Category Archives: Main Street

October 25, 1943: Restaurant Manager Turns Tables on Robbers

Posted on October 25, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 25, 1943: Three bandits who hit a handful of businesses met their match at a cafe at 1306 S. Main St. when they tried to hold up assistant manager Joe D. Poindexter. As one man leaned across the counter to get the cash, Poindexter grabbed his gun, chased them as they fled and shot one of them. Continue reading →

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October 4, 1943: American Troops Enter Bomb-Shattered Naples

Posted on October 4, 2025 by lmharnisch

October 4, 1943: Tom Treanor says of the liberation of Naples: The Germans left Naples in a truly deplorable condition. In a huge hospital for incurables I myself saw 70 rotting corpses of men, women and children. They were killed in street fighting during the past week and authorities were unable to move their bodies because of the lack of transportation. Continue reading →

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September 18, 1933: Bandit Killed, LAPD Officers Wounded in Burlesque Theater Shootout

Posted on September 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 18, 1933: Jack Keating, 30, and John Melvin Early, 35, had a plan to rob the Girlesque Theater at 510 S. Main St., but when the shooting was over, Keating was dead and Early and two men who helped plan the robbery were in jail. Continue reading →

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September 4, 1933: Man Kills Wife and Daughter, Commits Suicide Over Pink Bedroom

Posted on September 4, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 4, 1933: A man fatally stabs his estranged wife and daughter, then slits his throat after an argument because his wife had the bedroom painted pink. Continue reading →

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Aug. 12-13, 1907: Bucket of Blood Is a Den of Drunken Debauchery

Posted on August 12, 2025 by lmharnisch

August 12, 1907: The L.A. Times describes the Bismark Cafe, known to police as the Bucket of Blood, as “drunken debauchery among girls of tender ages, painted women and men.” It is an “immoral pesthole” where “young girls are enticed nightly do drink and listen to a band concert.” Continue reading →

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July 30, 1947: Peaches Strange at the Follies Burlesque

Posted on July 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

July 30, 1947: Peaches Strange, an ‘artistic’ stripper at the Follies Burlesque, is a modest woman who used to teach Sunday School. Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: T.L. Tally – L.A.’s Pioneer Film Exhibitor, Part 1 (Updated)

Posted on November 16, 2020 by lmharnisch

T.L. Tally, Moving Picture World, 1915. Note: This is an encore post from 2017. Los Angeles has stood at the forefront of not only motion picture production, but the fields of exhibition and distribution as well. Former Texan T. L. … Continue reading →

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Follies Burlesque Dancer Scales Rosslyn Hotel!

Posted on May 2, 2019 by lmharnisch

A photographer for an unidentified men’s magazine from the 1950s (Argosy? Swank? Nugget?) took a dancer with the nom de strip “Dotty Pearce” up to the roof of the Rosslyn Hotel for some pictures. The article is part of a … Continue reading →

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Aug. 12-13, 1907: Bucket of Blood Is a Den of Drunken Debauchery

Posted on August 13, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Aug. 12-13, 1907 Los Angeles Despite the name Bismarck Cafe, police call the saloon at Main and Winston Streets the Bucket of Blood because it’s a continual source of crime and violence. … Continue reading →

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July 30, 1947: Peaches Strange at the Follies Burlesque

Posted on July 30, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. She was born Mildred Strange in Oklahoma in 1910. Raised by her uncle, a Methodist minister, she taught Sunday school in Shawnee, east of Oklahoma City. … Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: ‘Horror at the Cecil Hotel’

Posted on October 17, 2017 by lmharnisch

Just a quick reminder, since Investigation Discovery aired the first episode of “Horror at the Cecil Hotel” last night. There is nothing to show that Elizabeth Short (“the Black Dahlia”) ever set foot in the Cecil Hotel. She was last … Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Downtown, LAPD, Main Street, Television | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: T.L. Tally – L.A.’s Pioneer Film Exhibitor, Part 1 (Updated)

Posted on October 16, 2017 by lmharnisch

T.L. Tally, Moving Picture World, 1915. Los Angeles has stood at the forefront of not only motion picture production, but the fields of exhibition and distribution as well. Former Texan T. L. (Thomas Lincoln) Tally pioneered in these fields, seeming … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Broadway, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Main Street, Mary Mallory, Theaters | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

War Veteran Died After Police Beating, Lawsuit Says, July 11, 1944

Posted on July 11, 2014 by lmharnisch

July 11, 1944 The parents of Marine veteran J.P. Thomas Jr. sue Mayor Fletcher Bowron, Police Chief Clemence C.B. Horrall and other city officials, charging that their son died after being beaten in jail by police. The Times reported that … Continue reading →

Posted in 1944, Film, Hollywood, LAPD, Main Street, Music, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

LAPD Officer Accused of Hitting Handcuffed Prisoner, March 5, 1914

Posted on March 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

March 5, 1914: Spring training! I jumped back to 1914 to see if I could find out anything about the Police Commissions order against non-Asian women in Oriental cafes. No luck, alas, but I did find a couple of goodies. … Continue reading →

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Rediscovering Los Angeles — The Baker Block’s Grand Staircase

Posted on January 14, 2014 by lmharnisch

March 2, 1936: Here’s a treasure — a drawing of the grand staircase in the Baker Block. I have seen pictures of the exterior before, but never anything of the interior. Columnist Timothy Turner writes that the staircase is worn … Continue reading →

Posted in 1936, Architecture, Art & Artists, Columnists, Downtown, Main Street, Nuestro Pueblo | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rediscovering Los Angeles — The Baker Block

Posted on January 7, 2014 by lmharnisch

Feb. 27, 1936: This week, Times artist Charles Owens and columnist Timothy Turner visit the Baker Block, one of the huge gingerbread buildings that flourished in downtown Los Angeles, like the Hall of Records. The Baker Block, at Main and … Continue reading →

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‘I Took the Gun and Shot Him Once in the Leg, Just for Fun’

Posted on December 20, 2013 by lmharnisch

Maybe it was murder. Maybe it never happened at all. Was she telling the truth or was it all a lie? Early on the morning of Nov. 20, 1953, acting on a tip, LAPD Detectives John Olsen and P.R. Brooks … Continue reading →

Posted in 1953, Art & Artists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Downtown, Homicide, LAPD, Main Street | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rediscovering Los Angeles — Tortilleria Jalisco

Posted on December 17, 2013 by lmharnisch

In case you just tuned in, Times artist Charles Owens and columnist Timothy Turner did a weekly series on some of the old landmarks in Los Angeles, many of them doomed by the impending construction of Union Station. Unlike the … Continue reading →

Posted in 1936, Architecture, Art & Artists, Downtown, Food and Drink, Main Street, Nuestro Pueblo | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rediscovering Los Angeles – The U.S. Hotel

Posted on November 26, 2013 by lmharnisch

Jan. 13, 1936: One look and I knew this gem was gone. In fact, even the cross street has been obliterated. The U.S. Hotel was at Main and Market, across from City Hall. Times columnist Timothy Turner writes: “Rapid change … Continue reading →

Posted in 1936, Architecture, Art & Artists, Downtown, Main Street, Nuestro Pueblo | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Rediscovering Los Angeles – Masonic Hall

Posted on November 12, 2013 by lmharnisch

Dec. 30, 1935: For this installment of Rediscovering Los Angeles, Times artist Charles Owens and columnist Timothy Turner visit Los Angeles’ former Masonic Hall, a building from the 1870s on Main street “on the east side just south of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art & Artists, Downtown, Main Street, Nuestro Pueblo | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments