Stravinsky Premieres ‘Danses Concertantes’ in Los Angeles

Posted on February 1, 2012 by lmharnisch

Feb. 1, 1942, Japan Unmasked

Feb. 1, 1942, Igor Stravinsky
Feb. 1, 1942: The Times serializes Hallett Abend’s “Japan Unmasked.” Abend (d. 1955) was The Times city editor from 1920 to 1924 and was later a Far East correspondent for the New York Times.  (Note: An interesting line from his obituary: “He had been living in recent weeks with a longtime friend, Morgan Craig.”  A little digging reveals that Craig was not a longtime friend. He was Abend’s son. Oops. )

When I waxed hot and angry because of my own certainties, and offered bets at odds that we would be at war with Japan by Christmas of 1941, I was looked at pityingly for a fool.

The Werner Janssen Orchestra premieres Igor Stravinsky’s “Danses Concertantes,” his first work composed in the United States.   As is often the case, The Times clips are a mixed blessing. The concert was covered, which is good, but it was reviewed by longtime critic Isabel Morse Jones, whose mangled review of a “Don Giovanni” performance is one of the most unintentionally humorous critiques I have ever read.

The woman who thought the Don got his way with women all through Mozart’s opera (sorry, no, that’s part of the joke) does not disappoint with lines like:

Stravinsky’s conducting is an aid to the audience as well as the orchestra. It, too, is streamlined and watching him, one is reminded that it is the merest chance that he wasn’t a dancer instead of the most important modern composer to write music for the ballet.

Jimmie Fidler says: After seven years as a 20th Century-Fox star, Jane Withers is leaving that studio to freelance. I doff my bonnet to Jane (and her manager-mamma) for pluck shown in making this move. I know she was offered a huge salary to stay on and in current times it takes nerve to turn down a sure thing.

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Posted in 1942, Books and Authors, Columnists, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo – Newsboy Cap Edition [Updated +]

Posted on February 1, 2012 by lmharnisch

Movieland Mystery Photo

Almost everybody wears a newsboy cap in this film. What could it be?
[Please congratulate Dewey Webb, Mike Hawks, Don Danard, Mary Mallory and Rotter for identifying the movie — or our mystery fellow in the incredible sweater. ]

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Posted in Fashion, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

U.S. Urged to Evacuate Japanese Immediately

Posted on January 31, 2012 by lmharnisch

Jan. 31, 1942, Japanese Evacuation

Jan. 31, 1942, Comics

Jan. 31, 1942: Members of Congress from the West Coast call on the U.S. to expedite the evacuation of “enemy aliens,” a term that includes native-born people of Japanese ancestry. Officials concede that some of them may be loyal – but in wartime, why take a chance?

Note the byline: Kyle Palmer, who would forge a dubious legacy as one of Richard Nixon’s most ardent and unquestioning cheerleaders. (Nixon was, in fact, a pallbearer at Palmer’s funeral.).

Palmer’s inverted sentence structure is particularly remarkable:

Taking sharp issue with the leisurely program of the Department of Justice for evacuating enemy aliens and possible sympathizers from Pacific Coast defense areas, members of Congress from California, Oregon and Washington today approved recommendations calling for immediate action.

And:

Speedy exercise of authority by President Roosevelt and Army and Navy authorities to clear the vital defense areas of enemy aliens at once was advocated.

And:

Expressions of dissatisfaction with the government’s procedure to date with indicated plans for carrying out the evacuation program were voiced by those attending the conference of Western States representatives.

And so on.

It reminds me of Wolcott Gibbs’ satire on the language once used in Time magazine:  “Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind. Where it will all end, knows God.” This odd, stiff language also appears in the opening newsreel portion of “Citizen Kane” and I’m sure it was intentional.

Dateline Ennis, Texas. “Seven Negroes were killed and a white woman was injured when a tornado leveled two houses” in Bristol.  No names are provided on the seven dead blacks, but the injured white woman is Mrs. Walter Sparkman.

Ouch. The old newspapers are full of this kind of thing.

A few days ago,I posted that Traffic Engineer R.T. Dorsey was advocating a program of staggered work shifts to reduce downtown traffic. I wondered at the time whether rationing of gas and tires — and the halt in passenger car production — would increase the use of mass transit.

The answer is: yes.

Los Angeles Railway officials announce that use of streetcars and buses increased 7.3% since April. Pacific Electric passenger revenue is up 20% for the first three weeks of January, compared to a year ago.

“The Man Who Came to Dinner” opens at Warners Hollywood and Downtown.

Jimmie Fidler says: CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNIQUE to Dorothy Lamour — I commend your fine attitude when, after working hard for Defense Bond sales and then being denied the privilege of visiting an airplane factory because “your presence would delay production,” you were American enough to refuse a higher-up’s offer to intervene for you.
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Posted in 1942, African Americans, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Freeways, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, Politics, Richard Nixon, Streetcars, Transportation, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on U.S. Urged to Evacuate Japanese Immediately

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on January 30, 2012 by lmharnisch

Jan. 30, 2012, Mystery Photo

Here’s another photo from the collection of Steven Bibb!

[Update: This is Emlyn Williams. Please congratulate former Mystery Photo star B.J. Merholz, Mike Hawks and Mary Mallory for identifying him! ]

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Eve Golden: Queen of the Dead

Posted on January 30, 2012 by lmharnisch

Bonneville hearse

Photo: A 1986 Pontiac Bonneville hearse listed on EBay with bids starting at $3,350.

Queen of the Dead – dateline January 30, 2012

•  I was never a Star Trek fan—so pompous so serious. I preferred the high-camp vaudeville antics of Lost in Space: June Lockhart making chocolate cake in the back yard of an asteroid; the nelly, Franklin Pangborn-esque Dr. Smith; rubber-costumed aliens. So I was sad to hear of the death on January 22 of Dick Tufield, 85, who voiced the sarcastic Robot, always sparring with the great Jonathan Harris. Tufield began his career as a radio announcer, moving to TV in the 1950s. He was a newscaster in Los Angeles, padding out his paycheck with voice work on such shows as Space Patrol, Surfside 6, The Judy Garland Show, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, and others—as recently as 2004, he voiced the Robot on a Simpsons episode. Tufield called Lost in Space fans “unbelievably loyal, impassioned; with a hunger for LIS knowledge, both current and archival,” and in 2005 fondly recalled trading Olsen and Johnson jokes on-set with actor Bob May, who was actually scrunched-up inside the Robot.

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Posted in Eve Golden, Film, Hollywood, Obituaries, Queen of the Dead, Television | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Live Blogging ‘-30-’ on TCM

Posted on January 29, 2012 by lmharnisch

Dewey Webb gets into the “-30-” spirit with a 1959 ad from Variety. Thanks, Dewey!

Jack Webb "-30-"
(I swear, the guy in the travelogue called it Aloe Vera Street.)

And that’s “-30-”

Ready to go home, Lady?

Gosh, genuine ugly 1950s layout.

What’s that noise, son? They’re firing up the Web pages and putting stories online!

Heartwarming kid alert!

C’mon Sam…

Everybody thinks I’d be such a good father. I wouldn’t.

SFX: Bell ringing for the press start. Bathgate *promises* no replates.

Are those Steelcase desks?

Be sure to send your color early…..

They found her. Get plenty of sidebar stuff!
Lady types with two fingers!

Notice that people have written their names on the back of the chairs. We still do this. ONE of the biggest sins in the newsroom is to take someone’s chair.

David Nelson: Man up!

2 col cut with 3-col hed on Lady’s grandson…. nevermind the little girl in the storm drain. SFX: Phone

We bring you this word from orphanage lobby. Poor Lady… A Florabel Muir clone. She can go cover Mickey Cohen.

A power greater than we are? That sounds like A.A.!

Poor Lady… hanging on in the news business. Jack Webb isn’t religious but he believes in *something*

Oh. Smoking in the newsroom.

The editor is threatening the public works department?

And what’s across the street? Is it a burger stand or a hotel? The signs keep changing.

Uh-oh. Lady’s grandson is toast. Overacting at 12 o’clock high!

Oh she wrote it longhand while she was waiting for the car… oh, uh, and she took pictures. Oooh she’s shooting 35.

NO. NOBODY SIZES PHOTOS LIKE THAT NO WAY. I have talked to people who have seen it done — maybe. But I have never seen it done. Ever.

The Valley’s flooded? NOOOOOOOOO.

It’s got print on it. It gives a lot of information to a lot of people who wouldn’t get it if we didn’t give it to them. Yeah, it’s a newspaper, it only costs 10 cents. But even if you only read the comics it’s the best buy for your money in the world.

It’s just a newspaper — it’s not like we joined the priesthood.

Give her a byline. ON HER FIRST NIGHT?

Lady make this an insert high in your lede.

Miss Reentry Nosecone?

The religion editor is the real estate editor?

Webb: How are the Dodgers doing? Sports guy: It’s football season. Yet another editor who doesn’t read the sports section.

SFX: Bongo drums!

I’m sorry. I tried to keep the adjectives down!

Oh for the days of those eight-column pages!

The heck with the story about smog and its effect on juvenile delinquency?

16 cols:

2 8-col cuts

Danger kids stay out of these!

The girl’s parents have barricaded themselves in the house and won’t talk to reporters? The TV crews are there? Let’s tweet this thing!

She just got BACK from covering the strangler story? She just left!

OOOH! It’s a chart of the L.A. storm drains — left over from “Them!”

Richard Deacon as the staff artist… Draw a dog? A cat? A pig, with a squiggly tail? My pitiful little job is to retouch pictures. Richard! You cad!!

Get “THE WOMEN’S ANGLE” on the arrest of the strangler?

Inside reference to the Mirror-News!!!

Oh, too good to write obits, eh? Miss effing Smith graduate?

Suppose I turn out to be a really good reporter regardless of how I got the job (She’s a Smith graduate!)

NANCY VALENTINE. YAY!!!!

Rewrite… Ashton puts on a headset!

“An adopted child wouldn’t be ours.”

Webb forbids his wife to come to the office during working hours? What??

OK, let me get this straight. It’s raining outside the office. And a 3-year-old girl is missing in the storm drains. Hm.

Cue Whitney Blake!

Looks like Whittinghill got his client into the paper. Instead of the whooping cranes.

They just caught the guy who strangled those three girls? Update L.A.Now!

Did someone say the 3-year-old girl wandered into the storm drains?

Gee, I sure hope we can beat The Times to the street tonight with that one (wild art of whooping cranes).

Erm. There aren’t any women editors. Why is that?

OH THE NEWS MEETING!

Um, did someone say a 3-year-old is missing?

Uh-oh they just got a directive against giving raises.

Oooh a tour of the newspaper!

What? Newspapers retouch pictures???

Jack Webb deals with PR guy (Dick Whittinghill).

Richard Deacon…. YAY!

William Conrad (Bathgate) started as a copy boy!

Joe Flynn: News photographer!

What? A guy in the composing room is taking bets? I’m shocked.

Oh that’s not a proper eyeshade!

Fact: William Conrad and Jack Webb worked in radio together.

Lgend for many years was that “-30-” was filmed at the Examiner. In fact Jack Webb built a duplicate of the newsroom on a sound stage.

Ooh. the paper has 300,000 circ!

Overture has “Boy!”

MARK VII!

The story of a day in the life of a big-city paper.

Factoid about “Elmer Gantry”: Examiner City Editor James Richardson plays a newspaper man in it.

Vampires? OOh. “House of Dark Shadows!”

Robert Osborne… does the “outro.”

Here we go!

1755: We’re live with “The D.I.” One of my friends says this is Jack Webb’s best movie.

1756: Fake Southern accent alert!

1758: Tough drill sergeant in dress shop — comedy relief!

1759: Cleaning the M-1

1800: Those rifles cost your government $80 apiece!

1803: Score by David Buttolph

1805: Moore is the most devoted man I ever knew.

1807: “You’re awfully strict, aren’t you?”
“And what if I am. Is that bad?”

1808: A friend said a circle in the water is like a man’s life. It gets bigger and bigger and then it’s gone.

1810: You better go find yourself a man in a tuxedo.

1814: I don’t baby anybody, sir.

1815: You’re not a civilian anymore, Pvt. Owens.

1816: I’m mixed up, sir.

1821: You have two brothers in the Marine Corps?
I had two brothers in the Marine Corps, sir.

1826: gas mask drill.

1827: General Discharge for Pvt. Owens

1829: Pvt. Owens’ mother, the widow of a Marine officer, explains things to the captain. You WILL make a Marine out of him. You WILL NOT let him quit!

1836: Pvt. Owens do you want me to sign your discharge?

1838: Is she enticing Sgt. Moore into the back room?

1840: EXT Day. The parade field

1845: Do you think you can carry this?
Yes sir!
I think so too!

Marine Corps Hymn and out!

Posted in 1959, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Coming Tonight: Live Blogging ‘-30-’

Posted on January 29, 2012 by lmharnisch

'-30-'
Photo: Jack Webb, William Conrad and James Bell in “-30-”

TCM is airing Jack Webb’s “-30-” at 7 tonight Pacific time. I’m going to try live blogging just to see how it goes. Tune in for the fun and/or mayhem.

Posted in 1959, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated +]

Posted on January 29, 2012 by lmharnisch

Mystery Photo

Here’s another photo from the incredible collection of Steven Bibb!

Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

FBI Smashes Nazi Spy Ring in Beverly Hills: 3 Sent Coded Letters to Third Reich

Posted on January 29, 2012 by lmharnisch

Jan. 29, 1942, Spy Ring

Jan. 29, 1942, Comics

Jan. 29, 1942: The FBI accuses Dr. Hans Helmut Gros, his wife, Frances, and Albrecht Rudolf Curt Reuter of belonging to a Nazi spy ring.

According to allegations, Gros, of 328 N. Maple Drive, sent letters to purported relatives that contained coded information and newspaper clippings about “union labor strife, strikes, shortages of materials needed for military production and items regarding troop movements, training and airplane production.”

Reuter, of 447 N. Bedford Drive, was accused of helping Gros. The Times said he owned an art gallery and imported Oriental rugs.

A City Council committee is investigating a “purge” of the LAPD led by Inspector of Detectives E.C. Biffle, who allegedly met with certain detectives as soon as they were eligible for retirement and told them to go — which they called “being Biffleized.”

Biffle said he was acting on behalf of Police Chief C.B. Horrall, who told him to “do everything necessary to produce an honest and efficient detective bureau.”

Among those Biffleized was former Chief R.E. Steckel, who said that Mayor Fletcher Bowron purged him by mistake and explained that reinstatement was impossible.

City Traffic Engineer R.T. Dorsey recommends that downtown employees work staggered shifts to avoid traffic jams. How is it possible to have traffic jams in 1942, when gas rationing was a powerful incentive to take mass transit and the city still had most of its streetcar system? As I keep saying: Traffic in Los Angeles is not a new problem. It is a very old problem that we are still struggling to solve.

6503 Wilcox, Bell
Photo: Gen. Sampson Sanders Simmons’ CSA HQ! Credit: Google Street View. Apparently the paint crews had a hard time figuring out where the line should go down the middle of the street. Forget it, Jake. It’s Bell.

Gen. Sampson Sanders Simmons, a courier for Gen. Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, dies at the age of 98 after breaking his hip in a fall in his home at 6503 Wilcox Ave., Bell.

Simmons was the last survivor of Camp 770 of the United Confederate Veterans and commander of the organization’s Pacific Division. He was buried at Inglewood Cemetery, wrapped in a Confederate flag.

Supposedly, Simmons recorded what was billed as an authentic rebel yell for the MGM movie “Operator 13,” which was on TCM earlier this month. Since I DVR’d it, I’ll have to check.

“The Shanghai Gesture” opens at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and Loew’s State.

Jimmie Fidler says:Hal (Great Gildersleeve) Peary, who lives in Encino, a Los Angeles suburb, brings in four working residents daily, thereby helping them conserve gas and tires.

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Posted in 1942, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, LAPD, Streetcars, Theaters, Transportation, World War II | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

L.A. County, City Fire All Japanese Workers!

Posted on January 28, 2012 by lmharnisch

Jan. 29, 1942, Japanese Eviction
Jan. 28, 1942, Comics

Jan. 28, 1942: Buried on the jump of this story is the news that the city of Los Angeles urged all Japanese employees to take a leave of absence “for the duration.” Those who refused to quit were suspended. The Board of Supervisors ordered department heads to fire all Japanese employees.

The Times editorial page added to its lists of embarrassments by endorsing the action as unpleasant but necessary, noting: “There is every disposition to respect civil liberties and to protect members of enemy races from persecution or unnecessary hardship. But this is war.”

For previous embarrassing Times editorials from the 1920s to the 1960s, see: “Don’t Recall Mayor Shaw,” “Don’t Let Jewish Refugees Into the U.S.,” “We Don’t Need a Federal Anti-Lynching Law,” “Good Riddance, Dashiell Hammett, You Commie Hack Writer” and “The Japanese Menace.”

Jimmie Fidler says: “No one is more impatient to get to a backgammon board than Charles Coburn.”

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Posted in 1942, Art & Artists, City Hall, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Mob Slaying of ‘Big Greenie’ Greenberg Retold in Bugsy Siegel Trial

Posted on January 27, 2012 by lmharnisch

Jan. 27, 1942, Siegel Trial
Jan. 27, 1942, Comics
Jan. 27, 1942: Ida Greenberg testifies in the trial of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (d. 1947) and Frank “Frankie” Carbo (d. 1972) in the killing of her husband, Harry “Big Greenie” Greenberg, who was shot to death in his driveway at 1804 N. Vista Del Mar on Nov. 22, 1939. Prosecutors say the union labor racketeer demanded $5,000 to keep from informing on what he knew about Murder Inc.

Carbo was accused of shooting Greenberg five times in the head and Siegel was charged with leading the killers to Greenberg’s house and driving one of the getaway cars.

Al Tannenbaum, who received immunity in exchange for his testimony, said he brought the murder weapons to Los Angeles from New York and gave them to Carbo and Siegel.

My favorite quote:

“Prosecutors later explained that Mrs. Greenberg did not know her husband was engaged in the union labor racketeering enterprises in New York under the direction of Louis (Lepke) Buchalter and Jacob Gurrah.”

A legal dispute is blocking the burial of Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford, head of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who died Jan. 9. Rutherford wished to be buried the next day on a hillside at his San Diego mansion, but neighbors complained that the burial would lower property values.

Bruno Walter is arriving on the Santa Fe Chief to appear as guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Jimmie Fidler says: Freddy Martin has assigned all royalty from his recordings of “When There’s a Breeze on Lake Louise” and “Heavenly, Isn’t It?” from RKO’s “The Mayor of 44th Street” to President Roosevelt’s Infantile Paralysis Fund.
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Posted in 1939, 1942, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, Music, Religion, World War II | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated +]

Posted on January 26, 2012 by lmharnisch

Movieland Mystery Photo

Look what I found! And this movie would be?

'On Our Merry Way' [Update: This is “On Our Merry Way,” a curious film in which Burgess Meredith plays a classified ad salesman who masquerades as a reporter. At first glance, I assumed this was the Globe Lobby at The Times. There is, after all, a globe. But the Globe Lobby is round, so this is obviously a set. I’d like to think that Ernst Fegte and Duncan Cramer were influenced by the Globe Lobby. By the way, IMDB says that Duncan Cramer was uncredited as an art director on the film. So much for IMDB.]

image

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , | 37 Comments

More 1940s Kitsch From the Abbotwares Studio

Posted on January 26, 2012 by lmharnisch
Abbotwares Horse Radio Ebay Abbotwares Horse Radio Ebay Saddle
Abbotwares Horse Clock Abbotwares Bucking Bronco

I’m frustrated because I couldn’t find anything really useful about Abbotwares in the clips after yesterday’s post. Apparently The Times didn’t consider its oeuvre worthy of coverage. Tsk tsk. The company is so obscure that there isn’t even an entry on Wikipedia (OK, you Wiki trolls, get busy!)

So I turned to EBay and discovered a bonanza.

Not just the horse/radio combination, but the horse/radio combination with miniature saddle… AND a horse/clock combo. Then there’s something I call “Bust of a Woman Being Bucked Off.”

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Posted in Animals, Film, Found on EBay, Hollywood, Interior Design | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Found on EBay: Atwater Kent’s Love Child From a Drunken Night in a Trophy Shop

Posted on January 25, 2012 by lmharnisch

Horse Radio

Horse Radio

There isn’t much that shocks me anymore when it comes to 1940s kitsch. I grew up with a lot of it and saw even more when I prowled thrift stores. And there’s this … well, it looks like a drunken Atwater Kent wandered into a trophy shop and had a tryst with a loving cup.

Apparently, Abbotwares made a variety of horse radios, but my favorite is the Hula Girl radio, which is my new benchmark for horrifying yet fascinating decor.

Bidding on this item starts at $99.99. The vendor says it only pops and hums, but do you care?

Posted in Found on EBay, Interior Design, Radio | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on January 25, 2012 by lmharnisch

Jan. 25, 2012, Mystery Photo

Here’s a mystery photo from the incredible collection of Steven Bibb!

[Update: This is Sam Wanamaker in “My Girl Tisa.” The man on the left is unidentified in the caption information, but Don Danard and Mike Hawks identify him as Edgar Dearing. Wanamaker was identified by Roget-L.A., Arye Michael Bender, Jenny M. and Benito. Hawks, Danard and Pamela Porter identified Wanamaker and the movie. Congratulations!]

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Molestation Suspect Questioned in Killing of Girl, 9

Posted on January 25, 2012 by lmharnisch

Jan. 25, 1942, Comics

Jan. 25, 1942, Dorothy Lee Gordon

Jan. 25, 1942: Detectives Harry Fremont and Jack Dwight are questioning Leo M. King, accused of molesting a 5-year-old girl, in the death of Dorothy Lee Gordon.

The case of Dorothy Gordon, an African American child who was kidnapped and killed by a white man in 1940, is one of the more unusual unsolved killings of the prewar era. Although the Los Angeles newspapers usually ignored the African American community, they dropped their color bar in this crime, in which Paramount studio prop men gathering greenery in Playa Del Rey for a scene in “Northwest Mounted Police” found Dorothy half-buried in a shallow grave.

Despite intense investigation, the case was never solved.

Hatsuji Hazemoto filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Department after he paid $100 ($1,322.72 USD 2010) to three men so that they wouldn’t take him into custody as an enemy alien.

Times artist Charles H. Owens draws a map comparing distances in the Pacific with a map of the United States. Owens’ work is featured in “Nuestro Pueblo,” one of my favorite books about Los Angeles.

The home at 2711 Bradford Ave., Arcadia, is featured in The Times home section. It’s listed at $5,650 ($74,733.72, USD 2010). Property Shark puts the current value at $496,697.

Jimmie Fidler says: It is my opinion that Johnny Weissmuller could be the greatest cowboy idol of this era.

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Posted in 1942, Architecture, Art & Artists, Cold Cases, Columnists, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Nuestro Pueblo, World War II | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

How to Wear a Hat – Rod Steiger Edition

Posted on January 24, 2012 by lmharnisch

"Al Capone"

We have explored how newsboy caps were worn by several men in “Monkey Business” and by Lee Marvin in “King of the North,” by Henry Fonda in “The Grapes of Wrath” and by Marc Chevalier in real life. Here’s Rod Steiger in the 1959 film “Al Capone,” with costumes by Russell Hanlin and Sabine Manela. Notice how the shadow of the brim covers his eyes.

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Posted in 1959, Chicago, Crime and Courts, Fashion, Fashions, Film, Hollywood, Nightclubs, Photography | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated +]

Posted on January 23, 2012 by lmharnisch

Jan. 23, 2012, Mystery Photo

And this movie would be?

Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , | 22 Comments

Eve Golden: Queen of the Dead

Posted on January 23, 2012 by lmharnisch

coffin_leslies_weekly_crop

Photo: An April 15, 1882, issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, with an etching of a coffin, is listed on EBay at $375.

Queen of the Dead – dateline January 23, 2012

•  Lindsay Masters, the sales and marketing genius behind the British publishing company Haymarket, died on December 30, age 79. Haymarket is well-known for such magazines as Town, Gramophone, Sportscar, PrintWeek, Stuff, and the always popular Mineral Planning—I never plan my minerals without consulting it first. Masters, hired in 1958, “looked and behaved nothing like a salesman at all,” said founder Lord Heseltine. “He belonged to what in those days we called the Chelsea Set: late nights, parties, jazz, the arts. But behind his rather louche exterior lay a mind of rapier sharpness and an unshakeable determination.” What really stands out is a line dropped with cool nonchalance into his Telegraph obituary: “He sold lederhosen door-to-door in Germany . . .” At which Baby fainted dead away with delight. Can you imagine? “Mütter, it’s the door-to-door lederhosen salesman again.” “Ach, thank goodness—I hope he has some new Trachten hat pins, the edelweiss clip for my Gamsbart has fallen off!” I am cursing my high school guidance counselor, who sent me off to be a secretary, when I might have been a door-to-door lederhosen salesgirl.

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Posted in Eve Golden, Fashion, Film, Found on EBay, Hollywood, Queen of the Dead, Religion, Television | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Hoaxer Fakes Obama Laughing Over Gingrich’s Primary Victory

Posted on January 22, 2012 by lmharnisch
Fake Washington Post Page Jan. 22, 2012

The alleged Jan. 22, 2012, Washington Post Page 1 at left has been circulating on Facebook, and who knows where else, since Newt Gingrich took the South Carolina primary. It is, of course, a fake. As is obvious from the real front page, at right, courtesy of the Newseum, the Post currently uses “downstyle” heads, so the capitalization of the banner headline is wrong.

Oops.

The lead deck in all caps also clearly deviates from the Post’s style.

Double oops.

An elementary Google search on the two surviving headlines, “Treasury invokes patriotism in pitch to bank executives” and “Obama Adds $60 Billion to Economic Plan,” shows that they are from the Oct. 14, 2008, edition of the Post. Evidently, the Post still used upstyle heds in 2008.

A little more research indicates that the photograph of President Obama was taken by White House photographer Pete Souza, on Jan. 24, 2011, and is posted on Flickr.

I will leave it to others to track down the culprit of this rather transparent fakery, which is not the first example of a hoax in American politics and unfortunately,  surely not to be the last.

Posted in Another Good Story Ruined, Front Pages, Politics | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments