Note: This is the last of the Sidney Skolsky columns for a while. There are no online issues of the Miami News for May 1944, so that’s it until June. What do you think of Skolsky? Is he a keeper?
April 30, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, April 29 — The movies have aided the war in many ways. American Cinematographer explains that Wallace Beery’s picture “Hell Divers” “is more responsible than any other factor for the design and principles of the present aerial machine gun movie camera.”
April 30, 1944
The U.S. loses 63 bombers and 14 fighters in a daylight raid on Berlin. The Nazis lost 88 aircraft. Meanwhile, the RAF made its 16th consecutive nighttime raid on Germany.
Louella Parsons interviews Irving Cummings, who received the Thomas A. Edison award for achievement after directing “Alexander Graham Bell.”
He says his favorite film was “The White Parade.” “We wrote that on the set and it developed into an unexpected hit,” he said. “You know, I did eight straight musicals and I told Darryl Zanuck I just wouldn’t make another one. I was beginning to get typed. Darryl agreed with me.
I was given a box of material that was cleaned out of the old press room at the LAPD’s Parker Center headquarters, sometimes called “the cop shop.” The box was a jumble of press releases, photographs, artists’ sketches and other items dating from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.
This fellow is DR-66-543-860, otherwise known as the Freeway Rapist.
April 29, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, April 29 — Irene Dunne is the latest actress to be offered the lead in “Olympia,” but she is waiting until she can read the script … Brenda Marshall doesn’t want to do “Something for the Boys” at 20th Century-Fox … The Veronica Lake-Andre de Toth romance is strictly for laughs, and they are having them.
April 29, 1944
We have a deeply embedded notion that the “Greatest Generation” dutifully paid their taxes because it was the patriotic thing to do. This editorial cartoon, by Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale of the Los Angeles Examiner, illustrates the reality.
Louella Parsons says: Steve Crane denied today he is bringing sensational charges in his divorce suit against Lana Turner for the custody of their baby. “I wouldn’t do such a thing to my daughter, nor to Lana. My only allegation is mental cruelty, the same charge my wife made against me. I am bringing the counter suit because I want to be sure of seeing Cherryl Christine at least half the time,” he said.
Our mystery movie is the 1941 MGM film “Unholy Partners,” which curiously enough has apparently never been released on DVD or even VHS.
Vargas poses with Kay Aldridge in a photo published in Cine-Mundial.
“One day I will paint a Vargas girl so beautiful, so perfect, so typical of the American Girl, that I shall be able to show it to people anywhere in the world, without my signature on it and they’ll say, that’s a Vargas girl!” — Alberto Vargas quoted in “Vargas” by Taschen.
Although some people might not know his name, many recognize the curvy, overly endowed model drawings designed by illustrator Alberto Vargas in the latter half of his career. Drawn for Esquire and Playboy magazines, these luscious line drawings of sexy yet innocent young women attracted great attention, and cemented his name in the national conscience.
Born Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chavez in Arequipa, Peru, to wealthy parents, young Vargas showed deep interest in art from an early age. Drawing caricatures from the age of 7, before moving on to landscapes and portraits in his teens, Vargas was inspired by his famous photographer father to follow his dreams. His mother sent him and his brother to Zurich, Switzerland, in 1914 for a quality education in photography and languages, but Vargas soon traveled Europe after taking up painting. A natural autodidact, the young artist studiously visited galleries and museums, learning technique and form.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
I have been using a wonderful plug-in for Firefox called Adblock Plus, which I recommend for everyone. It does a terrific job of block annoying ads. (There are also versions for Google Chrome and for Internet Explorer, for those of you who are still using it. And there is apparently a beta version for Safari.)
As a result, I haven’t been seeing the ads on the Daily Mirror and wasn’t aware of them until recently, when I received a complaint from a longtime reader.
This morning, however, I pulled up the website on my phone and discovered that it was impossible to navigate because of the ads. So as of now, I have switched off the ads. The modest revenue that they provide isn’t worth the hassle to me or my readers.
Note: This is a post I wrote in 2006. The subject came up today when I was having lunch with Ed Fuentes, so I thought I would repost it. Notice that in this plan, Union Station was to have been built at Central Avenue and Fifth Street instead of the final location. If Union Station had been built here, the old Chinatown area would have been left intact.
Nov. 15, 1907
Los Angeles
Architect Charles Mulford Robinson has drafted a proposal for downtown Los Angeles that is stunning in its ambition. One portion calls for broad boulevard leading from a proposed Union Station at Central and 5th Street toward Grand, ending at a new public library and art gallery. The other, equally elaborate, calls for a grouping of civic buildings and terraced gardens around North Spring Street, including a new City Hall.
“First of all, and most important in his mind because Los Angeles is a leading tourist center and should strive to make a good impression at the very start, the architect suggests an immense union railroad station with an approach a mile long—a wide thoroughfare lined with beautiful buildings, with spacious parkways, rows of flowering trees and ornamental lamp posts, and with driveways for all classes of traffic,” The Times says.
And the area as seen from Google Earth.
Robinson’s report is lengthy and detailed, so it’s difficult to deal with in a blog. But it is fascinating to see how early the city was grappling with inventing its future. The library on 5th Street and City Hall on Spring (although on the Temple Block rather than the Bullard Block as Robinson suggested) are quite familiar.
Interestingly enough, Robinson also envisions a network of broad boulevards, including a picturesque drive with elaborate landscaping to Pasadena along the Arroyo Seco.
Search for a copy of “The Improvement of Towns and Cities.”
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KPCC recently did a story about the LAPD’s archive of crime photos. And whoever wrote the caption took a logical – but incorrect – guess about the people in this photo of the Black Dahlia crime scene.
Let’s do a little detective work. I’m sure I have seen this photo before. But where?
A photo of the City of Chester, courtesy of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
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 Headlines in the Sacramento Daily Record-Union, left, and the Daily Alta California, above. |
The rediscovery of the City of Chester, which sank in 1888 after a collision with the Oceanic, prompted me to go into the California Digital Newspaper Collection to dig up the original stories. The Daily Alta California devoted an enormous amount of coverage to this incident, as you will see on the jump.
April 25, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. April 25 — Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon have just finished doing a scene for “Mrs. Parkington,” and watching them on the set with me is Robert Thoeren, who co-authored the screenplay with Polly James. Pidgeon walks over and says, “Robert I have a T.L. for you.”
And Pidgeon goes on: “I have been in this business of making faces for some time, and most of the scenarios that are handed to me give me a great feeling of security.”
“How’s that?” asked Thoeren.
“Well,” continued Pidgeon, “most of the scripts are junk. And I have decided that when I get too old to be a lover in pictures, I’ll become a screenwriter.”
Thoeren merely smiled.
“Before reading a scenario,” continued Pidgeon, “I always give it to Mrs. Pidge to read first. I like to hear what she has to say. Well, I gave her your script and after reading it, she returned it to me, saying ‘Read this, and then tell me if you feel secure for your old age.’ ”
The film crews were back on New York Street, my nickname for South Spring around Fourth and Fifth in downtown Los Angeles. This time it’s standing in for San Vicente.
April 24, 1944
The 18th birthday of England’s Princess Elizabeth is the cover story in this week’s Life magazine.
An early member of Bob Dobbs’ Church of the Subgenius!
There’s an editorial on “Negro rights” and a feature on California Gov. Earl Warren and his family.
April 24, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, April 24 — A funny play could be written about the Hungarian scenario writers in Hollywood. Every time I pick up a trade paper I read where a Ladislaus has sold a story to a studio. I never knew there were so many Ladislaus’ and I was of the opinion that all the Hungarian writers had banded together, formed a syndicate and wrote under one name, Ladislaus.
April 24, 1944: Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear! “The Lone Ranger.” Courtesy of otronmp3.com.
April 24, 1944
AT DINNER THE OTHER EVENING Sid Grauman started talking about “Turn in the Road,” which he bought about 12 years ago after it had taken in $400,000. Sid said he had had several offers for his play, which is by King Vidor, and has a decided spiritual note. He said it had cost $9,000 and he and the stockholders felt it was a flop. Then it was put in the Belasco theater and ran for 22 consecutive weeks. “Now is the time for a play of the type of ‘Turn in the Road,’ ” said Sid. “It has such a beautiful story. It is not to be confused with John Golden’s play, “Turn to the Right.”
April 23, 1944
Here’s a feature on Joan Harrison and her collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. “Young and attractive Joan Harrison is the only woman associate producer in Hollywood today,” the unidentified writer says.
April 23, 1944
Don’t get me wrong. Loretta still is a glamor girl and never prettier than she is at this moment, but with a difference. She’s found what any woman would give 10 years of her life to have — a husband whose companionship, understanding and adoration have made her one of the few completely happy women.
Note the reference to Judy, her 7-year-old adopted daughter.
April 23, 1944
Errol Flynn and Peggy Maley are a thing … Judy Garland and Vincent Minnelli are dinner companions … In his next Andy Hardy picture, Mickey Rooney will go for a glamorazon and Dorothy Ford is being considered for the role … George Jessel and Gypsy Rose Lee were a combination this week. Phil Silvers told off a writer who kept heckling him on the set. “If you don’t behave yourself,” said Phil, “I’ll say those lines the way you wrote them.”
ladailymirror.com 