You know the Washington Mutual building at Sunset and Vine? The one with the sculpture of a lady riding the bull in front? The one with Mary Poppins on the side? I bet you didn’t know that in the basement level of that bank is a vast collection of Harry Houdini’s props and secrets. I bet you also didn’t know that those artifacts are currently being held hostage by a high concentration of polychlorinated biphenyls.

On December 13, 2004, a LA Dept. of Water and Power transformer exploded, contaminating the Washington Mutual building with the carcinogenic PCBs. The branch manager who opened that morning said her eyes and nostrils burned for weeks after coming into contact with the toxic chemicals.

The bank was immediately sealed off. The EPA ordered an extensive cleanup, and the branch was closed for a month while workers in hazmat suits decontaminated the entire building. Well, almost the entire building. Two rooms remained sealed - the Magicians Hall of Fame, containing the Houdini treasures, and the Radio Pioneers Room, another museum containing artifacts from the early days of radio, like Bing Crosby’s personal RCA microphone and countless valuable CBS masters.

These rooms were given to their respective non-profits in the late 1960’s by philanthropist Robert Ahmanson, whose family owned the then-Home Savings building, which was later absorbed by Washington Mutual. They maintained ownership of the rooms when the merger occurred, and still do today. Except that today, they can’t go into them, because they can’t afford to have them decontaminated.

The rooms containing Harry Houdini’s magic secrets and Bing Crosby’s personal objects are still sealed up to this day, full of the toxic PCBs. Washington Mutual sued the City of Los Angeles in 2006 to cover the $1 million cleanup costs that they endured. Because the basement rooms are under different ownership, however, the out-of-court settlement left them high and dry.

On Wednesday, lawyers representing the two groups began a six day civil trial against the city under Judge Elizabeth Allen White, hoping to persuade her that the city of Los Angeles should pick up the decontamination tab. All they can do now is wait for the ruling.

Only in L.A., right?

Source: LA Daily News article

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