Filming in Downtown Los Angeles

Posted on April 24, 2014 by lmharnisch

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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.

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1944 in Print — Life Magazine, April 24, 1944

Posted on April 24, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 24, 1944

The 18th birthday of England’s Princess Elizabeth is the cover story in this week’s Life magazine.

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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.

Courtesy of Google Books.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky, April 24, 1944

Posted on April 24, 2014 by lmharnisch

1944_0424_skolsky_01

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.

From the Miami News.

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1944 on the Radio — ‘The Lone Ranger’

Posted on April 24, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 24, 1944: Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear! “The Lone Ranger.” Courtesy of otronmp3.com.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Louella Parsons, April 24, 1944

Posted on April 24, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 24, 1944, Comics

April 24, 1944, Louella Parsons

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.”

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

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1944 in Print — Joan Harrison, Hollywood’s Only Female Producer

Posted on April 23, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 23, 1944, Joan Harrison

April 23, 1944, Joan Harrison

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.

From the Miami News.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Louella Parsons, April 23, 1944

Posted on April 23, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 23, 1944, Comics

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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.

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky, April 23, 1944

Posted on April 23, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 23, 1944, Skolsky

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.”

From the Miami News.

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‘London After Midnight’ — ‘One Reel of Story and Six Reels of Utter Rot’

Posted on April 23, 2014 by lmharnisch

'London After Midnight'

In perusing Film Spectator for 1928, I found this review of “London After Midnight,” one of the most intriguing of the lost silent movies.

Oh dear:

“The whole thing is too utterly silly to warrant detailed criticism…. There is about one reel of story embellished by six reels of utter rot.”

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1944 in Print — Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky, April 22, 1944

Posted on April 22, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 22, 1944, Sidney Skolsky

April 22, 1944

HOLLYWOOD, April 22 — Col. Frank Capra’s “The Negro Soldier” had its premiere at the theater in the Ambassador Hotel this week and was highly lauded by all who attended. Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, highest ranking Negro officer in the Army, made an excellent speech before the picture.

From the Miami News.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Louella Parsons, April 22, 1944

Posted on April 22, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 22, 1944, Louella Parsons

April 22, 1944

HOLLYWOOD, April 21 — Jean Arthur’s contract with Columbia ends with “The Impatient Years” and she is not re-signing with this company, or any other. Jean is doing what Claudette Colbert did when she announced recently she would not continue with Paramount. Both girls are going on their own to pick their own stories, studios and directors.

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

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LAPD Parker Center Cop Shop Files

Posted on April 22, 2014 by lmharnisch

Capt. Villanueva

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.

All I know about this gentleman is that he is Capt.  Villanueva Serial No. 10235. I can’t find any other information about him in the clips.

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Movieland mystery photo ( Updated + + + + )

Posted on April 21, 2014 by lmharnisch

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This week’s mystery movie was the 1965 film “Once a Thief,” written by Zekial Marko (our mystery man for Tuesday) and directed by Ralph Nelson, with longtime Alfred Hitchcock cinematographer Robert Burks (“North by Northwest” and “Vertigo” among many others).

The jazz score was by Lalo Schifrin in one of his first pictures, with editing by Fredric Steinkamp (“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”). The art direction was by George W. Davis and Paul Groesse (both of whom had worked on the TV show “Twilight Zone”) ; and set decoration by Henry Grace, another “Twilight Zone” veteran, and Jack Mills (“Attack of the Puppet People” and “One Step Beyond”).

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — Early Los Angeles Portrait Photographers Capture Life

Posted on April 21, 2014 by lmharnisch

 

 

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Garden City Foto Co. demonstrated its setup for high-angle shots in this ad from a Los Angeles city directory. 


Long before topnotch stills photographers like Fred Hartsook and Albert Witzel began shooting high-end portraits, many early photographers captured Los Angeles residents’ likenesses for posterity. Most worked for only a few years as photographers before moving on to other professions. Then as now, rapidly changing technologies forced many out of business. By the 1890s, portrait photographers dominated the Los Angeles’ photography field.

Photography as a medium began with Joseph Nicephore Niepce’s use of heliography to capture the first image of a view from an upstairs window of his estate in 1826 or 1827, now part of the Harry Ransom Center’s photography collection. In 1829, Niepce partnered with Louis Daguerre to experiment with which materials were most sensitive to light and would most expose detailed, finished images on plates. Daguerre’s use of fuming his plates after exposure with heated mercury created a permanent image, revealed to the public in 1837. William Henry Fox Talbot in England developed his own printing techniques around the same time, which he displayed to Royal Institution in January 1839. Thus, photography as we know it, was born.

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

 

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Black Dahlia: A New ‘Suspect’ (Who Isn’t Dr. George Hodel) and a New Dimension in Lunacy

Posted on April 20, 2014 by lmharnisch

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Nobody does “true” crime stories quite like the Brits. And the Daily Mail is all over this one.

Suppose I told you that Suzanne Degnan (1946), the Black Dahlia (1947), Jimmy Hoffa (disappeared 1975), the Zodiac victims (late 1960s) AND JonBenet Ramsey (1996) were killed by the same man?

And that it WASN’T Dr. George Hodel?

That is the totally crazy theory of “retired cold case detective” John Cameron, who calls himself “Cold Case Cameron” and is the author of “IT’S ME, Edward Wayne Edwards, the Serial Killer You Never Heard Of.”

I’ve seen a lot of crackpot stuff written about the Black Dahlia case but this takes it to a whole new level of absurdity. And the sad thing is that somewhere, someone is going to take this nonsense seriously. He’s a retired police detective…. he must know what he’s talking about. (Does that remind you of anyone else?)

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — TCM Classic Film Festival Scores on Silent Movie Music Selection

Posted on April 18, 2014 by lmharnisch

 

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Carl Davis conducts a live orchestra in his score for “Why Worry?” at the TCM Classic Film Festival. Photograph by Tyler Golden / Turner Entertainment Networks.


Just as the TCM Classic Film Festival offers a diverse selection of film genres spanning the history of American film, it also provides a diverse cross-section of accompanying music for silent films screening in the festival. This year’s silent film accompanists represented most of the ways typical silent film audiences would have heard music played with films at theaters.

There was no typical form of accompaniment for silent films, as location and size of theatre dictated what type of music would be appropriate. Movie palaces lavished rich accompaniment and presentation on films, while smaller local theaters provided bare, basic music. Accompaniment spanned everything from full orchestras, to chamber groups, bands, organ, photoplayer, piano, and guitar.

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

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1944 in Print — Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky, April 18, 1944

Posted on April 18, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 18, 1944

Hedy Lamarr is having the picture “Diamond Rock” prepared for her at Metro while she is busy making “The Conspirators.” Grad Sears is telling friends that United Artists will acquire “The Voice of the Turtle,” with Leland Hayward in on the producing set-up… Vivian Marshall says she just found out the difference between her legs and Betty Grable’s. Vivian says, “Mine just hold me up; hers support her.”

Also: At MGM, one end of Sound Stage 15 has been removed to accommodate four B-25s for filming “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.”

From the Miami News.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Louella Parsons, April 18, 1944

Posted on April 18, 2014 by lmharnisch

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What’s going on with the “Greatest Generation?”

April 18, 1944, Louella Parsons

April 18, 1944

HOLLYWOOD, April 17 — Now I ask you, who better than Errol Flynn could do “The Adventures of Don Juan” and have five feminine honeys, no less, fighting for his affections all through the movie? Not only is the picture on tap for Errol at Warners but John Taintor Foote has turned in the finished screenplay. About 12 or 15 years ago John Barrymore made “Don Juan” for Warners and before that it had been one of De Wolf Hopper’s stage successes. He also made a movie but that was when movies were flickers.

The high romance of the Spanish adventurer and great lover who lived in the 16th century will follow “Objective Burma” for Errol with Jerry Wald producing. Speaking of Errol, here is a little followup on his recent fisticuffs with Dan Topping: Dan went to Flynn’s house to tell him he was sorry and that it had all been a mistake. The boys are still friends.

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

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Books From the Slush Pile: ‘River of Angels,’ by Alejandro Morales

Posted on April 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

The slush pile


The reject pile! Aspiring authors, avert thine eyes!

River of Angels

In case you just tuned in, this is one of the books I retrieved from the piles of review copies put out for the staff.

I’m not familiar with Alejandro Morales, a UC Irvine professor of Chicano and Latino studies, but the text seems interesting and definitely worth a look.

Here’s a sample chosen at random, Pages 84-85.

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Posted in Books and Authors, Latinos | Tagged , | 2 Comments

1944 in Print — Life Magazine, April 17, 1944

Posted on April 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 17, 1944, Life magazine

April 17, 1944

Esther Williams is the cover girl in this week’s issue of Life magazine with a feature on “Bathing Beauty.”

And what happened to all that WPA artwork? It was sold as junk.

Courtesy of Google Books.

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Posted in 1944, Art & Artists, Film, Hollywood, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments