Monthly Archives: May 2007

Girl in coma

  May 31, 1957 Long Beach Suzanne was supposed to have a simple bit of surgery. Didn’t everyone get their tonsils out? The 15-year-old went into St. Mary’s Hospital in Long Beach on May 31, 1956, but during the operation, … Continue reading

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Killing in Alhambra

  Photographs by Larry Harnisch Los Angeles Times22 Champion Place, Alhambra, Calif.     May 30, 1957Alhambra Yeah, we’re back in Alhambra, parked on the pinched, narrow street outside 22 Champion Place, a quirky, old two-story house built in 1910. … Continue reading

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Fireball engulfs desert

Photograph by the Associated Press"A furiously boiling ball of fire, measuring 900 feet from edge to edge, churns with awesome grandeur at the Nevada atom bomb test site. The blast, which was set off on a 500-foot tower, was photographed … Continue reading

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Neumann on the Mideast, Part 19

Note: In early 1957, The Times sent UCLA professor Robert G. Neumann on a six-week tour of the Middle East. Neumann, who was later the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Morocco, wrote these stories upon his return. His son, Ronald, … Continue reading

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Maid held in murder

May 28, 1957 Los Angeles Former Nazi prisoner 33822 sat at the defense table, her hands clasped tightly.  Her light blue cotton dress was wilted from the heat and her dab of lipstick only accented her jail pallor. Police said … Continue reading

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Random shot

I passed this building on Melrose en route to the "Wrong Door Raid" apartment house. Photograph by Larry Harnisch Los Angeles Times

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Countdown to Watts

May 27, 1957 Los Angeles In eight years, the city will explode in the Watts riots of August 1965 and white Los Angeles will ask itself what happened.  Look, for instance, at how the Mirror portrays integration at UCLA, which … Continue reading

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Boy kills drunk father

  May 27, 1957 Maywood Drunk again, Harold L. Johnson, 43, lay passed out on a bed at 3069 Prospect Ave. in Maywood. His wife, Agnes,  38, helped herself to some money in his pocket. When Johnson came to and … Continue reading

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USC rites

  May 26, 1957 Los Angeles All right, you sociologists at USC (and you know who you are) let’s aim our microscopes close to home, shall we, and examine an apparently forgotten campus rite: the Tri-Delt’s pansy ring. The rite … Continue reading

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ABC apologizes

Page 1, Los Angeles Times Page 6

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Neumann on the Mideast, Part 18

Note: In early 1957, The Times sent UCLA professor Robert G. Neumann on a six-week tour of the Middle East. Neumann, who was later the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Morocco, wrote these stories upon his return. His son, Ronald, … Continue reading

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Network to apologize

ABC agrees to make a formal apology for Mickey Cohen’s comments on the "Mike Wallace Interview." The Mirror, May 25, 1957 Page 1 Page 2

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Inventing tomorrow

  May 25-27, 1957 Pasadena Is it terribly cruel to pick apart a 50-year-old vision of the future? Must we laugh at the naivete of the 1950s as the work of well-meaning but misguided idealists? Let’s gently dissect a plan … Continue reading

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Crooked partner

  May 25, 1957 Los Angeles Mohamad Ahmad should have picked a more honest partner for his liquor business. But maybe it was only after Ahmad died that the man’s true nature became clear. Ahmad, 55, died in Jerusalem on … Continue reading

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Neumann on the Mideast, Part 17

Note: In early 1957, The Times sent UCLA professor Robert G. Neumann on a six-week tour of the Middle East. Neumann, who was later the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Morocco, wrote these stories upon his return. His son, Ronald, … Continue reading

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Paul V. Coates–Confidential File

May 24, 1957 REVENGE is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s nature runs to, the more law ought to weed it out–Francis Bacon Six states out of our 48 have abolished the death penalty. And California had … Continue reading

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Child killer

  Photograph by Larry Harnisch Los Angeles TimesAbove, 425 Isabella St., Highland Park, May 19, 2007. May 24, 1957 Los Angeles His mother’s boyfriend can’t hurt him anymore. Little Donald Butler Jr., 3, said: "I love you, Mommy," and died … Continue reading

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Slayer commits suicide

The Mirror, May 23, 1957, Page 1     Page 18

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Countdown to Watts

Note: The Watts riots are eight years away. As far as I can tell, The Times didn’t even cover this story. Email me Theresa Zeigler writes:After I read this story about the influx of Negroes and Hispanics in L.A. Country,  … Continue reading

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Theft ring raided

  May 23, 1957 Los Angeles David Schubin and Barbara Rose Frazier knew all about supply and demand. It was only later that they learned about the law. Schubin and Frazier set up a small department store in their apartment … Continue reading

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