Here’s Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I with this month’s “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel.
The first subject was where was George Hodel in December 1945 and why does it matter?
And the second, somewhat related subject was one of Steve Hodel’s chief enablers, a fellow who calls himself Luigi Warren.
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For Monday, we have a mysterious woman. Continue reading
Photograph by Bruce Cox/Los Angeles Times
Feb. 5, 1970: Behold the wonder of Chicken Boy on the roof of a restaurant on Broadway near 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles.
In 1977, Art Seidenbaum looked at oversized signs as part of Los Angeles’ vernacular architecture, which he called “litertecture” as in “literal architecture.” Chicken Boy’s oversized playmates included a turbaned swordsman over Ali Baba’s Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, the Carpeteria Giant, the supersized mechanic for Hal’s Tires in West Hollywood and the Colossus of Hickory Burger.
There are several more plastic giants to be found in Los Angeles, according to a website that tracks them.
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Clara Bow’s former rental at 7576 Hollywood Blvd. is on the market for $1.3 million.
Hollywood homes can show a star’s character just as much as any candid portrait. Ostentatious or understated, hip or homey, residences serve as a snapshot in time and place for their owners and society as well. Vivacious flapper Clara Bow remained a vulnerable little girl at heart, always seeking out a comfortable nest to create the safe, happy home life denied her growing up. For a short time she rented 7576 Hollywood Blvd., a small, lovely Spanish Colonial abode now up for sale and under threat.
Born into poverty and degradation July 29, 1905, Clara Bow endured hunger, misery, and abuse in a Dickensian childhood bereft of normal family pleasures. Looking for a chance of escape, she entered Brewster Publication’s Fame and Fortune Contest announced in Motion Picture magazine in January 1921. Her instinctive talent and energetic personality overwhelmed the judges, who awarded her first prize after a series of contests. Bubbly and effervescent in front of the cameras, her piercing, sensitive eyes revealed the true sadness underneath. Continue reading
While the recently concluded 27th SFSFF moved from the beautiful vintage Castro Theatre to a new barnlike structure adjacent to the remaining structure from the 1915 Panama Pacific Intl. Exposition, it once again featured diverse programming offering an emotional, humanistic punch. Covering such themes as pirates, alienation and anxiety, damaged individuals, the end of life, and glimpses of the shadow self, movies provided an intimate look to the troubles and problems we still face today. Stylistic flourishes such as silhouettes and shadows capturing the darker side of life, avant-garde touches like dissolves and wipes, and even tight, isolationist framing played up separateness and aloneness.
The Festival kicked off with a beautifully restored two-strip Technicolor print of Douglas Fairbanks’ rousing “The Black Pirate,” a joyous celebration of action and derring do. Featuring great stunts like sliding down giant sails while slicing them in half, navy seal-like soldiers flying ala the “Wizard of Oz” monkeys but through water, and a celebratory climb by Doug via raised hands, the film saw a strong, athletic Fairbanks overcome a rogue band of pirates and save the lovely Billie Dove’s honor. The restored print highlighted the gold and brownish hues intended to represent woodcuts. Donald Sosin provided a lilting score but this film calls for a rousing, Erich Korngold-like composition.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1954 film Black Tuesday, with Edward G. Robinson, Jean Parker, Peter Graves, Milburn Stone, Warren Stevens, Sylvia Findley, Jack Kelly, Hal Baylor, James Bell, Victor Perrin and Russell Johnson. Continue reading
The Flapper – via Wikipedia.
Note: This is an encore post from 2013.
Life changed quickly in the United States post-World War I. Nowhere was this more evident than in the role and actions of young women emancipating themselves from the corseted way of life to more boldly act in self-expression. The war gave more opportunities for them to come and go as they pleased, work in new jobs, experience nightlife. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, and along with it, began bobbing their hair, smoking, rolling stockings, shortening hemlines, drinking, dancing the Black Bottom, partying, and romancing.
A new term was coined to refer to these mainly young women; the flapper. Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary at the time defined a flapper as, “A young girl, esp. one somewhat daring in conduct, speech and dress.” In February 1922, The Los Angeles Times quoted “Bath-house John,” a Chicago First Ward Alderman, describing these young women in somewhat more disparaging terms. “A flapper is a youthful female, beauteous externally, blasé internally, superficially intelligent, imitative to a high degree. Her natural habitat is the ballroom, the boulevard and the fast motor car. She browses about the trough of learning, picking as her tidbits smart phrases which she glibly repeats without sensing their meanings. She comes from all walks of life and has for her main requirement nerve, a face and figure, either actually beautiful or susceptible to artistic effort.”
Popular culture spoke to these young women and helped shape a new consumer culture. Illustrators and movies evoked their sometimes wild and flashy style, and helped launch new idioms of speech. These flappers would help create America’s first sexual revolution, celebrity culture, and what it meant to be hip in the Roaring Twenties.
Reminder: Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel and Steve Hodel on Tuesday, April 16, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube and Instagram.
In this session, I’ll look where George Hodel was in December 1945, and why it matters (because it does). Also a look at one of Steve Hodel’s main enablers, because Steve doesn’t do it alone these days. He has “help.”
Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! The video will be posted once the session ends so you can watch it later.
For Monday, we have a mystery fellow. His slumbering mystery companion has been cropped out because even asleep he lacks sufficient mysteriousness. Continue reading
Never Open That Door (1952), shown at Noir City Hollywood.
Wonderful programming choices highlighted the 25th Anniversary of Noir City at Hollywood’s Netflix Egyptian Theatre displayed depravity, darkness, and deceit across the world, truly demonstrating that “darkness has no borders.”. Spot on pairings of United States noirs and international classics presented themes and stylistic flourishes which revealed similar influences and passions but covered in different angles.
The Festival kicked off March 22 with the newly restored, suspenseful Argentinian feature “Never Open That Door,” a powerful blending of two Cornell Woolrich short stories with darkly ironic plot twists a la “The Twilight Zone” or “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” Masterful lighting captured and foreshadowed the duplicitous nature of characters, often highlighted through the use of mirrors and masks. The theme of both could be things don’t always turn out the way you think, be it siblings disagreeing over gambling or a blind mother seeing the duplicity and ugliness of her son. “The Window” followed, also based on a Woolrich short story suggesting don’t always believe what you see. Continue reading
In the April 2024 Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, I talk about the recent article in… Popular Mechanics?
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For its 15th Anniversary, the TCM Classic Film Festival returns to Hollywood April 18-21 to examine crime in all its permutations with the theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film.” A diverse group of archivists, musicians, and presenters will highlight new discoveries, restorations, and fan favorites that reveal the ongoing conflict between good and evil and the eternal struggle of justice for all over a century of filmmaking.
The Festival kicks off April 18 with a 30th Anniversary screening of Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” at the magnificent TCM Chinese Theatre highlighted by star John Travolta’s attendance and other guests walking the red carpet. While praised for its salute to cinema history, the film also has received criticism for its focus on nihilistic violence.
Festival passes are $399 to $2,549. Individual tickets are $20, $30 to the closing night feature of Spaceballs.
Thursday’s schedule | Friday’s schedule | Saturday’s schedule | Sunday’s schedule Continue reading
This week’s April Fools’ mystery movie was the 1964 Woodfall film Girl With Green Eyes, with Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham, Maire Kean, Arthur O’Sullivan, Julian Glover, T.P. McKenna, Lislott Goettinger, Patrick Laffan and Lynn Redgrave. Continue reading
Reminder: Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on the Black Dahlia case Tuesday, April 2, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, on YouTube and on Instagram.
I’ll give an update on the book and look at a recent article on the Black Dahlia case … in Popular Mechanics?
Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! I’ll also get to the backlog of questions from previous sessions. The video will be posted once the session ends so you can watch it later.
Remember, this is only Black Dahlia questions. I have a separate Ask Me Anything on George Hodel on April 16, at 10 a.m. Pacific time.
Women were integral to the development and rise of the motion picture industry into both entertainment and economic powerhouse in the Twentieth Century. The fledgling field welcomed women, immigrants, and people of color eager to contribute at a time when dominant industries failed to recognize the huge potential of moving pictures. Women’s contributions were desperately needed, first to give the industry respectability as movie attendance skyrocketed when middle class audiences fell in love with films, and then to produce enough output to keep up with booming demand.
Besides their vital role in creating and producing films, women also greatly participated in presenting them to the public. Many mom and pop theatres across the country employed an untold number of women selling tickets, creating publicity, projecting films, and accompanying them. Some of these workers were trumpeted in their local newspapers, but the vast majority labored anonymously behind the scenes bringing films to the public. Continue reading
This week’s mystery movie was the 1957 Twentieth Century-Fox film Three Brave Men, with Ray Milland, Ernest Borgnine, Frank Lovejoy, Nina Foch, Dean Jagger, Virginia Christine, Edward Andrews, Frank Faylen, Diane Jergens, Warren Berlinger, Andrew Duggan, Joseph Wiseman, James Westerfield, Richard Anderson, Olive Blakeney, Robert Burton and Jason Wingreen. Continue reading
Here’s Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I with this month’s “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel.
I discussed the bizarre works of Jack Pico, an alias of John Frederick “Jack” Kohne Jr., from whom Steve Hodel stole the idea that the body of Elizabeth Short was left on Norton Avenue as a “pointer” to Degnan Boulevard and the 1946 murder of Suzanne Degnan in Chicago. (What? You didn’t know Steve stole that idea? Well, now you do.)
I also discussed: Continue reading
Lizabeth Scott in Desert Fury (1947), showing March 24 as part of Noir City Hollywood.
The Film Noir Foundation celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Noir City Hollywood with a return to Hollywood’s beautiful restored Egyptian Theatre March 22 through 31, demonstrating that “Darkness Has No Borders” with a look at sinister, shadowy crime around the world. Several of the screenings include allegorical double features that pair familar English language titles with international ones, a double dose of dark and forbidding themes, emotions, and scoundrels.
Noir City allow sees the Los Angeles debut of two stunning restorations, opening night’s 1952 Argentinian film “Never Open That Door” and the 1967 French color film “Le Samourai,” the closing night presentation. Other special delights include a screening of the bleak, 1947 classic noir “Nightmare Alley” starring Tyrone Power Jr. in a rare nitrate print, as well as a presentation of an eye-popping Technicolor print of the colorful, over-the-top 1947 film “Desert Fury, which Czar of Noir Eddie Muller calls “the gayest movie ever made in Hollywood’s Golden Era.”
Further information on Noir City Hollywood. Continue reading
This week’s mystery movie was the 1940 Warner Bros. picture Three Cheers for the Irish, with Priscilla Lane, Thomas Mitchell, Dennis Morgan, Virginia Grey, Irene Hervey, Alan Hale, William Lundigan, Frank Jenks and Henry Armetta. Continue reading
Bessie Lasky in her studio, courtesy of Jesse L. Lasky.com.
Note: This is an encore post from 2019.
Though overshadowed by her husband, Jesse, Bessie Lasky was as much an artist as he, a multitalented artist in many fields with some renown from the 1920s through the 1950s. Born Bessie Ginzberg April 30, 1888, in Boston, the gentle, spiritual woman earned an early education in Boston’s Sacred Heart Convent before studying at the New England Conservatory of Music with hopes of becoming a pianist.
After marrying vaudeville producer Jesse L. Lasky in 1909, however, Bessie’s life turned inward as she focused on marriage and motherhood. A shy and retiring woman, Lasky preferred the quiet and peace of her garden and home to that of the overly superficial, social, and grand world of entertainment. She spent her time playing the piano and working on poems when not gardening and taking care of home and children, enjoying the life of the mind and spirit.
Mary Mallory’s latest book, “Living With Grace: Life Lessons from America’s Princess,” is now on sale.
Reminder: Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel and Steve Hodel on Tuesday, March 19, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube and Instagram.
In this session, I’ll look at the notion that the 1946 killing of Suzanne Degnan in Chicago and the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles are related. This is one of Steve Hodel’s common claims, so I’ll get into who originated this crazy idea (no, it wasn’t Steve) and how Steve Hodel has pushed it.
Also a brief look at claims that George Hodel was part of a Nuclear Spy Ring. No, I am not making that up.
Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! The video will be posted once the session ends so you can watch it later.
ladailymirror.com 