Author Archives: lmharnisch

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray, June 8, 1961

Posted on June 8, 2011 by lmharnisch

            June 8, 1961: Danny Murtaugh is like the Pirates. Tough, blue-bearded, underslung jaw, he looks like a sulfurous-tempered truck driver. Actually, he is shy and modest and the kind of worrier whose biggest fear … Continue reading →

Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, art and artists, Baseball, Columnists, Comics, Sports | Comments Off on Jim Murray, June 8, 1961

Tip Poff, July 17, 1932

Posted on June 7, 2011 by lmharnisch

July 17, 1932: I’ve been meaning to post some of the Tip Poff  gossip columns that The Times used to run in the movie/drama pages of the 1930s. The Times experimented with the column and by 1939 was calling it … Continue reading →

Posted in 1932, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Courts, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on Tip Poff, July 17, 1932

North American Aviation Strike

Posted on June 7, 2011 by lmharnisch

  June 7, 1941: The strike at the North American Aviation plant, in which Army troops dispersed union activists and took over an essential American defense facility,  is one of the landmark events in Los Angeles history. Because of its … Continue reading →

Posted in Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, LAPD, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor, World War II | 1 Comment

Jim Murray, June 7, 1961

Posted on June 7, 2011 by lmharnisch

        June 7, 1961: Gene Tunney's chief claim to fame is he licked an over-aged Jack Dempsey twice. It won him respect but not affection. A peculiar thing about the public is it resents a man who … Continue reading →

Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, boxing, Columnists | 1 Comment

Police Chief on His Way Out

Posted on June 6, 2011 by lmharnisch

           June 6, 1941: Police Chief Arthur Hohmann and Deputy Chief C.B. “Jack” Horrall are about to trade jobs.  Horrall will remain chief through World War II and into the postwar period, finally retiring during the … Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, City Hall, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, LAPD, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor | 1 Comment

Remembering Robert F. Kennedy

Posted on June 6, 2011 by lmharnisch

        Robert F. Kennedy, Ambassador Hotel, June 5, 1968.       I pulled together a series of posts in 2008 for the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel. Here’s … Continue reading →

Posted in 1968, RFK | Comments Off on Remembering Robert F. Kennedy

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on June 6, 2011 by lmharnisch

      Los Angeles Times file photo   [Update: Well our torrid mystery gal stumped everybody! I wish I had more photos of her, but there aren’t any. This is Ann Ainslee in “White Cargo,”  a rather notorious Los … Continue reading →

Posted in Mystery Photo, Photography | 13 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on June 6, 2011 by lmharnisch

      Los Angeles Times file photo   [Update:  Dorothy Ford, one of Earl Carroll's most beautiful girls, swims and rides horseback for relaxation between nightly appearances at the Hollywood Carroll theater, in a photo published Oct. 11, 1941.] … Continue reading →

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

Jim Murray, June 6, 1961

Posted on June 6, 2011 by lmharnisch

            June 6, 1961: Track and field is still a wholesome LIVING sport, not bound down to tradition like, say, baseball. A trophy for everything and everything for a trophy. I don't know whether you … Continue reading →

Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, Columnists, Comics, Track and Field | 2 Comments

Times Woman of the Year – Anais Nin

Posted on June 6, 2011 by lmharnisch

          I stumbled across this article while searching for something else (research is like that) and was stunned. When I started at The Times in the late 1980s, the Women of the Year Awards were viewed … Continue reading →

Posted in 1976, books | Comments Off on Times Woman of the Year – Anais Nin

Jim Murray, June 5, 1961

Posted on June 5, 2011 by lmharnisch

        June 5, 1961: It is always a source of wonder to me that a sport as savage and cruel as prizefighting doesn't brutalize its practitioners. Yet, it doesn't. A ballplayer after losing a game is a … Continue reading →

Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, boxing, Columnists, Comics | 1 Comment

Senator Demands Probe of Lewd ‘Soundies’

Posted on June 5, 2011 by lmharnisch

    July 2, 1941: Sam Coslow announces a deal with Mills Novelty Co. to produce 208 "soundies"  and plans to make 20 of them in the next month, directed by Josef Berne. The acts include Gale Page, Martha Tilton, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Film, Hollywood, Music | 4 Comments

June 4, 1941: Burbank Man Invents Death Ray!

Posted on June 4, 2011 by lmharnisch

June 4, 1941: I’ll admit I’m a sucker for stories about death rays. Evidently The Times’ editors were too since they put this item on Page 1. Promoter Kurt Van Zuyle credited L.E. Riley of Burbank as the inventor. It … Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, 1941, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Death Rays, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor | Comments Off on June 4, 1941: Burbank Man Invents Death Ray!

Jim Murray, June 4, 1961

Posted on June 4, 2011 by lmharnisch

          June 4, 1961: Jim Murray puts in a call to Casey Stengel and says: "I realized I was listening to the Voice of Baseball again. And what it is doing in a bank vault in … Continue reading →

Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, Baseball, Columnists, LAPD | Comments Off on Jim Murray, June 4, 1961

Voices: James Arness, 1923 – 2011

Posted on June 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

        James Arness, from “Them!” to “Gunsmoke” and "How the West Was Won." Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg interviewed Arness (or tried to) in 1981 as he began working on “McClain’s Law.” Arness was thrifty with his … Continue reading →

Posted in 1923, 1954, broadcasting, Film, Hollywood, Obituaries, Television | 2 Comments

Yankee Legend Lou Gehrig Dies at 37

Posted on June 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

              une 3, 1941: Until he lapsed into a coma, New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse” of baseball, was sure he would win against the rare disease that was slowly … Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Baseball, Obituaries | 2 Comments

From the Stacks – ‘Facts You Should Know About California’

Posted on June 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

    Since March, when I examined Louis Adamic’s “The Truth About Los Angeles,” I have been hunting the other pamphlets he wrote for E. Haldeman-Julius. A box of a dozen musty tracts arrived Friday, courtesy of EBay, and I … Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, 1927, 1928, books, Crime and Courts, From the Stacks, Hollywood, Zombie Reading List | 3 Comments

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, June 2, 1941

Posted on June 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

           June 2, 1941: The pajama-clad body of Hungarian-born danseuse Jenny Dolly, who with her sister Rosie was the toast of two continents two decades ago, was found dangling from a wrought-iron curtain rod in her … Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey, Suicide, Tom Treanor | 1 Comment

Jim Murray, June 2, 1961

Posted on June 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

            June 2, 1961: Parry O’Brien at the age of 29 will be a chief drawing card at the Compton Invitational tonight. He is one of the most durable and remarkable athletes of our time. … Continue reading →

Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, Columnists, Comics, Sports, Track and Field | Comments Off on Jim Murray, June 2, 1961

Maltese Falcon, 1931

Posted on June 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

        June 1931: Warner Bros. releases “The Maltese Falcon,” starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. Although the film is little more than an obscure curiosity today, it made a deep impression at the time.  Reviewing the now-famous … Continue reading →

Posted in 1931, boxing, Film, Hollywood | 2 Comments