This image of a wishing well on Broadway in Chinatown built by professor Henry K. Liu has been listed on EBay. If you have looked at Charles Owens and Joe Seewerker’s “Nuestro Pueblo,” (which you really should) you might recall it.
Bidding starts at 90 cents, or Buy It Now for $4.99.
You might also consider tracking down a copy of “Nuestro Pueblo,” which includes terrific artwork by The Times’ Charles Owens.
Ken Burns’ series on Prohibition has brought a reexamination of the era. John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune looks at the tawdry end of the Trib’s Alfred “Jake” Lingle, who was shot to death in 1930, revealing a secret life.
A 1919 letter by Adolf Hitler outlining his plan removing Jews is going on display at the Museum of Tolerance. The text (in German) is here.
Here are three words I never thought I would see together: “Wayne Newton Museum.” Never mind the theater, zoo and exhibits of celebrity tchotchkes. It’s going to have a theme carwash that is being expanded to accommodate tour buses. AP via Washington Post.
The L.A. Daily Mirror and L.A. Crime Beat carefully curated by the discriminating bots at paper.li
Photo: Kisses on the tomb of Valentino. Credit: Larry Harnisch/LADailyMirror.com
The Daily Mirror lunch at Astro Burger and tour of Hollywood Forever Cemetery was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Our distinguished guide, Karie Bible, showed us around and after 2 1/2 hours there were plenty of folks left for another excursion. Karie gave us a thumbnail sketch of the cemetery’s revival and showed us the graves of the famous, infamous and forgotten.
Photo: Main and Cesar Chavez via Google’s Street View.
The photo postcard of China City, stamped 1941, has been listed on EBay.
Notice the sign says that China City is at Main and Macy, which became Cesar Chavez Avenue in 1993. You might be curious because you think of Chinatown a few blocks farther north, where Hill Street (formerly Castelar) comes off the Pasadena Freeway/Arroyo Seco Parkway. (Yes, we do like to rename our streets in Los Angeles.) Notice the traffic semaphore and the overhead cable for the streetcars.
[Update: As most people realized, this is Bruce Cabot. He’s with co-star Helen Mowery in the 1946 film “Avalanche.”]
Here’s a mystery couple, courtesy of Steven Bibb!
Photo: 1/43 model Studebaker hearse for sale on EBay. It’s listed as Buy It Now for $49.99.
Queen of the Dead – dateline October 3, 2011
• One way I knew I had become my mother was when I started watching—and enjoying—reruns of Are You Being Served? David Croft, who died at 89 on September 27, wrote, produced and directed numerous episodes of that low-comedy classic, along with other such Britcoms as Dad’s Army, Hugh and I, Up Pompeii!, Oh Happy Band, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, ‘Allo ‘Allo!, You Rang, M’Lord? and Oh Doctor Beeching! Croft also produced stage and movie versions of many of his shows and, in a sentence which means absolutely nothing to us Yanks, “spent some time working for Billy Butlin putting on shows in his holiday camps around the UK.”
Image: “The Lost Patrol,” illustrated by Keye Luke, The Times, Feb. 18, 1934.
Coming up this week, Eve Golden has a roundup of unusual obituaries in Queen of the Dead and Mary Mallory looks at the artwork of Keye Luke in Hollywood Heights. Plus more Navy documents in the Zoot Suit Riots, mystery photos and maybe a surprise or two.
Oct. 1, 1941: Errol Flynn promises he won’t punch Hollywood columnist Jimmie Fidler anymore. The actor invoked the famous “everything went black” defense for the melee at the Mocambo, in which Fidler’s wife stabbed him with a fork.
Courtesy of University of Southern California, on behalf of the USC Special Collections.
October 1, 1910: The Times Building in flames, as seen from Broadway just south of First Street. Notice The Times Eagle outlined by the fire.
El Alisal, October 1, 1910:
This is a sad day for me and for every other man that loves Los Angeles.
At one this morning I was dictating to Brownie and heard a terrible roar in town and remarked that it sounded like dynamite and just casually thought it might be The Times.
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This Batchelder tile, above left, showing a pair of peacocks, has been listed on EBay. Interestingly enough, it’s the same pattern as the piece on the right, which I found in Aimee Semple McPherson’s quarters at Angelus Temple on a tour several years ago. Bidding on a pair of these peacock tiles, marked Batchelder Pasadena, starts at $137.50.
Sept. 30, 1941: A judge recommends the deportation of Harry Bridges, head of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, a decision that was cheered by The Times. Of course, Bridges was never deported, despite a prolonged campaign to send him back to Australia. He died in San Francisco in 1990.
L.A. Times obituary by Harry Bernstein | New York Times obituary by Wolfgang Saxon
Lee Shippey takes a look at a book titled “How to Read a Newspaper” and Tom Treanor, who was killed covering World War II for The Times, visits a grammar school orchestra.
Jimmie Fidler: Reason for Universal yanking blond beauty Marie McDonald from “Melody Lane” is that studio bosses have bigger plans for her.
I picked up “A Southern California Album: Selected Photographs, 1880-1900” at the Last Bookstore the other day and was pleased to discover a number of pictures by C.C. Pierce, including this shot of Main Street looking south from 3rd Street in 1906.
And just for contrast, here it is now via Google’s Street View.
Image: Racial incidents between servicemen and African Americans in San Diego. Credit: The National Archives at Riverside.
To recap briefly, I have been digging into the historical basis of the movie “Zoot Suit,” which I saw this summer in the Last Remaining Seats series. The Times ignored the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots for several days, in what must be one of the worst news decisions the editors ever made, so I was forced to dig into the government records at the National Archives in Riverside for further information.
Another thread of the Zoot Suit Riots – racial tensions – also emerges in the Navy records immediately before and after the riots. This Nov. 13, 1942, document reports attacks by blacks on servicemen in San Diego.
The paragraph, written about eight months before the riots, is particularly resonant:
Additional reliable information is to the effect that the enlisted personnel of the U.S. Navy have a growing unrest due to the above situation, and are contemplating some concerted action in reprisal to these attacks. The local police authorities have been officially notified of the subject attacks.
What’s also clear in the following reports is that young men, presumably Latinos since they were “talking in a foreign language,” continued to wear zoot suits and that ethnic tensions rather predictably increased in the aftermath of the riots. Notice the October 1943 LAPD report on two servicemen who reported being beaten by two blacks who told them: “Get the hell out of Watts and stay out.”
“Zoot Suit” and History, Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
[Update: This is Molly O’Day! L.A. Times obituary | ]
Here’s another mystery gal!
There’s another photo on the jump!
The Daily Mirror HQ recently acquired the October 1927 issue of Haldeman-Julius Monthly, which includes Louis Adamic’s “Cecil B. DeMille – Movie Evangelist.” Join him for the premiere of “The King of Kings” the first film shown at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, on May 18, 1927.
A postcard showing the Pin Ton Company Confectionary, 427 S. Broadway, has been listed on EBay. I don’t recall ever hearing of this business or seeing this interior. The store flourished around 1915. Bidding on the postcard starts at $9.99.
This Witzel photo of Lois Moran, which the dealer says is inscribed to Douglas Fairbanks from Lois Moran (d. 1990), has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $4.95.
Photo: 2003 Cadillac Superior Hearse for sale on EBay. Bidding starts at $12,100 with a reserve.
Queen of the Dead – dateline September 26, 2011
• Last week I announced the last Black Knight of Glin, this week it is ninth and last Nawab of Pataudi—Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, 70, died on Sept. 22. “Tiger” Patudi was a champion cricket player (a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler, for those of you who follow these things) in the 1960s and ‘70s. He was also the Nawab of Pataudi, a line of Turkish princes dating back to 1806—sadly for Nawabs everywhere, India abolished royal entitlements in 1971.
Photo: The Hollywoodland Sign. Credit:Hope Anderson @www.underthehollywoodsign.com
On Monday, we have Eve Golden’s roundup of unusual obituaries in Queen of the Dead and Mary Mallory looks at the history of the Hollywood Sign in Hollywood Heights.
On Tuesday, join author Louis Adamic for the 1927 opening of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with the premiere of “The King of Kings.”
Plus our continuing coverage of the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots and the 1941 Silver Lake Hammer Murder…
[Update: This mystery gal is the victim of erroneous caption information – the right movie, but the wrong actress. She is Margaret Early. Please congratulate Bob Hansen for identifying her!]
Here’s today’s mystery lady, courtesy of Steven Bibb!
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