Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
Sept. 5, 1907
Los Angeles
Poor old Mrs. Moore was ill, so instead of paying the grocer his monthly bill, she put a $10 gold piece in an envelope and told her 9-year-old son, Cecil, to take it to him. But Cecil, of 155 W. 51st St., tore open the envelope, found the $10 ($205.24 USD 2005) and got other ideas, none of them good.
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Sessue Hayakawa in Cine Mundial.
Long renowned as one of the most mesmerizing, exotic actors of the silent screen, Sessue Hayakawa and his piercing eyes and sensual mouth stole women’s attentions and minds. Born in Japan, the son of aristocratic parents came to America plying his trade as an actor. When Hayakawa struggled in the late 1920s after returning from several years abroad, the actor turned to writing to make a living and maintain his fame.
While studying at the Eagan Dramatic School in downtown Los Angeles, the intense Hayakawa met and befriended sweet actress Tsuru Aoki, who had signed with producer Thomas Ince to appear in films and brought the acting troupe along. Aoki starred opposite Hayakawa in the 1913 film “O Mimi San,” with the two exhibiting great timing and chemistry. They fell in love during the making of the film “The Typhoon” before marrying on May 1, 1914.
Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Among the celebrities declining an invitation to discuss Communists in Hollywood was Hedda Hopper, and her column expands on the number of Red-influenced films in Hollywood and reflects the reasoning of the day.
In addition to the previously mentioned films “Mission to Moscow,” “North Star” and “Song of Russia” attacked as being Red-influenced, Hopper adds:
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
My goodness, one never knows what will turn up on Ebay. This morning I found a copy of “Black Dahlia Avenger” inscribed by Steve Hodel to James Ellroy, who wrote the introduction to the paperback, praising Hodel’s work and endorsing his solution.
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1947 Warner Bros. picture “The Unfaithful,” with Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Jerome Cowan, Steven Geray and John Hoyt. Original screenplay by David Goodis and James Gunn, photography by Ernest Haller, art direction by Leo K. Kuter, dialogue direction by Felix Jacoves, wardrobe by Travilla, special effects by William McGann and Robert Burks, set decorations by William Wallace, makeup by Perc Westmore, orchestral arrangements by Murray Cutter, musical direction by Leo F. Forbstein, music by Max Steiner, produced by Jerry Wald, directed by Vincent Sherman.
“The Unfaithful” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
September 3, 1907
Editorial, Los Angeles Times
“I have no patience with the prejudices which exist between alleged classes when the classes themselves do not exist. There is no reason for hostility between employer and employee, between capitalist and wage earner. A condition of class hatred, such as has developed in Colorado, is a curse to this country.”
The utterer of these excellent sentiments was W.R. Hearst, orator of the day at the Jamestown Exposition yesterday—whose string of yellow socialistic newspapers and magazines has done more than any other agency existing to foment prejudice and class hatred and arouse reasonless hostility between capitalists and wage earners.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Muscle Beach began in the early 1930s as a program of the Federal Works Progress Administration, part of the government’s effort to recover from the Great Depression. It was later taken over by the Santa Monica Recreation Department.
Although already well-established, Muscle Beach was first mentioned in The Times in 1946, when a human pyramid collapsed and the young woman at the top suffered a dislocated shoulder.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?”
ladailymirror.com 