Photo: The bedroom of the Oviatt Building’s penthouse. Credit: Larry Harnisch/LADailyMirror.com
My latest column, on Marc Chevalier and his amazing knowledge of all things Oviatt, appears in The Times today. I should add that the 2008 documentary mentioned in the column was directed by Seth Shulman who also filmed, edited, and sound mixed it.
This photo of the Follies Burlesque on Main Street has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $22.99.
Here’s today’s mystery guest, courtesy of Steven Bibb.
Photo: Jules White in an undated picture.
Here’s another of those interviews I did during a random burst of energy in 1975. This one took place a couple of weeks before my previously-posted talk with Dick Lane, and my memory is that this one is probably a bit better because of the range of topics it covers.
Jules White started in the movies as a child actor around 1910, transitioning to film editing at the age of 20. He spent several years as a cutter for Educational Pictures, then started directing two-reel comedies for the company. He worked at Fox for a year, returned to Educational where his elder brother Jack White was director-general, and moved to M-G-M in 1929. Partnered with Zion Myers, he co-directed two series of shorts there as well as the Buster Keaton feature “Sidewalks of New York.” In 1933 White joined Columbia, where he was soon directing the George Sidney-Charlie Murray comedies. The following year, he was placed in charge of the studio’s entire output of short subjects and proceeded to oversee the most varied and longest-lasting program of two-reel comedies in the industry. Among his stars: Harry Langdon, Andy Clyde, Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, Hugh Herbert, and, of course, The Three Stooges.
James Curtis’ interview with Dick Lane Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
We have a terrific item tomorrow: The first part of James Curtis’ 1975 interview with Jules White, who discusses working with The Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Buster Keaton and many others.
Yes, I’m at work on another history column for The Times. This one is scheduled to run this week, but the lineup can always change.
Cheers,
Larry
This photo of a horse-drawn hearse has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $8.99.
Queen of the Dead – dateline August 6, 2012
• Good gosh I am feeling old—fifty years on August 4/5 since Marilyn Monroe died, and I remember the Life magazine my father bought when it happened. And in 1972 I bought all the tenth-anniversary stuff, as well as Norman Mailer’s horrible horrible coffee-table book. I’m of the age (right smack in the middle of “middle”) where I think of “grown-up ladies” as looking like Marilyn in Something’s Got to Give, or Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show, or Jackie Kennedy—we are all baby ducklings, imprinted with this stuff. I recently saw a toddler chasing a girl in jeans and scraggly hair, yelling, “Mommy, mommy!” and I thought, “that’s not a mommy, that’s a hippie! Mommies have bouffant hair and wear heels!”
Aug. 1, 1942: Chief C.B. Horrall announces that the LAPD has lost 22 men and two women to the armed services. By the end of the war, many more officers and staff will have gone into the military, leaving the department to fill the gaps with “War Emergency” officers.
Former Chief Arthur Hohmann is reinstated as deputy chief after Horrall demoted him to lieutenant. Another notable name appears in this story: Robert A. Lohrman, demoted from sergeant to patrolman. You may recall hearing Lohrman mentioned in “Dragnet” in the 1950s, when he was head of homicide, at the time of the Barbara Graham and Ewing Scott murder cases.
“Yankee Doodle Dandy” is opening with a benefit at Warners Hollywood.
And in an echo of the Otto Sanhuber/Walburga Oesterreich case, Denver detectives find a “ghost” man who hid in the attic of a home after killing the owner.
Here’s another picture from the amazing collection of Steven Bibb!
Update: This is Lawrence David “Sunny Jim” McKeen Jr., who died in 1933 at the age of 8. Please congratulate Barbara Klein for identifying him.
July 31, 1942: A brawl breaks out at Pomeroy Avenue and Mark Street when LAPD officers try to break up a dice game involving gang members. The group took three prisoners from police officers, injuring a officer’s hand, sprayed police with a water hose and broke the window of a police car.
Duff Bolenbach beats rationing by using tires he has hoarded for his 1910 Pierce Arrow. (His driving time from San Francisco to Hollywood is 11 hours and 53 minutes.)
A promotional card for Pennsylvania funeral home, listed on EBay at Buy It Now for $95.
Queen of the Dead – dateline July 30, 2012
• Two reliably talented British performers have died: Angharad Rees (on July 21, at 63) and Simon Ward (on July 20, at 70). Both had long stage careers and did movies, but were best-known for TV: Rees in Poldark, and Ward in All Creatures Great and Small and The Tudors—though he was also an hilariously handsome Young Winston, in 1972. Ward is the father of actress Sophie Ward, and Rees was married (from 1973-94) to adorable actor Christopher Cazenove. Seriously, there must be at least one untalented British actor or actress, somewhere, right? You can’t all be born with a RADA certificate and a BAFTA award clutched in your tiny paws? Where are your Keanu Reeveses, your Renée Zellwegers? Do you send them off to some Island of Misfit Toys and teach them American accents?
July 29 is the birthday of Elizabeth Short. She would have been 88. I prefer to honor this day rather than the date she was found, Jan. 15, 1947.
Great picture, no? From the collection of Steven Bibb.
Here’s another mystery photo from the collection of Steven Bibb!
Photo: Tere Tereba’s “Mickey Cohen: The Life and Crimes of L.A.’s Notorious Mobster.”
Note: I have been talking with author Tere Tereba about her book “Mickey Cohen: The Life and Crimes of L.A.’s Notorious Mobster.” Was he nothing more than a hot-tempered, foul-mouthed little thug who threw around his money? Tereba found a more nuanced portrait. Here’s what she has to say. And we would especially like to salute Tereba’s patience in waiting for us to complete this piece. Between a full-time job and regular columns for The Times, we’re stretched very thin these days.
L.A. Daily Mirror: Tell us a little bit about yourself:
Tere Tereba: I’ve had a long career as a fashion designer, I’ve been in an Andy Warhol movie, Bad. I’ve written journalistic pieces, and now I’ve written a book that tells for the first time the complete story of the L.A. underworld from Prohibition to 1976, as seen from the POV of the city’s top mobster, Mickey Cohen. I guess you can say I’ve had an upper-world version of Mickey’s diverse career path: newsboy, pro boxer, thug, gangster, mob boss, celebrity.
My latest column is about the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum in Culver City. Cheers to Executive Director Larry Earl Jr., Archivist Cara Adams and volunteer Sandra Lindsey for their help.
A customized 1973 Oldsmobile hearse, listed on EBay at Buy It Now for $13,500.
Queen of the Dead – dateline July 23, 2012
• I adored Celeste Holm (who died on July 15, at 95) as an actress—she was warm and sharp and witty in All About Eve, Gentleman’s Agreement, High Society—often, she was the best part of her films, even in small supporting parts. But . . . when she died, I heard from several friends and acquaintances who had worked with her or knew her, and not a single one of them had a nice word to say about her. The same word cropped up a lot, but it was not “nice,” and “copper-bottom” was frequently attached to it. So I implore readers to post lovely stories about what a sweet, good-natured woman Celeste Holm was—let’s hear ’em!
July 18, 1942: Lana Turner elopes to Las Vegas with Stephen Crane in a marriage performed by the same judge who did her marriage to Artie Shaw in 1940. Turner is 22 and Crane is 27. It is the second marriage for both of them.
The NAACP’s annual convention, meeting in Los Angeles, condemns the police beating of tenor Roland Hayes in Rome, Ga.
Hayes’ wife had taken their daughter to buy shoes and objected when the clerk asked them to sit in the back of the store. The clerk called police, The Times said.
Here’s today’s mystery photo, courtesy of Steven Bibb!
This is a still from “Power” showing Frank Vosper, who disappeared from an ocean liner in 1937.
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