March 27, 1944: Landing craft 220 transports troops to an Italian beach, while LCI 226 lands troops in New Guinea and New Britain, the subject of a profile by John Hersey. Universal movie studios photographer Ray Jones gives a lesson in how to pose a glamour shot, with Elyse “Mummy’s Tomb” Knox. The featured photographer is Alfred Eisenstaedt and this week’s movie is “See Here, Private Hargrove.” Courtesy of Google. Continue reading
March 25, 2011: Site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire / Photograph by Eve Golden
Note: This is an encore post from 2011.
Daily Mirror reader Eve Golden went to Friday’s memorial for the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire victims and sends these photos. Continue reading
Above, time to get ready for barbering the lawn … Below, the Korean community voices strong criticism of Durham W. Stevens, an American adviser to Japan, who was assassinated in San Francisco. Feelings against Stevens are so strong among local Koreans that he might have faced a similar attack here, The Times says …
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
Technology has changed, but people have not. Simply because they lived nearly a century ago doesn’t mean Angelenos were unable to indulge their vices, they simply procured them in a different manner.
One of the main staples was the throngs of young bicycle messengers who traversed the city in packs.
Florence Casler, 1928.
Long before Rick Caruso, CIM group, Lincoln Property, and others hit the Los Angeles real estate world, Florence C. Casler dominated its ranks, constructing many of Los Angeles’ most successful skyscraper buildings in the 1920s. Powerhouse Casler observed her father and husband in their financial and real estate dealings, turbocharging herself into one of Los Angeles’ earliest real estate developers through daring, drive, and insight.
Born Florence C. Sherk in Sherkston, Weiland, Ontario, Canada in 1869, Casler grew up on her family’s farm, where her father Hugh grew mammoth strawberries and other fruits and vegetables and she studied music. Her successful father Hugh made extra money allowing the gas company to set up their telegraph and telephone office on his property.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1947 RKO film The Long Night, with Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak, Howard Freeman, Moroni Olsen, Elisha Cook Jr., Queenie Smith, David Clarke, Charles McGraw, Patty King and Robert A. Davis. Continue reading
Above, an artist’s concept of the proposed Hall of Records, a white gingerbread building between Broadway and New High Street that was one of the landmarks of old Los Angeles.
March 21, 1944
It’s Tuesday in 1944 and today we have:
— Rita Hayworth is the guest on “Burns and Allen.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org
— “Fibber McGee and Molly.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
Above, baseball and ostriches. Below, the Rev. G.W. Woodbey, an African American minister described in The Times as a rabid radical, is convicted of speaking on a street corner without a license. Continue reading
March 20, 1944
It’s Monday in 1944, which means we have:
— Franchot Tone, Chester Morris, Anne Baxter and Miriam Hopkins in “The Hard Way” on Lux Radio Theatre. Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “The Lone Ranger.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
Rosalind Shaffer is not byline I recognize. She filed this feature on Preston Sturges, published in the St. Petersburg Times, March 20, 1944.
Here’s a bonus fact: Shaffer helped found the Hollywood Women’s Press Club.
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
The Methodist Episcopal congregation, formed from a merger of the Centennial and Central churches, planned a wonderful new building at 22nd Street and Union. Although the congregation studied the idea of a new location, the members finally decided there was no better place than the one they had.
The church was designed by A. Dudley using an old English half-timbered style with a Gothic tower. The vaulted ceiling was highlighted with gold and the pews were arranged in concentric circles around a corner pulpit.
The Times noted:
“The congregation of St. James gives promise of becoming one of the strongest in the outlying parts of the city. Its pastor [the Rev. Robert S. Fisher] is a young man who has made his way rapidly toward the front and only last fall declined to accede to the wishes of the bishop that he accept a leading church in San Francisco.”
By Tammerlin Drummond
Times Staff Writer
Barack Obama stares silently at a wall of fading black-and-white photographs in the muggy second-floor offices of the Harvard Law Review. He lingers over one row of solemn faces, his predecessors of 40 years ago.
All are men. All are dressed in dark-colored suits and ties. All are white.
It is a sobering moment for Obama, 28, who in February became the first black to be elected president in the 102-year history of the prestigious student-run law journal.
The post, considered the highest honor a student can attain at Harvard Law School, almost always leads to a coveted clerkship with the U.S. Supreme Court after graduation and a lucrative offer from the law firm of one’s choice. Continue reading
March 19, 1944
— CBS’ “World News Today” reports on Allied bombing of Germany and the battle for Cassino. “This is still a battle of yard by yard annihilation.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
March 19, 1944
It’s Sunday in 1944, which means we have:
— “The Jack Benny Show.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org
—“The Texaco Star Theater” with Fred Allen. Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org.
March 18, 1944
It’s Saturday in 1944 and today we have:
— Jungle Jim and the crew evade Japanese soldiers. “The Adventures of Jungle Jim.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org via Archive.org.
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
“Who was the first man?” asked the teacher of an American boy.
“Washington,” was the reply. He was reminded of Adam and observed: “Yes, if you count foreigners.”
Henrietta B. Freeman paid a call on a schoolroom somewhere in Los Angeles in March 1907. She didn’t say where, nor did she give the teacher’s name, just that the teacher was a woman.
All Freeman says about the classroom is that there was a blackboard. For visual aids, the teacher had picture cards: a boy fishing, riding a bicycle and rolling a hoop; a girl washing her doll’s clothes in a tub, using a bar of soap.
Welcome to the third session of the Black Dahlia Book Club!
I finally got tired of talking about George Hodel and Steve Hodel (at this point, I know Steve’s monologues from memory) so I decided to spend some time looking at the portrayals of the Black Dahlia case. I consider myself first and foremost a historian of the Black Dahlia case, and think it’s important to examine the source material in detail to emphasize the challenges of researching the murder of Elizabeth Short.
March 17, 1944
It’s Friday in 1944 and today we have:
— Andy finally located Madam Queen in “The Amos ‘N’ Andy Show.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Constance Bennett is the guest on “Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org via Archive.org.
— Donald Dame of the Metropolitan Opera is the guest on “To Your Good Health,” a musical program from the House of Squibb. Courtesy of Otrrlibary.org via Archive.org.
— “Vic and Sade.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
As Austrian Jews flee for their lives, only to be turned back at the border, Los Angeles congregations prepare to celebrate Purim. Note the name of Jacob Sonderling, identified in The Times as former chief rabbi of the German army.
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