| Larry Harnisch Reflects on L.A. History | Page 25

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Los Angeles Silent Film Festival Debuts

Posted on September 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

Clara Bow in Kid Boots (1926).

The Los Angeles Silent Film Festival achieved remarkable success for its debut the weekend of September 12-14, drawing large, young, and enthusiastic crowds eager for silent films. Organized as “a celebration devoted to the artistry, innovation, and enduring power of silent cinema,” the festival screened a combination of well known classics and recently restored films, offering a little something to please everyone. Produced in conjunction with the American Cinematheque and Mount St. Mary’s Department of Film, Media and Communication, organizers Thomas Barnes, founder of Retroformat Silent Films, Kelby Thwaits, Director of Graduate Programs in Film, Television, and New Media at Mount St. Mary’s, and filmmaker Brooke Dammkoehler, the LASFF revealed the power of silent films to still emotionally speak to us today.

Over the weekend, the Festival recognized two archivists for their contributions to the field. Renowned author and respected film historian Anthony Slide received the LASFF Award for Film Scholarship to recognize how his “research and writing have rescued films, artists, and stories from obscurity.” For more than 50 years, his erudite research, audio commentaries, essays, and writing of such books as Lois Weber: The director Who Lost Her Way in History and The Silent Feminists have educated cinemagoers and deepened their understanding of the workings of the silent film industry and its founding pioneers..

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged #Silent Films, hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Comments Off

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

This week’s mystery movie was the 1960 episode The Case of the Treacherous Toupee, which opened the fourth season of Perry Mason.

With Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, William Hopper, William Talman, Ray Collins, Peggy Converse, Philip Ober, Bert Freed, Cindy Robbins, Thomas B. Henry, Robert Redford, Nelson Olmsted, Dee Arlen, Jonathon Hole, Frank Wilcox, Lindsay Workman, Juney Ellis, Rita Duncan, Hal Smith, Len Henry, George E. Stone, Lee Miller and Patricia Marlowe.

Perry Mason is available on DVD from Critics’ Choice Video and is streaming on the web. Continue reading →

Posted in 1960, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged film, hollywood, mystery photo, Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, Robert Redford | 34 Comments

September 22, 1907: No Divorce, Judge Says, You Knew He Was a Bellboy When You Married Him!

Posted on September 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

September 22, 1907
Los Angeles

She was 34 and a successful businesswoman. He was a 19-year-old bellboy at the Hollenbeck Hotel.

Emma and George Lloyd were married and for a time were quite happy, with Emma running her milliner’s shop at 2132 Downey Ave., and George getting a job as a waiter in an Eastside restaurant.

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Posted in 1907, Crime and Courts | Tagged 1907, bellboys, crime and courts, divorce | Comments Off

September 21, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on September 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 21, 1959: “After many months of research and collaboration, writers Harry Essex and Irving Shulman have finished a pre-sold novel based on [Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s] life and the sensational scandal that marred it. The title, ‘Fatty.’ ” (This book was evidently never published–lrh).

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Posted in books, Columnists, Film, Hollywood, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off

September 21, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on September 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

Sept. 21, 1959: Paul Coates writes about the damaging effects of Little Rock, Ark., closing its schools over integration.

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Posted in Columnists, Countdown to Watts, Paul Coates | Comments Off

Sept. 21, 1947: Los Angeles Leads U.S. in Burglaries, Ranks 3rd in Killings After New York, Chicago

Posted on September 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

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September 21, 1907: 26 Men Deported to China

Posted on September 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

September 21, 1907
Los Angeles

It is one thing to know in the abstract about racial intolerance at the turn of the 20th century and quite another to have to read it in the daily paper. I will spare you the long quotes in pidgin Chinese dialect, but trust me, they make the Charlie Chan movies look like models of multiculturalism.

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Posted in 1907, Film, Hollywood, Immigration | Tagged 1907, Asians, China, deportation, immigration | Comments Off

September 20, 1947: Marie ‘The Body’ McDonald Marries Karl the Shoe Man

Posted on September 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Marie (The Body) McDonald, 23-year-old film actress, last night was married to Harry Karl, 33, shoe merchant, in a quiet civil ceremony at the home of Karl’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Karl, 829 N. Orlando St.

Superior Court Judge Edward R. Brand performed the ceremony, after which the wedding party attended a reception at the Mocambo restaurant on the Sunset Strip.

The couple will fly to New York for a three-week honeymoon, Karl said, and then return to live in Los Angeles.

Miss McDonald and Karl met at a Hollywood party 15 months ago. It was the second marriage for both. The actress divorced Vic Orsatti, theatrical agent, in Nevada five months ago. Karl was divorced from his first wife, Mrs. Ruth Karl, two years ago.

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Posted in 1947, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood | Tagged #Kidnapping, 1947, film, hollywood, Marie 'The Body' McDonald | Comments Off

September 20, 1907: Suicide Note — ‘Everything Is Boiling’

Posted on September 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

September 20, 1907
Los Angeles

For weeks, Colorado mining investor John Geisel, 57, had confided in his diary as he felt his mind and his life coming unraveled “Good God,” he wrote, “for the first time today I began to fear that I could not control my thoughts.”

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Posted in 1883, 1907, 1950, Architecture, Downtown, Suicide | Comments Off

September 19, 1957: Paul V. Coates–Confidential File

Posted on September 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

Sept. 19, 1957

Never underestimate the power of little old ladies.

I did, two days ago.

I accused a frail, grandmotherly type, born circa 1887, of pulling an amusing little con game to gain herself a free meal or a few bucks
pocket change.

She answered classified ads–I pointed out–representing herself as a wealthy, slightly eccentric old dame. Promising to buy $1,000 pieces of furniture or invest a fast ten grand in some business venture, she would then commence to wangle a free dinner invitation or “suddenly” discover she’d lost her change purse and “borrow” an easy five or ten
bucks from the unsuspecting advertiser.

In Tuesday’s column I mentioned a visit by Granny to the home of interior decorator Barney Feldman. Continue reading →

Posted in Columnists, LAPD, Paul Coates | Tagged 1957, Paul Coates | Comments Off

September 19, 1947: L.A. OKs Right Turn on Red Light!

Posted on September 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Adopted across the country and lampooned by Woody Allen, Los Angeles’ right turn on a red light was born in obscurity. Although the city used traffic semaphores (mechanical devices with metal arms reading “STOP” and “GO” that swung out of the signal—just like in the old cartoons and the opening of “Double Indemnity”) instead of lights, the right turn on red was in effect as early as 1939, when the City Council sought to ban them.

The state Legislature banned the right turn on red in 1945, but because cities were allowed to post exceptions, three survived: Mission Road at Macy Street and Sunset Boulevard at Castellar Street (now Hill Street), both downtown; and at Ventura and Lankershim Boulevards in the Valley.

Restored in 1947, the right turn on red remains the birthright of all L.A. motorists.

Bonus factoids: The city experimented with synchronized signals in 1922 to ease traffic. The length of a stop was cut from 45 seconds to 30.

“The traffic situation is Los Angeles’ single biggest problem,” The Times said — in 1924.

Posted in 1947, Art & Artists, Comics, Transportation | Tagged #Traffic, 1947, comics, right turn on red, transportation, Woody Allen | Comments Off

1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, September 19, 1944

Posted on September 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

Sept. 19, 1944

Walter Winchell says: FDR’s desk has four new miniatures of his sons in uniform. The Copacabana’s new revue starring Joe E. Lewis is the talk of the town. Before Pearl Harbor there were 3,000 Jap organizations in the U.S. The G-men have whittled them down to two.

Danton Walker says: The Pentagon Building personnel is in a dither over Gen. Lear’s determination to move out all officers and swivel chair strategists under the age of 45 who can be used in more active service…. Washington is hopped up over the persistent rumor that the Russians will join us in the war on Japan as soon as the Nazis are pushed off Russian territory.

Louella Parsons says: The much-sought after Academy Award winner, Jennifer Jones, who has had all the studios bidding for her, makes her next movie for Hal Wallis. Yes, indeed, over the weekend David Selznick read the script by Ayn Rand, liked it, and told Hal that Jennifer was free to start any time. So apparently the trouble with 20th is all settled…. I was interested to hear that Ayn Rand, author of “Fountainhead,” had prepared the script. Wonder what happened to “Fountainhead” if it is to be filmed?

From the Philadelphia Inquirer via Fultonhistory.com.
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Posted in 1944, Columnists, Film, Hollywood | Tagged 1944, comics, Danton Walker, film, hollywood, Louella Parsons, Walter Winchell | Comments Off

September 19, 1944: Allies 310 Miles From Berlin!

Posted on September 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 19, 1944

At a Town Hall luncheon at the Biltmore, RAF Wing Cmdr. Christopher Currant tells the audience that what we now know as the V-2 rocket is the greatest argument against isolationism.

“It can be dropped on New York without any difficulty. It is merely a matter of fuel,” he says.

Currant also says that the morale of German fliers is extremely low and added: “Both American and British fliers were disappointed when during the invasion of France they found no air resistance. We had expected the greatest air battle of all times.”

Times reporter and columnist Gene Sherman files a first-person report from Palau and describes fierce fighting against the Japanese.

“The waves lap at a naked Marine whose body was burned yesterday in a shell explosion. He lies with his arms upraised. Another Marine kneels with bowed head in prayer at an ammunition box.”

Opening today: “Kismet” at the Egyptian, Fox Ritz and Los Angeles theaters.

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Posted in 1944, Aviation, Film, Hollywood, World War II | Tagged 1944, film, Gene Sherman, hollywood, World War II | Comments Off

September 19, 1907: Deadlier Than Male

Posted on September 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Sept. 19, 1907
Los Angeles

“Hidden somewhere in Los Angeles is a daredevil Spanish woman who should be standing with the Mexican revolutionaries when they are arraigned here in the United States Court,” The Times says.

“Letters recently confiscated show that she was the most daring and reckless anarchist of all the band. Her name is Maria Talivera. She is said to be a beautiful and attractive woman. Her friends and even her husband regarded her as a quiet housewife, intent on cooking frijoles. But in her fry pans she was seeing men fighting, hearing in the sizzle of the grease the clash of arms, the pound of horses’ feet and the din and commotion of a nation’s government overthrown.”

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September 18, 1947: Navajo Teenagers Arrive at Sherman Institute

Posted on September 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

RIVERSIDE—A contingent of 369 Navajo Indian boys and girls from New Mexico and Arizona has arrived at Riverside’s famed Sherman Institute.

Many of the youngsters, who range in age from 10 to 18, will be introduced to formal schooling for the first time, but others are returning for the second year of the Navajo educational program.

Last year, emphasis was principally on trade schooling, but the younger Navajos, many of them unable to speak English, were brought here for basic schooling.

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Posted in 1947, Education | Tagged 1947, education, Native Americans, Navajos, Sherman Institute | Comments Off

September 18, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on September 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

Everyone seems to be trying to settle on what Mr. K. “should really see” when he gets to L.A. — ranging from beatnik joints to supermarkets to the interchange and freeway traffic, Matt Weinstock says.

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September 18, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on September 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 18, 1959: “The only trouble with a woman who ‘wants a man’ is that everybody knows it,” Dear Abby says.

Paul Coates writes of Richard Swanson’s death: “At SC, for example, there are 32 fraternities. I’m told, on excellent authority, that at least 90% make hazing an annual practice. There’s a university regulation forbidding it. Now, there’s even a state law against it. Yet the students make no secret of their ceremonies. I’m not so naive as to believe that the school administrators didn’t know what was going on. They did know. But, in spite of a growing list of pointless deaths which result from the practice, they did nothing to stop it.”

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1944 in Print — Life Magazine, Sept. 18, 1944

Posted on September 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 18, 1944

After spending Labor Day in Pawling, Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey drove to New York for conferences with John Foster Dulles, his adviser on foreign affairs, and Herbert Brownell, Republican National Committee chairman. The next day, on an 11-car special train, accompanied by 65 reporters, he started on his 6,700-mile campaign trip to the Pacific coast. In Philadelphia, he delivered his opening campaign speech.

Ever wonder what would happen of Salvador Dali was a commercial artist?

Life features Ed Wynn’s whimsical “inventions.”

And after the war, get ready for television.

Scanned by Google Books.
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Posted in 1944, Film, Hollywood, Television, World War II | Tagged 1944, film, hollywood, Television, World War II | Comments Off

1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, September 18, 1944

Posted on September 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 18, 1944

Walter Winchell and Danton Walker refer to the Aug. 5 fight between Jon Hall and Tommy Dorsey in the so-called Battle of the Balcony at Dorsey’s apartment on the Sunset Strip.

Walter Winchell says: Norma Shearer is trying to mend the L.B. Mayers’ split. Jack Marshall suggests a new theme song for slugger Tommy Dorsey: “Would You Like to Swing on a Star?”

Danton Walker says: The Xavier Cugat divorce papers were filed a month ago and the story leaked out only accidentally.

The Crown Prince of Nigeria has arranged with Barney Josephson, owner of the two Cafe Society nightclubs (Uptown and Downtown), to have prominent Negro talent visit his country after the war.

This week, Universal Pictures sent out beautiful invitations for the premiere of “San Diego, I Love You,” the covers of which bore pictures of Jon Hall fighting over a beautiful gal.

Louella Parsons says: I felt sure it would be only a question of time before the story of Mother Cabrini, who devoted her life to underprivileged children, would reach the screen.

VIRGO: Profits, returns from investments, collections no prominent but tasks will done will bring just reward in due time. Be guided by importance and urgency of duties.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer via Fultonhistory.com.

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Posted in 1944, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Horoscope | Tagged 1944, comics, Danton Walker, film, hollywood, horoscope, Louella Parsons, Walter Winchell | Comments Off

September 18, 1933: Bandit Killed, LAPD Officers Wounded in Burlesque Theater Shootout

Posted on September 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

September 18, 1933: Jack Keating, 30, and John Melvin Early, 35, had a plan to rob the Girlesque Theater at 510 S. Main St., but when the shooting was over, Keating was dead and Early and two men who helped plan the robbery were in jail.

The robbery began shortly after the midnight show, when Keating and Early drew guns and forced Girlesque employees Robert Winslow and his wife, Mildred, to escort them to the theater office, where manager John R. Ward and C.C. Hurst were present.

Another employee, Edward Sweeney, seeing the Winslows with two strangers, sensed that something was wrong, slipped out of the theater through a side door and found Officers H.W. Tash and S.D. Moore at 5th Street and Main.

In the meantime, Ward told the gunmen: “If this is a holdup, here is all the money I have,” throwing two $5 bills and 11 $1 bills ($377.35 USD 2013) on the floor, The Times said.

The officers arrived at the theater as Early and Keating were tying up the victims with wire, and the robbers began shooting. The police killed Keating, but were badly wounded by Early, who surrendered when he ran out of bullets.

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Posted in 1933, Art & Artists, Comics, Downtown, Hollywood, LAPD, Main Street, Theaters | Tagged #Main Street, 1933, burlesque, comics, lapd, theaters | Comments Off