An anonymous drawing of Cafe de Leche found in Cafe de Leche.
I am at Cafe de Leche in Highland Park this morning and a little while ago I heard the woman at the next table tell her companion that “All in the Family” starred Ed Asner. So I had to do an emergency Baby Boomer cultural intervention. She was very nice and explained that she’s a history teacher and was trying to think of sitcoms that her students could watch to compare modern situation comedies with those of earlier eras.
And for the last mystery photo of 2013, we have this New Year’s Eve mystery woman.
Yes, it’s Gloria Swanson. And why would there be a photo of Gloria Swanson on New Year’s Eve? To reference this scene, set on a very different New Year’s Eve. (Back of the Head Guy = William Beedle Jr.)
Happy New Year’s Eve 1943 from the pen of Ernie Bushmiller!
Dec. 31, 1943: The Times lists the top stories of 1943. For Los Angeles, that included Zoot Suit Riots (June 7), the 48-hour work week (July 21) and Frank Sinatra at the Hollywood Bowl (Aug. 11).
Film columnist Philip K. Scheuer goes through his calendar, listing what he considered the hits and duds for every month of the year. The titles will challenge all but the hardest-core TCM fans. For every “Casablanca” or “Ox Bow Incident” there’s half a dozen “Chetniks” (later titled “The Fighting Guerrillas”) or “Lucky Jordan.”
Here’s Monday’s mystery chap, courtesy of writer Christopher McPherson.
The Studio City Theatre, courtesy of Mary Mallory.
Celebrities and movies have existed as an integral part of Studio City’s economic life from its very beginning. Established as a motion picture district in 1928, Studio City would see entertainment-related businesses spring up over the years, as well as retail and restaurant establishments run by motion picture and television stars. What had originally been ranch and farmland would eventually become an entertainment hub for the city of Los Angeles.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
An Abbotwares radio, known as “Atwater Kent’s love child from a drunken night in a trophy shop,” has been listed on EBay. Usually these radios, which were made in Los Angeles, take the form of horses (or the elusive Hula Girl radio). I’ve never seen the Babe Ruth version before. For all I know it sings “Hello, My Baby” on the hour.
This item is listed as Buy It Now for $1,499.99, which means it will never grace the city room of the L.A. Daily Mirror. And we can all be thankful for that.
Dec. 27, 1943: The British sink the Nazi battleship Scharnhorst off the coast of Norway. With the loss of the Scharnhorst, and the sinking of the Bismarck in 1941, the Nazis were left with the Tirpitz, the sister ship of the Bismarck, and the Gneisenau, the Scharnhorst’s sister ship. The Gneisenau was badly damaged in a 1942 bombing raid while in dry dock and scuttled in 1945. The Tirpitz was hit by “midget submarines” and after continuing attempts was destroyed in 1944.
Tom Treanor, who will be killed in a jeep accident during the liberation of France, writes of spending Christmas Eve with a P-40 squadron in Italy. The fliers have made themselves comfortable after previous hardships. “No use making war tougher than it already is,” Treanor says.
Continue reading
Just in time for New Year’s, we’ll take a look at a “lost drink,” making a brief inquiry into San Francisco’s Pisco Punch, made famous by Bank Exchange saloon owner Duncan Nicol (often spelled Nichol or Nicoll), who died in 1926 without revealing the recipe.
1980 was a bloody year in Los Angeles, with more than 1,000 killings for the first time in its history.
For the LAPD, homicides increased 30% from 1979 to 1,038 in 1980. The Sheriff’s Department also a reported a 7.9% increase to 424 homicides, according to a 1981 story in The Times, although the Sheriff’s Department now reports the 1980 homicide figure as 372.
In November 1980, Sheriff Peter Pitchess said the homicide rate for all of Los Angeles County was 1,557 for 1979, and noted grimly: “This year we are past the 1,500 mark already, the way we are going we’re going to be around 2,500. Pretty close. Some place above 2,000.”
But Los Angeles was not alone. Even its sedate neighbor, Orange County, experienced a 19.1% increase, from 93 to 122, according to The Times.
The Slaughter at Bob’s Big Boy occurred on the violent weekend of Dec. 12-14, 1980. But the 32 homicides failed to set a record. The LAPD had recorded 34 homicides on three previous weekends in 1980 (Aug. 1-3, Aug. 29-31 and Oct. 10-12) and from Dec. 28-30, 1979, recorded 36 homicides.
Amid the rising fear of deadly violence, Los Angeles was wondering why.
“Some attribute the rising homicide rate to what they believe are lenient judges, lenient legislators and a public acceptance of ‘doing your own thing.’ Others attribute it to poverty, child abuse, insanity and drugs,” The Times said in a January 1981 analysis.
It’s beyond the scope of the L.A. Daily Mirror to examine even a fraction of the more than 1,038 killings that occurred in the city of Los Angeles in 1980. It’s impossible to even examine in any depth all 32 homicides that occurred on the violent weekend of Dec. 12-14, 1980.
So we will look at one case: The Slaughter at Bob’s Big Boy.
To be continued.
 Suspect 1, DR-80-585-895 |
 Suspect 2, DR-80-585-895 |
Dec. 14, 1980: The takeover robbery of Bob’s Big Boy at 1845 S. La Cienega Blvd. was part of a rising tide of violence in the 1980s. As The Times noted, “the latest multiple murders occurred about eight blocks from the spot where four people were shot to death last Aug. 24.”
In an Opinion piece, then-Dist. Atty. John Van de Kamp said: “With the latest wave of slaughter has come a general recognition that the world around us is intolerably violent and that if we want to survive we’d better do something about it.
“This recognition is late. It has come only after years of spiraling homicide rates, only after the fear of homicide has gripped the upper and middle classes — those people who control our society.
“It has come only after killings in such affluent places as Venice, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hancock Park and on La Cienega Boulevard at Bob’s Big Boy restaurant have brought home the undeniable fact that today no one is immune to violence.”
To be continued.
Last night at work, we got to talking about the Bruce Pardo case. He’s the man who dressed up as Santa Claus and killed nine people, including his ex-wife, at a Christmas Eve party in 2009. Here’s the story by Tami Abdollah, now with the Associated Press.
A not great photo by me showing the Lindbergh beacon in December 2006.
I noticed several weeks ago that the Lindbergh beacon at City Hall hadn’t been turned on and I thought maybe I was being premature. But as of last night (Christmas Eve, ahem) the Lindbergh beacon still wasn’t lit. In case you don’t know, the Lindbergh beacon was placed on City Hall to honor a certain aviator who did something rather famous. It was turned off during World War II, during the blackout/dim-out years, and afterward put on display at LAX.
In recent years, it was restored and put back atop City Hall, where it was lit up during the holidays, as shown in this photo from 2006.
This year, no Lindbergh beacon. Does anybody know why?
Dec. 25, 1913: The Times carries a biblical passage across the nameplate (notice the artwork of the new and old Times buildings) and a Page 1 cartoon by Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale. “Cartoonist Gale” frequently drew a character known as Miss Los Angeles, but I don’t recall seeing “Mr. Wad” before. Gale was an institution at The Times for many years, but finally quit in a dispute and went to the Los Angeles Examiner.
One way Los Angeles celebrated Christmas 100 years ago was dinner at the Cafe Bristol, Spring and 4th streets. The 50-cent luncheon deluxe would be $11.80 today.
Or one could take a refreshing, invigorating bath at Melrose Avenue and Gower Street, location of the Radium Sulphur Springs, which advertises: Drink the most radioactive natural curative mineral water.
And there’s a poem by Britain’s poet laureate, Robert Bridges, which you may recognize because John Denver turned it into a song, “Christmas Eve, 1913.”
Best wishes from the Los Angeles Daily Mirror.
Jack Benny at the microphone, a photo listed on EBay for $9.97.
Here are some of Jack Benny’s Christmas shows, courtesy of Archive.org.
Dec. 20, 1934: In case you doubted me (but you wouldn’t, would you?), here’s a recipe for the Bronx Cocktail, from the Amsterdam Evening Recorder, courtesy of FultonHistory.com.
In case you plan to mix one up, a Bronx Cocktail is one part Italian vermouth, three parts brandy and a dash of orange bitters. Shake well!
Notice that there are also three variations of the Manhattan.
Martians kidnap Santa Claus in the heartwarming Christmas favorite “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.”
OK, everybody has had their yearly fix of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Time for *my* traditional Christmas favorite: “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” Via Hulu. Watch for Pia Zadora (you do remember Pia Zadora, don’t you?) in the terrifying “polar bear sequence.”
To the person searching for “clod cases in San Francisco”: Check your spelling. On the other hand, you might be able to find a clod case in San Francisco.
Or two.
I found this inscription last night at the Last Book Store in a copy of “Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites” by our old nonsense-slinging friend E.J. Fleming of “Wallace Beery beat Ted Healy to death in the parking lot of the Trocadero” fame. I put it back ($10? Are you kidding?) but not before copying this long inscription to Amy. Nothing says “I love you” like Hollywood deaths and scandals.
The Santa Claus newsboy cap, available for $32 here.
It’s Christmas Eve! Are you still wondering about a last-minute present?
It may be too late to get a Santa Claus newsboy cap, but here’s a gift that lasts all year, doesn’t need to be wrapped and doesn’t cost a penny: A year’s subscription to the L.A. Daily Mirror!
Season’s Greetings and Merry Christmas!
ladailymirror.com 
