Author Archives: lmharnisch

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times

L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Drinking Guide: A Brief History of the Tom and Jerry

Posted on December 26, 2019 by lmharnisch

A recipe for the Tom and Jerry from the San Francisco Call, June 30, 1912. Note: This is an encore post from 2013. Over on Facebook, Christopher McPherson asked whether the Tom and Jerry was named for the MGM cartoon … Continue reading →

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Christmas 1966: No Bad News at the Tucson Citizen

Posted on December 25, 2019 by lmharnisch

I finally tracked down the front page from the Tucson Citizen for Dec. 24, 1966, in which it followed the tradition of no bad news on Page 1. And a sample of the Citizen’s weather poem.

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Al Martinez, a Dying Boy and Some Peaches — A (Non) Christmas Story

Posted on December 25, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2015. Jim Romenesko, for those who aren’t in the news business, runs an essential blog that serves as a clearing house for information, gossip, bad headlines and assorted gaffes. A Jan. 6 post … Continue reading →

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Dec. 23, 1947: Baby Girl Abandoned at Downtown Restaurant With Christmas Card Pinned to Blanket

Posted on December 25, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. The young mother asked the waitress at the cafe in the Subway Terminal Building to hold her baby for just a moment—and then she was gone. … Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Crime and Courts | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Los Angeles Celebrates Christmas, 1913

Posted on December 25, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2013. Dec. 25, 1913: The Times carries a biblical passage across the nameplate (notice the artwork of the new and old Times buildings) and a Page 1 cartoon by Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale. … Continue reading →

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Dec. 25, 1947: The Times Christmas Poem

Posted on December 25, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. The Times’ front-page Christmas and Easter poems are as forgotten today as their author, James M. Warnack. I’ll leave it to my theological betters to parse … Continue reading →

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Dec. 24, 1907: Merry Christmas, Gen. Otis as Times Celebrates Record Year

Posted on December 25, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Dec. 24, 1907 Los Angeles Last-minute shopping, crowded post offices, trees decorated in hotel lobbies and toys given by Santa to the neediest children of the city; it was a Christmas season … Continue reading →

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Dec. 14, 1907: L.A. Schools Ban Mention of Christ at Christmas (Uh-Oh)

Posted on December 25, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Dec. 14, 1907 Los Angeles The madman who calls himself the superintendent of the Los Angeles schools has touched off an absolute firestorm of anger by ordering teachers not to mention Christ … Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, Education, Music, Religion | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on December 23, 2019 by lmharnisch

This week’s mystery movie was the 1945 Warner Bros. film “The Horn Blows at Midnight” with Jack Benny, Alexis Smith, Dolores Moran, Allyn Joslyn, Reginald Gardiner, Guy Kibbee, John Alexander, Franklin Pangborn, Margaret Dumont, “Bobby” Blake, Ethel Griffies, Paul Harvey, … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 48 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Christmas House Offers Simple Family Joys of Holiday Season

Posted on December 23, 2019 by lmharnisch

The Christmas House in Boyle Heights, courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library. Long before the inauguration of Instagram and trying to win social media by posting the most elaborate or flashy photo, George G. Skinner designed a homespun holiday … Continue reading →

Posted in 1938, Architecture, Film, Fire Department, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Nuestro Pueblo | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Christmas House Offers Simple Family Joys of Holiday Season

Black Dahlia: Fox News Unearths Leslie Dillon Fiasco in the Black Dahlia Case

Posted on December 20, 2019 by lmharnisch

And Fox News gets it wrong on the Black Dahlia case in this story by Stephanie Nolasco. Let’s go over this once more. The so-called Gangster Squad conducted a rogue, off-the-books and unsanctioned investigation of the Black Dahlia case that … Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, books, Cold Cases, Homicide | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Holiday Shopping Guide

Posted on December 19, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2017. Virtually everyone who writes about Raymond Chandler cites this book by Philip Durham, but very few people seem to have read it. Writing in 1963, four years after Chandler’s death, Durham produced … Continue reading →

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L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Holiday Shopping Guide

Posted on December 18, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2014. In February, I ran a series of posts by James Curtis about producer David Lewis. This isn’t a new book but I found it remarkably insightful. “The Creative Producer” can be found … Continue reading →

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L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Holiday Shopping Guide

Posted on December 17, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2014. “The Los Angeles Book,” with text by Lee Shippey and photos by Max Yavno is one of my favorite books on Los Angeles – but only for Yavno’s photographs. The text is … Continue reading →

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L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Holiday Shopping Guide

Posted on December 16, 2019 by lmharnisch

“Angel’s Flight” by Leo Politi. Note: This is an encore post from 2014. Another of my favorite books about Los Angeles is Leo Politi’s “Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Reminiscences of Bygone Days,” published in 1964. Copies are listed on Bookfinder … Continue reading →

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Movieland Mystery Bonus Photo

Posted on December 16, 2019 by lmharnisch

Tucson Barbara sends along this mystery photo, part of gallery of unidentified people at the Library of Congress. You may recall a post about another woman on the list that appeared in 2018. Any ideas? Barbara says: It’s not Barbara … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Mystery Photo | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on December 16, 2019 by lmharnisch

This week’s mystery movie was the 1940 film “Beyond Tomorrow” with Charles Winninger, Richard Carlson, Maria Ouspenskaya, Jean Parker, Helen Vinson, C. Aubrey Smith, Harry Carey, Alex Melesh, Rod La Rocque, J. Anthony Hughes, Robert Homans, Virginia McMullen, James Bush … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 44 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘Since Ma Is Playing Mah Jongg’ 1920s Game Craze

Posted on December 16, 2019 by lmharnisch

“Since Ma Is Playing Mah Jongg,” sung by Eddie Cantor, sheet music courtesy of Mary Mallory. Note: This is an encore post from 2015. In the 1920s, life changed fast and furiously as people celebrated the Jazz Age. Dance mad, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1922, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Holiday Shopping Guide

Posted on December 13, 2019 by lmharnisch

This is an encore post from 2018. Note: “Little Shoes,” about the murders of three little girls, may not be everybody’s idea of an appropriate holiday gift, but it is more than a “true crime” book. In “Little Shoes” Pamela … Continue reading →

Posted in 1937, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, Homicide | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Holiday Shopping Guide

Posted on December 12, 2019 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2017. Paul Bryan Gray was recently mentioned in the Los Angeles Times as the author of “A Clamor for Equality,” the biography of Francisco Ramirez, who published Los Angeles’ first entirely Spanish-language newspaper, … Continue reading →

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