Movieland Silent Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on November 10, 2025 by lmharnisch

Main Title: Elaborate writing in frame.

This week’s mysterious silent movie was the 1919 film The White Heather, with H.E. Herbert, Ben Alexander, Ralph Graves, Mabel Ballin, Jack Gilbert and Spottiswoode Aitken.

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Posted in 1919, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , | 23 Comments

November 10, 1907: Story of L.A. Real Estate Is Dislocation, Dislocation, Dislocation

Posted on November 10, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

November 10, 1907
South Pasadena

What sort of monument do we leave for real estate developers? For John B. Althouse, who built hundreds of homes in the Wilshire district, as well as the West Adams district and the San Gabriel Valley, the answer might be nondescript offices and vacant lots.

Here’s the house he built for himself at Oxley and Fremont in South Pasadena, a few blocks from my home. In fact, I pass the corner every day.

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November 9, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on November 9, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 9, 1959: Mirror Cover

Those Quizzes

Matt WeinstockClearly it’s no more possible to control the gags about the quiz show scandal than it is to control the mushrooming scandal itself, and the other day a group of coffee break philosophers of my acquaintance got around to the subject.

A man named Marvin contributed the subversive thought that in addition to handling out its annual Emmy awards next year the television business should offer a special Ananians award, on the occasion of which the band should strike up with “Pony Boy.”

A cynic named Jerry suggested a Stoolie award, but he was quickly smothered on the grounds that this was strictly a police matter.

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Posted in Columnists, Countdown to Watts, health, Matt Weinstock | 1 Comment

November 9, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Posted on November 9, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 9, 1959: Artist's concept of a union bus terminal

Trials and Tribulation of Doodles Weaver

Paul Coates, in coat and tieIt’s an axiom thought up by Sir Isaac Newton and perpetuated by Hollywood:

What goes up must come down.

And its proof sat in front of my desk, in striped shirt and gaudy suit, a shade less subtle than mustard.

    His professional, comical name was Doodles Weaver.

“People think I’m important,” he was explaining to me.  “Everybody’s heard of Doodles Weaver.  The American public really likes me.”

With nervous vigor, he tamped the tip of his burned-out cigar in an ashtray on the edge of the desk.

Then he said, “But I can’t get a job.  In this town, I can’t.”

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Posted in Architecture, Columnists, Paul Coates, Transportation | 1 Comment

November 9, 1941: Roosevelt Declares Early Thanksgiving

Posted on November 9, 2025 by lmharnisch

image

Nov. 9, 1941, Thanksgiving
Note: This is an encore post from 2011.

November 9, 1941: Amid the gathering clouds of World War II, President Roosevelt declares what will be the last peacetime Thanksgiving.

Noting American aid to nations fighting the Axis, Roosevelt says: “Let us ask the divine blessing of our decision and determination to protect our way of life against the forces of evil and slavery which seek in these days to encompass us.”

It is also the last time the nation will celebrate an early Thanksgiving. Roosevelt tried extending the pre-Christmas shopping season by making the holiday one week earlier, but merchants didn’t report any improvement in business.

On the jump:

— A teary Josephine Trout, a 19-year-old unwed mother, is reunited with her month-old daughter, Camellia Ann, after abandoning her in a downtown hotel two weeks earlier. After the brief reunion, Trout was taken back to jail on charges of child abandonment. Continue reading →

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Nov. 9, 1907: ‘We Are Revolutionists!’ Supporters Call for Release of Ricardo Flores Magon

Posted on November 9, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

November 9, 1907
Los Angeles

Local sympathizers, anarchists and socialists are organizing a mass meeting to protest the imprisonment of Ricardo Flores Magon, Librado Rivera, Antonio Villareal and L. Gutierrez De Lara, who are being held on charges of trying to overthrow the Mexican government.

After years of avoiding capture, Magon, Rivera and Villareal were arrested Aug. 23 at 111 E. Pico St. after a brawl with Thomas Furlong of the Furlong Secret Service Bureau of St. Louis, along with Los Angeles Police Detectives Felipe Talamantes, [Thomas F.?] Rico and two deputies. De Lara was arrested by U.S. marshals at 420 W. 4th St. on Sept. 27.

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Voices — Christine Collins, November 9, 1930

Posted on November 9, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 9, 1930: Christine Collins letter, Page 1From the California State Archives.

The Christine Collins letters

The woman whose tragedy inspired the Clint Eastwood movie “Changeling” tells her story in her own words.

Los Angeles Calif.
November 9, 1930

Dear Mr. Clark,

I was very happy to received your very encouraging letter of Nov. 3rd. I want to apologize for not answering sooner and thanking you for your kindness also in sending me the blank forms in case that I am successful in obtaining employment for Walter. You are so lovely toward
both of us and your kindness is greatly appreciated. Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, Changeling, Film, Hollywood, LAPD | Comments Off on Voices — Christine Collins, November 9, 1930

A. Victor Segno — “How to Live 100 Years”

Posted on November 9, 2025 by lmharnisch

How to Live 100 Years title page“Heavy skirts and long trains worn on the streets are especially unhealthful. Heavy skirts strain the delicate internal organs and long trains gather up all kinds of impurities and disease germs and distribute them on the hosiery and underclothes, to be carried to the skin and then through the pores into the blood.”

–A. Victor Segno,
“How to Live 100 Years,”
Los Angeles, 1903

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November 8, 1947: Tokyo Rose Seeks to Return to U.S.

Posted on November 8, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

L.A. Times, 1947Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Her name was Iva and she was born in Watts on the Fourth of July, attended high school in Compton and graduated from UCLA with a degree in zoology. For a while, she lived at 11668 Wilmington Ave.

Then came the trip to Japan on behalf of her mother who, was too ill to visit relatives.

“My mother had high blood pressure and diabetes. She wanted very much to see her sister in Japan,” Iva said. Because her mother was unable to make the trip, “she asked me to go.” Iva left from San Pedro on July 5, 1941.

She said that she was supposed to return to the U.S. on Dec. 1, 1941, but there was a problem with her passport and was stranded when the war broke out. Then came the broadcasts that earned Iva Toguri of Los Angeles the nickname “Tokyo Rose,” although she called herself “Orphan Ann” or “Orphan Annie.”

In November 1947, she applied to return to Los Angeles. Nobody seemed to care about her, one official said. But the next year she was brought to the U.S. and accused of treason before a jury from which blacks were systematically eliminated by prosecutors. She was released after serving six years of a 10-year term. Continue reading →

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November 8, 1938: Polish Jew shoots Nazi envoy

Posted on November 8, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 8, 1938: Los Angeles Times coverIn Paris, Herschel Grynszpan, identified as a 17-year-old Polish Jew, shoots the third secretary of the German Embassy, Ernst von Rath.

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Posted in City Hall, Current Affairs, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Sports | Comments Off on November 8, 1938: Polish Jew shoots Nazi envoy

November 7, 2008: Jews celebrate survival of Holocaust Torah

Posted on November 7, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 7, 2008: Dr. Joel Kushner, left, and Rabbi Richard N. Levy unroll the Yanov Torah during a ceremony at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion near USC. The Torah survived the Holocaust by being cut into pieces, hidden during the war and reassembled afterward.
Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Dr. Joel Kushner, left, and Rabbi Richard N. Levy unroll the Yanov Torah during a ceremony at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion near USC. The Torah survived the Holocaust by being cut into pieces, hidden during the war and reassembled afterward.

Jews celebrate survival of Holocaust Torah

Nearing the somber 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Los Angeles Jews celebrate the story of a Torah that was pieced together from scattered texts smuggled into a Nazi labor camp.

By Duke Helfand
November 7, 2008
During World War II, Jewish inmates of the Yanov labor camp in occupied Poland defied their Nazi guards, secretly conducting religious services inside their darkened barracks.

To observe their ritual, the Jews had cut religious scrolls into sections, bound the parchment pieces around their bodies and walked them through Yanov’s front gate. They hid the fragments wherever they could: beneath the floorboards of their barracks, inside hollow bedposts, even in a camp cemetery. Continue reading →

Posted in @news, Religion | Comments Off on November 7, 2008: Jews celebrate survival of Holocaust Torah

November 7, 1957: Saucers Over Air Base!

Posted on November 7, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 7, 1957: Los Angeles Times cover

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November 7, 1947: Santa Makes Second Appearance in Downtown L.A.

Posted on November 7, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947
imageNote: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project..

You might want to clip and save this for the next time someone complains that the Christmas season comes earlier every year.

Santa was a well-traveled gent in 1947, appearing in downtown Los Angeles the day after Halloween. He arrived in a Bell helicopter at the Owl drugstore at Beverly and La Cienega; on Union Pacific’s City of Los Angeles at Union Station; on an American Airlines DC-3; and on the Navy submarine Sawfish (SS-276).

And the day before Thanksgiving, he appeared in the parade opening Hollywood’s Santa Claus Lane. Stay tuned…..


Quote of the day: MARIHUANA Weed With Roots in Hell Plus “Nite Club Girls.” Continuous from 2 p.m. Adults ONLY!
Mission Theatre, South Broadway at 8th.

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Correction: The Mission Theater was on South Broadway at 42nd.

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Black L.A. 1947: Sentinel Offers $100 for Proof That LAPD has Black Motorcycle Officer

Posted on November 6, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Sentinel, 1947

November 6, 1947: LAPD motorcycle officers received a pay differential, so these were desirable jobs. The photograph is fairly dim, but this looks like a three-wheeled Harley-Davidson Servi-Car.

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November 6, 1947: LAPD Officer Kills Black Suspect in Market Burglary

Posted on November 6, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

L.A. Times, 1947 Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project..

The Times did absolutely no follow-up to this incident as to whether Everline was tried in the burglary, nor was there any apparent investigation of the officer-involved shooting. Of course, in the 1940s, police shootings were rarely if ever investigated.

Public records shed little light on Wallas, except that he was born in Texas and apparently had no Social Security number. Everline (SS# 467-22-4104), who died in Virginia in 1981, was also born in Texas, but there’s no further information.

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Voices — Christine Collins, November 6, 1930

Posted on November 6, 2025 by lmharnisch

The Christine Collins letters

The woman whose tragedy inspired the Clint Eastwood movie “Changeling” tells her story in her own words.

November 6, 1930: November 6, 1930: The Rev. Gustav A. Briegleb writes a letter to help Christine Collins, whose son was killed by Gordon Northcott.

Many people wonder if the religious leaders in “Changeling” are actual people. Here’s evidence that the Rev. Gustav A. Briegleb helped Christine Collins. A similar letter in Walter Collins’ file is from the Rev. R.P. “Fighting Bob” Shuler.

Posted in #courts, Changeling, Christine Collins, Film, Hollywood, LAPD | Comments Off on Voices — Christine Collins, November 6, 1930

November 6, 1907: An EBay Mystery

Posted on November 6, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

November 6, 1907
Los Angeles

Here’s a real mystery, although a minor one, and like all real mysteries, it is incomplete and may have no solution.

Exhibit 1: This postcard up for auction on Ebay.

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Posted in 1907, Found on EBay | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

November 5, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on November 5, 2025 by lmharnisch

The Tax Bite

Matt WeinstockTuesday was the day of the big blow.  No, it wasn’t windy.  It was the day the tax bills hit the fan.

The resultant moans have ranged from low and plaintive, tapering off into controlled disgust, to massive indignation, accompanied by a fierce resolve to do something about it.

Property owners were warned their tax bills would be raised but the blow, as always, caught them unprepared.

A woman who lives in a rundown industrial section in southeast L.A. was dismayed to find her taxes had been increased from $100 to $190, give or take a dollar.  She said sadly, “We simply won’t eat for two weeks.  I mean it.”

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November 5, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Posted on November 5, 2025 by lmharnisch

Hunger Way of Life in ‘Pearl of Orient’

Paul Coates, in coat and tieHong Kong — In this bedlam of political intrigue, British pomposity, sly international trade, glamour and abject poverty, I’ve learned a very disturbing thing about myself.

I never thought the time would come when I could turn my back on a hungry child.  But it has.

After just a few days in Hong Kong, you become hardened to the starvation around you.  It’s such a massive condition, involving so many hundreds of thousands, that it becomes impersonal.

There’s nothing you can do about it, anyway.  You can make the futile gesture of tossing a few coins at the countless beggar children.  But if you give  a coin to one of them, you are immediately mobbed by dozens of others who seem to come at you from nowhere.  They plead, whine, tug at your clothes and curse when you try to break away from them. Continue reading →

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November 5, 1947: ‘Amazing Career of a Girl Drug Addict’

Posted on November 5, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947
L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

November 5, 1947: She called it “The Amazing Career of a Girl Drug Addict” and she wasn’t exaggerating—and yet she was.

Arrested in October for driving erratically on Wilshire Boulevard, a woman calling herself Margaret Burton told police she was a former actress and had become addicted to sedatives during the London Blitz, when a physician gave her tranquilizers to calm her nerves.

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