Man Held in 1957 Cold Case Killing of Maria Ridulph

Posted on July 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

1957_1205_fbi

Dec. 3, 1957-April 26, 1958
Sycamore, Ill

1957_1206_ridulphNote: Jack Daniel McCullough has been charged in the 1957 killing of Maria Ridulph. Here’s an article I wrote about the case in 2007.

Maria E. Ridulph* was a 7-year-old girl from Sycamore, Ill., who was kidnapped Dec. 3, 1957, and whose decomposed body was found April 26, 1958, near Woodbine, a tiny, unincorporated settlement in rural Jo Daviess County, about 98 miles northwest of her home.

Many details of the case are murky because the only witness was 8-year-old Cathie Sigman, who was playing with Maria in the frontyard of a neighbor’s home at the time of the abduction and gave different versions of the incident as the investigation unfolded. Like Maria, Cathie lived on Archie Place, five houses west of the Ridulph home on the south side of the street.

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Posted in 1957, Cold Cases, Homicide | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

#Hollywood #history #museums

Posted on July 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

flame_of_araby

DEARBORN, Mich.

The Arab American National Museum is opening an exhibit focusing on the generation of children who are growing since the 9/11 attacks. The project, “In the Heart of Arab America,” was sponsored by the Asian American Journalists Assn. and called The Living Textbook. The museum also has an online exhibit titled “Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes.”

The museum notes that Turner Classic Movies is presenting “Arab Images on Film” on Tuesday and Thursday nights in July as part of its Race and Hollywood project.

Films include the silent era (“The Sea Hawk” 1924), Arabs as villains (“Sinbad the Sailor,” 1947), epics (“Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962), Arabs as a subject of ridicule (“Road to Morocco,” 1942), Arab maidens (“Kismet,” 1944), Arabs as sheiks (“The Wind and the Lion,” 1975), even-handed portrayals (“Five Graves to Cairo,” 1943) and images from outside Hollywood (“Battle of Algiers,” 1966).

ALSO

Is Anna Ella Carroll a forgotten heroine of the Civil War? Or is she a fraud?  The Washington Post takes a look in the Civil War issue of its magazine.

Detail: “Flame of Araby” Credit: Arab American National Museum

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Posted in Art & Artists, Film, Hollywood, Museums, Religion, Television | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on #Hollywood #history #museums

Commemorative Flight Canceled After Replica Plane Crashes

Posted on July 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

Glenn Curtiss seaplane
Glenn Curtiss lands after a flight in his seaplane in an undated photo.

1911_0714_glenn_curtiss
1911_0714_winona_lake
July 14, 1911: Crowds see Glenn Curtiss’ demonstration of his seaplane at Winona Lake, as shown in the Warsaw Indiana Daily Union. The artist seems to have given the airplane wheels – oops.

A flight marking a centennial in Navy aviation has been canceled after a replica of Glenn Curtiss’ 1911 A-1 Triad crashed on a test flight Friday, officials said.

Retired airline pilot Kevin House, who was unhurt when the replica crashed, told the Associated Press: These things are tricky to fly.” AP via Washington Post

There’s no word yet on how much damage was done to the aircraft, which was built by volunteers at the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum.

Posted in 1911, Aviation, Museums | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

#museum [Updated]

Posted on July 1, 2011 by lmharnisch

Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum will remain open with its collection intact. The announcement comes after museum supporters sued the university over plans to close the museum and sell its $350-million art collection. Boston Globe | NYT

L.A. Times columnist Hector Tobar says: “The Southwest Museum needs to be reopened, in the building Lummis created for it, and with at least some of the artifacts he assembled for it.” (I respect Hector and he’s a friend, but this is like saying we should still be making movies in the Lasky-DeMille Barn.)

Visitors must use the stairs to get to the Elevator Historical Society. WSJ

[Update: The National Pinball Museum has gotten a reprieve! Washington Post]

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Posted in Museums | Tagged | Comments Off on #museum [Updated]

Jewish Cowboys Fade From Argentina’s History

Posted on July 1, 2011 by lmharnisch

The Washington Post has a great story by Juan Forero on Jewish gauchos. No, really!

Forero says: Today, the story of their arrival in Argentina’s outback is all but a footnote in the history of the Jewish diaspora. But in the 1890s, as whole towns of Eastern European and Russian Jews began packing, the offers of a new life in the New World seemed like providence.

Posted in Religion | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Replica of 1911 Plane Crashes; Pilot OK

Posted on July 1, 2011 by lmharnisch

Pilot Kevin House is uninjured when a replica of Glenn Curtiss’ 1911 Navy seaplane crashed after takeoff in New York. WSJ

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated +]

Posted on July 1, 2011 by lmharnisch

July 1, 2011, Mystery Photo

Feb. 24, 1922, Neva Gerber

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

[Update: This mystery lady is Neva Gerber (d. 1974) who also performed as Jean Dolores. And she figures in the William Desmond Taylor case – although I can’t find anything about their relationship in The Times.]

There’s a new photo on the jump!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Architectural Rambling

Posted on July 1, 2011 by lmharnisch

1315 S. El Molino
The home at 1315 S. El Molino in Pasadena is one of my favorite local landmarks. When I moved to Los Angeles, I spent a long time looking for the house before I finally located it.  I drive by it regularly and I recently noticed that it was undergoing quite a bit of work. This week, it is apparently getting a new roof.

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Posted in Architecture, Film, Hollywood, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Found on EBay – Witzel Portrait of Louise Fazenda

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

louise_fazenda_ebay

This striking photo of Louise Fazenda by Witzel studios has been listed on EBay. Witzel was one of the leading studios in Los Angeles for portraits of entertainers. The vendor says this is an authentic autographed picture. Bidding starts at $29.99.

Posted in Film, Found on EBay, Hollywood, Witzel | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

#history: Museum Closed, Exhibits Sold at Auction

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

Ft. Wayne, Ind., has raised $50,000 by auctioning off items from its closed Jack Diehm Museum of Natural History, including  a polar bear that sold for $7,500.

The museum was founded in 1965 by taxidermist Berlen Diehm to honor his son, who was killed in a car accident, according to the Ft. Wayne Sun-Sentinel.

Posted in History, Museums | Tagged , | Comments Off on #history: Museum Closed, Exhibits Sold at Auction

#history

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

mayfair_theater_dayton_ohioLady Mayfair, a statue that was once atop the Mayfair Theater in Dayton, Ohio, is being moved from the Dayton Art Institute to Carillon Park. The Mayfair was demolished in 1969, according to WDTN-TV Channel 2 in Dayton.

Photo: Mayfair Theater (detail) Credit: Rollyn E. Puterbaugh Sr.

Posted in Architecture, Film, Preservation, Theaters | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on #history

Charlie Chaplin – No Sale!

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

The New York Times reports that the short World War I propaganda film “Zepped,” a pastiche of Charlie Chaplin clips and some animation, failed to sell at auction by Bonhams.The film’s reserve price was about $160,000.

Posted in Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

#Cold Cases

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

New York Times

The NYT takes a look at Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who  is expanding the use of DNA to solve old cases.

The NYT says: On Wednesday, Mr. Vance will travel to Albany in support of a proposal to expand DNA collection to include those convicted of all felonies and misdemeanors, rather than the 46 percent of all crimes now covered by state law. (Some states take DNA evidence from anyone arrested in a felony, a policy the Bloomberg administration supports.)

Posted in Cold Cases, Crime and Courts | Tagged , , | Comments Off on #Cold Cases

#history

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

A summary of history-related posts on the Web:

Chicago Tribune

The Trib has an item on the Children’s Museum remaining at Navy Pier rather than moving to Grant Park as the facility is transferred to private management. Here’s the Trib’s photo gallery on Navy Pier.

There’s also a timeline on Underwriters Laboratories and an item on a prep baseball game that celebrated the Negro leagues.

New York Times

The NYT’s Learning Network has an item on SnagLearning, a project of SnagFilms, which offers online documentaries for the schoolroom.

SnagFilms’s documentaries on California  include “Ishi, the Last Yahi,” (1992)  and “Hollywood Bowl: Music Under the Stars” (2001).

Posted in African Americans, Baseball, Chicago, Film, History, Hollywood, Museums, Music, Native Americans, Photography, Sports | Tagged , , | Comments Off on #history

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

June 30, 2011, Mystery Photo

Here’s another mystery photo courtesy of Steven Bibb. Thanks!

[Update: Please congratulate Don Danard  for identifying Tex Fletcher (d. 1987) in “Six-Gun Rhythm.” ]

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

‘Zoot Suit’ and History – Part 3

Posted on June 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

Zoot Suit Duck

In March 1943, Disney studios released “The Spirit of ’43,” a cartoon in which Donald Duck is forced to choose between saving his money for “taxes to bury the Axis” (aided by a thrifty proto-Scrooge McDuck)  and spending his paycheck on frivolous fun (encouraged by Zoot Suit Duck). In the cartoon, saving money is patriotic and spending money is …. evil.

Zoot Suit Duck

Zoot Suit Duck is, in fact, in league with Hitler and wears a swastika bowtie!

Zoot Suit Duck

And like all right-thinking cartoon characters in uniform,  Donald beats up Zoot Suit Duck! Please remember, this cartoon was released three months before the Zoot Suit Riots.

In Part 1, we saw that The Times initially treated the zoot suit as a youthful fad, but the attitude changed once zoot suits were outlawed by the War Production Board to conserve fabric.

In Part 2, Times columnist Timothy Turner provided some more sympathetic insight (zoot-suiters aren’t all criminals and delinquents) that was a surprising counterpoint to the mainstream opinion.

In Part 3, we’ll take a look at the events leading up to the Zoot Suit Riots of June 1943.

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Posted in 1943, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, LAPD, Latinos, Lee Shippey, Nightclubs, Zoot Suit | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

History as a Theme Park

Posted on June 29, 2011 by lmharnisch

Conner Prairie
The New York Times has a review by Edward Rothstein of Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, which he calls “a hybrid of historical society, amusement park, 19th-century village and high-tech theater. Its history inspires it to try to tell history in a different way: not as fact but as experience.”

He says: “Ellen M. Rosenthal, the president and chief executive of the park, explained in an interview that the goal of the park was to treat history not as something completed, but as something lived, something that grows out of people’s experiences and understanding.”

Photo credit: Conner Prairie Interactive History Park

Posted in 1863, Museums, Parks | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on June 29, 2011 by lmharnisch

June 29, 2011, Mystery Photo
Photographs by Howard Decker

Our pal Fibber (Howard Decker) sends along two pictures as mystery photos. Thanks!

[Congratulations to Lorenzo for identifying Season Hubley!]

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

From the Stacks: ‘The Big Picture’

Posted on June 29, 2011 by lmharnisch

Big Picture Cover

I picked up “The Big Picture,” Melba Levick and Stanley Young’s 1988 book about Los Angeles murals, not realizing what a terribly sad book it would be. As Young notes: “Most artists are aware that, exposed as it is to the elements, both human and natural, there is a limited life-expectancy for any mural.”

I wanted it for one picture, specifically.

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Posted in 1988, Architecture, Art & Artists, Books and Authors, Crime and Courts, Downtown, From the Stacks, Hollywood, Latinos, Photography, Preservation, San Fernando Valley, Sports, Zoot Suit | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

From the Galleries: Soviet Film Posters

Posted on June 28, 2011 by lmharnisch

Seventh Heaven Friday’s New York Times has a brief article on an exhibit of Soviet film posters at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery on West 26th Street in Chelsea.

According to the New York Times, the posters were collected by Susan Pack, a graphics historian and the author of “Film Posters of the Russian Avant-Garde,” who sold them two years ago.

The unidentified buyer is displaying them in the gallery in an exhibit titled “Revolutionary Film Posters: Aesthetic Experiments of Russian Constructivism, 1920-1933.”

The Times says that none of the posters on display is for sale, but that the owner is selling some duplicates for $8,000 to $200,000.

The gallery has more than 100 images of the posters on its website and they are stunning. It’s particularly interesting to see foreign interpretations of Hollywood, such as this poster for what appears to be Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last” but is translated by the gallery as “Seventh Heaven.”

The exhibit ends July 30.

Photo: “Seventh Heaven” Credit: Tony Shafrazi Gallery

Posted in Art & Artists, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , | 4 Comments