County Joins Palmdale Airline Bid Hoping to recruit major commercial airlines to Palmdale Regional Airport, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to work with the city of Palmdale on an airline marketing plan. In February, county officials received a report from the county’s aviation marketing consultant, Tri-Star Marketing Co., finding there is a market for commercial air services at Palmdale Regional Airport. The report also outlined steps necessary to bring air services to the airport, including formation of a group of county and local business officials to meet with various airlines to demonstrate the demand for commercial air service in the Palmdale area. On April 10, the Palmdale City Council endorsed the market study and voted to work with the county in a joint venture to proceed with market development for regional air service at the airport, which is owned by the city of Los Angeles. Earlier this month, the Regional Council of the Southern California Association of Governments adopted a long-range transportation plan that calls on LAX to limit its number of passengers to 78 million and allow other regional airports to meet the region’s expected increase in demand from the current 85 million passengers a year to 164 million by 2025. 1904 Building to Be Moved A 97-year-old building, the last of the original Lankershim Ranch that once covered most of the south Valley, has been moved for the second time. Built in 1904 and known as the Lankershim Reading Room, the octagonal building was moved last week by the San Fernando Valley Historical Society to the grounds of the Andres Pico Adobe in Mission Hills. The gazebo-style building was purchased by a minister and moved in the 1950s from the original ranch grounds in Studio City to the Chapel of the Canyon on Topanga Canyon Boulevard. The church has long since closed and the property been sold. The historic building was scheduled to be demolished as the new property owner made room for residential development. The site, which had four chapels and two garden settings for weddings, was known for its involvement with a number of Hollywood stars from Roy Rogers and Dale Evans who lived on a ranch in the hills west of Chatsworth to Jane Russell and Annette Funicello. In the 1800s, Valley pioneer Isaac Lankershim owned 60,000 acres, stretching from what today is Studio City to Calabasas. The historical society will spend $15,000 to transport the building and another $15,000 to restore it. Eventually the reading room, which will house items that once belonged to the Lankershim family, will be open for public tours as is the Andres Pico Adobe, a registered national landmark. Universal Signs Deal With DreamWorks Universal Studios has extended its international theatrical and worldwide home video distribution deal with DreamWorks SKG for five years after the 6-year-old entertainment company failed to conclude an expected arrangement with Warner Bros. Universal will give DreamWorks $250 million in the form of a loan and an advance against future revenue. Universal essentially matched an offer that Warner Bros. parent AOL Time Warner was prepared to make with the studio that was formed in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. DreamWorks, which distributes its own movies in theaters in the United States and Canada, has had an international and global video distribution deal with Universal since 1995 that was set to expire at the end of this year. The new deal also extends Universal’s right to use DreamWorks characters and concepts in its theme parks. Under a separate deal, Universal Music also distributes DreamWorks tapes and CDs. Iwerks Installs Theater in San Diego Iwerks Entertainment Inc. of Burbank has announced the installation of a new large-format theater at the San Diego Natural History Museum. A ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan Theater on April 6, which is now showing the film “Ocean Oasis.” The 300-seat theater features a giant motion picture screen, capable of showing 90 minutes of large-format film uninterrupted, a premium six-channel digital sound system and state-of-the-art show control. The theater is the first of Iwerks’ upgraded theater packages, notable for simplified installation, fewer connections and mechanical parts, and streamlined sound and show control components. The new Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan Theater is part of a 90,000-square-foot expansion at the San Diego Natural History Museum. The theater is designed for versatility and, in addition to large format projection, it is set up to accommodate other film and video formats, slides, DVD and live public address. Iwerks supplied a custom masking system that changes the screen aspect ratio for six different configurations.