Aug. 21, 1947: In the newspapers, he was “The Black Shadow of Leiperville,” “The Black Baron of Leiperville,” “The Black Giant of Leiperville,” “The Black Shadow of Los Angeles,” or just “Giant Negro.”
Born in Mobile, Ala., Jan. 25, 1897, as Feab S. Williams, he fought under the name George Godfrey after a black heavyweight fighter of the 19th century.
Note: This is a post from 2005 that originally appeared on the 1947project.
Timothy G. Turner was a prolific, long-established writer for The Times, beginning with a feature on Anna May Wong in 1921. While he retired from the paper in 1954 (having taken a few years off to work in public relations), he continued contributing articles until his death—in fact he wrote a cover letter on a submission to The Times a few hours before he died in 1961 at the age of 75.
He was a bald, lanky man with glasses, and the unsmiling mug shot with his obituary makes him look serious, cold and, in his signature bowtie, a bit eccentric. However, the story says he took delight in poking fun at all pretensions, lived downtown and refused to learn how to drive a car.
This week’s mystery movie has been 1958/59 film “Das Indische Grabmal” or “The Indian Tomb.” With Debra Paget, Paul Hubschmid, Claus Holm, Walther Reyer, Sabine Bethmann, Rene Deltgen, Inkijinoff, Jochen Brockmann, Richard Lauffen, Jochen Blume and Helmut Hildebrand. From the novel by Thea von Harbou, screenplay by Werner Jorg Luddecke, original screenplay by Richard Eichberg. Music by Gerhard Becker, photography by Richard Angst. An Artur Brauner production. Directed by Fritz Lang.
“The Indian Tomb” is available on DVD from Amazon.
Note: This is an encore post from 2012.
In the last forty years, movie collectors and photography connoisseurs have recognized the art and value of Hollywood still photography, most particularly in the gloriously lit and composed portraits of glamorous stars. For decades, however, many people, including industryites, failed to recognize the skill and talent of the many photographers shaping the public’s perception of celebrities through their skillful work behind the camera.
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
Casa Blanca, Morocco
Aug. 20, 1907
The Times carries a vivid description of a battle between Moorish tribesmen, French sharpshooters and spahis (Arabs in the French service), and though the story is extremely detailed about the fighting, there isn’t a word of background as to the cause.
The unrest dates to March 1907, when a mob in Marrakesh killed Dr. Emile Mauchamp, a member of the geodetic survey. Further inquiry shows that there was a general attack on Europeans in which a British official killed two people.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
His favorite verses and anecdotes of his life were recited yesterday as old friends and admirers made their third annual pilgrimage to the grave of John Steven McGroarty, late poet laureate, playwright and Times columnist, at Calvary Cemetery.
The program, held before the poet’s simple headstone beneath the largest oak in the cemetery, was sponsored by the Eire Four Province Club with Thomas R. Lynch, club president, acting as chairman.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Married veterans attending the Los Angeles campus of the University of California have discovered that the dollar—unlike some bank checks—doesn’t stretch like rubber.
They have found it impossible to live on their G.I. Bill of Rights $90 ($851.78 USD 2005) a month.
Max Linder, photo courtesy of Mary Mallory.
The 21st Annual Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival traveled the world in its many programs this year, featuring rare technology, recently discovered and restored films, and travelogues from near and far, something to intrigue silent film fans new and old.
The festival opened Friday, Aug. 10, with a screening saluting the dapper French comedian and auteur Max Linder, showcasing his gentle brand of slapstick comedy. A precursor to such screen funny men as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, the diminutive Frenchman, attired in tails and top hat, played a self-deprecating dandy getting into all types of mischief. As director, writer, and star, Max brought joie de vivre and romantic comedy to such films as “Max Juggler Par Amour,” “Le Soulier Trop Petite,” “Max – Victime Du Quinquina,” “Max Pintre Par Amour,” “Max and the Statue,” and “Troubles of a Grasswidower.”
The site of the Avodon Ballroom at 843 S. Spring St., via Google Street View.
Aug. 14, 1947: A drag ball is planned for the Avodon Ballroom, 843 S. Spring St. Although the Sentinel didn’t follow up on the event, drag balls were mentioned regularly in the paper.
The earliest reference I could find in the clips was from 1934, when a drag ball was planned for the Elks Temple, 3616 Central Ave., on Christmas Eve 1934. Promoter Tony Collins offered a $250 prize ($4,700 USD 2018) for the best impersonator. “Judges will be the leading dressmakers from Hollywood and Los Angeles,” the Sentinel said.
An undated photo of a drag ball at the Club Alabam, image from the Gordon-Beverly Collection at UCLA.
Collins promoted another drag ball to be held in July 1935 at the Club Araby, 55th Street and Central Avenue. Collins said 4,000 people attended his previous drag ball at the Elks Temple.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
His face and body were burned with a blowtorch so that his eyes popped out of his head. He was beaten with a wide, flat object, like a belt or a wide plank. His wrists were hacked with a cleaver and he was partially castrated.
Aug. 14, 1947: Nellie Lutcher’s “He’s a Real Gone Guy” is this week’s No. 1 juke box hit, according to Murray’s Record Shop, 1055 E. Vernon. “True Blues” by Roy Milton is No. 2.
On the jump, Ask Evangeline helps a young man who is paying off his dead relatives’ debts. “If only I could find a girl who would go along with me until I had some money I might find some happiness too. Please tell me what to do.”
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
NEW DELHI, Aug. 15 (Friday) (U.P.)—The proud British Empire of India died last night as the clocks struck midnight.
Two independent nations were born at the moment of its death—the dominions of Hindustan and Pakistan.
Adm. Viscount Mountbatten, great-grandson of Queen Victoria in whose name India was made an empire 70 years ago, ceased to be viceroy and became governor general of Hindustan.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
The growth of Southern California was reflected in a Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. report issued yesterday. The company said that the number of telephones it has in service in the Southland has increased more than 50 per cent since Pearl Harbor, more than 25 per cent since V-J Day.
R.L. Sawyers, division telephone manager, said that at the beginning of the war the company had 852,000 telephones in service in Southern California. The number had reached 1,021,000 by the time peace came and today it stands at 1,290,000. The increase for the last two years reached a total of 269,000 telephones.
And there are still insufficient telephones for all potential subscribers. About 149,000 applicants are waiting.
Los Angeles Telephone Exchanges:
Aug. 14, 1947: The Sentinel runs a feature on “A Song Is Born” (working title: “That’s Life”) in production at the Goldwyn studios. If the plot sounds a bit like “Ball of Fire,” also made by the Goldwyn studios, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1959 film “Gangster Story,” with Walter Matthau, Carol Grace, Bruce McFarlan (MacFarlane), Raiken BenAri (Raikin Ben-Ari), David Leonard, John Albright and Clegg Hoit (Hoyt). Screenplay by Paul Purcell, based on an original story by Richard Grey and V.J. Rhems (Rheims), music supervision by Alex (Alec) Compinsky, title song “The Itch for Scratch” written by Leonard Barr, Ronald Bloomberg and Ted Stanford. Photography by Max Glenn, produced by Jonathan Daniels and directed by Walter Matthau.
“Gangster Story” is available on Amazon.
George C. Hale in the Salt Lake City Herald, Oct. 20, 1905.
Note: This is an encore post from 2016.
Technology changes often move with the speed of lightning, upending life as it moves hurly burly into a brave new world. The early 1900s saw many new-fangled products introduced such as radio, air conditioning, and vacuum cleaners, while several relatively new inventions such as telephones, automobiles, and electricity moved more into the mainstream.
In the same way, motion pictures began undergoing their own revolution around 1905-1906, when retired Kansas City Fire Chief George C. Hale introduced his Hale’s Tours and Scenes of the World to paying audiences. Filmgoing would soon move beyond kinetoscopes into nickelodeons and eventually movie palaces. More importantly, audiences would no longer just view a movie, but experience it as well.
“Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays” by Karie Bible and Mary Mallory is available at Amazon and at local bookstores.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Imagine my surprise to find that The Times reviewed Mexican movies, usually in critiques signed “G.K.,” who praised this classic of Mexican cinema starring Pedro Infante, Virginia Serret and Blanca Estela Pavon, who won the Best Actress Ariel for this film.
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
Aug. 12-13, 1907
Los Angeles
Despite the name Bismarck Cafe, police call the saloon at Main and Winston Streets the Bucket of Blood because it’s a continual source of crime and violence.
It is a place, The Times says, “of drunken debauchery among girls of tender ages, painted women and men. Into this immoral pesthole, young girls are enticed nightly to drink and listen to a band concert. Although the police make arrests in this dive every night, it is allowed to run unmolested.”
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Dr. Stanley Dean Johnson sounds like quite a fellow. He’s a specialist in the works of John Donne, having received his bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Missouri and his doctorate from Yale, where he was Phi Beta Kappa.
He taught English at Northwestern from 1939 to 1943, when he enlisted in the Army, and was discharged as a first lieutenant in the Transportation Corps in 1946. In the fall, he was hired as an English instructor at UCLA.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Someone found them shot to death on the floor of the Portal Motel at 2775 N. Cahuenga: two men completely clothed except for their shoes, each with a bullet in the head and another in the stomach. The pistols, one of them a Japanese Nambu war trophy, were also recovered—each had been fired twice.
Their cars were in the parking lot. One was registered to 25-year-old Robert Haskell Blum, 4671 Pickford St. The other belonged to 27-year-old John Darold Sever, 539 Ruberta Ave., Glendale. Maps show that the Portal Motel is about midway between the two homes on the main highway between Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
ladailymirror.com 