Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated +]

Posted on September 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sept. 25, 2011, Mystery Photo

[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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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Found on EBay – Hotel Lankershim

Posted on September 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

Hotel Lankershim

This rather wonderful postcard showing an artist’s conception of what the future might look like has been listed on EBay. Built in 1902, the Hotel Lankershim was often described the city’s largest unreinforced building. After the 1971 Sylmar quake, the city of Los Angeles imposed laws requiring owners to reinforce buildings – or demolish them. The Lankershim had been closed since the 1970s except for the ground floor, which was occupied by stores and restaurants.

Bidding starts at $11.99.

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Posted in 1902, Architecture, Art & Artists, Downtown, Found on EBay, Futurism, Preservation | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Odyssey of the Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers

Posted on September 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

Ruby Slippers

Photo: Dorothy (Judy Garland) is wearing the ruby slippers. But which pair?

Reuters is reporting that Profiles in History is auctioning off one of the pairs of ruby slippers used in “The Wizard of Oz.” Auction house owner Joe Maddalena estimates the sale price at $2 million to $3 million.

Readers with long memories may recall a monumental two-part series by Rhys Thomas that Calendar published in 1988 about the intrigue surrounding the various pairs of ruby slippers. The series is one of the longest from the Irv Letofsky era and it’s worth revisiting as a reminder of Calendar’s golden age.

The story of the slippers – perhaps as many as seven pairs – begins with Hollywood costumer  Kent Warner (d. 1984):

Warner’s fascination with the shoes–and countless other pieces of Hollywood memorabilia–took on bizarre dimensions–of questionable legality. He apparently lavished more love and attention on a nearly flawless pair of the ruby slippers displayed in his living room than on almost anything else in his life. He held special screenings of famous films in his home in which he paraded in vintage dresses from the very movies he was showing–costumes acquired from dusty studio storage vaults or rescued from dumpsters and incinerators.

Warner, whose everyday work took him in search of clothes for movie stars, almost single-handedly started a shady memorabilia market in Hollywood by mastering the art of what he might have thought of as rescuing the forgotten treasures from the studios. Sources say he walked onto the MGM lot one spring day in 1970 with an empty, seemingly innocent duffle bag–and left with it full of sequinned red shoes.

The Ruby Slippers: A Journey to the Land of Oz Part 1 | Part 2 

Thomas later wrote a 1989 book on the slippers,  “The Ruby Slippers of Oz.”

Posted in 1939, Fashion, Film, History, Hollywood, Preservation | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Silver Lake Hammer Murder – Part 3

Posted on September 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sept. 19 1941, Ernest Booth
Sept. 19, 1941: Valverda Booth visits her husband, Ernest Booth, while he is in custody in the Silver Lake Hammer Murder of heiress Florence Stricker.

Is there anything more delightful to the heart of a research drudge than a notice from the Los Angeles Public Library that a book is available for pickup? Not this time, anyway.

The book that zipped to the top of my Zombie Reading List is “Stealing Through Life,” the utterly forgotten autobiography of a completely forgotten fellow named Ernest Booth, who was held as a suspect in the Silver Lake Hammer Murder of Florence Stricker.  The battered copy, with crumbling pages, arrived at the local branch, and I’m making my way through it.

Judging by the initial news coverage of the killing, it was hard to see why detectives charged Booth.  Granted, he had a somewhat fishy story about his actions on the day of the killing. (He supposedly met with Stricker’s husband, George, an osteopath, in the morning to discuss a medical story he was writing.) But at first glance, it seemed that Booth was nothing more than a somewhat colorful, smalltime ex-con who had turned his time behind bars into a career writing prison pictures and generally floating on the fringes of Hollywood.

Silver Lake Hammer Murder Part 1 | Part 2

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Posted in 1927, 1929, 1941, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Libraries | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Found on EBay – ‘Thicker’n Thieves’

Posted on September 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

Thicker 'n Thieves

Every so often, Charles Stoker’s “Thicker’n Thieves shows up on EBay for way too much money. There was a time when you could pick up a copy for $8 or $10 in almost any used book store in Los Angeles (always unread, which should tell you something), but the noir craze has pushed the asking price insanely high.

Like other self-published rants (“Billion Dollar Blackjack” and “LAPD’s Rogue Cops, Coverups and the Cookie Jar”) “Thieves” is useless to a conscientious researcher and the price is ridiculously high for what is nothing more than a literary curio.

And no, there isn’t a single word in “Thieves” about the Black Dahlia case.

The latest copy on EBay is listed at $148.88 or Buy It Now for $164.88.

Save your money. If you really want to waste a few hours of your life trying to get through “Thicker’n Thieves,” get it from the library.

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Found on EBay, LAPD | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Found on EBay – ‘Thicker’n Thieves’

British Library Digitizes Lewis Carroll’s Original ‘Alice’

Posted on September 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

alice_digital
Image: Page 37 of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground,” digitized by the British Library.

Henry Chu writes a nondupe in the Los Angeles Times about unsuccessful attempts to gain access to Scotland Yard’s records in the Jack the Ripper case.

In a surreal tribunal hearing in May, which saw a senior officer give evidence from behind an opaque screen and cite Judas Iscariot to support his point, the agency argued that laying everything bare would violate its confidentiality pledge to informants, even those long dead, and undermine recruitment of collaborators in the present-day fight against terrorism and organized crime.

Naming names might even put the snitches’ descendants at risk of revenge by the grudge-bearing heirs of those who were informed on, officials said. The three-person tribunal agreed.

The British Library has released digital copies of several rare items, including Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript of “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground,” a draft score of Handel’s “Messiah” and Mozart’s own catalog of  his works from 1784 to 1791. Carroll’s illustrations for “Alice” may come as a surprise for anyone who is only familiar with the other interpretations done over the years, such as those by John Tenniel.

Here’s the Getty Research Institute’s list of scholars and fellows.

The L.A. Daily Mirror and L.A. Crime Beat curated by the bots at paper.li.

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Posted in Art & Artists, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, Immigration, Libraries, Museums | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Columnist’s Wife Stabs Errol Flynn With Fork in Nightclub Brawl!

Posted on September 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sept. 22, 1941, Errol Flynn
Sept. 22, 1941, Comics
Sept. 22, 1941: Oh look what I found! Our own Jimmie Fidler mixing it up with Errol Flynn at the Mocambo.  And Fidler’s wife, Bobbe, stabs Flynn with a fork!

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Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Nightclubs | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Coming Attractions: Lunch With the Daily Mirror

Posted on September 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

Hollywood Forever

Photo: Monument to Eliza A. Otis, 1833 – 1904, wife of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Credit: Larry Harnisch/LADailyMirror.com

Karie Bible has agreed to give the Daily Mirror’s Brain Trust a tour of Hollywood Forever Cemetery on a particularly appropriate day – Oct. 2 – so we can commemorate the 1910 bombing of The Times. Most of the 20 victims of the explosion and fire are buried here, along with many celebrities that we’ll be hearing about.

We will meet for lunch at Astroburger (5601 Melrose Ave. at Gower) at 12:30 p.m. and the tour will begin at 2 p.m. at the cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd. Here’s a map of both locations.

Posted in 1910, Brain Trust, Coming Attractions, Crime and Courts, Hollywood, Obituaries | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Keith Thursby: Dodgers Wrap It Up at the Coliseum

Posted on September 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sept. 22, 1961, Coliseum Sept. 21, 1961

The Dodgers ended their fourth and final season in the Coliseum with a 3-2, 13-inning victory over the Chicago Cubs. According to the Times’ coverage before and after the game, the Dodgers left their first Los Angeles home without shedding a tear. The paper even said so in headlines, twice.

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Posted in 1961, Baseball, Columnists, Dodgers, Keith Thursby | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Keith Thursby: Dodgers Wrap It Up at the Coliseum

Found on EBay – Wetherby Kayser Shoes

Posted on September 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

Wetherby Kayser Shoes

Aug. 27, 1911, Wetherby Kayser

This pair of women’s shoes from Wetherby Kayser has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $49.99.

Posted in Fashion, Found on EBay | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Found on EBay – Wetherby Kayser Shoes

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated ++]

Posted on September 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sept. 20, 2011, Mystery Photo

image
May 12, 1924: “The Marriage Cheat” at Loew’s State and May 25, 1924, at Tallys.

May 25, 1924, Marriage Cheat
[Update: This is Laska Winter, seen in “The Marriage Cheat.”]

Here’s our mystery gal!

There’s a new photo on the jump!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Necklace Stolen From Titanic Exhibit

Posted on September 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

image

Writing in the New York Times, Roberta Smith pleads for the preservation of the American Folk Art Museum.

Two posts in Lens, the New York Times’ photography blog, are worthwhile reading. The first is a question and answer with Pete Brook about prison photography projects.

Q. But then why is it important? If it’s not going to change anything, why devote so much time to prison photography?

A. Well, a lot of people don’t want to talk about prisons. There’s no incentive for anyone in society to look at prisons for the failure that they are. Politicians don’t win if they appear to be soft on crime. And then you have the media, which is after ratings. It wins by stoking up emotions. With ‘American Idol,’ it’s making people sentimental. With politics, it’s making people divided and angry. And with crime, it’s making people afraid.

The second is a feature on photographer Lori Grinker’s exploration of the branches of her family, Jewish refugees who were scattered from Lithuania.

For Ms. Grinker, the project has become more than a personal journey. “You don’t have to be a Grinker to want to understand how a family gets broken up and becomes other,” she said. “Whether you are Iraqi refugees, Jewish, Asian or African, it’s about putting together the pieces of the puzzle. It’s about the experience of diaspora.”

A gold-plated necklace on display with artifacts recovered from the Titanic has been stolen. Associated Press via Washington Post.

The L.A. Daily Mirror and L.A. Crime Beat curated to the most exacting standards by the bots at paper.li.

Posted in Crime and Courts, Genealogy, Museums, New York | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Necklace Stolen From Titanic Exhibit

‘Zoot Suit’ and History – Part 9

Posted on September 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

April 1, 1942, Bernstein

Image: Isadore Bernstein’s name appears on a list of  undesirables.  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.

The problem of subversives is one of the recurring themes in the reports on the 11th Naval District, which included the Los Angeles area. This figures into the Navy’s analysis of the Zoot Suit Riots, alleging that various communists and sympathizers (author Carey McWilliams, newspaper publisher Charlotta Bass and ACLU attorney A.L. Wirin among them) are trying exploit the incidents to further their presumed agendas.

On the jump, more about the Navy’s program to root out subversives, from documents found at the National Archives in Riverside. Notice that in the case of Helmuth Mundkowski, even though his Americanism was unquestioned, his father’s activities were enough for him to be dismissed from a secret Navy project.

“Zoot Suit” and History, Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

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Posted in 1942, 1943, African Americans, Crime and Courts, Fashion, Film, History, Hollywood, Latinos, Libraries, Stage, World War II, Zoot Suit | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on ‘Zoot Suit’ and History – Part 9

Clifton’s Closing for $3-Million Renovation [Updated]

Posted on September 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

Clifton's Brookdale

Photo: Clifton’s Brookdale Cafeteria.

My Los Angeles Times colleague Roger Vincent reports that Clifton’s Brookdale cafeteria is closing Sept. 26 for an extended renovation. [If you haven’t read Mary Mallory’s post on Einar Petersen’s murals at Clifton’s and elsewhere downtown, check it out.]

Vincent says that Andrew Meieran plans to remove the metal facade that was installed in the 1960s as part of the attempts to modernize the historic buildings on Broadway. The kitchen will be new, the menu will be similar and the dining room will be unchanged, Vincent says. Plans call for a tiki-themed bar in the basement and a third-floor speakeasy. [The password is swordfish!]

While the cafeteria is closed for the $3-million renovation, expected to take three to six months, a bakery headed by Holden Burkons will open in the front.

[Update: Mary Mallory notes that on the third level of Clifton’s is a historic exhibit, which showcases the only known plan and furniture by Einar Petersen. ]

Posted in Architecture, Downtown, Food and Drink | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Eve Golden: Queen of the Dead

Posted on September 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

hearse_cadillac_02

Photo: 1962 Cadillac hearse listed for sale on Craigslist at $30,000.

Queen of the Dead – dateline September 19, 2011

•  The 108-year-old Steuben Glass company has announced they are closing shop—specifically, their Corning, NY, factory, and their 1950s-chic Madison Avenue shop. Steuben, of course, is responsible for all those paperweights, bowls and other tchotchkes world leaders give one another, and those wedding/bar mitzvah/christening gifts you find in your great-aunt’s apartment after she dies and wonder what you are going to do with. “This is one of America’s oldest handicrafts consumer goods. It’s world famous,” says businessman Leonard Stern. “It would be like France hearing that Baccarat was closing down.” And it is certainly not going to be easy for glass-blowers to find new jobs.

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

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated +]

Posted on September 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

Sept. 18, 2011, Mystery Photo

[Update: This is Anne Heywood.]

Here’s another mystery photo, courtesy of Steven Bibb!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Shofar Flash Mob!

Posted on September 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

Greek Vase
Photo: The Volute Krater, which is being  returned to Italy. Credit: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times explores the different philosophies of treating history at the Reagan and Nixon presidential libraries.

But another exhibition that just opened at yet another presidential museum not far away — the Watergate installation at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda — has offered a stark challenge to the Reagan tribute here, exposing both the different ways that these two museums have chosen to remember their subjects and the different positions that the two former presidents hold in the nation’s and the Republican Party’s memory.

Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports on White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen taking his oldest son, Ozzie Jr., to the Negro Baseball Leagues Museum.

“I think being here in Kansas City, everyone should take a look at it, especially Latino and African-American players. To go look at it, all the stuff we went through and we come from different countries and play this game, to making a lot of money. Besides that, it will help baseball.”

The Los Angeles Public Library’s photo collection has a feature on the “Shades of L.A.” project, an effort to explore the city’s ethnic communities. The project also included oral history interviews with people such as African American attorney Walter Gordon Jr.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is returning a stolen Greek vase to Italian authorities. The vase was traced through a photo to art dealer Giacomo Medici, who was convicted of dealing in looted art. Mike Boehm in the L.A. Times Culture Monster.

The L.A. Daily Mirror and L.A. Crime Beat carefully curated to the most exacting standards by the bots at paper.li.

A shofar flash mob on Sunday in New York:   Triangle Square on Broadway and 66th street across the street from Lincoln Center 2:30pm; JCC in Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Avenue @76th Street) on the street 3:30pm

Posted in African Americans, Baseball, Crime and Courts, Libraries, Museums, Religion | Tagged | Comments Off on Shofar Flash Mob!

Daily Mirror Road Trip: Wavecrest 2011 [Updated]

Posted on September 17, 2011 by lmharnisch

Wavecrest 2011

Photo: Model A woodie. Credit: Larry Harnisch/LADailyMirror.com

I haven’t been to Wavecrest, the annual gathering of woodies at Moonlight Beach, in more than a decade, so I drove down Saturday. Here’s what I saw:

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Posted in Photography, Retro, San Diego, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Mystery Photo

Posted on September 17, 2011 by lmharnisch

Random Shot

Photograph by Larry Harnisch/L.A. Daily Mirror

So … where was I when I took this?

Posted in Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Found on EBay – New Rosslyn Hotels

Posted on September 16, 2011 by lmharnisch

Rosslyn Hotel

Rosslyn Hotel

Photo: The Rosslyn Hotels at 5th and Main via Google street view.

A luggage sticker for the Rosslyn Hotels on Main has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $4.99.

Posted in Architecture, Downtown, Found on EBay | Tagged , | 1 Comment