Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — ‘The Diamond From the Sky’ Shines Light on Marketing

Posted on July 23, 2018 by lmharnisch

Diamond from Sky
“Like a Diamond From the Sky,” by Leo Bennett and Leo Wood, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Thanks to “What Happened to Mary?” (Edison, 1912), “The Adventures of Kathlyn” (Selig, 1913) and “The Perils of Pauline” (Eclectic/Pathé, 1914), serials skyrocketed in popularity with the American movie-going public. Production companies raced to meet the growing demand and grab their own share of box office glory.

American Film Manufacturing Co., more popularly known as the Flying A, eagerly joined the throng in 1915, hoping to top other companies with special bonuses: hiring one of the world’s best known actresses, and adding a competitive note to the series. They hoped to capitalize on the Thanhouser Co.’s innovation of offering a $10,000 prize to the winning suggestion of a sequel to its highly popular serial, “The Million Dollar Mystery.”

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July 23, 1907: A Belated Tribute to Heroic Officer

Posted on July 23, 2018 by lmharnisch

Jul 23, 1907, Burglar Captured

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

July 23, 1907
Los Angeles

John Conroy, a career criminal, planned his work carefully: He would wait until 10 p.m., pry open the skylight of J.C. Fleming’s jewelry store at 531 S. Broadway, climb down a rope and help himself to whatever he wanted.

But Conroy didn’t know that along with putting alarms on the front and back doors, A.D.T. security service, 118 W. 3rd St., had put a sensor on the skylight as well. As soon as the circuit was broken, supervisor J.P. Quinn called police while he sent Herbert Johnson to watch the store.

 

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July 22, 1947: TV, Jet Engine, Tucker Car on Display at World Inventors Expo

Posted on July 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

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

First-prize winner at the inventors exposition was Stanley Hiller Jr., who developed a helicopter in which two blades on a single shaft rotated in opposite directions, eliminating the need for a tail rotor.

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July 22, 1907: L.A. Housing Is Expensive

Posted on July 22, 2018 by lmharnisch


This is an encore post from 2006.

Note: $90 a month is $1,847.12 USD 2005.

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July 21, 1947: Julie London Marries Jack Webb

Posted on July 21, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

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

In the courthouse corridor, just after she received one of the biggest divorce settlements in Los Angeles history, someone asked her: “If you had your choice between half a million dollars and a happy home, which would you take?”

“A happy home.”

“With this husband?”

“I guess so.”
She walked to the elevator, looking unhappy.

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Posted in 1947, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Music, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

July 21, 1907: What the President Is Reading

Posted on July 21, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 21, 1907
Los Angeles

President Theodore Roosevelt suggests “reading of certain books of pure fiction that have the prime quality of being interesting.”
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July 20, 1947: Wealthy Woman Gives Estate – Including Homeless Camp -– to Santa Barbara

Posted on July 20, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1959

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. This was a follow-up to a post by Kim Cooper.

Lillian Child died in 1951 at the age of 75, four years after setting up provisions for a hobo jungle nicknamed Childville at her 17-acre estate on East Cabrillo Boulevard. Two years later, the property was deeded to the city of Santa Barbara by the Santa Barbara Foundation, the original recipient.

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July 20, 1907: Court Calls Hundreds in Struggle to Seat Jury in Dr. Chan Case

Posted on July 20, 2018 by lmharnisch



Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 20, 1907
Los Angeles

The court summoned 80 prospective jurors to decide the case of Dr. Chan, who was accused of practicing medicine without a license, but more than half asked Judge Rose to be excused from service.

“An officer was sent out with the summonses yesterday morning. He had not been at work more than an hour when the first indignant citizen appeared in court and demanded to be released from jury duty on the ground that his wife was ill and he had to go home several times a day,” The Times said.

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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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