Day 11: November 11, 2016 Conference Part Deux Comment via blog

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Today I did get a picture of Ian boarding the train with Debyjo in front of him and Dora behind.

A pair of panel discussions essentially filled the morning. Ken Bernstein from the City of Los Angeles moderated both. Community Based Sustainable Preservation was discussed by Bernstein, Chris Morris representing the Southwest Museum, Debyjo Erickson representing Odell Station in Illinois, and Ruth Keeny representing the Meramec River Bridge in Missouri.

Historic Theater Preservation was discussed by Ed Baney representing Broadway Theater Owners, Bernstein, Debyjo Erickson representing the Rialto Square Theater in Illinois, and Escott Norton representing the Los Angeles Historic Theater Foundation.

Lunch was at Sevan Garden Kebab on a slightly quirky side street. The setting was casual and comfortable and the food quite tasty.

After lunch, I captured some documentation on that original Route 66 terminus claim.

I wanted to see more of the insides of Clifton's and when I asked Ian for advice he offered a personal tour. In reality, he was planning on giving Jerry McClanahan a personal tour and I had good timing. The benefits were immediately apparent. I had at least once walked across the floor mounted neon without noticing it yesterday. Not so McJerry. That's George Game next to Jerry and at last I can show a little more of Ian than the back of his head. Clifton's is clearly a very cool place. Something I had heard about and which had sparked my question to Ian was "the oldest continuously active neon light in the world". A better view of that placard below the light is here.

Primary speakers in the afternoon were Dr. David Dunaway of the University of New Mexico Albuquerque, Katrina Parks who has produced a documentary on the women of Route 66, and Candacy Taylor who has produced a documentary on the Green Book used by Negro travelers.

At the conclusion of the morning's discussion on theaters, Ed Baney mentioned that a movie shoot had just finished at the Los Angeles Theater and we could probably get inside for a look later in the day. His prediction now came true. It was just as spectacular as we had been told and we had expert Escott Norton to guide and enlighten us. The theater was completed in 1931. Intricate details are everywhere although they're more likely cast plaster than carved marble. The last picture is of the downstairs ballroom.

There was quite a good turnout for the group dinner at Cameron's Seafood. We were at two tables in rooms connected at the corner. I took just one so so picture of each table but there was lots of mingling with plenty of snapshots so good pictures of pretty much everyone on Facebook and elsewhere.

Cameron's is only a few blocks from the Saga so naturally a subset of the dinner crowd reconvened there.

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