1957 Club Mecca Firebombing in South L.A. Kills 6

Posted on December 4, 2016 by lmharnisch

2007_0310_club_mecca_from_flickr
5841 S. Normandie, the site of the Club Mecca bombing, as photographed in 2007.

1957_0405A

April 7, 1957, the Los Angeles Times publishes an extra on the Club Mecca firebombing.

 

The tragic warehouse fire in Oakland, which has killed at least 24 people, evokes memories of the 1957 firebombing of the Club Mecca, at 5841 S. Normandie.

Here’s a blog post I wrote about the firebombing in 2007 when I was at the Los Angeles Times.

They were a six-pack of juiceheads, daddy-o. Human-torched by lowlifes that wildfired the imagination of young, L.A. bike-roaming James Ellroy, demon dogging the pulp novel city in type-O scarlet and memory napalm. Six juiceheads: That’s how they’re cast in our film noir tale about one of the biggest Los Angeles crimes of the 1950s. But it’s not that easy. History never is.

Posted in 1957, Fires, Food and Drink | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Daily Mirror Christmas Shopping Guide: Scaccomatto Chess Set

Posted on December 2, 2016 by lmharnisch

SCACCOMATTO_01
A Scaccomatto chess set has been listed on EBay. The set, designed by Franco Rocco, is one of the more unusual ones you may encounter. All the pieces fit together to make two cubes, one brass and the other chrome. This set comes with a glass chessboard, a wooden box for the two cubes and the original manuals.

The last time I saw one of these sets on EBay, in 2010, it was only $1,600. The asking price for this one is $13,000.

As with anything on EBay, an item and vendor should be thoroughly evaluated before submitting a bid.

Posted in 1970, Found on EBay | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Daily Mirror Christmas Buying Guide: Scary Clown Clock to Terrify Baby Boomers

Posted on November 29, 2016 by lmharnisch

abbotwares_bozo

Photo of the Abbotwares Bozo clock via EBay.

If you are tired of misty-eyed Baby Boomer nostalgia, this may be for you.

I have written before about Abbotwares radios (often rendered as Abbotware). You may recall “Atwater Kent’s Love Child From a Drunken Night in a Trophy Shop.”

Thank goodness I didn’t know about this when I was a kid. Nightmare City!

abbotwares_durante
Maybe you thought the Abbotwares’ Jimmy Durante piece was stunning.

The Abbotwares Bozo is listed as Buy It Now for $359.99.  As with anything on EBay, an item and vendor should be evaluated thoroughly before submitting a bid.

Wow. Just wow.

Posted in Found on EBay, Television | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Eve Golden’s YouTube Theater: That Girl In The Satin Dress! She Kills Me!

Posted on November 29, 2016 by lmharnisch

 

rufus_jones_for_president A poster for “Rufus Jones for President.”

 

Note: Eve has discontinued her YouTube Theater, but has consented to have me post the entries she has already written.

Ever see Rufus Jones for President? Calling it “quite a pip” would be an understatement. Filmed at the Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn, it’s a cringingly racist little two-reeler, with Ethel Waters (still in her jazzy phase, before she became Mother Courage), and seven-year-old Sammy Davis Jr., in which little Rufus Jones does indeed get elected President (blacks and women as President were topics of hilarity well into the 1970s).

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Posted in African Americans, Eve Golden, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on November 28, 2016 by lmharnisch

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1933 Warner Bros. film “The Silk Express,” with Neil Hamilton, Sheila Terry, Arthur Byron, Guy Kibbee, Dudley Digges, Arthur Hohl, Allen Jenkins, Harold Huber, George Pat Collins, Robert Barrat, Vernon Steele and Ivan Simpson. The screenplay was by Houston Branch and Ben Markson, based on a story by Houston Branch, with art direction by Esdras Hartley, photography by Tony Gaudio, gowns by Orry-Kelly and dialogue direction by Stanley Logan.  The film was directed by Ray Enright.

The DVD is available from Warner Archive for $12.59.

 

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 64 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Celebrities’ Sons Become Photographers

Posted on November 28, 2016 by lmharnisch

Carlyle Blackwell Jr., Bryant Washburn Jr. Elsie Ferguson II and Erich von Stroheim Jr.
Carlyle Blackwell Jr.,Bryant Washburn Jr., Elsie Ferguson II and Erich von Stroheim Jr. shown in Motion Picture Herald, 1933.

When it comes to careers, many children follow in the footsteps of their parents, either through family tradition or because it is comfortable and what they know. The same holds true for celebrity offspring. Many yearn to work in the entertainment field after being surrounded by it daily, and either become actors  themselves or find something in one of the many crafts that contribute to the making of films and television.

In the 1920s and 1930s, several famous celebrity children like Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Constance and Joan Bennett, Tyrone Power Jr., and Lon Chaney Jr. followed their parents into motion pictures and became successful actors themselves. Others like Delmar and Bobs Watson, Fred Kohler Jr., Erich von Stroheim Jr., Wallace Reid Jr., Bryant Washburn Jr., House Peters Jr., Allan Hersholt, Edward Arnold Jr., Carlyle Blackwell Jr., and Peter Gowland mostly began as actors before moving on to other entertainment related professions, particularly photography. Decades later, Harry Langdon Jr. would also become a respected portrait photographer. Most of the Watson Boys later worked as newspaper photographers in Los Angeles, while Blackwell Jr. and Gowland became recognized portrait photographers.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

L.A. Celebrates a Wartime Thanksgiving, 1943

Posted on November 24, 2016 by lmharnisch

Nv. 26, 1943, Thanksgiving

Note: This is a post from 2013. Happy Thanksgiving!

A wartime Thanksgiving in Los Angeles, with many service personnel welcomed into people’s homes for a holiday meal.

The Times published cooking tips for war workers, advising cooks who were otherwise engaged “for the duration” to use prepared mixes, packaged pie crust and canned pumpkin to cut preparation time.

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Posted in 1943, Food and Drink, World War II | Tagged , , | Comments Off on L.A. Celebrates a Wartime Thanksgiving, 1943

An 1890s Thanksgiving in the Kitchen

Posted on November 24, 2016 by lmharnisch

Everyday Cook-Book

Note: This is a repost from 2011. Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s a traditional roast turkey recipe from the “Every-Day Cook-Book and Family Compendium,” written about 1890 by Miss E. Neill. Be sure your fire is bright and clear and watch out for the gall-bag.
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Eve Golden’s YouTube Theater: ‘I Will Be Really Impressed If You’ve Heard of Billie Carleton’

Posted on November 22, 2016 by lmharnisch

 

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Billie Carlton in a Pathe newsreel.

Note: Eve has discontinued her YouTube Theater, but has consented to have me post the entries she has already written.

Well, have you? She was a rising British stage starlet in the 1910s who died in one of the first post-War drug scandals in those Bright Young Things days. Billie was a native Londoner—Bloomsbury, no less!—born in 1896, daughter of a chorus girl. She took to the stage early, and made her first hit in 1915, taking on Irene Castle’s role in the Irving Berlin Broadway musical Watch Your Step! Billie and Irene both had rather iffy alto voices, but were both brilliant, graceful dancers.

Here we can listen to Billie’s only known recording, from Watch Your Step!, of “Show Us How to Do the Fox Trot,” with leading comic star George Graves. There’s a lot of music-hall palaver before the song actually kicks in at about the 2:00 minute mark, if you want to fast-forward:

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Posted in Eve Golden, Film, Stage | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Eve Golden’s YouTube Theater: ‘I Will Be Really Impressed If You’ve Heard of Billie Carleton’

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: North Hollywood Department Stores Appeal to Common Man

Posted on November 21, 2016 by lmharnisch

 

Van Nuys News, March 8 1951

Rathbuns enlarges its Baby Shop for new generation of Baby Boomers, Van Nuys News, March 8 1951.

As a city or community grows more prosperous, so does its retail establishments. Simple businesses with few choices of product give way to more upscale shops with expensive, and diverse selections. Hollywood and Los Angeles outgrew their dry goods stores and turned to lavish department stores like Hamburger’s, the Broadway, and Bullock’s for finer quality of goods.

Lankershim, which later became North Hollywood, also advanced beyond dry goods stores into their own department stores Yeakel-Goss and Rathbun’s. While these businesses carried some of the same labels as did the more upscale establishments over the hill, they focused on more medium-priced goods appealing to the middle brow tastes of the average farmer/rancher or small businessman.

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

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Posted in Architecture, Fashion, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, San Fernando Valley | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on November 21, 2016 by lmharnisch

'And One Was Beautiful'
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1940 MGM film “And One Was Beautiful,” with Robert Cummings, Laraine Day, Jean Muir, Billie Burke, Ann Morriss, Esther Dale, Charles Waldron, Frank Milan, Rand Brooks, Paul Stanton and Ruth Tobey. It was produced by Frederick Stephani, with a screenplay by Harry Clork from a story by Alice Duer Miller, musical score by Daniele Amfitheatrof, art direction by Cedric Gibbons with Harry McAfee, set decoration by Edwin B. Willis, photography by Ray June and editing by Conrad A. Nervig. It was directed by Robert B. Sinclair.

This movie has never been commercially released.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 39 Comments

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

Posted on November 17, 2016 by lmharnisch

The Guardian
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The Guardian has jumped into it again with the Black Dahlia case, finding that it can’t resist the yarn about Elizabeth Short “rumored to have had her last drink at the hotel bar.”

The Guardian, in case you don’t recall, was the latest to jump on the incredible tale of retired LAPD Detective Steve Hodel and his ridiculous claims about his father, Dr. George Hodel, as portrayed in “Black Dahlia Avenger,” “Black Dahlia Avenger II,” “Even More Black Dahlia Avenger – With Entirely New Evidence,” “Kid’s Letters to the Black Dahlia Avenger,” “The Black Dahlia Avenger Diet” and  “Most Evil,” which claims that Dr. George Hodel was Zodiac.

Actually, no. The last known location of Elizabeth Short was the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel. There is nothing to show that she was ever anywhere near the Hotel Cecil. After the killing, the manager of the Dugout Cafe, which was next to the Hotel Cecil, claimed that he had seen Elizabeth Short. But that sighting, like so many others during her “lost week,” was never confirmed.

The urban folklore linking Elizabeth Short to the Cecil is a recent invention, but it has shown a remarkable ability to become embedded in the Los Angeles mythos.

And really: Is anyone surprised that bad things happened at a cheap hotel on the fringe of skid row? Seriously?

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, LAPD | 10 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on November 14, 2016 by lmharnisch

Nov. 19, 2016, ZMystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1943 film “The Kansan,” with Richard Dix, Jane Wyatt, Albert Dekker, Eugene Pallette, Victor Jory, Robert Armstrong, Beryl Wallace, Clem Bevans, Hobart Cavanaugh, Francis McDonald, Willie Best, Douglas Fowley, Rod Cameron, Eddy Waller and Ralphael Bennett. The screenplay was written by Harold Shumate from the story “Peace Marshal” by Frank Gruber. It was photographed by Russell Harlan, with music by Gerard Carbonara, art direction by Ralph Berger, edited by Carroll Lewis and set decoration by Emile Kuri. The song “Lullaby of the Herd” was by Foster Carling and Phil Ohman, sung by the King’s Men. The film was produced by Harry Sherman and directed by George Archainbaud. It was released through United Artists.

It is available on DVD from Amazon.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 78 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Ravenswood Apartments Attract the Stylish

Posted on November 14, 2016 by lmharnisch

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Mae West in her boudoir at the Ravenswood, Life magazine, Feb. 19, 1940.

Note: This is an encore presentation of a post from 2014.


Built during the early years of the Great Depression, the luxurious Ravenswood Apartment building at 570 N. Rossmore Ave. stands as one of the best examples of upscale apartment living in Los Angeles the 1930s. A gorgeous Zig Zag Streamline Moderne building, the Ravenswood features elegant decorations, adornments, and amenities, attracting many celebrity and discriminating residents.

Financier Maurice Feigenbaum obtained a permit for an eight-story, 240 room apartment building costing $350,000 in early June 1930, per the June 8, 1930 Los Angeles Times. He hired Max Maltzman, one of the few Jewish architects in Los Angeles at the time, to design an upscale structure. Originally from Boston, where he opened a draftsman’s office in 1923, Maltzman arrived on the West Coast in 1927, working as a draftsman for architect Leland A. Bryant. By 1929, Maltzman opened his own shop at 704 S. Spring Street, designing elegant apartment buildings throughout mid-Wilshire and the surrounding area. Feigenbaum, unfortunately, was indicted along with eleven others by a Federal grand jury November 18, 1931 for attempting to defraud more than $5 million through the U. S. mail.

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

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Posted in 1930, Architecture, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

In the Steps of Raymond Chandler: L.A. Mystery Quotes (Updated +)

Posted on November 12, 2016 by lmharnisch

Black Mask 1936

To accompany my piece on James Ellroy, Michael Connelly and The Wrong Side of Goodbye at the L.A. Review of Books, here are eleven mystery writers strolling Los Angeles in the shadow of Raymond Chandler. Can you identify the authors? Note: Characters’ names have been redacted to avoid giving unintended clues. And of course, you’re on your honor not to use Google.

See if you can spot: Michael Connelly, Miles Corwin, Robert Crais, James Ellroy, George Fox, Denise Hamilton, Naomi Hirahara, Jonathan Kellerman, Ross Macdonald, Walter Mosley and Joseph Wambaugh

1. It was a beautiful L.A. summer evening, ideal for the Bowl. Cruising west on Sunset with the top down my mind took flight with bits and fragments of the passing scene: The Strip gearing up for another go at nightlife, the giant lighted signs proclaiming rock groups and other coming attractions, the callow idolators of electric music cliquing up in front of the Whisky A Go Go.

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Posted in Books and Authors | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Eve Golden’s YouTube Theater: Talking About Talkies

Posted on November 8, 2016 by lmharnisch

jazz_singer_program

A program for “The Jazz Singer” at Chicago’s Garrick Theatre (d. 1960), listed on EBay at $141.53.

If you tell me that The Jazz Singer was “the first talkie,” I will have to punch you in the throat. I know you won’t take it personally, but anyone who thinks that The Jazz Singer was the first talkie just needs to be punched in the throat. I mean, for goodness sake, two years before The Jazz Singer, Theodore Case had already made the greatest talkie in the world, featuring Gus Visser and His Singing Duck [checks carefully that I spelled “Duck” right):

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Posted in Eve Golden, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on November 7, 2016 by lmharnisch

Nov. 12, 2016, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1928 MGM film “The Viking,” with Pauline Starke, Donald Crisp, LeRoy Mason, with a screenplay by Jack Cunningham from Ottilie A. Liljencrantz’s “The Thrall of Leif the Lucky.” The film was produced by Herbert T. Kalmus, photographed by George Cave and edited by Aubrey Scotto with settings by Tec-Art. The supervising art director was Carl Oscar Born, color art director Natalie Kalmus, with associate artists Jack Holden, Andre Chotin and Lewis W. Physioc. It was directed by R. William Neill.

“The Viking” was released on DVD by Warner Archive, but was apparently discontinued.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 30 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘The House I Live In’ Promotes Tolerance

Posted on November 7, 2016 by lmharnisch

 


Though the United States is a nation of immigrants, in times of trouble people act of fear and ignorance, hating and blaming the other for their problems. Throughout the country’s history, in times of economic problems, the newest immigrant group found itself hated and attacked for the ills affecting other ethnic groups. Families passed down myths and folklore concerning those of other nations as well.

During World War II, at a time when the country should have banded together to fight our common enemy, some were still attacking others for looking or being different, be they those wearing zoot suits or those of Japanese or German persuasion.

“Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays” by Karie Bible and Mary Mallory is available at Amazon and at local bookstores.

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A Reminder From Pier Angeli and Friend

Posted on November 4, 2016 by lmharnisch

Nov. 3, 2016, Pier Angeli

Pier Angeli and her little friend remind Daily Mirror readers to turn back their clocks this Sunday.

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

Eve Golden’s YouTube Theater: The Party’s Over Now

Posted on November 1, 2016 by lmharnisch

 

Humoresque
A Belgian poster for “Humoresque,” listed on EBay for $6.99.

 

I am going to spoil two films for you, so stop reading now if you have not seen What Price Hollywood? (1932) and Humoresque (1946).

Lowell Sherman and Joan Crawford, respectively, commit suicide at the end of the films. And these are my favorite movie suicides: one of them gritty and brutal and realistic, and the other over-the-top Movie Magic.

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Posted in Eve Golden, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments