Feb. 21, 1958

In addition to their other
credentials, newspaper photographers must now carry letters signed by
Police Chief William H. Parker authorizing them to listen to police
radio calls.

With the understanding, that is, that they will use these permits only in connection with their work.

No
ambulance chasing on the side, see? Or Ordinance 92,524, Section 52.44
of the Municipal Code will getcha. Section 52.44 states it is unlawful
for a person in a vehicle to listen to police and fire messages
broadcast over transmitting stations operated by the LAPD.

THIS LATEST INSULT to the intelligence of hard-working newspapermen is an outgrowth of a case last June.

Two
men were arrested at the scene of an accident in Canoga Park for taking
pictures of the wrecked cars. Officers said they had repeatedly seen
the youths at accidents and had reason to believe they later offered
such pictures for sale to insurance companies as evidence. Obviously,
the youths had hastened to the scene of the collision after hearing the
report broadcast on the police radio.

When their case came up in
court, however, Municipal Judge Harry C. Shepherd quickly freed them,
declaring the ordinance unconstitutional.

He said at the time,
"I don’t see how by the greatest stretch of the imagination that the
City Council, the state Legislature or the U.S. Congress can tell me
what I can or cannot listen to over the radio."

Parker
immediately announced he was disregarding Judge Shepherd’s opinion and
had instructed his men to continue to arrest unauthorized persons
caught listening to police calls on their car radios.

The photogs shrug off the whole matter as merely another instance of the petulance that emanates from the chief’s office.

ONLY IN L.A. —
During Wednesday’s downpour a young woman who recently moved into a new
home on the edge of a canyon got a call from her mother, who asked
anxiously if the newly planted lawn and trees were holding firm.

"I’ve stopped worrying about the backyard," said the frantic daughter. "I’m just hoping the house won’t float down the hill."

AS THOSE WHO are precise about such things know, it’s Colorado Street (not boulevard) in Pasadena. And St. Luke Hospital, not St. Luke’s.

Well, they’re building a wing to the hospital and a sign proudly proclaims the addition as St. Luke’s.

AND THEN,
observes Ernest Oplatka of Sun Valley, there’s the one about the new
man on the rubbish collection truck who had such a hard time figuring
out front from back from side on the ultra-contemporary home that he
summoned the owner and said, "Take me to your litter!"

Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection in the the Regional History Collection
of USC Libraries

Above, July 24, 1958, mechanics move an MG that was damaged when a man repeatedly smashed the car into a Malibu drugstore in hopes that he could commit suicide by making the building collapse on him. He suffered minor scratches but caused $75,000 damage to the store.

At top, Aug. 7, 1958, Marilyn Monroe plays “Happy Days Are Here Again” after learning that her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, had been acquitted of contempt of Congress for declining to name former Communist associates. Monroe was preparing to film "Some Like It Hot," in which she plays a ukulele. From "Mobsters, Molls, and Mayhem: A Year in the Life of Los Angeles" at the Doheny Library.

ONLY IN
Sherman Oaks–A woman answered the doorbell and was confronted by a
little girl who asked, "Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"

She
said she was sorry, she had already bought some. Then she noticed
standing alongside the Girl Scout a mad carrying a shopping bag full of
the ookiecays.


MISCELLANY — A new
nurse at General Hospital got lost trying to find one of the
neighboring buildings. A taxi driver, seeing her plight, directed her.
But a little while later he saw her again, still lost. She’d completed
a circle without finding the building. So he drove her to her
destination without charge, a nice thing.

Seymour Westerman has
an employee who makes up his own words to describe things. The other
day he reported, "The office we delivered the desk to was very small
but the owner insisted that we put it khaki corner and while we were
moving it one of the legs carbunkled right under it."

John Richards, who spent some time in Japan, says the Japanese pronounced it Sy-a-natta.