Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated)

Posted on September 14, 2026 by lmharnisch

Montage of switchboard operator, a caller, superimposed on a clock face.

For Monday, we have a mysterious switchboard operator and an enigmatic caller. Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia Book Club — Coming September 15, 2026

Posted on September 8, 2026 by lmharnisch

the_narrows_coverReminder: The next Black Dahlia Book Club will be Tuesday, September 15, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube. In this session, I will discuss what we know about the LAPD files in the Black Dahlia case, even though the department refuses to release them. The next Black Dahlia Ask Me Anything is October 6, 2026.

Bidding in a charity auction for a signed, inscribed first edition of Michael Connelly’s The Narrows will conclude with this session.

Send bids to LMHarnisch@Gmail.com with “The Narrows” in the subject field. I will post the bids (if any) once a day. As of September 8, the high bid was $100.

Reminder: Don’t dress up like the Black Dahlia for Halloween. Don’t do it.

Email me your questions and I’ll answer them!

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Charity Auction: Michael Connelly’s ‘The Narrows’

Posted on September 2, 2026 by lmharnisch

Cover of The Narrows. Gold and red lettering over a dark background.

Signed inscription of Michael Connelly's 'The Narrows' I am auctioning for charity a signed, inscribed first edition of Michael Connelly’s The Narrows. Bidding will continue to September 15 and conclude with the Black Dahlia Book Club.

In full disclosure: I bought this novel years ago at Goodwill for $1.99 (the partial sticker is still on the back). The original dust jacket has some rubbing and other unpleasantness. You might call it a good reading copy.

The winner will donate the bid amount to a charity of their choice (make it appropriate, please) in memory of Elizabeth Short. Send me proof of the donation, and the book will be in the mail.

Send bids to LMHarnisch@Gmail.com with “The Narrows” in the subject field. I will post the bids (if any) once a day.

Starting the action 9/2/2026 is David Oranchak with a bid of $25. Thank you, David!
High bid as of 9/5/2026 at 6:47 p.m. Pacific time is Kostadin Hadzibanov with a bid of $100. Thank you Kostadin!

 

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Black Dahlia: Ask Me Anything, September 2026

Posted on September 1, 2026 by lmharnisch

This is the Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case for September 2026.

The Black Dahlia Book Club will meet September 15, 2026. The next Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case will be October 6, 2026.

the_narrows_coverI am auctioning for charity a signed, inscribed first edition of Michael Connelly’s The Narrows starting today and ending with the Black Dahlia Book Club on September 15. The winner will donate the bid amount to a charity of their choice in memory of Elizabeth Short. Send me proof of the donation, and the book will be in the mail.

Send bids to LMHarnisch@Gmail.com with “The Narrows” in the subject field. I will post the bids (if any) once a day.

Reminder: Do NOT dress up like the Black Dahlia for Halloween.

In this episode, I discussed the complicated backstory of Killer in the Code and the roles of Mr. Alex Baber, Rick Jackson, Mitzi Roberts, Michael Connelly and the possible role of someone in the Marvin Merrill family.

I also discussed: Continue reading →

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September 13, 1963: Woman’s Body Found Behind Wall in Highland Park Home

Posted on September 13, 2026 by lmharnisch

Sept. 13, 1963, Comics

Sept. 13, 1963, Body Hidden in Wall
Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Joseph and Anna Lewis, 2630 Johnston St., Highland Park, had been married for 42 when she disappeared.

Not that Joseph, 72, a carpenter, was particularly concerned about her absence. Police were not informed of the disappearance until her daughter Shirley returned from a vacation in Montana and learned that her mother was missing.

According to Anna’s brother Charles Biba, she had visited in Chicago and boarded a direct flight to Los Angeles on Aug. 13.

Joseph told police “she has probably run off with some man,” but allowed investigators to search the home and agreed to a polygraph test — which he “passed with flying colors,” The Times said. Further investigation revealed that he had filed for divorce while his wife was gone.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1963, Art & Artists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Homicide, LAPD, Suicide | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

September 12, 1947: L.A. Times Columnist Lee Shippey

Posted on September 12, 2026 by lmharnisch

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Sept. 12, 1947, L.A. Times, Lee Shippey

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Henry R. Wagner of San Marino will be 85 years old Sept. 27 but the Zamorano Club couldn’t wait that long. In order to surprise Dr. Wagner, it celebrated his birthday at its monthly dinner Wednesday night—and the members got a surprise, too.

Never before had a woman been introduced to the club, but at that dinner Mrs. Wagner, Dorothy Huggings of San Francisco and Ruth Frye Axe, Dr. Wagner’s present secretary, were honor guests.

Continue reading →

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September 12, 1944: Wife Stabs Venice Man to Death

Posted on September 12, 2026 by lmharnisch

Sept. 12, 1944, comics

Sept. 12, 1944, Killing

September 12, 1944

Charles Holdren, 45, lived at 1515 Trolleyway, Venice, with his wife, Ellen, and daughters from a previous marriage: Virginia, 20, Peggy, 18, and Lois, 13. He worked as a fish cutter and after Charles and Ellen had spent Sunday drinking heavily, he decided to go to bed.

Where he found his wife, Ellen, 44.

The Times said he “objected to her presence in bed when he started to retire.”

At the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre: Rainbow Rhapsody with ‘Spectratone.’

Continue reading →

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Los Angeles City Hall, September 11, 2011

Posted on September 11, 2026 by lmharnisch

Los Angeles City Hall, Sept. 11, 2011

Photo: City Hall, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011. Credit: Larry Harnisch/LADailyMirror.com

Posted in City Hall, Downtown, Photography | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

September 10, 1947: In Love but Unable to Marry First Cousin, 17, Man Shoots Himself

Posted on September 10, 2026 by lmharnisch

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Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Sept. 10, 1947, Attempted Suicide There are some obstacles that even love cannot overcome, or so David Everett has discovered. The 30-year-old mechanic is in critical condition at Torrance General Hospital after shooting himself in the head and neck in despondency over his frustrated love for his 17-year-old first cousin Janet. And yes, she lives in a trailer park.

Everett is the man who was handing out $100 tips the other day after withdrawing all his money from the bank. Not just to Flora Killingsworth for bringing him ham and eggs, but to 15-year-old newsboy Edward Grant for a nickel paper, and to a cabdriver who took him to Glendale. To top it off, Everett ripped up some $100 bills and threw them in the street.

Continue reading →

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September 10, 1931: Voices — Christine Collins

Posted on September 10, 2026 by lmharnisch

September 10, 1931: Christine Collins letter to Warden Smith seeking a release from prison for her husband, Walter.

Posted in #courts, 1931, Changeling, Film, Hollywood, LAPD | Leave a comment

September 10, 1907: Horoscope — ‘A Very Uncertain Day’

Posted on September 10, 2026 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

September 10, 1907
Los Angeles

A very uncertain day. No evil omens glare anywhere but in all aspects there lies a heavy veil, defying those who would peer into this day. Beware, therefore, of all and any unconsidered act. Promise nothing unless you comprehend clearly the full scope and limit of the pledge. Sign neither note nor contract this day without full security in your hand. Avoid speculative enterprises like the plague.

“A red flag flows wildly” this day. Take heed that neither spark nor flame be left carelessly in dangerous places. Do not retire tonight without guarding against fire with much more care than usual. A great fire is threatened for a large city on the Atlantic Coast this night.

Continue reading →

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Dodger players buy homes in Compton, September 9, 1958

Posted on September 9, 2026 by lmharnisch

Continue reading →

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Sept. 9, 1947: Model Destroys Fake Painting Showing Her Semi-Nude

Posted on September 9, 2026 by lmharnisch

Los Angeles Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

In New Delhi, unimaginable carnage. “I counted the bodies of at least 30 Moslems, men, women and children, who were chopped up like beef by bearded Sikhs at the main New Delhi railroad station as they were about to leave for the safety of Lahore in the Moslem Pakistan area of the Punjab,” says James Michaels of United Press.

In Hamburg, British troops force thousands of Jews from Exodus 1947 to disembark in Hamburg, Germany. “Many of the Jews, frustrated in their dream of celebrating the Jewish high holy days a week hence in Palestine, began to wail. They shouted against “Hitlerism” and being returned to “this land which is a bloody graveyard of millions of Jews,” according to Associated Press.

Continue reading →

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September 9, 1907: Taft Leads Bryan in Presidential Poll

Posted on September 9, 2026 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

September 9, 1907
Los Angeles

More than a year before the 1908 presidential election, Republican William Howard Taft is far and away the favorite over Democrat William Jennings Bryan in a straw poll reported by The Times.

 

Continue reading →

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September 8, 1931: Voices — Christine Collins

Posted on September 8, 2026 by lmharnisch

September 8, 1931: Letter from Christine Collins, Page 1  Los Angeles, Calif.,
Sept. 8, 1931

Dear. Mr. Neumiller,

I am writing to you again in behalf of my husband, Walter J. Collins, No. 12824, an inmate at Represa, Calif.

I understand that his name appears on the June calendar and that he will be called before the prison board some time this month for a hearing.

Continue reading →

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September 8, 1907: Actor Guilty of ‘Mashing’ Young Woman

Posted on September 8, 2026 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

September 8, 1907
Los Angeles

Jack Foster, a handsome, blond actor who is the toast of the vaudeville circuit, noticed a young lady standing at 3rd Street and Main after a show.

Seeing that she was alone, Foster said: “Rather late for you to be out all by yourself, isn’t it, girlie?”

Continue reading →

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September 7, 1907: Typhoid, Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and Tuberculosis

Posted on September 7, 2026 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 7, 1907
Los Angeles

Henry Sief of the health office has released the latest figures on infectious diseases in Los Angeles and the news is wonderful.

There were only 20 cases of diphtheria in August, a 31% decrease from the 29 cases in July. Scarlet fever was down to 9 cases in August, a 55% drop from July, when there were 20. Tuberculosis is down to 10 cases from 24.

Continue reading →

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 7, 2026 by lmharnisch

Main title: Lettering in cursive with comical drawings of amusement park scenes.

This week’s mystery movie was the 1936 film Strike Me Pink, with Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sally Eilers, Parkyakarkus, William Frawley, the Goldwyn Girls, Helen Lowell, Gordon Jones, Brian Donlevy, Jack LaRue, Rita Rio, Edward Brophy, Sidney H. Fields, Don Brodie, Charles McAvoy, Stanley Blystone, Duke York, Charles Wilson and Clyde Hager. Continue reading →

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September 3, 1943: Los Angeles Tattoo Shops

Posted on September 3, 2026 by lmharnisch

tattoo_last_supper_ebay

This is one of my favorite discoveries from the city archives, a description of tattoo shops in Los Angeles by an anonymous citizen.

Los Angeles City Council File 15670

September 2, 1943

Dear Sir,

1943_september_03_tattoosI recently made an investigation of the tattoo shops here and the persons who operate them, for a friend of mine, whose young son, age 13, had been marked up like a circus freak by a so called (professor) Freaser.

Of course I knew nothing and cared less about this business until I saw the filthy conditions under which they operate, which are just about as filthy and unsanitary as the restaurants in which I am compelled to eat. Of course I know that no one in the city or state govt. is interested in their sanitation or the filth of the foods they serve. As long as they pay their license they can poison any one they want to and get away with it.

Sept. 3, 1943: Councilman Ira McDonald’s attempt to regulate tattoo shops brought this anonymous response, which I unearthed in the city archives.

Photo: Undated postcard showing Artoria, tattooed by C.W. Gibbons, Los Angeles

Continue reading →

Posted in 1943, Art & Artists, City Hall, Crime and Courts, Downtown, Libraries, Photography, World War II | Leave a comment

September 2, 1947: Miss Muscle Beach of 1947

Posted on September 2, 2026 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947, Miss Muscle Beach

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Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Muscle Beach began in the early 1930s as a program of the Federal Works Progress Administration, part of the government’s effort to recover from the Great Depression. It was later taken over by the Santa Monica Recreation Department.

Although already well-established, Muscle Beach was first mentioned in The Times in 1946, when a human pyramid collapsed and the young woman at the top suffered a dislocated shoulder.

Continue reading →

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September 2, 1910: Police Quell Labor Riot Over Body of Ironworker Killed at Alexandria Hotel

Posted on September 2, 2026 by lmharnisch
 
September 2, 1910, the Herald publishes its version of the incident.
September 2, 1910: Louis Jeffries, a Baker Iron Works employee, is crushed by a steel girder during construction of the Alexandra Hotel Annex. Workers carrying his body to an ambulance on Spring Street are assaulted by union supporters who are picketing the building.”Around the still warm body of the accident victim the frenzied ruffians swarmed. Vile invectives were hurled at the peaceable workmen who were trying to protect the corpse, and even the dead was not spared,” The Times said.

The Herald didn’t devote as much space to the story but it certainly depicted the violence that erupted. This incident is often cited in later stories about The Times bombing, showing the acute tensions between the labor and open shop factions.

The next day, the Herald published an editorial about the incident. Notice how much more moderate it is than The Times and actually supports workers’ right to organize. Nonetheless, it also condemns labor violence.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1910 L.A. Times bombing | Leave a comment