Black L.A. 1947: This Week’s Jukebox Hits

Posted on November 28, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Sentinel, 1947

Nov. 27, 1947: This week, we have two holiday songs: “Merry Christmas, Baby,” by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, and “How I Hate to See Xmas Come Around,” by Jimmy Witherspoon.

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November 1947: Woman Commits Suicide in Mortuary

Posted on November 28, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947
OK, even for Ernie Bushmiller and “Nancy,” this Thanksgiving panel is bizarre..

L.A. Times, 1947

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

Nothing further was written about this unfortunate woman, who killed herself the day before Thanksgiving. There wasn’t even an obituary notice that might have included the names of her husband and possibly her children—if she had any. Who was her mother? We simply don’t know, except that her maiden name was Cameron. Public records show that she had just turned 44 (DOB Nov. 8, 1903) was born in Massachusetts and had Social Security No. 552-10-8600, issued in California. There’s no apparent record of any siblings in the state death records. Her mother might have been Harriet Clark (maiden name Cameron) who died Dec. 30, 1945, in Los Angeles at the age of 76. It’s also interesting to note the use of a narrative approach rather than a “five-w” lede.

Bonus factoid: The Thanksgiving edition of The Times is 50 pages with a supplement for Bullock’s. There must have been some very happy ad salespeople at The Times. (All those pipe-smoking dads in pajamas look like a Bob Dobbs convention).

 

Quote of the day: “When I saw the place, it looked like a cyclone struck it.”
Howard R. Taylor, salesman who let his relatives use his ranch home near San Diego. When he asked for the property back, they moved 10 miles away—and took the house with them.

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Nov. 28, 1907: Drunk Civil War Veterans Spur Liquor Ban; Noisy Rooster Starts War on Olive Street

Posted on November 28, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Nov. 28, 1907
Los Angeles

  • Ocean Park banned serving alcohol to soldiers in uniform because drunk Civil War veterans from the soldiers home in Sawtelle “were seen reeling about the saloons.”

  • A racing team preparing for the upcoming hill climb on the Box Springs Grade hit a horse and buggy at 45 mph. The Times says the horse veered into the path of the auto, which struck the animal broadside, carrying it 40 feet and throwing it into a ditch. The badly injured animal was shot. Neither the buggy driver nor the men in the car were seriously hurt.

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Hollywood 1948: Stars Pick Their Biggest Movie Turkeys; Lizabeth Scott Calls ‘Dead Reckoning’ Her Worst Film

Posted on November 27, 2018 by lmharnisch

Dead Reckoning

Aug. 25, 1948: Lizabeth Scott tells veteran Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas of the Associated Press:

“I never did understand the character. Bogie was a baby. He was the only thing that made it possible to get through the picture.”

Also, Alan Ladd on “The Blue Dahlia,” Edmond O’Brien on “Powder Town,” Robert Ryan on “Trail Street,” James Stewart on “The Last Gangster” and Claire Trevor on “Bachelor’s Daughters.”

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Black Dahlia: ‘I Am the Night’ – My Head Is Already Exploding

Posted on November 27, 2018 by lmharnisch

Nov. 27, 2018, I Am the Night

Uh-oh.

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You have GOT to be kidding.  Is THIS supposed to be Dr. George Hodel???
This is ridiculous – and has nothing to do with the Black Dahlia case. Nada.

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November 1947: ‘Ridiculous!’ Judge Throws Out Case of 3 Men Arrested for Playing Pinochle in Park

Posted on November 27, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947
L.A. Times, 1947

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

A 91-year-old former actor named Noah Simon tried to kill himself three years later by cutting his wrists and temple with a razor, saying that “I am lonely and even my children have forgotten me.” It’s unclear whether this is the pinochle player in question. The fates of Middleman and Levin aren’t recorded. And while The Times records the colorful exploits of a Detective Lanier going back to the 1920s, it isn’t clear if it is the same officer.

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November 27, 1907: Mexican Revolutionaries Accused of Gigantic Conspiracy

Posted on November 27, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

November 27, 1907
Los Angeles

A shadowy, global conspiracy of anarchists is being described in the trial of revolutionaries Ricardo Flores Magon, Antonio Villareal and Librado Rivera in federal court. The fourth defendant, L. Gutierrez De Lara, was charged separately with committing larceny in Sonora, Mexico.

“The first positive evidence of a gigantic conspiracy to overthrow a friendly government was legally introduced,” The Times said. “Although there has been intimation of the danger[ous] character of the three men under arrest, and a partial expose of their cowardly plans to [overthrow] the presidents of this country and of Mexico, the far-reaching character of the junta has hardly been realized, even by government officials.”

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How to Drive on Streetcar Tracks

Posted on November 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Here’s a short clip I did in 2006.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on November 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Dec. 1, 2018, Mystery Movie
This week’s mystery movie was the 1955 Warner Bros. picture “I Died a Thousand Times,” with Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lori Nelson, Lee Marvin, Gonzalez Gonzalez, Lon Chaney, Earl Holliman, Perry Lopez, Richard Davalos, Howard St. John, Olive Carey, Ralph Moody, James Millican and Bill Kennedy. In CinemaScope and WarnerColor.

Written by W.R. Burnett (“High Sierra”), photographed by Ted McCord, art direction by Edward Carrere, set decoration by William L. Kuehl, wardrobe by Moss Mabry. Second unit director Russ Saunders, second unit assistant Al Alleborn, second unit photographer Edwin DuPar, dialogue supervisor Eugene Busch, makeup supervisor Gordon Bau, orchestrations by Maurice de Packh and Gus Levene, assistant director Chuck Hansen, music by David Buttolph, produced by Willis Goldbeck and directed by Stuart Heisler.

“I Died a Thousand Times” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 52 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Actor Jack Donovan Designs Bungalow Courts for Hollywood Artistes

Posted on November 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Jack Donovan

Jack Donovan on the porch of his home, “Picture-Play Magazine,” April 1923..


From its beginnings, the Hollywood film industry has constructed elaborate sets and facades before demolishing them to build something else, such as David O. Selznick burning down old sets and gates still standing from the 1932 film “King Kong” to create the massive conflagration for his 1939 epic “Gone With the Wind.” Most studios just pulled down the unneeded materials and threw them away, while sometimes selling off odd pieces of sculpture or paintings they no longer required or wanted.

One of the first to find value in the old bric-a-brac and leftover props and set pieces was bon vivant and jack of all trades, handsome Jack Donovan, young Irish American actor and man about town. Following green principles and practicing “reduce, reuse, and recycle” long before it became a necessity, go-getter Donovan bought unwanted old movie sets and props from small independent studios or bankrupt companies that he combined to create architecturally diverse bungalettes for Hollywood types looking for quaint and attractive homes in which to live. In a way, the driven young man could be called one of the first Hollywood home flippers.

Mary Mallory’s latest book, “Living With Grace: Life Lessons From America’s Princess,”  is now on sale.

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Nov. 25, 1947: House Indicts the ‘Hollywood 10’ for Contempt

Posted on November 25, 2018 by lmharnisch

Nov. 25, 1947, L.A. Times

L.A. Times, Nov. 25, 1947

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

One Republican, Claude I. Bakewell of Missouri; Vito Marcantonio of the American Labor Party; and 15 Democrats voted against this measure: John Blatnik of Minnesota; Sol Bloom of New York; John A. Carroll of Colorado; Emmanuel Celler of New York; Helen Gahagan Douglas of California; Herman Eberharter of Pennsylvania; Franck Havenner of California; Chet Holifield of California; Walter Huber of Ohio; Frank Karsten of Missouri; Arthur G. Klein of New York; Thomas Ellsworth Morgan of Pennsylvania; Joseph Lawrence Pfeifer of New York; Adam Clayton Powell of New York; and George Gregory Sadowski of Michigan.

 

Quote of the day: “Pretty please.”

What Minnie Chapman refused to say to her husband, George, while they were drinking—so he shot her to death. Chapman was sentenced to Pennsylvania’s electric chair in the “Pretty Please Murder.”

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Nov. 24, 1907: Roving to Monrovia

Posted on November 25, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Nov. 24, 1907
Monrovia

The Times real estate section takes a look at what was then the distant suburb of Monrovia, 22 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The writer notes the increasing use of concrete and stone, explaining that the cost of lumber is forcing builders to use other materials. The writer also notes the broad, shaded verandas of three featured homes as well as the outlines of their roofs.

The story highlights the home of B.R. Davisson on East Orange Avenue, H.M. Slemmons (or Slemon) on North Myrtle Avenue and the home of John C. Rupp at Ivy and Greystone, built for $6,500 ($133,403.21 USD 2005).

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Posted in 1907, 1908, 1911, Architecture, Downtown, Education, Film, Freeways, Hollywood, Real Estate | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Nov. 24, 1947: Airline Passenger Dies En Route to L.A.; Shabby Drug Runner Carried a Fortune in Heroin

Posted on November 24, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

L.A. Times, 1947

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

He was a shabby little man of 44 when he died with $111 in his pockets and a suitcase full of mystery and drugs. Although some people die without a name, the 145-pound man died with several: Ralph Mazy, Ralph Masey, Ralph Macri and Rapeal Mazy.

During the war, Ralph worked at Todd Shipbuilding Corp. in Brooklyn, N.Y., but had a prison record as a drug dealer going back to the 1920s. He died on a United Air Lines flight somewhere between Denver and Los Angeles, where his body was taken off the plane. A mortician from nearby Hawthorne, Jordan E. Dunaway, went through Ralph’s unlocked suitcase and found 2 pounds of pure heroin with a value estimated at $500,000 to $3 million ($4,732,092.98 to $28,392,557.91 USD 2005).

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Nov. 23, 1947: ‘Lonesome’ Woman Sought Threesomes and Husband, Ex-Wife Says

Posted on November 23, 2018 by lmharnisch

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L.A. Times, 1947

Kitty Higgins in all its uproarious humor.

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

This was rather a racy edition of The Times, especially for a Sunday paper. Next to the Kertz’s saga, the news editor placed an advance on a martial relations course at UCLA (sample lectures: “Love and Conduct in a Changing World,” “Sex Problems of Youth”). And the front page featured the story of a ballet dancer with the Ballet Russe who lost part of her costume during “Scheherazade.” Pretty ribald for a family paper in the 1940s.

Unfortunately, The Times never followed up on this story, so the suit between the Kertzs remains lost to history.

Bonus factoid: Is there anything more annoying than the comic strip “Nancy”? Yes, it’s what seems to be low-rent knockoff of “Nancy” called “Kitty Higgins” with none of the Bushmilleresque touches. Interestingly enough, “Kitty Higgins” began in 1932 while “Nancy” debuted in 1933. Hm.

Here, by the way, is an index to the complete comics of the Los Angeles Times.

Quote of the day: “But after martinis—which are to martinis in Paris what the ideal circle is to circles drawn on a blackboard—the meal is delicious.”
Simone De Beauvoir, “America Day by Day,” on lunch at Lucey’s restaurant, 5444 Melrose Ave., Feb. 27, 1947.

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Nov. 23, 1907: Baby Murdered With Ax, Half-Eaten by Pigs in Garbage Heap

Posted on November 23, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Nov. 23, 1907
South Pasadena

Warning: This is a grotesque, tragic story with graphic details.

Pasadena Detective Wallace H. Copping is investigating the murder of a young baby boy, whose half-eaten body was found in a pigpen on the Berry ranch in South Pasadena.

Authorities say the boy, weighing about 14 pounds and less than 10 days old (yes, quite a large baby by today’s standards), was discovered by Mrs. J.H. Anderson, whose husband leases the ranch. Apparently Mr. Anderson picked up the baby’s body as he made the rounds of about 20 homes gathering garbage to feed his pigs.

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L.A. Celebrates a Wartime Thanksgiving, 1943

Posted on November 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

Nv. 26, 1943, Thanksgiving
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.

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An 1890s Thanksgiving in the Kitchen

Posted on November 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

Everyday Cook-Book

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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Roosevelt Declares Early Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

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Nov. 9, 1941, Thanksgiving
Note: This is an encore post from 2011.

Nov. 9, 1941: Amid the gathering clouds of World War II, President Roosevelt declares what will be the last peacetime Thanksgiving.

Noting American aid to nations fighting the Axis, Roosevelt says: “Let us ask the divine blessing of our decision and determination to protect our way of life against the forces of evil and slavery which seek in these days to encompass us.”

It is also the last time the nation will celebrate an early Thanksgiving. Roosevelt tried extending the pre-Christmas shopping season by making the holiday one week earlier, but merchants didn’t report any improvement in business.

On the jump:

— A teary Josephine Trout, a 19-year-old unwed mother, is reunited with her month-old daughter, Camellia Ann, after abandoning her in a downtown hotel two weeks earlier. After the brief reunion, Trout was taken back to jail on charges of child abandonment.

— Msgr. Bernhard Lichtenberg, dean of St. Hedwig’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Berlin, is arrested by the Gestapo. His crime: praying for the Jews. He died in prison in 1943.

— “Hot Spot,” with former mystery photo subject Laird Cregar, is opening at Grauman’s Chinese and Loew’s State.

— Not one Hollywood star in 10 can act, if judged by the old standards of the legitimate stage, but acting isn’t necessary, for behind the players stand capable directors to interpret their scenes and  opulent studios ready to laugh off the filming of 20 or 30 “dud takes” in order to get one that’s OK, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Nov. 22, 1947: Wiretapping System Found in State Building

Posted on November 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

L.A. Times, 1947

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

Such are the threads of research, tangled by time and coincidence:

The gateway is a Page 1 story about extensive wiretapping at the state office building, with lines leading to Philharmonic Auditorium. Russell D. Mason, the technician who installed the wires, says he got permission from investigators for Atty. Gen. Fred Howser, but everyone in Howser’s office denies the allegations. Mason’s troubles grow worse when a fire at his home destroys expensive equipment and documents needed for his wire-tapping trial. And his ex-wife sues for back child support when she sees his picture in the paper.

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Nov. 22, 1907: Son Beats Father With Baseball Bat to Protect Mother; Bleeding and Shot in the Head, She Vows Eternal Love

Posted on November 22, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Nov. 22, 1907
Los Angeles

Weeping and heavily bandaged from where her drunk, enraged husband had shot her in the head, Ellen Larkin, 38, rose from her hospital bed, staggered to a nearby room and threw herself into the arms of her injured spouse. She covered him with kisses, vowing that she still loved him, and promised that he could come home as soon as he recovered from shooting himself and being nearly beaten to death with a baseball bat by their oldest son.

According to The Times, Jefferson B. Larkin, 45, a sometime teamster, horse player and “remittance man,” had returned to Los Angeles after spending four months in San Francisco while John, 16, the oldest of the Larkins’ four children, supported the family. As Larkin got thoroughly drunk, someone told him that his wife had been unfaithful, so he went to a pawnshop and bought a cheap revolver.

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