Jim Murray, April 30, 1961

Posted on April 30, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  April 30, 1961, Comics  

 

  April 30, 1961, Jim Murray  

April 30, 1961: Down on the field, a team called the Los Angeles Angels were playing once again. It was possible to close my eyes and go back to 1944, the first time I ever saw a ballgame in Wrigley Field. To me, a ballpark is like an old song. It's fun. But it's also sad. You remember the darndest things about ballparks. Some of them have nothing to do with baseball.

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 29, 1941

Posted on April 29, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  April 29, 1941, Super Bomber  

  April 29, 1941, Comics  

April 29, 1941: Irvin S. Cobb fills in for Lee Shippey once again.

Height of Something or Other: Gertrude Lawrence's reported plan to auction Vic Mature's appendix (well preserved in a bottle) for British war relief!

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Posted in 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey | 2 Comments

From the Stacks – ‘Portraits of Crime’ (1977)

Posted on April 29, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Portraits of Crime  

Two years after writing about  LAPD Det. Ector Garcia, I finally located a copy of his book, “Portraits of Crime,” which arrived in the mail from the U.K. while I was on vacation. No one will ever mistake this book for great literature. The editing is weak (as in “Leo” LaBianca) but the rough, raw writing gives “Portraits” a freshness and immediacy that might be missing in a more polished work.

Written by LAPD artist Garcia (d. 1987) and Charles E. Pike, “Portraits” consists of composite sketches and brief summaries of  29 cases from the 1950s to the 1970s. Aside from the Tate-LaBianca and Son of Sam murders, most of the subjects are obscure killings, kidnappings and rapes that could easily be the raw material for several seasons of TV crime shows. 

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Posted in #courts, 1977, books, Crime and Courts, Downtown, From the Stacks, Hollywood, Hollywood Division, Homicide, LAPD, Pages of History, San Fernando Valley, Venice Division, West Hollywood, Zombie Reading List | 1 Comment

‘The Chinese Murder,’ April 29, 1891

Posted on April 29, 2011 by lmharnisch

April 28, 1891: Wong Ark, in drawing

April 29, 1891: Headline "The Chinese Murder"
April 29, 1891: The Times reports the death of a Chinese woman named Ah Gue/Goot Gue, who was shot in the abdomen by her husband, Wong Ark/Gam Duck, outside a brothel on Apablasa Street. Ark allegedly killed Gue because she didn’t give him all the money he wanted for gambling. The Times covered this case extensively, and said that because the Chinese witnesses were “heathens,” they were unconcerned about telling the truth under oath.

The first jury deadlocked. In his second trial, Ark was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, but the conviction was overturned on appeal because the dying woman’s statements were inadmissible. (The Times reported that she said “him killee me.”) Ark was convicted of manslaughter at his third trial and served six years at San Quentin.

Bonus factoid: Apablasa Street vanished during construction of Union Station, which was built on the old Chinatown.

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 28, 1941

Posted on April 28, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 28, 1941, Comics  

  April 28, 1941, Nazi Film  

April 28, 1941: Irvin S. Cobb fills in for Lee Shippey, who is still recovering from surgery.
 
Tom Treanor files a report from a press junket to Venezuela, saying that reporters are treating it as a vacation while the sponsors consider it serious business. The trip was organized by Standard Oil, the Grace Line and “various business interests," Treanor said.

That George Raft-Edward G. Robinson feud has become so venomous that their portable dressing rooms have now been moved to opposite sides of the stage, Jimmie Fidler says.

I can find no further information about “Dr. Koch,” the purported Nazi film that was banned from being shown at the Pacific Electric Theater,  627 S. Los Angeles St. It might be “Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes.”

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Posted in 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor | 1 Comment

Jim Murray, April 28, 1961

Posted on April 28, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 28, 1961, Autry, Nixon  

  April 28, 1961, Jim Murray  

April 28, 1961: Jim Murray dips into the mailbag and finds letters from Frank Capra and George Kennedy, among others. Meredith Willson wants Murray to write a baseball comedy so he can use it for a musical!
 
ps. The Angels lost to the Twins, 4-2.

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President Kennedy Urges Self-Censorship for Newspapers

Posted on April 28, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 28, 1961, Comics  

  April 28, 1961, Censorship  

April 28, 1961: President Kennedy calls on the nation's newspapers to censor themselves in publishing information that could be useful to global communism in the cold war. 

"Communism, he said, is a 'monolithic and ruthless conspiracy' that is attacking us all around the world with cold war tactics conducted with wartime discipline.

"He recalled that enemy leaders have boasted that American newspapers had supplied them with valuable facts they could not have obtained elsewhere except by espionage." 

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San Francisco Clinic Cures ‘Bad Girls’

Posted on April 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 10, 1949, Bad Girls  

April 10, 1949: A San Francisco "promiscuity clinic" is working to treat "bad girls." No, really! After citing some terrifying statistics (68% of U.S. brides are not virgins!) Howard Whitman profiles the Psychiatric Service of the San Francisco City Clinic, which has "treated some 2,000 cases of promiscuity."

And while it has helped "many a young girl back to wholesome living," the clinic has made some amazing discoveries, including: "These girls don't enjoy sex." Got that, bad girls?

 

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Posted in 1949, health | 1 Comment

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 27, 1941

Posted on April 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 27, 1941, Nazis Batter at Gates of Greece  

  April 27, 1941, Comics  

April 27, 1941: Lee Shippey files  a column from his hospital bed!

OUR PARTY FOR VENEZUELA met in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center before sailing today. We could look out across the city at the spires which last year seemed as solid as rock cliffs, but now look fragile and brittle for bombs in the pearly, iridescent haze, touched today with sun and faintest color of the rainbow, Tom Treanor says. 
 
Few stars can wear an evening gown with such dazzling effect as Loretta Young, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Jim Murray, April 27, 1961

Posted on April 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

  April 27, 1961, Angels  

  April 27, 1961, Jim Murray  

April 27, 1961: The Angels make their debut at a refurbished Wrigley Field against the Minnesota Twins. Jim Murray says: "You have to marvel that, at 1:30 this afternoon, they will bravely begin an extended run of 81 performances in the face of nearly unanimous critical opinion that they shouldn't bother and that they'll be playing only to ushers within a week."

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UC May Have to Charge Tuition – Someday

Posted on April 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  image  
  April 27, 1961, Eichmann  

April 27, 1961: The Senate Education Committee turns down a proposed tuition fee for University of California students but says one may have to be imposed — eventually.

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Posted in #courts, 1961, Adolf Eichmann, art and artists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Education | Comments Off on UC May Have to Charge Tuition – Someday

Found on EBay — Bullock’s Wilshire

Posted on April 26, 2011 by lmharnisch
Bullocks Collegienne bullocks_collegienne_shoes_ebay_label

This pair of shoes from the Collegienne department of Bullock’s Wilshire has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $9.99.
Posted in Fashion | Comments Off on Found on EBay — Bullock’s Wilshire

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 26, 1941

Posted on April 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Naval Patrol Extended by U.S.  

  April 26, 1941, Comics  

April 26, 1941: Harriet Grainger fills in for Lee Shippey, who is recovering from surgery.

BELLS TO: Fibber McGee and Molly, who, loyal to the radio sponsor they've had for years, nixed more lucrative offers from a rival concern, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Jim Murray, April 26, 1961

Posted on April 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  April 26, 1961, Day in Ssports  

 

  April 26, 1961, Jim Murray  

April 26, 1961: Jim Murray writes about pitcher Jim Brosnan’s book “The Long Season,” calling it "The best book on baseball ever written and one of the best on any subject."

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Vacation Is Over

Posted on April 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Oct. 31, 1883, Plow  

Vacation is over, but it’s going to take me a few days to plow through everything that has accumulated since I left.  Have you missed Jim Murray? Me too!
Posted in 1883, art and artists | 2 Comments

Found on EBay – Louis Adamic

Posted on April 25, 2011 by lmharnisch
Louis Adamic Louis Adamic’s “The Word of Satan in the Bible” has been listed on EBay in a lot of 40 Little Blue Books published by E. Haldeman-Julius. This is an intriguing item from Adamic, best known for “Dynamite,” which is frequently cited for its account of the 1910 bombing of The Times.

Bidding on this lot starts at $23.99.
Posted in 1910 L.A. Times bombing, books, Religion | Comments Off on Found on EBay – Louis Adamic

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!

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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.

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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