Town Called Hollywood, Feb. 23, 1941

Posted on February 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 23, 1941, Mayor's Race  

  Feb. 23, 1941, Spam  

Feb. 23, 1941: An old hand at writing columns but feeling his way in his new assignment, The Home Front,  Tom Treanor writes: "Of all the times in the history of the world to be writing a column this is unquestionably the most exciting.

“And of all the places in which to be writing it, Southern California is probably the most varied and interesting.”

Jimmie Fidler has the day off, so instead I’m running Philip K. Scheuer’s “Town Called Hollywood,” in which he makes his Oscar predictions (he likes “Rebecca” for best picture) and talks about movie directors’ attitudes toward color.

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Posted in 1941, City Hall, Film, Food and Drink, Hollywood, Politics | 2 Comments

Van Nuys Is Born!

Posted on February 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Oct. 14, 1984, Virginia and Van Nuys  

  Feb. 23, 1934, Van Nuys  
  Sylvan and Van Nuys  

Sylvan Street and Van Nuys Boulevard via Google maps’ street view.

  Feb. 23, 1911, Van Nuys  

Feb. 23, 1911: The Times says, “There are few more beautiful sites for a city anywhere than that which lies in the San Fernando Valley, at the gateway of Los Angeles. Fifteen miles from the city's center as the crow flies, its setting is the largest tract of undeveloped land near a great city in the world; its background the green-carpeted and rolling hills of scenic beauty unexcelled in all the Southland.”

Notice the names mentioned in a Feb. 23, 1934, story marking the 23rd anniversary of Van Nuys: William Mulholland, W.P. Whitsett, and, yes, The Times’ Harry Chandler.

Referring to staff poet John Steven McGroarty, The Times; 1934 story said: "He was there at the first birthday party and he hoped he would be there for the party fifty years from now. But if he were elsewhere, if he and some of the others were not there fifty years from now, they would gather together at the ramparts of heaven and look down upon the little homes in the San Fernando Valley and be happy at the sight he was sure to behold."

Here’s a curiosity: The 1911 story refers to the junction of Virginia Street and Sherman Way. If Virginia Street became Sylvan, as sources indicate, these streets would be parallel. Perhaps The Times reporter meant Van Nuys Boulevard, as indicated in a 1984 caption.

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Posted in 1911, Photography, San Fernando Valley | 5 Comments

Matt Weinstock, Feb. 22, 1961

Posted on February 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Feb. 22, 1961, Comics  

Feb. 22, 1961: The Arriba Poulson group has been formed in East Los Angeles to support the mayor in his upcoming campaign, Matt Weinstock says.  

DEAR ABBY: My Mommy and Daddy got a divorce and I live with my Mommy. My Mommy says that Daddy is a very nice man. When Daddy takes me to his place on Sundays, he says that Mommy is a very nice woman. If my Daddy is so nice and my Mommy is so nice, please tell me why they couldn't get along with each other and stay married?

PATTY ANN (Age 9)

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Posted in 1961, art and artists, City Hall, Columnists, Comics, Matt Weinstock, Politics | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, Feb. 22, 1961

Paul Coates, Feb. 22, 1961

Posted on February 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  Feb. 22, 1961, Mirror Cover  

Feb. 22, 1961: Longtime readers of the Daily Mirror may recall Paul Coates’ 1959 columns about a young African American boy named Butch Harris, who faced exclusion from the Cub Scouts because of his race. Today, Coates has another instance of a black, 9-year-old boy who is being excluded from the Cub Scouts.

Notice the "Book Burning" item about the Assembly investigating the state Department of Education for burning 184,000 obsolete but unused textbooks. The state had burned hundreds of thousands of textbooks in the last few months, mostly English books for grades 4 through 8 and some music books, the Mirror said.

In this era, textbooks were printed by the state of California, which leased printing plates from commercial publishers, the Mirror said.  

ALSO

Butch Harris on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in 1961, Columnists, Countdown to Watts, Front Pages | Comments Off on Paul Coates, Feb. 22, 1961

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Feb. 22, 1941

Posted on February 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 22, 1941, Flooding  

  Feb. 22, 1941, Comics  

Feb. 22, 1941: Los Angeles gets nearly 2 inches of rain in 24 hours, leaving Reseda and Canoga Park virtually cut off because of rising floodwaters, The Times says.

Dr. E.H. Pitts of Sacramento writes a letter to The Times praising countries with sterilization laws that “prevent the birth of babies doomed to lives of misery. These nations  act similarly with their criminals, their blind, their carriers of other inherited diseases.”
 
Tom Treanor is off again today, so we have another column by Lee Shippey, author of “It’s an Old California Custom” and “Luckiest Man Alive,” among many other books.  Shippey talks about writer Robert Sherwood, whose play "There Shall Be No Night” was about to open.

Hit Parade: "Andy Hardy's Private Secretary." Topper of the Hardy Family series, made more important by the debut of a sure-fire coming star, Kathryn Grayson, Jimmie Fidler says.

ALSO

Lee Shippey on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in 1941, art and artists, books, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey, Stage | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Feb. 22, 1941

Grammys Hit a New Low in Conservatism

Posted on February 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 22, 1981, Grammys  

  Feb. 22, 1981, Grammys  

Feb. 22, 1981: “The nominees this year represent a new low in Grammy conservatism,” Robert Hilburn says. "The gap in attitude between NARAS members — the people who are in the business of making music — and critics, who spend their time thinking about and responding to music, is conveniently underscored in the Village Voice's annual poll of the nation's leading pop and rock critics.

The results of the Village Voice best album poll:

1. The Clash, "London Calling"
2. Bruce Springsteen's "The River"
3. Talking Heads "Remain in Light"
4. "Pretenders"
5. Public Image, Ltd's "Second Edition"
6. Captain Beefheart's "Doc at the Radar Station"
7. Elvis Costello's "Get Happy!!"
8. Stevie Wonder's "Hotter Than July"
9. Prince's "Dirty Mind"
10. Gang of Four's "Entertainment"

ALSO

Rock Shuts Out Disco at Grammys

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Posted in 1981, Columnists, Music | 1 Comment

Found on EBay — Parkey Sharkey

Posted on February 21, 2011 by lmharnisch
Parkey Sharkey A copy of “Whiskey Road” by the incomparable Parkey Sharkey has been listed on EBay. Sharkey was a frequent presence in Paul Coates’ columns and many readers suspected that Coates fabricated Sharkey’s letters. Not at all. Sharkey was an actual person, but a rather eccentric one.

“Whiskey Road” is sometimes described as a book, but it’s really a pamphlet and much of it consists of Sharkey’s letters to Coates.

This copy is signed and is accompanied by a wine list from the Skywood Lodge. I think Sharkey would approve. Bidding starts at $27.95.

ALSO

Parkey Sharkey on the Daily Mirror
Posted in books, Food and Drink, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Found on EBay — Parkey Sharkey

Matt Weinstock, Feb. 21, 1961

Posted on February 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 21, 1961, Comics  

Feb. 21, 1961: Ever wish there was a traffic cop around to catch some idiot driver? Well, this time there was, Matt Weinstock says.
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO N.H.: Tell your children nothing about your past "sins." If you are now living a good, clean, respectable life, the Lord forgave you years ago.

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Posted in 1961, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, Feb. 21, 1961

Paul Coates, Feb. 21, 1961

Posted on February 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  Feb. 21, 1961, Mirror Cover  

Feb. 21, 1961: The choice of which Mercury astronaut will be the first launched into space narrows to Marine Lt. Col. John H. Glenn Jr., Air Force Capt. Virgil L. Grissom and Navy Cmdr. Alan B. Shepard Jr.

Herman Abrams' crusade against red lights and other traffic laws has earned him 430 traffic tickets.

Paul Coates has an update on con man John Milton Addison, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

ALSO

A Real Conjure Man, May 4, 1960

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Posted in #courts, 1961, Columnists, Crime and Courts, Front Pages, Paul Coates | 1 Comment

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Feb. 21, 1941

Posted on February 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 21, 1941, Four Deaths Laid to Three-Day Rain  

  Feb. 21, 1941, Comics  

Feb. 21, 1941: Tom Treanor has the day off. Instead, we have a column by Lee Shippey on Walt Disney. Shippey was blind, but almost never refers to it in his columns.

MGM AT A GLANCE: Stylist Adrian (sizing up a beauty) "Ummmm, 5 feet 3, 34 bust, 32 hips, 22 waist, blond." Studio office boy (sizing up the same girl): "Hot dawg!" 

 

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Posted in 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Feb. 21, 1941

Another Good Story Ruined — The Battle of Los Angeles

Posted on February 21, 2011 by lmharnisch
Los Angeles Times file photo

I haven’t talked to a movie publicist since Brian De Palma’s ghastly “The Black Dahlia” came out, but I was recently bombarded with pitches to do some sort of story about the rather comical February 1942 “Battle of Los Angeles” to hype the upcoming science fiction shoot ’em up “Battle: Los Angeles.”

And frankly, if the publicity campaign wanted to establish UFO research as nothing but lies and fakery, it couldn’t have done a better job.

In case you don’t know, every year about this time, someone revisits a rather ridiculous episode of wartime hysteria that occurred shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in which more than 1,000 rounds were fired at strange objects in the sky over Los Angeles. The objects were later suspected to be weather balloons – although  nobody was ever really sure. In later years, the reporters who lived through the Battle of Los Angeles treated the whole thing as a big joke. And if the incident sounds familiar, that’s because it inspired the movie “1941.”

ALSO

Battle of Los Angeles on the Daily Mirror 2008

Battle of Los Angeles on the Daily Mirror 2009

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Posted in 1942, Another Good Story Ruined, Film, Hollywood, Photography, UFOs | 11 Comments

Matt Weinstock, Feb. 20, 1961

Posted on February 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Feb. 20, 1961, Comics  

 
Feb. 20, 1961: Matt Weinstock has an item from J. Farrington Barrington Arrington, the sage of Bunker Hill, on a homeless drunk bedding down under some copies of the Mirror.

DEAR SUSPICIOUS: You have an evil mind…

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Posted in 1961, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Matt Weinstock | 1 Comment

Paul Coates, Feb. 20, 1961

Posted on February 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  Feb. 20, 1961, Mirror Cover  

Feb. 20, 1961: Paul Coates follows up on a story about the DMV insisting that Spanish speakers attempt—and fail—the test in English before taking it in Spanish. A new directive allows applications to take the test in Spanish upon request rather than going through the previous rigmarole.

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Posted in #courts, 1961, Columnists, Crime and Courts, Front Pages, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul Coates, Feb. 20, 1961

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Feb. 20, 1941

Posted on February 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 20, 1941, Flooding Rains Close Plane Plant  

  Feb. 20, 1941, Comics  

Feb. 20, 1941: Sam Yorty drops out of the mayor’s race – but he’ll be back in 20 years! 

NO BELLS to Katharine Hepburn for wearing slacks to a reception given in her honor by the governor of North Carolina and his lady, Jimmie Fidler says.
 
Note: Tom Treanor has the day off. He will soon begin a new column titled “The Home Front.”

ALSO

Yorty Runs for Mayor!

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Posted in 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Fashion, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Feb. 20, 1941

Strike Threatens Imperial Valley Lettuce Crop, 1961

Posted on February 20, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Feb. 20, 1961, Comics  

  Feb. 20, 1961, Farmworkers Protest  

Feb. 20, 1961: Chester Gould really likes the idea of vehicles driving on frozen lakes and rivers, doesn’t he?

And here’s an update on the lettuce strike in the Imperial Valley: In December 1960, the Imperial Valley Growers Assn. rejected demands by the United Packinghouse Workers of America and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee that workers be paid $1.25 an hour [$8.87 USD 2009] instead of the current 90 cents an hours.

A strike was called for Jan. 16, 1961, that would place the Imperial Valley's lettuce crop at risk, and union representatives charged that growers were using braceros (Mexican workers who came to the U.S. for seasonal farm work) to break the strike.

At one point, businessmen, students, housewives and office workers volunteered to harvest lettuce. But by February, the farmers association had plowed under 3,000 acres of lettuce due to bad weather, low prices and labor trouble, The Times said.

In March, the two unions called off their strike and blamed Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg for delaying an order to remove the braceros from the farms until after the harvest had peaked, despite repeated demands by the Mexican government that the braceros be withdrawn to protect their safety. 

In 1963, Times reporter Ruben Salazar and an unidentified photographer toured the state to document the impending shutdown of the bracero program, which expired Dec. 31, 1964. 

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Posted in 1961, art and artists, Immigration | Comments Off on Strike Threatens Imperial Valley Lettuce Crop, 1961

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Feb. 19, 1941

Posted on February 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Feb. 19, 1941, Japan Masses Fleet  

  Feb. 19, 1941, Comics  

Feb. 19, 1941: Tom Treanor, who was killed covering World War II for The Times, has the story of Lt. Henry de Vilmorin, a colorful, sophisticated French officer who was undergoing a whirlwind tour of Los Angeles.

I suspect it is my reportorial duty to comment on this year's nominees for Academy Awards. Frankly, I'm a bit indignant over the nominations, but when I remember that Luise Rainer won two awards and still can't get a job, I console myself that they aren't really important enough to cause me too much annoyance, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Posted in 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Tom Treanor | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Feb. 19, 1941

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on February 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

  2011_0218_mystery_photo01  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: This is the filming of “Poltergeist II.” Please congratulate Hockey Kevin for identifying the film. The crew is shooting at Celtic Street and Variel Avenue in Chatsworth, jewel of the northwest Valley. My first years at The Times were spent at the Valley Edition, headquartered on Prairie across the street from the Winnetka-6 Drive-in (RIP).

 

 

We have three mystery photos today, all from the same production. These folks are busy making a dust storm!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 3 Comments

The Land of Lost Movie Scripts: ‘Reel to Reel’

Posted on February 19, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Sept. 22, 1985, Reel to Reel  

I suppose it would take the late Carl Sagan to count the number of unproduced movie scripts in Hollywood (“billions … and billions…”) and most of them probably earned their way into a studio dumpster.

However, here’s an interesting movie project I ran across while researching the mystery photos from “Invaders From Mars.” Pat H. Broeske wrote this Sept. 22, 1985, story on a semiautobiographical film about Steve Spielberg titled “Reel to Reel” by Gary David Goldberg. (A Spielberg spokesman said at the time that the project was “very inactive.”)
 
Among the people envisioned for the film were Martin Scorsese as a UCLA film professor and a dream sequence of a courtroom involving Judge Orson Welles, Mary Tyler Moore as a witness, and a prosecutor named "Miss Kael." 

ALSO

Carl Sagan and “Cosmos”

Gary David Goldberg on “Reel to Reel”

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Posted in 1985, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on The Land of Lost Movie Scripts: ‘Reel to Reel’

Found on EBay — Oviatt’s

Posted on February 18, 2011 by lmharnisch
oviatt_trench_coat_ebay02 oviatt_trench_coat_ebay02_label

This trench coat from Oviatt’s has been listed on EBay. Oviatt’s was probably the leading menswear store in Los Angeles and was known for superior quality. As with all things on EBay, an item and vendor should be evaluated thoroughly before submitting a bid.

Bidding on this item starts at $24 or Buy It Now for $165.

ALSO

Oviatt’s on the Daily Mirror
Belted trench coat from Oviatt’s listed on EBay
Posted in Fashion | Comments Off on Found on EBay — Oviatt’s

Los Angeles Conservancy Announces Last Remaining Seats Series for 2011

Posted on February 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  King Kong, 1933  

“King Kong,” coming to the Los Angeles Theatre on June 15.

The Los Angeles Conservancy has announced the program for its 2011 Last Remaining Seats series and to celebrate its 25th year, it will add a seventh screening: a movie chosen by conservancy members.

The dates, films and locations are:

May 25, "Rear Window," Orpheum Theatre
June 1, "The Music Man,” Los Angeles Theatre
June 8, "Captain Blood," Million Dollar Theatre
June 15, "King Kong," Los Angeles Theatre
June 22, "Zoot Suit," Million Dollar Theatre
June 26, "Sunset Boulevard," Palace Theatre
June 29, "Safety Last!" Orpheum Theatre   

All programs except for "Sunset Boulevard" are at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and end between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. "Sunset Boulevard" will be shown on a Sunday in a matinee (a time has yet to be announced) and at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 for conservancy members and go on sale March 30 at 10 a.m. PST;  tickets are $20 for the public and go on sale April 13 at 10 a.m. PST. 

More information is here

Posted in Coming Attractions, Film, Hollywood | 1 Comment