Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein of the New York Post do some fact-checking on the bestselling book “Primates of Park Avenue,” by Wednesday/Wendy Martin.
Executive summary: “Holes big enough to drive an Escalade through.”
An excellent Sunday read and a tip of the Daily Mirror’s fact-checking hat.
The headline and map by Charles Owens from The Times.
Reposting from 2014.
June 6, 1944: Complete radio coverage of the D-Day Invasion. This was pool coverage using correspondents from various news organizations. By 10 a.m., CBS had resumed regular programming with news bulletins, so I’ll only post up to noon. The full day is at archive.org.
It’s worth noting that German radio was the source for most of the information in the early hours of the invasion. The eyewitness accounts are vivid and it’s worth listening to Quentin Reynolds’ analysis on how the Allies learned from disastrous surprise invasion at Dieppe in 1942.
“When the Earth Trembled,” courtesy of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival offered a little something for everyone during their recently concluded 20th anniversary festival. From presentations by renowned historians and archivists to screenings of recently restored pictures, the Festival highlights the range and breadth of silent film through the power of live cinema. Live musical accompaniment by a diverse group of artists provided a strong emotional undercurrent to each presentation.
I missed Thursday night’s grand opening of the festival, the powerful World War I film, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Universal’s strong antiwar conclusion to the silent era, which was introduced by Library of Congress curator, Mike Mashon. Universal chairman Ron Meyer announced that Universal and a consortium of archives will restore 15 Universal silent films over the next few years. Mont Alto Picture Orchestra performed actual music cues of the period in giving the moving film voice.
“Figures de Cire” is online here.
Reconstruction of “When the Earth Trembled.”
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
A hipster duck wears a zoot suit in Disney’s “The Spirit of ‘43.”
In 2011, I took a look at the official Navy documents on the Zoot Suit Riots. Here they are:
“Zoot Suit” and History, Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1966 Czech film “Closely Watched Trains,” which won the Academy Award for foreign film in 1968. It was directed by Jiri Menzel and written by Menzel and Bohumil Hrabal from a novel by Hrabal. It was released on DVD by the Criterion Collection.
We have been collecting issues of Haldeman-Julius Monthly for several years, but one issue was particularly elusive: The October 1925 number featuring an interview with Harry Houdini, written by Marcet Haldeman-Julius, which was published a year before his death and is apparently keenly desired by collectors.
A copy of this issue was recently added to the archives and we are pleased to present the interview, which appears nowhere else online, refuting the argument that “everything is on the Internet.”
The paper is old and brittle and would not stand up to a scanner, so I photographed the article (Pages 387-397) instead. The images are watermarked because of prevalent practice of swiping pictures on the Internet without attribution or acknowledgement of a source. Pinterest and Skyscraperpage.com, this means you.
Haldeman-Julius Monthly was published by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius with the motto “Make the World Unsafe for Hypocrisy.” It changed names to “The Debunker” in 1928 and apparently ceased publication about 1931.
Emanuel Haldeman-Julius loved to debunk charismatic religious figures of the day and Louis Adamic wrote a series of articles for the magazine about Los Angeles evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson’s mysterious disappearance and miraculous return in 1926. In this vein, the bulk of the Houdini interview is devoted to the charlatans of the day posing as mediums who could communicate with the dead and frequently duped grieving and gullible survivors. There is also a detailed of description Houdini’s New York brownstone, which was crammed with books and memorabilia, and a cameo appearance by Mrs. Houdini.
Previously in the L.A. Daily Mirror
Aimee Semple McPherson’s Fight With Satan
C.B. DeMille: Movie Evangelist
Enjoy.
Leading up to the twentieth century, few social organizations existed, except for those of wealth or higher class, or working for a charitable organization. Most people attended a religious organization of some kind. Military veterans honored those who died in service, and fraternities were organized on college campuses to serve the needs of those both within the group and the greater community. As the United States became more urban, more clubs were organized among like-minded individuals looking for companionship outside of those they worshipped or worked with.
Los Angeles saw handfuls of clubs formed in the late 1890s-early 1900s. State groups, service groups like the Elks, Moose, Knights of Columbus, and Scottish Rite Masons, high end clubs like the Los Angeles and Hollywood Athletic Clubs, Jonathan Club, and City Club, these and more were organized as social opportunities to fill the hours when not working. Many served the community in charitable ways, while others simply served the cause of fun. The Los Angeles Breakfast Club was founded both to entertain and inform its members in 1925, and still operates as an active group 90 years later.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1930-31 Warner Bros. pre-code film “Illicit,” starring Barbara Stanwyck (Friday’s mystery woman) with James Rennie (Thursday’s mystery chap), Ricardo Cortez (not shown), Natalie Moorhead (Tuesday’s mystery woman), Charles Butterworth (Wednesday’s mystery chap), Joan Blondell (Friday’s mystery woman) and Claude Gillingwater.
The film was directed by Archie Mayo, with a script by Harvey Thew, whose next picture was “The Public Enemy.” The script was adapted from the 1930 Broadway play “Many a Slip” by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin. “Illicit” was photographed by Robert Kurrle with wardrobe by Earl Luick.
“Illicit” star Barbara Stanwyck is a strong advocate of marriage, St. Petersburg Times, March 21, 1931.
Note that imdb gives the date of 1931, while the print gives the copyright date of 1930. It was in production in September 1930 and released in Los Angeles in February 1931. Edwin Schallert of The Times wrote (Jan. 18, 1931) “Marriage versus free love receives interpretation in ‘Illicit’ — a picture which judging by all past precedents, is due for a popular reign, even though it may not pass the censors in all localities.”
The DVD is available from Warner Archive packaged with “Girl Missing.”
“Sherlock Holmes” starring William Gillette, courtesy of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
Conceived by Melissa Chittick and Stephen Salmons as a way to share the beauty of early cinema with the world, The San Francisco Silent Film Festival celebrates its 20th Anniversary May 28 through June 1, 2015, as the largest and most important silent film festival in the Western Hemisphere. Exhibiting gorgeous prints on the big screen as they were meant to be seen, the festival extols silent cinema from around the world, accompanied by talented performers in a wide range of styles and instruments. This year’s Festival salutes top stars, exciting new restorations, and fascinating foreign films, with some eclectic programs thrown in.
Two newly restored films highlight this year’s schedule. The long thought lost 1916 film, “Sherlock Holmes,” stars the great stage actor William Gillette in the first feature adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s renowned mystery series, a holy grail for Holmes’ fans. Gillette adapted Doyle’s books about the Baker Street detective into a world-renowned play, which he toured globe-wide for years. Chicago’s Essanay Film Company finally convinced him to star in and produce his version of the deer stalk hat wearing Holmes in 1916, allowing him to cast the film almost entirely with actors who had starred with him in the production. As reviewed at the time, the film omitted any mention of Holmes’ drug use or possible addiction and maintained a deliberate style. It looked good on screen and seemed too long, but the May 1916 issue of Motography called it “Frankly melodrama, well produced…,” with Gillette and Ernest Maupain as Moriarty giving the best performances. It remains Gillette’s only film, as he never completed “Secret Service,” the second motion picture included in his contract.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
Adam Parker of the Post and Courier is reporting the death of composer Bob Belden, who wrote the orchestral suite “Black Dahlia,” which was released on CD in 2001.
If you’re not familiar with the suite, here’s a selection. I particularly like this clip because it shows the recording process.
We went through a vintage clothing phase in 1974 while at the University of Arizona and working on the Invisible Theatre play “Mad Dog Coll,” which was set in New York in the 1930s. Our vintage suits went back to the thrift stores long ago, but we enjoy the vintage clothing community vicariously through some our friends.
Annora Theong is a vintage clothing enthusiast in Australia – and, as she points out, one of the few Asian vintage clothing enthusiasts. In a recent blog post, she visits the question of “Why Don’t Asians Wear Vintage?” on her blog Nora Finds. We found it a worthwhile read. Hope you do too.
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1915 picture “The Coward,” written by Thomas Ince and directed by Ince and Reginald Barker. It was shown in Los Angeles at Clune’s Auditorium in November 1915 with Dorothy Gish and Wallace Reid in “Old Heidelberg” and Mack Sennett’s “A Favorite Fool” with Eddie Foy and the little Foys. It will air on TCM on Sunday May 24 at 4:30 a.m. Pacific time as part of the the Memorial Day marathon.
The cover of an undated brochure about Griffith Observatory, courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library
Originally a dream of Los Angeles benefactor and convicted murderer “Colonel” Griffith J. Griffith, Griffith Observatory now stands as one of the city’s preeminent and most beautiful structures. Looming high over Franklin Avenue and visible for miles, the magnificent building stands as one of Los Angeles’ Art Deco jewels. Still radiant after 80 years, the Griffith Observatory stands as a monument to ingenuity and ambition, urging residents to look up to the skies.
Griffith, a wealthy mining speculator, donated 3,015 acres of the old Rancho Los Feliz to the city of Los Angeles in 1896 for use as a public park. In 1903, however, residents turned against him after he shot his wife in the face during a drunken rage. Inspired by a look through Mount Wilson’s enormous telescope in 1912, Griffith offered Los Angeles $100,000 to construct a similar observatory on Mount Hollywood.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
Fair Oaks Pharmacy’s neon sign, which was restored and re-mounted on the building after years of languishing in obscurity.
A recent post by the Los Angeles Beat of vintage Los Angeles restaurants included Fair Oaks Pharmacy in South Pasadena.
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1962 film “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” best known in its “Mystery Science Theater 3000” version.
MST3K version 1/9
MST3K version 2/9
MST3K version 3/9
MST3K version 4/9
MST3K version 5/9
MST3K version 6/9
MST3K version 7/9
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MST3K version 9/9
Colleen Moore’s doll house in a frame grab from CBS “Sunday Morning.”
From the beginning of time, people have been collectors. Objects as diverse as paintings, stamps, shells, rocks, postcards, photographs, baseballs, or even furniture have been compiled for the joy they brought to those acquiring them. Individuals such as J. P. Morgan, Henri Francis du Pont, Henry Huntington, and William Randolph Hearst created large assemblages of objects, which are now open for research and visits by the general public. Hearst’s “Enchanted Hill” on the Central Coast of California is now known as the stupendous Hearst Castle, filled with gorgeous and exquisite works of art from around the world, including whole magnificent rooms saved from mansions and castles in the process of being demolished.
Silent film actress Colleen Moore, the effervescent embodiment of the jazz-mad 1920s flapper, collected doll houses and small miniatures from the time she was a child. In the late 1920s, she began assembling what became her masterpiece, a luxurious doll’s house that reflected every young girl’s romantic dreams of what it meant to be a princess. Moore’s “Enchanted Castle,” a Lilliputian relative of Hearst’s “Enchanted Hill,” rivaled the newspaper magnate’s Hearst Castle for its unique works of art and outstanding craftsmanship.Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
Here’s something truly awesome: A menu for the Cafe Frankenstein in Laguna Beach with artwork by Burt Shonberg, listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $125. I wrote about Cafe Frankenstein in 2011 when a group of slides was listed for sale. And in the Beat Era, a cappuccino was 70 cents ($5.69 USD 2015).
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1957 MGM picture “Edge of the City,” which was Martin Ritt’s debut as a film director. It starred John Cassavetes (Tuesday’s Back of the Head Guy), Sidney Poitier (Friday’s mystery guest), Jack Warden (Friday’s mystery guest), Kathleen Maguire (Wednesday’s mystery guest), Ruby Dee (Thursday’s mystery guest), Robert Simon (Monday’s mystery guest), Ruth White (Wednesday’s mystery guest), Val Avery (not shown), William A. Lee (not shown), David Clark (not shown) and Estelle Hemsley (not shown).
It was written by Robert Alan Aurthur, with music by Leonard Rosenman and photographed by Joseph Brun, with titles by Saul Bass. The producer was David Susskind in his first venture into film.
“Edge of the City” was shown in Los Angeles as the second half of a double bill with the now obscure film “Lizzie,” which starred Eleanor Parker.
The DVD is available from TCM in its Greatest Classic Legends collection, with “Something of Value,” “A Patch of Blue” and “Blackboard Jungle.”
Jan. 6, 1924: The Times publishes a photo of an Oakland car that was driven up to the Hollywood sign.
Southern California and Los Angeles exploded into the public zeitgeist thanks to imaginative advertising and publicity from area supporters and officials. Posters, postcards, and lavish illustrations in magazines and newspapers touting glorious weather, abundant land, and great opportunities started the great march westward.
Later, real estate developments around the Los Angeles area like Hollywoodland that successfully promoted themselves as exclusive, elegant, and close to business centers prospered, thanks to creative advertising gimmicks by salesmen. Leland J. Burrud excelled in innovating practices and developing schemes to sell real estate, from bringing in newsreel cameras to record the construction of the Hollywoodland Sign in November 1923 to creating dramatic images of a car posing adjacent to the Sign. He developed his great talent from his multi-faceted film career traveling the American West in the late 1910s and early 1920s.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
This week’s mystery movie has been the 1948 Eagle-Lion picture “Hollow Triumph,” also known as “The Scar.” The movie stars Paul Henreid (Friday’s mystery guest), Joan Bennett (Thursday’s mystery guest) and Eduard Franz (Wednesday’s mystery guest). It was written by Daniel Fuchs, from a novel by Murray Forbes and was produced by Henreid and directed by Steve Sekely.
A DVD is available from TCM Shop and there is a restored version on Amazon.
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