Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hollywood Studio Club Provides Home For Movie-Struck Girls

Posted on November 13, 2017 by lmharnisch

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The Studio Club in Photoplay, 1917.

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

T he advent of the 20th century offered the possibility of more freedom and opportunity for women. For decades, women had advocated for the right to vote, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Others clamored for more work opportunities beyond teaching, librarian, and secretarial positions.

The relatively new medium of motion pictures also tantalized audiences with many new possibilities beyond their hometowns: exciting new cities, novel hobbies and recreations, and modern employment opportunities. In fact, many people considered the growing film industry itself an excellent field to try their luck, especially movie-struck, naïve young women.

ALSO BY MARY MALLORY
Magic Castle
Mack Sennett
Brand Library
Auction of Souls

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Posted in 1916, Architecture, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on November 6, 2017 by lmharnisch

Nov. 11, 2017, Mystery Photo

This week’s mystery movie has been the 1948 British film “No Orchids for Miss Blandish,” from the novel by James Hadley Chase, with Jack La Rue, Hugh McDermott, Linden Travers, Walter Crisham, Leslie Bradley, Zoe Gail, Jack Durant, Charles Goldner, Macdonald Parke, Lilly Molnar, Danny Green, Percy Marmont, Michael Balfour, Frances Marsden, Jack Lester, Halama and Konarski and Toy and Wyng. Photography by Gerald Gibbs, art direction by Harry Moore and music by George Melachrino. The film was written and directed by St. John L. Clowes.

The DVD is available from Amazon.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 23 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – The Cahuenga Building

Posted on November 6, 2017 by lmharnisch

Hollywood and Cahuenga

Note: This is an encore post from 2012.

From its days as an elegant bank building to its abandoned and forgotten existence in the 1980s and 1990s, the former Security Trust and Savings Bank at Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Boulevard has served as both a local institution and location setting for films and books. Not as beautiful as the empty bank building at Hollywood and Highland Avenue, the banking veteran still survives as an example of an attractive building for an utilitarian function.

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Posted in Architecture, Books and Authors, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Reminder From the Daily Mirror

Posted on November 5, 2017 by lmharnisch

Pier Angeli Time Change

Pier Angeli and friend remind the Daily Mirror readers to turn the clock back one hour.

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Photography | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Black Dahlia: The Biltmore Hotel, Ghost Hunting and Another Good Story Ruined

Posted on October 31, 2017 by lmharnisch

Oct. 31, 2017, Daily Trojan
I think we have found one presumably young and aspiring reporter who apparently believes in doing absolutely no research whatsoever.

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Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 30, 2017 by lmharnisch

Stork Club

This week’s mystery movie has been the 1945 Paramount film “The Stork Club,” with Betty Hutton, Barry Fitzgerald, Don DeFore, Robert Benchley, Bill Goodwin, Iris Adrian, Mikail Rasumny, Mary Young and Andy Russell. It was written by B.G. DeSylva and John McGowan and directed by Hal Walker.

The DVD is available from Amazon.com.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 49 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Organist C. Sharp Minor, Major Talent

Posted on October 30, 2017 by lmharnisch

Sept. 2, 1928, C. Sharpe Minor

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Music was an integral part of silent films, giving emotional texture or humorous voice to the films’ precious images. Different types of music and musicians accompanied them: orchestras, bands, photoplayers, pianists and organists. Leading the pack as one of Los Angeles’ premier silent film musicians was organist C. Sharpe Minor, a major talent with an attention-grabbing name.

Born June 24, 1885, in Louisiana, Charles Sulzer Sharpe Minor supposedly arrived in Los Angeles in 1907, but virtually nothing is known about him until he turns up in San Francisco with his wife Barbara Jane in 1917, accompanying films at the Rialto Theatre under the name C. Sharpe Minor. A few authors claim that he added his mother’s maiden name, Sharpe, realizing the eye-catching opportunities of employing this name on theatre marquees. Newspapers called him an extraordinary organist, and he played afternoon and evening shows adding a bit of entertainment with his trick effects and novelty arrangements.

Music: C. Sharpe Minor: “Parade of the Immortals.”

Minor worked at the Rialto for a year before being appointed a first lieutenant in the Army in September 1918. Immediately upon war completion, the organist returned to the theatre, for a short time accompanying films and giving concerts, before landing his first Los Angeles job at the Million Dollar Theatre in March 1919. Ads proclaim him a master organist, and he even earned his own slot in the stage show. By 1920, however, Minor played at San Francisco’s California Theatre.

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Chinese Massacre – Oct 24, 1871

Posted on October 24, 2017 by lmharnisch

Oct. 24, 1871, Chinese Massacre

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At top, an account of the massacre in the Daily Southern Cross of Auckland, New Zealand, Dec. 9, 1871,

Above, a detail of a Los Angeles map displayed in the Globe Lobby of the Los Angeles Times Building showing the Plaza and what the newspaper account described as “Negro Alley.”

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

This is the anniversary of the Chinese Massacre of 1871. Here’s a series of posts I did several years ago:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Calle de los Negros — A Vanished Landmark

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Black Dahlia: YouTube Makeup Tutorials for Halloween – Seriously?

Posted on October 23, 2017 by lmharnisch
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Apparently YouTube tutorials on Black Dahlia makeup are a thing. Please reconsider your choices. We think Harley Quinn or Mad Moxxi are much better Halloween costume options rather than dressing up like the victim of a gruesome murder.

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 23, 2017 by lmharnisch

Oct. 28, 2017, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1962 film “Carnival of Souls,” with Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison, Stan Levitt, Tom McGinnis, Forbes Caldwell, Dan Palmquist, Bill de Jarnette, Steve Boozer, Pamela Ballard, Larry Sneegas, Cari Conboy, Karen Pyles, T.C. Adams, Sharon Scoville, Mary Ann Harris, Peter Schnitzler, Bill Sollner. Photography was by Maurice Prather, screenplay by John Clifford, music by Gene Moore, produced and directed by Herk Harvey.

“Carnival of Souls” is available from Criterion on DVD ($23.96) and Blu-ray ($31.96).

Do make a point of reading E. Yarber’s comments on the film. Most rewarding and insightful!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hollywood Reporter Building Highlights Golden Age Hollywood

Posted on October 23, 2017 by lmharnisch

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The Hollywood Reporter Building at 6715 Sunset Blvd., in 2015, via Google Street View.

The venerable Hollywood Reporter building on Sunset Boulevard offers a striking salute to Golden Age Hollywood with its patina of class and sophistication. Designed by architect Douglas Honnold for industry power broker and Reporter publisher William “Billy” R. Wilkerson, the building served as the headquarters for Wilkerson’s real estate fiefdom and his powerful trade paper. A landmark building in the evolution of Hollywood as an industry and as a point of influence in architecture, the structure represents the epicenter of the Hollywood publishing industry and its impact on Tinseltown filmmaking.

The edifice represents the glamorous dreams of its owner, Wilkerson. Ambitious and driven, he rose from small town Tennessee boy to king maker by absorbing every facet of the film business in his rise to the top. Beginning as a local theatre manager, Wilkerson moved on to jobs as booking agent, publicity and exploitation chief, regional distribution manager, distributor, production manager, producer, and director before entering publishing when he became acting editor and publisher of Exhibitor’s Daily Review in 1928. This diverse and educational journey prepared him for a leading role in shaping entertainment production at the Reporter.

Hollywood at Play, by Donovan Brandt, Mary Mallory and Stephen X. Sylvester is now on sale.

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Black Dahlia: ‘Horror at the Cecil Hotel’

Posted on October 17, 2017 by lmharnisch

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Just a quick reminder, since Investigation Discovery aired the first episode of “Horror at the Cecil Hotel” last night.

There is nothing to show that Elizabeth Short (“the Black Dahlia”) ever set foot in the Cecil Hotel. She was last seen at the Biltmore. The Cecil Hotel claim is a relatively recent urban legend.

See also:

Black Dahlia and the Hotel Cecil: L.A.’s Noir Folklore

Black Dahlia and the Cecil Hotel: Another Good Story Ruined

Black Dahlia: The Cecil Hotel and Halloween: Another Good Story Ruined

 

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Downtown, LAPD, Main Street, Television | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 16, 2017 by lmharnisch

Oct. 22, 2017, Mystery Photo
This mystery movie has been the 1930 RKO film “Conspiracy,” by Robert Baker and John Emerson (note that IMDB says they are uncredited. Oops). With Bessie Love, Ned Sparks, Hugh Trevor, Ivan Lebedeff, Rita LaRoy, Gertrude Howard, Otto Matiesen (sic), Walter Long, Donald MacKenzie and Jane Keckley. Directed by Christy Cabanne, produced by William LeBaron. Scenery and costumes by Max Ree, screenplay by Beulah-Marie Dix, photography by Nick Musuraca.

Oct. 22, 2017, Biltmore
I was interested in “Conspiracy” primarily because of this establishing shot of the Biltmore. What’s especially interesting is that this seems to be an early example of a zoom shot. And I have no idea how they pulled it off.

Oct. 22, 2017, Biltmore Hotel
Here it is in mid-zoom.

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And dissolve to…..

There are much better shots of the Biltmore in “For the Defense,” a Paramount picture, also from 1930.

The DVD is available from Warner Archive for $17.99.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: T.L. Tally – L.A.’s Pioneer Film Exhibitor, Part 1 (Updated)

Posted on October 16, 2017 by lmharnisch

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T.L. Tally, Moving Picture World, 1915.

Los Angeles has stood at the forefront of not only motion picture production, but the fields of exhibition and distribution as well. Former Texan T. L. (Thomas Lincoln) Tally pioneered in these fields, seeming to anticipate changes in the marketplace during the early decades of the Twentieth Century. Shrewd and risk-taking, Tally earned a fortune entertaining the citizens of Los Angeles, introducing several firsts to the city, including the first theatre built exclusively to show motion pictures and the first to cause a nitrate fire. As early as the 1920s, articles and books proclaim him as the pioneer exhibitor in Los Angeles, but “printing the legend” instead of the facts as to when he entered the moving picture business.

Little is known of his early life, save that Tally was born July 6, 1862, in Rockport, Texas (per ship passenger logs). By 1890 he resided in San Antonio per the March 26, 1890, San Antonio Daily Express and first visited Los Angeles in April, when the April 6, 1890, Los Angeles Herald lists him as a guest at the permanent exhibit of California on Wheels.

Hollywood at Play, by Donovan Brandt, Mary Mallory and Stephen X. Sylvester is now on sale.

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Posted in Architecture, Broadway, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Main Street, Mary Mallory, Theaters | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Black Dahlia: Piu Eatwell’s ‘Black Dahlia, Red Rose’ – A Name to Remember

Posted on October 10, 2017 by lmharnisch

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Donald Freed in Piu Eatwell’s “Black Dahlia, Red Rose.”

There are many names and many claims in Piu Eatwell’s new book, “Black Dahlia, Red Rose,” but the most important for our purposes is that of Donald Freed, a very pleasant fellow who has written books on O.J. Simpson, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the assassination of John F. Kennedy (with Mark Lane). I think you get the idea.

There’s more about Freed, Dr. Joseph Paul De River and the Black Dahlia case in Brian King’s introduction to his reissue of De River’s “The Sexual Criminal,” which King has posted to the Web.

To quote King’s interview with Freed:

The Black Dahlia: Leslie Dillon, Paul De River and the LAPD: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Black Dahlia: Piu Eatwell’s ‘Black Dahlia, Red Rose’ – A Bad Beginning

 

Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Mary Mallory: Hollywood Heights – ‘Napoleon’

Posted on October 9, 2017 by lmharnisch

"Napoleon"

Photo: The trailer for the restored version of Abel Gance’s “Napoleon.”
Credit: San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

Note: This is an encore post from 2012.

In the mid-1920s, the world was looking for inspiration on how to live passionately, doggedly pursue dreams, and fulfill destinies. The apogee of these paths came together in the historic figure of Napoleon Bonaparte. Dead for over 100 years, the great leader inspired patriotic fervor in his countrymen and elicited wonder and awe in others. In certain quarters, he became the first cultural icon and his name part of the general lexicon.

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Posted in 1927, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 9, 2017 by lmharnisch

 

Oct. 14,, 2017, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie has been the obscure 1939 Paramount film “The Great Victor Herbert,” with Allan Jones, Mary Martin, Walter Connolly, Lee Bowman, Susanna Foster, Judith Barrett, Jerome Cowan and John Garrick. The screenplay was by Russel Crouse and Robert Lively, from a story by Robert Lively and Andrew L. Stone. Photography was by Victor Milner, with art direction by Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegte, costumes by Edith Head and interior decorations by A.E. Freudeman. All music was by Victor Herbert, music supervisor was Phil Boutelje, music scorer was Arthur Lange, vocal arrangements by Max Terr, orchestra directed by Arthur Kay, musical numbers staged by LeRoy Prinz. The film was produced and directed by Andrew L. Stone.

“The Great Victor Herbert” has never been released commercially. It’s available from Zeus for $9.99. It was Walter Connolly’s last film and Mary Martin’s first film.

 

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 34 Comments

Black Dahlia: Piu Eatwell’s ‘Black Dahlia, Red Rose’ – A Bad Beginning

Posted on October 4, 2017 by lmharnisch

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Given the brevity of human life, I don’t plan to do a line-by-line debunking of Piu Eatwell’s upcoming book “Black Dahlia, Red Rose.” Longtime readers may recall my labors over Donald Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files,” which lasted for months.

If not, you can read them here: Blogging the Wolfe Book – Seven Years Later

The Black Dahlia: Leslie Dillon, Paul De River and the LAPD: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Eatwell’s “Black Dahlia, Red Rose” doesn’t go on sale until Oct. 10, but a preview has been posted at Google Books, so I will make a few observations:

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Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on October 2, 2017 by lmharnisch

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1947 Universal picture “Ride the Pink Horse,” with Robert Montgomery, Wanda Hendrix, Andrea King, Thomas Gomez, Fred Clark, Art Smith, Richard Gaines, Rita Conde, Iris Flores and Tito Renaldo. The screenplay is by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from the novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, art direction by Bernard Herzbrun and Robert Boyle, and set decorations by Russell A. Gausman and Oliver Emert. Photography is by Russell Metty and music by Frank Skinner. The producer was Joan Harrison and the director was Robert Montgomery.

Keenly sought by film noir fans, the movie was generally unavailable until the Criterion Collection released it on DVD and Blu-ray in 2015.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 45 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Brand Library

Posted on October 2, 2017 by lmharnisch

Brand Library

“Aerodrome Replacing Country-House Garage,” Illustrated London News, Oct. 29, 1921, Courtesy of Mary Mallory

 

Note: This is an encore post from 2012

Unique thematic architectural homes stand out all around the Los Angeles area, like Yamashiro and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Barnsdall, Freeman, and Storer residences, just to name a few. Glendale possesses another exotic specimen, Leslie C. Brand’s mystical El Miradero, which is now known as the Brand Library. Built as the family residence in 1904, Brand deeded the estate to the city to become a park and library, a jewel in local area recreation spots.

Hollywood at Play, by Donovan Brandt, Mary Mallory and Stephen X. Sylvester is now on sale.

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Posted in Architecture, Film, Hollywood Heights, Libraries, Location Sleuth, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , | 1 Comment