I'll See You in March

I'll be out of commission until early March due to another major surgery that I'm having on Feb. 2. Please say a prayer, and I'll see you around the corner!

Mystery History -- Solved!

I stumped everyone this week. I thought that by showing a photo of the esteemed person holding flowers up, thereby blocking part of his face, someone would make the leap that it was Dr. E=MC2 himself.

In the 1932 photo above, Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa are given a huge send-off as they prepare to leave Pasadena after one of their sojourns here.

Here's a more revealing shot:

I did screen captures from a historic video that you'll find here.

In the early 1930s, Einstein spent three winters in Pasadena, living the first year in a bungalow at 707 S. Oakland Ave. During the following two winters, he resided at Caltech as a visiting professor and gave prominence to that institution and others. He spent his time working, lecturing and making public appearances here and throughout the greater Los Angeles area.

In January 1933, Einstein and Pasadena stood together as he made a national radio address from the stage of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium advocating for peaceful relations with Germany.

Here's a photo of him at the curtain that evening:

An answer came back only a few days later when Adolph Hitler became chancellor and the Nazi party made it clear that Einstein, a German and a Jew, would never be welcomed back to Germany. He never again set foot in his native land.

Here he's looking through a telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory, accompanied by Edwin Hubble (center) and observatory director Walter Adams.

And here he's giving a talk at the Carnegie Observatories headquarters in Pasadena in 1931:

Many of Caltech's competitors in the annual Pasadena Collegiate Field Tournament have worn curly white wigs in tribute to the physicist:

In 2005 I co-produced a video titled "When Einstein Lived in Pasadena" to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his famous five papers. Institutions throughout the world hosted exhibits and special events throughout the year and traditional media and websites explored his life and career. The City of Pasadena won a national award for the video from the City-County Communications and Marketing Association (3CMA) that year.

The five groundbreaking papers set traditional scientific theories on their ears and sparked remarkable innovation that continues to this day. In the five papers, the 26-year-old patent clerk proved the existence of atoms, presented his special theory of relativity and put quantum theory on its feet.

When he was awarded his only Nobel Prize in 1921, it was for his work on the photoelectric effect, the basis for today’s quantum theory, which deals with the behavior of matter at the atomic and subatomic level.

These studies were just the beginning for Einstein, who went on to create the general theory of relativity (E=MC2) and to pioneer quantum mechanics.

Albert Einstein is considered the most significant person in the 20th century and one of the most brilliant minds in history.

And he was all ours for three winters in the 1930s.

Caltech has a nice site here.


Many thanks to British Pathe, Carnegie Observatories, Caltech and Corbis. The photo at the Pasadena Collegiate Field Tournament was shot by yours truly.

Mystery History

Where are we? And what's happening?

The first person to guess correctly will have sweet dreams.

I'll have the full scoop on Thursday.

The Best Friends in the World

I couldn't ask for better friends in the whole, wide world!

Last night at the home of Paul and Margie Grossman, some of the friends who made it possible for me to ride on the Kiwanis International Float in the Rose Parade gathered for a dinner and debriefing with me about my experiences. It was so sweet of them to have this post-parade celebration!

That's Claire and Bill Bogaard in the top photo.

Below are Dale Downs, Nancy Esbenshade and Judy Kent.

Ben Green and Dianne Philibosian:

Paul Grossman and Dale Downs:

Margie Grossman and Judy Kent:

Jerram Swartz and Dennis Downs:

Claire Bogaard and Tom Seifert:

Betty Ho and Deb Swartz:

Thank you so much, everybody!

See more about my experiences here, here and here.

More Kiwanis International Float Photos

Many thanks to Isabel Chavez for the photo above and the next one below.

And many thanks also to Kathy Hernandez for this one (she was something like nine stories up!):

See more here and here:

I Love a (Rose) Parade!

Well, yesterday was quite simply a dream come true and the thrill of a lifetime!

Thanks to a group of wonderful and generous friends, I rode on the Kiwanis International float in the Rose Parade (see this post for background). That's me waving to the right of horse in the photo above.

The day before the parade, all the riders got together in front of the float at the Rosemont Pavilion. The woman in the chair is 99-year-old Eleanor, who rode on the Vista del Arroyo Hotel float when she was 16. The others are Kiwanis International officials, Key Club high school students from around the world and Miss Latina Global. It has been the wish of the boy at front left, all his short life, to ride in the Rose Parade, so Kiwanis International flew him here from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Our navigator, who sat under the front of the float giving instructions to the driver in the back of the float:

The driver's seat:

Julie was trying to escape my lens in this next photo and almost made it! Her father, a member of Kiwanis for 50 years, was scheduled to be next to me on the float but was too ill so Julie rode in his honor, carrying a framed photo of herself with her dad in healthier circumstances. The guy in the white suit is a Tournament of Roses official.

The Wrigley Mansion, headquarters of the Tournament of Roses, is owned by the City of Pasadena. I shot this as we were passing the mansion on Orange Grove Boulevard:

Looking up at the Goodyear Blimp while "floating" down Colorado Boulevard:

A miniscule glimpse of the estimated 700,000 people who lined the 5.5-mile Rose Parade route:

My long-time PIO pal Karen George shot this on her TV screen in Minnesota:

By the end of the day I was happy, giddy, emotional, you name it! It was the thrill of a lifetime.

I can never repay the fantastic generosity of the friends who made this happen for me.

And many thanks to Cafe Pasadena for the top photo, which he shot from a rooftop on Colorado Boulevard.

See the next post down for what led up to this incredible day! And then go here for even more photos.