Mary Mallory: Hollywood Heights – Mack Sennett’s Rose Parade Gag

Posted on December 29, 2025 by lmharnisch

Sleuths at the Floral Parade
Photo: “The Sleuths at the Floral Parade.” Credit: Mary Mallory, the Collections of the Margaret Herrick Library.

Note: This is an encore post from 2011.

The Tournament of Roses Parade is going on its 122th year, and grows more elaborate and beautiful every year.  Bands, floats, cars, horses, and even celebrities take part in this festive annual event.  This year, Paramount Pictures is even entering a float celebrating its 100th anniversary, honoring “Titanic” and “Wings,” the first feature film awarded the Best Picture Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927/1928.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1913, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Photography | Comments Off on Mary Mallory: Hollywood Heights – Mack Sennett’s Rose Parade Gag

December 29, 1938: Bookie shot to death in Hollywood

Posted on December 29, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 29, 1938: People stand around the car where suspected bookmaker Weldon Irvin was found shot to death
December 29, 1938: Slain bookmaker Weldon IrvinBy the end of 1938, Weldon sensed that he was a marked man and that death was not far off. He could have stayed out of Los Angeles and maybe he would have lived–at least for a while. But he evidently decided to face whoever it was that killed him in what The Times called the “perfect murder case” — a case that was never solved.

Earlier that year, Weldon divided his extensive Los Angeles gambling operations with his four partners and used his share of the money to invest in Inland Empire real estate and buy the Morongo Valley Lodge near Palm Springs.

The IRS soon brought a tax lien on his earnings for 1936 and by that summer, he resumed bookmaking operations. On Aug. 10, 1938, he and three other men were arrested at 7404 Santa Monica Blvd. Under extensive questioning by the district attorney’s office, Weldon freely discussed illicit gambling in Southern California, The Times said. Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, @news, City Hall, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD | Comments Off on December 29, 1938: Bookie shot to death in Hollywood

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on December 29, 2025 by lmharnisch

Main title: Lettering over artwork of clouds. Or something. Top Secret is stenciled and Affair is cursive.

This week’s mystery movie was the 1957 Warner Bros. film Top Secret Affair, with  Susan Hayward, Kirk Douglas, Paul Stewart, Jim Backus, John Cromwell, Roland Winters, A.E. Gould-Porter, Michael Fox, Frank Gerstle and Charles Lane. Continue reading →

Posted in 1957, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , | 31 Comments

L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Drinking Guide — The Brooklyn Cocktail

Posted on December 28, 2025 by lmharnisch

March 5, 1937, Brooklyn Cocktail

March 7, 1937, Brooklyn Cocktail

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Yes, the Manhattan cocktail once had competition from drinks named for the other boroughs. Here’s a recipe for the Brooklyn Cocktail, from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 7, 1937. The Brooklyn Cocktail as made by Brad Dewey consisted of

Two parts Jamaica rum
One part lime juice
Dash of grenadine

We won’t be toasting the new year with the Brooklyn Cocktail (we’re working) but if someone is brave enough to try one, let us know how it is.

And in case you are wondering, research shows that there was also a Bronx Cocktail. Evidently it, too, has fallen out of favor.

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December 28, 1958: Movie stars to watch in the new year, tribute to Archie Moore

Posted on December 28, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 28, 1958: Seventh Voyage of Sinbad ad

Hedda Hopper’s predictions for the next crop of movie stars somehow bypasses the cast of “7th Voyage of Sinbad.” (Listen to the orchestration in Bernard Herrmann’s score for the sword fight with the skeleton: tuba, xylophone and something rattley, like castanets).  Sounds a bit like “On Dangerous Ground,” doesn’t it?

Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Music | Comments Off on December 28, 1958: Movie stars to watch in the new year, tribute to Archie Moore

L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Drinking Guide: The Harvey Wallbanger

Posted on December 27, 2025 by lmharnisch

Harvey Wallbagner

A vintage 1972 iron-on transfer of Harvey Wallbanger himself, on EBay for $12.

Note: This is a repost from 2013.

We have been looking at some historic drinks for this holiday season. To the millennials in the audience: This is what mom and dad used to drink (along with the Tequila Sunrise) when they went out in the 1970s.

Return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear:

1 ounce of vodka
4 ounces of orange juice
half an ounce of Galliano.

Poured over ice in a highball glass.

Cue Grand Funk Railroad’s “Gimme Shelter” or Carole King’s “It’s Too Late.”

Posted in 1971, Food and Drink, Music | Tagged , | Comments Off on L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Drinking Guide: The Harvey Wallbanger

December 27, 1947: Youth Questioned in Georgette Bauerdorf Killing

Posted on December 27, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

imageNote: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

The last words her neighbors heard were “Stop, stop, you’re killing me!” as she fought hard for her life. The housekeeper found the body in the bathtub the next day, when she heard water dripping in the upstairs bathroom.

Because the apartment at 8493 Fountain Ave. is in West Hollywood, rather than the city of Los Angeles, the murder was handled by the Sheriff’s Department rather than the LAPD.

The victim was Georgette Bauerdorf, a Hollywood Canteen hostess who normally shared the apartment with her older sister, Connie, who was in New York, along with their father, George, and stepmother. Two days before she was killed, she wrote in her diary: “Call to Jerry [Pvt. Jerry Brown, a boyfriend] at 6:30 a.m. came thru—Jerry’s a lamb. Letter from Dud and Jerry—wrote Jerry.” Continue reading →

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December 27, 1907: Oklahoma Lynching — A Grim Record for New State

Posted on December 27, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

December 27, 1907
Henryetta, Okla., by the Associated Press

A little more than a month after Oklahoma achieved statehood, James Garden became a wretched statistic: the first black to be lynched there.

On Dec. 24, Garden went to see liveryman Albert Bates about renting a rig. When Bates refused, Garden accused him of racism, went across the street to get a gun, returned and shot Bates to death.

Continue reading →

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L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Drinking Guide: A Brief History of the Tom and Jerry

Posted on December 26, 2025 by lmharnisch

image

A recipe for the Tom and Jerry from the San Francisco Call, June 30, 1912.

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Over on Facebook, Christopher McPherson asked whether the Tom and Jerry was named for the MGM cartoon characters. I said I suspected the opposite was true, rather like Disney’s Chip ‘n’ Dale being named for Chippendale furniture.

All the old newspaper stories give credit for the drink to bartender Jerry Thomas, who according to one account was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1825 (or Watertown, N.Y., in 1830).

Continue reading →

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December 26, 1947: No Sympathy for Alcoholics!

Posted on December 26, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

On Christmas Eve 1947, the LAPD arrested 35 adults for drunk driving, 2 juveniles for drunk driving, and 19 for being drunk in an automobile. Of the 188 other arrests involving drunkenness, one was for speeding, one was for manslaughter and one was for hit-and-run.

Continue reading →

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December 26, 1907: Minister Rejects New ‘Godless’ U.S. Coins

Posted on December 26, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

December 26, 1907
Pittsburgh, by direct wire to The Times

As Christmas celebrations concluded at Knoxville Presbyterian Church, the congregation presented the Rev. W.A. Jones with $100 ($2,052.36 USD 2005). A banker who was among the worshipers made a point of getting freshly minted gold pieces to present to the pastor.

But the $20 Double Eagles, newly redesigned by sculptor Augustus St.-Gaudens at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt, had a terrible flaw, in Jones’ view.

“This is Godless money, I cannot take it,” Jones said of the coins, example at right. “My mother taught me to look for the motto ‘In God We Trust’ on the coins of our country and when the president announced his new order effacing the inscription from the coins, I swore I would take no money that did not bear the old motto.” Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, 1908, Religion | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on December 26, 1907: Minister Rejects New ‘Godless’ U.S. Coins

December 25, 1947: The Times Christmas Poem

Posted on December 25, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

The Times’ front-page Christmas and Easter poems are as forgotten today as their author, James M. Warnack. I’ll leave it to my theological betters to parse the significance of a Christmas poem that’s mostly about the crucifixion, but Warnack was just as contradictory as his work.

He called himself the Foothill Philosopher and was nicknamed around the office as “the Bishop” because of his angular features and long, white hair. An actor in his early life, he appeared in D.W. Griffith’s silent movies, portrayed a priest in the “Mission Play” and Judas in the first “Pilgrimage Play.”

Continue reading →

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Los Angeles Celebrates Christmas, 1913

Posted on December 25, 2025 by lmharnisch

Dec. 25, 1913, Christmas in Los Angeles

Dec. 25, 1913, Christmas

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Dec. 25, 1913: The Times carries a biblical passage across the nameplate (notice the artwork of the new and old Times buildings) and a Page 1 cartoon by Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale. “Cartoonist Gale” frequently drew a character known as Miss Los Angeles, but I don’t recall seeing “Mr. Wad” before. Gale was an institution at The Times for many years, but finally quit in a dispute and went to the Los Angeles Examiner. Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia and Zodiac … ‘Solved’?

Posted on December 24, 2025 by lmharnisch

I’ll have more to say in the first Ask Me Anything session on the Black Dahlia case, January 6, 2026, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, on YouTube.

The flurry of interest in the latest claim of a “solution” in the Black Dahlia and Zodiac cases, using Machine Learning/LLMs/AI is more evidence that unsolved murders exert a powerful magnetism on one another in the public imagination. Killings that are separated by many miles, many years and entirely different methods become “related” in the public mind.  Are the Black Dahlia and Zodiac cases related? No, they are not, except perhaps in the supermarket media. This is the sort of “Ruined Temples Found on Mars”  story we used to see in Weekly World News. Continue reading →

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Al Martinez, a Dying Boy and Some Peaches — A (Non) Christmas Story

Posted on December 24, 2025 by lmharnisch

Jim Romenesko

Note: This is an encore post from 2015.

Jim Romenesko, for those who aren’t in the news business, runs an essential blog that serves as a clearing house for information, gossip, bad headlines and assorted gaffes.

A Jan. 6 post dealt with former Times columnist Al Martinez, who died Monday, and the occasional columns Al wrote over the years about a dying boy who craved peaches.

John Russell of the Indianapolis Star wrote to Romenesko in hopes that some reader would verify Al’s story, saying: “After months of digging, I still can’t find any evidence of the original story, and too many questions to ignore.”

Russell elaborated on his skepticism in “Why I Have Trouble Believing the ‘Get the Kid His Peaches’ Christmas story,” noting that he had written to Al for help in finding the original.

We have some answers — and the story — with a not-so-gentle reminder for reporters: DON’T write from memory or bad things can happen. Use the clips. It’s what they are for.  Memory can compress time and erase crucial details, as we will see with Al’s story.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1949, 1958, Books and Authors, Columnists | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Al Martinez, a Dying Boy and Some Peaches — A (Non) Christmas Story

December 23, 1968: N. Korea frees crew of U.S. spy ship Pueblo

Posted on December 23, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 23, 1968: Los Angeles Times cover with headline on the Pueblo incident

Pueblo’s Bittersweet Tribute

For Pete Bucher, captain of the spy ship, the years haven’t erased the pain of his captivity–or his homecoming. Even medals and a ceremony did not come without a fight.

Saturday May 5, 1990

By RICHARD E. MEYER
TIMES STAFF WRITER

They beat Pete Bucher with gun butts. They kicked him with their boots. They threw him into walls.

“Sonabitchi criminal!” they yelled. “Goddamned liar! Spydog!”

They forced him to his knees. One put a pistol to his ear and cocked it. “Two minutes to sign, sonabitchi!” Quietly, he said: “I love you, Rose.” He said it again. “I love you, Rose . . . ” The pistol clicked.

A ploy, Pete Bucher realized, and he regained some composure. So they beat, kicked and hit him again with their gun butts, in his stomach, head, neck, groin and kidneys. He retched, urinated blood. Continue reading →

Posted in @news, Current Affairs, Front Pages, Politics | 1 Comment

Black Dahlia: December 23, 1949 — Jury Finds Dr. George Hodel Not Guilty of Molesting Tamar Hodel

Posted on December 23, 2025 by lmharnisch

Dec. 23, 1949, Mirror-News, George Hodel found not guilty of molesting daughter Tamar Hodel

The Los Angeles Mirror-News, Dec. 23, 1949.

Today is the anniversary of a jury of eight women and four men finding Dr. George Hodel not guilty on two counts of molesting his daughter Tamar. I’ll have more to say about this in the days to come, but I wanted to mark the day.

Steve Hodel is fond of quoting an incomplete transcript of defense attorney Robert A. Neeb Jr. interrogating Tamar.

On the jump, the entire exchange, which tells a different story.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1949, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Black Dahlia: December 23, 1949 — Jury Finds Dr. George Hodel Not Guilty of Molesting Tamar Hodel

December 23, 1947: Baby Girl Abandoned at Downtown Restaurant With Christmas Card Pinned to Blanket

Posted on December 23, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

The young mother asked the waitress at the cafe in the Subway Terminal Building to hold her baby for just a moment—and then she was gone.

Four-month-old Nancy Joyce Morris, with light blue eyes and blond hair, was wrapped in a purple quilt and a pink blanket to which her young mother had pinned a Christmas card: To Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lane, 1711 N. Alexandria, with a return address of C.H. Wagoner, 4256 Troost Ave., in North Hollywood. It was signed Bonnie.

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December 23, 1907: Shopping Cures Insanity — An Early Test of Retail Therapy

Posted on December 23, 2025 by lmharnisch



Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

December 23, 1907

St. Louis, via Direct Wire to The Times

Dr. Henry S. Atkins, superintendent of St. Louis’ insane asylum, has found that Christmas is a perfect time to test his theory that shopping cures insanity.

Atkins and two attendants took 60 women from the asylum “into the world of department stores and the activities which all women enjoy,” The Times said.

Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: A 1940s Christmas Story in ‘Star in the Night’

Posted on December 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

Star in the Night, re-creation of manger scene from 1940s film
An updated version of the Nativity in Warner Bros. Star in the Night.

Note: This is an encore post from 2021.

Made as a twenty-minute film to complete a program slate for movie theaters, the 1945 Warner Bros. two-reel short Star in the Night provides an understated, moving example of an offbeat contemporary take on the traditional Christmas nativity story. Featuring a much larger budget and more experienced cast than normal for shorts, the powerful featurette proved popular with audiences making it a perennial hit.

While the norm at the dawn of cinema, one- and two-reel shorts came to be seen as just an entertaining morsel or appetizer for the more respected feature film by the 1920s. Providing a training ground for rising talent or work for fading stars, these short films covered the gamut – newsreels, documentaries, travelogues, musical numbers, slapstick comedy, and playlets – offered entertaining product at low prices for local theater owners.

Continue reading →

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