Image: “I guess I’m a fool,” she panted. Credit: This Week magazine, Los Angeles Times

Sept. 7, 1941:It’s Sunday in Los Angeles, and although Pearl Harbor is three months away, concern about the impending war is everywhere. Someone even changed a “V” for victory to a swastika  on the hills  over what is now the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, which was then the site of the “Pilgrimage Play.”

There are few recognizable titles among the bestsellers of the day: James Hilton’s “Random Harvest,” William L. Shirer’s “Berlin Diary” and Perhaps A.J. Cronin’s “The Keys of the Kingdom.” The rest have gone to the Zombie Reading Program.

On the radio: the Rev. Bob Schuler at 8:45 a.m. on KMTR; Sister Aimee Semple McPherson at 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. on KFSG. Then there’s Gene Autry on KNX at 2:30 p.m.; and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy at 4 p.m. on KFI.

Jimmie Fidler says of a rumored change of management at a studio:

Producers are too afraid of being ousted to attempt anything but carbon copies of proven hit pictures…. Writers are too busy looking about for new jobs to do anything really creative. Directors are too eagerly currying favor with the new sovereign to stand up for their own ideas. Everyone, in short, devotes 90% of his energy to placating the potential head-lopper-offer and only 10% to his job. No one is sure of himself!