Category Archives: Downtown

Los Angeles Theatre — Business and Preservation

Posted on May 29, 2013 by lmharnisch

In passing the Los Angeles Theatre last night, I saw a notice of June 6 hearing on several business being proposed for the structure. The big question is what exactly would be done to the interior and how much the … Continue reading →

Posted in Broadway, Film, Food and Drink, Nightclubs, Preservation, Theaters | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Women’s History — Gertrude S. Reynolds McMullen

Posted on May 26, 2013 by lmharnisch

This postcard of the Southwest Turquoise Co., 113 N. Broadway, has been listed on EBay. The shop would have been roughly across the street from the old Times Building at 1st and Broadway. Bidding on the postcard starts at $8. … Continue reading →

Posted in 1909, 1910, Broadway, Found on EBay, Obituaries | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Random Shot – DTLA

Posted on April 17, 2013 by lmharnisch

The things you see in downtown Los Angeles.

Posted in Architecture, Broadway, Downtown | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What Cheer Saloon

Posted on April 16, 2013 by lmharnisch

The entire issue of the Los Angeles Star is available via USC, scanned from a copy at the Huntington. April 11, 1863: Very slim pickings for local news this week as nearly the entire issue of the Los Angeles Star … Continue reading →

Posted in 1863, Animals, Civil War, Food and Drink, Main Street | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Millennial Moment: Animator in Jail After Oscar Awards Attack on Officers

Posted on April 12, 2013 by lmharnisch

April 12, 1983: Oscar-winning animator Zbigniew Rybczyński, 34, is in custody on charges of battery after he allegedly kicked a security guard in the groin outside the Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion — and then kicked a … Continue reading →

Posted in 1983, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, LAPD, Millennial Moments | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Human Fly Flees Hall of Justice

Posted on April 4, 2013 by lmharnisch

April 4, 1943: Col. Darryl F. Zanuck comes under criticism for trying to return to civilian life. (Zanuck said there wasn’t much chance that he would make more movies of combat.) Sen. Harry Truman (D-Mo.) of the Senate War Program … Continue reading →

Posted in 1943, Broadway, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Immigration, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

When L.A. Becomes New York

Posted on March 29, 2013 by lmharnisch

Being in L.A. is like living on a huge movie set. The white trucks are everywhere. Because I work downtown, I’m accustomed to seeing it standing in for – yes – New York. All the time. Here are some recent … Continue reading →

Posted in Downtown, Film, Hollywood, New York, Spring Street | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

Mobs Storm Butchers Trying to Beat Ration Deadline

Posted on March 28, 2013 by lmharnisch

People line up outside a meat market at 2100 N. Broadway. 2100 N. Broadway via Google Street View. March 28, 1943: And did the “Greatest Generation” meekly, humbly and patriotically accept meat rationing for the war effort? They did not. … Continue reading →

Posted in 1943, Books and Authors, Broadway, Comics, Downtown, Food and Drink, World War II | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Mobs Storm Butchers Trying to Beat Ration Deadline

Bearthina Is Missing

Posted on March 27, 2013 by lmharnisch

March 27, 1913: Mrs. C.H. Hampton, 139 S. Olive St., is a woman with a stretch of bad luck. First her husband died, and then in December the former Mrs. Schwartz married a man named Hampton who talked her into … Continue reading →

Posted in 1913, LAPD, Olive | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

LAPD in Standoff With Mad Gunman

Posted on March 19, 2013 by lmharnisch

The 900 block of South Francisco Street via Google Street View. March 19, 1913: F.C. Fredericks presents the LAPD with a difficult situation in the days before tear gas and swat teams (or indeed before negotiations by telephone). Fredericks was … Continue reading →

Posted in 1913, Downtown, LAPD | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

L.A. Conservancy Announces Last Remaining Seats for 2013

Posted on March 5, 2013 by lmharnisch

The L.A. Conservancy has posted its lineup for the Last Remaining Seats – which is one of my favorite downtown L.A. events – and I have to say I’m underwhelmed. June 1: “To Catch a Thief” at the Orpheum. June … Continue reading →

Posted in Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Good Fellows Grotto – Found on EBay

Posted on February 6, 2013 by lmharnisch

At left, Good Fellows Grotto on Main Street in Los Angeles in a photo from the restaurant’s menu. Somebody swiped a teapot from Good Fellows Grotto, the famed Los Angeles restaurant. It’s listed on EBay with bids starting at $78.

Posted in Architecture, Food and Drink, Found on EBay, Main Street | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Good Fellows Grotto – Found on EBay

On Location: The May Co.

Posted on January 23, 2013 by lmharnisch

A little of Loretta Young (featured this month on TCM) goes a long way at the Daily Mirror HQ, but I noticed these shots of a department store in “Employees’ Entrance” and they reminded me of the sequence in “Public … Continue reading →

Posted in 1933, Architecture, Broadway, Downtown, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Deadly LAPD Beating: Officer Describes Arrest

Posted on January 17, 2013 by lmharnisch

Jan. 17, 1943: District attorney’s investigators question Police Sgt. James F. Martin about the arrest of Stanley H. Beebe, who died after being beaten by LAPD officers. Martin said that he got a bloody nose and two broken ribs in … Continue reading →

Posted in 1943, Columnists, Comics, Downtown, Film, Hill Street, LAPD, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Pray for Me, I’m Going to See ‘Gangster Squad’

Posted on January 11, 2013 by lmharnisch

I am heading  off to see “Gangster Squad” this morning, not because I expect it to be good, but because I expect it to be very, very bad, as already reflected by the first reviews and the trailers. I have … Continue reading →

Posted in African Americans, Black Dahlia, City Hall, Downtown, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Punk Rock Riot on Sunset Boulevard!

Posted on January 10, 2013 by lmharnisch

  How about this retro artwork on the ad for “Nicholas Nickleby?” Sort of Peter Max via “Yellow Submarine.” Jan. 10, 1983: A riot breaks out among an estimated 2,000 punk rockers during a concert at Studio Instrument Rentals at … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Downtown, Hollywood, Music, Spring Street, Television | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

LAPD the ‘Storm Troopers’ of L.A., Lawmaker Says of Police Brutality

Posted on January 10, 2013 by lmharnisch

Jan. 1, 1943: This is the beginning of the Stanley H. Beebe case, in which LAPD officers were accused of beating a suspect who died of his injuries.  Beebe, an accountant, was arrested on a streetcar at 1st and Hill … Continue reading →

Posted in 1942, 1943, Crime and Courts, Downtown, LAPD, Streetcars | Tagged , , | Comments Off on LAPD the ‘Storm Troopers’ of L.A., Lawmaker Says of Police Brutality

The Black Dahlia: Another Good Story Ruined

Posted on January 9, 2013 by lmharnisch

Black Dahlia: 5 Songs for a Famous Murder Victim by “Jef With One F.” The anniversary of Elizabeth Short’s 1947 disappearance from the Biltmore has provoked the usual outpouring of mistakes and nonsense, much of it swiped from Wikipedia (see: … Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, LAPD | 6 Comments

Los Angeles Editor Was Ahead of His Time

Posted on January 9, 2013 by lmharnisch

My latest column is about Paul Bryan Gray and his new book “A Clamor for Equality,” the biography of Francisco P. Ramirez, the youthful editor of El Clamor Público, the first entirely Spanish-language newspaper published in Los Angeles. The entire … Continue reading →

Posted in 1855, Books and Authors, Downtown, History, Latinos | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Day’s News – Pestilence and Starvation, Jan. 9, 1913

Posted on January 9, 2013 by lmharnisch

Jan. 9, 1913: We like to think that the past was a kinder, simpler time — when life moved at a slower pace. But no. The Times publishes a Page 1 news map “as an aid to the busy reader … Continue reading →

Posted in 1913, A Kinder, Simpler Time, Broadway, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Latinos | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment