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Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 54 — Tell It to the Marines

Posted on March 27, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We are at the point in the story when police are questioning Robert M. “Red” Manley, a traveling salesman who gave Elizabeth Short a ride from San Diego to Los Angeles in January 1947.

The two-minute executive summary:

We have seen that although this book is titled “The Black Dahlia Files” half of it is taken from Will Fowler’s “Reporters,” John Gilmore’s “Severed” and the Los Angeles Examiner. The district attorney’s files account for 8% of the book so far. In relying on “Severed,” Wolfe picks up and embellishes Gilmore’s ruthless smear of Elizabeth Short as a lazy tramp. Wolfe also reduces the vast number of detectives working the case to three: Homicide Capt. Jack Donahoe and Detectives Harry Hansen and Finis Brown, forcing them to be supposedly be in San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Lompoc at the same time. A neat trick, you must agree.

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged 1947, black dahlia, Books and Authors, cold cases, Donald H. Wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Ida May Park Finds Direction in Films

Posted on March 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Ida May Park, Photoplay Ida May Park in Photoplay.

Virtually forgotten today, Los Angeles-born Ida May Park earned the distinction of being one of the first women to direct feature films in early Hollywood, as well as write and produce, before being pushed aside as Wall Street money took over film production. Her long career acting on stage enhanced her film career, one in which she focused on creating strong women characters around which stories revolved.

Born December 28, 1879, to laborers Charles and Martha Park in Los Angeles, Ida seemed drawn to entertainment at a young age, appearing with the Alcazar Acting Company in San Francisco by 1897, perhaps after her family moved to Sacramento, where her father later served as a postman. Within a few years, Ida became an itinerant actor, performing with troupes around the United States.

Mary Mallory’s latest book, “Living With Grace: Life Lessons from America’s Princess,” will be released June 1.
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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged #Silent Films, #women's history, film, hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Ida May Park, Mary Mallory | Comments Off

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 53 — Imagine My Surprise

Posted on March 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Crime That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We’re at the point in the story when police have arrested Robert M. “Red” Manley, the last person known to have been with Elizabeth Short.

I was, I have to admit, skeptical of the claim by former Officer Vincent A. Carter that he was at Hollenbeck Station when Manley was interrogated. But I found a picture of him in October 1947 teaching youngsters how to shoot. So that part of the story holds up. Of course, while Carter says Elizabeth Short wouldn’t sleep with Red, Wolfe turns this into:

“According to Administrative Vice officer Sgt. Vincent Carter who was at Hollenbeck when Manley was interrogated, the story Manley told [Aggie] Underwood for public consumption wasn’t exactly the same story he had told detectives and Brown during the interrogation. Desperately trying to save his marriage, Manley publicly denied having an affair with the murder victim, while privately admitting that he had indeed been intimate with Elizabeth Short.”

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged 1947, black dahlia, cold cases, Donald H. Wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on March 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

March 31, 2018, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1948 Warner Bros. picture “Romance on the High Seas,” with Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don De Fore, Doris Day, Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, Fortunio Bonanova, Eric Blore, William Bakewell, Franklin Pangborn, Avon Long and the Samba Kings. The screenplay was by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein with additional dialogue by I.A.L. Diamond, from a story by S. Pondal Rios and Carlos A. Olivari. Photography was by Elwood Bredell, art direction by Anton Grot, special effects by David Curtiz, special effects photography by Wilfred M. Cline and Robert Burks, set decorations by Howard Winterbottom, wardrobe by Milo Anderson, makeup by Perc Westmore, musical direction by Leo F. Forbstein, musical numbers orchestrated and conducted by Ray Heindorf, music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn, musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, produced by Alex Gottlieb and directed by Michael Curtiz.

I don’t usually do mystery films with a time peg, but on a recent trip to the Monterey area, I was reminded of Doris Day’s birthday (April 3), which is being celebrated this weekend in Carmel.

“Romance on the High Seas” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged film, hollywood, mystery | 44 Comments

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 52 — The Numbers Game

Posted on March 25, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We are at the point in the story when Elizabeth Short has left the French family in San Diego and is with Robert M. “Red” Manley, a traveling salesman who picked her up and is giving her a ride back to Los Angeles. Police have detained Red and are questioning him about the Black Dahlia.

Do you like statistics? No? Good. Let’s have some.

Just for fun (OK, my idea of fun may not be yours), I added up the different citations in Wolfe’s end notes to determine his primary source. Recall that the book is titled: “The Black Dahlia Files.” So they are going to be the main source, right?

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March 25, 1907: Young Bike Messengers a Key Part of L.A. Drug, Sex Trade

Posted on March 25, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Technology has changed, but people have not. Simply because they lived nearly a century ago doesn’t mean Angelenos were unable to indulge their vices, they simply procured them in a different manner.

One of the main staples was the throngs of young bicycle messengers who traversed the city in packs.

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Posted in 1907, 2006, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, City Hall, Crime and Courts, Food and Drink, LAPD, Streetcars | Tagged biking, crime and courts, cycling, drugs, prostitution, vice | 1 Comment

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 51 — Slinging Hash

Posted on March 24, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob (and were are those pesky thugs, anyway?), the Mogul (missing in action so far) and the Murder That Transfixed (fixed, yes, but transfixed, hardly) Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We’re at the point in the story when Elizabeth Short is in San Diego in the last month of her life and has just met Robert M. “Red” Manley.

Page 70

Wolfe is discussing Manley’s arrest in Eagle Rock after his return from a sales trip to San Francisco. Remember that while Los Angeles police and reporters were madly searching for the mysterious red-haired man last seen with the Black Dahlia, he had left his car in the garage of a friend and driven up to San Francisco.

The usual source for this episode is Will Fowler, who claimed to have witnessed the arrest. I would imagine Wolfe lifts this more or less from “Reporters.” It is amazing, isn’t it, that although the book is called the “Black Dahlia Files” it consists mostly of an embellished rehash of “Reporters” and John Gilmore’s “Severed,” which is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction. With a bit of garnishing from Jim Richardson’s “For the Life of Me” and Mary Pacios’ “Childhood Shadows.”

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged 1947, black dahlia, cold cases, crime and courts, Donald H. Wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

Dec. 4, 1911: Man Arrested for ‘Masquerading in Female Attire’

Posted on March 24, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Dec. 4, 1911

Clarence Westfall, 22 years old, was taken into custody at San Pedro yesterday afternoon when a boat from San Diego docked. He was arrested for having masqueraded in female attire and was taken to the Central Police Station, where he told a story that nearly resulted in his being liberated. When the police received the report from the station at San Pedro, however, that Westfall, in posing as a woman, had endeavored to be assigned to a woman’s stateroom, he was locked up.

He said he was frequently obsessed with the desire to don women’s clothing, do fancy work and generally “act like a girl.” He had about convinced the detectives that he was a fit subject for alienists to examine when he was recognized as a former prisoner. He was locked up on a charge of vagrancy.

A random discovery too good not to share.

Posted in 1908, 1911, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, Fashions, LAPD, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Streetcars | Tagged #LGBT, 1911, crime and courts, crossdressing | 4 Comments

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 50 — Trying to Make It Real Compared to What

Posted on March 23, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative proceeds in flashbacks. We are in the last few weeks of Elizabeth Short’s life, in which she met Robert M. “Red Manley,” a traveling salesman from Los Angeles who picked her up on a trip to San Diego.

Imagine my surprise—no, my shock—to read this in L.A. Weekly. Here’s a screen shot to show I’m not making this up.

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged 1947, black dahlia, cold cases, crime and courts, Donald H. Wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

March 23, 1907: At L.A. Orphanage, a Page From Dickens

Posted on March 23, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

For some time, the teachers at the Casco Street School had been concerned about the pupils from the nearby Christian Orphanage. But finally the problems became too great to ignore.

“One small boy, an especial pet and a delicate child, was found, one cold, rainy morning, filling his blouse with the filthy scraps of bread from the garbage pails in the rear of nearby residences. He was so hungry. ‘Aunt Ada’ had sent him to bed without any supper because he was naughty and she had slapped him in the morning because, like Oliver Twist, he had asked for more mush,” The Times said.

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Posted in 1907, 1912, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Education, Food and Drink, LAPD, Pasadena, Religion, Streetcars | 3 Comments

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 49 — Family Ties

Posted on March 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files,” more properly titled “Stuff I Scraped Out of ‘Severed’ Thanks to John Gilmore, Who Calls My Book ‘a True Crime Classic’ and ‘Crap’ ” (If you figure that one out, you’re good).

Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the narrative is told in flashbacks. We just finished the portion of the story in which Elizabeth Short has been befriended by the French family in San Diego in the last month of her life.

I heard from one of Elizabeth Short’s sisters yesterday, as I do from time to time. Out of concern for her privacy, I won’t quote the e-mail, but she asked what I knew about the upcoming Brian De Palma movie. I told her I turned down a chance to attend the sneak preview, but that several people who saw the movie said it was horrid. Sample comment: “There is so much wrong with this film that I don’t even know where to start!”

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged 1947, black dahlia, cold cases, crime and courts, Donald H. Wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 48 — An Army of One

Posted on March 21, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul (and where is that darn Mogul, anyway?) and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative is told in flashbacks. We’re at the point in the story when Elizabeth Short has been befriended by the French family in San Diego about a month before her death.

Page 65

Wolfe is inexplicably in the middle of an account in which he claims Elizabeth Short impulsively decided to leave San Diego. In fact, the French family asked her to leave after she had been with them a month. In the book’s “Elizabeth Short goes bad girl” section, she is enthusiastically portrayed as a lazy tramp, completely at odds with the facts but lustily depicted in John Gilmore’s “Severed,” which is 25% mistakes and 50% fiction.

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged 1947, black dahlia, Books and Authors, cold cases, crime and courts, Donald H. Wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

Acrobats

Posted on March 21, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Americans at the turn of the century lacked many things, but they had some amazing live entertainment. Here’s a snip of a performance courtesy of Edison Studios, 1904. These guys rock. I have watched them dozens of times now and I still find them amazing.

Enjoy!

Posted in 1904, Film, Uncategorized | Tagged 1904, acrobats, Edison, film | Comments Off

Anne Redding: SBCC Faculty Lecture on ‘Crime Across the Curriculum’

Posted on March 20, 2018 by lmharnisch

Anne Redding

Anne Redding, courtesy of Santa Barbara City College.

Anne Redding, chair of the School of Justice Studies at Santa Barbara City College, will present the annual faculty lecture tomorrow on “Crime Across the Curriculum.”

Redding’s lecture will examine the impact of crime across the spectrum of human experience. “Crime is a living organism that is feeding off social deterioration, rage, and human fragility,” Redding told Baraa Alkassir of the campus paper, Channels.

“I wouldn’t say that there is a crime culture in America. However, our culture has a great fascination with basic human interest in crime,” Redding told Alkassir.

Redding was selected to deliver the lecture by a committee based on nominations by her students and peers. We have heard her lecture many times on the Black Dahlia killing and she gives her students an excellent synthesis of this complex case.

Redding will give “Crime Across the Curriculum” on Wednesday, March 21, at 2:30 at Garvin Theatre on the SBCC campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

Posted in Black Dahlia, Coming Attractions, Crime and Courts | Comments Off

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 47 — Wax On, Wax Off

Posted on March 20, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files (which have been mostly ignored so far): The Mob (a bit of that), the Mogul (no sign yet and we’re 63 pages into the book) and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.”

Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the butchered, anonymous body is discovered and the narrative is told in flashbacks. We’re at the point in the story in which Elizabeth Short has been befriended by the French family in San Diego about a month before her murder in 1947.

The two-minute executive summary:

In the last week, we have seen a continuing disinterest in facts, heavy reliance on John Gilmore’s “Severed” (to the extent that it’s rather amazing that Gilmore can dismiss “Mogul” as “crap” since it relies so heavily on his book) and bold fabrication. We have also found that Wolfe is not the least bashful about making statements that are easily disproved. Glynn Wolfe is casually described as procurer of girls for Syndicate brothels in a complete fabrication of what allegedly exists in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s files. Nor is Wolfe shy about making up quotes and attributing them to fairly inaccessible sources, down to making up what movies were playing in San Diego theaters.

Continue reading →

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March 20, 1907: St. James Raises a Church — Burned in 1973 as Hate Crime Against Gays

Posted on March 20, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

The Methodist Episcopal congregation, formed from a merger of the Centennial and Central churches, planned a wonderful new building at 22nd Street and Union. Although the congregation studied the idea of a new location, the members finally decided there was no better place than the one they had.

The church was designed by A. Dudley using an old English half-timbered style with a Gothic tower. The vaulted ceiling was highlighted with gold and the pews were arranged in concentric circles around a corner pulpit.

The Times noted:

“The congregation of St. James gives promise of becoming one of the strongest in the outlying parts of the city. Its pastor [the Rev. Robert S. Fisher] is a young man who has made his way rapidly toward the front and only last fall declined to accede to the wishes of the bishop that he accept a leading church in San Francisco.”

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Posted in 1907, 1917, Architecture, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, LAPD, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Religion, Streetcars | Tagged #LGBT, 1907, 1917, architecture, hate crimes | 2 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Second Universal City Celebrates Its Centennial

Posted on March 19, 2018 by lmharnisch

Feb. 10, 1915, Universal City
Universal City in the Washington Times, Feb. 10, 1915.

Note: This is an encore post from 2015.

In an age where businesses come and go, bought up by larger competitors or going under due to bad financial decisions, finding one in business for decades and at the same location is very rare. Film conglomerate NBC-Universal has operated for over a century at its current Universal City location, the thriving second Universal City for the company, celebrating its Centennial, March 15, 2015.

Founder Carl Laemmle jumped into the film business as a Chicago exhibitor in 1906, quickly turning his Laemmle Film Service into one of the largest film exchanges in the country in 1909. After threats and questions by the Motion Picture Patents Company, Laemmle established his own production company, IMP Corporation (Independent Motion Picture Corporation).

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

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Posted in 1915, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, San Fernando Valley | Tagged 1915, film, hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, San Fernando Valley, Universal City | Comments Off

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on March 19, 2018 by lmharnisch

This week’s mystery movie has been the 1946 20th Century-Fox picture “The Dark Corner” with Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix, Mark Stevens, Kurt Kreuger, Cathy Downs, Reed Hadley, Constance Collier and Eddie Heywood and His Orchestra. The screenplay was by Jay Dratler and Bernard Schoenfeld based on a story by Leo Rosten. The photography was by Joe MacDonald, art direction by James Basevi and Leland Fuller, set decorations by Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox, costumes by Kay Nelson, music by Cyril Mockridge, music direction by Emil Newman, arrangements by Maurice de Packh and makeup by Ben Nye. The film was produced by Fred Kohlmar and directed by Henry Hathaway.

“The Dark Corner” is available on DVD from Amazon.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged film, hollywood, mystery photo | 33 Comments

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 46 — Snooze Alarm

Posted on March 19, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format, in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative is told in flashbacks. We’re at the point in the story when Elizabeth Short has been befriended by the French family and we have seen a fair amount of embellishment of what was already a fabrication in John Gilmore’s “Severed.”

Page 63

Wolfe is in the middle of an enthusiastic smear in the “Elizabeth Short goes bad” section of the tale, assuming, apparently, that we won’t feel as much sympathy when she gets killed off if he makes her into a lazy tramp.

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged 1947, black dahlia, cold cases, crime and courts, Donald H. Wolfe, lapd | Comments Off

Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 45 — Nothing but Compost

Posted on March 18, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is discovered and the narrative is told in flashbacks. We are at the point in the story when Elizabeth Short has been befriended by the French family in San Diego in December 1946, about a month before her murder.

Page 62

Let’s pick up where I left off yesterday. In Wolfe’s portrayal (which is completely at odds with the facts), Elizabeth Short has given the Frenches a phony story about waiting for a friend to wire some money that “never seemed to arrive.” In fact, she got $100 almost the next day, courtesy of her former boyfriend, airline pilot Gordon Fickling.

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, LAPD, Uncategorized | Tagged 1947, black dahlia, Donald H. Wolfe, John Gilmore | Comments Off