Reader letters: Memories of the Roxy and the debate over ‘Sound of Freedom’

Regarding “50 Years at the Roxy,” July 23: I was one of the lucky ones who was there opening night for Neil Young, with Graham Nash subbing for Grin. (“Nils can’t sing”). It wasn’t until years later that I understood whom he was referring to and that he was ill. Thank goodness I was able to see Nils Lofgren and his trampoline-defying performance on the same stage a few years later. Reading the article brought back many, many memories of the incredible shows I saw there over the years, several of which were mentioned in the article. It also brought me to my scrapbook filled with the really cool ads that used to promote concerts and were themselves worthy of mention.

David Rosen
Solana Beach, Calif.

::

One of the unlikeliest bookings at the Roxy was Bobby Short, who took the stage commenting, “Would you believe Bobby Short in jeans at the Roxy?”

Les Traub
Beverly Hills

Cherry-picking moments to be outraged

Regarding Lorraine Ali’s “How Summer Blockbuster ‘Sound of Freedom’ Became a Battlefield in the Culture War,” July 21:

Can you oppose child-trafficking but also oppose asylum and the protection of child migrants in general? Sure you can, in today’s polarized society.

Fans of the sleeper hit “Sound of Freedom” are cherry-picking their outrage over child trafficking, tethering it to QAnon conspiracies and partisan politics but ignoring how migration policy can, albeit with many flaws, provide children and others their day in immigration court.

Just read the comments section of any article or post about the film. Virtue-signaling fans of star Jim Caviezel trade in anti-immigrant rhetoric and support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shipping unsuspecting migrants to “woke” destinations. Abbott has set floating barriers in the river border with Mexico, and DeSantis recently signed a sweeping anti-immigrant law in his state. Where’s the outrage?

If you are supporting these laws, you are not against child trafficking. You are merely cherry-picking one aspect of a real issue and tying it to conspiracies and partisan policies that will undermine the protection of children.

David Hernandez
Northampton, Mass.

::

“The Sound of Freedom” might be thought of as the new QAnon action movie. Everyone I know who has seen it emerges from the theater in a state of extreme distress and anger — anger springing from the movie’s assertion that 2 million children a year have gone “missing,” kidnapped and forced into sex work. But no one knows how many children fall victim to child sex trafficking. It is all a guess. Obviously, if it happens to one child, that is one too many, but we don’t need QAnon’s disturbing obsession with child sex abuse to muddy the water. Let’s direct this newfound concern for the world’s children into actually helping real children, beginning with those facing poverty and starvation.

JJ Flowers
Dana Point

Comic-Con was just fine

Despite the gloomy picture painted in Tracy Brown and Jevon Phillips’ article (“The Show Must Go On”), San Diego Comic-Con 2023 was a huge success. In fact, I’d wager a majority of the attendees (like me and my friends) thought this might be the best Comic-Con experience in perhaps 20 years.

Hollywood’s presence really affects only the devoted denizens of Hall H, which holds about 6,000 seats. The rest of the attendees had the convention center to themselves — to cosplay, to attend informative panels and screenings, to preview hundreds of toys and games and to collect and celebrate physical comic books.

I’ve been attending comic cons in New York (since 1968) and San Diego (since 1977). A lot of us were invigorated by this year’s event and would welcome future conventions just like this one.

Jerry Beck
Glendale

Sparks’ moment to shine

Big miss on you for not covering the triumphant Hollywood Bowl concert by L.A. brothers Sparks. After a 50-year career that has influenced dozens of bands, Sparks achieved this milestone. In their 70s, Ron and Russell Mael are more potent and vital than ever and have released the album “The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte.” Come on, L.A. Times.

Peter Knego
Oceanside

Our own Ernie Kovacs

I enjoyed reading Robert Lloyd’s piece on the legacy of film and television pioneer Ernie Kovacs (“Ernie Kovacs Was TV’s Original Madcap Genius. A New Book Tells Why His Influence and Legacy Matter,” July 20). But I think another pioneer who also twisted the TV control dials is worth mentioning: Jim Hawthorne. Steve Allen called him “the West Coast Ernie Kovacs” because Hawthorne was doing similar things as Kovacs on Los Angeles TV and radio as early as 1949.

Hawthorne’s madcap radio antics included playing records backward and sped up, while he and his imaginary recorded friend, Skippy, would comment about the music.

Hawthorne took his act to television, on Channel 13. Clips of that late-night live-audience program show a man who used the camera as a character named Eggbert, who would react to whatever stunt Hawthorne acted out on his junk-cluttered set. He would converse with Eggbert, and the camera would either tilt up and down in agreement or pan left and right in disapproval.

During the 1950s and early ’60s Hawthorne gave weather casts on Los Angeles TV stations while continuing a busy career on radio. He, like Kovacs, stretched the boundaries of early television, and in doing so, was a local legend.

Mitch Waldow
Broadcast archivist and retired journalist (KTTV, KCOP, KFWB and others)

A moving tribute to Tony Bennett

An absolutely enlightening and moving story of the legendary performer Tony Bennett (“Across Generations, the Irrepressible Joy of Tony Bennett Could Never Be Unplugged,” Mikael Wood, July 21). It was pointed out how he managed to transcend so many generations of different, evolving musical tastes. I would say it was not only his superb delivery and interpretation of American standards but also the quality of those songs themselves.

Unfortunately, much of today’s synthesized, monotonous, cookie-cutter and somewhat vapid music will be lucky to last a year, maybe 10, but certainly not 60 years or more, as is the case with Bennett’s repertoire.

It was a bittersweet tribute in the fact that all the great crooners (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole) are no longer with us. Fortunately, Bennett’s voice will live on for eternity.

Rick Solomon
Lake Balboa

::

Somewhere high on a hill halfway to the stars, above the blue and windy sea, a man sits in the morning fog. He calls to me.

Rest in peace, Tony Bennett. The golden sun will shine for you.

Larry Hersh
Huntington Beach