Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 38 — Slasher Flick

Posted on March 11, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I have my search engines set to scour the Internet for material related to the Black Dahlia and this morning discovered yet another slasher version of the Elizabeth Short case. Think nudity and blood. It is a shame to see such talent wasted, but proves my contention that Hollywood is incapable of telling the story of Elizabeth Short without reducing it to sex and gore.

Where was I? Ah yes. I am blogging in real time as I read Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul and Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles.” Wolfe is using the “Laura” format in which the anonymous, butchered body is found and the story is told through flashbacks. We’re at the point where we are exploring Elizabeth Short’s mid- to late teens, and have found a particularly nasty bit of fiction in which Wolfe has identified Mary Pacios, author of “Childhood Shadows” as “Mary Hernon.”

Continue reading →

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Los Angeles Has No History

Posted on March 11, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007.
Feb. 24, 1907
Los Angeles

Google Earth, 2007

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Otis Chandler Tribute

Posted on March 10, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

These are audio files I made of the in-house memorial to Otis Chandler (at right with his 1937 V-12 Packard, originally owned by Bette Davis), conducted March 7, 2006. These are field recordings and the audio quality isn’t great. But I am offering them for their historic value. Tom Johnson, the moderator, spoke throughout the ceremony. Each segment lasts an hour.

Part 1:

Speakers are Jeff Johnson; Tom Johnson; Harry Chandler; Cathleen and Michael Chandler; Bill Thomas; Anthony Day; Paul Conrad; and Jean Sharley Taylor.

Part 2:

David Laventhol; Richard Schlossberg III; Francis O’Toole; William Niese; Shelby Coffey III; Bill Boyarsky; John Carroll; and Bettina Chandler.


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March 10, 1907: Religious Leader’s Last Words ‘I Will Return in 1,000 Years’

Posted on March 10, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2007.
March 10, 1907
Los Angeles

Someone who opened the Los Angeles Times on this Sunday might be forgiven for wondering what had become of the world, for Page 1 was full of news about the demise of two religious leaders.

The first was the death of John Alexander Dowie, the founder of Zion, Ill., who considered himself the reincarnation of the biblical prophet Elijah. The second was the decline of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science.

Continue reading →

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Black L.A. 1947: Late-Night Streetcar Service Captures the Heartbeat of the City

Posted on March 9, 2018 by lmharnisch

Feb. 27, 1947, the Owl Service

Feb. 27, 1947: I missed this ad for Los Angeles Transit Lines in my previous pass through the Sentinel and I just had to run it. Militant Angeleno: This is for you!

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Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 37 — Mystery Woman

Posted on March 9, 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 has begun with the butchered, anonymous body and is telling the story in flashbacks—at this point, we’re at Elizabeth Short’s mid- to late teens and she’s about to be reunited with her father, Cleo, who abandoned the family years earlier.

So far, the vote on continuing the blog is entirely favorable, with one request for information about my theory (sorry, I don’t want to mix that with the Wolfe material) and one suggestion for an ad revenue stream. Thanks crime buddy!

Continue reading →

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March 9, 1907: Man Says It’s Worth a $25 Fine to Beat His Wife

Posted on March 9, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007.
March 9, 1907
Los Angeles

The Insanity Begins

Led by I. Newerf and J.B. Dudley, the automobile owners of Los Angeles are fighting a new city ordinance that bans parking within 40 of downtown intersections. Newerf, the West Coast representative of Goodyear Tire Co., and Dudley, a car salesman, received citations for violating the law and have pleaded not guilty.

In April 1909, Dudley pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter after hitting street inspector Woodman J. Thomas on Broadway near 5th Street. He was sentenced to five years’ probation in March 1910.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, 1909, 1910, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Downtown, LAPD, Streetcars | Tagged | 3 Comments

Comments, Please

Posted on March 8, 2018 by lmharnisch

 

Large Image

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I’m waiting.

The vote so far:

Keep going: 10 (1 via e-mail).

Stop the insanity! 0

Disclaimer: I’m not a Susan Powter fan. In fact, she drives me crazy.

Special note: Comments are moderated. In other words, nothing gets posted without my prior approval. Anything off-point or extraneous isn’t making the cut.

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Black L.A., 1947: Robberies of Merchants Raise Racial Tensions in Little Tokyo/Bronzeville

Posted on March 8, 2018 by lmharnisch

March 6, 1947, Navioneers
March 6, 1947: North American Aviation had a male choir called the Navioneers that performed at Second AME church at 43rd Street and San Pedro Place.

On the editorial page, the Sentinel seeks to defuse racial tensions in Little Tokyo (or Bronzeville) over robberies by a black “gang of thugs” preying on Japanese American merchants. The Sentinel says that the holdup gang is robbing Asians because “they are the people who happen to have the money the gangsters want and it is only an accident that the victims are Japanese. The holdups would rob a Negro or any other person as quickly.”

… “there is no reason for hostility between Japanese and Negroes. Both groups are victims of plenty of other discriminations without trying to figure out ways and means of fighting each other.”

Historical note: During the evacuation of Japanese Americans in World War II, African Americans moved into Little Tokyo, which was renamed Bronzeville.

Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 36 — Bust of a Man

Posted on March 8, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

I have been 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.”

At this point in the story we are deeply mired in Elizabeth Short’s childhood and have just caught Wolfe in an incredible lie:

“Very little is known about Elizabeth’s time in Miami.”

Continue reading →

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March 8, 1907: Streetcar Conductor Beats Wagon Driver With Crowbar for Blocking Tracks

Posted on March 8, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007.
March 8, 1907
Los Angeles

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Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 35 — Paint by Numbers

Posted on March 7, 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.”

Page 52

Wolfe is using the “Laura” format and we’re at the point in the story where we learn about Elizabeth Short’s childhood. Wolfe has dispensed with her father, Cleo Short, at least for now, and is dealing with Elizabeth Short’s childhood illnesses. The narrative about the murder investigation has gone into hibernation as the book introduces buckets of background material.

Continue reading →

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March 7, 1907: Veterinarian Goes on Violent Rampage

Posted on March 7, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2007.
March 7, 1907
Los Angeles

A dreadful disease called acute glanders has been discovered in a horse and veterinarian R.J. Ramage ordered that the animal be destroyed immediately.

In addition to rapidly causing death, acute glanders can be spread from horses to humans and there is no known cure, at least in 1907. Apparently several men in Los Angeles County died of acute glanders in 1893.

Continue reading →

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Black L.A., 1947: Onyx Club Opens in Pasadena; Cafe Was Site of Sensational 1950 Killing

Posted on March 6, 2018 by lmharnisch

L.A. Sentinel, 1947

March 6, 1947: The Onyx Club opens at 109 S. Fair Oaks in Pasadena.

image
The former site of what was variously called the Onyx Club, Onyx Cafe or Onyx Bar on South Fair Oaks in Pasadena, via Google Street View.

 

L.A. Sentinel, 1950 June 1950, L.A. Sentinel

June 1950: Vivienne Miles-El is charged with fatally stabbing her boyfriend Clinton E. “Smiling Jack” Jackson, a well-known gambling figure along Central Avenue.

The Sentinel said: “Jackson, who at the time of his death was married and living at 617 1/2 E. Santa Barbara [now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard] but who intimates say was ‘running around’ with the willowy Miss Miles-El, was allegedly stabbed to death by the woman in the Onyx Bar, 109 Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena, following what witnesses say was a quarrel.”

The quarrel began when Jackson said he didn’t want Miles-El driving other people around in his Cadillac. Jackson slapped Miles-El “many times” a witness testified at the inquest.

Miles-El told friends to “forget” the slapping, the Sentinel said. But 10 minutes later, Miles-El plunged a paring knife into his chest “as she sat facing him on a bar stool,” the Sentinel said.

A cabdriver took Jackson to a hospital and then to Huntington Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Miles-El was found not guilty.

Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 34 — Limbo

Posted on March 6, 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.” At the moment we’re enmeshed in the backstory on 1940s newspapers that hasn’t transfixed anyone.

The two-minute executive summary:

After spending several days slogging through Elizabeth Short’s autopsy and pondering the absence of John Gilmore’s key source on the Black Dahlia’s purported “infantile genitalia,” the nonexistent Detective Herman Willis, we’ve found the late Will Fowler, former Examiner reporter and Dahlia source, played several tricks on Wolfe. We also discovered some more ties between Wolfe’s stepfather and Joseph P. Kennedy, but a troubling disinterest in saying anything about Wolfe’s Great-Uncle Bernard Baruch, one of Kennedy’s close associates.

Continue reading →

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March 6, 1907: Actress Drinks Beer in S.F. Play; Irish Besiege Theater

Posted on March 6, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2007.
March 6, 1907
San Francisco (VIA Associated Press)

The Irish of San Francisco are furious over a play at the Davis Theater called “The Belle of Avenue A,” which features a character named Mrs. McCluskey who drinks a glass of beer in the first act.

“Three times, about 40 people charged the stage and the actors and actresses feared they were about to be attacked,” The Times says.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on March 5, 2018 by lmharnisch

March 10, 2018, Mystery Photo

This week’s mystery movie has been the 1944 Paramount film “And Now Tomorrow,” with Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, Susan Hayward, Barry Sullivan, Beulah Bondi, Cecil Kellaway, Grant Mitchell and Helen Mack. The screenplay was by Frank Partos and Raymond Chandler, from a novel by Rachel Field. Music was by Victor Young, photography by Daniel L. Fapp, art direction by Hans Dreier and Hal Pereira, costumes by Edith Head, makeup by Wally Westmore and set decoration by Ted von Hemert. The associate producer was Fred Kohlmar and the director was Irving Pichel.

The DVD is available in the Universal Vault Series.

 

Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – 1938 Floods Wreak Havoc on Los Angeles Area

Posted on March 5, 2018 by lmharnisch

 North Hollywood Flood House Collapse

Flooding in North Hollywood, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Seventy-five years ago, a deluge of rain hit Los Angeles and the surrounding area, leading to massive floods and causing millions of dollars in damage and a devastating loss of life. Many factors led to this destruction: too much rain, inadequate construction of bridges and roads, and homes and businesses located in flood-prone areas. One of the unfortunate consequences of the floods was the eventual concreting of the Los Angeles River, ruining its beauty.

Although other areas of the country suffered through droughts and dust storms in the 1930s, Los Angeles and Southern California endured large amounts of rainfall. Most years saw higher than normal annual rain levels. 1937 saw 17.85 inches fall by March 1, while 1934 saw the largest amount of rain since the 1860s.

1938 started out with heavy rains, growing worse through February. Small patches of flooding caused concerns throughout the city. On Feb. 28, a severe storm hit the area, leading to five days of disaster.

The March 1, 1938, Los Angeles Times noted that gale winds hit the coast, and more than 2.5 inches of rain fell on Feb. 28. Seasonal rain totals reached 14.43 inches, more than 4 inches above average.

Mary Mallory will present “Washed Away:  The Great 1938 Flood and Its Effects on Studio City” at 3:30 p.m. on March 24 at the Studio City branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, 12511 Moorpark St. Admission is free.

Continue reading →

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Black Dahlia: Blogging ‘Black Dahlia Files’ Part 33 — Pied Type

Posted on March 5, 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.”

At this point in the story, Elizabeth Short’s body has been discovered in Leimert Park, and it has been taken to the morgue and identified. However Elizabeth Short has virtually disappeared as Wolfe bogs down in an explanation of competition between the Los Angeles newspapers in the 1940s.

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March 5, 1907: Monrovia Woman Defies Family, Marries Chinese Man and Moves to Hong Kong

Posted on March 5, 2018 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2007.
March 5, 1907
Los Angeles

What shall we do with Emma? She’s gone off to New Mexico and married a Chinaman. Her horrified mother hopes to get the marriage annulled, but Emma is an independent-minded young lady.

Emma’s mother, Mary Culver of Monrovia, says she will do everything she can to undo her daughter’s marriage to Frank Chew, which The Times describes as “a sort of missionary revivalist,” noting that “Miss Emma had longings to help the heathen herself.”
Continue reading →

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