Author Archives: lmharnisch

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times

September 4, 1933: Man Kills Wife and Daughter, Commits Suicide Over Pink Bedroom

Posted on September 4, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 4, 1933: A man fatally stabs his estranged wife and daughter, then slits his throat after an argument because his wife had the bedroom painted pink. Continue reading →

Posted in 1933, Art & Artists, Comics, Downtown, Film, Homicide, LAPD, Main Street, Nightclubs, San Fernando Valley, Streetcars, Suicide, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on September 4, 1933: Man Kills Wife and Daughter, Commits Suicide Over Pink Bedroom

September 4, 1781: Los Angeles Is Founded

Posted on September 4, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 4, 1781: Los Angeles is founded. A look at various chronicles of its birth. Continue reading →

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September 3, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on September 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 3, 1959: Former Gov. Goodwin Knight is reinventing himself as a TV commentator, Paul Coates says. A letter writer tells Dear Abby that their trash can is loaded with empty beer cans every morning because of a neighbor who knocks back a case every night and doesn’t want the garbage man to know.
Continue reading →

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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, September 3, 1944

Posted on September 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 3, 1944: Phil Terry, the tall bespectacled young man whose career took a terrific nose dive just before and after his marriage to Joan Crawford, is on the beam again, Louella Parsons says. Continue reading →

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September 3, 1943: Los Angeles Tattoo Shops

Posted on September 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 2, 1943: One of my favorite finds from the city archives — a visit to Los Angeles’ tattoo shops. Continue reading →

Posted in 1943, Art & Artists, City Hall, Crime and Courts, Downtown, Libraries, Photography, World War II | Comments Off on September 3, 1943: Los Angeles Tattoo Shops

September 3, 1941: Widow Accused of Killing Ft. MacArthur Officer

Posted on September 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 3, 1941: Maj. George Tucker of Ft. MacArthur, stabbed several times in the abdomen, says the knife slipped. His widow (yes, the wounds were fatal) says they had been drinking heavily and she didn’t remember exactly what happened. Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Homicide, LAPD, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor, World War II | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on September 3, 1941: Widow Accused of Killing Ft. MacArthur Officer

September 3, 1907: A Oration for Labor Day

Posted on September 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 3, 1907: The Times criticizes Hearst papers “for their persistent efforts to teach the working people of America that they are the slaves of the ‘predatory rich’; that every corporation is a conspiracy to rob; that all capitalists are brainless brutes; that the government of the United States is a corrupt glutocracy.” Continue reading →

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September 2, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on September 2, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 2, 1959: E.A. Gillmann provides song to the forlorn mob of Pershing Square, hauling a piano and Gospel songbooks in a 1941 Chrysler and, with help, wheeling the piano into the square, Paul Coates says. Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Ask Me Anything, September 2025

Posted on September 2, 2025 by lmharnisch

This month’s Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, including a progress report on Heaven Is HERE! and look at the “Black Dahlia” edition of “Clue” based on the infamous list of 22 suspects. Continue reading →

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September 2, 1947: Miss Muscle Beach of 1947

Posted on September 2, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 2, 1947: Vivian Crockett is chosen as Miss Muscle Beach of 1947 in the annual Labor Day contest in Santa Monica. Continue reading →

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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, September 2, 1944

Posted on September 2, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 2, 1944: Michael Todd has discovered an unpublished score by Victor Herbert and signed Jeannette MacDonald to star in the operetta, Louella Parsons says. Continue reading →

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September 2, 1910: Police Quell Labor Riot Over Body of Ironworker Killed at Alexandria Hotel

Posted on September 2, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 2, 1910: Louis Jeffries, a Baker Iron Works employee, is crushed by a steel girder during construction of the Alexandra Hotel Annex. Workers carrying his body to an ambulance on Spring Street are assaulted by union supporters who are picketing the building. Continue reading →

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September 1, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 1, 1959: Paul Coates tells the story of Jean Elizabeth Wood, 26, an attractive young woman wearing a black party dress who stood in the middle of a darkened desert highway and refused to move out of the way of an oncoming truck. Continue reading →

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September 1, 1949: L.A. Warned on Water

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 1, 1949: I thought it would be fun to dip into the Mirror from its early days as a tabloid. At that time, Paul Coates was covering nightclubs. Continue reading →

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September 1, 1947: 1,000 World War II Veterans Now in LAPD Uniforms

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 1, 1947: More than 1,000 new LAPD officers are World War II veterans. “We’re going to have a young and strong Police Department,” Assistant Chief Joe Reed says. Continue reading →

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Schaber’s Cafeteria and Einar Petersen

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Mary Mallory profiles Schaber’s Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles, which featured murals by Einar Petersen. An encore post from 2012. Continue reading →

Posted in 1928, Architecture, Art & Artists, Downtown, Food and Drink, Found on EBay | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Schaber’s Cafeteria and Einar Petersen

September 1, 1941: Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 1, 1941: Tears over MGM’s cancellation of the Maisie series, Jimmie Fidler says. Donoho Hall, technical advisor on “Sergeant York,” says “the problem of the 5 million uneducated hillbillies in the South should be more America’s problem than any foreign missions.” Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor, World War II | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on September 1, 1941: Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood

Movieland Mystery Photo – Silent Version (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

For our silent film version of the mystery movie, we have a mystery guest looking at Back of the Head Guy on the floor. Continue reading →

Posted in 1915, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , | 21 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo – Talkie Version (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

This week we have a silent and a talking mystery movies. This mystery woman is from the talkie. Continue reading →

Posted in 1933, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

August 31, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on August 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

August 13, 1959: Paul Coates has the story of a man who submitted lyrics titled “Cold Campfire Ashes” to one of those songwriting ads you see in the pulp magazines. Continue reading →

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | 1 Comment