I grew up in Philadelphia, and then graduated from the University of
Chicago in 1974. After graduation I moved to Los Angeles and became the
Administrative Director of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, a prominent
avant-garde theatre company. In 1975 I left the Odyssey to attend
Harvard Law School.
In 1978 I graduated law school and began practicing law in
Los Angeles. After practicing in the field of entertainment law at the
law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, in 1983 I opened my own
office, which ultimately became the entertainment law firm of Gruber,
Wender & Levine in 1990.
In November 1992 I produced Charlayne Woodard’s one-woman
play, “Pretty Fire,” at the Odyssey Theatre. Meanwhile, also in 1992, I
became heavily involved in the City of Santa Monica's public design
process for rebuilding its Civic Center. I also became treasurer and a
director of the Ocean Park Community Organization, my neighborhood
association. When opponents to the Civic Center plan gathered enough
signatures to put the plan the community had developed on the ballot in
June 1994, I became Secretary/Treasurer of the civic group supporting
the plan. The voters approved the plan in a 60-40 vote.
In 1994, my partners and I dissolved Gruber, Wender &
Levine, and I opened my own office in Santa Monica, with the intention
of devoting more of my time to producing and public service in Santa
Monica. The City Council appointed me to serve on the Housing
Commission.
In 1995, I produced the feature film, “Notes from
Underground,” a modern adaptation of the novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky,
written and directed by Gary Walkow and starring Henry Czerny, Sheryl
Lee, and Jon Favreau. “Notes” had its U.S. premiere at the Sundance
Film Festival in January 1996. The film was released theatrically in
the U.S. through Northern Arts Entertainment, after appearing at many
of the major film festivals in the United States and abroad, played on
the Sundance Channel, and is currently released in DVD through Olive
Films. “Notes from Underground” received the prestigious Innovation
Award at the Taos Talking Pictures Festival in 1996.
In the 1990s I became steadily more involved in public life in
Santa Monica. In 1995 the City Council appointed me to the Planning
Commission. After my term ended in 1999, the Santa Monica-Malibu School
Board appointed me to the oversight committee the board established to
review the expenditure of school bond funds.
In 2000 I resigned from my public positions to begin writing
my weekly column, "What I Say," about politics and life in Santa Monica
for The Lookout News, an on-line newspaper the covers the news of Santa
Monica. I have also had columns and articles published in
the Baltimore Sun and by the Journal of the Architectural Foundation of
Los Angeles.
In June 2009 a collection of some of my Lookout columns from 2000-04 was published as my first book, Urban Worrier: Making Politics Personal, by The City Image Press, an offshoot of the Lookout.
In 2004 I was elected to the board of the California Studies
Association.
Through it all, I continue to practice entertainment law in Santa
Monica.
I am married to a professor at USC, and we live in Santa Monica.
Contact: Frank J. Gruber
1424 Fourth Street, Suite 238
Santa Monica, California 90401-3444
(310) 260-5570
fax: (310) 260-5572
frank@frankjgruber.net
