome new construction between Vineyard and the Post Office. The buildings look pretty nice, the sidewalks are in place and so are the streetlights.

Unfortunately, this time I noticed something else: The streetlights are smack-dab in the middle of the sidewalks.

What's up with that? I can forgive that sort of thing in all the '70s and '80s sidewalks around the valley because it was so commonplace. We've learned a lot about planning since then. Really, though, who in 2008 is allowing light poles to be placed in the middle of fairly narrow sidewalks?

I counted six of them. They'll be a dandy obstacle course for moms with strollers and people in wheelchairs.

Two straight Saturday mornings I've hit the AMC 30 Ontario Mills for an early movie. Did you know they have multiple showings of the big movies before noon, for a mere $6? Saw "Iron Man" a week ago at 10:45 a.m. and "Indiana Jones and the Very Long Title" this past Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

Not only is the price right, but at that hour you can get decent parking, there's no line for the movie and not much of one at the ticket booth, and the theaters are at least 3/4 empty, allowing you to see a blockbuster in relative peace.

Not that you asked, but "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Computer Generated Effects" was enjoyable for what it was, but I left the theater feeling full of empty calories. The first half was sharp and then came the descent into incoherence and spectacle. As a friend said later, the movie had Spielberg's first boring aliens.

As for Ontario Mills, it's been years since I spent much time there, which I did back when it was the only entertainment option, so seeing it again had sociological interest.

Also, horror. On Saturday, performing under gray skies out on the promenade near the AMC ticket booths, was a mime. Yes, a mime in the 909. Near him was a cardboard sign reading "Mime School." I gaped for a moment before heading into Market Broiler for lunch. When I exited, he was gone. Maybe he was there early for the parking too.

Charles Phoenix, "born in Ontario, California," made LA Weekly's People of 2008. He's the L.A. slide-show king and author of the "Cruising the Pomona Valley" guidebook. Congratulations, Charles!

A beer truck tipped over on South Haven Avenue in Ontario on Wednesday morning, tipster John Corder phoned to tell me. The back was open, revealing that the truck was full of Bud Light.

"It wasn't light enough," Corder noted, "or it would have made the turn."

Ba-da-ba-bump.

Guasti as we knew it, a rural enclave, is essentially gone, for good or bad.

Because of construction, the Post Office has moved, Saffron Cafe has closed, Filippi Winery closed its tasting room, the Guasti/Homestyle Cafe moved to Chino, the patio furniture places are gone and the school has been bulldozed.

Construction is under way on a mixed-use complex that seems intriguing, if very different than the hodgepodge that was there.

Months ago I spoke to Jim Maples, a former advertising rep at the Bulletin, about Evel Knievel's jump at Ontario Motor Speedway. He also lamented the changes then beginning to happen at Guasti:

"I got to California in 1957 and one of the first things I did was go to wine-tasting at Guasti. That's when all those little houses had inhabitants," Maples told me.

He said a wine festival was sponsored circa 1958-1962 by the Secondo Church. You could buy a bottle of wine, fill up a bota bag with it and walk around, sipping as you went.

So there's a topic. Anyone want to share memories of what Guasti used to be like and what you did there?

Just an alert for anyone who knows the Saffron Cafe at Guasti: Its last day is Friday.

Saffron will be the main topic of my Friday column, but let me get the word out here a day early. If you want one last meal, beat the rush and go today. Saffron is the lunch-only spot in the Guasti Villa (the Guasti Mansion to you oldtimers). The food's pretty good and you can't beat the ambience of the 1922 building, the former home of Secondo Guasti, the head of the onetime winemaking village.

I had lunch there Wednesday, from the $20 prix fixe menu. My meal -- field greens with pears and prosciutto, bread, soup and an entree of shrimp, mussels and scallops in a coconut curry -- was filling, and if it didn't knock my socks off (the soup was a little weak), I was satisfied.

Saffron plans restaurants throughout the region, with one already open in Riverside and one likely for Upland. But it will be gone from Guasti. In fact, with Guasti under demolition and reconstruction, you won't have a chance to return to the Villa until 2009 or 2010.

Call (909) 605-7677 for directions, reservations or questions.

For a recent column on Ontario's Yangtze Restaurant, I needed to know when the Ritz Theater, Yangtze's longtime neighbor, burned down. The indefatigable Joanne Boyajian of the Ontario City Library's Model Colony History Room found the date and more. Why not share the research here? It'll bring back memories or fill in some gaps in history.

The theater began as the California (in 1933, according to my own files), showed B movies compared to the classier fare at the Granada and became the Ritz on June 22, 1961.

Its last all-ages movie was "Dr. Zhivago," which ran for weeks. Then, circa 1967-68, the theater went X-rated, much to the consternation of the community. The Ritz burned on Friday, April 27, 1979. The Daily Report quoted the Rev. Clarence G. Eigenhuis, past of the First Foursquare Church in Ontario, as calling the fire an "answer to prayer." (I've been told people gathered to cheer.)

The fire was initially thought to be of suspicious origin, but arson was ruled out as no clues were found, the Progress Bulletin reported. Investigators concluded the fire was accidental and was due to an electrical short circuit in the balcony.

If you have memories of the California or Ritz theaters, post away below.

I wrote in Wednesday's column (read it here) that the Guasti Cafe -- home of big breakfasts and 25-cent coffee, and known until 2005 as Homestyle Cafe -- will close Oct. 31 and relocate to Chino. Reader Randy Volm writes:

"David, I don't know about you, but I have been a longtime fan of the Homestyle Cafe since it opened in 1985. I have always enjoyed their wonderful food (huge portions I might add) and the warm hospitality of home no matter how busy they were.

"Personally, I wouldn't care if they had to raise the price of coffee to $1. Even that would pale in comparison to what other establishments are charging. Why, even Denny's I believe is charging $2.25 for a cup of coffee.

"In closing, I don't care about the extra distance to get to the new Homestyle Cafe (I'm in Upland). To me, it will always be worth it."

The cafe's owners will be cheered by an Uplander's willingness to follow their restaurant to Chino. But Randy, did you have to say you'd pay four times as much for one of their cups of coffee? You might give them ideas.