Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on November 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 30, 2011, Mystery Photo

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

[Update: This is Natalie Thompson, who appeared in “The Vanishing Virginian.” ]

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How to Wear a Newsboy Cap – Marc Chevalier Edition

Posted on November 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

Marc Chevalier, Newsboy Cap

Regular reader Marc Chevalier sends along his version of the proper way to wear a newsboy cap. He says it helps to have an authentic period cap: “The caps made in the ’20s and ’30s have a somewhat different shape from the ones made today. They’re more, well, sculptured.”

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Dying Man Found on Main Street

Posted on November 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 30, 1941, U.S. May Be at War in Year

Nov. 30, 1941, comics

Nov. 30, 1941:President Roosevelt says the U.S. may be at war in a year – actually, it was a week later.

Bartender Eddie Watton was closing up at the Theatre Cafe, 324 S. Main St., and wanted the man at the end of the bar to leave. But Arthur McNamee refused to go until he finished his beer. McNamee became abusive, then walked around the end of the bar and put his hand in his hip pocket, Watton said.

“I hit him on the jaw with my right fist,” Watton said.

McNamee fell backward and his head his head. He was found in the street, dying of a skull fracture.

The Times never followed up on this story, so we don’t know whether Watton was prosecuted in the death. But in July 1942, the state suspended the liquor licenses of bars that the military had declared out of bounds, including the Theatre Cafe, “for the duration.”

Edward Everett Horton is appearing at the El Capitan in the play “Springtime for Henry.”

Jimmie Fidler says: “I’m unable to understand why Don Ameche hasn’t reached a higher run on the Hollywood ladder.

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Posted in 1941, 1942, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Food and Drink, Hollywood, Homicide | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

How to Wear a Hat – Newsboy Cap Edition

Posted on November 29, 2011 by lmharnisch

jack_huston
Photo: Jack Huston in “Boardwalk Empire.” Credit: Macall Polay HBO via the Los Angeles Times.

I was watching “Emperor of the North” and thought a post on newsboy caps might be a good follow-up on How to Wear a Hat – Noir Edition. Because you should never have to see something as unfortunate as the costume of Jack Huston in “Boardwalk Empire,” where the suit doesn’t match the shirt, doesn’t match the tie, doesn’t match the hat – oh that hat. Dressed from the Salvation Army.

Here’s a lesson on wearing a newsboy cap from Lee Marvin in the 1973 film “Emperor of the North,” set in 1933, with costume design by Ed Wynigear, who also worked on period films such as “Tora! Tora! Tora!” “1941,” “Under the Rainbow” and “The Sand Pebbles.”

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Posted in 1933, 1973, Fashion, Film, Hollywood | Tagged | 4 Comments

Eve Golden: Queen of the Dead

Posted on November 28, 2011 by lmharnisch

 hearse_naftzinger_ebay 

Photo: Postcard for J.D. Naftzinger, funeral director and embalmer, listed on EBay, as Buy It Now for $150.


Queen of the Dead—dateline November 28, 2011


•  I am going to get “More, More, More (How Do You Like It?),” stuck in your brain for the next week, I apologize in advance. Actress and singer/songwriter Andrea True, 68, died in Kingston, New York, on November 7. She is best remembered for her disco hits—in addition to the one above, “New York, You Got Me Dancing” and “What’s Your Name, What’s Your Number,” all of which reached the charts (and the dance floors) in the late 1970s. True also acted in numerous films throughout that decade, most of them soft-core porn (including such eyebrow-raising titles as The Russians Are Coming, Doctor’s Teenage Dilemma, The Wetter the Better, Once Over Nightly, and Little Orphan Sammy).

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November 27, 1941: Streetcar Companies Ask Council to End Bus Ban in Downtown L.A.

Posted on November 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 27, 1941, Japan Gets Blunt Terms

Nov. 27, 1941 Comics

November 27, 1941: The Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railways ask the City Council to repeal a ban against buses operating in downtown Los Angeles. Pacific Electric officials said the ban prevented them from routing the line from Los Angeles to Alhambra, San Gabriel and Temple City out of Main Street. The repeal would also allow Pacific Electric to turn its station at 6th and Main Streets into a bus terminal, The Times said. (Are you surprised that the campaign to convert streetcar lines to buses started before World War II?)

Tom Treanor, who was killed covering World War II for The Times, tells the story of seven recruits about to take an oath to join the Marines.

Jackie Cooper and Susanna Foster star in “Glamour Boy,” with Skinnay Ennis and his orchestra live on stage at the Paramount!

Jimmie Fidler says: Wot a jaunt around the Caribbean bases that must have been for Oliver (oh-so-fat) Hardy. During one hop in a too-small plane he had to stand for seven hours because he didn’t fit in the seats and there was no room on the floor.

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Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Streetcars, Tom Treanor, Transportation, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

L.A. Man Takes Fight Over Dog License to U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on November 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 26, 1941, Comics

image
1203 Innes Ave., Los Angeles, CA
Photo: The 1200 block of Innes Avenue, home of the George F. Harrington/Kitty HQ, via Google Street View.

Nov. 26, 1941: Kitty may not be a typical name for a dog – but then George F. Harrington is an unusual fellow, for he claims that owning a dog is a constitutional right. Threatened with a 30-day jail sentence for not licensing Kitty, Harrington took his battle to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear his case. Harrington, of 1203 Innes Ave., decided to pay the $4 fee and take his fight to Sacramento.

Jean Renoir’s “Swamp Water,” with Walter Brennan, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews and Walter Huston, is opening at Grauman’s Chinese and Lowe’s State.

Jimmie Fidler replies to a reader from South Bend, Ind., who says: “I think the Hays office is right in banning sweaters. You should hear the boys whoop and holler when one appears on the screen.” Well, boys will be boys and Hollywood prospers on whoops and hollers, Jimmie says.

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Movieland Mystery Photos – Special Edition [Updated]

Posted on November 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

Mystery Photo 1

Mystery Photo 1
Mystery Photo No. 4 		Mystery Photo 1
Mystery Photo No. 4 		Mystery Photo 1

[Update: I thought it might be helpful if I enlarged the faces of our mystery gents. My hunch is that the fellow on the right is Laurence Olivier.

[I have also received three more photos and I now suspect that our friends in Photo 1 are also in Photo 4. One could infer that since Man 1 and Man 2 are dressed much the same in Photos 1 and 4, they were taken at the same time.

[Photo No. 6 obviously shows a young Pat Boone. The rest are unidentified.]

I received an email from congressional candidate Vincent Flaherty, seeking identities on these three photos. He says they show Ray Ryan, a member of the syndicate headed by Ralph E. Stolkin that bought Howard Hughes’ share of RKO in 1952. The stock was returned to Hughes in 1953 at a reported loss of more than $1 million.

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Posted in 1952, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography, Politics | Tagged , | 23 Comments

From the Stacks: James Richardson’s ‘Spring Street’

Posted on November 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

James Richardson Los Angeles Examiner City Editor

Photo: James Richardson, city editor of the Los Angeles Examiner.  Credit: Cover of “For the Life of Me.”

I incurred the wrath of Fibber some time ago with my post about James Richardson and “For the Life of Me.” Fibber reminded me – rather pointedly – that Richardson gave him his chance at reporting. And where would the Daily Mirror be without Fibber’s recollections?

Anyway, Richardson wrote another book in 1922 titled “Spring Street,” which was compiled from a series of short stories he wrote for the Evening Herald. As a book, “Spring Street” isn’t much – it’s a rather typical romance of the period. But Richardson has lots of wonderful descriptions of Los Angeles at the time.

The book is available for free at Archive.Org or you can pay $22.71 to someone who is peddling printed versions on EBay.

On the jump, Richardson’s description of a newspaper office….

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Posted in 1922, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, Found on EBay, From the Stacks | Tagged , | Comments Off on From the Stacks: James Richardson’s ‘Spring Street’

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on November 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 24, 2011, Mystery Photo

Here’s a mystery couple!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

An 1890s Thanksgiving in the Kitchen

Posted on November 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

Everyday Cook-Book

Here’s a traditional roast turkey recipe from the “Every-Day Cook-Book and Family Compendium,” written about 1890 by Miss E. Neill. Be sure your fire is bright and clear and watch out for the gall-bag.
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Posted in 1890, Food and Drink, From the Stacks | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

On the Frontiers of Science – The Virgin Rabbit

Posted on November 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 23, 1941, Comics

Nov. 23, 1941, Rabbit
Nov. 23, 1941: Dr. Herbert Shapiro of the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia has discovered that if you place a bag of ice cubs on the side of a rabbit for 90 minutes, the rabbit may become pregnant.

“The ice treatment, Dr. Shapiro said, has caused virgin conception in a number of rabbits. The seeming miracle is only occasional.”

The Times reports that Sunday circulation has reached a new high: 456,000.

Jimmie Fidler says: From where I stand, it looks like Abbott and Costello should be planning, not to rake in all the gold while the vein is hot, but to spread out their nugget-grabbing over a period of years.

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Posted in 1941, Animals, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Medicine | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

From the Stacks – ‘Death Valley the Facts’

Posted on November 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

Death Valley the Facts Is it wrong to buy a book on the basis of one map? I suppose it is, but I couldn’t resist. I found this copy of W.A. Chalfant’s “Death Valley the Facts” the other evening at the Last Bookstore and had to have it because of a map by our old friend Charles Owens, who did such wonderful work in “Nuestro Pueblo.” Chalfant died in 1943. His obituary is here.

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on November 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 22, 2011, Mystery Photo

Here’s today’s mystery chap, courtesy of Steven Bibb!

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

Times on Spinelli Execution: ‘Good Riddance’

Posted on November 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

image Nov. 22, 1941: Here is Times reporter Tom Cameron’s description of the execution of Juanita “the Duchess” Spinelli:

Eight cyanide “eggs” under the chair dropped into a bucket of sulfuric acid and distilled water.

Nothing happened. The Duchess, her back still to her audience, was moving her lips in silent supplication.

The beads of perspiration began to stand out on reporters’ brows. Then the Duchess coughed. Through the heavy glass and steel it sounded like that of an asthmatic sufferer. The Duchess’ head dropped forward in a nod.

Then it jerked back, back until her long graying hair streamed down over the chair.

The Duchess coughed again; then blew out her breath with a sound like that a horse sometimes makes with his lips.

“Lemme outta here!” an elderly man whispered, “reminds me of my kid — he’s got asthma.” He forced his way through the spectators and went outside.

“That’s an old retired guard,” someone whispered. “He was saying a while ago the gallows was more decent than this.”

The Duchess was coughing more frequently now. Again, she blew invisible fumes from her lungs. Her head swung back over the chair, her eyes staring straight up at the low ceiling.

A large vein on the right side of her neck was still throbbing. Her mouth looked sunken, for they had taken away her false teeth. A gray, unhealthy pallor was spreading over her face. She was still alive, yet she had been in that little room, with every cranny of its 355.44 cubic feet of air space packed with the deadly gas, for what seemed a long time.

But it had been only five minutes — if my watch hadn’t stopped. A glance showed it hadn’t.

Another five minutes — the longest 300 seconds I’ve ever watched go into eternity — ticked off. The vein in the Duchess’ neck had long ceased pulsing.

Thirty seconds more. Then:

“That’s all, boys; the times were 10:14 1/2 and 10:25.” (Ten and one-half minutes from the time the cyanide was dropped until the stethoscope had indicated beyond doubt the Duchess’ heart — the heart that the law said was too evil to live, yet only Tuesday had thrilled over the sight of a baby — had stopped.)

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Found on EBay – San Quentin

Posted on November 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

San Quentin
In keeping with the theme of the 1941 execution of Juanita “the Duchess” Spinelli, here’s a souvenir brick from San Quentin that has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $49.95.

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Duchess Spinelli, Doomed to Gas Chamber: ‘No Christian Will Kill!’

Posted on November 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 21, 1941, Comics

image

Nov. 21, 1941: Juanita “The Duchess” Spinelli arrives at San Quentin to be executed in the gas chamber – the first woman legally executed in California’s history.

“No one who is a Christian will kill!” the 52-year-old mother of three cried in a voice as gray as her face, as lifeless as her gaunt, bony frame. “My blood will burn holes into their bodies,” she cried. “Before six months have passed they will be punished.”

Because the killing occurred in Sacramento, The Times only ran occasional wire stories about the case, which is frustrating for the researcher. The execution was covered by Times reporter Tom Cameron, who died in 1982 after retiring from The Times in 1966 as real estate editor.

Jimmie Fidler says: Papa Walter Huston and son, John, are collaborating on a script based on the life of President Ulysses S. Grant, in which Walter will star under John’s direction.

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Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, Religion | Tagged , | Comments Off on Duchess Spinelli, Doomed to Gas Chamber: ‘No Christian Will Kill!’

Eve Golden: Queen of the Dead

Posted on November 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

1959 Cadillac Hearse Model

Photo: A model of a 1959 Cadillac hearse, listed on EBay for $599.99.

Queen of the Dead—dateline November 21, 2011

•  “The Baroness Huntingtower died on the 8 th inst.,” said Lady Prudence Fairfax. “Not Katherine Grant of Rothiemurchus, the 12th Countess of Dysart!” exclaimed Lady Marjorie. “Such a shock, though she was 93.” Yes, there is one less Countess in the world, and there are few things I would not give to be called The Baroness Huntingtower (though that is my nickname down at the Blue Bar on 44th Street). Lady Katherine Greaves was a Scottish (not “Scotch,” if you please) peeress who didn’t even get to become a Countess till her childless sister, Lady Rosamund Agnes, popped her clogs in 2003. “No mourning, no flowers please,” says her London Times death notice. I shall withhold the flowers (though I have a huge floral blanket reading POLA) but I damn well shall mourn.

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Found on EBay – Florentine Gardens

Posted on November 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

Florentine Gardens

This photo of the “Greatest Generation” at play at the Florentine Gardens, c. 1944, has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $15.99.

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on November 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

Nov. 20, 2011, Mystery Photo

Here’s another mystery chap, courtesy of Steven Bibb.

[Update: This is Robert Beatty. Please congratulate Don Danard and Rotter for identifying him. Here’s his obituary in the Los Angeles Times | New York Times ]

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