Eve Golden: Queen of the Dead

Posted on December 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

hearse_1996_cadillac_ebay
Photo: 1996 Cadillac hearse listed on EBay, with bids starting at $4,900.

Queen of the Dead – dateline December 26, 2011

•  Kitchener is dead! No, not the World War I field marshal with the fabulously lush moustache, who died in 1916. But his heir, Major Henry Herbert Kitchener, 3rd Earl Kitchener, who died on December 16 at 92. On the military side, Kitchener served in the Royal Corps of Signals, was Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire, and was vice president of The Western Front Association. He was also president of the Institute for Food Brain and Behaviour, “a charity conducting scientific research into the effects of nutrition on brain function and behaviour.” He left no heirs, so there will be no 4th Earl Kitchener—but among his survivors is niece Emma Kitchener-Fellowes, wife of writer/actor Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame.

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Merry Christmas From 1911

Posted on December 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

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Posted in 1911, Theaters | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Japanese Sub Torpedoes 2 Ships off California Coast

Posted on December 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

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Dec. 25, 1941, Christmas posem

Dec. 25, 1941: Crew members of the Absaroka, which was hauling lumber, recount being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine at an undisclosed location off the California coast. One man was crushed by piles of lumber after rescuing a shipmate who had been tossed overboard in the explosion.  Chief Steward W.F. Schiele said: “I’ve been on the sea 46 years. This was the toughest.”

Times staff poet James Warnack contributes a Christmas poem for the front page. Recall that in this era (and for many years after) The Times published a daily Bible quote on the editorial page.

Earl Carroll is opening a new show: “Star Spangled Glamour.”

Jimmie Fidler says: Carole Landis has signed for a series of song recordings, thereby flooring Hal Roach studio, which didn’t know she could sing and dubbed her voice in “Turnabout.”

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on December 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

Dec. 24, 2011, Mystery Photo

[Update: This is Chick Chandler in “Steel Town.” Please congratulate Don Danard, RJ, Dewey Webb, Mike Hawks and Rick for identifying him.]

Here’s a mystery guest who knows how to wear a hat. And the jacket’s not bad, either. From the collection of Steven Bibb.

Posted in Fashion, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Japanese Sub Sinks Tanker Near Morro Bay

Posted on December 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

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Dec. 24, 1941, Comics
Dec. 24, 1941, Comics
Dec. 24, 1941: Japanese submarines attack two U.S. tankers, with explosions that are heard  as far inland as in San Luis Obispo, sinking a 7,272-ton Union Oil ship. Capt. Olaf Eckstrom of Inglewood says a torpedo struck the ship directly beneath the bridge. All crew members of the Montebello are reported safe.

M.L. Waltz, editor of the Cambrian newspaper, witnessed the battle from shore and said: “She upended like a giant telephone pole and slowly settled into the sea.”

Fox West Coast Theatresannounce that they will be open during blackouts. “The show must go on!”

Times reporter Tom Treanor, who was killed covering the liberation of France, says few traitors were arrested in the FBI’s recent roundup of spies. “They are mostly 100% enemy agents working for the homeland, Germany Japan or Italy.”

Able-bodied womenages 18 to 45 are being urged to volunteer as air wardens.

Despite the name, the volunteers do far more than watch the skies. They “are engaged in transmission of information, map plotting and filterboard room operation,” The Times says.

The filterboard is a large map of Southern California. “Dozens of women stand around the edge, wearing telephone ear and mouthpiece sets, listening, changing “pawns” on the board. For ease in reaching the various arrows, blocks and targets, there are long-handled rakes and hoes.

Jimmie Fidler says: Lillian Gish, silent pictures star, has turned down a comeback role in Paramount’s “Mrs. Wiggs of Cabbage Patch” because the part was too old.

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Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, Religion, Theaters, Tom Treanor, World War II | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Found on EBay – Bullock’s Wilshire

Posted on December 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

Bullocks Wilshire Dress

This black taffeta dress by David Brown for Bullock’s Wilshire has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $14.99.

Posted in Fashion, Found on EBay | Tagged | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo

Posted on December 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

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Dick Powell admires his books, back in the days when all authors smoked pipes.

I caught the 1952 film “The Bad and the Beautiful” the other night and was struck by this window display showing copies of “The Proud Land.”

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Carl and Jerry Get a Kindle Fire

Posted on December 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

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Gort: Tannenbaum baringa! Futurism in 1958.

I bought a Kindle Fire a few days ago and since it arrived I’ve been thinking about John T. Frye W9EGV.

Unless you are an electronics geek of a certain age, it’s likely you have never heard of Frye. In the 1950s and early ‘60s, his stories about two teenage electronics geeks named Carl and Jerry appeared every month in Popular Electronics, sort of like the Hardy Boys with a soldering iron and schematic diagrams.

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on December 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

2011_1222_mystery_photo

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

2011_1222_mystery_photo

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

Navy Releases Accounts of Pearl Harbor

Posted on December 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

Dec. 22, 1941, Axis Subs

Dec. 22, 1941, Comics

Dec. 22, 1941: The Navy releases three personal accounts of the Pearl Harbor attack. Many acts of heroism are described, and these few lines shed more light on the presence of African Americans (recall that the armed services were segregated at the time):
“A Negro mess attendant who never before had fired a gun manned a machine gun on the bridge until his ammunition was exhausted.”

On the jump:

Looking for an experienced domestic? Check The Times’ classified.

Tom Treanor writes about a  Korean American girl who came to school wearing a button showing the flags of the U.S. and Korea so classmates will know she’s not Japanese.

Jimmie Fidler says it’s unfair for the Hollywood Women’s Press Club to name Marlene Dietrich as one of the year’s most uncooperative stars.

Mamie Gould, Pittsburgh Gene Autry fan, has obtained 165,000 signatures on a petition demanding a special Academy Award for Autry, Fidler says.

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‘Citizen Kane’ Movie of the Year

Posted on December 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

Dec. 21, 1941, Raids on California Ships
Dec. 21, 1941, Comics
Dec. 21, 1941: Philip K. Scheuer writes: “Citizen Kane”  is, for this column, picture of 1941. It would be that if only because it jolted Hollywood once again into realizing the possibilities of the screen as a storytelling medium in sight and sound. But it is also a tremendously exciting experience — one that bears repeating — and a good show, to say nothing of the prospects it uncovers for a whole raft of actors and technicians, including, of course, Orson Welles himself.

The faux pas of the year is Greta Garbo’s “Two-Faced Woman.” The film has been rushed back to editing room to be re-cut, but the damage has been done, Scheuer says.

Jimmie Fidler says: Anyone who calls Hobart Bosworth “old” should try to keep pace with him during his daily health hike.

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Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Mysterious Mauser

Posted on December 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sherlock Holmes

We’re very curious at the Daily Mirror HQ these days about what sort of pistol Robert Downey Jr. is using in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.” For example, in this picture he’s got a nice broomhandle Mauser. Notice that it’s in his right hand.

At first, I had the dim recollection that in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mysteries, Holmes never carries a gun, but then I recalled that Holmes dispatches the Hound of the Baskervilles with a revolver:

But the next instant Holmes had emptied five barrels of his revolver into the creature’s flank. With a last howl of agony and a vicious snap in the air, it rolled upon its back, four feet pawing furiously, and then fell limp upon its side. I stooped, panting, and pressed my pistol to the dreadful, shimmering head, but it was useless to press the trigger. The giant hound was dead.

Han Solo, Broomhandle Mauser
Art directors love these Mausers, which turn up in many films  — even adapted to become Han Solo’s blaster in “Star Wars.”

Sherlock Holmes Mauser

Now the Mauser is in his left hand!

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on December 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

Movieland Mystery photo of Los Angeles City Hall

Los Angeles City Hall is in the background. Where was this shot and what’s the movie?

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Posted in Architecture, City Hall, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

December 19, 1941: Japanese Spy Ring Smashed, FBI Says

Posted on December 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

Dec. 19, 1941, Comics

Dec. 19, 1941, Spy Ring
December 19, 1941: The suicide of Dr. Rikita Honda, who slashed his wrists while in custody at Terminal Island, revealed that he was the director of a vast spy ring, the FBI says.  Honda was head of the Imperial Comradeship Society, which allegedly had 4,800 members in Western states, including California and Arizona.

An FBI report on Honda is here.

A report on the association is here.

In an interview, Harry Yoshio Ueno, who led a riot at Manzanar in 1942, says there were stories that Honda was tortured to death.

one of the relatives went over and verified his corpse. He opened up the sheet and saw that both hands showed that wire or something had been tied up very deeply around his wrists. He looked at that and said to himself, “He must have been tortured to death.” That’s what he told a friend of mine who lived in back of my house.

Tom Treanor writes about a test in Griffith Park of an air raid warning device.

Restaurant owners in Portland, Ore., say that changing the names of the hamburger and the frankfurter because of the war is silly. But German pancakes will be known as egg pancakes and Italian meatballs will be known as meatballs.

Jimmie Fidler says: Mickey Rooney-Ava Gardner marriage is set for Jan. 12 at the Mission Inn, Riverside. Mickey has presented his bride-to-be with a $2,500 engagement ring.

"Dumbo," Pink Elephant Sequence
“Dumbo” opens today at the Carthay Circle and United Artists downtown.

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Eve Golden: Queen of the Dead

Posted on December 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

Hearse, horses postelwait

Photo: Image of a horse-drawn hearse, part of a group of five pictures listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $300.


Queen of the Dead – dateline December 19, 2011

•  Word has come in of the long-expected but still sad death of Christopher Hitchens, one of my favorite essayists, on December 15, at the far too young age of 62. He made Vanity Fair worth reading, and though I strongly disagreed with him on certain topics (really, you hate the Clintons and support the Iraq invasion that much?), his books God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice have honored places on my shelf (his expose of Mother Teresa’s deadly fanaticism and hypocrisy alone make him one of the more important writers of his era, up there with Jacob Riis and Thomas Paine). I’m sure his many enemies are rubbing their hands gleefully picturing him in hell—but as “Hitch” pointed out (to paraphrase Ethel Barrymore), “that’s all there is, there isn’t any more.”

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L.A. Christmas Card, 1911

Posted on December 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

Christmas Card, 1911, Philharmonic Auditorium

5th and Olive in downtown Los Angeles

Photo: Olive and 5th via Google’s Street View. Notice the vacant lot where Philharmonic Auditorium used to be. Demolition is forever.

This truly awesome 1911 Christmas card, showing Philharmonic Auditorium and part of what is now Pershing Square, has been listed on EBay. I’ve never seen anything like this. Very cool. Bidding starts at $4.99.

Posted in 1911, Architecture, Downtown, Preservation, Theaters | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Academy Awards Banquet Canceled; Oscars Postponed Due to War

Posted on December 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

Dec. 18, 1941, Comics

Dec. 18, 1941: Louis A. Tyler reports to the Navy recruiting office after receiving a telegram informing him of the death of his son, Fireman 3rd Class George L. Tyler,  at Pearl Harbor. “My purpose is to take my son’s place and carry on in the capacity for which I am best fitted,” he says. (The Times didn’t follow up on this story to report whether Tyler was accepted).

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cancels its annual banquet, due to the war. The awards will be given out later in some informal gathering, Edwin Schallert writes.

Jimmie Fidler says: Gracie Allen is already wearing George Burns’ Christmas gift: a full-length stone marten coat, tres expensive. Marlene Dietrich owns the only other local one.

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated +]

Posted on December 17, 2011 by lmharnisch

Dec. 17, 2011, Mystery Photo

[Update: This is Evelyn Daw in the 1937 film “Something to Sing About,” in which James Cagney plays a bandleader.]

Here’s a mystery lady from the amazing collection of Steven Bibb!

There’s a new photo on the jump!

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

Former LAPD Chief Demoted to Lieutenant

Posted on December 17, 2011 by lmharnisch

Dec. 17, 1941, Wake Island

Wake Island, 1943
Wake Island will fall to the Japanese on Dec. 23, 1941.
Dec. 17, 1941, Comics

Dec 17, 1941: Police Chief C. B. Horrall demotes former Chief Arthur C. Hohmann from deputy chief to lieutenant and assigns him to the Highland Park station. Hohmann, who traded jobs with Horrall earlier in the year when he stepped down as chief, refused to accept the demotion and didn’t report for duty.  Of the strange episodes in LAPD history, the Hohmann story is one of the most peculiar.

Also on the jump:

Charles Owens draws a war map showing Japan’s attack on Maui.

Loretta Young stars in the new film “The Men in Her Life” with the slogan: “She lived dangerously and paid the price.”

Jimmie Fidler says: Radio event to which I look forward to each December: Lionel Barrymore’s performance of Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol.”

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Found on EBay – Mullen and Bluett

Posted on December 16, 2011 by lmharnisch

Mullen and Bluett

This photo of a window display at Mullen and Bluett, at Broadway and 6th Street, has been listed on EBay. This photo is undated and I would have pegged this as the 1940s, but The Times clips shows that Timely suits were selling for $35 about 1935, which would fit with the lettering. Bidding on this photo starts at $19.85.

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