“Every day is A.C. Lyles Day,” asserted Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge to a well-attended 95th birthday lunch Friday for the Paramount exec at Musso and Frank’s in Hollywood.
LaBonge, who reps the Hollywood area, presented Lyles with a City Council proclamation, adding, “It’s the only thing we did unanimously all week.”
The event drew five dozen friends, family and leading lights of old Hollywood including Mickey Rooney, Jane Withers, Ann Jeffries, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Rhonda Fleming.
Lyles cracked up the gathering by saying that Fleming told that she wanted him to give her eulogy, he responded by saying, “Let me get my date book.”
Paramount CFO Frederick Huntsberry presented a framed photo of the administration building, where Lyles has worked as a producer and studio ambassador since the 195os and still has an office on the fourth floor. Lyles started out at Paramount working for Adolph Zukor more than 80 years ago.
Fox exec James Pappas, who organized the event with LaBonge, spoke warmly of how much he enjoyed working for Lyles for a decade on the Paramount.
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“He once said, ‘Hey kid, get in here’ and there was Charlton Heston talking on the speaker phone with Ronald Reagan,” Pappas recalled. “I thought, ‘I’m either in Hollywood or at the Republican National Convention.”
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