Soft-spoken basketball All American, Jerry West, who once lived in Brentwood and appeared here as the spokesman for the recent North American Riviera Country Club golf tournament, was once a hard-nosed battler for the fore-runner of the National Basketball Association’s first union. It happened in 1964 when West was joined by Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Bob Petit and other headliners who locked themselves in the locker room and refused to play in the All-Star Game until owners capitulated. Bill Russell, Baylor and many others gathered at Staples Center last month to unveil the new statue of West who was embarrassed by all of the praise that he received at the ceremony.
John W. Miner, an LA County Deputy District Attorney, who uncovered tapes of Marilyn Monroe talking to her psychiatrist, died recently at 92. He alleged Marilyn did not commit suicide in spite of many theorists who claimed otherwise. The tapes, removed from the late film star’s Brentwood home, revealed her adoration for Clark Gable, a sexual encounter with Joan Crawford, and her failed marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller. She praised President John F. Kennedy but indicated that she had no affair with him. She also said that she had no room in her life for his brother, Senator Robert Kennedy.
Former Governor’s Daughter Says “Rock What You’ve Got and Be Proud of Your Body†Katherine Schwarzenegger, daughter of Brentwood’s Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Schriver, is doing her own thing now that the Governor has “retired†and the popular women’s conference in Long Beach, which Maria revived, has been killed by Governor Jerry Brown’s wife “because of the economy.†Katherine has written a new book entitled “Rock What You’ve Got†which advises young girls to be interested in their body images and she suggests that they look in the mirror and look at the glass as half full rather than half empty.
Michael Pratt, Ph.D., Headmaster of the Brentwood School, is featured in current ads in Southern California publications, including The Brentwood News and The Los Angeles Business Journal. One of his current problems is the school’s use of the Veterans’ Administration grounds in Brentwood. A controversy is raging over the use of the VA grounds by outsiders. The Brentwood School has leased tennis courts from the VA.
Brentwood’s Thomas Safran has spent 41 years of his eventful life in the affordable housing business. As President of Brentwood based Thomas Safran and Associates, he is one of LA County’s biggest affordable housing developers with 3500 units under his control. Safran likes to travel and recently visited the tallest building in the world, the Burg Khalifa in Dubai.