1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, September 2, 1944

Posted on September 2, 2025 by lmharnisch

Sept. 2, 1944, comics

September 2, 1944

Danton Walker (who turns out to have been Alexander Woollcott’s secretary for a couple of years), says: Several magazines are racing to put out German editions which would be the first published works to give occupied Germany the truth in the news …

Louella Parsons says: The dynamic and resourceful Mike Todd unearthed an unpublished score by Victor Herbert and kept it under wraps for over a year. He refused $350,000 for it because he believed he had something special. And this is what happens. He has signed Jeannette MacDonald to star in the operetta, which he says will be his greatest producing venture.

She reports for rehearsals in New York Jan. 1, and opens in Boston early in February. That gives Jeanette a very full schedule, with her three grand opera programs in Chicago and her 10 concert and solo appearances with the Cincinnati Symphony.

[I am unable to find any trace of this production being staged — lrh].

From the Philadelphia Inquirer via Fultonhistory.com.

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September 2, 1910: Police Quell Labor Riot Over Body of Ironworker Killed at Alexandria Hotel

Posted on September 2, 2025 by lmharnisch
 
September 2, 1910, the Herald publishes its version of the incident.
September 2, 1910: Louis Jeffries, a Baker Iron Works employee, is crushed by a steel girder during construction of the Alexandra Hotel Annex. Workers carrying his body to an ambulance on Spring Street are assaulted by union supporters who are picketing the building.”Around the still warm body of the accident victim the frenzied ruffians swarmed. Vile invectives were hurled at the peaceable workmen who were trying to protect the corpse, and even the dead was not spared,” The Times said.

The Herald didn’t devote as much space to the story but it certainly depicted the violence that erupted. This incident is often cited in later stories about The Times bombing, showing the acute tensions between the labor and open shop factions.

The next day, the Herald published an editorial about the incident. Notice how much more moderate it is than The Times and actually supports workers’ right to organize. Nonetheless, it also condemns labor violence.

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September 1, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 1, 1959: Paul Coates tells the story of Jean Elizabeth Wood, 26, an attractive young woman wearing a black party dress who stood in the middle of a darkened desert highway and refused to move out of the way of an oncoming truck.

Three Los Angeles-area men admitted leaving Wood by a desert highway because she was drunk and obnoxious, but went back to get her. Just as they arrived, she was run down by the truck.

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September 1, 1949: L.A. Warned on Water

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

September 1, 1949: Surrender of Reds Near, Cover of Los Angeles MirrorSept. 1, 1949: The early days of the Mirror, when it was a tabloid.

I thought it would be fun to dip into the 1949 editions of the Mirror, if only briefly. At that time, Paul Coates was mostly covering nightclubs and had yet to become the columnist we know from the 1950s. I don’t plan to run many of these columns because they are fairly dated, but I figured a week’s worth would offer an interesting insight on a writer in progress.
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September 1, 1947: 1,000 World War II Veterans Now in LAPD Uniforms

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Sept. 1, 1947, L.A. Times, LAPD

L.A. Times, Sept. 1, 1947, LAPD

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

They are building a new, young, military Police Department for Los Angeles these days with the men who helped to win the war on foreign battlefields and in the sky making up its backbone.

Already there are more than 1,000 new police officers who once were G.I.’s An additional 1,175 are authorized by the City Council.

“We’re going to have a young and strong Police Department,” Joseph F. Reed, assistant chief of police, said yesterday, “but it will take us at least five years to make professional career officers of the same caliber as the older and more experienced men who gradually are attaining retirement age.”

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Schaber’s Cafeteria and Einar Petersen

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

schaber_cafeteria

This remarkable postcard postmarked 1941 of Schaber’s Cafeteria at 620 S. Broadway, showing an Einar Petersen mural,  has been listed on EBay at Buy It Now for $6.99.

Note: This is an encore post from 2012.

The Schaber Cafeteria at 620 S. Broadway was built in 1928 by the Schaber Cafeteria Co. (Alfred T. Schaber, president) on the site of Platt Music Co. with an adjoining See’s Candy at 622 S. Broadway and a Bellin’s Tie Shop at 618 S. Broadway. The cafeteria could serve 10,000 people a day, The Times said.


Hollywood Heights: Mary Mallory on Einar Petersen

620 S. Broadway
620 S. Broadway as shown by Google Street View.

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September 1, 1941: Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Sept. 1, 1941, Traffic

Sept. 1, 1941, Comics
September 1, 1941: I thought it would be interesting to check in with our friends in 1941, since Pearl Harbor is only three months away.

Times editorial cartoonist Bruce Russell’s Labor Day drawing says that it’s unpatriotic to strike in these uncertain days.

Lee Shippey writes about Donoho Hall, technical advisor on “Sergeant York,” who says “the problem of the 5 million uneducated hillbillies in the South should be more America’s problem than any foreign missions.”

Tom Treanor on the French army, citing RAF Col. Charles Sweeny: “Months after the war had begun, in fact in the spring just before the blitz, French regiments all over the front were heated up over an inter-regimental competition — to see who could grow the prize flower garden.”

Lunched today with an exhibitor friend who cried into every dish, from soup to dessert, over MGM’s reported decision to discontinue the “Maisie” series, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Movieland Mystery Photo – Silent Version (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Main Title: Lettering on a black background

This week’s silent mystery movie was the 1915 film Double Trouble, with Douglas Fairbanks, Richard Cummings, Margery Wilson, Gladys Brockwell, Olga Grey, Tom Kennedy, Lillian Langdon, Don Likes, William Lowery, Billy Quirk, Monroe Salisbury, Charles Stevens, Mary Thurman and Kate Toncray. Continue reading →

Posted in 1915, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , | 21 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo – Talkie Version (Updated + + + +)

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Main title: Lettering over artwork of forest

This week’s mystery movie was the 1933 film Scarlet River, with Tom Keene, Dorothy Wilson, Creighton Chaney, Betty Furness, Rosco Ates, Edgar Kennedy, Billy Butts, Hooper Atchley, Jack Raymond, James Mason and Yakima Canutt.  Continue reading →

Posted in 1933, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

August 31, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on August 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

August 13, 1959: Paul Coates has the story of a man who submitted lyrics titled "Cold Campfire Ashes" to one of those songwriting ads you see in the pulp magazines.

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | 1 Comment

August 31, 1958: Woman kills husband as children sleep, Giants win over Dodgers

Posted on August 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

August 31, 1958: Lillian Kella admits stabbing her husband to death after a swim party. Woman with short hair in sleeveless top, blood on her toreador pants. Lillian loved Ed. She loved him even though he beat her. She loved him even though he was on probation for beating her. And she loved him even when he lay dying on the kitchen floor after she stabbed him in the heart. “I didn’t want him to hurt me anymore,” she said.

On the night of the killing, Lillian and Ed had hired a babysitter for their two children and gone to a party in Sierra Madre. By the time they left, both had been drinking heavily.
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August 31, 1947: Herbert Kline Shoots ‘Palestine’s First Feature Film Drama’

Posted on August 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

Aug. 31, 1947, L.A. Times
Note: My original post from 2005 on the 1947project was essentially a transcription of the 1947 L.A. Times story. Kline died in 1999. The film was released as “Beit Avi.” More on the film here.

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August 31, 1907: The Year in Liquor — 20 Gallons of Beer for Every Man, Woman and Child in U.S.

Posted on August 31, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 31, 1907
Los Angeles

The ugly statistics should dishearten even the most ardent temperance worker. According to federal tax data for the last fiscal year, distillers produced 20 gallons of beer and 1.4 gallons of whiskey for every man, woman and child in America, a 5% increase and 8% increase respectively over 1906.

Cigar, cigarette and snuff production also showed similar increases. “The country being prosperous, cigar smoking grew at an amazing pace,” The Times said. Referring to cigars weighing more than 3 pounds per thousand, The Times said: “The public smoked about a billion and a third more of these cigars in the fiscal year just ended than it did the year before.”

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August 30, 1953: Barbara Graham Defense Wins Delay After Prosecution Bombshell

Posted on August 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

Aug. 30, 1953, Comics

image

August 30, 1953: Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charles W. Fricke grants attorneys for Barbara Graham a slight delay in opening their defense after the prosecution closes with a “bombshell”: A transcript of a recorded conversation between Graham and undercover Police Officer Samuel Sirianni.

Sirianni testified that he met with Graham at the County Jail and they planned a detailed alibi for the night of March 9, when Mabel Monahan was killed.

In the recorded conversation, Graham allegedly said that Baxter Shorter, who disappeared after turning informant “had been done away with.”

Court-appointed defense attorney Jack Hardy asked to withdraw from the case, but Fricke refused to grant permission. Defense attorney Benjamin Wolfe asked to listen to the original wire recording from which the transcript was prepared and said that much of the conversation in the transcript couldn’t be heard and that the transcript also misquoted the conversation.

Graham’s co-defendants were John A. Santo and Emmett Perkins. Graham died in the gas chamber at San Quentin at 11:42 a.m. on June 3, 1955. She wore a mask over the upper part of her face because “I don’t want to have to look at people,” she said. Perkins and Santo were executed together a few hours later, with Perkins dying at 2:40 p.m. and Santo at 2:41 p.m.

In the Theaters: “The Caddy.”

On TV: “Paul Coates Confidential” starts tonight.

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August 30, 1907: Rabbi Leads Campaign to Open Hebrew University in L.A.

Posted on August 30, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 30, 1907
Los Angeles

Led by Rabbi Alfred Arndt of Congregation Beth Israel, the local Jewish community hopes to open what The Times describes as “the only Hebrew university within the entire United States.”

Noting the increased immigration to Southern California (the estimated number of Jews in the state went from 28,000 in 1905 to 42,000 in 1907), The Times said: “For a decade there has been a rapidly increasing Hebrew population in Los Angeles and other sections of Southern California. There is scarcely a place of any prominence within the seven southern counties which has not received a large quota of Hebraic citizens, especially within two or three years.”

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August 29, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on August 29, 2025 by lmharnisch

August 29, 1959: Paul Coates hears from Elvis fans who want to forgive him for the scathing review Coates wrote of Elvis’ notorious performance at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium. Dear Abby has advice for a man whose wife doesn’t care for her dog.

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August 29, 1947: Headless Skeleton Found in Burlap Sack in Chantry Flats

Posted on August 29, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947, Skeleton Found Above Sierra Madre

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

The discovery by camper John Beener of 3743 E. 7th St. only became more puzzling. Investigation revealed that the deceased, an elderly woman about 5-foot-2, had been embalmed, excluding the possibility of murder. Medical examiners also ruled out the possibility that the remains were a cadaver used for anatomy classes.

“This left the possibility the body … might have been dumped at the campground by a ghoul. This possibility was being investigated by checking cemeteries in this area,” The Times said.

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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, August 29, 1944

Posted on August 29, 2025 by lmharnisch

Aug. 29, 1944, Comics

August 29, 1944

You can never tell what our unpredictable movie heads are going to do when they decide they want a play. Jack Warner, for instance, has purchased the film rights to “The Visitor” before it even opened on Broadway or had a rehearsal. But he had a reason and, I think, a good one.

There’s really no news in Jean Arthur’s announcement she is not making any more pictures.

The beautiful home of Maurice Chevalier at Cannes has been destroyed by bombs.

Marlene Dietrich has informed her agent she won’t be able to fulfill picture commitments until 1945.

I wonder if you remember Robert Morley … while London was being bombed by robots [Robert] was undergoing an operation in a hospital when the building was hit. The operation was completed under great difficulties and he was taken to a safe place in the country to recuperate.

VIRGO: Excellent planetary influences for matters pertaining to investments, determining profits and carrying out responsible tasks, orders. Be optimistic in romance, home affairs.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer via Fultonhistory.com.

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August 29, 1943: Parents Sue Doctor Who Said Baby Girl Was a Boy!

Posted on August 29, 2025 by lmharnisch

Aug. 29, 1943, Comics

Aug. 29, 1943, POW Letter

August 29, 1943: The family of Marine Cpl. Carroll E. Trego, a radio operator captured in the fall of Wake Island, receives a letter written from a prisoner of war camp in Shanghai.

Dr. John M. Andrews is being sued for $500,000 by Mr. and Mrs. Harry J. Hartwig after delivering a baby and telling the family that it was a boy, whom they named Richard Allen Hartwig — when it was actually a girl.

“At the time of delivery I didn’t pay any attention to whether it was a boy or girl. But I remember saying ‘It looks like a boy’ as Mrs. Hartwig was coming out of the ether,” Andrews said.

Police Chief Clemence C.B. Horrall is seeking two changes in the City Charter. One would exempt officers hired under wartime emergency provisions from the city pension system. The other would eliminate overlapping authority between the chief and the Police Commission.

Police round up 119 juveniles who were out after curfew at a drive-in at Anaheim and Gaffey streets in San Pedro.

In another black eye for Los Angeles sainted streetcar system, streetcar motorman Coy Gordon was distracted while making change and rammed into another streetcar that was stopped at Pico and Windsor boulevards. Eight people were injured, none seriously, The Times said.

In the Theaters: “I Walked Like a Zombie.”

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Posted in 1943, Art & Artists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Medicine, Streetcars, Transportation, World War II | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

August 29, 1907: Engine Co. 20 Pranks Newlywed Firefighter

Posted on August 29, 2025 by lmharnisch


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.

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