Author Archives: lmharnisch

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times

Countdown to Watts

  Aug. 5, 1957 Los Angeles In eight years (the headline above is from The Times, Aug. 12, 1965), Los Angeles will explode in the Watts riots and many people will wonder how it happened. Here’s part of the answer. … Continue reading →

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Judy Dull update

  Aug. 7, 1957 Los Angeles Professional photographer David Sutton, 8426 1/2 W. 3rd, tells the Mirror that he spoke with missing model Judy Ann Dull an hour before she disappeared with a photographer calling himself Johnny Glinn (or Glynn). … Continue reading →

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Hiroshima 12 years later

Aug. 6, 1957New York I wish I could find the story that went with this picture, but I haven’t been successful so far. I’ll keep digging. There’s a wiki entry on Hubert Schiffer.  Email me

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Songs of the week

The picks from KWFB-AM (980), Aug. 3, 1957. I actually recognize most of these tunes; "Old Cape Cod" and "Gold Mine in the Sky" are new to me, but at least I’ve heard of Patti Page and  Pat Boone.  Alas … Continue reading →

Posted in broadcasting, Music, Rock 'n' Roll | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Discord in Alhambra

  Aug. 5, 1957 Alhambra Robert D. Smallfield and his former wife, Wilma, have a novel arrangement. Divorced after 17 years of marriage, Robert rents a room from Wilma at their former home, 1222 S. Marengo, Alhambra, so that he … Continue reading →

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Mickey Cohen–author

Aug. 4, 1957 Oceanside Box 7, Folders 216-229 of the Ben Hecht archives at the Newberry Library in Chicago appear to contain whatever was produced during the time Hecht worked with gangster Mickey Cohen on the story of the mobster’s … Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, art and artists, books, Film, LAPD, Mickey Cohen, Nightclubs | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Literary diversions

I.A.L. Diamond, Nov. 6, 1966

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Never returned

I found this in the archives. Poor thing, only 19. She never got to see her daughter grow up. Judith Ann Dull June 23, 1938-Aug. 1, 1957    

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Photo shoot

Aug. 3, 1957Los Angeles In June 1957, about the time she turned 19, Judy, at right, met Betty at a Hollywood photographer’s studio. They were both young and hoping for modeling careers, so Betty, 19, asked Judy to move into … Continue reading →

Posted in Homicide, West Hollywood | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Preservation notes

Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, my friends at the 1947project, note that the apartments at 5124 De Longpre Ave in Hollywood where Charles Bukowski produced "Post Office" is on Craigslist: Approximately a 12,500 square foot lot – currently holds a … Continue reading →

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‘I Hate Cops!’

Aug. 2, 1957Los Angeles It was St. Patrick’s Day, 1957, and a few customers got rowdy in a bar at Pico Boulevard and Figueroa Street. Police Officer Leo Wise separated a couple of men who were fighting and ordered them … Continue reading →

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Countdown to Watts

Aug. 1-7, 1957Los Angeles A search through The Times for early August reveals several stories about Chief William H. Parker being honored for 30 years service with the Los Angeles Police Department. In a luncheon at the Biltmore Bowl hosted … Continue reading →

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Spanish blood

Aug. 1, 1957Los Angeles Maybe it’s heat, maybe it’s the smog (what would be a Stage 3 alert today), but The Times is full of odd crime news. A rabid 2-year-old fox terrier mix went on a rampage starting at … Continue reading →

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Matt Weinstock

July 31, 1957 The whole thing started many months ago when Sparks Stringer poured out his chagrin here at being unable to find any farkleberries in L.A. He had in mind whipping up a farkleberry pie like his mother used … Continue reading →

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Women attacked

July 31, 1957Los Angeles In the continuing assaults across the city, a North Hollywood housewife fought off an intruder while a 60-year-old Hollywood woman was saved from strangling by the staff of her Hollywood apartment building after she was grabbed … Continue reading →

Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Division, Homicide, LAPD, San Fernando Valley | 1 Comment

No deal

July 30, 1957Los Angeles The state prosecutor and the defense had reached an agreement on most points in the conspiracy trial involving Confidential and Whisper magazines. According to the proposed accord, Confidential and Whisper would: 1.Abandon their present format, would … Continue reading →

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Bill Walsh in The Times

Bob Oates on Bill Walsh rebuilding the 49ers, Oct. 1, 1980; and Jim Murray on Bill Walsh, Jan. 10, 1982: Bob Oates, Part 1 Bob Oates, Part 2 Bob Oates, Part 3 Jim Murray, Part 1 Jim Murray, Part 2

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Ingmar Bergman on ‘Cries and Whispers’

Charles Champlin’s interview with the late Ingmar Bergman on “Cries and Whispers,” Feb. 25, 1973: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

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Random queries

The hits for the Daily Mirror blog show that someone is researching the Feb. 13, 1969, robbery of the Bank of America at 3320 S. Hill. Here’s your answer: The Times wrote very little about the case, although police killed … Continue reading →

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Cold case solved

July 25-31, 1957Los Angeles Nine minutes after the cyanide pellets were dropped in the gas chamber at San Quentin, James Lewis Feldkamp,  25, who had once tried to become an LAPD officer, was dead. If he hadn’t been turned down … Continue reading →

Posted in Homicide, LAPD | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments