Architectural Ramblings

Posted on February 18, 2014 by lmharnisch

Note: This is a repost of a regular feature I did for the 1947project in 2007 in which I tried to find homes listed in The Times’ Sunday real estate section in 1907. Architectural Ramblings was one of my favorite features because it took me into all sorts of neighborhoods that I would have never visited otherwise and it was a pleasant surprise to discover how many 100-year-old homes have survived in Los Angeles despite development and earthquakes. The homes in what is now downtown Los Angeles, are all gone, of course, but those built in what were the outlying areas are still around, although they typically have lost their brick chimneys, and may have aluminum windows, burglar bars and a coating of stucco.

Feb. 18, 2007
Los Angeles

The buildings featured in The Times for this week have been torn down, but in glancing through the listings, I found the sale by the Althouse brothers of a lot at 3006 S. La Salle.

3006 S. La Salle

3006 S. La Salle

 

I can’t say the house was particularly interesting, although I was happy to find it still standing. Still, it was an interesting neighborhood to visit and the house at 2921 S. La Salle cries begs out for rehabbing.

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1944 on the Radio — ‘Amos ‘N’ Andy’ and ‘The Lone Ranger’

Posted on February 18, 2014 by lmharnisch

radio_dial_1944

Feb. 18, 1944

It’s Friday in 1944 and today we have:

— “Amos ‘N’ Andy.” Courtesy of Archive.org.

—  “The Lone Ranger.” Courtesy of Archive.org

— Pianist Vera Brodsky is featured on the “House of Squibb.” Brodsky, known in later life as Vera Lawrence, is the musicologist who was responsible for compiling “The Collected Works of Scott Joplin.” She died in 1996. Courtesy of Archive.org.

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James Curtis: L.A. Voices — David Lewis, Part 2

Posted on February 18, 2014 by lmharnisch

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When we were ready to start the script, Casey, his wife Audrey, and I went to the Phoenix Biltmore to get away for a few days and start conferences on the script. But we had only been there three or four days when Casey was called back to Burbank. His current film, The Old Maid, needed some work. Still, we had started to form the script and we knew we had a problem — how to frame the story. We were eliminating the last half of the book — the New England story — but we wanted to give a suggestion of what happened to Henriette after Paris. The book opened on a night boat from England, where Henriette had been governess to a family. Henry Field, the minister from America whom she finally married, is on the boat, and she is very cool to him; she is on her way to her new job with the de Praslin family. Much of her background is then revealed in a scene with her grand- father in Paris. We learn of her illegitimacy and that her grandfather is anti-aristocracy. Indeed, he disowns her when he learns of where she is to become governess. From then on the book is a straight narrative of her adventures and eventual downfall.

By the time we again took up work on All This, and Heaven Too, Casey had come up with a frame: a girls’ school in Boston where Henriette has come to teach. The spoiled girls have caught wind of the old scandal and begin taunting her with it. Henriette wants to quit but is induced to stay and tell her story to her pupils, leaving it for them to decide her fate. The story itself is then told in flashback, returning to the school after her narration. By this time Henry Field has joined the group and one gets a sense of the new life that awaits Henriette. It solved many of the story problems we faced.

Previously by James Curtis:

James Curtis’ interview with Dick Lane Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

James Curtis’ interview with Jules White, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

James Curtis interview with David Lewis, Part 1

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1944 in Print — ‘Walter Winchell on Broadway,’ Feb. 18, 1944

Posted on February 18, 2014 by lmharnisch

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Feb. 18, 1944

Tales of the Town

Robert Ripley’s exploiter reports that Ripley is the researcher on it … That Herr Goering’s first name, Herman, came from a Jewish doctor, Herman Eppstein, of Tyrol, Austria … Goering’s father was governor of German East Africa. A widower, who couldn’t take along his infant son — so he boarded him with Dr. Eppstein … The physician raised the boy — sent him through school in Bavaria and paid the tuition until he graduated as a lieutenant … Dr. Eppstein passed on in 1935 … No. 2 Nazi Goering attended the funeral … When he entered the synagogue, he paused at the door and asked if he should wear or remove his hat.

Be sure to read Winchell’s story about an antique dealer’s “lucky candlesticks.”

From the St. Petersburg Times.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on February 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

Feb. 17, 2014, Mystery Photo

And for Monday, a mystery woman.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 41 Comments

James Curtis: L.A. Voices — David Lewis, Part 1

Posted on February 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

David Lewis

David Lewis, courtesy of James Curtis.

creative_producerEditor’s note: The Daily Mirror is pleased to present an excerpt from James Curtis’ 1993 book “The Creative Producer,” a fascinating memoir by David Lewis, edited by Curtis.  It seemed timely to run the excerpt this week because TCM is airing “All This, and Heaven Too,” which Lewis considered one of his best films, on Feb. 21.

James says: I was struck by Walter Winchell’s item about Rachel Field in his column of Feb. 7 because I have an inscribed copy of her book All This, and Heaven Too on my shelf. It’s not inscribed to me, of course, but rather to a man who became a close friend and mentor to me, producer David Lewis (1903-1987). I met David in 1975 when I first became interested in the work of director James Whale, and I think he came to regard me as a project. He encouraged me to write about Whale — I had never written anything for publication in my life — and I, in turn, urged him to write a memoir of his work in the film industry.

David, I found, had a reputation for working with writers, and a remarkable sense of story and structure. But he could never get very far in putting his story down on paper. “I need someone to pull it out of me,” he said. Eventually, we embarked on a series of recordings, during which I would ask him questions. Then I would leave the tapes with him, and he would type them up, slowly but doggedly, a few pages a day, expanding and embellishing as he went.

When he was finished, I had hundreds of sheets of draft text but no idea of how to stitch them together. Regrettably, it was only after his death that I was able to edit that material into the 1993 book The Creative Producer: A Memoir of the Studio System.

David Lewis produced nearly 40 films, including Four’s a Crowd, The Sisters, and Raintree County, but he once told me he was only proud of four of them: Camille, Dark Victory, Kings Row, and All This, and Heaven Too. “And given the nature of the business,” he added, “that’s a pretty good average.”

A lot of space was devoted to those four renowned titles, with the most going to All This, which was probably David’s favorite. So with Winchell’s item in mind, I asked Larry if he’d like to post what David had to say about the film and its making, and about Rachel Field herself.

Previously by James Curtis:

James Curtis’ interview with Dick Lane Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

James Curtis’ interview with Jules White, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Continue reading →

Posted in Books and Authors, Film, Hollywood, James Curtis | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

1944 on the Radio — Dorothy Lamour on ‘Abbott and Costello’

Posted on February 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

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Feb. 17, 1944

It’s Thursday in 1944 and today we have:

— Dorothy Lamour is the guest on “Abbott and Costello.” Abbott has been elected mayor of Sherman Oaks! (Sherman Oaks is so small the motorcycle cops go around on roller skates). Courtesy of Archive.org.

— Dinah Shore sings “Speak Low” on “The Dinah Shore Show.” Courtesy of Archive.org.

—  Cass Daley and Marilyn Maxwell with Bing Crosby on “Kraft Music Hall.” Courtesy of Archive.org.

— “Life Ends at Midnight” with Fay Bainter and Dane Clark on “Suspense.” Courtesy of otrrlibrary.org.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — Marion Davies’ Santa Monica Beachside Cottage

Posted on February 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

Marion Davies Beach House

Marion Davies’ beach house, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

 


Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst inherited and erected lavish estates for himself around California like Wyntoon, his Northern California retreat, and Hearst Castle, his main residence on the Central Coast, but in 1926 he constructed a mammoth Georgian Colonial home on Santa Monica’s Gold Coast as a present for his companion, Marion Davies. A Hollywood version of a Newport Beach, Rhode Island, “cottage,” Davies’ mansion dwarfed those of fellow film industry notables like Douglas Fairbanks, Harold Lloyd, Harry Warner, and Constance and Norma Talmadge. Davies’ beach house represents the perfect combination of Hollywood excess and elegant architecture.

Marion Davies’ life was never the same after meeting business magnate Hearst. A Ziegfeld Follies girl, Davies’ charming, endearing personality attracted the much older, shyer man. By 1918, the pair were a twosome, though Hearst was married to Millicent, a former showgirl herself. The couple moved permanently to California in the mid-1920s to further Davies’ film career at MGM, and to distance themselves from his wife.

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

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Posted in Architecture, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

1944 in Print — ‘Walter Winchell on Broadway,’ Feb. 17, 1944

Posted on February 17, 2014 by lmharnisch

Feb. 17, 1944, Walter Winchell

Feb. 17, 1944

Note: If you haven’t noticed already, start keeping track of the number of times Walter Winchell takes a blast a certain members of Congress, particularly Rep. John Rankin (D-Miss.). Next month (that is, March 1944), Rep. Martin Dies, head of the what’s now known as the House Un-American Activities Committee, will accuse Winchell of being “a mouthpiece for a ‘smear bund’ that was trying to destroy Congress.”

Dies insisted that there was a “highly organized and well-financed enterprise to destroy by vilification the character of any public man who gets in the way of the objectives of the groups who manage and finance this offensive.”

The shadowy group’s objectives? To “undermine the authority and destroy the prestige of Congress in the interest of setting up an all-powerful central executive.”

Notes of a Newspaperman

Today’s colyum: Then there are the about-faces of the armchair strategists … Not long ago, lots of commentators were being very sarcastic about the military program in the South Pacific … They couldn’t think of anything more cutting than to call the Navy “island hoppers” … The name had the same note of panning as boondogglers or pub-crawlers … Then the victory which won the Marshalls brought this same mob to their feet cheering — acting just like they thawt out the whole maneuver themselves … Somebody’s going to have fun (after the war) collecting the memwars of the popper-offers — which’ll sell as humor.
You can have those idiotic pieces on Lincoln’s anniversary, too … Just make me an offer of any nickel … A lot of scriveners very kindly volunteered to explain how Abe would have run things today — deeming that little enough to do for him in his absence … One typewriter-spoiler thawt it highly significant that Lincoln had never been to Yurrop — and had no experience in international relations … The idea being, of course, that if Lincoln were alive today he would live in the same fog as they do — which is about as vicious an insult to his memory as you can imagine … Lincoln was so far ahead of his time that a lot of those who attempt to interpret him haven’t caught up to his 1861 point of view.

From the St. Petersburg Times.

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1944 on the Radio — Bing Crosby on ‘Mail Call’

Posted on February 16, 2014 by lmharnisch

radio_dial_1944

Feb. 16, 1944

It’s Wednesday in 1944 and today we have:

— Bing Crosby in “Mail Call.” And we have the hit song “My Heart Tells Me” plus “Stardust” and “Oh! What a Beautiful Morning,” sung by Connee Boswell. And opera singer Richard Crooks, who gets a chilly introduction from Der Bingle. Courtesy of Archive.org.

— “The Lone Ranger.” Courtesy of Archive.org.

— “To Your Good Health” from the House of Squibb. Betty Mulliner (which is not a name I recognize) sings “Musetta’s Waltz” from “La Boheme.” And you can depend on Squibb tooth powder! Courtesy of Archive.org.

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1944 in Print — ‘Walter Winchell on Broadway,’ Feb. 16, 1944

Posted on February 16, 2014 by lmharnisch

Feb. 16, 1944, Walter Winchell

Feb. 16, 1944

Man About Town

Errol Flynn was turned down for the seventh time by the Army and Navy. He is asking the latter for special service and a waiver on physical defects … Quentin Reynolds, the war correspondent, offers this retort by a general — for all the inane arguments as to how long the war will last … On his last trip abroad, Reynolds summoned enough nerve to ask Gen. Montgomery point-blank: “General, when do you think the war will end?” … Montgomery frowned and said: “Young man, only an idiot would ask it, and only an idiot would answer!”

Quite a rumpus at Penn Deppo the other day. Three different couples boarded a Florida bound train to learn all had been peddled the same accommodations — at black market fees, no less … Two ticket sellers were fired and the Pennsy for the first time in its history installed a vice president of the railroad to supervise ticket sales to Florida…. Allan Zoll, a founder of “The American Patriots” (before the war) is back after an enlistment with the Canadian army. One of his first visits was with Gerald L.K. Smith…. The mother of the five Sullivan Navy heroes is the source for the news that their grandfather was Jewish. In Germany that would have kept them out of the Nazi navy.

From the St. Petersburg Times.

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1944 on the Radio — Fred Astaire on ‘Burns and Allen’

Posted on February 15, 2014 by lmharnisch

radio_dial_1944

Feb. 15, 1944

It’s Tuesday in 1944 and today we have:

— Fred Astaire is the guest star on “Burns and Allen.” Courtesy of Archive.org.

— Fibber has his handwriting analyzed in “Fibber McGee and Molly.” Listen for a bit of “Mairzy Doats.” And be sure to wax the wire shelves in your refrigerator with Johnson’s Wax! Courtesy of Archive.org.

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1944 in Print — ‘Walter Winchell on Broadway,’ Feb. 15, 1944

Posted on February 15, 2014 by lmharnisch

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Feb. 15, 1944:

Notes of an Innocent Bystander

“The Sullivans” …  This is the movies’ memorial to the five Sullivan boys who died in the same sea action. It’s tender and moving and resists the temptation to cry too much. Thomas Mitchell and Anne Baxter are tip-top and so are the five lads who impersonate the Sullivan heroes … “Song of Russia” is full of good intentions, meaning to show how full of fight and moxie the Sovvys were when the Huns came. But the filmmakers figure Robert Taylor’s love for Susan Peters tops the defense of Russia, which isn’t what Stalin has been saying.

The annual radio editors’ poll (via The Billboard) for the fifth consecutive year elected Fred Waring’s show the top 15-minute event, which is what we’ve said all along.

FDR was severely criticized for having a message in Bibles sent to servicemen. Bibles sent during the last big war contained one from Wilson.

From the St. Petersburg Times.

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Vintage Valentines

Posted on February 14, 2014 by lmharnisch

Movie Fiend

My grandparents used to have a few of these insult valentines stashed in a drawer. But not this one, which seems as timely as ever. This example is listed on EBay with bids starting at $3. And Happy Valentine’s Day to all the movie fiends in the Daily Mirror Brain Trust!

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Black Dahlia: The Black Dahlia Files and Donald Wolfe

Posted on February 14, 2014 by lmharnisch

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While we are on the subject of nonsense in the Black Dahlia case, the Sky Valley Chronicle posted a story yesterday based on Donald H. Wolfe’s “The Black Dahlia Files.” As many of you may know, this book is so bad that I devoted an entire blog to debunking it.

Here is an index to the blog, which unmasks many of Wolfe’s errors and manipulations. Be sure to read “How to Fake a Document.”

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, Donald Wolfe, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

1944 in Print — Life Magazine, Feb. 14, 1944

Posted on February 14, 2014 by lmharnisch

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Feb. 14, 1944: Guess where we are! Featured movie of the week: “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek.” Courtesy of Google.

Feb. 14, 1944, What to Tell Your Husband

The Greatest Generation puzzles over women taking jobs.

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1944 on the Radio — ‘The Lone Ranger’

Posted on February 14, 2014 by lmharnisch

radio_dial_1944

Feb. 14, 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 — ‘Walter Winchell on Broadway,’ Feb. 14, 1944

Posted on February 14, 2014 by lmharnisch

Feb. 14, 1944, Walter Winchell

Feb. 14, 1944: Walter Winchell writes a “New York Newsreel,” a long series of vignettes of the city and its people. Here’s a sample:

The church for mutes, where the pastor’s sermon is delivered with his fingers and where the choir “sings” with their hands … The Sixth Avenue subway — five stories down … MacDougal Alley in Greenwich Village — a privately owned street — lit by gas lamps … The tattered old lady around midtown wearing a diamond bracelet. A tender reminder of her only love — killed in an accident 40 years ago … The wind at the corner of Madison and 42nd Street, revealing more undraped cuticle than any of the Broadway girlshows … The Chinese laundryman on 171st Street with the sassiest name of all: “Tip Want”… The downtown synagogue conspicuously displaying a “No Smoking” warning — in Yiddish. It is signed “Patrick Walsh, Fire Commissioner” … The beer truck, rumbling along Sixth Avenue — pulled by horses —the drivers with long mustachios … The colossal Automat on 57th Street —more sumptuous than many expensive nightclubs. Besides you don’t find drunks there.

From the St. Petersburg Times.

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Los Angeles, Hollywood’s Back Lot

Posted on February 13, 2014 by lmharnisch

Cillie Barnes Video

Cillie Barnes Video

I went to dinner last night at Grand Central Market and got these shots of a group filming a video. And since we’re all good Angelenos, we went “oh yeah, a film crew, a guy with a Stedicam”  and went about our business (except for me and the guy in the background getting a shot with his cellphone). A little investigation revealed that it was Cillie Barnes.

Posted in Broadway, Downtown, Film, Food and Drink, Hollywood, Photography | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Black Dahlia: George Hodel, Soil Analysis and Sweeps Month

Posted on February 13, 2014 by lmharnisch

Fail

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Look it’s an “update” on the Buster the Wonder Dog saga, via L.A. Observed.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

For those of you (that would be most of the world) who haven’t followed the saga of “Buster the Wonder Dog proves Dr. George Hodel killed the Black Dahlia at the Sowden house,” let me give you some crucial background information.

ALSO
Soil Samples at the Sowden House: FAIL
George ‘Evil Genius’ Hodel and the Black Dahlia: Another Good Story Ruined

The George Hodel files Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 |Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37

 

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Christine Pelisek in the Daily Beast writes one of the “cute animal story meets Jack the Ripper” items that flourished last year over Buster’s frolic at the Sowden house.

In February 2013, KNBC-TV Channel 4 was all over the story that retired Police Sgt. Paul Dostie and his miracle cadaver dog, Buster, had found “something” at the Sowden house in Hollywood that sort of, kind of, maybe proved that onetime occupant Dr. George Hodel killed someone, possibly Elizabeth Short, as claimed by retired LAPD Detective Steve Hodel. Steve Hodel has written extensively about how his father was an evil genius who committed virtually every unsolved murder in Los Angeles, invented the Edsel and Classic Coke. Oh, yes, and in his spare time he was Zodiac.  Soil samples were collected from the vicinity of the Sowden house and purportedly sent off for analysis.

If you read the fine print on the Buster the Wonder Dog stories, you discovered that the video that aired on Channel 4 was outtakes shot in November 2012 for the Syfy show “Ghost Hunters.” Syfy never aired the video. But February, after all, is a sweeps month, when TV stations  go on hyperdrive (emphasis on hype) to boost their Nielsen ratings because they determine ad rates and KNBC jumped all over the story.

So Buster’s cavorting at the Sowden house was all over the pop media and one-source news outlets a year ago.

To her credit, Pelisek was the only writer who had the smarts to ask Steve Hodel  when the results of the soil tests were going to be announced.

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Notice: “Soil samples were taken and results are expected next week.”

Those who pay attention to such things waited.

And waited.

And waited.

A week went by. Then two. Then a month. Then six months.

Finally on “Darkness Radio” on Nov. 5, 2013, on its “True Crime Tuesday” program,  Dostie said:

At that point we sent the samples off, and unfortunately we’ll probably not get analysis on that. (slight laugh) It’s been almost a year now. And it’s really unfortunate. But we can get some from outside…

When Steve Hodel says “soil analysis of dirt near a Hollywood home once occupied by his father contains markers of human remains,” I can’t imagine what he’s talking about. As far as I know, he and Dostie never got the results.

Another good story ruined.

Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments