LAPL Is Hiring!

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  library  

  Photograph by Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times  


The Los Angeles Public Library website says: “We are accepting applications for the positions of as-needed Librarians, Clerk Typists and Messenger Clerks.  Interviews will be conducted during the month of May 2011.”

Three cheers from the Daily Mirror!

Posted in books | Comments Off on LAPL Is Hiring!

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 25, 1941

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 25, 1941, Hull Asks War Cargo Protection  

  April 25, 1941, Comics  

April 25, 1941: Lee Shippey is still recovering from surgery, so his friends are filling in for him. Today’s column by novelist Harlan Ware is about what Hollywood success did to one writer.

No matter how gay the party, Edward Everett Horton can always find cause for worry, Jimmie Fidler says.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 25, 1941

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 24, 2011, Mystery Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: June 11, 1936 — Franchot Tone and Robert Greig in a comedy sequence in MGM's "The Unguarded Hour," directed by Sam Wood. Loretta Young plays the heroine in the Lawrence Weingarten production.]

Our mystery fellow has a mystery companion!
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 9 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 23, 2011, Mystery Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: Aug. 22, 1937 — Franchot Tone and Virginia Bruce caught in a tender moment of MGM's "Between Two Women." In the motion picture, Tone marries Miss Bruce, although in love with his nurse, Maureen O'Sullivan.]

Yes, I know these are easy. It’s vacation!
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 7 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 22, 2011, Mystery Photo

 
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: Nov. 12, 1947: Franchot Tone and Lucille Ball in "Her Husband's Affairs.”]

And for Friday, another mystery companion!
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 18 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 21, 2011, Mystery Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Updated: July 1, 1955 — Ida Lupino and Franchot Tone comprise the entire case of "Award," the powerful tale of a Hollywood actress who has to prove herself capable of sincere emotion before a Broadway director will hire her for a coveted stage role, to be presented on "Bristol-Myers Four Star Playhouse."] 

Here’s our mystery fellow with another mystery companion!
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 13 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 20, 2011, Mystery Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: April 18, 1958– Eva Le Gallienne and Franchot Tone head a star-studded cast in Screen Gems' "Bitter Heritage" for CBS Television’s "Playhouse 90." Miss Le Gallienne makes her telefilm debut in the Joseph Landon teleplay.]

For Wednesday, our mystery guest has another mystery companion!
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 10 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 19, 2011 Mystery Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: May 1, 1958 — Expressions of principals testify to strain of hearing as Mrs. Jean Wallace Wilde, near tears, leaves court with actor husband Cornel Wilde after ex-husband Franchot Tone, on right, won permission for their son to attend a school in the East.]

For Tuesday, our mystery guest has two mystery companions!
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 9 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 18, 2011, Mystery Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: Aug. 23, 1959 — Franchot Tone is seen as gentle father torn between vastly different sons, Cameron Mitchell, left, policeman, and Dennis Hopper, tough guy, in drama on "Reckoning" series.]

It’s vacation, so these will be easy!
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 15 Comments

Jim Murray, April 25, 1961

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 25, 1961, Day in Sports  

  April 25, 1961, Jim Murray  

April 25, 1961: You may remember Cannonball Green as the promising light-heavyweight of a quarter-century ago who once put Maxie Rosenbloom on the floor four times up in Ventura but only got a draw.

Cannonball's career came to an abrupt end and his life almost followed suit one night in 1936 in a Sunset Boulevard phone booth when Chalky Wright's brother, Lee, who was a chauffeur for Mae West at the time, shot him as he was making a phone call.

Now he thinks he's got a new career — making Bill Nieder the heavyweight champion of the world.

 

Continue reading →

Posted in #Jim Murray, 1936, 1961, art and artists, Sports | Comments Off on Jim Murray, April 25, 1961

Blogger’s holiday

Posted on April 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

  July 22, 1882, Hammock-Chair  

I’m on vacation this week, so posting will be light.   

Posted in 1882, Architecture, art and artists | 1 Comment

From the Vaults — ‘Fires on the Plain’ (1959)

Posted on April 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Fires on the Plain  

So far in my ramble through old foreign films, I have done the Holocaust (“Yiddle With His Fiddle”) and incest (“La Mujer del Puerto,”) so imagine my surprise when this week’s entry, “Fires on the Plain,” turned to cannibalism.

Directed by Kon Ichikawa from a script by Natto Wada based on a novel by Shohei Ooka, “Fires” is set on the Philippine island of Leyte in 1945 as the Japanese are fleeing the advancing the American forces. Private Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi, above), a hapless soldier who is too ill to fight but too healthy to be hospitalized, shuttles between his unit and the hospital, and after being rejected by both, roams the island, encountering other equally desperate soldiers and a few natives.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1959, Film, From the Vaults, Hollywood | Comments Off on From the Vaults — ‘Fires on the Plain’ (1959)

From the Stacks – ‘Dancing Bear’ (1968)

Posted on April 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Dancing Bear  

Out of curiosity, I picked up Gladwin Hill’s “Dancing Bear” at the Southern California Library’s book sale.  I never met Hill (d. 1992), the New York Times bureau chief in Los Angeles, but I had heard about him at luncheon gatherings of Times retirees who call themselves the Old Farts. 
 
I tend to avoid reading about politics in my spare time. I get a healthy dose of it at work, and the minute dissection of old political intrigues – stiffly written prose about half-remembered names and long-forgotten battles  – isn’t terribly interesting to anyone but the most confirmed political junkie.

With expectations that “Dancing Bear” would be nothing but a stale time capsule, I was quite pleasantly surprised by Hill’s engaging account of California politics, and his insights not only on the state’s curious history, but especially his perspective on the early career of Ronald Reagan.  

 

Continue reading →

Posted in 1968, books, From the Stacks, Politics, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Zombie Reading List | Comments Off on From the Stacks – ‘Dancing Bear’ (1968)

Last Showing of ‘Heaven Is Here!’

Posted on April 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

  http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-382479120564900203&hl=en&fs=true  

Google has announced that it will be removing its uploaded videos on April 29. I made this little movie about the Black Dahlia case four years ago and at 21 minutes, it's too long to upload anywhere else.

 

Posted in #courts, 1947, Crime and Courts, Film, LAPD | 3 Comments

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 18, 1941

Posted on April 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 18, 1941, Nazis Force Greek Retreat  

  April 18, 1941, Comics  

  April 18, 1941, Lee Shippey  

April 18, 1941: Lee Shippey is hospitalized after what The Times vaguely referred to as “major surgery.” His column continued to appear with guest writers filling in.

On the jump: Benjamin “Bugsie” Siegel is released on bail after being charged with harboring Louis (Lepke) Buchalter. Oh look at this! The Times capitalized "Racketeer" as if it were a profession. Well I suppose it was.
 
Tom Treanor files a report from the Santa Fe Chief:

IF THE OPINION of the wife of an automobile manufacturer is true, this is the year of years to buy an automobile… She thinks there will be no model changes next year. The factories will be too busy tooling up for military production to waste any time, making your 1942 car the greatest bargain by far in the history of the automotive industry.   [For those who don’t know, U.S. car manufacturers ceased production of automobiles for the consumer market during the war–lrh.]

For years I've been begging for such a return of yesterday's stars. They DESERVE the opportunity to come back. They DON'T DESERVE to be forgotten by the industry they helped to build…. I say bring back MORE ex-stars. Betty Compson, Clara Bow, Janet Gaynor, Leatrice Joy, Neil Hamilton, Huntley Gordon. I could fill this column with names and among them, millions of readers would spy old-screen friends they'd like to see again, Jimmie Fidler says.

Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 18, 1941

Jim Murray, April 18, 1961

Posted on April 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  April 18, 1961, Day in Sports  

 

  April 18, 1961, Jim Murray  

April 18, 1961: Talk about versatility. Today, Jim Murray writes about riding to hounds: “Here in Southern California, the traditions are being carried on by the West Hills Hunt Club, a doughty band of cavaliers who persevere against great odds. For one thing, the West Coast fox is an inferior being, little bigger than a common rodent, who has the rotten sportsmanship to climb trees to get away. For another, the coyotes substituted for the fox are too damn smart.”

Continue reading →

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

‘The Apartment’ Wins Oscars for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director

Posted on April 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  April 18, 1961, Oscars  

  April 18, 1961, Oscars  

April 18, 1961: In a ceremony held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented awards to Elizabeth Taylor for “Butterfield 8,” Burt Lancaster for “Elmer Gantry” and to Billy Wilder as writer (with I.A.L. Diamond) and director of “The Apartment.’

In Jerusalem, "Israeli Atty. Gen. Gideon Hausner renewed his harrowing review of Nazi atrocities as the trial of Adolf Eichmann for crimes against the Jewish people continued today."

Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, 1961, Adolf Eichmann, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on ‘The Apartment’ Wins Oscars for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director

From the Vaults — ‘La Mujer del Puerto’ (1934)

Posted on April 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

  La Mujer del Puerto  

None of the countless movies  I have ever seen – domestic or foreign — prepared me for the 1934 Mexican film “La Mujer del Puerto” (“The Woman of the Port”). If you watch the movie without knowing anything about it – as I did – you may think the plot is drifting aimlessly. But it’s not.

In case you don’t recall, I randomly ordered old foreign films – the earliest I could find — when I subscribed to Netflix as an escape from the usual Hollywood fare. “Mujer” arrived shortly after “Vamonos Con Pancho Villa!” as part of my meandering through Mexican cinema. The movie deals with a theme that has yet to be explored to any great degree in American films and makes  “Vamonos” look like a romp in the park. 

Aside from the plot, one the biggest surprises of “Mujer” is the technical sophistication. The film is beautifully photographed by Alex Phillips and contains some of the most powerful images I have seen in a long while.    

Continue reading →

Posted in 1934, Film, From the Vaults, Hollywood | Comments Off on From the Vaults — ‘La Mujer del Puerto’ (1934)

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 17, 1941

Posted on April 17, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  April 17, 1941, Eight Axis Ships Sunk  

  April 17, 1941, Comics  

 
SANTA FE CHIEF, April 16 — NOTHING MAKES YOU feel more remote from the toil, trouble and strife of the war world than a powerful train. It's a moving island from which all disturbing influences are censored. It floats through the landscape like a passing dream. Heat and cold alike are shut off. The passengers are as sheltered as a chick in an egg incubator. Nothing changes except the sliding scenery, the rise and wane of daylight and your watch. Even the wheels don't click anymore. They merely murmur, says Tom Treanor, who is on a press junket to Venezuela.

Myrna Loy should watch her appearance; the overweight is too obvious, Jimmie Fidler says.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor, Transportation | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 17, 1941

Jim Murray, April 17, 1961

Posted on April 17, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  April 17, 1961, Levi's  

 

  April 17, 1961, Jim Murray  

April 17, 1961: Jim Murray pulls together a column of various items, including this line about Vin Scully, who is “the only redheaded broadcaster I know who makes a ball game sound like a ball game and not the end of the world.”

Continue reading →

Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, broadcasting, Dodgers, Fashion, Sports | Comments Off on Jim Murray, April 17, 1961