Note: This is a repost from 2013.
You might have to hunt a bit for Don Normark’s 1999 book “Chavez Ravine, 1949,” but your search will be rewarded. The photos are terrific and the residents’ recollections make the book even better. Copies can be found via bookfinder.com.
Note: This is a repost from 2013.
Glen Creason’s book on maps of Los Angeles shows the many ways people have viewed the city over the years. I interviewed him for The Times in 2012 and fortunately for all concerned, the column was seen by a real estate agent who was getting ready to sell off a rather curious home in Mt. Washington that had been owned by a man who had a mania for maps. The result was the discovery of the “map house,” one of the great (and strange) stories of Los Angeles.
“Los Angeles in Maps,” published in 2010, is in many local bookstores and available online.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1961 Warner Bros. film “Susan Slade,” with Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Lloyd Nolan, Dorothy McGuire, Brian Aherne, Grant Williams, Natalie Schafer, Kent Smith, Bert Convy and Guy Wilkerson. Color by Technicolor.
This was Williams’ first feature film for WB. And yes, Donahue, Stevens and Williams were all in the hit WB TV series “Hawaiian Eye,” though Donahue is more associated with another WB TV series, “Surfside 6.”
Photography by Lucien Ballard, art direction by Leo K. Kuter, editing by William Ziegler, sound by Stanley Jones, set decoration by William L. Kuehl, costumes by Howard Shoup, dialogue supervision Bert Steiner, orchestrations by Murray Cutter, makeup by Gordon Bau, hairstyles by Jean Burt Reilly. Assistant director Russell Llewellyn. Music by Max Steiner. From the novel by Doris Hume, written for the screen and directed by Delmer Daves.
“Susan Slade” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.
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Note: This is an encore post from 2017.
Mary Mallory’s posts are one of the L.A. Daily Mirror’s most popular features, so we are happy to recommend “Hollywoodland”; “Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays,” written with Karie Bible; “Hollywood at Play,” written with Donovan Brandt and Stephen X. Sylvester; and “Living With Grace.”
The books are available at Vroman’s in Pasadena and Book Soup in West Hollywood. “Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays” and “Hollywood at Play” are also available from Amazon.
Note: This is a repost from 2013.
Whenever I’m asked about my favorite books on Los Angeles, my first recommendation is “Nuestro Pueblo,” a selection of features by Times artist Charles Owens and writer Joseph Seewerker that appeared in The Times. I went through all of them when the blog was at latimes.com, so I won’t repeat them now, but if you’re a fan of Rediscovering Los Angeles, which was illustrated by Owens with commentary by Timothy Turner, you may enjoy “Nuestro Pueblo.” Unfortunately, Rediscovering Los Angeles was never published in book form and has languished in obscurity.
“Nuestro Pueblo” is long out of print and the prices have gone up since I started writing about it, with some dealers asking more than $100 for a copy. A patient shopper can still find a copy for less than $20, however. One of my favorite tools for finding out of print books is bookfinder.com, which shows wide price range on copies of “Nuestro Pueblo.”
And what are your gift recommendations for this holiday season?
Note: This is a repost from 2013. True style never goes out of date, after all.
We are being bombarded by stories about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with videos of long lines at stores and the attendant consumer frenzy.
The L.A. Daily Mirror prefers a more subdued approach to buying gifts during the holiday season. Here’s proof that an ideal retro gift can be practical and inexpensive. It’s the Parker T-Ball jotter, which has changed very little since this 1957 ad.
You can pick one up at most office supply stores for about $16.49. We like ours with the gel refill, medium point. Perfect for doing the New York Times crossword puzzle.
What’s on your shopping list? If you have a good gift idea, share it with us.
Note: This is a repost from 2011.
In 1962, I was a seventh-grader at Washington Junior High School in Naperville, Ill. On Dec. 7, Mr. Humbert, our social studies teacher, put aside the regular curriculum to give his young pupils a firsthand account of Pearl Harbor.
Many years later, I contacted Mr. Humbert. He didn’t remember me (I was not a stellar student) but he was thrilled to get a phone call from one of his former charges who wanted to hear once more about Pearl Harbor.
Rene P. Humbert died in 2002 at the age of 81. I was his student in a much more formal era of American life. Male teachers wore coats and ties, and didn’t share much about their personal lives. I don’t even remember him mentioning that his brother’s fighter plane had been shot down in June 1944 over France.
What I learned many years later was that Mr. Humbert joined the Navy at 19, went through all of World War II and was called back for the Korean War. Perhaps one reason he was a little hard on us Baby Boomers in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago was because he didn’t graduate from high school, but got a GED and started college at the age of 31 under the G.I. Bill
Mr. Humbert was on the San Francisco, a heavy cruiser, during the Pearl Harbor attack and the ship was untouched except for shrapnel because the Japanese were concentrating on the larger ships. He was also in the Battles of the Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal. In one battle, Rear Adm. Dan Callaghan and Capt. Cassin Young were killed by a 14-inch shell that hit the San Francisco’s bridge.
What follows is his account. I have edited his brief biography very lightly after scanning a typewritten copy with my optical character recognition software. And I have incorporated portions of his Pearl Harbor account from the Pearl Harbor Survivors website.
Photo 1: Rene Humbert, Washington Junior High, 1964.
Photo 2: Rene Humbert, no date.
A c. 1937 image of the Japanese garden at the Huntington, courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.
In 1919, Henry E. and Arabella Huntington signed trust papers that would turn their estate into a public institution. Once opened to the public, the Japanese gardens became one of the top attractions to visitors, thanks to its peace, beauty and refinement. Remarkably, the garden was not created by Huntington gardeners, but bought lock, stock, and barrel from a commercial business operating in Pasadena, disassembled, and transplanted at the Huntington. Here is its remarkable story.
Japan reopened trade with the West after American Commodore Matthew Perry and his armada sailed into Tokyo Bay on July 8, 1853. Oriental and Japanese art like textiles, prints, and ceramics quickly became popular in both America and Europe, leading to a collecting craze for everything Japanese. This frenzy led to the term Japonism, the influence of Japanese philosophy, art, and aesthetics on Western Culture.
Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1956 Warner Bros. film “A Cry in the Night,” with Edmond O’Brien, Brian Donlevy, Natalie Wood, Raymond Burr, Richard Anderson, Irene Hervey, Carol Vezzie, Mary Lawrence, Anthony Caruso, George J. Lewis, Peter Hanson, Tina Carver and Herb Vigran.
Screenplay by David Dortort based on a novel by Whit Masterson, photography by John Seitz (“Double Indemnity!”), art direction by Malcolm Bert, editing by Folmar Blangsted, sound by M.A. Merrick, set decorations by Frank M. Miller, costumes by Moss Mabry, makeup by Gordon Bau, orchestrations by Maurice de Packh, assistant director Robert Farfan, music by David Buttolph, associate producer George C. Bertholon.
Directed by Frank Tuttle. A Jaguar production. (This was Alan Ladd’s production company).
“A Cry in the Night” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.
Note: This is an encore post from 2013.
A wartime Thanksgiving in Los Angeles, with many service personnel welcomed into people’s homes for a holiday meal.
The Times published cooking tips for war workers, advising cooks who were otherwise engaged “for the duration” to use prepared mixes, packaged pie crust and canned pumpkin to cut preparation time.
Note: This is an encore post from 2011.
Here’s a traditional roast turkey recipe from the “Every-Day Cook-Book and Family Compendium,” written about 1890 by Miss E. Neill. Be sure your fire is bright and clear and watch out for the gall-bag.
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World War I, the “War to End All Wars,” concluded 100 years ago at the 11th minute of the 11th hour, November 11, 1918. A bloody conflagration involving such countries and republics as the United States, Canada, England, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia for more than four years, it saw borders dissolved and reconfigured, terrible new lethal means of killing and maiming men created, and eventually led to World War II.
Young American men found themselves weary, repulsed, and depressed as they slogged on and on, looking for a ray of sunshine and an end to the mayhem. Vaudeville and stage star Elsie Janis, quick with a quip and song, came to their rescue, providing a measure of hope and forgetfulness. Long before Bob Hope visited troops around the world during World War II to bring moments of levity, Janis became the first major star to tour camps and hospitals entertaining the American Sammies, our soldiers.
Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1946 Twentieth Century-Fox film “Somewhere in the Night,” with John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Josephine Hutchinson, Fritz Kortner, Margo Woode, Sheldon Leonard and Lou Nova.
Screenplay by Howard Dinsdale and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, adapted by Lee Strasberg from a story by Marvin Borowsky.
Photography by Norbert Brodine, art direction by James Basevi and Maurice Ransford, set decorations by Thomas Little and Ernest Lansing, editorial supervision by James B. Clark, costumes by Kay Nelson, music by David Buttolph, musical direction by Emil Newman, orchestral arrangements by Arthur Morton, makeup by Ben Nye, special photographic effects by Fred Sersen, sound by Eugene Grossman and Harry M. Leonard.
Produced by Anderson Lawler, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
“Somewhere in the Night” is available on DVD from Amazon.
Note: This is an encore post from 2011.
“Vamonos Con Pancho Villa!” (“Let’s Go With Pancho Villa!”) is the surprisingly dark, roughly hewn story of six friends who call themselves “the lions of San Pablo” and join the Mexican Revolution as much for the adventure as the idealism. “Vamonos” is a study in the progression from loyalty to blind obedience and from courage to being tragically foolhardy.
The 1936 Mexican film was directed by Fernando de Fuentes from a novel by Rafael F. Muñoz and portrays Villa as a ruthless, cold-blooded killer who nonetheless is adored by his thousands of rag-tag troops. “Vamonos” is a bleak film of increasingly senseless violence and the alternative ending included on the DVD raises the bloodshed to the impossibly surreal.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1937 Paramount film “Bulldog Drummond Comes Back,” with John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell, Reginald Denny and E.E. Clive.
Screenplay by Edward T. Lowe, based on “The Female of the Species” by H.C. “Sapper” McNeile.
Photographed by William C. Mellor, musical direction by Boris Morros, art direction by Hans Dreier and Franz Bachelin, edited by James Smith, sound by Harry Mills and Charles Hisserich, interior decorations by A.E. Freudeman.
Directed by Louis King. According to the AFI Catalog, the producer was Stuart Walker.
“Bulldog Drummond Comes Back” is available on DVD from TCM.
The Hollywoodland Sign, in a photo published in the Los Angeles Evening Herald, Dec. 8, 1923.
Note: This is an encore post from 2017.
Originally constructed as a publicity gimmick and branding symbol to help generate sales for a real estate development, the Hollywood Sign is now a worldwide icon just as powerful as Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, and the Statue of Liberty, signifying a land of glamour and opportunity. Myths have always existed about it, from the date of its construction to how the city of Hollywood obtained it. After in-depth research by both historian Bruce Torrence and myself, we can conclusively say the sign was constructed in late November and early December 1923, and illuminated in that first week of December.
Like me, a California transplant involved in history, research, and writing since I was child, Torrence has always been fascinated by Hollywood history, perhaps because his two famous grandfathers contributed much to it. His paternal grandfather, Ernest Torrence, starred in many classic silent films such as “Steamboat Bill Jr.” and “Peter Pan” after a successful career as an opera singer. His maternal grandfather C. E. Toberman could be called the builder of Hollywood for his construction of so many iconic structures around Hollywood Boulevard. Bruce began a photo collection of Hollywood in 1972 with thirty photographs, which has blossomed into thousands. He employed these photos in writing one of Hollywood’s first detailed history books in 1979 called “Hollywood: The First 100 Years.”
Hollywood at Play: The Lives of the Stars Between Takes, by Stephen X. Sylvester, Mary Mallory and Donovan Brandt, goes on sale Feb. 1, 2017.
Ivan Mosjoukine, courtesy of Mary Mallory.
Note: This is an encore post from 2013 featuring the star of last week’s mystery movie.
Not as well known as other silent film stars like Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Buster Keaton or Rudolph Valentino, the recently rediscovered Russian motion picture actor Ivan Mosjoukine ranks among the greats for his charismatic star turns in several 1920s French silent films. While a superstar in Russia and France, Mosjoukine acted in only one Hollywood feature, which eventually helped push him into obscurity. But, as writer Liam O’Leary stated, “What Nijinksy was to dance in Russia, so Mosjoukine was to film.”
Born in Penza, Russia, Sept. 26, 1889, to wealthy parents, Ivan Ilich Mozhukhin attended private schools before studying law in Moscow. Quickly enthralled by the flamboyant world of the theater, Mosjoukine joined a touring theatrical troupe to learn his new trade. Within a few years, he returned to Moscow and entered the Dramatic Theatre for serious work.
Also by Mary Mallory
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Auction of Souls
Busch Gardens and Hogan’s Aristocratic Dreams
Mosjoukine began film acting in 1911 with the Khanzhonkov Company, starring in dramatic roles that emphasized his physical stage presence and sharp-featured good looks, finding time to occasionally write and produce films as well. Five years later, he studied and made films with Evgeni Bauer, learning to modulate his performing, to expertly apply makeup, and to fully inhabit his roles. Becoming one of Russia’s top romantic leads he frequently co-starred with his lovely, soon-to-be wife, Nathalie Lissenko, in such films as “Behind the Screen,” “Satan Triumphant” and “Father Sergius,” burying himself behind makeup, a Russian Lon Chaney.
One of Einar Petersen’s murals at the Spring Street Guaranty Building and Loan Assn., courtesy of Mary Mallory
Note: This is an encore post from 2013. Curbed L.A. recently reported on the renovations at the building.
Fame is fleeting. An individual might go unrecognized while creating great art while alive, only for the works to be considered masterpieces decades after their death, as with painter Vincent Van Gogh. Others slowly build a portfolio of work, gaining increasing recognition and respect with each new piece. They maintain fame for a long while, but see it disappear as times, styles and values change. Many become forgotten.
Unfortunately, this second scenario applies to Einar C. Petersen, recognized as one of Los Angeles’ and California’s greatest muralists in the 1920s. Achieving great reviews for his first Los Angeles mural at the New Rosslyn Hotel in 1915, Petersen would go on to craft murals for San Francisco’s Hunter-Dulin Building as well as downtown’s Mayflower Hotel, Beverly Hills Security-National Bank, and particularly, the forest mural for Clifton’s Cafeteria on Broadway Street in downtown Los Angeles. As new owners and developers came along, most either removed or painted over Petersen’s murals, save for the one in Clifton’s.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” for the Kindle is available from Amazon.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1934 Vitaphone short “Art Trouble,” with Harry Gribbon, Shemp Howard, Beatric Blinn and Leni Sengel. Writted by Jack Henley and Dolph Singer, photographed by E.B. DuPar, directed by Ralph Staub. According to the trades, it was released June 23, 1934, in a package of 29 Vitaphone one- and two-reelers scheduled for June through August, 1934.
“Art Trouble” appears to be available from Warner Archive on the Vitaphone Comedy Collection, Vol. 1. Warner Archive doesn’t list the contents, but they are available elsewhere.
Note: This is an encore post from 2018 that is getting lots of interest on Reddit.
This is a story that involves a $1 lottery ticket, a new Cadillac and an incredible amount of stupidity by members of an ostensibly charitable organization who were determined to uphold racist attitudes. And it really happened.
The story, as told by the Associated Negro Press, begins with Harvey Jones, a black Navy veteran who was a tenant farmer near Ahoskie, N.C. Jones paid $1 (current value $11.72) for a ticket in a lottery held by the Ahoskie Kiwanis Club with the first prize of a new Cadillac, worth about $3,200 (current value $37,000.)
