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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1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Harold Heffernan, April 17, 1944

Posted on April 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 17, 1944

Who is Harold Heffernan? He’s a new one on me.

HOLLYWOOD, Cal., April 17 — Friends of Steve Crane and Lana Turner say that it finally was a case of two ambitious people under one roof. Crane came to Hollywood believing he had leading man qualifications and was determined to carve out a career for himself.

On the same day Lana issued her announcement that everything was lovely, the studio (Columbia) where Crane is under contract slipped out the story of their latest break. Crane had already left home to reside with a friend. He couldn’t bear to read his wife’s protestations of bliss, so he broke the story.

“Only one girl in Hollywood history ever approached Lana for doing the unexpected,” said an old timer. ” Her name — Clara Bow.”

Also: Howard Hawks’ tip on how to get a throaty voice.

From the Miami News.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Louella Parsons, April 17, 1944

Posted on April 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 17, 1944, comics

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April 17, 1944

A VERY PRETTY COMPLEMENT HAS BEEN PAID Mrs. Lillian Fontaine, mother of Joan Fontaine and Olivia De Havilland, by Mark Dennison, who writes to say: “I should think Joan Fontaine and Olivia De Havilland should be terribly proud of their mother, who sometimes acts under the name of Kit Colvin. I saw her performance as Aunt Martha in a camp show of ‘Arsenic and Old Lace.’ She is so different from most movie mothers — so obviously well bred and not a stage struck, ambitious woman, but a charming older woman of beauty and as much talent as, if not more than, her daughters. I admire her for using her talent instead of just sitting back basking in their reflections I should think she would be wonderful in movies.”

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky, April 16, 1944

Posted on April 16, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 16, 1944, Skolsky

April 16, 1944

WAR NOTES OF THE WEEK: Errol Flynn purchasing a newspaper with the headline, “Chaplin Acquitted,” and saying to Pal, the newsboy on Sunset Strip, “I’m awfully glad to read this.”

From the Miami News.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Louella Parsons, April 16, 1944

Posted on April 16, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 16, 1944

HOLLYWOOD, April 15 — “There is no happiness possible,” Myrna Loy said, “when two people have divergent interests. You do not think alike and you cannot find real congeniality or mutual enjoyment.”

That statement, following just a few weeks after an interview with Joan Fontaine, in which she told me “I am convinced happiness isn’t possible for two people in the same profession,” made me wonder which girl is right.

Myrna believes a husband and wife must be of the theater, and Joan believes it’s fatal to happiness to have two stars in one family. It’s not for me to analyze the pros and cons of these statements.

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

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LAPD Parker Center Cop Shop Files: Sandra Bowers

Posted on April 16, 2014 by lmharnisch

Sandra Bowers

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.

Before I tell you anything about this woman, take a moment and try to guess what her story is.

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Posted in 1982, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Parker Center Cop Shop Files | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — TCM Classic Film Festival Highlights the Glory Days of American Cinema

Posted on April 15, 2014 by lmharnisch

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Carl Davis conducts an orchestra for “Why Worry?” at the TCM festival. Photograph by Tyler Golden / Turner Entertainment Networks.

 


Blending popular, timeless films with bountiful celebrity appearances, the TCM Classic Film Festival gloriously salutes the epoch of classic American filmmaking from the 1920s through the 1960s during its four-day stay in Hollywood. As in past years, the 2014 festival celebrated iconic cinema moments and glamorous, larger than life personalities in a joyous presentation of beloved motion pictures, geared to those who live in places where classic films are rarely presented on the big screen or feature celebrity appearances.

Turner smartly carries attendees back in time by organizing the festival around the historic built environment of Hollywood, in the actual movie palaces and streets through which legendary stars shaped film and cultural history. The festival employs such famous, striking locations as the El Capitan, Egyptian, Ricardo Montalban and TCL Chinese Theatres as film venues, with the legendary Roosevelt Hotel serving as festival headquarters, just as it did as Hollywood’s party central from the 1920s through the 1950s.

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

 

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1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Louella Parsons, April 15, 1944

Posted on April 15, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 15, 1944, Louella Parsons

April 15, 1944

EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD PATRICIA MUNZEL*, the singing thrush from Spokane, who got herself into the Metropolitan by winning an audition, has a Hollywood job. She is signing a contract with Jack Warner that will pay her in the neighborhood of $50,000 a picture. He is now looking for stories for her. The state of Washington is very proud of their songbird, who is very young to sing operatic roles.

*This is Patrice Munsel, who was recently featured in Life magazine, if you’ll recall.

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky, April 15, 1944

Posted on April 15, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 15, 1944

Some quotations from the Motion Picture Herald, including this about “Princess O’Rourke.”

I played this fine picture on Sunday-Monday to just fair business and had more raves about it than anything I played in years. Maybe  it was the title that kept them away. I really exploit my pictures, using four weekly newspapers, 100 tack cards and 1,000 heralds; plus a public address system. If the preview had a hillbilly chirping “Coming Round the Mountain” or something, maybe that would have got them. My patrons like corn, green, ripe, in muffins, cans or jugs, and I simply have got to give it to them and that’s what they are going to get from now on. This picture business is getting me, or has it got me?

From the Miami News.

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Black Dahlia: Lily DuTertre and Wikipedia

Posted on April 15, 2014 by lmharnisch

Lily Dutertre,

Unless you prowl the outer fringes of the publishing industry, you may have never heard of Lily DuTertre, who is an avid compiler of “high quality Wikipedia articles” into books. Like this one on unsolved murders, selling for $26.68.

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Posted in Black Dahlia, Books and Authors | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo ( Updated + + + + )

Posted on April 14, 2014 by lmharnisch

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This is the 1972 film “Pulp,” starring Michael Caine.

Notice that imdb is not always reliable: “Michael King is a seedy writer of sleazy pulp genre novels under a half dozen sensational pseudonyms whose ambition is to dictate 10,000 words per minute to stenographers a la Earle Stanley Gardner.”

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — Play ball! Motion Picture Studios Play Baseball

Posted on April 14, 2014 by lmharnisch

Selig Baseball Team
The Selig baseball team, courtesy of the Collections of the Margaret Herrick Library


Long before there was radio, television, the Internet, social media, computer games or rotisserie leagues, major league baseball dominated the American landscape. For decades, it filled newspaper sports pages, led social chatter, taught teamwork and sportsmanship and trimmed American waistlines. More Americans played baseball than any other sport into the middle of the 20th century.

In many ways, baseball shaped American culture: sublimating individual play into teamwork, democratizing and integrating citizens, giving hope for the future, offering a chance at the American dream. Baseball represented the national pastime, and America itself. In 1888, Walt Whitman pointed out, “I like your interest in sports — ball, chiefest of all — base-ball particularly: base-ball is our game: the American game: I connect it with our national character.” “Baseball in America” states that Mark Twain called it “the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive and push and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming 19th century.”

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

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Sports | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Ghost Bike — Pasadena

Posted on April 11, 2014 by lmharnisch

Ghost Bike

This is one of the “ghost bikes” that have cropped up around the Los Angeles area as memorials to bicyclists who have been killed.

Steve Lopez writes about ghost bikes.

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Posted in 2013, Obituaries, Photography | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

1944 in Print — Hollywood Gossip by Louella Parsons, April 11, 1944

Posted on April 11, 2014 by lmharnisch

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April 11, 1944

HOLLYWOOD, APRIL 10 — So many movies are mentioned for Cary Grant that when I hear he is to make a picture I say, “Does Cary know it?” This time he does know he is to star in “The Greatest Gift,” an original by Phillip Van Doren Stern, for Charlie Koerner bought it with the popular Mr. Grant in mind.

Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck, visits Milwaukee and talks with columnist Buck Herzog.

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky, April 11, 1944

Posted on April 11, 2014 by lmharnisch

April 11, 1944, Coke

April 11, 1944

HOLLYWOOD, April 11 — Greer Garson’s underwear scene in “Mrs. Parkington” is giving the Hayes office a problem.

From the Miami News.

 

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