Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – Richfield Building Jazzes Up Los Angeles’ Skyline

Posted on October 1, 2018 by lmharnisch

richfield
The Richfield Building in an undated postcard.

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

After years of deprivation, darkness and worry during World War I and its aftermath, America was ready to look toward a shining future of prosperity and sunshine in the 1920s. Overnight, fashion, music and the arts embraced change, style and risk-taking. Much was modeled after the 1925 Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs et Industriel Modernes in Paris, which displayed bold conceptions of applied arts, reveling in eclectic, glorious design. The new style embraced technology and the machine age, reflecting a belief in a dynamic, energetic future.

Architecture celebrated the Moderne style as well. Color, geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation replaced monochromatic massing in buildings. Triangles, sunbursts and zigzags screamed progress in modern buildings as they stretched toward the sky. New York’s Chrysler Building exemplified the new look, bold, sleek and gorgeous. The American Radiator Building also embraced the modern by daring to wreath itself in gold and black colors, a glamorous and contemporary design.

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

 

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Feb. 29, 1932: Body Found in Closet of Vacant Home

Posted on September 30, 2018 by lmharnisch


Los Angeles Times, 1932
Los Angeles Times, 1932

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

Nailed up in the closet of an unoccupied house at 2318 Pontius Ave.., West Los Angeles, the body of Tomas Moreno, 43-year-old Japanese, was discovered yesterday by friends.

Belief that Moreno had been dead since last November was expressed to police by T. Izumi, last employer of the dead man, who found the badly decomposed corpse when he broke open the small closet.

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Sept. 30, 1907: The Quick Brown Fox and Friends From A to Z

Posted on September 30, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 30, 1907
Los Angeles

Who says research can’t be any fun? I wonder what the WCTU would say about five dozen liquor jugs.

Dr. J.Z. Quack? Not a reassuring name, is it?

Bonus factoid: In French, it’s “Voyez le brick geant que j’examine pres du wharf.”

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘None Shall Escape’ Is a Powerful Look at Justice

Posted on September 28, 2018 by lmharnisch

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“None Shall Escape” in The Film Daily, 1944.

Note: TCM is airing “None Shall Escape” on Sunday night to honor Marsha Hunt. Here’s an encore of Mary Mallory’s post from earlier this year.  

On Friday, April 27, the TCM Classic Film Festival presents the rarely screened 1944 film “None Shall Escape,” a thoughtful film ahead of its time, as relevant today as when it was produced. The first film to depict the Holocaust as well as to examine post World War II and the punishment of Nazis for their war crimes, it features an appearance by its legendary star Marsha Hunt, who has fought for justice and honor for all for decades. Sadly, it depicts many of the same hateful attitudes once again on the rise.

In 1943, Columbia Studios hired German exile writer Alfred Neumann, author of historical novels and the 1928 silent “The Patriot,” as a scriptwriter. Neumann’s writings had been banned in Germany by the Nazis, forcing him to flee to America, where he arrived in 1941. Following the maxim of writing what you know, Neumann created a story detailing the Nazis mistreatment of those it overpowered, and their ultimate punishment for it, the first to predict American victory and the triumph of good over evil. Screenwriter Lester Cole, one of the Hollywood Nine blacklisted for his beliefs, adapted the story for the screen.

Mary Mallory’s latest book, “Living With Grace: Life Lessons from America’s Princess,” will be released June 1.

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Sept. 28, 1947: City Librarian Althea Warren Announces Retirement

Posted on September 28, 2018 by lmharnisch

Sept. 28, 1947, L.A. Times

Sept. 28, 1948, L.A. Times, Althea Warren

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

“Now I can catch up with my reading!”

So does Miss Althea Warren—surrounded by 1,811,000 books—regard her retirement next Wednesday as city librarian of Los Angeles. She, as 13th librarian dating back in a series to 1872, will be replaced by Harold Louis Hamill, 39, of Kansas City.

Looking back over her 14 years as head of the Los Angeles system with its 40 branches, Miss Warren sketched the different trends in the public’s reading and chuckled over some of the traits of early librarians.

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Sept. 28, 1907: L.A. Motorcycle Club Backs Ban on Loud Pipes

Posted on September 28, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 28, 1907
Los Angeles

Members of the Los Angeles Motorcycle Club have written to officials in support of a measure banning loud exhaust pipes on motorcycles.

“The motorcycle club says that it has been making a direct crusade against open mufflers and that all members of the club are forbidden to open their cycle mufflers within any city or town limits,” The Times said.

“We wish it generally understood that those riders of motorcycles making this ‘popgun’ noise, which causes so many complaints, are not members of the Los Angeles Motorcycle Club,” the group said.

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Sept. 27, 1907: Child Welfare Officer Cites Ringling Bros. for Underage Performers

Posted on September 27, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 27, 1907
Los Angeles

Ringling Bros. manager Charles Davis said farewell to Los Angeles, leaving $50 ($1,026.18 USD 2005) and some choice words for local authorities.

Child welfare officer Robert W. Reynolds spent several days attending the circus to ensure that there were no performances by underage children (The Times is a bit vague, saying younger than 16 in one story and younger than 12 in another).

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Sept. 26, 1947: Remingtons, Winchesters, Colts and Smith & Wessons

Posted on September 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Sept. 26, 1947, L.A. Times

Sept. 26, 1947: You can buy a new Colt semiauto for $65 ($712.59 USD 2018) in .38 Super or .45, or a Smith and Wesson (presumably a Model 10) in .38 Special for $56.50 ($619.40) USD 2018.

Sept. 26, 1947, L.A. Times

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Sept. 26, 1907: Disharmony for Conductor of Long Beach Band

Posted on September 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 26, 1907
Long Beach

Marco Vessella, conductor of Long Beach’s Royal Italian Band, has had nothing but trouble with Special Officer W.D. Cason after firing him from his job as ticket taker.

On one September evening, Vessella and a young lady were waiting for a streetcar when Cason taunted him, calling him “spaghetti face” and “a longhaired dago.”

Vessella was an extremely popular and respected musician in Southern California. The Times said: “Vessella clings to no past traditions, is a follower of no particular school and is not an exclusive nationalist. He plays with equal facility representative compositions of French, German, Italian, English and the best American composers.

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Sept. 25, 1947: It Was a Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.

Posted on September 25, 2018 by lmharnisch

Sept. 25, 1947, L.A. Times

Posted in 1947, Religion | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Black L.A. 1947: This Week’s Juke Box Hits

Posted on September 25, 2018 by lmharnisch

Sept. 25, 1947, Juke Box Hits, L.A. Sentinel

Sept. 25, 1947: The Sentinel’s juke box hits of the week. On the jump:  “Thrill Me” by Roy Milton and “Money Hustlin’ Woman” by Amos Milburn.

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Sept. 25, 1907: The Melancholy Prizefighter

Posted on September 25, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 25, 1907
Los Angeles

Meet Joe Gans, a boxer whose name once echoed among fans of the ring now buried in the dusts of sporting history. Gans may well have been one of the finest fighters whoever lived—among sportswriters, he inspired long and lofty stories about his artistry in dispensing with an undistinguished opponent. But Gans puzzled the men who tried to capture him in words; not a braggart, nor a thug. He was thoughtful and at heart, mournful, they said.

Gans was training at Lucky Baldwin’s ranch in Arcadia for a match with Jimmy Burns at the Pavilion—20 rounds.

 

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Thomas Ince’s Dias Dorados Salutes California’s Past

Posted on September 24, 2018 by lmharnisch

 

ince House Photoplay 1923

Thomas Ince Portrait Ex. Herald 8-9-24 In the early 1920s, Hollywood was booming. The adolescent film business had blossomed from a small by-the-seat-of-the pants mom and pop operation into a major industry backed by Wall Street, which was turning the large companies into international conglomerates. At the same time, major stars saw their compensation explode, especially if they owned their own production companies and received profit participation. Superstars like Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin and executives like Joseph Schenck and Thomas Ince earned more in yearly salaries than important financial, professional, and business leaders.

To acknowledge their place in the Hollywood pantheon, many of the industry’s leaders constructed elaborate mansions and showplaces outshining even that of actual royalty. Pickford and Fairbanks reigned at Pickfair, Lloyd built the magnificent Greenacres, and Frances Marion and Fred Thomson established their Enchanted Hill. Producer Thomas Ince followed along, constructing his own impressive hacienda, one that hearkened back to the glorious early days of California called “Dias Dorados.”….

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

 

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 24, 2018 by lmharnisch

Sept. 29, 2018, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1993 picture “The Joy Luck Club.”  This is much more recent than the usual mystery movie, but I decided to do it after reading an essay by Los Angeles Times movie critic Justin Chang on the film’s 25th anniversary.  I thought that the film was probably too recent and too well-known for a mystery movie but that the powerful images would make an unusual week. I probably won’t do this again, but I hope it was entertaining.

Note: This week coincided with a massive computer failure. The great majority of my data is backed up and safe. The main problem is getting my essential legacy software and hardware (a scanner that handles transparencies and negatives) to run, even though they were just fine on Windows 10 on the old computer. The dust is still settling, but so far the major loss is the legacy blogging software (by Microsoft, I might add) that I have used for years.  I think I have found an alternative, but there is a learning curve to it.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 39 Comments

Sept. 24, 1947: Young Men Say ‘I Love You’ With a Buick Hood Ornament

Posted on September 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.

And how do the young men of Los Angeles indicate their interest in a young woman? Do they court her with roses or candy or mash notes? In fact, ardent suitors have found that there’s no better way to a woman’s heart than with the hood ornament from a 1946 or 1947 Buick.

It seems the chrome-plated circles make perfect bracelets and victimized Buick owners are writing furious letters to The Times.
“I casually began counting Buicks and noting how many did not have the rings in a two-mile drive along Beverly and down Fairfax and found that 13 out of 17 Buicks have lost their rings from the hood ornament,” wrote Bill Gilholm of Hermosa Beach. “Is it a gang doing this for profit or are they just kids trying to be funny?”

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Sept. 24, 1907: A Poem on the First Day in L.A.

Posted on September 24, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 24, 1907
Los Angeles

A First Day in Los Angeles

Roving, roving, ever restless, drifting
On from strand to strand.

Have I seen the years slip by me,
Seeking for the promised land.

From the palm trees of Jamaica and
The Golden Spanish main.

To the gray and sullen northland when
The snow was on the plain.

But today I cease from roaming and
My soul is well content—

For the gypsy came among you and
He pitches his world-worn tent.

But the old desire was silenced for he
Found his long-sought rest.

In the City of Angels, in the
Sunset of the West.

Walter Adolf Roberts

557 Crocker St., Los Angeles.

 

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Sept. 23, 1947: Janet Flanner, The New Yorker’s ‘Genet,’ Visits L.A .

Posted on September 23, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, Sept. 23, 1947

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

Janet Flanner, during her many years in Paris as European correspondent for the New Yorker magazine, picked up the French love of epigrams. Genet, as she is known to the magazine readers, tried this out yesterday on a Town Hall audience at the Biltmore.

“The United States was the richest country in the world—that’s dandy. Now it is the only rich country in the world, which is terrible.”

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Sept. 23, 1907: Rev. J.L. Griffin Baptizes 5 in Echo Park Lake

Posted on September 23, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 23, 1907
Los Angeles

A crowd of 2,000—the faithful and the doubters—gathered at Echo Park Lake as black evangelist the Rev. J.L. Griffin prepared to baptize five believers in the cold water. Children climbed in the trees to get a better view, while other people watched from rowboats.

The rite was supposed to begin at 4 p.m., but several of the people were delayed and Griffin, who had been holding tent revival meetings in Los Angeles all summer, addressed the increasingly impatient throng.

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Sept. 22, 1947: Avak the Healer Comes to Los Angeles

Posted on September 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

image

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

And then he was gone as if he had never been here at all. The hundreds of people who threw themselves at his feet to kiss the hem of his robes or simply to occupy the chair where he had been sitting were nothing but a memory.

He was Avak Hagopian, a somber 20-year-old from Kharadag in Azerbaijan, and working in Tehran as a mechanic—or a goldsmith—the stories vary. He paused one day as he was about to bring down a mallet and was struck with a vision, a vision that returned twice more. With faith in God, he would cure the sick, the blind and the diseased. The young man with the dark, intense eyes grew a beard and let his hair flow to his shoulders. He became “Avak the Healer” or “Avak the Great,” performer of miracles.
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Posted in 1947, Religion | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Sept. 22, 1907: No Divorce, Judge Says, You Knew He Was a Bellboy When You Married Him!

Posted on September 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1907, No Divorce

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 22, 1907
Los Angeles

She was 34 and a successful businesswoman. He was a 19-year-old bellboy at the Hollenbeck Hotel.

Emma and George Lloyd were married and for a time were quite happy, with Emma running her milliner’s shop at 2132 Downey Ave., and George getting a job as a waiter in an Eastside restaurant.

 

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