Fourth of July, 1961

Posted on July 4, 2011 by lmharnisch
July 4, 1961, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
For the Fourth of July, 1961, we have a group of eight-column pages. Weren’t those the days? Newspapers are much narrower now and only have six columns.The Times has one photo, eight stories, a two-column index and a weather box.   The Milwaukee Sentinel has a photo, 11 stories and an index. Oddly enough, the Miami News looks more like what newspapers were doing in the 1970s and it holds the record for different column widths: one-column,  two-column and a bastard measure of five on eight.The Sentinel promises a “4th with all the trimmings,” which I thought only happened at Thanksgiving.

And Everybody Is Using Upstyle Heds!
July 4, 1961, Miami News
Miami News

Continue reading →

Posted in 1961, Front Pages | Tagged , | Comments Off on Fourth of July, 1961

Eve Golden: Queen of the Dead

Posted on July 4, 2011 by lmharnisch

Hearse

Queen of the Dead—dateline July 4, 2011

 

• Adorable, baby-voiced actress Alice Playten, 63, died on June 25. She was one of those “oh, her!” actresses whose face and voice are more familiar than her name. She did zillions of TV commercials, was frequently onstage (Tony-nominated for Henry, Sweet Henry in 1968) was occasionally in movies, and guested on various TV series from the 1970s-2000s. But this is what you will remember her for, I’ll bet: Playten was the perky newlywed promising dyspeptic hubby Terry Kiser “marshmallowed meatballs and poached oysters” in a 1970 Alka Seltzer commercial. Oh, her!

Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Artists, Eve Golden, Film, Hollywood, Obituaries, Queen of the Dead, Stage, Television | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Another Good Story Ruined! Stephen Jay Gould

Posted on July 3, 2011 by lmharnisch
Skulls
Photo: Janet Monge and Alan Mann Credit: Penn Museum, Philadelphia		 Mismeasure of Man

Skulls It’s always interesting to see research debunked – and even more interesting when a debunker is debunked, as in the case of Stephen Jay Gould’s 1981 “The Mismeasure of Man.”

In “Mismeasure,” Gould (d. 2002) charged that anthropologist Samuel George Morton unintentionally manipulated his data on human skulls to support his contention that brain volume was an indication of intellect and that therefore Europeans were superior to Africans.

[You may recall a Sherlock Holmes story in which the famous detective infers that an individual is smart based on his hat size.  You may also recall that French author Anatole France had a teeny head. Conclusion: Anatole France was not the man they wanted. Watson: “Holmes, why are you never wrong!?”]

But as Nicholas Wade reports in the New York Times, anthropologists at the University of Pennsylvania (which has Morton’s skull collection) have reexamined the data. According to the University of Pennsylvania researchers, Morton was making no such claim.
Wade writes: “In an article that does little to burnish Dr. Gould’s reputation as a scholar, they conclude that almost every detail of his analysis is wrong.”

The research team’s rather technical report is here. | The much more readable NYT article is here.

Photo: A murderer’s skull from the Morton collection Credit: University of Pennsylvania

Posted in 1981, Another Good Story Ruined, Books and Authors | Tagged , | 1 Comment

#museum

Posted on July 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

My colleague Louis Sahagun of the Los Angeles Times takes a look at an effort to revive the Santa Catalina Island Museum with an exhibit of photos by Pattie Boyd, the former wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton.

Since the arrival of Executive Director Michael De Marsche, “The museum, which is on the ground floor of the island’s landmark ‘casino’ building, has added gallery space, installed a digital theater and expanded its gift shop. The museum’s first exhibit under his watch featured photographs and memorabilia chronicling three decades of spring training by the Wrigley family’s major league team, the Chicago Cubs.

“De Marsche is now in charge of developing a 20,000-square-foot museum on a downtown parcel valued at $2 million.”

Louis has also written a biography of Manly Hall.

Also worth reading: Alice Rawsthorn’s profile of Elizabeth Templetown, a designer for Josiah Wedgwood, who in the 1780s commissioned designs by women.

Rawsthorn writes: “Templetown’s role as a designer consisted of drawing her touching scenes in pencil or cutting them out of India paper. Those images were then faithfully replicated in fine white stoneware by William Hackwood, Wedgwood’s most skillful modeler, and the results used to embellish ceramic objects. Often her subjects were inspired by classical mythology, though she also drew on 18th-century writers like Goethe and Laurence Sterne. Many of Templetown’s pieces now belong to museum collections and her most successful designs remained in production until recently.” NYT

Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art & Artists, History, Museums | Tagged , , | Comments Off on #museum

A Kindred Spirit: The New York Wanderer

Posted on July 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

Retired real estate investor Benjamin P. Feldman picked up an old change purse at a flea market and was intrigued by the name stamped on it: Compliments of Sol Goldberg’s Cafe. So he began to investigate.

Feldman told the New York Times’ Joseph Berger: “I needed to know this guy,” Mr. Feldman said. “I sensed a very sad story and wanted to know what happened to this poor guy.” The New York Times has the story.

Here’s Feldman’s account in his blog, New York Wanderer:

Browsing among the vast piles of bric-a-brac in a Chelsea flea market right before Hannukah, a tiny leather change purse caught my eye. Sifting through piles of dust-covered junk, golden lettering on the item’s battered side gleamed at me like a nugget in dirt.. The Yiddish version of the old saw sprang into my head, my grandfather’s shmaltz-coated voice ringing in my ears: Fun a khazerishe ek, makht men nisht keyn shtraymel” “From the tail-end of a pig, one doesn’t make a Hasidic man’s fur-banded holiday headpiece.”

Feldman not only tells the story of Sol Goldberg and his offspring, he also shows how he conducted the research. He’s my kind of fellow!

Posted in From the Reference Desk, Libraries | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Hemingway’s FBI File!

Posted on July 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

July 3, 1961, Hemingway Dies

The 50th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s death has prompted a variety of articles, including an op-ed piece in the New York Times by A.E. Hotchner, who portrays the famous novelist as being obsessed about FBI surveillance.

He told Hotchner: “It’s the worst hell. The goddamnedest hell. They’ve bugged everything. That’s why we’re using Duke’s car. Mine’s bugged. Everything’s bugged. Can’t use the phone. Mail intercepted.”

Hotchner describes getting Hemingway’s FBI file under the Freedom of Information Act:

“Decades later, in response to a Freedom of Information petition, the F.B.I. released its Hemingway file. It revealed that beginning in the 1940s J. Edgar Hoover had placed Ernest under surveillance because he was suspicious of Ernest’s activities in Cuba. Over the following years, agents filed reports on him and tapped his phones. The surveillance continued all through his confinement at St. Mary’s Hospital. It is likely that the phone outside his room was tapped after all.

“In the years since, I have tried to reconcile Ernest’s fear of the F.B.I., which I regretfully misjudged, with the reality of the F.B.I. file. I now believe he truly sensed the surveillance, and that it substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide.”

ALSO: HEMINGWAY FBI FILE | BUGSY SIEGEL FBI FILE | LOUIS ARMSTRONG FBI FILE

In fact, Hemingway’s 125-page FBI file is online. Let’s check it out and see if Hotchner’s account is correct. [Warning: FBI files are incredibly repetitious. A page count is not necessarily a good indication of content].

Here’s the breakdown: Pages 1-91 date from the 1940s; Pages 92-109 are from the 1950s and include a rehash of such subjects as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade [remember, FBI files are repetitious]. And exactly one page (110) is from the 1960s prior to Hemingway’s death.

Let’s take a closer look:

Hemingway FBI file, Page 3
Yes, Hemingway ran a spy ring of 18 bartenders, waiters, etc.

Hemingway FBI file, Page 4
In fact, Hemingway supposedly considered this work so important that he turned down a writing job that would have paid $150,000 [$1,870,010.42  USD 2010].

Continue reading →

Posted in 1961, Books and Authors, Film, Hollywood, Libraries, Suicide | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

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.

Continue reading →

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

Continue reading →

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]

Continue reading →

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

Posted in 1911, Aviation | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Replica of 1911 Plane Crashes; Pilot OK

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!

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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