Most of the time, capsules simply can't be found.
Some of the time, capsules can be but their contents have disintegrated.
This time capsule is different, however.
Workers carefully demolishing the ABC Entertainment Center and Shubert Theatre in Century City have discovered a hidden box filled with mementos that are completely intact and totally mysterious.
The 2-by-2 1/2-foot aluminum container resembles a television camera and bears an ABC logo and the words, "Corner Stone in the Stars, Sept. 22, 1971."
Inside are about 15 items, including a bright yellow sweater, a bottle of Martinelli's apple juice, a warped Andy Williams "Moon River" album, a Screen Actors Guild document signed by Charlton Heston and a program signed by Gregory Peck.
Missing are the usual time capsule staples: the requisite copy of the newspaper from the day it was sealed shut, popular gadgets of the era, the bravely written predictions of the future.
ABC officials have looked in their archives and can find no record of the time capsule being placed at the Entertainment Center, let alone a list of its contents.
"It looks like randomly deposited stuff," says David Sears, the only person so far to peek into the bolted-shut box. "It looks like people were at a party when somebody said, 'By the way, we're going to fill a time capsule.' "
"It was at roof level, not ground level. It was attached to the structural frame of the building" at its southwest corner, Sears said. Because it was under the roof, the box and its contents were kept dry.
That prevented the kind of water seepage that often destroys the contents of buried time capsules, such as one unearthed Feb. 13 at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.
Sears figures that the TV camera-shaped box discovered at the ABC Entertainment Center may contain items from personalities whose shows were part of ABC's fall television lineup in 1971.
That year the network televised such series as "The F.B.I.," "Nanny & the Professor," "The Mod Squad," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Bewitched," "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," "The Brady Bunch," "The Partridge Family," "The Odd Couple" and "Love, American Style."
http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-me-mystery19jun19.story
Some of the time, capsules can be but their contents have disintegrated.
This time capsule is different, however.
Workers carefully demolishing the ABC Entertainment Center and Shubert Theatre in Century City have discovered a hidden box filled with mementos that are completely intact and totally mysterious.
The 2-by-2 1/2-foot aluminum container resembles a television camera and bears an ABC logo and the words, "Corner Stone in the Stars, Sept. 22, 1971."
Inside are about 15 items, including a bright yellow sweater, a bottle of Martinelli's apple juice, a warped Andy Williams "Moon River" album, a Screen Actors Guild document signed by Charlton Heston and a program signed by Gregory Peck.
Missing are the usual time capsule staples: the requisite copy of the newspaper from the day it was sealed shut, popular gadgets of the era, the bravely written predictions of the future.
ABC officials have looked in their archives and can find no record of the time capsule being placed at the Entertainment Center, let alone a list of its contents.
"It looks like randomly deposited stuff," says David Sears, the only person so far to peek into the bolted-shut box. "It looks like people were at a party when somebody said, 'By the way, we're going to fill a time capsule.' "
"It was at roof level, not ground level. It was attached to the structural frame of the building" at its southwest corner, Sears said. Because it was under the roof, the box and its contents were kept dry.
That prevented the kind of water seepage that often destroys the contents of buried time capsules, such as one unearthed Feb. 13 at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.
Sears figures that the TV camera-shaped box discovered at the ABC Entertainment Center may contain items from personalities whose shows were part of ABC's fall television lineup in 1971.
That year the network televised such series as "The F.B.I.," "Nanny & the Professor," "The Mod Squad," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Bewitched," "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," "The Brady Bunch," "The Partridge Family," "The Odd Couple" and "Love, American Style."
http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-me-mystery19jun19.story