LA HABRA – Mayor James Gomez wanted to add some pizzazz to this year’s State of the City speech.
So he and others created a video aimed at playfully promoting the city with the help of businesses and residents – including a rather well-known one.
The video, “I Love L.H.,” stars Gomez lip-synching a rewritten version of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.”
Closely paralleling Newman’s drive in a convertible past Los Angeles landmarks in that video, Gomez cruises along La Habra’s main drags in a golf cart while singing.
“We tried to do a close parody of what he (Newman) did,” Gomez said. “The intention of the video was just to have some fun.”
As of Wednesday night, the video had more than 12,000 views on Youtube.com.
The video, which features an appearance by octuplets’ mom Nadya Suleman, a La Habra resident, was played for the first time at the State of the City Breakfast last Thursday at the Westridge Golf Club. Clapping and laughter came from the 160 in attendance.
“Every State of the City address I go to is boring,” Gomez said. “All I hear about is doom and gloom. … Despite the challenges we face, we could still have fun as a community.”
Local Scott Olson, who owns Audio Drops, a video production company, wrote the lyrics and recorded the audio of “I Love L.H.” four years ago in a very Newman-like voice.
“It was my dream to put this in the form of a video,” the mayor said.
So recently Jay Bhakta, owner of G-2 Productions, got behind the camera for the shoot. Bhakta and Gomez put in about 25 hours over two weeks shooting the video and Bhakta spent another 15 editing the final version that lasts three minutes, 30 seconds.
Everyone donated their time; the video didn’t cost the city anything.
Local icons such as Paul Goldenberg, founder of Paul’s TV on Harbor Boulevard who coined the TV and radio jingle, “I am the king,” make appearances. Susan Gaede, aka Newsy Suzie, a columnist for the Register’s Brea-La Habra Star-Progress, shows up playfully reading the competition (No, not the Times). Miss La Habra appears. So does an officer in a flashing black-and-white, and clusters of people in town.
But the most recognizable, and most difficult for Gomez to pin down for the shoot, was Suleman.
Gomez contacted Suleman’s attorney weeks ago about appearing in the video and got confirmation a day before the State of the City breakfast.
In the scene, Gomez and Suleman say in unison, “La Habra. … We love it.”
“She offered to put her kids in the video, but we ran out of time,” Gomez said.
