Paul Coates, March 24, 1961

Posted on March 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  March 24, 1961, Mirror Cover  

March 24, 1961: Paul Coates dips into the mailbox for items on the mayor’s race and women’s measurements.

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 24, 1941

Posted on March 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  March 24, 1941, Yugoslavs Rage at Hitler Pact  

  March 24, 1941, Comics  

March 24, 1941: Tom Treanor has an item about a man on crutches leading a blind fellow across the street at 3rd and Grand.

Ingrid Bergman is still dazed from the startling discovery, while enjoying a professional guide's "Tour of the Movie Stars' Homes," that she lives in one of Beverly's biggest mansions, whereas she was under the impression that she resides in a four-room apartment, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Jim Murray, March 24, 1961

Posted on March 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 24, 1961, Day in Sports  

  image  

March 24, 1961: Jim Murray takes a fond look at one of the characters among sportswriters: Arthur Maxwell “Max” Stiles, who had worked at many Los Angeles papers in his career. 
 
ALSO

Maxwell Stiles at latimes.com

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The Funny Pages, 1951

Posted on March 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

  image  

Looks like someone has painted a big arrow on the pavement! Are we really supposed to believe that anybody could fit in a slot machine? Even in “Dick Tracy?”

March 24, 1951:  Here’s what was on The Times’ comics page in 1951. There were the long-running stalwarts, like  “Dick Tracy” and “Nancy,” but also some obscure strips, like “Dawn O’Day” and “Casey Ruggles.” 

ALSO

The Times comics in 1931

The Times comics in 1941

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Posted in 1951, art and artists, Comics | 3 Comments

Elizabeth Taylor’s Obituary — Outtakes From a Work in Progress

Posted on March 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Nov. 27, 1957, Michael Todd, Elizabeth Taylor  
  Photograph by George R. Fry Jr./Los Angeles Times  

Nov. 27, 1957: Michael Todd and Elizabeth Taylor.

Elaine Woo has a nice post about writing the obituary on Elizabeth Taylor, including some items cut from the final piece:

Elizabeth Taylor's death Wednesday moved me in an odd way. Although I never met or spoke to her, I had a "relationship" with her that spanned a dozen years: Hers was the first advance obituary I ever wrote for The Times. The assignment, which I received in 1999, probably was precipitated by one of Taylor's nearly annual brushes with death. I read a mountain of articles and books over a three-month period before writing a lengthy piece. And nearly every year since then I updated the article, adding a worthwhile quote or details about her latest illness. I felt I had come to know her and, unlike many of my subjects, I liked her.

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Obituaries, Photography | 1 Comment

Found on EBay — B.H. Dyas

Posted on March 23, 2011 by lmharnisch
Dyas Golf Club Items from the B.H. Dyas store in Los Angeles are a rarity on EBay. This St. Albans putter has been listed with bidding starting at $19.99.

ALSO

A Walker Cup driver on EBay.
Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Found on EBay — B.H. Dyas

Matt Weinstock, March 23, 1961

Posted on March 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 23, 1961, Comics  

March 23, 1961: Matt Weinstock has an item on an animated billboard for Dristan showing a man’s sinus cavities. Is it TV movie villain Skip Homeier?

CONFIDENTIAL TO MARCIE: Some folks, who can't add and subtract, quit school to get married and have no trouble multiplying.

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Paul Coates, March 23, 1961

Posted on March 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 23, 1961, Cover  

March 23, 1961: Desi Arnaz, ABC and the National Italian American League to Combat Defamation
reach an agreement that fictional characters in “The Untouchables” will not have Italian names. Arnaz also agrees to show the contributions of Italian Americans in a favorable light. Paul Coates uses this as a point of departure for a satire.

I apologize for the poor quality of this scan. Sometimes it’s awfully difficult to get anything legible off the microfilm.

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Posted in 1961, broadcasting, Columnists, Paul Coates, Television | Comments Off on Paul Coates, March 23, 1961

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 23, 1941

Posted on March 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 23, 1941, Slavs Join Axis  

  March 23, 1941, Comics  

March 23, 1941: The Times’ editorial page opposes raising taxes to fund the library. It’s the war, you know, and if we go around handing out money to the library, next in line will be the police, and firefighters and the parks department, The Times says.  (Voters defeated the measure, 20,277 to 13,292).

Ellis Kutten is a refugee Pole in Hollywood, the man who was in charge of cement manufacturing for all Poland…. Today, with Mrs. Kutten, he is making a fresh start from a Hollywood rooming house. He has been in America for two months and has no job but he is as sure of himself as if he were already behind an executive's desk, Tom Treanor says. 

Terse description of Mickey Rooney: Peter Pan-ic, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Posted in 1941, art and artists, City Hall, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey, Politics, Tom Treanor | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 23, 1941

Remembering Elizabeth Taylor: 1932 – 2011

Posted on March 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Feb. 6, 1945, National Velvet  

Feb. 6, 1945: “National Velvet” opens in Los Angeles.

  Michael Todd and Elizabeth Taylor, March 28, 1957  
  Photograph by John Malmin/Los Angeles Times  

March 27, 1957: Michael Todd poses with Elizabeth Taylor after “Around the World in 80 Days” won the Academy Award for best picture.

  Nov. 12, 1981, Elizabeth Taylor  

Nov. 12, 1981: Charles Champlin reflects on Elizabeth Taylor’s career after a tribute to her at the Ahmanson Theatre.
 
After viewing clips from many of Taylor’s films, Champlin says: “You gaze wistfully upon the shining child and the radiant girl and the ravishingly sensual woman, and are then pleased and inspired to discover in maturity the ripe and indefatigable joie de vivre, the inexhaustible capacity to find amusement in the world.”

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Jim Murray, March 23, 1961

Posted on March 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 23, 1961, Alex Perez  

  March 23, 1961, Jim Murray  

March 23, 1961: Has Terrible Ted Williams turned into an affable soul thanks to Sears? Jim Murray takes a look at “the wolf of Wall Street.”

In case you’re wondering about Alex Perez, who frequently drew cartoons for the sports pages,  he worked as assistant director of The Times’ art department in the 1950s and ‘60s 

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

Ex-Columbia Student Blames Drugs for Shooting at Actress

Posted on March 23, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 23, 1901, Nameplate  

  March 23, 1901, Shirts  
  March 23, 1901, Wild Act of Youth  

March 23, 1901: The Times has grown to an 18-page paper. One front-page story reports a shooting in the Rathskeller of the Pabst Hotel (d. 1902) at 42nd Street and Broadway in New York, where former Columbia student Robert H. Moulton fired five shots into a party of actors and friends in a booth, slightly injuring a theater manager. Police originally assumed that Moulton was obsessed with  actress May Buckley, who was appearing in “The Price of Peace,” but investigators determined that Moulton had taken so much morphine that he had no idea what he was doing.
 

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Posted in #courts, 1901, Crime and Courts, Fashion, Stage | 1 Comment

Matt Weinstock, March 22, 1961

Posted on March 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  March 22, 1961, Comics  

In the highly advanced future, people will still use file cabinets!

March 22, 1961: Are truck drivers really articulate? Matt Weinstock thinks one fellow is …  and a woman calling the Philharmonic for tickets doesn’t know much about music but she knows what she wants to hear: Roger and Wagner.

CONFIDENTIAL TO "VERY MUCH AFRAID": There is nothing to fear. Had your friend been even slightly infectious, she would not have been discharged from the TB hospital. Therefore, it is far safer to associate with her than someone who has never had a chest X-ray … and could be one of the estimated 100,000 Americans walking around with active TB and doesn't know it.

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Paul Coates, March 22, 1961

Posted on March 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  image  

March 22, 1961: Paul Coates publishes a personal testimonial from a woman advocating free school lunches for children. “It breaks my heart when I hear people say it's a waste of money to feed hungry kids at school," she says.

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Posted in 1961, Caryl Chessman, Columnists, Food and Drink, Front Pages, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul Coates, March 22, 1961

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 22, 1941

Posted on March 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 22, 1941, Serb Uproar  

 

 March 22, 1941, Comics  
  Spring Street, 1896  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

March 22, 1941: Lee Shippey writes about photographer Charles Chester “C.C.” Pierce (d. 1946), who has spent 55 years documenting Los Angeles. As Shippey notes, many of Pierce’s photographs are at the Huntington (51 linear feet!). This Pierce photo shows Spring Street in 1896, before it was straightened out. Notice the cable car tracks. 
 
The war, there seems no doubt, will change a great many of our materialistic standards, reducing the importance of wealth, position and inherited power. Something will have to replace these. The most likely candidates are religion, the arts and a new political philosophy, Tom Treanor says. 

NO BELLS to Charlie Chaplin for asking a local theater manager to rerun the feature picture on the comedian's arrival, and leaving in a huff when the manager refused, Jimmie Fidler says. 

ALSO

C.C. Pierce on the Daily Mirror

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

Make Your Own Pickwick Book Shop Bookmarks!

Posted on March 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

  WPA guide to Los Angeles  

I noticed that L.A. Observed had an item on the reissue of “Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and Its Environs,” a book that is well worth having. The Daily Mirror HQ acquired its copy (formerly the property of Fremont High School–ahem) back in the 1970s and it has provided many hours of entertainment (check out the Chapman South American Chinchilla Farm, 4957 W. 104th St., admission by telephone appointment only).

The book has been reissued previously and is available on Bookfinder, although the price may be a little steep.
 
As a public service, to accompany your new/used copy of the WPA guide to Los Angeles, here are scans so you can make your own bookmarks from the Pickwick (d. 1995), 6743 Hollywood Blvd.

You’re welcome!

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Posted in books, Pages of History, Zombie Reading List | 1 Comment

Jim Murray, March 22, 1961

Posted on March 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 22, 1961, Day in Sports  

  March 22, 1961, Jim Murray  

March 22, 1961: Anytime a winner shoots rounds of 62 and 65, as Bob Goalby did, and slips to 67 when he's in a slump, and anytime there isn't a single score out of the 60s for any of the four rounds for any of the first nine finishers — a total of 36 rounds of play in the 60s — you can be pretty sure the name of the game, whatever it is, isn't golf. But wait till the Masters, Jim Murray says. 
 
ALSO

Golf on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in #Jim Murray, 1961, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Sports | Comments Off on Jim Murray, March 22, 1961

Minister Accused of Trying to Rape Danish Nanny

Posted on March 22, 2011 by lmharnisch

  image  

  March 22, 1891, Fleming Case  

March 21-22, 1891: It has been far too long since I paid a visit to 1891, when The Times was a 12-page paper with offices at 1st and Broadway. The Rev. Samuel J. Fleming of South Pasadena has been accused of trying to rape the family’s Danish nanny. He has also been accused of misusing money from the Chautauqua association and the ensuing investigations reveal that the man of the cloth abandoned a previous wife and is an all-around cad! 

In the briefs: Jim Lewis has only been out of jail a few days and is already in trouble for stealing Father McDonald's hat from the cathedral!

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Posted in #courts, 1891, art and artists, Crime and Courts, Religion | 2 Comments

The Mirror, March 21, 1961

Posted on March 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  March 21, 1961, Cover  

  March 21, 1961, Comics  

March 21, 1961: I’ve been on vacation, so I hurried down to the scanner in The Times’ library today and went through this week’s copies of the Mirror. Here’s the latest from Matt Weinstock, Paul Coates and Abby.

Notice that the Mirror's front page has been resdesigned — again. Our plucky little paper will be gone in January!

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 21, 1941

Posted on March 21, 2011 by lmharnisch

  March 21, 1941, Germans Open Spring Offensive  

  March 21, 1941, Comics  

March 21, 1941: Tom Treanor says that the war has created a narcotics shortage in Los Angeles, so that many addicts are getting clean and sober or switching to liquor.  The evidence is mostly anecdotal, however, and doesn't inlude marijuana use.  Police report an increase in drug thefts from doctors and pharmacies, as well as rise in forged prescriptions.
 
Cuff Notes: Phone Headman Buddy De Sylva at Paramount and ask why, with all the testing, he doesn't look into this column's suggestion that Luise Rainer would be perfect for Maria in "For Whom the Bell Tolls," Jimmie Fidler says.

ALSO

Drug Fiends Make Crime Wave, 1919

Hallucinations of a Cocaine Fiend, 1889

Heroin on the Daily Mirror

Marijuana on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in 1889, 1919, 1941, art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 21, 1941