From the Vaults: ‘Fantasia’

  Fantasia  

For the last few days, the DVD player has been glowering at me. Over two nights, I worked my way through most of “Fantasia” and whenever I went near, it would scold me as if to say “Don’t forget, you still have to watch ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ and ‘Ave Maria.’ ” I always found some excuse for a delay. A long-postponed plumbing project, perhaps, or the laundry. I even tried bargaining with it: “Look what came from Netflix! ‘Yiddle With His Fiddle!’ ” But it was unyielding.

Finally, with all my other tasks out of the way, I sat down to finish the movie. And frankly, whatever Walt Disney expected of “Fantasia,” it certainly wasn’t supposed to be a chore.

My sudden interest in the film is all because of delayed advertising. I have gone through the 1941 stories and display ads for the local premiere of “Fantasia” – it had already debuted in New York — and thought it might be a nice subject for Anne Elisabeth, who responded with a demur, ladylike “No thank you.” So with my curiosity aroused, I took on the film myself.

ALSO

 “Fantasia” on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in 1941, Film, From the Vaults, Hollywood | 3 Comments

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 3, 1941

  April 3, 1941, Ford Demands Roosevelt Halt CIO Reign of Terror  

  April 3, 1941, Comics  

April 3, 1941: Tom Treanor, who died covering World War II for The Times, writes about Leland Stowe, a reporter for the Chicago Daily News who was visiting Los Angeles. Stowe and Treanor had crossed paths several times in Europe, the last being the time Stowe hitched a ride with a Christian Science Monitor reporter who had a peculiar obsession with owls.  

RKO reports that "Citizen Kane," Hollywood's most controversial film, will be released. THIS MEANS that Orson Welles, who holds a steel-bound contract for a percentage of profits and who threatened a terrific damage suit if the film was shelved, has won his battle and is enthroned as the industry's No. 1 "No" man, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Jim Murray, April 3, 1961

  April 3, 1961, Day in Sports  

  April 3, 1961 Jim Murray  

April 3, 1961: Jim Murray has a wonderful feature on featherweight champ Davey Moore. Don’t miss it!

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A Time of Terror — The Westside Rapist

 
 

  Dec. 29, 1975, Westside Rapist  

Dec. 29, 1975: Now that John Floyd Thomas Jr. has been sentenced to life in prison in some of the killings blamed on the Westside Rapist, I thought it would be worth running Bella Stumbo's 1975 feature about the then-unsolved crimes. I never met Stumbo, who died in 2002 at the age of 59, but I have heard many stories about her over the years. She was a master of the long personality profile, notably a 1990 nondupe (Colume One) on Marion Barry. The only person to survive a Stumbo piece relatively intact was Police Chief Daryl Gates, according to the late Eric Malnic, who said Gates "just talked her to death."

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Bella Stumbo on the Daily Mirror

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Found on EBay — The Herald Examiner [Updated]

Blackface Herald Herald Blackface
[Update: My nickname for Daily Mirror readers is "the brain trust" because they always impress me with their knowledge. Fibber, Sam and Roger believe this is from the Chicago Herald-Examiner, which dates from 1918 to 1939. I was previously unaware of this publication and I'll watch out for it in the future. Thanks, folks! ]

This curious item from the Herald Examiner promoting the “Blackface Index” has been listed on EBay. It’s hard to tell much about this coin except that it can’t be dated any earlier than 1962, when the Examiner merged with the Herald-Express.

Posted in @news | 2 Comments

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 2, 1941

  April 2, 1941, Bowron, Cunningham Nominated  

  April 2, 1941, Comics  

April 2, 1941: Tom Treanor talks to Richard Neutra about a 300-unit housing development he designed for a community outside Dallas.
 
Betty Grable tells Jimmie Fidler: “Any girl in the Hollywood spotlight is handicapped in the game of love. Too many worthwhile men hesitate to ask for dates because they fear her fame and overpublicized earning power. And too many parasites chase her because they hope to win attention by being seen in her company. Consequently, most stars, unsure of their men, lead discontented lives."

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

Jim Murray, April 2, 1961

  April 2, 1961, Comics  

  April 2, 1961, Jim Murray  

April 2, 1961: Golfer Porky Oliver  is dying of liver cancer, as gallantly as the way he lived. There’s an Easter lesson there, Jim Murray says.

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Paul Coates and Matt Weinstock, April 1, 1961

 
 

  April 1, 1961, Comics  
  April 1, 1961, Barbara Mills  

April 1, 1961: Barbara Mills, a dancer who performed as April Adams and Chondelli, dies after being found in a coma at the Coronet Motel, 5410 Hollywood Blvd. We don’t know much more about her than what appears in this obituary. Somebody thought she was worth Page 1,  though. With a picture.  

Matt Weinstock hears from surfers and ho-dads.

DEAR ABBY: My husband has been a milkman for over 30 years. All he has ever been able to talk about are the women on his route. He says he knows more about some of them than their husbands do. He's the kind of person women like to sit down with and tell their troubles to. When other milkmen have been home for hours,  my husband is still out listening to these mixed-up women. He says it is all in a day's work and I should be more understanding. I'd like your views.

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 1, 1941

 
 

  image  

  April 1, 1941, Comics  

April 1, 1941: Leroy Keane lives in a 7 by 10 room at 415 Crocker, but has a library of several hundred books, many of them first editions. He acquires them from the drivers of rubbish wagons, buying them sight unseen — sometimes getting an entire stack for 15 cents, Lee Shippey says.

Those makeup infection scars on Merle Oberon's face seem permanent, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Kennedy Kills Project to Build Atomic Airplane

 
 

  image  

  April 1, 1961, Comics  

April 1, 1961: You may not recall the idea of nuclear-powered aircraft, but there was once such an idea.  General Electric, one of the companies involved in the experiment, "challenged President Kennedy's statements that achievement of militarily useful nuclear flight is remote and that it would cost at least $1 billion more to achieve experimental flight."

And Eric Johnston, head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, says there is no industry-wide blacklist against communists, although individual studios might refuse to hire anyone suspect of being a Red.

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Nuclear-powered aircraft on the Daily Mirror

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Matt Weinstock, March 31, 1961, Matt Weinstock

 
 

  March 31, 1961, Comics  

March 31, 1961: KNX radio personality Bob Crane is looking for a word that rhymes with orange, Matt Weinstock says.

CONFIDENTIAL TO "MODERN MOTHER": Granted, your daughter CAN be trusted, but why place such temptations in the path of a healthy, lovely 18-year-old girl? She has no business on an overnight ski trip with her "steady"—unchaperoned.

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Paul Coates, March 31, 1961

 

 
 

  March 31, 1961, Mirror Cover  

March 31, 1961: Paul Weeks files a story from Washington saying that the John Birch Society has become a "matter of concern to the attorney general.”

Although Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy made no direct statement, a spokesman said "a growing number of inquiries which the Justice Department has received about the John Birch Society has made it a matter of concern to the attorney general.”

Among the congressmen who belong to the society is Rep. Edgar Hiestand (R-Altadena). "It is a group of dedicated patriots fighting communism — is that bad?" Hiestand said.

And Paul Coates has a letter from the inimitable Parkey Sharkey about his book “Whiskey Road.”

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Parkey Sharkey and  “Whiskey Road” on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in 1961, Columnists | 1 Comment

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 31, 1941

  March 31, 1941, U.S. Seizes Axis, Dane Ships  

  March 31, 1941, Comics  

March 31, 1941: Everybody has ideas about making movies – even the window washers, Lee Shippey says.

EVER SINCE RETURNING from Europe I have been pestered by one question to which I could give no satisfactory answer. The question is "how are the Jews being treated in such and such a country?" My answers were always vague and confused. I could never make people understand the situation is so complicated that you can't give an answer, Tom Treanor says. 

PALM SPRINGS AT A GLANCE: Fat gals, lean gals, short gals, tall gals – all wearing shorts, a "bra" and a nonchalant air, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Jim Murray, March 31, 1961

  March 31, 1961, Jim Brewer  

  March 31, 1961, Jim Murray  

March 31, 1961: Lakers coach Fred Schaus has a few things to say about ref Jim Duffy after a 114-113 loss to the St. Louis Hawks and doesn't care if it gets in print — even if there's a fine.

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Private Investigator Held in Extortion

  March 31, 1931, Comics  

  March 31, 1931, Comics  

Private investigator Charles R. Chase decided to make a little extra money by squeezing an extra $900 out of a teenager who stole $100 from the  drugstore where he worked. The police set a trap and heard Chase repeat his demand to the boy's mother while they listened in the next room.

A Senate committee wants to raise statewide speed limits: 20 mph in business districts, 25 mph in residential districts and 45 mph on highways.

Also on the jump: Road rage, 1931-style.

Lady Louis Mountbatten lunching at the Brown Derby "stood out like a sore thumb," Mollie Merrick says.

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Matt Weinstock, March 30, 1961

  March 30, 1961, Comics  

March 30, 1961: The Scottish Daily Express quotes Caltech seismologist Hugo Benioff (d. 1968) as saying that a devastating earthquake is set to hit Los Angeles.  The reporter apparently misquoted or distorted what Benioff said, according to Matt Weinstock, who adds: The old Caltech lullaby remains unchanged: "All we know about earthquakes is that the farther we are from the last one the closer we are to the next one."
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO WORRIED STUDENT: See a physician at once. Doctors have had a great deal of experience in situations such as these and can be trusted to respect confidences.

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Paul Coates, March 30, 1961

  March 30, 1961, Mirror Cover  

March 30, 1961: I had a terrible time scanning Paul Coates’ column for today, which is on the jump but barely legible. The ones in April are better.

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Posted in 1961, Columnists, Front Pages, Paul Coates | 2 Comments

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 30, 1941

 

  March 30, 1941, Comics  
  March 30, 1941, Mayor's Race  

 
March 30, 1941: In a classic example of one its attempts to meddle in local politics, The Times publishes a Page 1 editorial about the mayor’s race, sharply criticizing the incumbent, Fletcher Bowron, and advocating a man you most certainly have never heard about: Stephen W. Cunningham. Although this editorial is unsigned it is quite likely the handiwork of Kyle Palmer, The Times political powerbroker and would-be kingmaker who capped his career with an ardent and utterly unsuccessful campaign to put Richard Nixon in the White House in the 1960 election.

Perhaps The Times was embarrassed by Cunningham’s poor showing, because the 1941 election stories reported Bowron leading by 32,000 votes, rather than giving a total or a percentage. It is only in Cunningham’s 1956 obituary  that we get the actual numbers. Apparently unable to acknowledge defeat even many years later, The Times said: “"He lost the election by a narrow margin, receiving 149,721 votes to Bowron's 182,172.”  That “narrow margin” works out as 54% to 45%.  

In a recent interview, I called Palmer “one of the most contemptible people to ever work at The Times.” For a while, I thought this might have been too harsh until I read his coverage of the 1941 mayor’s race.

The lesson in all of this is that The Times' editorials and political endorsements weren't nearly as influential as people believe today. The voters obviously weren't shy about ignoring The Times' candidates.

Few sights are more depressing that a yesterday's screen beauty with 20 years added to her face, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Kyle Palmer on the Daily Mirror

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Jim Murray, March 30, 1961

  March 30, 1961, Day in Sports  
  March 30, 1961, Jim Murray  

March 30, 1961: Jim Murray takes a look at the names for horses in harness racing and  thoroughbred racing, and throws in auto racing for good measure. 
 
Thoroughbred racing, I am glad to say, is a lot more careful about the name of its plugs. The Jockey Club sits in judgment on this and you have to come up with a name that has no more than 15 letters, no more than 3 words, does not duplicate the name of a famous horse of the past (a plater's name is not retired to the glue factory with him, however) and does not offend good taste.

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Kennedy Mystery Photo

Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador,
June 5, 1968, photo courtesy of Howard Decker
Robert F. Kennedy in an undated photo
by Paul Jacobs

L.A. Observed recently posted a photo – from Chip Jacobs’ blog — of Robert F. Kennedy outside the Biltmore Hotel during his 1968 presidential campaign. Jacobs’ older brother Paul snapped the photo and the question arose of when it was taken. Jacobs believed it was from June 5, 1968, the day Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador. According to L.A. Observed, Kennedy aides, including  Paul Schrade, who was wounded in the shooting, said Kennedy didn’t go to the Biltmore that day.

A comparison of a photo taken by Daily Mirror reader Howard Decker (alias Fibber McGee) the night Kennedy was shot and Jacobs’ photo shows a number of differences, including the length of Kennedy’s hair. Kennedy’s tie is similar in both photos, but the stripes are angled in different directions.

One possible date is April 19, 1968, when Kennedy made a Town Hall appearance at the Biltmore Bowl. The story, by Carl Greenberg, notes that Kennedy arrived at Burbank Airport and had a private security escort rather than the LAPD.

It’s unclear whether the LAPD’s absence was due to ill feelings between Mayor Sam Yorty and Kennedy,  but Kennedy said: “It was nice of Mayor Yorty to provide me with a police escort — it was just when I started to go through Pomona.”

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Robert F. Kennedy on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in 1968, Mystery Photo, Photography, Politics, RFK | 4 Comments