Showing posts with label Memorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memorial. Show all posts

Thursday, July 31, 2014



LA Daily News

Torrance bids farewell to hometown hero Louis Zamperini

By Donna Littlejohn, LA Daily News
Posted: |

Cynthia Zamperini-Garris becomes tearful as she talks about her father, Louis Zamperini, at a memorial for the Torrance legend, who died earlier this month. Thursday, July 31, 2014, Torrance, CA. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)
Chanting “Louie! Louie! Louie!,” thousands of people stomped and cheered Thursday as Torrance High School distance runners rounded the last lap of a run in honor of hometown hero Louis Zamperini, whose life plumbed the depths and soared the heights of the human experience.
Zamperini, who died July 2 at the age of 97, was a well-known icon in Torrance for decades. But in the past few years, his story has gone global.
An estimated 2,000 people filled the home-team stands at Zamperini Stadium to celebrate his life.
The two-hour event included prayer and music, speeches and emotional flyovers. It also featured no shortage of the most famous Louie stories.
Zamperini’s son, Luke, told the story of how his dad once stayed up all night, nursing his pet rats back to health; how he taught him to drive (and always to anticipate what the other driver would do); and how in his later years, he often said the words that came hard earlier in life: “I love you.”
“He was a really great dad,” he said. “He was always there for my sister and myself.”
Zamperini wore his USC ballcap everywhere, his son said.
“Louie was miraculous,” he said. “It’s not that he performed miracles, but miraculous things seemed to happen to him.”
“I can’t stop crying, and my hair’s a wreck,” said his daughter, Cynthia Zamperini-Garris. “Louie loved his hometown of Torrance, and if he could see this turnout, it would fill his heart with joy.”
The outdoor event was a chance for the hometown to say goodbye to “Lucky Louie,” who got his start running track at Torrance High School, which opened in 1917, the same year Zamperini was born. As a student there, Zamperini set a new interscholastic mile world record of 4:21:02, which stood for 19 years. He later went on to run at USC and compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Back then, the city rallied to send him off with a new suitcase.
If there was a sad note at the memorial, it was that Zamperini would not be on the red carpet come December. Zamperini died less than six months shy of the much-anticipated Dec. 25 release of “Unbroken,” the Angelina Jolie-directed biopic chronicling his story of survival, perseverance and redemption.
In an interview before the event, Luke Zamperini said he’d mentioned to Jolie how sorry he was that his father wouldn’t see the movie.
“Oh, he saw it,” he said Jolie told him. She said she brought her laptop to the hospital to show him scenes she had been editing before Zamperini died of pneumonia.
Jolie was not able to attend Thursday’s event but sent along a message that was read by Zamperini’s grandson, Clay.
“Louie was my friend, my mentor and my hero,” it said, going on to praise the Greatest Generation that served a “country they believed in for morals they believed in.”
Among the touches they worked on to get right, she wrote, was “the T” on Zamperini’s Torrance running uniform from the 1930s.
“My life and my family’s life have been forever changed because of your ‘Torrance Tornado,’ ” Jolie’s message read. His legacy, she said, will be the triumph of the human spirit.
“Unbroken” producer Matthew Baer, who was inspired by seeing a clip of Louie at the 1988 Olympics, had been working for years to bring Zamperini’s story to the big screen.
“I was the only person who loved talking about Louie’s story more than Louie himself,” Baer told the crowd. He became so attached to the family and the project over the past 16 years that he said he became the “only Jewish Zamperini.”
The turning point, he said, came with a 2002 letter that began: “Dear Mr. Zamperini, My name is Laura Hillenbrand and I am the author of a new book ‘Seabiscuit.’ ”
“Louie was always my biggest cheerleader,” Baer said, calling him a prophet of inspiration who had the ultimate underdog story to tell.
But it was probably the testimonies at the end from two young men whose lives were changed that would have pleased Zamperini the most had he been there.
Kyle Gauthier told the crowd he was trapped in a “whirlwind of drugs” just six months ago when the Zamperini family intervened. Louie provided several thousand dollars to send Gauthier to a Youth with a Mission program in Australia.
When he met Zamperini in person at his home in the Hollywood Hills, he was surprised after having read a signed copy of “Unbroken.”
He didn’t boast, he didn’t regale him with stories of heroism or mention the money he’d provided for his recovery, Gauthier said.
“He simply said, ‘Glory to God.’ ”
“Sixty years ago, the same experience that happened to me happened to Louie,” he said, referring to Zamperini’s life-changing conversion to Christianity.
“If you can’t believe in God, look at my life. Look at Louie’s life,” he said.
For Alex Katunich, the former bassist with the rock band Incubus, the message came through Hillenbrand’s book, “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.”
On his way to rehab two years ago, he and his father stopped in at a bookstore. His dad suggested he read Hillenbrand’s book, saying, “You might want to read this, presuming you can stop shaking.”
He urged the audience to ask what they could do for someone else as a way of honoring Zamperini.
A private July 13 memorial at Hollywood Presbyterian Church — where Zamperini was a member and Sunday school teacher for many years — drew childhood friends and celebrities, including Jolie.
The Torrance event was open to everyone and included several World War II veterans, among them Bill Sanchez, 96, who was in the prisoner-of-war camp with Zamperini.
Among the other highlights was the reading of the eulogy written by Hillenbrand.
“Louie and I began and ended in laughter,” Hillenbrand wrote in the eulogy read by Jolie at the memorial and by Zamperini friend Debbie Hays of Torrance on Thursday.
“I went to him drawn by the almost unimaginably dramatic and often harrowing events of his life. But when he spoke, something surprised and captivated me even more than his history. As he told of a war ordeal of profound suffering, in his voice there was no mournfulness, no self-pity, no bitterness, no anger. Instead, he was cheerful, buoyant, sparklingly witty.”
Ken Miller, who lived next door to the Zamperinis in the 1930s, recalled those early days in the 2000 block of Gramercy Avenue.
And several speakers recalled Zamperini’s unlikely beginnings in light of the hero status he attained.
“In his youth, he was a juvenile delinquent,” former Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto said. “Stealing pies, cigarettes and liquor; ringing church bells in the middle of the night to awaken neighbors; fighting, shooting spit wads at girls in class — you name it, he did it.”
He was trouble. But he was also fast.
It was through the “tough love” of his older brother Pete, who later was a coach at Banning High School in Wilmington for years, that Zamperini began to channel his speed into track events. He was one of the 334 American athletes to go to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, where Adolf Hitler asked to shake his hand.
From there, his life took several turns that would give him iconic status as he shared his story throughout the world.
A bombardier during World War II, Zamperini was stranded for 47 days on a raft, only to be rescued by the Japanese who brutally mistreated him in a POW camp. He was erroneously reported as dead in 1944.
He had survived sharks, near starvation and beatings — but Zamperini could not handle what faced him when he finally returned home: an internal bitterness and anger that gnawed at his soul, visiting him in nightmares and driving him to drink. He became obsessed with hunting down the former captor who tormented him in the POW camp.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Zamperini said in a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles News Group, which includes the Daily Breeze. “... I was an athlete who went to the Olympics, and I was a soldier in World War II. But then my life fell apart.”
At the insistence of his wife, who had threatened to leave him, he attended a revival meeting on the streets of Los Angeles, where a young evangelist named Billy Graham was packing in the crowds desperate to hear his message of salvation and God’s forgiveness.
“That changed my whole life,” said Zamperini, who always pointed to something deeper when personal praise came his way. “I accepted Christ as my savior, and I was on my knees. My whole life changed in a matter of seconds.”
His autobiography — “Devil at My Heels” — sparked early talk of a movie based on his life with the likes of Tony Curtis and Nicholas Cage expressing interest in playing Zamperini through the years.
But it was the 2010 publication of Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken” that catapulted the renewed push in a big-screen film that stars Jack O’Connell in the title role.
In true Zamperini style, he was dubious about Hillenbrand’s overtures in the beginning, telling her, “Look, lady, I wrote my book. If you want to do your own, go ahead.”
Staff writer Carley Dryden contributed to this report.






























Posted by at
Labels: ,

Wednesday, July 16, 2014




Laura Hillenbrand
July 17 at 10:06am
My brief eulogy for Louie, which Angelina Jolie read at his private memorial service on Sunday:

Louie and I began and ended in laughter.
I went to him drawn by the almost unimaginably dramatic and often harrowing events of his life. But when he spoke, something surprised and captivated me even more than his history. As he told of a war ordeal of profound suffering, in his voice there was no mournfulness, no self-pity, no bitterness, no anger. Instead, he was cheerful, buoyant, sparklingly witty. “I’ll be an easier subject than Seabiscuit,” he said, “because I can talk.”
If anything defined Louie, it was that. What made his life transcendent, what made it resonate in millions of hearts, was not the hardship he encountered, but the way in which he greeted it, how he turned it to joy, and what that told the rest of us about the potential that sleeps within ourselves. For all its grueling hardships, his life was not a sad story because he wouldn’t allow it to be. It was a triumph -- of persistence, of optimism, of love. Louie summoned strength amid suffering, joy amid sorrow, forgiveness amid cruelty, and hope that knew no master. To him, his odyssey was a gift. His laughter was irrepressible because he looked about him and saw only blessings. The most beautiful thing about this wondrous man was that he wished for all of us to see in our own lives what he saw in his. His story was his gift to us.
He scattered every talk we had with laughter. From our first hello to his last, singsong, “I love you! I love you!” every word he shared with me was infused in joy. In my hard hours, he was my steadying hand. In my happy hours, he was my gentle reminder to be alive to my blessings, to be grateful for them, to share them as he did his. Because I knew him, I see my world, my struggles, my bliss, my dreams, differently, and my life is richer, deeper, sweeter.
When I learned he was gone, I thought of words written by Maya Angelou:
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
Who among us hasn’t persevered, hasn’t seen a broader horizon of possibility, hasn’t seen light in darkness, because Louie existed? And in the way in which we are all changed for knowing him, doesn’t he live still?
I feel him now among us, young again, his strong legs reaching and pushing, his great lungs drawing in the sweet air, his grand, bounding heart beating, beating, beating.
Listen. You can hear his laughter.










dailybreeze

Public invited to outdoor July 31 memorial honoring Louis Zamperini in Torrance

By Donna Littlejohn, Redlands Daily Facts

Only close family and friends — which included some lifelong acquaintances from Torrance along with Hollywood stars — were invited to attend Louis Zamperini’s funeral Sunday at Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

But the city of Torrance, where Zamperini grew up, is now planning its own send-off for the hometown hero.

“It’s open to the public,” Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto said a few hours before he was to announce the plans at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. “We’re encouraging everyone to come and we really hope that Torrance High School alumni will come out in force.”

The gathering is planned for 6 p.m. July 31 at Zamperini Stadium at Torrance High School, Zamperini’s alma mater. The football stadium at 2125 Lincoln Ave., near Arlington Avenue, also hosts track and field meets, which Zamperini excelled at before moving on to compete at USC and in the Olympics.

“We plan to have guest speakers there; the alumni association will be represented,” said Scotto, who attended the private funeral. “And we hope to have flyovers. We’re arranging that right now. It will be a true tribute to a local hero.”

Zamperini, whose story of survival as a prisoner of war during World War II will hit the big screen in “Unbroken” on Dec. 25, died July 3 after a 40-day battle with pneumonia. He was 97 years old.

“It was completely packed,” Scotto said of the funeral at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, where Zamperini was a member and Sunday school teacher for many years. “It was very touching, but as I sat there I thought we have to do something in Torrance.”

He said Zamperini’s close family members — children Cynthia and Luke and grandson Clay — were receptive to the idea and are planning to participate.

Zamperini also was named as the Jan. 1 Rose Parade grand marshal. Parade organizers said they also are planning a tribute to his life.

Former Torrance Mayor Ken Miller, 91, who lived next door to Zamperini in the 2000 block of Gramercy Avenue for about eight years in the late 1930s, said a public gathering in Torrance is fitting.
“I think that’s great,” he said. “Everybody will go.”

In addition to Angelina Jolie, whose husband, Brad Pitt, was in attendance, Sunday’s service featured Draggan Mihailovich, a director with Fox Sports; Kyle Gauthier, who spoke about how Zamperini helped him through a difficult time in his life; and Zamperini’s family members. Hymns included “How Great Thou Art.”

After the afternoon church service, a reception was held at a nearby Italian restaurant, where Miller said he talked with Jolie for about 10 minutes. She told him Zamperini had seen much of the film as it was going into the editing process. Filming was done earlier this year on location in Australia, where Jolie told Miller a stand-in town was found for the scenes depicting Zamperini’s childhood in Torrance.

“I told her those were some good years and bad years,” Miller said, referring to Zamperini’s rebellious childhood. “She was very interested in the fact that we lived next door and that we knew the family very well. ... I saw Louie a lot because Mrs. Zamperini would invite us over for spaghetti.”

Miller said he was somewhat “overwhelmed” by the private time the film director gave to him at the restaurant. “What a delightful person,” he said of Jolie. “She was very down to earth. ... There was no makeup, no showing off.”

“I told her (at the end of our conversation), ‘Don’t forget about Torrance in all this,’ and she said they were going to have to plan something for Torrance when the movie comes out,” Miller said.

Miller kept in touch with Zamperini through the years but hadn’t called too often in recent months after his friend became so busy with the film project.

“Unbroken” is based on the 2010 best-seller of the same name by Laura Hillenbrand. The book will be released in paperback July 29.

“He’s really only been recognized in the last 10 years,” Scotto said of Zamperini’s fame. “Up until then, very few people realized how great of a man he was. The stories are just unbelievable.”

To his hometown of Torrance, however, Zamperini has been a much-feted favorite son for decades.
“Louis would be delighted to know the city is hosting a public memorial for him,” said Zamperini friend Debbie Hays, first vice president of the Torrance Historical Society. “After all, he put Torrance on the map.”

Named in his honor are Zamperini Way and Zamperini Field at Torrance Municipal Airport as well as Zamperini Stadium at Torrance High.

Zamperini moved to the Hollywood Hills many years ago but never seemed to forget his childhood years in Torrance, where he acquired the nickname “Torrance Tornado” as a track runner who went on to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Zamperini spent 47 days on a raft in the Pacific during World War II before he was captured and sent to a Japanese POW camp where he was tortured for two years.

Haunted after he returned home from the war, Zamperini experienced a life-changing conversion to Christianity after attending a Billy Graham revival meeting on the streets of Los Angeles. He dedicated the rest of his life to God, writing a letter of forgiveness to his former Japanese tormentor, establishing the Victory Boys Camp for troubled youths in Los Angeles and giving inspirational talks throughout the world.

He maintained a busy speaking schedule until just recently, speaking at a sold-out February 2013 breakfast at the Armstrong Theater in Torrance that was sponsored by King’s Harbor Church.
“He had a way of changing lives through his inspiration and a capacity for forgiveness that was divine in nature,” Hays said.

When the “Unbroken” movie comes out on Christmas Day, Scotto said, more “people will really have a whole different view of him. Many of them will be saying, ‘I wish I knew that guy when he was alive.’ ”


WANT TO GO?

What: Public memorial service for Louis Zamperini, who died July 3 at the age of 97
When: 6 p.m. July 31
Where: Zamperini Stadium at Torrance High School, 2125 Lincoln Ave., near Arlington Avenue
Donations: Donations can be made in Zamperini’s memory to the Victory Boys Camp in Los Angeles that Zamperini founded in 1952 to provide help for troubled youth; the family will continue to operate the camp. Checks should be made out to “Victory Boys Camp” and sent to Victory Boys Camp, 2338 Hollyridge Drive, Hollywood, CA 90068
Condolences: Correspondence should be addressed to Zamperini family, c/o Torrance Historical Society, 1345 Post Ave., Torrance, CA 90501



To watch the trailer for “Unbroken”, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrjJbl7kRrI.

Donna Littlejohn
Reach the author at Donna.Littlejohn@dailybreeze.com








Posted by at
Labels: , ,

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Private Activities in Berlin

Jolie bei Lego

Jolie im Legoland statt auf Berlinale

09. Februar 2012 22.37 Uhr, Bea Peters Angelina Jolie sauste mit drei Kids ins Legoland zu einem Exklusiv-Besuch im abgesperrten Bereich.


Wow! Even after one and a half hours with three children and two million Lego bricks Angelina still looks flawless than any Lego figure. The Legoland Discovery Center at the Sony Center on Thursday evening had "closed for temporary maintenance." So it was at least on the sign hanging outside. Inside, however, were not craftsmen, but the glamorous world of the family on pottering.

Angelina Jolie rushed at 17.30 clock, after almost 48 hours in the Hotel Adlon, with Maddox, Pax and Shiloh in her black Mercedes van with tinted windows and a support vehicle over to the Potsdamer Platz (another van drove off before the photographers). A blonde companion with children was also included. Finally, does the Brangelina gang playmate - even if all the other kids have to stay outside.

Only at the box office, there was no special treatment. Regular cost of the trip with family discount € 70 for one adult and three kids. Angelina could ratchet through their credit card. Also for souvenirs, because the little Lego fans got new toys. And the decision they made sure not easy. Pax standing wide-eyed in front of the shelf with the maxi-packs mini figures.

Brad Pitt was still not show up in Berlin. He invites BZ information according to an exhibition opening tomorrow in the middle. He wants to show his photos from the filming of her movie "In the Land of Blood and Honey".

Collaboration: Ralph Kuhn, Sebastian Karadshow


Angelina Jolie & The Kids Visit Legoland

By Karen Nickel Anhalt and Stephen M. Silverman
Friday February 10, 2012 08:40 AM EST


It took more than 1-degree weather to keep Angelina Jolie and three of her and Brad Pitt's kids from enjoying Berlin's Legoland Discovery Centre on Thursday afternoon.

Mom and Maddox, Pax and Shiloh piled into a Mercedes van and headed to the indoor fun facility, where the kids played for about 90 minutes, before selecting some Lego toys from the gift shop. Pax had the hardest time deciding which package to choose, reports the German tabloid, B.Z..

Jolie seems to be a fan of Legoland, having visited the version in England with one of her kids last September. She also has donated generously to Merlin's Magic Wand, a worldwide charity created by the operator of Legoland to provide fun experiences for children who are seriously ill, disabled or disadvantaged.

After their visit Thursday, the Jolie-Pitts headed back to their hotel across from the landmark Brandenburg Gate to play, as Jolie prepares to show her film, In the Land of Blood and Honey, at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.

On Wednesday, reports the Bild newspaper, Jolie paid a quiet visit by herself to Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.


Angelina Jolie is in Berlin, taking the kids to Legoland & going to Holocaust memorials
 


Did you know Angelina Jolie and the kids are in Berlin now? True story. They flew in (via private jet) a few days ago. Angelina is preparing to push In the Land of Blood and Honey at the Berlin Film Festival. The red carpet is tomorrow – I’m sure we’ll have photos on Sunday. For now, though, just enjoy this story about Brangelina’s activities in Berlin – Legoland! Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe! Wait, what? I had to ask CB if that was seriously the name of the memorial – she confirmed it. I mean, it is what it is, and that’s what happened – Jews were murdered. But maybe a gentler sounding name? Like, even “Holocaust Memorial” would sound better.
It took more than 1-degree weather to keep Angelina Jolie and three of her and Brad Pitt’s kids from enjoying Berlin’s Legoland Discovery Centre on Thursday afternoon.
Mom and Maddox, Pax and Shiloh piled into a Mercedes van and headed to the indoor fun facility, where the kids played for about 90 minutes, before selecting some Lego toys from the gift shop. Pax had the hardest time deciding which package to choose, reports the German tabloid, B.Z..
Jolie seems to be a fan of Legoland, having visited the version in England with one of her kids last September. She also has donated generously to Merlin’s Magic Wand, a worldwide charity created by the operator of Legoland to provide fun experiences for children who are seriously ill, disabled or disadvantaged.
After their visit Thursday, the Jolie-Pitts headed back to their hotel across from the landmark Brandenburg Gate to play, as Jolie prepares to show her film, In the Land of Blood and Honey, at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.
On Wednesday, reports the Bild newspaper, Jolie paid a quiet visit by herself to Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
[From People Magazine]
I didn’t know that Angelina was a supporter of Merlin’s Magic Wand. That’s pretty cool – you can read all about the charity here, at their website. It’s cool that Angelina is so supportive of Lego land – she took the kids to the UK version too.
Oh, I just got that no one has seen Brad in Berlin. It’s just Angelina? Did Brad not join her for this trip? Is he too busy kissing Academy ass? I hope Tilda Swinton flies into Berlin so she and Angelina can get bombed together again.



Photos courtesy of WENN.
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)