VOLUNTEER PROFILE:

Randy Klopfleisch

Randy Klopfleisch looks like a guy that knows how gizmos work. But he sits, on this Saturday morning at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, at his post near the door musing about why his new digital camera won't behave. "You're supposed to be able to turn it off," he says just before it flashes abruptly at nothing. He pokes man-sized fingers at little tiny buttons and looks amusedly at this daunting contraption.

Having left Minnesota "for the winter" 35 years ago, Randy is now a fifteen-year member of Hollywood Heritage whose volunteering goes back to repairing Wattles Mansion, when his whole family came to help. His older daughter was MARRIED there. He'd become interested in Hollywood history when he and his wife bought a 1926 Spanish-style house in the Hollywood Dell area that neighbors said had been lived in by silent movie star Bull Montana, a side-kick of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Randy now has an extensive collection of photos and other material on Montana, as well as other aspects of Hollywood history such as antique post cards.

Since Randy's wife joined him in retirement last March, they have both traveled extensively and the Museum is lucky when Randy can fit in volunteer time. They've seen China, they've seen Africa, and they've seen Big Bear (from the comfort of their own log cabin). This cabin, incidentally, was built in 1910 and Randy managed to find a postcard to add to his already-extensive collection, showing the cabin at Big Bear back when Big Bear was just a cub and Cecil B. De Mille was filming an early silent picture there.

Randy's interest in the past includes automotive history, epitomized by his "cherry" beauties: a '63 Studebaker Avanti and a '64 Lincoln Continental convertible. He got hooked on old cars as a youngster, when his brother brought home a Model T to fix up. Randy now rotates the partially-restored cars (which, in the past included a '52 MG-TD and a '54 Cadillac) through various repair shops to avoid parking problems at his hillside home.

Randy and his wife Stephanie are both very involved in music. She plays viola with the Brentwood Symphony and with a chamber quartet. He leads the LA Harmonics, a dance music combo with which he has performed for "20-30 years". He plays jazz harmonica and also sings in a traditional and modern harmony quartet and is eyeing the Jazz Festival Circuit.

Randy and Stephanie recently purchased a 42' sailboat, "to sail off into the sunset."

He's upbeat about his own interesting future and what he sees as major improvements in today's Hollywood. "It's great to be living in Hollywood now, with the re-birth going on." He'll find a lot of people who agree with him.