Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 11, 1941

Posted on March 11, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 11, 1941, Meet John Doe  

 
 

  March 11, 1941, Meet John Doe  

March 11, 1941: Lee Shippey publishes an interesting, detailed letter about conditions in Germany by a woman who fled to Switzerland.

Los Angeles needs more factories, but getting money is difficult because everyone is worried about what will happen to the defense industry after the war, Tom Treanor says.
 
Jimmie Fidler says — DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE WEEK: Columbia's "The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance." And loses!

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Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! — Part 4

Posted on March 10, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Oct. 29, 1945, Battle of Los Angeles  

  Oct. 29, 1945, Battle of Los Angeles  

Oct. 29, 1945: The Times publishes the searchlight photo to accompany a story about the Air Force account of the incident.

Almost as soon as the shooting stopped, people began arguing over whether the 1942 air raid was a genuine sighting.  Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson insisted that 15 planes had been seen over the city while Secretary of the Navy William Franklin Knox dismissed the incident as a false alarm.

After the war, the military was more forthcoming with information and in preparing its official history, the 4th Air Force stated that there were unidentified airplanes, possibly Japanese, over Los Angeles that night. However, a Japanese Navy official dismissed the account, saying that no Japanese aircraft were involved.

ALSO

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! — Part 2

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 3

Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

 

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Found on EBay — Myer Siegel

Posted on March 10, 2011 by lmharnisch
Myer Siegel EBay Myer Siegel Label

Items from Myer Siegel don’t show up terribly often on EBay, so this nightgown is fairly unusual. It's unclear from The Times' clips exactly what became of Myer Siegel, but it disappears from the pages in the early 1950s. Bidding starts at $10.50.

ALSO

Myer Siegel on the Daily Mirror
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Matt Weinstock, March 10, 1961

Posted on March 10, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  March 10, 1961, Comics  

March 10, 1961: Matt Weinstock has an item on the novel “Red Alert” by Peter Bryant.  If the plot sounds familiar,   that’s because … well, I won’t spoil it.

DEAR ABBY: From the day we married I gave my wife a very generous allowance, but she never saved a dime. She said she wasn't going to save her money for my next wife to spend. It took me 15 years to figure out an answer. Now I tell her that I am not going to save any money either — let her next husband support her.

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Paul Coates, March 10, 1961

Posted on March 10, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  March 10, 1961, Mirror Cover  

March 10, 1961: Douglas Johnson, 60, an unemployed maintenance man, finds a sack containing $240,000 that fell from a Brink's truck on Wilshire Boulevard.

Paul Coates writes about Leonard S. Abrams' pamphlet, titled "Are You SURE You're Guilty?"

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 10, 1941

Posted on March 10, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 10, 1941, Reds Mass Troops Near Turkey  

  March 10, 1941, Comics  

March 10, 1941: Lee Shippey notes the passing of the Lyceum Theater, formerly the Los Angeles, built in 1888.
 
Tom Treanor has the story of four visiting opera singers who are so engaged in their discussion of that night’s performance of “Rigoletto” that they don’t notice … but why spoil Treanor’s story?

Jimmie Fidler says SHE'S SLIPPING WHEN: Her producer hints that small parts can be more important than leads … Nightclub photographers give her a cordial "hello" but save their film … She begins scoffing at the "artificial pretense" of Hollywood and moves to a smaller house …

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Jim Murray, Feb. 24, March 10, 1961

Posted on March 10, 2011 by lmharnisch

   March 10, 1961, Alex Perez  

  Feb. 24, 1961, Jim Murray  

Feb. 24, 1961: Jim Murray visits the Lakers’ locker room before their game with the Celtics. Don’t miss it.

March 10, 1961: PALM SPRINGS — It is now being generally considered the Los Angeles Angels are going to be the canvas backs of baseball in the upcoming season, the only team in history to finish ninth or lower in the American League. You may wonder what I'm doing down here that can be of any interest at all to you.

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Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! — Part 3

Posted on March 9, 2011 by lmharnisch

   Feb. 26, 1942, Print  
  Photographs by Larry Harnisch/Los Angeles Times  

The original 1942 print of searchlights over Los Angeles.

  Feb. 26, 1942, Photo, reverse  

The back of the print, showing editors’ notations and the publication date Feb. 26, 1942.

  Feb. 26, 1942, Chilly Throng Watches Shells Bursting in Sky  

1942_0226_cover Feb. 26, 1942: Marvin Miles, The Times aviation correspondent for many years, files a color story on the night of the air raid:

“Explosions stabbing the darkness like tiny busting stars. … Searchlight beams poking long crisscross fingers across the night sky…. But the objects in the sky slowly moved on, caught in the center of the lights like the hub of a bicycle wheel surrounded by gleaming spokes.”

“Like lethal firecrackers, the antiaircraft blasted above, below and seemingly right on the target in the tenacious beams. Other shots fell short, exploding halfway up the long climb. Tracers sparked upward like Roman candles.”

“…The target inched along high overhead, flanked by the cherry-red bursts. And the householders shivered in their robes, their faces set, watching the awesome scene.”

 

ALSO

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! — Part 2

Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

Continue reading →

Posted in 1942, Another Good Story Ruined, Film, Hollywood, Photography, UFOs | 2 Comments

Matt Weinstock, March 9, 1961

Posted on March 9, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 9, 1961, Comics  

March 9, 1961: Matt Weinstock has the story of a downtown bookie who got away with it – and got away.

CONFIDENTIAL TO "EL CHUMPO": Don't Marry her. An engineer should be able to count to nine.

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Paul Coates, March 9, 1961

Posted on March 9, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 9, 1961, Mirror Cover  

March 9, 1961: Paul Coates dips into the slush pile of press releases for an item on plastic cigarettes that provide a menthol flavor – but don’t light them!  

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Philip K. Scheuer, Town Called Hollywood, March 9, 1941

Posted on March 9, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  March 9, 1941, Senate Passes War Aid Measure  

  March 9, 1941, Comics  

March 9, 1941: It’s a Sunday, which means Jimmie Fidler has the day off. Instead, Philip K. Scheuer writes about “Gone With the Wind” (I know, I know, you’re thinking it’s a 1939 film). He says "which was withheld from the Film Daily's poll pending general release. That has only now taken place.”

Scheuer likes GWTW (surprise!) but says: “Is it a sign of something that our longest movie is about a girl being disillusioned in love? For everything that Scarlett does she does because she is frustrated in her passion for Ashley Wilkes. Sometimes I think he might better have given in.”

Also: Tom Treanor has an update on “Out of the Night.”

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Jim Murray, Feb. 23, March 9, 1961

Posted on March 9, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  March 9, 1961, Mickey Mantle  

  Feb. 23, 1961, Jim Murray  

Feb. 23, 1961: Jim Murray writes about golfer Buddy Sullivan’s adventures and on March 9, looks at the Frankie Carbo-Blinky Palermo extortion trial, which I have been neglecting (so many stories, only one Larry Harnisch).

In case you’re wondering, I missed the debut of Murray’s column so I’m running two a day until I get caught up. They’re that good.

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Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, Columnists, Crime and Courts, Sports | 1 Comment

Self-Styled Siren: An Amateur Among Amateurs — Agee on Film

Posted on March 9, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

Joan Fontaine Speaking of our favorite movie blogs, another one we enjoy at the Daily Mirror is “Self-Styled Siren,” by Farran Smith Nehme. (No, the photo is of Joan Fontaine, who serves as Farran’s avatar on the Web). Her latest post is about James Agee and it’s well worth reading. She says:

“Nothing is ever good enough for James Agee. Reading his reviews, you wonder not that he racked up three marriages before his death at age 45, but that he ever found a partner acceptable enough to sign legal documents with in the first place. Even movies he adored, such as Open City, leave some sort of cracker crumb in his bedsheets.

“Yet still I treasure Agee, because he writes so well. As he explains why, for example, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn isn’t good enough, he describes what he does like with breathtaking ardor and accuracy.”

There’s more here….
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Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! — Part 2

Posted on March 8, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  Feb. 24, 1942, Submarine Shells Southland Oil Field  
  Feb. 25, 1942, Coast Alert for New Raids  

 
Feb. 25, 1942, L.A. on Alert Feb. 24-25, 1942: Two days before the so-called Battle of Los Angeles, a Japanese submarine shelled the Elwood oil fields,  12 miles north of Santa Barbara, according to The Times, which added that the attack came halfway through President Roosevelt’s weekly “fireside chat.”

The only damage was rigging and pump equipment a quarter of a mile from the beach, The Times said, but Southern California residents were warned to be extremely vigilant in case of another attack the next night.

"Particularly heavy reinforcements were reported assigned to guard the huge oil tank farm area of El Segundo, a few miles southwest of Los Angeles, from which all alien Japanese have been ousted for the duration of the war," The Times said on Feb. 25.

ALSO

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1

Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles 

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Posted in 1942, Another Good Story Ruined, Film, Hollywood, Photography, UFOs | 4 Comments

Matt Weinstock, March 8, 1961

Posted on March 8, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  March 8, 1961, Comics  

March 8, 1961: Matt Weinstock updates an item about a man at “McWestlake” Park who was seen putting a duck in a shopping bag and carrying it away. It turns out that the man has been nursing the injured duck and carries it in a shopping bag to fool his landlady.

DEAR LOSING: You are losing more than sleep. you are losing your marbles. A man who would give up a wife and three beautiful children for a woman who would permit him to do it needs a keeper. Stick to your own fireside, Buddy. You don't know when you're well off.

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Paul Coates, March 8, 1961

Posted on March 8, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  March 8, 1961, Mirror Cover  

March 8, 1961: Paul Coates has an item about the possibility that the new postmaster general, J. Edward Day, might run afoul of obscenity laws because he wrote a racy novel that could be unfit for the U.S. mail. Day joked that he wrote the novel out of boredom during World War II and sent it home to his mother to proofread!

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 8, 1941

Posted on March 8, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 8, 1941, Jimmie Fidler  

  image  

March 8, 1941: Lee Shippey has a great item on Frank Capra – be sure to read it … and Tom Treanor has another column on the problems of young men looking for a place to race their hotrods. 

Carole Landis has given a final "no" to ex-husband Willis Hunt's reconciliation plea. Carole, by the way, suffered severe cuts in 20th Century's tank the other day, not serious, Jimmie Fidler says. 

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Jim Murray, Feb. 22, March 8, 1961

Posted on March 8, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 22, 1961, Lakers  

  Feb. 22, 1961, Jim Murray  

Feb. 22, 1961: Jim Murray writes about Gaspar Ortega, a perfect opponent.

March 8, 1961: Be sure to read  Murray’s attempt to interview Casey Stengel – It is a jewel. 

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Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, art and artists, Columnists, Sports | 1 Comment

She Blogged by Night: The Marie Prevost Project

Posted on March 8, 2011 by lmharnisch
Marie Prevost One of our favorite movie blogs at the Daily Mirror is “She Blogged by Night.”

“She” writes: Larry Harnisch, researcher and blogger at the always wonderful Los Angeles Times Daily Mirror, sent me an epic tonne of articles on Marie Prevost from the Times archives. Since that was over a year ago, he probably wondered what the hell I did with all those articles. Well, I read 'em! And now I'm going to post about a few, not just because it's interesting, but to help us all get a bit of an idea where Marie is at this point in her career.

Here’s the link
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Photography, Weblogs | 2 Comments

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! — Part 1

Posted on March 7, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 26, 1942, Picture Page  
  Feb. 26, 1942, Air Raid Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

Searchlights rake the nighttime sky over a blacked-out city on Feb. 25, 1942, in the so-called Battle of Los Angeles. A powerful image, to be sure. But is it real? That is a short question with a long answer. The best we can say is that the photo has been greatly altered, but beneath the paint, some portion of it may be authentic.

We don’t know who took this Times photo. We don’t know which Times artist retouched it and we don’t know what editor decided to use it. What we do know is that the photo was published in the Feb. 26, 1942, editions of The Times to illustrate  what was believed to be an air raid over the city. 

I have the old and battered 1942 print in front of me as I’m writing this and I can confirm without question that much of what you see in this photo is painted: The beams from the searchlights are airbrushed. The supposed bursts of antiaircraft shells are blobs of paint. And the entire bottom quarter of the picture, supposedly showing a darkened skyline, is a combination of black paint outlined with the faintest edge of airbrushing.

First, some background….

ALSO

Another Good Story Ruined – The Battle of Los Angeles

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Posted in Another Good Story Ruined, Film, Hollywood, Photography, UFOs | 1 Comment