How about this retro artwork on the ad for “Nicholas Nickleby?” Sort of Peter Max via “Yellow Submarine.”
Jan. 10, 1983: A riot breaks out among an estimated 2,000 punk rockers during a concert at Studio Instrument Rentals at 6048 Sunset Blvd., The Times’ Michael Liedtke writes.
At first, everything was mellow:
“They were just punching each other and cutting each other a little with razor blades,” a studio employee said. “But that’s their forte. That’s what they do. They were fairly orderly.”
Jan. 1, 1943: This is the beginning of the Stanley H. Beebe case, in which LAPD officers were accused of beating a suspect who died of his injuries. Beebe, an accountant, was arrested on a streetcar at 1st and Hill or 3rd and Hill and charged with public intoxication. He died of peritonitis and said he had been kicked in the stomach by a police officer.
The investigation into Beebe’s death was expanded when the district attorney’s office received more complaints about LAPD officers beating drunks. The Los Angeles County Grand Jury opened an inquiry into Beebe’s death, as did a state Assembly committee. After the investigation, Assemblyman Chester Gannon of Sacramento called the LAPD “The storm troopers of Los Angeles and a law unto themselves.”
Black Dahlia: 5 Songs for a Famous Murder Victim by “Jef With One F.”
The anniversary of Elizabeth Short’s 1947 disappearance from the Biltmore has provoked the usual outpouring of mistakes and nonsense, much of it swiped from Wikipedia (see: “Me vs. Wikipedia”). Let’s see if I can untangle this.
My latest column is about Paul Bryan Gray and his new book “A Clamor for Equality,” the biography of Francisco P. Ramirez, the youthful editor of El Clamor Público, the first entirely Spanish-language newspaper published in Los Angeles. The entire run of El Clamor has been digitized and is online at USC’s website but the interface is cumbersome. Still, it’s worth a look. Here’s Vol. 1, No. 1, Junio 19, 1855.
Jan. 9, 1913: We like to think that the past was a kinder, simpler time — when life moved at a slower pace. But no.
The Times publishes a Page 1 news map “as an aid to the busy reader helping him to devour a body of news many columns in length.”
Read the complete Jan. 10, 1863, edition of the Los Angeles Star.
Jan. 10, 1863: Reflecting its strong sympathies for the Confederacy, the Star publishes a poem by Stonewall Jackson and an account of the capture of the Vanderbilt steamship Ariel by the Confederate ship Alabama, reprinted from the Alta.
Subscriptions have been collected to build a fence around the Fort Hill cemetery. The city has donated nine lots at Temple and Buena Vista (now Broadway) which are to be sold to help pay for the fence. Four of the lots are on the cemetery road and five are in the rear of Banning’s lumber yard
Many bodies were removed from the Fort Hill cemetery in 1914 to make room for the athletic field at Los Angeles High School. The Times reported on March 16, 1914, that 600 bodies had been disinterred and at least 600 more remained. I’ll have more about the cemetery in another post.
A photo of Angels Flight listed on EBay with bids starting at $2.50.
This image Angels Flight is one of several C.C. Pierce photos up for auction on EBay. To me, one of the most interesting things about the Pierce photos is his annotations on the back, and I particularly like what he said on this one, despite the mistakes.
Some of the Pierce photos on EBay: Central Park (Pershing Square) | Ralphs Grocers 6th and Spring
This image of Angels Flight is also online at part of USC’s digital collection of Pierce photos.
Photo: Janet Blair sits on the little platform off the banks of the Lakeside Golf Club. Courtesy of Mary Mallory
Surrounded by homes and the Lakeside Golf Club, Toluca Lake is all but obscured from view by the public. Like the movie stars that soon flocked to it, the attractive little lake helped sell the community that grew up around it.
This area of the San Fernando Valley originally fell under the auspices of the San Fernando Mission before being broken into segments and sold off in chunks to Southern California businessmen like Isaac Van Nuys and J. B.Lankershim, among others. Gen. Charles Forman bought up ranchland just north of the Cahuenga Pass, growing Bartlett pears, walnuts, citrus and other fruit. He suggested the name Toluca for the post office erected in 1893 across from the Chandler railroad depot in North Hollywood, also known as Lankershim.
Jan. 4, 1942: A rather drunk William Kollomick, who gave his address as “Pearl Harbor,” is in jail after getting into a brawl with four unidentified Mexican youths outside a cafe at 1st and Broadway.
The youths walked out of the cafe when Kollomick began abusing them, but he followed them and continued berating them, The Times said. “The argument resulted in a free-for-all” in which Kollomick sustained a split lip and bruises.
Rychei Tanaka, 55, Sakiko Takemoto, 22, and Chika Takemoto, 48, are in jail on charges of violating the presidential ban against Japanese owning weapons and radios.
Philip K. Scheuer looks at movies that that have been superseded by historic events: MGM has retitled “I’ll Take Manila!” as “Ship Ahoy!” and Fox’s “Song of the Islands” is being held for release.
In the theaters: “How Green Was My Valley,” “They Died With Their Boots On,” “Ball of Fire,” “40,000 Horsemen” and “Louisiana Purchase.”
As longtime readers know, I am not a fan of Wikipedia, which I consider a sinkhole of rumors and errors run by coding tweakers, factoid zealots and folks with tinfoil hats. This week, in fact, a Daily Mirror reader questioned the origin of a 1922 Kodachrome film clip, citing Wikipedia’s entry on the film process, even though the clip was clearly labeled “Kodachrome” and was posted on Kodak’s YouTube stream.
So the latest news of an elaborate hoax comes as no surprise. Read more on the purported Bicholim Conflict, a fictitious entry which has spread all over the Internet.
I will say again: I don’t know of any serious researcher who considers Wikipedia anything other a joke.
This postcard featuring a Witzel portrait of Charlie Chaplin has been listed on EBay with bids starting at GBP 4.99.
Jan. 3, 1913: The Chinese government issues an edict against traditional clothing in favor of Western fashions.
Women were called upon “to abandon their trousers for the occidental skirt and men to give up their comfortable loose clothes for the [illegible] business and conventional evening clothes of the Caucasian.”
Also note: “Chinese girls at American colleges have been noted for their correct appearance in American clothes, but occasionally were seen in their native garments.”
Read all of the Jan. 3, 1863, Los Angeles Star at USC’s digital library.
Jan. 3, 1863: Of all that you may know about the Emancipation Proclamation, I doubt you have read anything negative (unless you’re a historian), so the coverage in the Los Angeles Star will come as quite a shock. Remember that the Star was a staunchly pro-Southern publication.
“By the stroke of his pen, Mr. Lincoln frees every slave in rebeldom — robs every master of his servant, every household of its property. Was ever such an outrage perpetrated in the name of law, or such foul perjury committed, as by this man, sworn to maintain the Constitution and govern by the laws.”
Los Angeles schools had problems 150 years ago: The city was suffering an outbreak of smallpox, and students had to show proof of vaccination before being admitted when the new school year started.
P. (Prudent) Beaudry (d. 1893) has opened a store in his house at 15 and 16 Aliso St. Born in Canada in 1819, Beaudry came to Los Angeles in 1852. He served on the City Council from 1873 to 1875 and was mayor for two terms, The Times obituary says.
A Sept. 16, 1944, photo from the Florentine Gardens – with souvenir lipstick prints – has been listed on EBay at Buy It Now for $25. The lot includes souvenir photos from Ace Cain’s, 1369 N. Western Ave., and the Pirate’s Den, 335 N. La Brea.
The March 1936 issue of Black Mask magazine includes Raymond Chandler’s “The Man Who Liked Dogs.”
Jan. 19: “The Tall T,” part of the Autry museum’s What Is a Western? film series. $11/$7/$5 1:30 p.m.
Jan. 23: The Simple Art of Murder. Judith Freeman discusses Raymond Chandler. Free. Huntington Library, 7:30 p.m.
I hope you don’t mind if I use my column to plug a friend’s book, Michael Ankerich’s new Mae Murray biography, The Girl With the Bee Stung Lips (OK, so he did dedicate it to me. But you needn’t dedicate a book to me to get me to plug it, I also accept flat-out bribes).
Michael is both an excellent writer and an excellent researcher, a combination which is essential for a good biographer, but which is so often lacking on one side or the other. And the book is not biased, neither a “perfect, wonderful Mae!” fan-mag piece nor a “bad Mae!” hatchet job. He obviously admires and likes Mae Murray, but he does not cut her any breaks: her bad performances and bad behavior get fully covered. He also—I am torn between admiration and jealousy!—interviewed her nephew and son, neither of whom has ever talked to the press before.
Broadway and 2nd Street via Google’s Street View.
This picture showing the YMCA and the California Bank at the southwest corner of Broadway and 2nd Street has been listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $69.95.
Photo: Mary Pickford in the 1933 Rose Parade. Credit: Courtesy of Mary Mallory
Tomorrow sees the 124th annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, welcoming the new year with magnificent garlands of fresh flowers. It also acts as the 80th anniversary of Mary Pickford serving as the first female grand marshal of the parade.
Begun by the Valley Hunt Club in 1890, the Rose Parade saluted the area’s wonderful weather and flowering paradise.Soon, the Tournament of Roses Assn. took over what they now call “America’s New Year Celebration, greeting the world on the first day of the year… .”
