Author Archives: lmharnisch

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times

1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, Aug. 7, 1944

Posted on August 7, 2014 by lmharnisch

Aug. 7, 1944 The honeymoon is over when the bride has to go back to work. At least, that is what Gail Patrick laughingly told me when I talked with her on the telephone. She got back in Hollywood to … Continue reading →

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Guest Review: B.J. Merholz on ‘The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan’

Posted on August 6, 2014 by lmharnisch

After we wrote our post on “The Selected Letters of Elia Kaza,” we passed it on to longtime reader B.J. Merholz (try doing that with an e-book). He writes: Howdy, Jim! Just a line to let you know I’m dipping … Continue reading →

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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, Aug. 6, 1944

Posted on August 6, 2014 by lmharnisch

Aug. 6, 1944 Jennifer Jones is a strange, restrained, shy girl with little of the small talk and frivolous comments on life that characterize the average young woman of her years. Talking to her, you get the impression she is … Continue reading →

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Downtown Los Angeles Invaded by Hipsters With Dogs

Posted on August 5, 2014 by lmharnisch

The renaissance of downtown Los Angeles has brought us fancy bars, expensive lofts, pricey restaurants and sidewalks full of hipsters with dogs. Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, I have owned dogs. But they don’t belong in eating establishments. … Continue reading →

Posted in 2014, Animals, Downtown, Food and Drink | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

‘Laura’ — The Making of a Film Noir Classic, Part 15

Posted on August 5, 2014 by lmharnisch

“The Case of the Haunted Husband,” a 1941 novel by the prolific Erle Stanley Gardner, listed on EBay at $26.99, with a reinforced dust jacket that might indicate a previous life in a lending library. (Note to millennials: A lending … Continue reading →

Posted in 1944, Books and Authors, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, Aug. 5, 1944

Posted on August 5, 2014 by lmharnisch

Aug. 5, 1944 Veronica Lake may not get that chance to walk across the Paramount lot to RKO for Niven Busch’s “Duel in the Sun” for the reason that she will have the top role in “Miss Susie Slagle’s” at … Continue reading →

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Movieland Mystery Photo ( Updated + + + + )

Posted on August 4, 2014 by lmharnisch

This week’s movie has been the 1946 Columbia picture “The Devil’s Mask,” written and directed by Carlton E. Morse and based on the radio show “I Love a Mystery.”

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 42 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Do Something for Uncle Sam

Posted on August 4, 2014 by lmharnisch

“Do Something” via the Library of Congress. One hundred years ago on July 28, 1914, World War I erupted after Austria-Hungary fired the first shots invading Serbia in response to Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip’s shooting and killing of Archduke Franz … Continue reading →

Posted in 1917, 1918, Art & Artists, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Music, World War I | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Do Something for Uncle Sam

1944 in Print — Life Magazine, July 31, 1944

Posted on August 2, 2014 by lmharnisch

The stony-faced Russian on the cover is Marshal Grigory (frequently rendered Georgi)  Zhukov, 49, sometime chief of operations of the Russian general staff and commander on the southern front. He wears at his neck Marshal’s Star; at upper left, two … Continue reading →

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1944 on the Radio — Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge

Posted on August 2, 2014 by lmharnisch

Aug. 2, 1944: Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge, with Phil Harris filling in for Kyser. Courtesy of otronmp3.com.

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LAPD Parker Center Cop Shop Files: Bank Robber DR 73 491 959

Posted on August 1, 2014 by lmharnisch

I was given a box of material that was cleaned out of the old press room – the “Cop Shop” – when Parker Center was closed. Today we have a picture of a bank robber. The DR number is 73 … Continue reading →

Posted in 1973, LAPD, Parker Center Cop Shop Files | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, Aug. 1, 1944

Posted on August 1, 2014 by lmharnisch

Aug. 1, 1944 What a picture for Clark Cable, “The Life of Lucky Baldwin,” who was one of California’s most colorful characters. Lunched with Louis B. Mayer and he told me producer Everett Riskin is now preparing the biography for … Continue reading →

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Florabel Muir’s ‘Headline Happy’

Posted on July 31, 2014 by lmharnisch

A copy of Florabel Muir’s 1950 “Headline Happy” has been listed on EBay for $45 or make an offer. Muir was a newspaperwoman in Los Angeles and discusses the usual suspects, including Bugsy Siegel (she describes the murder scene) and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and Authors, Found on EBay | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Black Mask, Weird Tales, Amazing Stories and Spicy Stories on the Internet!

Posted on July 31, 2014 by lmharnisch

Imagine my surprise to discover that Archive.org has added a large collection of pulp magazines such as this August 1920 issue of Black Mask, the legendary mystery magazine that published so many hardboiled writers, including Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Cornell … Continue reading →

Posted in 1920, Books and Authors | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

1944 in Print — Walter Winchell and Louella Parsons, July 31, 1944

Posted on July 31, 2014 by lmharnisch

July 31, 1944 Walter Winchell says: Times Sq. Ticker: Otto Preminger’s production of Vera Caspary’s hit novel “Laura” gives the villainous role to Clifton Webb, his first film. It’s a racy mystery murder with Gene Tierney in the role Jennifer … Continue reading →

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Another Wikipedia Hoax Exposed

Posted on July 30, 2014 by lmharnisch

A regular reader forwarded the following post to me, regarding our go-to source for misinformation: Wikipedia. Writing in The Daily Dot, E.J. Dickson describes surprise in discovering that a 2009 edit made to a Wikipedia entry as a college prank … Continue reading →

Posted in Libraries, Wikipedia | Tagged , | 6 Comments

1944 in Print — Tom Treanor ‘One Damn Thing After Another’

Posted on July 30, 2014 by lmharnisch

July 30, 1944 Less than a month before Times war correspondent Tom Treanor was killed in France, his book “One Damn Thing After Another” was reviewed in The Times. The book is a collection of Treanor’s columns for The Times. … Continue reading →

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‘Laura’ — The Making of a Film Noir Classic, Part 14

Posted on July 30, 2014 by lmharnisch

In case you just tuned in, I’m using Louella Parsons’ May 15, 1944, item on Rouben Mamoulian being replaced as the director of “Laura” to take a meandering look at the making of the film, which was released in Los … Continue reading →

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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, July 30, 1944

Posted on July 30, 2014 by lmharnisch

July 30, 1944 The youthful glamour department at MGM is in the hands of two young ladies whose widely divergent careers started about the same time. June Allyson, without five minutes’ training, went to Broadway and got herself a job … Continue reading →

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July 29 — Elizabeth Short’s birthday

Posted on July 29, 2014 by lmharnisch

Today is Elizabeth Short’s birthday. She would have been 90.

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, LAPD | Tagged , , | 2 Comments