Time Capsules

One of the biggest moments of the city of Corona's 1985 Labor Day celebration was supposed to be the opening of several time capsules buried beneath City Hall. "But," The Times reported, "something was missing: the time capsules." Workers tore up a concrete walkway where they expected to find as many as 17 containers left by high school classes dating back to the 1930s. But "it was just empty underneath," one participant lamented.

Now 5 years old, the Cinefamily has become a pillar of the alternative film exhibition scene in Los Angeles alongside venues such as the New Beverly Cinema, American Cinematheque and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. From its location on Fairfax Avenue, Cinefamily has become a hub of activity with its heady mix of new and retrospective movies, a particular blend of the highbrow, offbeat and way-out with an only-in-L.A. flavor. Recent programming has included a series of films by and about the Beat Generation that included a sneak preview of the upcoming Kristen Stewart-starring "On the Road"; a number of little-known documentaries by the Japanese filmmaker Shohei Imamura; and screenings of the new cult fave "Miami Connection.

Lindero Canyon Middle School students consider themselves to be pretty hip, but they also know that what's hip today may be square tomorrow. They are intrigued by their school's plans to bury a time capsule that will be opened in 25 years by students of the future. "It will be interesting, in 25 years, to dig it back up," said eighth-grader Katie Mackenzie. "They will look at our old-fashioned clothes and say, 'What were these people thinking of?'

Real estate developer Nick Hadim made a risky climb through an upstairs window of an abandoned building to see what he and his investors had gotten themselves into. Downtown's Alexandria Hotel had long been rumored to be haunted. But instead of ghosts, he found a time capsule. There, in a sealed-off wing of the otherwise bustling complex, he encountered a dusty suite deserted in some haste in the 1930s. A crumbling bowler hat lay next to a torn armchair. An antique typewriter sat ready for use on the side of a wooden desk.

Parishioners, clergy and students of Mary Immaculate Church and Education Center are readying prayers, mission statements and proclamations to be buried in a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years. "People want their grandchildren and great-grandchildren to experience what they are experiencing now," said the Catholic school's principal, Kathleen Damisch.

It was an afternoon of memories, some poignant, some faded, but all sweet as a group of high school seniors returned to Chatsworth Park Elementary School to unearth a time capsule they buried more than 11 years ago. Twin brothers Satoshi and Masato Muso, 18, took turns shoveling dirt out of the ivy-covered planter, as former students and teachers tried to remember what they had placed in the black tube back in January 1989.

Steve Harvey's article (Oct. 8) on time capsules was of particular interest to me since I've buried far more than my share in a long career in public relations. Time capsules have become almost as obligatory to clients as the three-handled shovel at ground-breakings and the silk ribbons to be cut at "grand" openings. I think time capsules serve a useful purpose, though, beyond providing rent-free space for front pages of newspapers, Sears catalogues and Guinness Books of World Records.

Pandora's Time Capsule: Scientists are warning that weird weather patterns in the next century could turn California into a freakish urban wasteland populated by mutant humans with microscopic brains, plastic body parts and an inability to communicate except by cell phone. No, wait. That already happened.

Most of the time, capsules simply can't be found. Some of the time, capsules can be -- but their contents have disintegrated. This time capsule is different, however. Workers carefully demolishing the ABC Entertainment Center and Shubert Theatre in Century City have discovered a hidden box filled with mementos that are completely intact -- and totally mysterious.

Workers excavating a site in Dublin, the Irish capital, have dug up a stone and metal box that archeologists believe is a "time capsule" buried 200 years ago. The sealed box was found at a site where a monument to English naval hero Horatio Nelson once stood. Pat Wallace, director of Ireland's national museum, said the box--measuring about 2 1/2 feet by 1 1/2 feet--probably holds items from the era, such as coins and newspapers.

Filmmakers are natural raconteurs — they have to be — at least when talking about their films. There are the money men who must be convinced to invest, the studios they need to sign on for distribution, the actors they want to hire and the press and public they hope will see the finished film and like it. The American Film Institute captures all that and more in "Conversations at the American Film Institute with the Great Moviemakers: The...

Jeanne Eagels' performance on Broadway in the 1920s as prostitute Sadie Thompson in the Somerset Maugham melodrama "Rain" won her wide renown. She's just as famous for her diva behavior and her alcohol and drug abuse. Though known for her stage roles, Eagels also made a handful of films. She scored a huge hit with her first talkie, the 1929 Maugham drama "The Letter," which has just come out on DVD. Eagels plays Leslie Crosbie, a married woman on a rubber plantation who shoots her lover.

Television is littered with the corpses of ill-conceived musical-variety series that were so bad you had to see them to believe them. A prime example was NBC's "Pink Lady and Jeff," which premiered March 1, 1980. Produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, the show revolved around a duo called Pink Lady, Japanese pop singers Mie and Kie who spoke rudimentary English, and American comedian Jeff Altman. Each episode ended with the girls in bikinis in a hot tub pushing a fully clothed Altman into the water.

The 60 short films that make up Warner Archive's "Vitaphone Varieties" (1926-30) four-disc set were made when sound was in its infancy. They're a fascinating time capsule, not only of early talkies but also of what type of acts appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway and in nightclubs of that era. These shorts were recently restored through a collaboration between Warner Archive, UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Library of Congress and the Vitaphone Project....

"The T.A.M.I. Show," the fabled film document of an equally legendary 1964 concert in Santa Monica with the Rolling Stones, James Brown, the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Chuck Berry and a half-dozen other acts, has a back story that reads like the inspiration for the Stones' observation years later about getting what you need even when you don't get what you want. As originally planned, "The T.A.M.I. Show" was supposed to be considerably more than a concert film featuring several of the day's hottest pop-music acts.

Underwater archaeologists said Monday that they have found a virtual time capsule of life during Canada's Klondike Gold Rush: a sunken Yukon River stern-wheeler so well-preserved that researchers can document the last minutes of the five-man crew as well as their life aboard the primitive cargo-hauler. The door of the steam boiler on the A.J. Goddard was open, and slightly charred wood found inside suggested the crew was trying to build up a head of steam, perhaps to break loose from an ice jam. An ax remained on the deck after one crew member hefted it to chop the rope used to tow a barge, a sign of their frantic attempts to escape the ice floe.

Some historic remnants from Huntington Beach's 1914 pier remain in a holding pattern. A time capsule from the pier cornerstone remains unopened, despite having been unearthed more than a month ago. The cornerstone, and the time capsule cemented to it, both are under wraps in the city's Public Works Storage Yard at 17371 Gothard St.

Rancho Santiago College has preserved a piece of the present for the district's future by burying a time capsule that will be reopened in 2010. During a brief ceremony in front of the Administration Building on Tuesday, district officials buried a footlong gray cylinder filled with items including a schedule of classes, a copy of El Don, the student newspaper, a staff directory, an aerial photograph of the campus and school employee salary schedules. Brian E.

A wise man once said, "Don't go looking for disaster, it will find you soon enough." Apparently Nicolas Cage's astrophysicist, John Koestler, missed class that day because as soon as he discovers where and when upcoming disasters will occur, he drops son Caleb off at his sister's place, furrows his brow and heads straight into the maelstrom.

One of the biggest moments of the city of Corona's 1985 Labor Day celebration was supposed to be the opening of several time capsules buried beneath City Hall. "But," The Times reported, "something was missing: the time capsules." Workers tore up a concrete walkway where they expected to find as many as 17 containers left by high school classes dating back to the 1930s. But "it was just empty underneath," one participant lamented.