Atlanta Police Seek to Solve Slayings of Black Youths

Posted on January 28, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  Jan. 28, 1981, Comics  

 

  Jan. 28, 1981, Atlanta Child Murders  

Jan. 28, 1981: Lee Manual Gooch, 15, is missing four days after the discovery of the strangled body of Terry Lorenzo Pue, the 14th black child to be killed  in Atlanta in 1 1/2 years, The Times says. Freelance photographer Wayne B. Williams will be arrested in June on suspicion of killing as many as 28 victims between 1979 and 1981. Williams was convicted on two counts of murder in February 1982.

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Posted in Comics, Crime and Courts, Homicide | 1 Comment

Matt Weinstock, Jan. 27, 1961

Posted on January 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Jan. 27, 1961, Comics  

Jan. 27, 1961: Matt Weinstock has an item about folk music featuring singer Joyce James and guitarist Bill Fernandez. One of their songs is David Arkin’s “The Klan,” about a cross burning in East L.A.

CONFIDENTIAL TO MURIEL AND FAYE: Try Alaska. The men are plentiful and the nights are long.

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Posted in #East L.A., art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Matt Weinstock, Music | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, Jan. 27, 1961

Paul Coates, Jan. 27, 1961

Posted on January 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  Jan. 27, 1961, Mirror Cover  
  Jan. 27, 1961, Mel Blanc  
Jan. 27, 1961: Carroll Van Court asks Mirror readers to pray for Mel Blanc, who was badly injured in a car crash.

Paul Coates dips into the mailbag and endures a reader’s taunts that he is getting old.

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Posted in Columnists, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Paul Coates | 2 Comments

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Jan. 27, 1941

Posted on January 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Jan. 27, 1941, Defense Records Stolen  

  Jan. 27, 1941, Comics  

Jan. 27, 1941: Tom Treanor writes about the popularity of the Lockheed Hudson among British fliers. “The Hudson's such a sweetheart to the British airmen that it has been made the heroine of their next-to-the-dirtiest war flying song,” Treanor says.  

Jimmie Fidler says: Here's the kind of determination that's needed to be a successful "movie mamma." The other day, stopping at Columbia, I found the anteroom crowded with moppet applicants for a minor kid role, each one shepherded, of course, by a militant mother.

As I watched, a pretty 6-year-old was dismissed from the producer's sanctum with a few words of consolation.

Craftily, her mamma took her aside, produced a comb and brush, and with a few deft strokes, completely changed the tot's appearance. Minutes later, the same child re-entered the big shot's office for another try and — you've guessed it — came out with the job!

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Posted in art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Tom Treanor | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Jan. 27, 1941

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on January 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

  2011_0126_mystery_photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: This is a production shot from “Tennessee Johnson,” published Jan. 2, 1943. The fellow  on the ladder with the gloves is director William Dieterle.]

In this mystery scene, we have a large room, a big cast, and lots of lights!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 10 Comments

Location Sleuth — ‘Farewell, My Lovely’

Posted on January 27, 2011 by lmharnisch

Here’s another historic location in the 1975 film “Farewell, My Lovely,” a scene with Robert Mitchum and Jack O’Halloran at the Far East Cafe on 1st St. in Little Tokyo.

[These images are a little funky. They’re frame grabs from a copy of the film I taped off the air many years ago and recently transferred to DVD.]

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Photography | 3 Comments

Matt Weinstock, Jan. 26, 1961

Posted on January 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Jan. 26, 1961, Comics  

Jan. 26, 1961: The sound of an auto collision at Sunset Boulevard and Roxbury Drive attracted the usual crowd of onlookers and as Eugene Rodney, producer of the Robert Young TV show, dejectedly appraised the damage to his white Thunderbird, one of them, a man in sports shirt and slacks, asked, "Is there anything I can do?"

Rodney recognized him as pianist Jose Iturbi and after a moment's contemplation said, "Yes, there is! Would you play 'The Ritual Fire Dance' from 'El Amor Brujo' by De Falla–Softly!"

DEAR ABBY: Yesterday I saw two people together who had absolutely no business being together. The man is the husband of a very good friend of mine. The women is the wife of a respected professional man. He was helping her into his car and they were laughing and so wrapped up in each other's company they didn't know anyone else was on the street. This was about noontime.

It worked on my mind so much I decided to call up my friend and tell her about her husband….

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Posted in art and artists, broadcasting, classical music, Columnists, Comics, Matt Weinstock | 1 Comment

Jan. 26, 1961, Paul Coates

Posted on January 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Jan. 26, 1961, Mirror Cover  

Jan. 26, 1961: Paul Coates has the latest example of the recurring stories the Mirror published about petty intimidation by LAPD officers, under Chief William H. Parker, particularly traffic officers. 

ALSO

Justice Strained

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Posted in #courts, Columnists, Crime and Courts, Downtown, Front Pages, Matt Weinstock, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Jan. 26, 1961, Paul Coates

Philip K. Scheuer, Town Called Hollywood, Jan. 26, 1941

Posted on January 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Jan. 26, 1941, Riots Reported  

  Jan. 26, 1941, Hitler's Comet  

Jan. 26, 1941: Times reporter Tom Treanor, having returned from Europe, writes about the black market money exchange in Romania.

Jimmie Fidler has the day off. Philip K. Scheuer writes about the filming of two Norman Krasna pictures, "The Devil and Miss Jones" and "The Flame of New Orleans."

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Posted in art and artists, Columnists, Film, Hollywood, Tom Treanor | Comments Off on Philip K. Scheuer, Town Called Hollywood, Jan. 26, 1941

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on January 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Jan. 25, 2011, Mystery Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: This is Joan Crawford in “The Ice Follies of 1939.” ]
Hm. What’s going on here?

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 11 Comments

Location Sleuth

Posted on January 26, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Jan. 25, 2011, Mystery Photo  

  Earl Carroll Neon  

I was watching the 1975 version of “Farewell, My Lovely” for the first time in a long while and began wondering how they got the neon sign from the Earl Carroll Theatre for the opening titles. The top photo is a frame grab from the film and the bottom photo is a frame grab from a 1940s training film for firefighters. The actual sign was animated so that the letters in THEATRE in the upper right spelled out “Eat at” Earl Carroll Theatre. 
 
ALSO

Earl Carroll on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Nightclubs, Photography | 6 Comments

Matt Weinstock, Jan. 25, 1961

Posted on January 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Jan. 25, 1961, Comics  

Jan. 25, 1961: In the 1920s, most movie stars lived in Hollywood, particularly the Whitley Heights area. Their agents had offices nearby. When the film people began moving to Beverly Hills their agents followed partway, settling along the long, narrow strip of unincorporated territory on Sunset Boulevard. There they could make themselves available to their clients and also avoid paying the city business license tax. And so what had been called Sunset Center, then the County Strip, then simply the Strip because known as the Sunset Strip. Around this nucleus of agents the so-called glamour nightclubs and restaurants grew, Matt Weinstock says.

CONFIDENTIAL TO "READY TO GIVE UP": Yes, I can refer you to an excellent source of help. His name is God. And he is always available.

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

Paul Coates, Jan. 25, 1961

Posted on January 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  Jan. 25, 1961, Mirror Cover  

Jan. 25, 1961: Mel Blanc, 51, is making progress after being badly injured in a head-on crash with Menlo College student Arthur Rolston, 18, on Sunset Boulevard at the notorious “Dead Man’s Curve” at Groverton Place. Blanc suffered head injuries, a broken pelvis and two broken legs. After the crash, the city of Los Angeles moved quickly to reconstruct that section of Sunset by “raising the outside lanes,” The Times said. 

Paul Coates writes about one of his worst fears: Being assigned to do a first-person story about the rain.

ALSO

"Dead Man’s Curve" on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in Columnists, Film, From the Vaults, Hollywood, Paul Coates, Transportation | Comments Off on Paul Coates, Jan. 25, 1961

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Jan. 25, 1941

Posted on January 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  image  

  Jan. 25, 1941, Comics  

Jan. 25, 1941: The recent Jew persecutions in Rumania struck a special note of horror to a visiting American because they were so invisible, Tom Treanor says.

Why cast Margaret Sullavan as a Jewish refugee ("So Ends Our Night") when she looks as Irish as Paddy's pig? Jimmie Fidler says.

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Posted in art and artists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Tom Treanor | Comments Off on Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Jan. 25, 1941

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on January 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

  2011_0123_mystery_photo_top  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: These are  photos published in 1965, showing Hal Needham, Stephanie Epper and Patty Elder.]

Here’s a mystery sequence of photos showing a stunt that went wrong.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 8 Comments

Wife Seeks Divorce After Learning Mother-in-Law is Black

Posted on January 25, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  image  

  Jan. 25, 1911, Twins  

Jan. 25, 1911: Divorce proceedings reveal the peculiar tale of Elda P. Kenny/Kenney and her husband, Robert.

The Kenneys married in Cleveland in 1902 and moved to Los Angeles shortly thereafter, The Times says. In 1910, the Kenneys returned to Cleveland to see Elda's parents and she decided to visit his parents in Shenandoah, Va.

Robert refused to accompany her, so Elda went alone. And she was horrified: Her mother-in-law "was as black as your shoe," she told the judge in her divorce proceedings. 

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Posted in #courts, Countdown to Watts, Crime and Courts | 7 Comments

Found on EBay — ‘They Call Them Camisoles’

Posted on January 24, 2011 by lmharnisch
They Call Them Camisoles A rather battered but interesting copy of “They Call Them Camisoles” has been listed on EBay. “Camisoles” was written by Wilma Carnes under the pen name Wilma Wilson and is a graphic first-person account of her time at Camarillo (“Camisoles” was the hospital’s nickname for straitjackets.) She was beaten to death by a soldier during a “drinking party at her home” in 1943. 

This copy carries an interesting inscription to Howard Francis Chase and is signed, but has suffered water damage and the cover is badly torn. “Camisoles” is hard to find on the open market, although it’s in many public libraries,  and it is usually listed at a high price. Bidding on this copy starts at $200, which seems high, considering the condition.

ALSO

“They Call Them Camisoles” on the Daily Mirror
Posted in books, Film, Food and Drink, health, Hollywood | Comments Off on Found on EBay — ‘They Call Them Camisoles’

Matt Weinstock, Jan. 24, 1961

Posted on January 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  image  

Jan. 24, 1961: All it takes is a little earthquake to get people reminiscing about the great jolts of the past, Matt Weinstock notes.

DEAR ABBY: A mother in our neighborhood is giving her 15-year-old daughter a stork shower. The girl is not married and will not be by the time the baby arrives. The 17-year-old father-to-be spends all his time at the girl's house. He quit school last year, hasn't a job and isn't looking for one. The juvenile authorities won't allow the couple to get married because the boy "seems unable to accept responsibility" and has a poor family background. All the mother of the girl says is "It could happen to anyone and what's done is done, so give the kids a break." Fifty people are invited to this shower. I think it is in very poor taste. 

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Posted in art and artists, Columnists, Comics, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, Jan. 24, 1961

Paul Coates, Jan. 24, 1961

Posted on January 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Jan. 24, 1961, Mirror Cover  

Jan. 24, 1961: Paul Coates uses the kidnapping and death of Rose Marie Riddle, 6, to explore the story of another young victim of a child molester.

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Posted in Columnists, Crime and Courts, Front Pages, Paul Coates, Suicide | 3 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on January 24, 2011 by lmharnisch

  2011_0213_mystery_photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: This is “The Bugle Sounds.”]

Aha! Mystery tanks!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 8 Comments