Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
August 29, 1907
Los Angeles
Around Engine Co. 20 at Sunset Boulevard and Mohawk Street, Lt. Samuel Dodd is something of a practical joker, so when he left on his honeymoon with his bride, Juanita, his fellow firefighters decided to get even.
They did such a good job plastering the house across the street at 2149 Sunset Blvd. with signs and old shoes that passing streetcars stopped so passengers could get a look.
August 28, 1959: The success story of L.D. Tallent — a man born with less than half a body — isn’t quite believable, but it happened anyway, Paul Coates writes. Continue reading
She is one of those cold cases that leave all kinds of unanswered questions even when the killer is finally caught, convicted and sent to prison. Nothing about it passes the sniff test.
We know her name was Helene Funk Jerome, born in New York on March 12, 1908, which makes her 50 at the time of the killing. She was living in a rear apartment at the Las Palmas Hotel, 1738 N. Las Palmas. That’s the one used in “Pretty Woman.”
She was supposedly a retired actress, but her credentials are rather vague. The Times said she was a graduate of either the Royal Dramatic Academy or the Royal Dramatic Society in London, so I’m guessing it was the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, which has no record of her — at least online.
Most of her career was spent on the stage in China, The Times said. She never made any movies and shouldn’t be confused with Helene Jerome Eddy, who died in 1990.
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Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
The origins of Latino gangs are not well-documented in The Times, but the case of Earl D. Bush, 911 Diamond St., appears to be the first mention of the Diamond Street Gang, which is still active and was among those targeted by Officer Rafael Perez during what became the Rampart scandal.
Bush was arrested May 31, 1947, along with John Vergara, 14, of 1034 Colton St.; Gabriel Gutierrez, 19, of 228 N. Fremont St.; and Julian Delgado (published as Del Gado), 15, 1016½ W. 1st St., all in the Temple-Beaudry area near the junction of the Harbor and Hollywood freeways.
August 28, 1947: At the age of 3, Margaret Rosezarian Harris was splashed across the front page of the Sentinel, which covered her concert of classical pieces at Chicago’s Carey AME Temple.
“She was poised and showed no trace of self-consciousness,” the Sentinel said.
At a fashion show of fall college styles held about a fortnight ago at B. Altman & Co., New York, most startling among the novelties shown were the “pedal pushers,” in which Anne Scott appears on Life’s cover. These are made of red wool plaid, come to just below the knee and are one of many versions of the new long shorts which are being promoted to replace rolled-up slacks and dungarees for college wear. (Note to millennials: “dungarees” are the old name for blue jeans).
August 28, 1944
Life’s cover story is about the new fashion craze: pedal pushers.
Life says: Preston Sturges is a man of vast and varied talents. He is the author of a Broadway stage hit, the inventor of a kissproof lipstick, a superlative cook, a multilinguist, the owner of a war production plant and probably the most exciting movie director to emerge in the past decade. (The Daily Mirror’s library recently acquired a copy of James Curtis’ “Between Flops: A Biography of Preston Sturges,” which we highly recommend. You can hunt down an old copy or get the Kindle version).
The Big Four powers begin peace talks. Meeting at Dumbarton Oaks are U.S. Undersecretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Britain’s Sir Alexander Cadogan, China’s Wei Tao-ming and “an able but inexperienced young diplomat” from the Soviet Union named Andrei Gromyko.
August 28, 1944
I had just put down “The History of Rome Hanks and Kindred Matters” when — flash! — came the word that MGM had bought the Lt. Joseph Stanley Pennell novel for $60,000. Here, my friends, is a powerful story of the Civil War, so powerful, in fact, it takes a good strong stomach to get past some of the passages. But not since Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe has an American written a first book with the beauty and force of Pennell, and the reading public is responding at the rate of 13,000 a week.
Two nights running, David Wark Griffith ran “Intolerance” and Birth of a Nation” for Preston Sturges, which inclines me to believe his deal with Sturges will be closed any day.
Director Mike Curtiz starts his 18th year at Warners … Certainly Dalton Trumbo won’t have to worry where his next meal comes from for the next few years … I remember so well Carole Lombard’s interest in Helen Deutsch’s story “But Is It Love,” the comedy she thought was so right for her. She took an option on it before she died and expected to interest one of the studios in making it. After Carole’s death, Helen Deutsch lost interest in the picture because she had set her heart on having Carole play in it. Now the story is being rewritten and will again be offered for sale.
VIRGO: You are in same planetary boat with Leoites today, therefore benefit by advice to them. Enjoy wholesome pleasures in free time. Avoid extremes.
August 27, 1944
Hollywood’s divorces and nightclub battles always manage to get on the front pages. It’s just too bad the public doesn’t get an equal chance to learn about the topic of conversation that really interests the stars. Go to any Hollywood party and you will hear very little discussion about the newest marital rift or the latest cafe battle. But on every side you hear stories about babies, babies babies — by proud parents.
On the bestseller list, fiction “History of Rome Hanks,” “Razor’s Edge,” “Leave Her to Heaven,” “Strange Fruit” and “Ride With Me.”
Nonfiction: “The Time for Decision,” “I Never Left Home,” “Anna and the King of Siam,” “Yankee From Olympus” and “Basic History of the United States.”
Was Benjamin John Beynon an abusive husband … or just a bad singer?
Ben, 46, and his wife of six years, Anne, lived at 1946 1/2 New England Ave., between Hoover and Vermont just south of Washington. For the last three years, Anne had been using a wheelchair, although The Times never explained why. Continue reading
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
Manhattan Beach
Aug. 27, 1907
Retired Episcopal minister the Rev. John Jewett, 83, wanted to die, so while staying with his son-in-law, J.D. Porter, he slit his throat with a razor.
The undertaker was called, but when he arrived with his hearse, Jewett was still alive, although death was imminent. The undertaker went back to his funeral home to wait.
The entire August 27, 1903, edition of the Herald is available here.
August 27, 1903: The Los Angeles Times (and by extension, the Chandler family) is frequently treated as if it was the only paper in the city’s history. Those who delve into the subject know better, of course, but access to The Times’ long-dead rivals, such as the Examiner, Herald-Express and Daily News, is difficult because it involves microfilm, which is regrettable because the Examiner, for example, was a far superior paper in many respects – certainly when it came to crime coverage.
The California Digital Newspaper Collection has a wide assortment of papers, although few of them cover the Raymond Chandler era (1930s-1950s) that is so popular in the public imagination.
Here’s an issue from the Herald, which noted on its masthead that it was the oldest morning paper in Los Angeles, having been founded in 1873.
About 6,000 veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic gather at Eastlake Park (now Lincoln Park) for a reunion, with lunch, speeches and a massive bonfire. The band and drum corps from the Soldiers Home played “America, the Beautiful,” “Marching Through Georgia,” “Rally Round the Flag” and “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching.” Including wives and children, the total attendance was estimated at 10,000, the Herald said.
Those who think traffic in Los Angeles is a new problem – and that the streetcars were the perfect solution – please note:
The Los Angeles Railway company tripled its service to the park on both the Maple Avenue and Downey Avenue lines and even with the many additional cars the traffic was badly congested at times and the veterans had to wait for accommodations both going and coming.
Among the speakers was Will A. Harris, the son of a Confederate soldier, who spoke out against the lynching of African Americans.
William H. Potter of Alhambra appears before Judge Trask on an insanity charge. He is found to be suffering from “a plethora of money and has for years been busily engaged in having ‘a good time,’ so called,” The Herald said. “To blow in $500 in a day or two was a common occurrence with him, but as there did not appear to be any sign of actual insanity, Potter was discharged.”
August 26, 1944
When William Bendix was broke and didn’t have a nickel to his name, his father-in-law, Henry Stafanotty, loaned him money to support his wife and child. Bill isn’t the kind who forgets and now he has opened a hardware shop for his wife’s father in Newark and is calling it “The Wake.” That’s in honor of “Wake Island,” which put Bill in the movie limelight.
VIRGO: Put today in your happy medium column. Approach agreeably and without fuss the good and the bad tasks. No volcanic promotion ideas, just down-to-earth dependability.
Boxie and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on the Black Dahlia case Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, on YouTube. I won’t be doing more streaming videos on Instagram because I don’t have enough subscribers.
I had to look twice at this one: A suspended police officer hires a couple of men to tunnel to his neighbors’ house? Really? I mean are you serious?
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Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
Aug. 26, 1907
Santa Rosa, Calif.
Elected officials addressed a large rally devoted to saving the 800-acre Armstrong Grove, named after lumber baron J.B. Armstrong, who decided to save the stand of soaring redwoods rather than clearing it.
“Armstrong Grove contains the finest and largest redwood timber in California,” The Times said. “For years it has been a great attraction to tourists and is one of the features of the Russian River section.
TCM tackles a vital subject with its screening of the motion picture “Open Secret” during the upcoming TCM Classic Film Festival April 11-14. 2019. As timely now as when it was first released in 1948,“Open Secret” promotes religious and racial tolerance to a country fighting to accept the very principles upon which it was created. Produced on a much smaller budget than studio films “Crossfire” and “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” “Open Secret” takes a no-nonsense look at growing racial intolerance and anti-Semitism in the late 1940s, fighting back against these loathsome tendencies.
Two years after the United States and its allies crushed the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan to win World War II and restore dramatic principles of equality and tolerance, fear and hatred of foreigners and “others” was growing among the disenchanted in America. The July 17, 1946, Los Angeles Times reported that the Jewish Labor Committee was beginning a campaign to “eliminate racial discrimination and bigotry among workers.” “It takes a concerted campaign against the conditions which tempt ordinary people to grasp at the dangerous belief that it is the Jews, or the Negroes, or the foreigners who are taking away their economic bread and butter or cultural opportunities. Most antagonism arises from economic insecurity which pits man against his fellow man for jobs, better living standards and social advancement.” The Committee hoped to show that it was economic and political practices which were causing these cuts in wages, not the people.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
A doctor and a mysterious death—of course, Dr. Manuel de J. Castillo came under suspicion, although I suspect it was only briefly—in the Black Dahlia case.
The Times never followed up on Susanne Castillo’s death, either on the autopsy or the inquest. But Dr. Castillo turned up in the news several times in the 1950s and ’60s.
A 1940 graduate of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, Castillo got his California medical license in 1944. In 1955, he bought a 1,500-acre ranch near Bishop.
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