King of the Road

Is he really still alive, or have a lot of people been driving on the road a little too long?

The Recreational Vehicle Industry Assn. trade group in Washington has released data from a poll of its members that includes a number of “fun facts” about life on the road in a home on wheels.

Asked to name the most famous person they have met on an RV trip, members responded with “Elvis” as one of the answers. The singer has been dead 18 years now, and was a pretty reclusive guy even when he was alive.

Others included Mickey Mouse (presumably at Disney World or Disneyland), Smokey Bear, President Clinton and Roy Rogers.

No sign of where exactly the King was spotted.

Will Work for Stars

A Los Angeles law firm that in recent years has become something of a bankruptcy counsel to the stars is calling it quits.

Partners at Levene & Eisenberg plan to go their separate ways, sources there said, with lawyers either forming their own firms or joining others.

Although they made up only a small part of Levene & Eisenberg’s business, a number of high-profile Hollywood bankruptcies were handled by the firm.

Among the bankruptcy clients were actresses Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kim Basinger, and Lynn Redgrave, the late singer Harry Nilsson and former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall.

Hourly Wage Increase

Just how much richer is Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates than a year ago?

Forbes just proclaimed him the world’s richest individual, with a net worth $12.9 billion, up $4.7 billion from a year earlier.

That means Gates over the past year added to his net worth roughly $12.9 million a day, $536,530 an hour, $8,942 a minute and $149 a second.

In Step With the Times

Modern Brewery Age, a trade publication for the beer industry, features a photo quiz in its current issue, showing a picture of a Pepsi delivery truck in New York City.

“The question: Why does this beverage truck have a metal shroud bolted to the passenger-side door?” The picture shows a metal piece extending down from the bottom of the truck’s passenger door.

According to the publication, the answer is that the metal piece covers a step passengers use to leave the truck cab.

Trucks have been bolting the metal pieces on the doors, the publication says, to keep criminals from climbing on the step when they try to rob drivers at gunpoint.

Briefly. . .

The Cat Hotel in Burbank now supplies cats whose owners are away with individual TV sets. That’s in addition to a daily hands-on petting, twice-daily exercise and twice-daily “personalized play time”. . . . The State of California Auto Dismantlers Assn. each year presents a Dismantler of the Year Award . . . “End the Recession” reads a hair transplant ad.