The Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters group was a neat little club founded in 1966 with, as I understand it, two goals. One was to preserve the history of West Coast broadcasting — radio and television — and it was pretty successful at that. Materials it accumulated are now housed at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library and I believe at other institutions that will preserve them and make them available for research. The other goal was to honor those who had made significant contributions to radio and TV, especially (but not exclusively) in Southern California.
The P.P.B. was pretty successful for a long time in the latter goal, as well. Mostly, the honoring was done with monthly luncheons, each honoring one or more of those significant contributors. I was a member for a while — unfortunately, late in the organization's existence so I missed a lot of the biggies. But there were still some star-studded luncheons and this video will give you an idea of what they were like…
Get the idea? They were wonderful events with wonderful speeches and wonderful gatherings and really, really bad food. How…bad…was it? One time when I somehow wound up on the dais as a speaker — I think the honoree was June Foray — I was seated next to Gary Owens, who was often among those of us honoring/roasting the Guest of Honor. As soon as we were served our lunches, Gary reached into his pocket, pulled out a handful of energy bars and began passing them quietly to those seated near him. He whispered, "I've learned to not eat the food at these and to come prepared."
Wise man, that Gary Owens.
The awful chow was probably a minor reason that the group was in decline over the last decade or two. Among the other reasons was that the membership was getting older and older, and young people were not joining up in sufficient numbers to balance the losses. Also, they were having trouble finding worthy honorees…or people who wanted to help run the organization. And then the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City — the place we met, the place that served the inedible entrees — closed down and no centrally-located, reasonably-priced replacement could be found. Also, there was this thing you may have heard of called COVID and…well, let's just say the group died a slow, inevitable death. It changed its name to the Hollywood Media Professionals and that didn't change anything.
The folks who'd been keeping it on life support have just announced they're going to stop doing that and I doubt anyone could blame them. It was a great institution in its time but that time is not this time. I'll miss everything about it except the meals.