Author Archives: lmharnisch

Today is the anniversary of the Feb. 10, 1947, Jeanne French murder. Frequently linked to the Black Dahlia in the popular imagination and absurdly claimed as one of the umpteen victims of Dr. George “Evil Genius” Hodel in “Black Dahlia … Continue reading →

I was at a signing at Book Soup last night for Kim Cooper’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” (important note: there’s parking behind the store, otherwise you have to contend with West Hollywood’s insane parking situation. Those people aren’t … Continue reading →

Page 8 In those days Leimert Park was a nice, middle-class neighborhood on the fringe of the more fashionable Adams District west of downtown Los Angeles. Here, in a few words, “Mogul” demonstrates its lack of familiarity with two historic … Continue reading →

Page 7 What’s this? Another day on Page 7? Theological scholars don’t scrutinize the Bible this carefully and this is a book you could read in a few hours waiting for a plane at LAX. Don’t give up, we’re closing … Continue reading →

Page 7 (Continued) If the temperature dropped below 35 degrees F in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, the ranchers had to go out and light their smudge pots to ward off the frost that could damage the citrus … Continue reading →

And how are we doing? Some glaring omissions, a few mangled facts and some major errors. In all, the book isn’t doing well and we’re only on Page 6. If this were a restaurant, the health department would give it … Continue reading →

P. 5 Extra! Extra! I was raised on the wrong side of the tracks in Beverly Hills. This is the most marvelously amusing statement. I suppose there are people—somewhere—who might find this believable. But for anybody local, especially a homebuyer, … Continue reading →

Page 3 There wasn’t much nightlife in Los Angeles back in the 1940s. Most people went to bed early. Even in Hollywood the streets were empty and the town was pretty dead by 10 p.m. My goodness, I had to … Continue reading →

People keep asking me: “Have you read the Wolfe book?” meaning Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” My answer is always the same: I bought a copy but … Continue reading →

New York Times, June 15, 2005William Hamilton: “I‘ve never before felt like losing was winning,” said Lee Mindel of Shelton, Mindel & Associates, a New York architecture firm, who was the underbidder. Cristina Grajales, the New York dealer who won … Continue reading →

From the New York Times, June, 1, 2005David M. Halbfinger The diminutive Mr. Greenwald, 61, is leading this assault on the retailing behemoth of Bentonville, Ark., from a converted hot-sheets motel in Culver City, Calif. There, where MGM executives once … Continue reading →

From the New York Times, June, 1, 2005David M. Halbfinger The diminutive Mr. Greenwald, 61, is leading this assault on the retailing behemoth of Bentonville, Ark., from a converted hot-sheets motel in Culver City, Calif. There, where MGM executives once … Continue reading →

L.A. Existential By BRUCE WAGNER New York Times,May 23, 2005 Los AngelesNO one here even knew there was an election last week. I couldn’t have said it better than the San Francisco Chronicle (as quoted in L.A. Weekly): Wagner’’s fiction … Continue reading →

Manohla Dargis writes in the May 10, 2005, New York Times: OS ANGELES – Los Angeles is in love with the idea of its own self-destruction; it’s hard to think of another American city so similarly possessed. Actually, no. New … Continue reading →

New York Times, April 26, 2005OCAS DEL TORO, Panama – Dr. Jeremy Jackson is in an open boat, speeding across the waters of Laguna de Chiriquí, on the Caribbean coast of Panama. His graying red pony tail is frizzing and … Continue reading →

Hollywood writers, and those who aspire to be Hollywood writers, are fond of saying there are only so many plots in the world. The number varies depending on when the speaker went to film school, but it’s usually low and … Continue reading →

New York Times, April 30, 2005“I always wanted to drive a bus because it’s big, it’s huge,” Ms. Small, 36, said as she picked through a fried shrimp sandwich on a recent lunch break. “My own personal conquest, I guess.”

Verlyn Klinkenborg writes (Saturday, April 16, 2005) in the New York Times about the rites of the Los Angeles carwash, explaining them to car-bereft New Yorkers as if we were Trobriand Islanders: For weeks, I drove past our local carwash … Continue reading →

I came across Thomas Lynch’s op/ed piece in Saturday’s (April 9, 2005) New York Times quite by accident.While it appears to be about death (Lynch is a funeral director–and I have promised to keep the noir off this blog), his … Continue reading →

I spent the evening listening to a concert version of Act III of “Siegfried” performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti on April 16, 1980, which I haven’t heard since I recorded it off the air 25 … Continue reading →