Monthly Archives: February 2018

Black Dahlia: Blogging "Black Dahlia Files" Part 13 — The Subject Is Roses

Posted on February 14, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. I always cut my roses on Jan. 15 as a memorial to Elizabeth Short, because I remember that on the night before the body was found a neighbor had a strange encounter … Continue reading →

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Feb. 14-15, 1907: Gas Explosion in Downtown L.A. Levels Building, Kills 7

Posted on February 14, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007. Feb. 14-15, 1907 Los Angeles An 11:30 a.m. blast caused by an accumulation of gas shattered the Rawson building at 114 W. 2nd St. in an explosion blamed on a gas company … Continue reading →

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Black L.A. 1947: Judge Backs Racial Ban, Orders Native Americans Out of West Hollywood Home

Posted on February 13, 2018 by lmharnisch

Feb. 13, 1947: Dorothy Bradley becomes the first African American cashier hired at the Safeway grocery store in Watts. She was hired as the result of a campaign by the Watts Citizens Welfare committee protesting Safeway’s refusal to hired black … Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Blogging "Black Dahlia Files" Part 12 — I’m My Own Grandpaw

Posted on February 13, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Page 16 In the Black Dahlia books, all roads lead to William Randolph Fowler and it would be interesting to see how a sociologist would make a graph of the incestuous literary … Continue reading →

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Feb. 13, 1907: Hotel Alexandria Celebrates 1st Anniversary

Posted on February 13, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007. Feb.13, 1907 Los Angeles An enormous masked ball for the city’s elite was staged on Mardi Gras at Kramer’s Studio and Dancing Academy, 1500 S. Figueroa.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hollywood National Bank Watches History Go By

Posted on February 12, 2018 by lmharnisch

  Carol Hughes as photographed by Schuyler Crail, with Hollywood and Cahuenga in the background, courtesy of Mary Mallory. Note: This is an encore post from 2016. One of the most important and busiest intersections in Hollywood has always been … Continue reading →

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Black L.A. 1947: Jazz Musicians Outraged by Esquire Jazz Book for 1947

Posted on February 12, 2018 by lmharnisch

Feb. 13, 1947: Coming to the Shrine Auditorium – Esquire Award winners Lester Young, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Lucky Thompson, Benny Carter, Dodo Marmarosa, Barney Kessell and Vic Dickenson. Feb. 13, 1947: Esquire magazine began an annual poll in 1943 … Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Blogging "Black Dahlia Files" Part 11 — The Thrill Is Gone

Posted on February 12, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007. Page 14 “Hansen studied the body and the ‘sacred setting’ for some time before he stood up and said to Finis, ‘We won’t know what we’re really dealing with here until we … Continue reading →

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Location Sleuth

Posted on February 12, 2018 by lmharnisch

Look what I found while watching the opening of “Some Like It Hot.” Why it’s signage for a 1950s Standard gas station. Hey isn’t that going to be in the shot? Naw, don’t worry about it.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on February 12, 2018 by lmharnisch

This week’s mystery movie has been the 1954 Italian film “Voyage to Italy” or “Journey to Italy,” with George “Georges” Sanders and Ingrid Bergman. It was directed by Roberto Rossellini. The film is available on DVD from the Criterion Collection.

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Feb. 12, 1907: Alhambra Acres and Vermont Avenue Square

Posted on February 12, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007. Feb. 12, 1907 Los Angeles Imagine the surprise of Mrs. Robert Jackson, who was about to move into her new home on Vernon Avenue and discovered that the contractor had built it … Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Blogging "Black Dahlia Files" Part 10 — The Riddler

Posted on February 11, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Pages 12-15 Here’s a riddle: Let’s suppose for a moment that you are writing a historical piece; nothing terribly esoteric for a scholarly journal but something for the average reader. You have … Continue reading →

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Feb. 11, 1907: Woman Fractures Skull Leaping From Streetcar That Passed Her Stop

Posted on February 11, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007. Feb. 11, 1907 Los Angeles   The Eastside gets a new Baptist Church and 2nd Street and St. Louis. Like Tom and Huck A large pond 7 feet deep at Normandie and … Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Blogging "Black Dahlia Files" Part 9 — A Moment of Silence, Please

Posted on February 10, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Today is the anniversary of the Feb. 10, 1947, Jeanne French murder. Frequently linked to the Black Dahlia in the popular imagination and absurdly claimed as one of the umpteen victims of … Continue reading →

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Feb. 10, 1907: Architectural Ramblings

Posted on February 10, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007. Feb. 10, 1907 Los Angeles The Times features a hillside home “near the ostrich farm” in Pasadena. Presumably that was the Cawston farm in South Pasadena. (What, South Pasadena, again?) Unfortunately, many … Continue reading →

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Black L.A. 1947: Black Passenger Sues Greyhound After Driver Has Her Arrested for Not Giving Up Seat

Posted on February 9, 2018 by lmharnisch

  At left, a three-unit property at 3509 5th Ave., listed for sale in 1947 at $17,500. Above, the property sold for $600,000 in 2016, according to Zillow. Feb. 6, 1947: The Sentinel reports on a lawsuit filed by Alpha … Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Blogging "Black Dahlia Files" Part 8 — Neutral Milk Hotel

Posted on February 9, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. I was at a signing at Book Soup last night for Kim Cooper’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” (important note: there’s parking behind the store, otherwise you have to contend with … Continue reading →

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Feb. 9, 1907: George M. Cohan’s ’45 Minutes From Broadway’ at the Mason Opera HouseCohan

Posted on February 9, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007. Feb. 9, 1907 Los Angeles

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Black Dahlia: Blogging "Black Dahlia Files" Part 7 — A "C" From the Health Inspector

Posted on February 8, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Page 8 In those days Leimert Park was a nice, middle-class neighborhood on the fringe of the more fashionable Adams District west of downtown Los Angeles. Here, in a few words, “Mogul” … Continue reading →

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Feb. 8, 1907: Peace Returns to Buena Vista Street

Posted on February 8, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore from 2007. Feb. 8, 1907 Los Angeles About 1903, Charles E. Donnatin, former Pacific Electric Railway superintendent, apparently said something about the young woman across the street at the Stewart home, Savoy Street and Buena … Continue reading →

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