September 1, 1947: 1,000 World War II Veterans Now in LAPD Uniforms

Posted on September 1, 2018 by lmharnisch

Sept. 1, 1947, L.A. Times, LAPD

L.A. Times, Sept. 1, 1947, LAPD

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

They are building a new, young, military Police Department for Los Angeles these days with the men who helped to win the war on foreign battlefields and in the sky making up its backbone.

Already there are more than 1,000 new police officers who once were G.I.’s An additional 1,175 are authorized by the City Council.

“We’re going to have a young and strong Police Department,” Joseph F. Reed, assistant chief of police, said yesterday, “but it will take us at least five years to make professional career officers of the same caliber as the older and more experienced men who gradually are attaining retirement age.”

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Aug. 28, 1947: Margaret Harris Debuts in Piano Recital at Age 3

Posted on August 31, 2018 by lmharnisch

Aug. 28, 1947, Margaret Harris


Aug. 28, 1947: At the age of 3, Margaret Rosezarian Harris was splashed across the front page of the Sentinel, which covered her concert of classical pieces at Chicago’s Carey AME Temple.

“She was poised and showed no trace of self-consciousness,” the Sentinel said.

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Aug. 31, 1947: Herbert Kline Shoots ‘Palestine’s First Feature Film Drama’

Posted on August 31, 2018 by lmharnisch

Aug. 31, 1947, L.A. Times
Note: My original post from 2005 on the 1947project was essentially a transcription of the 1947 L.A. Times story. Kline died in 1999. The film was released as “Beit Avi.” More on the film here.

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Aug. 31, 1907: The Year in Liquor — 20 Gallons of Beer for Every Man, Woman and Child in U.S.

Posted on August 31, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 31, 1907
Los Angeles

The ugly statistics should dishearten even the most ardent temperance worker. According to federal tax data for the last fiscal year, distillers produced 20 gallons of beer and 1.4 gallons of whiskey for every man, woman and child in America, a 5% increase and 8% increase respectively over 1906.

Cigar, cigarette and snuff production also showed similar increases. “The country being prosperous, cigar smoking grew at an amazing pace,” The Times said. Referring to cigars weighing more than 3 pounds per thousand, The Times said: “The public smoked about a billion and a third more of these cigars in the fiscal year just ended than it did the year before.”

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Aug. 30, 1907: Rabbi Leads Campaign to Open Hebrew University in L.A.

Posted on August 30, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 30, 1907
Los Angeles

Led by Rabbi Alfred Arndt of Congregation Beth Israel, the local Jewish community hopes to open what The Times describes as “the only Hebrew university within the entire United States.”

Noting the increased immigration to Southern California (the estimated number of Jews in the state went from 28,000 in 1905 to 42,000 in 1907), The Times said: “For a decade there has been a rapidly increasing Hebrew population in Los Angeles and other sections of Southern California. There is scarcely a place of any prominence within the seven southern counties which has not received a large quota of Hebraic citizens, especially within two or three years.”

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Raymond Chandler Was 5-9, in Case You Ever Need to Know

Posted on August 29, 2018 by lmharnisch

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Posted in 1917, Books and Authors, Film, Hollywood, World War I | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Aug. 29, 1947: Headless Skeleton Found in Burlap Sack in Chantry Flats

Posted on August 29, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947, Skeleton Found Above Sierra Madre

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

The discovery by camper John Beener of 3743 E. 7th St. only became more puzzling. Investigation revealed that the deceased, an elderly woman about 5-foot-2, had been embalmed, excluding the possibility of murder. Medical examiners also ruled out the possibility that the remains were a cadaver used for anatomy classes.

“This left the possibility the body … might have been dumped at the campground by a ghoul. This possibility was being investigated by checking cemeteries in this area,” The Times said.

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Aug. 29, 1907: Engine Co. 20 Pranks Newlywed Firefighter

Posted on August 29, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 29, 1907
Los Angeles

Around Engine Co. 20 at Sunset Boulevard and Mohawk Street, Lt. Samuel Dodd is something of a practical joker, so when he left on his honeymoon with his bride, Juanita, his fellow firefighters decided to get even.

They did such a good job plastering the house across the street at 2149 Sunset Blvd. with signs and old shoes that passing streetcars stopped so passengers could get a look.

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Black L.A. 1947: The Kappa Alpha Psis, Clora Bryant and a Certain Attorney

Posted on August 28, 2018 by lmharnisch

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Technical difficulties delayed posting until now.

Aug. 28, 1947: Earl Griffin has little good to say about the recent Kappa convention. But he mentions Clora Bryant (a footnote in the Black Dahlia case) though as Clara Bryant. And there’s a blind item about a certain attorney.

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Aug. 28, 1947: Diamond Street Gang Member Takes Murder Rap ‘for the Gang’

Posted on August 28, 2018 by lmharnisch

Aug. 28, 1947, Los Angeles Times  

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

The origins of Latino gangs are not well-documented in The Times, but the case of Earl D. Bush, 911 Diamond St., appears to be the first mention of the Diamond Street Gang, which is still active and was among those targeted by Officer Rafael Perez during what became the Rampart scandal.

Bush was arrested May 31, 1947, along with John Vergara, 14, of 1034 Colton St.; Gabriel Gutierrez, 19, of 228 N. Fremont St.; and Julian Delgado (published as Del Gado), 15, 1016½ W. 1st St., all in the Temple-Beaudry area near the junction of the Harbor and Hollywood freeways.

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Posted in 1947, Crime and Courts, LAPD | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: 54th Annual Cinecon Celebrates the Movies

Posted on August 27, 2018 by lmharnisch

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For filmgoers looking for the rare and unusual, the 54th Annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival opens Thursday at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, with a cornucopia of silent and sound films, many unseen since their original release. Featuring newly restored films, live accompaniment, and Golden Age Hollywood stars, Cinecon celebrates the cavalcade of cinema over its five days.

For the second year in a row, the festival opens with a reception in the Egyptian forecourt before the opening screening. Kicking things off is a very rare Kinetophone short, the first American film attempts at synchronizing sound and picture by Thomas Alva Edison and his crew. The newly restored 1924 feature “Helen’s Babies” follows, starring the irrepressible Baby Peggy, Edward Everett Horton, and the rising starlet Clara Bow. Child expert Horton, who doesn’t particularly like children, is left in charge of Peggy and another niece, with complications ensuing. The Burbank-based Famous Players Orchestra accompanies the film. .

Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.

 

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on August 27, 2018 by lmharnisch

Sept. 1, 2018, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1954 MGM picture “Betrayed,” with Clark Gable (his last film at MGM), Lana Turner, Victor Mature, Louis Calhern, O.E. Hasse, Wilfrid Hyde White, Ian Carmichael, Niall MacGinnis, Nora Swinburne and Roland Culver. Screenplay by Ronald Millar and George Froeschel, music by Walter Goehr, photography by F.A. Young, art direction by Alfred Junge, Lana Turner’s costumes by Balmain-Paris, makeup by John O’Gorman, directed by Gottfried Reinhardt.

“Betrayed” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

Bonus mystery item: Can you identify the clip on the Warner Archive webpage misidentified as “Betrayed?”

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 47 Comments

Aug. 27, 1947: I. Magnin Seeks Young Woman to Supervise Glove Department

Posted on August 27, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947, Glove Department, I. Magnin

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Aug. 27, 1907: Undertaker Sent Home as Minister Survives Suicide Attempt

Posted on August 27, 2018 by lmharnisch



Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Manhattan Beach
Aug. 27, 1907

Retired Episcopal minister the Rev. John Jewett, 83, wanted to die, so while staying with his son-in-law, J.D. Porter, he slit his throat with a razor.

The undertaker was called, but when he arrived with his hearse, Jewett was still alive, although death was imminent. The undertaker went back to his funeral home to wait.

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Aug. 26, 1907: Save Those Redwoods

Posted on August 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 26, 1907
Santa Rosa, Calif.

Elected officials addressed a large rally devoted to saving the 800-acre Armstrong Grove, named after lumber baron J.B. Armstrong, who decided to save the stand of soaring redwoods rather than clearing it.

“Armstrong Grove contains the finest and largest redwood timber in California,” The Times said. “For years it has been a great attraction to tourists and is one of the features of the Russian River section.

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Aug. 25, 1947: Police Investigate Death of Doctor’

Posted on August 25, 2018 by lmharnisch

Aug. 25, 1947, L.A. Times

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

A doctor and a mysterious death—of course, Dr. Manuel de J. Castillo came under suspicion, although I suspect it was only briefly—in the Black Dahlia case.

The Times never followed up on Susanne Castillo’s death, either on the autopsy or the inquest. But Dr. Castillo turned up in the news several times in the 1950s and ’60s.

A 1940 graduate of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, Castillo got his California medical license in 1944. In 1955, he bought a 1,500-acre ranch near Bishop.

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Medicine | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Aug. 25, 1907: Death at the Lummis House Over a Garden Hose

Posted on August 25, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 25, 1907
Los Angeles

A 20-year-old Pueblo Indian from New Mexico was shot to death at the home of City Librarian Charles F. Lummis in a fight with a houseguest that began over a garden hose.

The gunman, Francisco Amante, 51, described as a Spanish minstrel who has been Lummis’ houseguest for two years, surrendered to police, but no charges were filed.

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Posted in 1907, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Streetcars | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Black L.A. 1947: First Black-Controlled Supermarket Opens

Posted on August 24, 2018 by lmharnisch

43rd and Central, Los Angeles, via Google Street View

Central Avenue and 43rd Street, the site of the M and R Shopping Center, via Google Street View.

Aug. 21, 1947, M-R Market, Los Angeles Sentinel

Aug. 21, 1947: The Sentinel features the M and R Shopping Center, 4306 –4308 S. Central Ave.

“This is the first super market owned by individual Negro capital, although there have been other cooperative markets,” the Sentinel said. The master lease was owned by Melvin Williams and his wife, Ruby.

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Posted in 1947, African Americans, Food and Drink | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Aug. 24, 1947: Golfers Play Through as Fire Destroys Clubhouse at Inglewood

Posted on August 24, 2018 by lmharnisch

Aug. 25, 1947, Inglewood Fire, L.A. Times  

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

Fire which mushroomed early yesterday from the basement of the clubhouse at the Inglewood Country Club, 3424 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, left the building and its furnishings a heap of charred or water-soaked debris but failed to deter golfers from enjoying their Sunday on the greens. For a score of golfers putted even while the clubhouse burned.

The cause undetermined, the fire swept through two locker rooms and the grill and then spread to the roof of the L-shaped building. Officially, damage was estimated at $50,000 ($473209.30 USD 2005).

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Posted in 1947, Fires, Sports | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Black L.A. 1947: Nellie Lutcher Leads Weekly Juke Box Hits

Posted on August 23, 2018 by lmharnisch

Aug. 21, 1947, Nellie Lutcher

Aug. 21, 1947: Nellie Lutcher’s “He’s a Real Gone Guy” again leads the weekly juke box hits, followed by “I Want to Be Loved” in versions by Savannah Churchill and Lionel Hampton.  No. 3 is “Sure Had a Wonderful Time” by Louis Jordan. Fourth is “Blow Illinois Blow” by Illinois Jacquet and His All Stars and No. 5 is “Oh, Lady Be Good” by Ella Fitzgerald.

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