Category Archives: Columnists

January 7, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on January 7, 2026 by lmharnisch

January 7, 1959: A group of grimly playful fellows at USC have changed their names from Asthmatics Anonymous to Asthmatics Militant, bringing a report from Detroit about the new Flatulente Four Fifty auto, Matt Weinstock says. Continue reading →

Posted in 1959, Columnists, Environment, Freeways, Matt Weinstock, Transportation | Leave a comment

January 7, 1959: Paul Coates — Confidential File

Posted on January 7, 2026 by lmharnisch

January 7, 1959: Tiger Small steals toupees, but it’s only a sideline Paul Coates writes. Small stole his first toupee as a favor for a chorus girl and it took off from there. Continue reading →

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January 5, 1962: Examiner, Mirror Fold; L.A. Becomes Two-Newspaper Town

Posted on January 5, 2026 by lmharnisch

January 5, 1962: A dark day in the world of Los Angeles journalism. Overnight, the city loses two of its daily papers, Hearst’s morning Examiner and the Times evening Mirror. Continue reading →

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January 1, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on January 1, 2026 by lmharnisch

January 1, 1959: Matt Weinstock looks at the origins of the “little old lady from Pasadena.” Continue reading →

Posted in 1959, Columnists, Downtown, LAPD, Matt Weinstock | Leave a comment

January 1, 1959: Paul Coates — Confidential File

Posted on January 1, 2026 by lmharnisch

January 1, 1959: Paul Coates looks back at some of his major stories of 1958, including new evidence that won a reprieve from the gas chamber for Remmel Wayne Brice. Continue reading →

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December 31, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on December 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 31, 1959: Publicist Doris Hellman has taken over the job of returning abandoned shopping carts to the five stores in her neighborhood, Matt Weinstock says. Continue reading →

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December 31, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Posted on December 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 31, 1959: Do names affect a person’s destiny? Paul Coates reveals that he was nearly named Percival. Continue reading →

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December 30, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on December 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 30, 1959: Matt Weinstock observes a trend toward calling everything off between Christmas and New Year’s Day. All they’re interested in, besides having a little fun, is getting through the week alive or at least not spending a night in the drunk tank.  Everyone is frightened by the traffic statistics. Continue reading →

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December 30, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Posted on December 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 30, 1959: Paul Coates takes his children to see “Solomon and Sheba,” and finds it a Hollywood treatment of the biblical story. Continue reading →

Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood, Paul Coates | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, Streetcars, Theaters, Tom Treanor, Transportation, World War II | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Al Martinez, a Dying Boy and Some Peaches — A (Non) Christmas Story

Posted on December 24, 2025 by lmharnisch

The history of a Al Martinez’s (non) Christmas story about a dying boy who wanted some peaches. 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 →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, World War II | Tagged , , | Comments Off on December 18, 1941: Academy Awards Banquet Canceled; Oscars Postponed Due to War

December 17, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on December 17, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 17, 1959: Joseph Von Sternberg has sued Fox for $1 million, charging the 1959 version of “The Blue Angel” with May Britt and Curt Jurgens was made without his consent and was inferior to his 1929 version with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings, thereby, he contended, decreasing the original’s value, Matt Weinstock says. Continue reading →

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December 17, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Posted on December 17, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 17, 1959: Paul Coates looks at the estimated 3,000 members of the U.S. Armed Forces who are missing in the Korean War. Continue reading →

Posted in 1959, Columnists, Front Pages, Homicide, Paul Coates, Richard Nixon | Comments Off on December 17, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

December 15, 1942: Stripper Discharged From Waacs Was Out of Uniform – and Everything Else

Posted on December 15, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 15, 1942: Kathryn Doris Gregory, a stripteuse who performs as Amber d’Georg, is out of the Waacs for going AWOL.  The former chorus girl reported for training, then disappeared and was arrested after performing in a Thanksgiving matinee in Des Moines. Continue reading →

Posted in 1942, Columnists, Comics, Food and Drink, Stage, Tom Treanor, World War II | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on December 15, 1942: Stripper Discharged From Waacs Was Out of Uniform – and Everything Else

December 15, 1941: Soldier Kills Civilian in Tragedy at Airport Checkpoint

Posted on December 15, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 15, 1941: Soldiers stop motorists on Sepulveda Boulevard to strip off blue cellophane illegally put over the headlights in the new wartime blackout.  Dr. Harry Brandel, assuming the soldiers were hitchhiking, ignored the order to stop and Private Eugene I. Tuttle, 19, fired what he said was a warning shot. Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, Jimmie Fidler, World War II | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, Tom Treanor, World War II | Comments Off on December 14, 1941: War Cancels Rose Parade

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 →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Fashion, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, Nightclubs, Nuestro Pueblo, World War II | Tagged , | Comments Off on December 13, 1941: Roundup of Aliens Overwhelms L.A. Jails

December 12, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on December 12, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 12, 1959: In the days when the phone company had monopoly, getting a phone installed was a financial challenge, and Matt Weinstock has the story. Continue reading →

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December 12, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Posted on December 12, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 12, 1959: With all the talk of payola, the first Christmas DJ Johnny Grant received was … a wallet. From a record company, Paul Coates says. Continue reading →

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