Category Archives: Books and Authors

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 True style never goes out of date, after all.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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December 1, 1907: L.A. Author Writes of Life in the Hollow Earth (No Sign of Lizard People)

Posted on December 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 1, 1907: The Times notes a new serial “The Smoky God,” by Willis Emerson, based on the papers of Olaf Jansen, who claimed to have explored the North Pole and met the inhabitants of the Earth’s interior. “A classic in Hollow Earth Literature!” Continue reading →

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November 21, 1947: Judge Tells Joel Thorne to Quit ‘Fooling Around’ With Racecars, Nightclubs

Posted on November 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 21, 1947: A judge admonishes Joel Thorne, who sneaked out of Cedars of Lebanon Hospital after being injured in a motorcycle crash to avoid paying alimony to his ex-wife. In 1955, Thorne was killed when his Beachcraft Bonanza plunged into an apartment building, killing eight others. Continue reading →

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November 15, 1907: Charles Mulford Robinson Drafts a Los Angeles of the Future

Posted on November 15, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 15, 1907: Charles Mulford Robinson proposes a grand boulevard for downtown Los Angeles, from a proposed Union Station ending at a new public library and art gallery. And a new City Hall. Continue reading →

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Nov. 9, 1907: ‘We Are Revolutionists!’ Supporters Call for Release of Ricardo Flores Magon

Posted on November 9, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 9, 1907: Local sympathizers, anarchists and socialists are organizing a mass meeting to protest the imprisonment of Ricardo Flores Magon, Librado Rivera, Antonio Villareal and L. Gutierrez De Lara, who are being held on charges of trying to overthrow the Mexican government. Continue reading →

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October 27, 1907: On the Comics Page

Posted on October 27, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 27, 1907: Buster Brown was a popular feature of the Sunday comics. Like other cartoon characters of the era, Buster was fond of pulling pranks, but he usually learned his lesson the hard way and ended each strip with a long block of text titled: RESOLVED. Continue reading →

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October 26, 1942: Lon Chaney’s Ghost Haunts Hollywood and Vine!

Posted on October 26, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 26, 1942: Councilman Norris Nelson tells a story about the ghost of Lon Chaney sitting on a bench at Hollywood and Vine. Continue reading →

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October 20, 1907: Winsor McCay, ‘Little Nemo’ and The Imp

Posted on October 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 20, 1907: Winsor McCay and his cartoons never completely go out of fashion and are periodically rediscovered. Living in the era of legacy comics, bland writing. weak drawing, and panels the size of postage stamps, it’s easy to forget comics once ran a full page. And then there’s Imp. Continue reading →

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October 18, 1907: Newspaper Cartoonist Ted Gale Makes His Point

Posted on October 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 18, 1907: The Los Angeles Times features pen and ink drawings by “Gale.” That’s Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale, who contributed to The Times for years, creating “Miss L.A.,” then quit in 1934 to go to the Examiner. Continue reading →

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October 13, 1907: 2 Die in Tong War

Posted on October 13, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 13, 1907: Gunmen imported from out of town by the Hop Sing Tong entered the tailor shop of Lem Sing at 806 Juan St. in Chinatown and under the pretense of having some clothing made, wounded him and killed Wong Goon Kor. Continue reading →

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October 3, 1947: Full House – Burglar Slips In on Mystery Writer’s Poker Game

Posted on October 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 3, 1947: Reddest face in town yesterday belonged to Charles Bennett, writer of screen mysteries in which the brilliant detective always catches the crook. While he had a few friends in for a card game, a burglar crawled through a window and stole his wife’s purse and a pair of earrings. Continue reading →

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October 1, 1947: Meet Matt Weinstock, Author of ‘My L.A.’

Posted on October 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 1, 1947: Meet Matt Weinstock, author of “My L.A.” Everybody’s parents or grandparents seem to have purchased this little red-bound book with the blue title on the spine. There was a time when you could find a copy in just about any secondhand store or used bookshop in the Southwest next to “Inside U.S.A.” or one of the WPA guides. Continue reading →

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September 30, 1907: The Quick Brown Fox and Friends From A to Z

Posted on September 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 30, 1907: A list of sentences using all the letters of the alphabet. “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs seems to have fallen out of favor.” Continue reading →

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September 28, 1947: City Librarian Althea Warren Announces Retirement

Posted on September 28, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 28, 1947: City librarian Althea Warren is retiring after 14 years. She entered the profession despite the comment from an uncle who said: “A librarian leads a terrible life. She has to wear plain dresses and flat heels and the salary is ridiculous.” Continue reading →

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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, September 24, 1944

Posted on September 24, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 24, 1944: Why is young Van Johnson the idol of the bobby sox brigade and at this moment crowding Frank Sinatra and Alan Ladd for top honors? Van isn’t handsome, he hasn’t a striking physique and he hasn’t Frankie’s ability to sing, Louella Parsons says. Continue reading →

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September 24, 1907: A Poem on the First Day in L.A.

Posted on September 24, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 24, 1907: Walter Adolf Roberts writes a poem about his first day in Los Angeles. Continue reading →

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September 23, 1947: Janet Flanner, The New Yorker’s ‘Genet,’ Visits L.A .

Posted on September 23, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 23, 1947: Janet Flanner, European correspondent for the New Yorker, says: “The carpetbagging of our American soldiers went on for two years until the Army stopped it. It made cigarettes legal tender. American money still rates high, but our morality rates low….Just now we Americans are trying to run a checkbook empire. It can’t be done.” Continue reading →

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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, September 17, 1944

Posted on September 17, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 17, 1944: All her life Vivian Blaine will be grateful to Victoria Elizabeth James and Phyllis Faye Harris for starring parts, for if these young ladies hadn’t elected to be born Vivian would still be just one of the bevy of pretty girls on the 20th lot, Louella Parsons says. Continue reading →

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September 11, 1943: Escaped Soldier Denies Attacking Former Screen Star

Posted on September 11, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 11, 1943: Pvt. George P. Rimke, who was convicted of “attacking” screen dancer and actress Lina Basquette (d. 1994), escapes from March Field, but surrenders to attorney S.S. Hahn.   Continue reading →

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September 11, 1907: In Praise of the Corset for the ‘Woman Who Weighs a Ton’

Posted on September 11, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 11, 1907: “The woman who gets the proper sort of corset will have the fashionable figure, even if she weighs a ton,” says Elizabeth A.C. White. Continue reading →

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