Sennett Marker in Jeopardy?

[Laughsmith]

The following letter (excerpted) comes from the
lovely and gracious Annette Lloyd:

I need to alert you of a potential tragedy to silent film
memorialization in the making.

http://mimlay.com/blog/2007/08/26/at-least-youll-die-laughing/mack-sennett-marker/

The image on the page link above is of a memorial obelisk honoring
Mack Sennett and the Keystone Film Company, located at 1855 Glendale
Boulevard, in the Edendale section of Los Angeles, 90026. The building
surrounding the obelisk area (the Bert-Co building) is currently being
demolished for a proposed townhouse development project.

I am wondering if anyone knows what the future of the Sennett/Keystone
obelisk is? Will the memorial be rescued from the wreckage of the
surrounding building? Is it slated to be removed? If so, when and by
whom? If NOT - how can we band together to save it? Those of us who
live in Los Angeles - and especially those of us who care about film
history - need to make phone calls, and sooner rather than later, or
else we might find that this precious landmark is under rubble, and
we'll be left with one less reminder of Sennett's contributions to our
cinematic heritage.

I urge you to contact Frank Gamwell, Silver Lake Skyline LLC (the
developer of the proposed townhouse project), at (818) 995-7172, as
soon as possible, and voice your concern about the Sennett obelisk. I
made numerous calls this morning (beginning with Bert-Co, then to some
people at Silver Lake Skyline) - and no one knew anything. This
concerns and saddens me greatly, especially if the obelisk is
destroyed before someone rescues it.

I hope you'll take a moment to look into this - possibly, together, we
can save the Sennett/Keystone obelisk. Thanks for your consideration.

Respectfully,
Annette Lloyd
--------------------

Anyone here know anything?

-- Paul E. Gierucki

[Darren]

Isn't there some kind of architectural review board or historic district
commission in LA?

My guess is that they would know the fate of the monument.

Darren

[bbir...@earthlink.net]

The Sennett monument is not in jeopardy. The developer is aware of
the historic significannce of the monument and is also aware that it
is in the wrong location. Efforts are underway to svae and move the
monument to the site of the former Sennett studio where it belongs and
there will also be some sort of recognition of the present site as the
location of the Selig Polyscope Studio--the first permanent motion
picture studio in Los Angeles.

[Laughsmith]

On Sep 7, 2:48?am, bbirch...@earthlink.net wrote:
> Efforts are underway to svae and move the
> monument to the site of the former Sennett studio where it belongs

Fantastic news, Bob! I will pass this along right away.
Thanks for posting!

-- PG

[quote...@yahoo.com]

On Sep 7, 1:48 am, bbirch...@earthlink.net wrote:
> The Sennett monument is not in jeopardy. The developer is aware of
> the historic significannce of the monument and is also aware that it
> is in the wrong location.

But little does the developer (Mack Swain) suspect that eccentric
inventor Ben Turpin has strapped airplane engines to the base of the
obelisk and when the Kops come to move the monument, it flies through
the air like a rocket and chases them all over the countryside.
Spectacular trick shots and undercranked footage.

[marily...@hotmail.com]

Life is good; I just posted a little something (pictures) about the
obelisk at Looking-for-Mabel http://www.freewebs.com/looking-for-mabel/index.htm
in Mabel's Log.
Enjoy