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

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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

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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.

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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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Historic L.A. in ‘Illegal’ | Part 4

Posted on July 12, 2018 by lmharnisch

Illegal, 1955
I suppose you prop guys at Warner Bros. think this is very funny.

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Posted in 1955, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The @NYTIMES Can’t Get L.A. Right

Posted on July 12, 2018 by lmharnisch

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“California Today,” by Tim Arango and Charles McDermid, presents a strange bit of nonsense: The Mirror (the sister paper of the Los Angeles Times published in the afternoon) folded “partly because the old streetcars went away as the city embraced the automobile.”

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Posted in 1962, 2018, Another Good Story Ruined, Architecture, New York | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

July 12, 1907: Man at Gas Co. Scalded by Fall Into Vat of Boiling Water

Posted on July 12, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 12, 1907
Los Angeles

Gas Co. employees found a man scalded over the lower half of his body wandering the yards at Center and Aliso after he fell into a vat of boiling water produced by the carbon pit. The man, who was unidentified but believed to be J. Cochran of 232 E. 1st St., was so badly burned that much of his skin tore away when he ripped off his clothes.

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Historic L.A. in ‘Illegal’ | Part 3

Posted on July 11, 2018 by lmharnisch

Illegal, 1955

Here’s another shot of the California State Building lobby and the bank of elevators as Hugh Marlowe exits.

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Posted in 1955, Architecture, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Black L.A. 1947: Postal Worker Finds Body of Rosenda Mondragon

Posted on July 11, 2018 by lmharnisch

July 10, 1947

July 10, 1947: The Sentinel publishes a picture of Newton Joshua, who discovered the body of Rosenda Mondragon. I don’t recall ever seeing his name in coverage of the killing.

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July 11, 1907: Arts Education Will Be Seen as Essential — Someday

Posted on July 11, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 11, 1907
Los Angeles

Among the presentations at the current educators convention is a seminar on teaching the arts. If you have ever attended a colloquium on arts education or listened to arts educators, these comments from another era sound depressingly familiar, and for all the progress that may have been made, we have learned so little.

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Posted in 1907, Education, LAPD, Streetcars | 1 Comment

Black L.A.: Lynchings Increase for 1946

Posted on July 10, 2018 by lmharnisch

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Jan. 9, 1947, Lynchings

Jan. 9, 1947: The Sentinel reports on the rise in lynchings in 1946 in data compiled by the Tuskegee Institute. The institute said six African Americans were lynched in 1946, contrasted with one in 1945.

“The offenses charged were stealing a saddle, one; stabbing a man, one; and breaking into a house, one,” according to Dr. F.D. Patterson, head of Tuskegee.

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Posted in 1946, 1947, African Americans | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Black L.A.: Lynchings Increase for 1946