1988 Timeline

Armand Hammer reneges on pledge to donate his art collection to LACMA, builds his own museum in Westwood (opens 1990); Second (and last) L.A. Weekly Rock Music Awards;

LAX cops mistake baseball great Joe Morgan for drug courier, wrestle and handcuff him;

LAPD begins Operation Hammer;

Landmark Variety Arts Center is bought and gutted; Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Hillel Slovak ODs; LAPD rampage destroys four apartments on Dalton Avenue and 39th Street — sledgehammers and battering rams used against walls, furniture and toilets in futile search for drugs;

Equity Waiver war pits Actors Equity Association against small-theater owners; Dodgers win World Series against Oakland A’s; Kit Rachlis hired as L.A. Weekly editor;

Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage opens; B-2 Stealth bomber makes first public appearance at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale.