Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 3, No. 12 - March 25, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................8
Classifieds............................2
Entertainment......................2
Hawthorne............................3
Huber’s Hiccups..................3
Lawndale..............................4
Inglewood.............................5
Legals.......................... 4,5,6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
61˚/47˚
Saturday
Sunny/
Wind
70˚/53˚
Sunday
Sunny
73˚/54˚
Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
Hawthorne Press Tribune
Featuring the Weekly Newspapers of Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale
Tri-City CERT Volunteers at
the Super POD at the Forum
Tri City CERT is an all volunteer, non profit organization created to enhance disaster preparedness and emergency response for the citizens of Gardena, Lawndale, and Hawthorne. They accomplish
this through the participation in community awareness events, various training programs, drills and providing volunteer support to the Fire and Police departments upon activation. Their vision is to
train residents of the Tri City area (Gardena, Lawndale and Hawthorne) to be prepared in the event of a disaster and to be a deployable resource to assist the Tri Cities emergency services upon request.
Photo courtesy Tri City CERT (Community Emergency Response Team).
South Bay’s Studio Antiques
Celebrates 33 Years of Business
By Kiersten Vannest
In the middle of Richmond Street, innocuously
tucked behind the 99 Cents Only
store, sits an antique store with the apropos
name “Studio Antiques” painted on the front.
Passing this store, it looks like an average
antique shop, with lots of old items and a
few treasures if you know what to look for.
But behind the doors of this little shop is an
antique hunter’s dream.
Laurence and Sally Martin own and operate
Studio Antiques. If you’ve ever seen Baggage
Wars on the Travel Channel or Storage Wars
on A&E, you’ve seen the Martins hunting,
appraising, and obtaining, and selling one-ofa
kind items from all over the world.
Neither of the Martins began their lives in
the business of antiques. Laurence grew up
in England, becoming a scientific engineering
designer and eventually helping to design
the black box recorder still used today in
airplanes. After that, he spent the next ten
years traveling the world as a contractor
and working on all things air space. His
profession led him to work for Northrop
Grumman and landed him right here in El
Segundo. One day, on his lunch break, he
found a little studio that had a painting shop
and framing business. He began to purchase
items, putting them on layaway to reserve
them for himself.
“One day [the shop owner] said to me,
‘You’ve got like twenty things on layaway,
when are you going to pay for them?’” says
Martin. After a couple of beers and some
lighthearted discussion, the shop owner asked
him if he’d just buy the shop. So Laurence
did. This purchase became Studio Antiques,
named for its predecessor.
While he handles most of the buying and
packaging, Sally, his wife, handles more of
the business side of things, a complement to
each other. While working a 9 to 5 corporate
job, she began helping out with the business
on the weekends, which eventually turned into
her full-time gig. With her master’s degree
and organization skills, she most often runs
the shop daily, makes friends with customers,
and keeps the books in check.
“I needed a secretary, and Sally fit the bill,”
jokes Laurence, immediately rebuked by Sally.
“He only says that at the right moment because
he knows it makes me angry,” she laughs.
Both of them are avid historians. Their
extensive experience, along with the help of
friends, who are experts in the field, allows
them to provide appraisals as part of their
services and helps them get valuable items
for their shop, which also operates online.
A myriad of odd, eclectic, and valuable items
have passed through their collection, from a
rare pressing of a Beatles album released on
their first trip to America for the Ed Sullivan
show, to a memo sent out by John Adams
suggesting that Washington’s birthday should
be made a national holiday (of which there
are only five known copies in the world).
These days, while antiques are still the
name of their game, they’ve had a mass
customer interest in vinyls. See Studio Antiques, page 5
Laurence and Sally Martin have been in the business of antiques
for 33 years. Photo Credit: Chris Miller Photography.
“I’ll tell you, this is my personal opinion,”
says Sally to explain the recent resurgence
of vinyl enthusiasts, “In the late 1800s,
there was a movement called the Arts and
Crafts movement, and it was a reaction to
the industrial revolution.” She goes on to
explain that this movement was an artisan
rebuttal to factory lines and automated jobs.
People began hand-making and designing
interiors and items amid the availability of
mass-produced consumer products.