Category Archives: Art & Artists

January 1, 1947: New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on January 1, 2026 by lmharnisch

January 1, 1947: Pansy Yokum writes her “Noo Yars Resolutions,” from Al Capp’s Li’l Abner. Continue reading →

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December 30, 1941: L.A. Women Are Slackers in Fighting the Axis!

Posted on December 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 30, 1941: December 30, 1941: It seems that local women didn’t get the memo about the being the “Greatest Generation.” They’re a bunch of slackers in the war against the Axis and don’t want to work as air-raid wardens. Continue reading →

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Los Angeles Celebrates Christmas, 1913

Posted on December 25, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 13, 1913: Celebrating Christmas in Los Angeles by having dinnor at the Cafe Bristol or taking an invigorating bath at Melrose and Gower, location of the Radium Sulphur Springs, which advertises: Drink the most radioactive natural curative mineral water. Continue reading →

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December 19, 1941: Japanese Spy Ring Smashed, FBI Says

Posted on December 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 19, 1941: The suicide of Dr. Rikita Honda, who slashed his wrists while in custody at Terminal Island, revealed that he was the director of a vast spy ring, the FBI says.  Honda was head of the Imperial Comradeship Society, which allegedly had 4,800 members in Western states, including California and Arizona. Continue reading →

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December 18, 1941: Academy Awards Banquet Canceled; Oscars Postponed Due to War

Posted on December 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 18, 1941: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cancels its annual banquet, due to the war. The awards will be given out later in some informal gathering, Edwin Schallert writes. Continue reading →

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December 14, 1941: War Cancels Rose Parade

Posted on December 14, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 14, 1941: The Rose Parade is canceled and the Rose Bowl – between Duke and Oregon State – is moved to Durham, N.C. The streets of Pasadena were oddly quiet on New Year’s Day as millions reviewed memories of previous parades in all their glory, The Times said. Continue reading →

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L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Shopping Guide

Posted on December 14, 2025 by lmharnisch

Another of my favorite books on Los Angeles is Leo Politi’s “Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Reminiscences of Bygone Days.” Continue reading →

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December 13, 1941: Roundup of Aliens Overwhelms L.A. Jails

Posted on December 13, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 13, 1941: So many alien Japanese, Germans and Italians are being taken into custody that Chief Jailer William Bright of the County Jail is being forced to send some of his other inmates to county prison farms. Continue reading →

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L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Holiday Shopping Guide

Posted on December 10, 2025 by lmharnisch

One of my favorite books on Los Angeles is the 1940 Nuestro Pueblo, collected from pieces in the Los Angeles Times, with artwork by Charles Owens and text by Joseph Seewerker. Continue reading →

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FBI Rounds Up Japanese in Hunt for Subversives, Dec. 8, 1941

Posted on December 8, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 8, 1941: The FBI begins rounding up 200 “alien Japanese suspected of subversive activities.”
Several truckloads of Japanese were seen passing through Brea toward Pomona, Brea police reported, and orders to stop all cars bearing Japanese and to confiscate maps and binoculars or radios were given. Continue reading →

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L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Shopping Guide

Posted on December 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is a repost from 2013. True style never goes out of date, after all. We are being bombarded by stories about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with videos of long lines at stores and the attendant consumer frenzy. … Continue reading →

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November 27, 1941: Streetcar Companies Ask Council to End Bus Ban in Downtown L.A.

Posted on November 27, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 27, 1941: The Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railways ask the City Council to repeal a ban against buses operating in downtown Los Angeles. Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Streetcars, Tom Treanor, Transportation, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

November 19, 1941: Hollywood Model Dies of Botched Abortion

Posted on November 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 19, 1941: Angelka Rose Gogich was 18 when she died at Glendale Emergency Hospital after undergoing an abortion. She had be working as a model, hat check girl and dancer under the name Rose Ann Rae. Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Abortion, Art & Artists, Black Dahlia, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Medicine, Obituaries | Tagged | 1 Comment

November 18, 1941: Private Detective Held in ‘Love’ Killing

Posted on November 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 18, 1941: Private detective Edwin Crumplar is charged in ‘love slaying’ of Irene Wilder, who died of an infection after Crumplar shot her in the stomach. Jimmie Fidler says Alan Ladd’s romance with Sally Wadsworth won’t please Paramount. Continue reading →

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November 17, 1941: Women Reporters

Posted on November 17, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 17, 1941: Reporter Mary Shaw Leader is posthumously honored for covering Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Leader walked 15 miles to cover Lincoln’s speech. Continue reading →

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November 15, 1943: Riot at Tule Lake Internment Camp?

Posted on November 15, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 15, 1943: Something appears to be going on at the Tule Lake internment camp, but it’s unclear from contemporary coverage exactly what it was. Continue reading →

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November 13, 1941: U.S. Prepares to Round Up Japanese in Event of War

Posted on November 13, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 13, 1941: Atty. Gen. Francis Biddle “confirms reports that the government has plans for the segregation of Nipponese alien groups for a ‘temporary period’ if relations between the U.S. and Japan are broken off.” Continue reading →

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November 12, 1941: Crowds Line Broadway for Armistice Day Parade

Posted on November 12, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 12, 1941: Crowds line Broadway in downtown Los Angeles for the annual Armistice Day parade, which marked the end of what used to be called the Great War or the World War – until we had another one. Continue reading →

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November 3, 1941: Wingy Manone Puts the Swing in Swing Shift

Posted on November 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 3, 1941: Tom Treanor goes to a dance at the Glendale Civic Auditorium for swing shift workers, about 5,000 of them, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Most of the couples are married, he says, and the wives are 18 or 19. Continue reading →

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October 18, 1943: Errol Flynn Named in Paternity Suit

Posted on October 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 18, 1943: Shirley Hassau charges that Errol Flynn is the father of her 3-year-old daughter. Her lawsuits were dismissed in 1951. Continue reading →

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