Category Archives: Transportation

Main Street Revisited

Posted on September 29, 2011 by lmharnisch

I picked up “A Southern California Album: Selected Photographs, 1880-1900” at the Last Bookstore the other day and was pleased to discover a number of pictures by C.C. Pierce, including this shot of Main Street looking south from 3rd Street … Continue reading →

Posted in 1880, 1900, Books and Authors, Downtown, Photography, Streetcars, Transportation | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Daily Mirror Road Trip: Wavecrest 2011 [Updated]

Posted on September 17, 2011 by lmharnisch

Photo: Model A woodie. Credit: Larry Harnisch/LADailyMirror.com I haven’t been to Wavecrest, the annual gathering of woodies at Moonlight Beach, in more than a decade, so I drove down Saturday. Here’s what I saw:

Posted in Photography, Retro, San Diego, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

John Wayne Gacy Victim May Be Exhumed

Posted on September 16, 2011 by lmharnisch

Photo: The last Crown Vic rolls off the Ford assembly line. Leslie Luebbers,the director of the Art Museum at the University of Memphis and head of the Paul Revere William Project will give a lecture on the famed African American … Continue reading →

Posted in African Americans, Architecture, Art & Artists, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Music, Preservation, Transportation | Tagged , , | Comments Off on John Wayne Gacy Victim May Be Exhumed

Cruising Bunker Hill, 1940s

Posted on September 14, 2011 by lmharnisch

Writing for On Bunker Hill, my crime buddy Nathan Marsak has done a breakdown of shots in a 6-minute film that turned up at archive.org. The footage was apparently filmed as background for an unidentified movie. Let’s see if we … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Downtown, Film, Transportation | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

California Raises Speed Limit to 55 mph!

Posted on September 10, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sept. 10, 1941: California gets ready to raise the speed limit to 55 mph and the Auto Club will be posting new signs. That’s right, the Auto Club posted highway signage. Jimmie Fidler says: There’s something sadly amiss when an … Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Transportation, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Mystery Film of Los Angeles [Updated]

Posted on September 8, 2011 by lmharnisch

Photo: Nathan Marsak tests the latest Ford. Curbed LA’s link to this 1917 Ford travelogue on Los Angeles has been passed around until I finally saw it. How many of these locations do you recognize? Here’s footage of streetcars and … Continue reading →

Posted in 1917, Downtown, Film, Mystery Photo, Streetcars, Transportation | Tagged | 6 Comments

Labor Day, 1886

Posted on September 5, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sept. 7, 1886: The Times publishes a roundup of events marking  Labor Day, but there are no reports of any celebrations in Los Angeles. On the jump, Labor Day, 1891, is celebrated on the West Coast, but there’s nothing about … Continue reading →

Posted in 1886, 1891, 1895, Labor, Transportation | Tagged , | Comments Off on Labor Day, 1886

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on August 31, 2011 by lmharnisch

Here’s another mystery photo courtesy of Steven Bibb! Interesting pose. Look how she’s got her feet. [Update: This is Rosita Diaz, who was reportedly executed by firing squad “for using her Latin charms as a spy.”]

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography, Transportation | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

LAPD Pistol Team – 1934 [Updated]

Posted on August 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

Photo: The LAPD pistol team puts on a demonstration at the Auto Club headquarters in 1934. Credit: “Three Cars in Every Garage: A Motorist’s History of the Automobile and the Automobile Club of Southern California,” Page 164. Did they really … Continue reading →

Posted in 1934, Books and Authors, LAPD, Photography, Transportation | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Rave Review on Amazon, Only $5

Posted on August 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

Photo: Edsel Ford III, left, and Edsel Ford II at the wheel of the Model 40. Credit: Edsel and Eleanor Ford House. David Streitfeld of the New York Times reports on how authors, restaurants and hotels can buy a positive … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Coming Attractions, Music, Religion, Transportation | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Rave Review on Amazon, Only $5

Scarlett’s Costumes Nearly ‘Gone With the Wind’

Posted on August 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

Photo: Crane bathroom fixtures. Credit: Life magazine, April 29, 1957.   We grew up in a sterile, cookie-cutter home, on a sterile, cookie-cutter street, in a sterile suburb of Chicago, where all the people were white and all the bathrooms … Continue reading →

Posted in 1957, African Americans, Architecture, Fashion, Film, Futurism, Hollywood, Interior Design, Preservation, Transportation | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Found on EBay – C.C. Pierce Photos of 1910 Aviation Meet

Posted on August 13, 2011 by lmharnisch

Four postcards of the January 1910 Aviation Meet in Los Angeles, taken by the C.C. Pierce studio, have been listed on EBay. The meet was held at Dominguez Field and is one of the major events in the history of … Continue reading →

Posted in 1910, Aviation, Photography, Transportation | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Marion Eisenmann: Artist’s Notebook – Union Station

Posted on August 12, 2011 by lmharnisch

“Union Station” by Marion Eisenmann, Aug, 8, 2009 Note: I’m reposting the artwork Marion Eisenmann did several years ago. It’s a pleasure to share her work with a new audience.

Posted in 1939, Art & Artists, Artist's Notebook, Downtown, Marion Eisenmann, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Van Nuys Plane Crash Kills 2 – Aug. 11, 1941

Posted on August 11, 2011 by lmharnisch

Aug. 11, 1941: Walter P. Palmer and William S. Raney are killed when their plane goes into a spin during a flying lesson and crashes into a bean field at Woodley Avenue and Oxnard Street in Van Nuys, which is … Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, Lee Shippey, Politics, San Fernando Valley, Transportation, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

#art, #black dahlia, #books, #courts, #crime, #history, #railroads, 8|10|2011

Posted on August 10, 2011 by lmharnisch

Photo: BMW M1. Credit: Bonhams A BMW M1 painted by Frank Stella is being auctioned at the Quail Lodge Sale, Aug. 18-19, in Carmel. The BWM belonged to racecar driver Peter Gregg, who committed suicide after an accident left him … Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, History, Motorsports, Museums, Politics, Transportation, Washington | 2 Comments

#history, #libraries, #museums 7|28|2011

Posted on July 28, 2011 by lmharnisch

Image: Battle of Manila Bay. Credit: Wikipedia NEWS Justin Jouvenal in the Washington Post’s Buzz, writes that the Patsy Cline Historic House is opening in Winchester, Va., on Aug. 2. The Independence Seaport Museum has made an emergency patch on … Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Artists, History, Libraries, Museums, Music, Preservation, Retro, Transportation | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Found on EBay – Arroyo Seco Parkway

Posted on July 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

This postcard of the new Arroyo Seco Parkway, a name that has been restored after decades of being called the Pasadena Freeway, has been listed on EBay. For more than a year, drivers have had to contend with construction of … Continue reading →

Posted in Found on EBay, Freeways, Transportation | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Found on EBay – Mt. Lowe Railway

Posted on July 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

Postcards and photos of the railway trip to Mt. Lowe, with its hairpin turns around the mountains, are quite common – but a brass model of the car in HO gauge? That’s a new one on me. This intriguing item, … Continue reading →

Posted in Found on EBay, Streetcars, Transportation | Tagged , | 10 Comments

CARMAGEDDON on the 405

Posted on July 13, 2011 by lmharnisch

OK, as long as we’re satirizing Carmageddon with a Hitler rant, here’s my favorite humorous video set on the 405. It’s by Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt.

Posted in Film, Transportation | Tagged | 3 Comments

#history, #museum

Posted on July 6, 2011 by lmharnisch

David Dunlap has a great story in the New York Times’ City Room about the return of an eagle head, sculpted by Adolph A. Weinman, that was salvaged from the demolition of Pennsylvania Station. There’s lots more about bits and … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Museums, Preservation, Transportation | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments