Black L.A. 1947: Sanitarium Offered for Woman on Trial in Slavery Case With Restitution to Victim

Posted on July 19, 2018 by lmharnisch

July 17, 1947, L.A. Sentinel

July 17, 1947: Clinton M. Arnold, special correspondent for the Los Angeles Sentinel, files updates on the case of Elizabeth Ingalls, who was accused of holding Dora Jones in slavery. In one recent development, Ruth Castendyke, one of Ingalls’ daughters, suggested that Ingalls be placed in a sanitarium and that the family make financial restitution to Jones.

Also: Prophet Jones (Dr. James F. Prophet Jones) agrees to pay $5,000 to his former congregation in Detroit, which accused him of financial misconduct.
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July 19, 1907: Covina Celebrates Launch of Streetcar Service

Posted on July 19, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 19, 1907
Covina

Lavish preparations are underway for an enormous, free picnic to celebrate the opening of a Pacific Electric streetcar line to Los Angeles. “Covina had long awaited the approach of those shining iron bands that connect the pretty little valley town with the metropolis of the West, and is very happy,” The Times said.

E.H. Fabrick has created a gigantic coffeepot for the occasion, holding 250 gallons. “A large man looks like a pigmy beside this immense urn, fashioned for a race of giants,” The Times said. It’s accompanied by an equally enormous, 300-gallon bean pot patterned after an original (presumably normal size) pot in a Boston museum.
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Black L.A. 1947: NAACP to Sue Inglewood for Barring Blacks From Swimming Pool

Posted on July 18, 2018 by lmharnisch

July 17, 1947, L.A. Sentinel
The 1938 exploitation film “The Wages of Sin” is being shown at the Flo-Mills Theater.

July 17, 1947: The NAACP charges that the city of Inglewood bars African Americans from the pool at Centinela Park.

At an employee picnic sponsored by Mission Appliance Corp. and the Association of Gas Appliance Workers, several black workers tried to enter the pool but were told that it was only for Inglewood residents. Further inquiry revealed that officials did not ask white people using the pool if they were Inglewood residents.

R.C. Goates, head of the Inglewood Department of Recreation said: “We do not refuse admittance but we prefer that they go to Exposition pool, which is open to them.”

Many white union members left the park in protest after apologizing to their black co-workers for the discrimination, the L.A. Sentinel reported.

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July 18, 1947: The Timeless, Subtle Wit of Ernie Bushmiller’s ‘Nancy’

Posted on July 18, 2018 by lmharnisch


July 18, 1947, Nancy

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

NANCY
BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER

Panel 1:
Exterior, Day. A city sidewalk. Nancy and Sluggo are carrying heavy packages on their shoulders.
NANCY: Wow… These packages are heavy
SLUGGO: Yep—but the man gives us a nickel for each one we deliver

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Posted in 1947, Art & Artists, Film | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

July 18, 1907: Santa Monica, Ocean Park Must Abate Sewage Discharge Into Ocean

Posted on July 18, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 18, 1907
Santa Monica

Officials of Santa Monica and Ocean Park are fighting a lawsuit that seeks to block the discharge of raw sewage into the ocean. According to testimony, the outfall pipe sags so badly that it isn’t always cleared and as a result, sewage molders in the pipeline, a problem aggravated by warm summer temperatures.

Judge Bordwell, however, ruled that he was unable to render a specific decision because the case was improperly presented. Bordwell ordered Santa Monica and Ocean Park to find a way to ease the situation within 15 days.
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Posted in 1907, Crime and Courts, Environment, LAPD | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Hollywood on Wheels: Gary Cooper’s 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Heading for Auction

Posted on July 17, 2018 by lmharnisch

gary_cooper_duesenberg
Gary Cooper’s 1935 Duesenberg SSJ is heading for auction by Gooding and Company, Aug. 24-25 at Pebble Beach. The car was on display at the Briggs Cunningham Automotive Museum in Costa Mesa and later acquired by the Miles Collier Collections.
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Black L.A. 1947: Bandleader Jimmie Lunceford Collapses in Record Store, Dies at 45

Posted on July 17, 2018 by lmharnisch

Suzette Johnson, L.A. Sentinel, 1947

Suzette Johnson appears in “The Foxes of Harrow.”


July 17, 1947: The Los Angeles Sentinel has a news story on the death of bandleader Jimmie Lunceford, who collapsed in a record store in Seaside, Ore., and a mention in Earl Griffin’s Hollywood Spotlight column. (The Los Angeles Times had nothing). The New York Times published a news story from United Press and reported on the funeral, saying that 200 attended the private service in New York while 100 more stood outside in the rain.

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July 17, 1947: Arnold Schoenberg Gets Commission for ‘Survivor From Warsaw’

Posted on July 17, 2018 by lmharnisch

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

By mid-July, Arnold Schoenberg was hard at work on a composition he had conceived several months earlier, when choreographer Corinne Chochem sent him details on a song for a potential commission.

Although the price was too high for Chochem, Schoenberg remained focused on the idea of a work of up to nine minutes for a speaker, orchestra and chorus, saying: “I plan to make it this scene—which you described—in the Warsaw ghetto, how the doomed Jews started singing before going to die.”

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1939: B-Girls Busy on Skid Row Despite Ban

Posted on July 17, 2018 by lmharnisch

B-GIRLS BUSY
ON SKID ROW
DESPITE BAN

Equalization Board’s Orders,
City Police and Exposes
Fail to Curb Honky-Tonks

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

Yesterday, Examiner reporters again visited the liquor establishments to determine what the state officers had done about enforcing the law [against B-girls].
At 462 S. Main, for instance, here is what happened:

A reporter seated himself at the crowded bar and ordered beer.

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Posted in 1939, Crime and Courts, Food and Drink | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

July 17, 1907: Hollywood Organizes to Catch Serial Arsonist

Posted on July 17, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 17, 1907
Los Angeles

A serial arsonist has been at work in Hollywood, setting six fires in the last three weeks. The community’s small volunteer fire department has been overwhelmed by the crimes.

“The entire neighborhood rushed to the scene,” The Times said of one blaze in June. “The volunteer fire department hurried out their hose cart and laid a long line of hose, but the water pressure was not sufficient to send a stream that would reach the burning dwellings.”

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 16, 2018 by lmharnisch

image
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1958 British production “Fiend Without a Face” or the “The Flying Brains Movie,” made by Amalgamated and released by MGM. With Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves, Kim Parker, Stanley Maxted, Terence Kilburn, James Dyrenforth, Robert MacKenzie, Gil Winfield, Launce Maraschal, Kerrigan Prescott, Peter Madden, Michael Balfour, R. Meadows White and Lala Lloyd.

The screenplay was by Herbert J. Leder from an original story by Amelia Reynolds Long. Set design was by John Elphick, special effects by Ruppel & Nordhoff, and Peter Neilson, camera operator was Leo Rogers, dress supervisor was Anna Duse, makeup by Jim Hydes, hairdressing by Barbara Barnard. Music by Buxton Orr, conducted by Frederic Lewis, produced by John Croydon and directed by Arthur Crabtree.

“Fiend Without a Face” is available on DVD from the Criterion Collection.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 20 Comments

July 16, 1947: L.A. County Tired of Paying Welfare, Pays Brink Family to Go Back to Oklahoma

Posted on July 16, 2018 by lmharnisch

image

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

Sojourn Over—James Brink and his wife and their nine children as they prepared to depart yesterday for their Oklahoma ranch after spending two and a half years here on as much as $278-a-month relief ($2,631.04 USD 2005). The county fixed up their car and is paying all expenses back to Oklahoma.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: The Enchanted Hill – Hollywood’s Ultimate Mansion

Posted on July 16, 2018 by lmharnisch

fred_thompson_cinemundial12unse_0779

Fred Thomson in an undated image.

In the early days of the Hollywood film industry, moguls and movie stars lived simply, residing in comfortable but elegant homes. As the business evolved from small companies into large-scale moviemaking factories in the 1920s, residences followed the same path. Romantic, grandiose mansions fit for filmmaking royalty soon became the norm, designed by such top-notch Los Angeles architects as Gordon Kaufmann, Roland Coate, and Wallace Neff.

In 1926, Neff designed the Hollywood “house” to top them all: Frances Marion and Fred Thomson’s The Enchanted Hill in Beverly Hills, sitting at the apex of one of the city’s highest hills. The ultimate model for romantic Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, The Enchanted Hill reigned as moviedom’s ultimate showplace, a fairy-tale residence come to life.

Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.
She will give a presentation at Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Sunday, July 22, at 2 p.m.

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Posted in Architecture, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

July 16, 1907: New Restrictions on Boxing

Posted on July 16, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 16, 1907
Los Angeles

Under continued lobbying from the Church Federation, the city attorney is preparing new restrictions on prizefighting that local promoters say will kill the sport.

“The new ordinance hedges the boxing game about with sufficient restrictions to make the bouts uninteresting to the average gallery fiend who cares only for the bouts that furnish a few buckets of blood with each round,” The Times said.
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July 15, 1947: Orson Welles Films ‘Macbeth’ on Tight Deadline

Posted on July 15, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

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

Over at Republic Studios, master showman Orson Welles is engaged in an enormous stunt: He has promised to film “Macbeth” in 24 days (later cut to 21) for less than $1 million. (final cost $800,000 $7,571,348.78 USD 2005 ).

Hedda Hopper writes: “If he can film ‘Macbeth’ for $500,000, it’ll be Hollywood’s answer to Laurence Olivier’s ‘Henry V,’ which cost $5,000,000 [$47,320,929.85 USD 2005].” It’s all an experiment to see if the studios can get a “reasonable return” on the classics.

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Posted in 1947, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Historic L.A. in ‘Illegal’ | Part 6

Posted on July 14, 2018 by lmharnisch

Illegal, 1955

In the last post on historic Los Angeles in “Illegal,” here are a few nighttime shots of Main Street. At the far right you can see the sign for the Hotel Cecil.

image
The 500 block of South Main Street via Google Street View.

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Posted in 1955, Architecture, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

July 14, 1907: L.A. Prepares to Celebrate 126th Anniversary

Posted on July 14, 2018 by lmharnisch



Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

July 14, 1907
Los Angeles

Led by the Rev. Juan Caballeria (or Cabelleria), the city is preparing to celebrate its 126th anniversary Aug. 2 with concerts, Mass in the Plaza church and cannon fire. The old artillery piece will be lit by Gen. Jose Aguilar, a former member of the Mexican army who battled the Americans and later joined Gen. John C. Fremont.

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Historic L.A. in ‘Illegal’ | Part 5

Posted on July 13, 2018 by lmharnisch

Illegal, 1955
In this portion of “Illegal,” we have a long chase sequence. I’m not able to identify all the locations so any help would be appreciated.

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Posted in 1955, Architecture, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Architecture, Preservation and Noir

Posted on July 13, 2018 by lmharnisch

This Week Magazine, 1947

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

Architecture, murder and hardboiled writing. Do you suppose McCoy had the 1947 Project in mind when he knocked off this forgotten little tale? (Note the first-person narration, genre-lovers). He’s got a nice little formula: A good hook, the story and a stinger at the end.

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Posted in 1947, Architecture, Books and Authors, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Architecture, Preservation and Noir

Black L.A. 1947 ‘I Didn’t Think I Had a Friend in the World,’ Dora Jones Testifies in Slavery Case

Posted on July 13, 2018 by lmharnisch

July 10, 1947, L.A. Sentinel

July 10, 1947: The Sentinel devotes a significant part of its front page to the San Diego slavery trial with a story by Clinton M. Arnold. The Sentinel said it was the only black weekly in the U.S. devoting so much coverage to the case.

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