“Forgotten Hollywood”- Ace in the Hole…

Posted on April 2, 2018 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

“`On Easter Sunday, I celebrated my one-year anniversary at KNX 10-70 News Radio as a weekend traffic anchor. The afternoon turned out to be quite special.

“`With 30 minutes left in my shift, I received a telephone call from a traffic tipster. He relayed info about a major incident along the 134 West freeway. Drivers were getting out of their cars to look over the right shoulder wall onto the Los Angeles River. What they saw was a massive first-response presence in what turned out to be a missing-person situation. It affected traffic flow, so I reported the details about this lost boy on-the-air.

“`With the aid of the next traffic reporter (Will Slater), we were able to ascertain that a huge news story was unfolding. I passed the information on to our KNX News Desk. With my shift over, after twice reporting the incident, I went home. It became our lead story for the rest of the night, and during our Morning Drive cast. This story was reported over the CBS network, and it also ran over the Associated Press national wire.

“`The incident reminded me of two movies that had similar themes in the 1950s. Ace in the Hole was directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Kirk Douglas. It told the tale of a male trapped by a cave-in, and it became a fictionally huge news story, making the reporter famous across the nation. This was Wilder’s next production after Sunset Boulevard. Though not a popular motion picture when released, it has garnered critical acclaim over the years.

      

MANNY PACHECO

“`The climax of Them!, a science fiction thriller involving large radioactive ants, and starring James Arness, James Whitmore and Edmund Gwenn, was more to the point. A couple of kids are lost in a maze of tunnels, adjacent to the L.A. River, and saved from an unspeakable fate at the last minute by our stars. Learning about a labyrinth of man-made caves from the flick,  I surmised the real effort might prove problematic for numbers of volunteers who spent their Easter looking for the missing youth.

“`The fortunate news:  The kid was found Monday morning; alive and in stable condition. He was transported to the hospital, and eventually, he was reunited with his parents. The victim was discovered in a sewage drain pipe, with a search-and-rescue team taking twelve hours.

“`As part of KNX 10-70 team-coverage, I felt incredibly blessed to contribute in the positive outcome of the saved teen. Working for such a fabled community resource makes me proud. Kudos to Jan Stevens, Bob Brill, Peter Demetriou, Cooper Rummell, and the rest of the KNX crew for a combined effort in this worthwhile assignment.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2018 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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