“Lassie” child actor Jon Provost was back at the house in Pomona where he grew up to mark completion of its renovation. If that sounds familiar, that’s because Saturday’s open house mirrored one from July 2018 in which Provost met fans and toured the house when the renovation was half-done.
So, fittingly for an event tied to an old TV show, this was something of a rerun. But a pleasant one.
Fans got to meet Provost, who played Timmy Martin on the family-friendly show from 1957-1964 and wore his TV outfit of a red checkered shirt and blue jeans. Two diehards journeyed from Salt Lake City.
And attendees got to tour the showpiece of a home at 1195 N. Washington Ave., right across from Kingsley Elementary. Built in 1900, the house combines elements of Craftsman and Victorian and boasts eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms. Provost’s family lived there from 1954-1959, overlapping two years with his time on “Lassie.”
Owners Ray and Michelle Adamyk bought the house in 2017 for $660,000 and put “at least $1.5 million” into the renovation, Ray told me. “We wanted it to be something special, and something special for Pomona,” he said.
He’s president of the Spectra Co., said to be the West Coast’s largest historic contractor. It’s based in Pomona and the Adamyks, who lived in Claremont, decided they wanted to be based in Pomona too.
They live in the house, but with so much space, nearly 7,000 square feet, they list two bedrooms on Airbnb and rent the grounds for corporate events and weddings. They also offer space for free to missionaries and allow select nonprofits to use the grounds at no cost for events.
They’ve branded it as the Lassie House to highlight the Provost connection.
When the Adamyks invited Provost and his wife, Laurie Jacobson, in 2018, it was Provost’s first time inside in almost 60 years. This time, they were invited to sleep over in his childhood bedroom the night before the event.
In a conversation on the front porch railing, as he took a break from a line of fans requesting signatures and photos, I asked Provost how he’d slept.
“I didn’t have any dreams or anything. But just being here brings back memories,” Provost said, mentioning that the neighborhood is largely intact. “One thing, the house seems smaller than it did when I lived here. But that’s because I was smaller.”
He said he was astonished by the amount of effort that had gone into the property, which includes a 360-degree mural in the living room and a library that has a kind of shrine to Timmy and Lassie with photos, memorabilia and a custom stained-glass window with two profile views of the collie.
“They’ve done a great job. It’s amazing, it really is,” Provost said. “If someone else had bought it, they might have bulldozed the place down and built something crazy.”
His sister, Francile, couldn’t make it, but Provost had taken photos and sent them to her that morning. Her reply: “Holy moley!”
Provost, 69, lives in Santa Rosa. I asked how the Kincade fire had affected him. “We lost power for a week. We were evacuated voluntarily,” he said. “It was a real pain. We had no electricity, no phone, no internet, no cable. And we never saw anything.”
Meanwhile, he said, his sons had a mandatory evacuation and yet their homes still had electricity.
Can we put Lassie in charge of PG&E? She might make wiser decisions.
Culture Corner
• Claremont Library manager Amy Crow will talk about the library’s 105-year history and how it’s changed, and stayed the same, in a talk at 10 a.m. Saturday at the library, 208 Harvard Ave. It’s the first event in the city’s On the Same Page community read of Susan Orlean’s “The Library Book,” which is about the L.A. Central Library and the 1986 fire that nearly destroyed it. The event is sponsored by Friends of the Claremont Library. Copies of Orlean’s book will be available for purchase or borrowing.
• John York, a singer-songwriter who was a member of the Byrds from 1968-69, will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Claremont Forum, 568 W. First St. It’s one of York’s twice-annual benefits for the nonprofit Forum’s Prison Library Project. Expect to hear songs by the Byrds, Bob Dylan, York and others, plus between-song banter about the songs and the 1960s. Admission is $20.
• Dick Eiden went from Pomona High student body president (class of 1963) to a career as a leftist lawyer who advocated for civil rights, Native Americans and immigrants. He’s written a memoir: “Paying the Rent: Adventures of a Left Coast Activist Lawyer From the Turbulent Sixties to the Era of Donald Trump.” He’ll talk and sign copies from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 30 at Newsboy Books, 215 N. Euclid Ave. Ontario, which is co-owned by classmate Jack Gingold. Small world, eh? Copies are in stock and will be sold at the event.
‘Purge’ in Ontario
Scenes for “Purge 5” were filmed in downtown Pomona, as mentioned here last week. The production then moved on to downtown Ontario.
Filming took place inside and outside the Granada Theatre on Euclid Avenue, including an adjoining alley, and at the American Legion on Emporia Street. I’m told the filmmakers liked the hometown look of the exteriors, needed an alleyway to show people exiting a building and felt the openness of the American Legion interior matched the visuals they needed for an assembly room.
Two local cities in one film? Sign me up. I haven’t seen any films in the “Purge” franchise, but knowing it’s about a dystopian America where lawlessness is allowed once per year, it seems to have the 909 written all over it.
David Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday, more signs of decline. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, visit insidesocal.com/davidallen, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.
