Monthly Archives: April 2007

Death in La Mirada

Posted on April 30, 2007 by lmharnisch

May 1, 1957 Los Angeles All he wanted to do was keep their dog, Roxy, out of the flowers. Two weeks ago, aeronautical engineer Neil Thompson, 30, rigged up an electric wire to shock the boxer if it got near … Continue reading →

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Follow the dots

Posted on April 30, 2007 by lmharnisch

More dots, on sale at Robinson’s. Email me

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A little elegance

Posted on April 30, 2007 by lmharnisch

I always enjoy looking at the fashion ads in old newspapers. The drawings give the pages a stylish, classic look that is impossible with photographs. (I swear, 1957 must have been the year of the dots in women’s fashions).

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Now playing at the Wiggle Room

Posted on April 30, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 30, 1957 Los Angeles Some anonymous Times writer had fun with this story about the Exotic Dancers League. There are all sorts of gags about baring grievances, making motions and getting things off their chests.

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Matt Weinstock

Posted on April 29, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 29, 1957 Los Angeles A bus driver who hauls a cargo of housemaids to the Beverly Hills area daily on his early morning run heard a conversation the other day that made him realize life isn’t always as orderly … Continue reading →

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A knight on the town

Posted on April 29, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 29, 1957Los Angeles When I saw this ad, my first reaction was: “You have GOT to be kidding me.” My next reaction was: “Maybe it’s still there!”

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Rigoletto Village

Posted on April 29, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 29, 1957 Los Angeles One of my favorite adventures while working on the 1947project was revisiting old neighborhoods that I found in The Times real estate sections from 1907, a feature I called “Architectural Ramblings.” Exploring the city, I … Continue reading →

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Reprieve

Posted on April 28, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 28, 1957 Los Angeles A boy (and how anyone knows it was a boy is never explained) came across a stalled car on the Southern Pacific right of way near Valley Boulevard and Boca Avenue in Alhambra.  He  ran … Continue reading →

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A shot in the dark

Posted on April 28, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 28, 1957 Los Angeles Let’s park here and sit in the car for a minute. It’s late, sometime between 11 p.m. on Jan. 3 and dawn on Jan. 4, 1957. The lights are on as if someone’s home. Hear … Continue reading →

Posted in Homicide | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Head hunters

Posted on April 27, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 27, 1957Los Angeles   I have somehow managed to miss out on coverage of the "Headdress Ball" staged every year by Las Floristas in which women wear the equivalent of Rose Parade floats on their heads in a fundraiser … Continue reading →

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Locos

Posted on April 27, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 27, 1957 Los Angeles Although the term "drive-by shooting" didn’t appear in The Times until two decades later, what happened near 107th Street and Juniper has all the tragic characteristics that are so familiar today. The victim was Fred … Continue reading →

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He was no Cupid

Posted on April 26, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 26, 1957 Los Angeles  Albert Duarte, 20, was tired of hearing the noise made by the wrecking crews day after day as they demolished a building at 1st and Hope streets. So he got a 5-foot bow and shot … Continue reading →

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Not on Netflix

Posted on April 26, 2007 by lmharnisch

               Note: Plot summaries are based on a variety of sources since it’s difficult to find viewing copies of these cinematic gems from 1957. "China Gate." Bad things happen in Viet-Nam when an American … Continue reading →

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Like gonesville

Posted on April 25, 2007 by lmharnisch

Ella Fitzgerald, "April in Paris" Email me

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If you build it, they will drive

Posted on April 25, 2007 by lmharnisch

As envisioned, 1957 As built, below, looking north from Slauson As used, below, looking north from Slauson, April 22, 2007 The Harbor Freeway, below, looking south from 42nd Street, 1957. Note there are no center guardrails. The Harbor Freeway, below, … Continue reading →

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Love me, love my shotgun

Posted on April 25, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 25, 1957 Los Angeles Charles S. Howard and his estranged wife, Rowena, have declared a truce in their war over two shotguns as they divide their property in a separate maintenance agreement. Howard had already agreed to give his … Continue reading →

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Voices

Posted on April 24, 2007 by lmharnisch

Note: Ulrich K. Quast, an auto salesman who took L. Ewing Scott and his wife, Evelyn, for a test drive along Mulholland in 1955, was probably the last person who saw her alive aside from her killer. As far as … Continue reading →

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Inca-redible

Posted on April 24, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 24, 1957 Los Angeles Note: Bylined stories were rare in the 1940s and 1950s. Here’s the handiwork of Jack Smith, doing rewrite on a celebrity brawl involving Yma Sumac and Fred Otash, former police officer, private detective and one … Continue reading →

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Like gonesville

Posted on April 23, 2007 by lmharnisch

Ethel Merman and Perry Como Email me  

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The bad dream

Posted on April 23, 2007 by lmharnisch

April 23, 1957 Los Angeles "It’s like a bad dream," he said. "You keep thinking you’ll awaken and find it’s a bad dream." Edward Simon Wein, given five death sentences under California’s "Little Lindbergh Law" for a series of kidnappings … Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, Caryl Chessman, Homicide, Long Beach, San Fernando Valley, Venice Division | 3 Comments