Category Archives: Hollywood

True confessions

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles reporter and columnist Forabel Muir with a copy of her book, "Headline Happy." Aug. 30, 1957 Los Angeles What’s with all these marriage quizzes? How about some blood and gore? Believe it … Continue reading

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Not on Netflix

Aug. 28, 1957Los Angeles Incredibly enough, The Times failed to review this double feature from American International Pictures. Take my word for it, though: Bad things happen. How did AIP come up with such classics? In 1958, The Times’ Philip … Continue reading

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Kiss and Tell

  Aug. 24, 1957 Los Angeles And where does our favorite scandal magazine get such high-quality dirt?  (Oh, I know, people only read it at the beauty parlor and the barbershop). It turns out that in Hollywood, money will unseal … Continue reading

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Fuzzy Pink Nightgown

  Aug. 23, 1957Los Angeles Bad things happen when two men (Ralph Meeker and Keenan Wynn) abduct a movie star (Jane Russell). It turns out that her upcoming film is "The Kidnapped Bride" and everyone–including the studio and the alleged … Continue reading

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Confidential: Tells the Facts and Names the Names

Aug. 19-22, 1957Los Angeles Whatever Polly Gould knew about Confidential magazine died with her. The Times said that Gould, 46, a former “investigator” for Confidential and Whisper, had once been a columnist for Jimmy Tarantino’s Hollywood Night Life magazine, a … Continue reading

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Paul Rosenfield on Merv Griffin

Here’s a two-part feature on Merv Griffin published in The Times in August 1981. And a letter from Griffin in response. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Letters

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Confidential: Tells the Facts and Names the Names

Here’s the Confidential magazine article about Maureen O’Hara that prompted her lawsuit and the testimony about the alleged tryst at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. From the March 1957 issue. (Note: O’Hara successfully proved that she was out of the country when … Continue reading

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Grauman confidential–Part II

Aug. 18, 1957Los Angeles Maureen O’Hara says through her lawyer that it was impossible for her to have engaged in the alleged tryst at Grauman’s Chinese Theater because at the time it supposedly occurred she was out of the country … Continue reading

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Grauman confidential

  Aug. 17, 1957 Los Angeles BY JACK SMITH Actress Maureen O’Hara’s alleged love scene with a Latin in three rear seats of Grauman’s Chinese Theater was re-enacted before a spellbound audience here yesterday at the Confidential libel trial. A … Continue reading

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The Nielsens–add 1

What was "Gunsmoke?" Oh don’t do this to me. OK, kids. "Gunsmoke" was an incredibly popular TV show that went off the air in . . . 1975. (What? Could this be right?  Surely it wasn’t that long ago). It … Continue reading

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Confidential: Tells the Facts and Names the Names

Aug. 10-15, 1957 Los Angeles In testimony that was at times as colorful as its red and yellow covers, the Confidential magazine trial continued with an appearance by its former editor in proceedings that were all the more interesting because … Continue reading

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The Nielsens

Aug. 9, 1957 Los Angeles Top shows for the first two weeks of July 1957: "Gunsmoke" "The Ed Sullivan Show" "The $64,000 Question" "I’ve Got a Secret" "Playhouse 90" "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (reruns) "The Lineup" (reruns) "20th Century-Fox Hour" "What’s … Continue reading

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Confidential: Tells the Facts and Names the Names

  Aug. 8, 1957 Los Angeles Prosecutors opened the case against Confidential and Whisper by charging that the magazines used prostitutes to lure movies stars into compromising situations and published the incidents in scandalous articles. The magazines, Publishers Distributing Corp. … Continue reading

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Oliver Hardy dies

The world mourns one of film’s greatest comedians, Oliver Hardy, who died in North Hollywood on Aug. 7, 1957. He was 65. Part 1 Part 2 The Mirror, Page 1 (Note the price of gas, 23.9 cents a gallon, is … Continue reading

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Judy Dull update

  Aug. 7, 1957 Los Angeles Professional photographer David Sutton, 8426 1/2 W. 3rd, tells the Mirror that he spoke with missing model Judy Ann Dull an hour before she disappeared with a photographer calling himself Johnny Glinn (or Glynn). … Continue reading

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Literary diversions

I.A.L. Diamond, Nov. 6, 1966

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Preservation notes

Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, my friends at the 1947project, note that the apartments at 5124 De Longpre Ave in Hollywood where Charles Bukowski produced "Post Office" is on Craigslist: Approximately a 12,500 square foot lot – currently holds a … Continue reading

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Women attacked

July 31, 1957Los Angeles In the continuing assaults across the city, a North Hollywood housewife fought off an intruder while a 60-year-old Hollywood woman was saved from strangling by the staff of her Hollywood apartment building after she was grabbed … Continue reading

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No deal

July 30, 1957Los Angeles The state prosecutor and the defense had reached an agreement on most points in the conspiracy trial involving Confidential and Whisper magazines. According to the proposed accord, Confidential and Whisper would: 1.Abandon their present format, would … Continue reading

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Here’s to the Thunder Riders

Photos courtesy of the Autry National Center. Gene Autry reboots a Muranian robot deep beneath Radio Ranch. The Autry National Center is marking the centennial of Gene Autry’s birth with a showing of “The Phantom Empire,” my favorite movie combining … Continue reading

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