Joe Vogel asks if there was a Queens Cocktail. The answer is yes.
According to the Jamaica Long Island Daily Press, Jan. 24, 1935, the Queens Cocktail debuted at the Hotel Commodore in a toast to President Roosevelt. Via Fultonhistory.com.
(No word yet on the Staten Island Cocktail — and boy that sounds like a straight line).
Note: This is an encore post from 2013.
Dec. 20, 1934: In case you doubted me (but you wouldn’t, would you?), here’s a recipe for the Bronx Cocktail, from the Amsterdam Evening Recorder, courtesy of FultonHistory.com.
In case you plan to mix one up, a Bronx Cocktail is one part Italian vermouth, three parts brandy and a dash of orange bitters. Shake well!
Notice that there are also three variations of the Manhattan.
In its Jan. 2, 1947, issue, the Los Angeles Sentinel looked back at the major stories of 1946, a good introduction to the year ahead: Job discrimination, Jim Crow laws, segregated housing, police beatings and racial violence. We will be revisiting some of these stories as 2018 unfolds, but many of these subjects are far too complex for a simple blog.
For those who just tuned in, we’re going to reboot the concept of the 1947project (founded by Kim Cooper and Nathan Marsak) by going day by day through 1947 – but using the Los Angeles Sentinel, an African American weekly, rather than the very white and very conservative Los Angeles Times. We promise you an extremely different view of Los Angeles.
The historic Los Angeles Sentinel is available online from the Los Angeles Public Library. We encourage anyone with a library card to delve into the back issues and explore the history of black L.A.
Note: This is an encore post from 2013.
Yes, the Manhattan cocktail once had competition from drinks named for the other boroughs. Here’s a recipe for the Brooklyn Cocktail, from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 7, 1937. The Brooklyn Cocktail as made by Brad Dewey consisted of
Two parts Jamaica rum
One part lime juice
Dash of grenadine
We won’t be toasting the new year with the Brooklyn Cocktail (we’re working) but if someone is brave enough to try one, let us know how it is.
And in case you are wondering, research shows that there was also a Bronx Cocktail. Evidently it, too, has fallen out of favor.
Actually, no. Ashley Southall of the New York Times has it wrong in saying that the current homicide rate of 286 is “the lowest since reliable records have been kept.”
We can say this because the FBI Uniform Crime Reports for the United States are online, via Archive.org. Granted, they aren’t easy to find. But they are there.
No. This is not a picture of the longest lunch counter in the world at the Woolworth’s in downtown Los Angeles.
This is a file photo published by the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot in 2010 on the 50th anniversary of lunch counter sit-ins. Notice all the black people at the lunch counter who aren’t being served.
Do your homework, folks. This is ridiculous.
A vintage 1972 iron-on transfer of Harvey Wallbanger himself, on EBay for $12.
Note: This is an encore post from 2013.
We have been looking at some historic drinks for this holiday season. To the millennials in the audience: This is what mom and dad used to drink (along with the Tequila Sunrise) when they went out in the 1970s.
Return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear:
1 ounce of vodka
4 ounces of orange juice
half an ounce of Galliano.
Poured over ice in a highball glass.
Cue Grand Funk Railroad’s “Gimme Shelter” or Carole King’s “It’s Too Late.”
A recipe for the Tom and Jerry from the San Francisco Call, June 30, 1912.
Note: This is an encore post from 2013.
Over on Facebook, Christopher McPherson asked whether the Tom and Jerry was named for the MGM cartoon characters. I said I suspected the opposite was true, rather like Disney’s Chip ‘n’ Dale being named for Chippendale furniture.
All the old newspaper stories give credit for the drink to bartender Jerry Thomas, who according to one account was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1825 (or Watertown, N.Y., in 1830).
The second anniversary of my retirement from the Los Angeles Times coincided with lots of questions prompted by a Fox News piece on Piu Eatwell’s “Black Dahlia, Red Rose.” Even though I had blogged about the book repeatedly, people still wanted to know what I thought of it.
Executive summary: Eatwell’s purported killer, Leslie Dillon, was absolutely, positively in San Francisco when Elizabeth Short was killed, rendering all other questions irrelevant.
When folks ask me how my Black Dahlia book is going, I usually give a brief answer: “Very well, thanks” (which is true) rather than a long explanation, such as: “At the moment a certain archive in Los Angeles is closed until January, an unanticipated obstacle blocking the wheels of progress” (which is also true).
Note: This is an encore post from 2015.
Jim Romenesko, for those who aren’t in the news business, runs an essential blog that serves as a clearing house for information, gossip, bad headlines and assorted gaffes.
A Jan. 6 post dealt with former Times columnist Al Martinez, who died Monday, and the occasional columns Al wrote over the years about a dying boy who craved peaches.
John Russell of the Indianapolis Star wrote to Romenesko in hopes that some reader would verify Al’s story, saying: “After months of digging, I still can’t find any evidence of the original story, and too many questions to ignore.”
Russell elaborated on his skepticism in “Why I Have Trouble Believing the ‘Get the Kid His Peaches’ Christmas story,” noting that he had written to Al for help in finding the original.
We have some answers — and the story — with a not-so-gentle reminder for reporters: DON’T write from memory or bad things can happen. Use the clips. It’s what they are for. Memory can compress time and erase crucial details, as we will see with Al’s story.
This week’s mystery movie has been Warner Bros. 1946 heartwarming holiday classic “The Beast With Five Fingers,” with Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen, J. Carrol Naish, Charles Dingle, John Alvin, David Hoffman, Barbara Brown, Patricia White and William Edmunds. The screenplay was by Curt Siodmak from a story by William Fryer Harvey, photography by Wesley Anderson, art direction by Stanley Fleischer, special effects by William McGann and H. Koenekamp. The technical advisor was Dario Sabatello, wardrobe by Travilla, set decorations by Walter Tilford, makeup by Perc Westmore, orchestral arrangements by Hugo Friedhofer, musical direction by Leo F. Forbstein, music by Max Steiner, produced by William Jacobs and directed by Robert Florey. (Paul Henreid took a suspension from Warners rather than make the picture, according to Film Bulletin, Dec. 10, 1945).
“The Beast With Five Fingers” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.
Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale in “Holiday Inn.”
Note: This is an encore post from 2015.
Recognized today as one of the top selling singles and pieces of sheet music of all time, Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” was just one of eleven songs in the 1942 holiday classic, “Holiday Inn.” First put to paper by Berlin in 1940, the tune evolved over time before becoming the beloved hit sung by the dulcet tones of baritone Bing Crosby.
Jody Rosen, in his book, “White Christmas: The Story of an American Song,” reveals that on Monday, January 8, 1940, Berlin composed forty-eight bars which his secretary Helmy Kresa transcribed to manuscript paper, after the composer flew into the office claiming he had written his greatest song. Nearly fully formed as the song we know today, the most famous sixty-seven notes never changed from the first time they hit the page. These emotion-filled lyrics touched hearts during America’s first year in World War II, nostalgic for better and happier times.“Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays” by Karie Bible and Mary Mallory is now available at Amazon and at local bookstores.
I picked up these photos in a Pasadena thrift store years ago. There is no information on them except the stamp on the back: Moser & Son, Cin’ti, O.
Aside from the tree (seen below) and what seem to be wreathes in the windows, there is very little sign of decorating.
And there you have it, a spindly Christmas tree, seen through a doorway.
The 1916 Cincinnati directory shows that the Moser studio was at 20 Emery Arcade.
Note: This is an encore post from 2016.
I finally tracked down the front page from the Tucson Citizen for Dec. 24, 1966, in which it followed the tradition of no bad news on Page 1.
And a sample of the Citizen’s weather poem.
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We were saddened to read an obituary in the New York Times this week about sword swallower Johnny Fox, who died of cancer in Maryland at the age of 64. We snapped this picture of Fox, about to swallow a stack of swords, in the 1970s at the Fourth Avenue Street Fair in Tucson.
Leslie Dillon in an undated photo, probably taken in the late 1940s.
My inbox is exploding with alerts about Piu Eatwell “solving” the Black Dahlia case by attributing it to Leslie Duane Dillon. Here are five simple reasons that Dillon did not kill Elizabeth Short:
5. Leslie Dillon was cleared by police after an exhaustive investigation.
4. Leslie Dillon had no connection to Mark Hansen, the business manager at the Florentine Gardens. (For those who are new to the Black Dahlia case, Elizabeth Short stayed at Mark Hansen’s home while she was in Hollywood).
3. Leslie Dillon did not have advanced medical training, which the killer of Elizabeth Short displayed in cutting her body in half. (Dillon worked at a funeral home in Oklahoma City for three weeks — as an ambulance driver.)
2. Leslie Dillon had no connection to Elizabeth Short.
1. Leslie Dillon was absolutely, positively in San Francisco when Elizabeth Short was killed.
Note to Piu Eatwell fans: Every comment is logged with your IP address, so leaving a bogus name like nobody@nowhere.com is useless.
Paul Bryan Gray was recently mentioned in the Los Angeles Times as the author of “A Clamor for Equality,” the biography of Francisco Ramirez, who published Los Angeles’ first entirely Spanish-language newspaper, “El Clamor Publico.”
Gray also wrote “Forster vs. Pico,” the story of a 19th century lawsuit between Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, and his brother-in-law John Forster in a dispute over Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores in San Diego County. Concisely written, the book is a thorough recounting of the case and an excellent microcosm of the way large Mexican ranchos were acquired by the newly arrived Americans.
As Gray says in his introduction:
… The basic causes of Mexican land loss are interwoven in their story (of Pico and Forster). A new culture imposed by military conquest, taxation, outrageous interest on loans, proceedings before the Land Commission, Mexican improvidence, and a devastating drought all prominently figure in their struggle and the ultimate fate of the Ranch Santa Margarita.”
Copies of “Forster vs. Pico” can be easily located via Bookfinder.
My inbox exploded this morning with alerts about the Black Dahlia and links leading to an essay in the Los Angeles Times by David Ulin, writing about the Formosa Cafe (which he calls “the Formosa” – a gaffe nobody bothered to fix) saying that Elizabeth Short was one of its patrons.
In a word: “no.”
Note: This is an encore post from 2011.
I picked up “The Big Picture,” Melba Levick and Stanley Young’s 1988 book about Los Angeles murals, not realizing what a terribly sad book it would be. As Young notes: “Most artists are aware that, exposed as it is to the elements, both human and natural, there is a limited life-expectancy for any mural.”
I wanted it for one picture, specifically.
“The Big Picture” is listed on Amazon and Bookfinder.
“Angel’s Flight” by Leo Politi.
Note: This is an encore post from 2014.
Another of my favorite books about Los Angeles is Leo Politi’s “Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Reminiscences of Bygone Days,” published in 1964. Copies are listed on Bookfinder in the $30-$40 range. This painting shows Angels Flight as it was in the 1930s and ‘40s, when it was next to the 3rd Street Tunnel. It was moved to its current location, across from Grand Central Market, as part of a 1980s redevelopment project after years of being in storage.
ladailymirror.com 