Category Archives: Hollywood Heights

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘Babe Comes Home’ Ushers in Baseball Season

Posted on March 28, 2016 by lmharnisch

Babe Ruth in “Babe Comes Home,” Motion Picture News. Play ball! This week sees the start of another baseball season in the United States, once the most popular pastime of average Americans and considered as American as motherhood and apple … Continue reading →

Posted in 1927, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Sports | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: H.N. Zahn Building Pushes L.A.’s Zoning Laws

Posted on March 21, 2016 by lmharnisch

Ida Lupino promotes Easter in 1934, with the Zahn building in the background. What was intended strictly as a publicity photo promoting young actress Ida Lupino celebrating the Easter season on a large rabbit outside Desmond’s Department Store leads to … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: 100-Year-Old Grocery Stores Still Serve the Public

Posted on March 14, 2016 by lmharnisch

Las Palmas Market, 1259 N. Las Palmas Ave., via Google Street View. While architectural styles have changed over the centuries, the use of buildings has remained virtually unchanged, meaning an older bank building can still function as a bank, a … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Little Brown Church in the Valley

Posted on March 7, 2016 by lmharnisch

Photo: Republic Studios President Herbert Yates marries Vera Hruba Ralston in 1952. Courtesy of Mary Mallory. Note: The death of former First Lady Nancy Reagan has renewed interest in the Little Brown Church, where she and Ronald Reagan were married … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Religion, San Fernando Valley | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘Take Your Girlie to the Movies’ Promotes Film and Romance

Posted on March 7, 2016 by lmharnisch

   “Take Your Girlie to the Movies,” as recorded by Billy Murray, 1919. Popular songs often speak to issues of the period in which they are written, providing commentary on political, social, and cultural issues. Most of the songs in … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Maurine Watkins — Chicago Murder Reporter to Screenwriter

Posted on February 29, 2016 by lmharnisch

Maurine Watkins, in an ad promoting Fox studios’ writers in the Motion Picture Herald.  Journalism and screenwriting have one thing in common: telling a good story in order to get the audience hooked. Both depend on excellent observation, character development, … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Picture City – Florida’s Proposed Answer to Hollywood

Posted on February 22, 2016 by lmharnisch

Picture City, as shown in Exhibitors Trade Review. The madcap Jazz Age bubbled with possibility, exploding mores and conventions as it raced to the next new thing, the next adventure. After the harrowing days of the Great War and the … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Building Promotes Great Architecture

Posted on February 15, 2016 by lmharnisch

  The Hollywood Chamber of commerce in an undated pamphlet. I n 1925, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce recognized the need for a stylish permanent home in which to promote the business and life of their fair city. Said headquarters … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Jack Freulich, Universal Still Man

Posted on February 8, 2016 by lmharnisch

Laura La Plante in a photograph by Jack Freulich, Motion Picture Classic.  History is written by survivors, so those who die young often seem to recede into memory, forgotten or ignored as time passed them by. While often great artists, … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Republic Pictures Honors ‘The Little Girl With the Golden Heart’

Posted on February 1, 2016 by lmharnisch

Mabel Normand in a Hartsook portrait, courtesy of Mary Mallory.     Hollywood’s public acts of charity often come with an ulterior motive. Such is the case with Republic Picture’s magnanimous naming of its gigantic new sound stage in December … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, San Fernando Valley | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Let’s Talk Turkey Cooks Up Promotions

Posted on January 25, 2016 by lmharnisch

  “Let’s Talk Turkey,” 1939.   Motion picture studios and exhibitors dreamed up great exploitation campaigns in the early decades of cinema in order to build interest in a title, increase word of mouth, and hopefully draw larger audiences to … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: The Priscilla Dean Tam – Fashion Statement and Marketing Ploy

Posted on January 18, 2016 by lmharnisch

Priscilla Dean and her tam, Photoplay, January 1921   The entertainment industry mastered the use of publicity and cross promotion from its very beginnings, creating elaborate ballyhoo campaigns to build word of mouth and huge box office receipts. It quickly … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Stand-Ins Honor Themselves With the Elmers

Posted on January 11, 2016 by lmharnisch

William Hoover, left, doubled for Edward Arnold, Silver Screen, August 1939. Since 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has recognized best acting performances in motion pictures by male and female stars. They began recognizing best supporting performances … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Ambassador Theatre Entertains Hotel’s Guests

Posted on January 4, 2016 by lmharnisch

The Ambassador Theater, as shown in the Exhibitors Herald, 1921. On February 9, 1919, the Los Angeles Times reported that the California Hotel Company would soon begin construction on a luxurious hotel on twenty one acres adjoining Wilshire Boulevard between … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Theaters | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Mary Mallory: Hollywood Heights – Mary Pickford Day

Posted on December 28, 2015 by lmharnisch

Note: Mary Mallory is taking this week off, so I’m running a post from several years ago. Los Angeles in 1923 was a bustling, growing, optimistic place.  The town recognized all sorts of interesting people and topics, saluting them with … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘White Christmas’ Soothes the Home Front in 1942

Posted on December 21, 2015 by lmharnisch

Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale in “Holiday Inn.” Recognized today as one of the top selling singles and pieces of sheet music of all time, Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” was just one of eleven songs in … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Al Levy’s Tavern Toasts 1930s Hollywood

Posted on December 14, 2015 by lmharnisch

A detail of a matchbook for Al Levy’s Tavern, 1627 N. Vine St., listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $6.95. Much of the glamour of classic Hollywood grew out of the fame and atmosphere of its famous restaurants … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Movie Tie-Ins for the Holidays

Posted on December 7, 2015 by lmharnisch

Since almost the beginning of the motion picture industry, advertising tie-ups and promotions have stoked audience interest and desire in seeing certain moving pictures and movie stars. Studios quickly learned that partnering with another company or popular product cut the … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hollywoodland Sign Arises November 1923

Posted on November 30, 2015 by lmharnisch

When I began researching and writing my Arcadia Publishing book “Hollywoodland” almost five years ago, standard gossip stated that developers constructed the giant Hollywoodland sign in July 1923 as a billboard promoting the development, all with no documentation or backup. … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘Weegee, Weegee, Tell Me Do’

Posted on November 23, 2015 by lmharnisch

“Weegee, Weegee, Tell Me Do,” courtesy of Mary Mallory.   What we know as the game of Ouija evolved out of spiritualism practices into a major fad of the early twentieth century. While some denounced it as a form of … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments