Visiting the Rain ForestEnvironmentally enlightened celebrities, if...

Visiting the Rain Forest

Environmentally enlightened celebrities, if they become concerned about the endangered Brazilian rain forest, can organize a little fact-finding expedition, jump on a plane and head south for a personal look-see.

Personally checking out the scene tends to heighten the impact. Of course, for most of us, the air fare would require selling the house.

Now ordinary people can get the next best thing to first-hand experience right here in the San Fernando Valley.

In Woodland Hills, there is a reasonable facsimile of a rain forest that folks can tour.

John Sebastian, owner of the hair products company Sebastian International, has spent $237,000 to build the replica at his headquarters at 6109 De Soto Ave.

Youth groups can tour during the week and the general public can visit from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays--and it’s free. Since it opened in late January, about 3,000 people have toured.

According to Debra Stein, who took her first- and second-graders from Sumac School in Agoura: “It was fabulous. It really made our eight-week ecological program on the rain forest come to life.”

Stein said her youngsters were fascinated by the animals and people that live in jungles, and by the ability to see and hear what they had only read and been told about at school.

The exhibit covers 2,200 square feet and includes several parts: a pictorial display, a scenic re-creation of the area, complete with orchids and other plants, and a simulated jungle that “children love walking through,” Stein said.

Sebastian says he comes by his rain forest activism naturally. “I first saw what was going on there when I went to Brazil in the late ‘60s to visit my brother.”

His brother was co-director of Peace Corps activities in Brazil and even then worried about the disintegration of the area, a family concern that has continued through the years.

“I’m now doing a number of things, including sponsorship of a worldwide children’s ecological program called Little Green, to help bring the situation in the rain forest home,” Sebastian said.

“A visit to our rain forest isn’t going to change the world, but it probably will help children understand what we stand to lose,” he added.

Playing Around

In the Geber family, it was something of a shocker.

The eldest son, Stephen, was marrying out of his group.

It wasn’t a difference of religion or ethnic background.

It was the fact that the woman, Lisa Wellbaum, played the harp.

You could just imagine the family becoming unstrung.

In the Geber family, people play cello.

It is the instrument of choice for five out of six members of the family.

It started with patriarch Edwin Geber of Woodland Hills, who played cello in the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1945 until 1986. During his tenure in the cello section, he played his way through a dozen conductors and guest conductors.

About 50 years ago, Edwin Geber met and married Gretchen, who was at the time a cellist for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. They moved to Van Nuys to begin their family. Stephen was born in 1943, and David came along in 1952.

Stephen was interested in track and baseball at Van Nuys High School and Cal State Northridge, but eventually his heritage won out. He received a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N. Y., was appointed to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and now is principal cellist with the Cleveland Symphony.

David, who also graduated from Van Nuys High, followed his brother to Eastman, then got his master’s degree from Juilliard in New York. He is now chairman of the string department at the Manhattan School of Music and a cellist with the American String Quartet.

David, whom his parents tried vainly to interest in the French horn, is not only a cellist, but married to one. His wife, Julia Lichten, plays professionally with a string quartet.

When asked if the Gebers were upset when Stephen married a practicing non-cellist, his mother, a renowned cello teacher, said; “Actually, we were relieved.”

Ad Hoc or Hokum

People either love them or hate them.

No, actually some people are simply confused.

But if you are licensed to carry Benetton products, you are going to spend time talking about the company’s ads.

Benetton, an international concern that sells its clothes through licensees, does not spend its ad dollars conventionally.

“The ads don’t sell clothes, that’s for sure,” said Jill Leiberman at the Benetton shop in Topanga Plaza.

“The company tries to address larger issues,” said Alex Sarkissian, who holds the Benetton license at Sherman Oaks Fashion Square.

Benetton’s ads address such things as racism, hunger, homelessness and AIDS, Sarkissian said. “When you agree to become a licensee, you know what to expect.”

Sarkissian said that he has been with the company since he graduated from college eight years ago, and that he appreciates the unorthodox approach Benetton takes to advertising.

According to his store manager, Michael Randall, many people have been coming in to complain about the last series of ads.

“People, especially older people, complain that the ads are gross,” Randall said. “They are offended by the boat people, but particularly angry about the picture of the man dying of AIDS who looks like the crucified Christ.”

Randall said even some of his younger friends, both straight and gay, have complained about the ads. “They just don’t know what they mean.”

Randall thinks that the ads are just meant to keep the public’s attention focused on situations that need attention, and that if they make people confused or mad, well, that’s not all bad.

“If you want to know where we are as a society,” Randall added, “you have to know the ads that create the biggest negative response are the ones that show black and white children together.”

Overheard

“I told my mother that it’s true the air is dangerous in Los Angeles, but she shouldn’t worry, I don’t inhale.”

--Woman to friend in Encino