If this image looking south on Spring Street on this 1907 postcard looks unfamiliar, there’s a reason. Most of the buildings are gone and Spring Street was straightened out to make way for City Hall. The postcard is listed on EBay for $5.
SPRING STREET REVISITED – a series of posts I wrote when the blog was at latimes.com
A copy of Parkey Sharkey’s “Whiskey Road” has been listed on EBay. Several years ago, the L.A. Daily Mirror acquired a copy and it occupies an honored place in the research library. There are those who assumed that Parkey Sharkey was merely an invention of the late columnist Paul Coates, who wrote about him regularly. No, Sharkey was a real person.
Bidding on “Whiskey Road,” which includes excerpts from Coates’ columns, starts at $24.95.
Here’s the Parkey Sharkey story, which I wrote when the blog was at latimes.com.
Aug. 30, 1953: Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charles W. Fricke grants attorneys for Barbara Graham a slight delay in opening their defense after the prosecution closes with a “bombshell”: A transcript of a recorded conversation between Graham and undercover Police Officer Samuel Sirianni.
Sirianni testified that he met with Graham at the County Jail and they planned a detailed alibi for the night of March 9, when Mabel Monahan was killed.
In the recorded conversation, Graham allegedly said that Baxter Shorter, who disappeared after turning informant “had been done away with.”
Court-appointed defense attorney Jack Hardy asked to withdraw from the case, but Fricke refused to grant permission. Defense attorney Benjamin Wolfe asked to listen to the original wire recording from which the transcript was prepared and said that much of the conversation in the transcript couldn’t be heard and that the transcript also misquoted the conversation.
Graham’s co-defendants were John A. Santo and Emmett Perkins. Graham died in the gas chamber at San Quentin at 11:42 a.m. on June 3, 1955. She wore a mask over the upper part of her face because “I don’t want to have to look at people,” she said. Perkins and Santo were executed together a few hours later, with Perkins dying at 2:40 p.m. and Santo at 2:41 p.m.
In the Theaters: “The Caddy.”
On TV: “Paul Coates Confidential” starts tonight.
Aug. 29, 1943: The family of Marine Cpl. Carroll E. Trego, a radio operator captured in the fall of Wake Island, receives a letter written from a prisoner of war camp in Shanghai.
Dr. John M. Andrews is being sued for $500,000 by Mr. and Mrs. Harry J. Hartwig after delivering a baby and telling the family that it was a boy, whom they named Richard Allen Hartwig — when it was actually a girl.
“At the time of delivery I didn’t pay any attention to whether it was a boy or girl. But I remember saying ‘It looks like a boy’ as Mrs. Hartwig was coming out of the ether,” Andrews said.
Police Chief Clemence C.B. Horrall is seeking two changes in the City Charter. One would exempt officers hired under wartime emergency provisions from the city pension system. The other would eliminate overlapping authority between the chief and the Police Commission.
Police round up 119 juveniles who were out after curfew at a drive-in at Anaheim and Gaffey streets in San Pedro.
In another black eye for Los Angeles sainted streetcar system, streetcar motorman Coy Gordon was distracted while making change and rammed into another streetcar that was stopped at Pico and Windsor boulevards. Eight people were injured, none seriously, The Times said.
In the Theaters: “I Walked Like a Zombie.”
August 1933: In my journey through years ending in “3,” I have neglected 1933, when the National Recovery Act took effect Aug. 1. President Roosevelt’s plan was to put people back to work by raising the minimum wage to $12 to $15 a week and cutting the work week to 40 hours for white-collar jobs and 35 hours for industrial jobs, The Times said.
With their new leisure time, some Los Angeles residents headed to the … library!
Among the provisions: “Child labor is prohibited except for free hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and a $1 differential is provided for 15 Southern States and the District of Columbia.”
L.A.’s sainted streetcar system: A driver sues the Los Angeles Railway Corp., charging that a negligent motorman ran a streetcar into his auto on West 10th Street near Irolo Street.
Opening tomorrow at Grauman’s Chinese: “Dinner at Eight.”
Follies Burlesque: 80 people — mostly girls
L.A. Observed has reposted this image, which was posted by Michael Beschloss, who identifies it as Broadway as it looked about 1902.
The entire Aug. 27, 1903, edition of the Herald is available here.
Aug. 27, 1903: The Los Angeles Times (and by extension, the Chandler family) is frequently treated as if it was the only paper in the city’s history. Those who delve into the subject know better, of course, but access to The Times’ long-dead rivals, such as the Examiner, Herald-Express and Daily News, is difficult because it involves microfilm, which is regrettable because the Examiner, for example, was a far superior paper in many respects – certainly when it came to crime coverage.
The California Digital Newspaper Collection has a wide assortment of papers, although few of them cover the Raymond Chandler era (1930s-1950s) that is so popular in the public imagination.
Here’s an issue from the Herald, which noted on its masthead that it was the oldest morning paper in Los Angeles, having been founded in 1873.
About 6,000 veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic gather at Eastlake Park (now Lincoln Park) for a reunion, with lunch, speeches and a massive bonfire. The band and drum corps from the Soldiers Home played “America, the Beautiful,” “Marching Through Georgia,” “Rally Round the Flag” and “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching.” Including wives and children, the total attendance was estimated at 10,000, the Herald said.
Those who think traffic in Los Angeles is a new problem – and that the streetcars were the perfect solution – please note:
The Los Angeles Railway company tripled its service to the park on both the Maple Avenue and Downey Avenue lines and even with the many additional cars the traffic was badly congested at times and the veterans had to wait for accommodations both going and coming.
Among the speakers was Will A. Harris, the son of a Confederate soldier, who spoke out against the lynching of African Americans.
William H. Potter of Alhambra appears before Judge Trask on an insanity charge. He is found to be suffering from “a plethora of money and has for years been busily engaged in having ‘a good time,’ so called,” The Herald said. “To blow in $500 in a day or two was a common occurrence with him, but as there did not appear to be any sign of actual insanity, Potter was discharged.”
And for Monday, we have a mystery fellow with the latest in gentlemen’s accessories.
The Studio Club in Photoplay, 1917.
T he advent of the 20th century offered the possibility of more freedom and opportunity for women. For decades, women had advocated for the right to vote, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Others clamored for more work opportunities beyond teaching, librarian, and secretarial positions.
The relatively new medium of motion pictures also tantalized audiences with many new possibilities beyond their hometowns: exciting new cities, novel hobbies and recreations, and modern employment opportunities. In fact, many people considered the growing film industry itself an excellent field to try their luck, especially movie-struck, naïve young women.
ALSO BY MARY MALLORY
Magic Castle
Mack Sennett
Brand Library
Auction of Souls
Black Dahlia breakthrough!
Let us suppose that there was a mathematician. A retired mathematician who once taught at a major university, who published and received tenure, and retired as a well-regarded member of the faculty.
Let us further suppose that in retirement, this mathematician wrote a book and on the day of publication called a news conference to announce his stunning discovery:
1 + 1 = 3.
The way the retired mathematician derived this amazing breakthrough was not through the typical methods that have been used for millennia. Instead, the mathematician had spent hours and hours gazing at photographs and paintings of the number “1” and the number “3.”
Until finally, seizing upon Salvador Dali’s surrealist painting “Persistence of Memory,” the mathematician found the proof he was seeking.
1 + 1 = 3. Don’t you see it?
To skeptics who insisted that he was wrong and that any child with a calculator could prove that 1 + 1 = 2, the mathematician would say that there was a vast, shadowy conspiracy among the calculator and adding machine cartels of the world, who were ruthlessly suppressing the facts. Indeed, much of the book was devoted to the massive “coverup” mounted by Texas Instruments, Casio, Hewlett-Packard and other office machine manufacturers to prevent anyone from learning the truth.
Once he embarked on his theory, the mathematician would go on to make other, similar discoveries: 2 + 2 = 5, therefore 2 x 2 = 5, thus rendering any number times itself an odd number. He capped his theory with the long-sought and elusive square root of –1, widely assumed to be an “imaginary” number, (or “Error” to the calculator and adding machine cartels determined to ruthlessly suppress the truth), which was 42.
Proof of the coverup by the calculator and adding machine cartels!
In the ensuing years, the mathematician built up elaborate theories about other mathematical concepts that were wrong, including the secret messages contained in five-place log tables, publishing more books, maintaining a website and delivering occasional public appearances about his increasingly complex theory, all of it based on 1 + 1 = 3 and the shadowy conspiracy of the calculator and adding machine cartels determined to suppress the truth.
The mathematician gained a number of followers, who likewise insisted that “I think he’s proved it!” and “Yes, 1 + 1 = 3.” The supermarket media adored the mathematician, writing headlines such as: “Math Prof Claims 1 + 1 = 3!” It was never necessary to interview anyone else about the validity of the theory. “Math Prof Claims 1 + 1 = 3” was sufficient. The mathematician sold books (some of them self-published), gave lectures and all was well.
But not really, because 1 + 1 = 2 and any elementary school pupil who turned in 1 + 1 = 3 was marked wrong.
Black Dahlia breakthrough! Former homicide cop says dad was Black Dahlia killer!
Which brings us to the George “Evil Genius” Hodel Franchise.
Recently, author Steve Hodel has received publicity about “new evidence” in the Black Dahlia case.
Ignoring the problems of the “old evidence,” which is the foundation of everything that follows, including the “new evidence.”
And that is this: The photographs found in the belongings of Dr. George Hodel after his death – claimed in the “Black Dahlia Avenger” series to show Elizabeth Short – are not Elizabeth Short.
One might question the validity of the original assumption – that both photographs were of the same woman, and that woman was Elizabeth Short – when one of the women came forward and identified herself as Marya Marco.
The remaining and unidentified (at least for now) photo is likewise not Elizabeth Short. This is according to the family of Elizabeth Short, whom I consider definitive.
And if the spurious photo is removed, the entire George “Evil Genius” Hodel scenario collapses like a house of cards in a strong wind. Because without this spurious photo, there is nothing to show that Dr. George Hodel and Elizabeth Short ever met.
I have heard one of Steve Hodel’s presentations, and when confronted with this statement, he talked his way around it by saying that the photos merely served to get him interested in the case and that it was irrelevant whether they were Elizabeth Short. But at that time he said he believed they were her.
The truth is that there is nothing to show that George Hodel and Elizabeth Short ever met.
In other words: George Hodel + Elizabeth Short = 0
Grant Edward Anderson was a war hero, a burglar and a killer.
A paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, Anderson served 19 months overseas, received two Purple Hearts, and was awarded the Bronze Star for dragging four wounded men to safety through a mine field in Italy.
The 1000 block of San Vicente Boulevard via Google’s Street View.
Discharged from the Army in 1945, he received a monthly disability payment because of shrapnel in his right knee. But for some reason, Anderson turned to crime. He was sentenced to prison in 1959 for a burglary in Santa Barbara and released in 1961.
He was arrested later that year for burglarizing the Beverly Hills home of Helen Noga, the manager of singer Johnny Mathis. Police found him loading a stolen car with clothing, jewelry and appliances taken from the home at 806 N. Elm Drive. They found something else: A tourist map of movie stars’ homes, marked in seven places where Anderson planned burglaries.
Aug. 22, 1953: Fred Frank Wildemuth kills his wife because he didn’t want her to catch carbon monoxide poisoning from him.
“I, the Jury” in 3-D at the Paramount theaters in Hollywood and downtown.
A brilliant — and unidentified — boy scientist is arrested on charges of stealing a fortune in scientific equipment from Caltech. The youth — who won an award for a rocket design — led companions through a network of tunnels beneath the campus to gain access to the labs, The Times said.
Dr. Alfred Kinsey will give a lecture at the Greek Theater.
Mrs. Theodore B. Polson, 55, dies after leaping from the fourth floor of a hotel at 206 W. 6th St.
Johnny Green conducts a concert of Gershwin’s music at the Hollywood Bowl with pianist Andre Previn (yes, that Andre Previn) as soloist.
Aug. 21, 1943: Two women from the LAPD are joining the Marines: Lucy White, 26, who works in the fingerprinting department, and Margaret Davis, 22, of the record bureau.
Judge Benjamin J. Scheinman is leaving the municipal bench to join the service, where he will study military government. Scheinman, 46, is the first local judge to join the service, The Times says. Scheinman, who refused to grant Joan Crawford a divorce from Franchot Tone in 1939 until she appeared in court, died in 1954 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57.
The entire Aug. 15, 1863, issue of the Los Angeles Star, scanned from a copy at the Huntington, is available from USC (in color) or the California Digital Newspaper Collection (black and white).
Aug. 15, 1863: Another installment of the virulently pro-Southern, pro-Confederacy, anti-Lincoln Los Angeles Star. Seen in this context, the Times editorials of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis seem rather tame, I must say.
The French Benevolent Society, which has 150 members, celebrates its fourth anniversary. Recall that the Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded in 1854.
The city of Los Angeles is soliciting bids for 15,000 feet of wooden pipe.
The Board of Supervisors takes up the matter of jury duty for the grand jury and trial juries.
A Ladies Festival is being held Aug. 24, in two rooms over the stores of Corbitt & Barker and Hellman.
Jurors are named for the murder trial of George F. Morris.
The killing of Austria’s Franz Ferdinand in 1914 helped kick off the Great War, or what we now know as World War I. Brutal fighting led to maimings and killings on a scale never witnessed before. Great Britain and France urged the United States to join them in the conflict, but most of America supported neutrality and peace. Author Marian Craig Wentworth decided to write a play promoting pacifism to such a degree that it would help lead to an end in ever going to war.
Born in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 25, 1871, Wentworth graduated from the University of Minnesota, where she gained understanding regarding injustice around the world. She supported voting rights for women, freedom, and peace and justice issues, writing articles and giving speeches promoting her causes.
ALSO BY MARY MALLORY
Ned Sparks, Hollywood Grouch
John Decker, Painter to the Stars
Mack Sennett and Studio City’s Central Motion Picture District
Aug. 16, 1983: Former Times reporter Joel Sappell reports on allegations by Detective Michael J. Rothmiller that the LAPD’s Organized Crime Intelligence Division spied on Mayor Tom Bradley, then-Atty.Gen. John Van de Kamp, and other U.S., state, county and local officials.
In the theaters: “Cujo,” “The Grey Fox,” “The Man Who Wasn’t There 3-D,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Trading Places” and “Zelig.”
On TV: “The A Team” “The team lands smack in the middle of a battle between a monstrous motorcycle gang and a small-town sheriff (Repeat).”
Leonard Slatkin conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.
Yul Brynner is performing “The King and I” with his wife, Kathy Lee, at the Pantages.
David Bowie’s concert at the Forum is reviewed by Robert Hilburn. It is “the most captivatingly ambitious and warmly uplifting arena rock show here since Bruce Springsteen’s socially conscious appearances in 1981,” Hilburn says.
This young woman attracted several observers as she stood on 6th Street just west of Spring — near the Starbucks — on Wednesday evening to sketch the streetscape. I didn’t want to interrupt her to ask her name. All I know is that she’s good — and left-handed.
Here’s a closer look at her work:
Aug. 15, 1943: Los Angeles’ long-gone streetcar system has achieved sainthood, but here’s an incident suggesting that in reality, it was less than perfect. (Heresy, I know).
Shura Cherkassky performs at the Greek Theatre.
Hedda Hopper with her version of how Abbott and Costello got together.
As strange as the tale of Michael Timothy Cavanaugh had been, the case became even more bizarre once he was arrested. After several days of denying that he knew ex-Marine Ralph Welch, even though he was driving Welch’s car and had Welch’s wallet and ID papers, Cavanaugh agreed to be interrogated under the influence of sodium amytal, often referred to at the time as “truth serum.”
In the days that followed, Cavanaugh gave several conflicting accounts of killing Welch, but the information he provided enabled Albuquerque police to locate Welch’s remains off Route 66. Desert animals had eaten much of the body, which was badly decomposed, making it impossible to determine the cause of death.
ladailymirror.com 