Confidential File
I try. Believe me, I try.
At every opportunity, I warn you all of the countless pitfalls of life in these treacherous times of high-pressure merchandising.
Repeatedly, I’ve written you little lectures on the pointlessness of purchasing more than one lifetime membership to a dance instruction studio.
I’ve cautioned you time and time again about the risk of signing your name on a blank contract.
How smart is your dog? Read the Gettysburg Address to your faithful friend and find out. No, I mean it!
Answers below. No cheating, Princess! Continue reading
August 10, 1958: Ernie Bushmiller’s “Nancy,” in which Nancy and Sluggo unravel a mystery.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Building contractor Robert Beryle regarded the 762-foot Broadway tunnel, excavated in 1901 through Fort Moore Hill, as his masterpiece. Another crew was building the 1,045-foot 3rd Street tunnel at the same time and an informal competition developed between the two to see which would be finished first.
In 1949, the city decided to remove Fort Moore Hill, where another Beryle building, Los Angeles High School, was located, as well as the Broadway tunnel.
Beryle died Oct. 17, 1949, at the age of 90, a few days before the arch, all that was left of the Broadway tunnel, was pulled down. In his final days, Beryle often told his family stories about the tunnel’s construction, so they kept the secret that it had been destroyed.
In 1948, The Times’ list of tunnels included:
August 9, 1960: Buck Rogers: Caltechium is the ultimate weapon!
Aug. 9, 1960: Matt Weinstock writes about a story that was told at the farewell party for Paul Weeks (d. 2007), who was leaving to become the Mirror’s Washington correspondent. In fact, Weeks remained in Washington (spoiler) after the Mirror ceased publication in early 1962.
CONFIDENTIAL TO BETTY: The only woman who looks good carrying a torch is the Statue of Liberty. Date others and forget him, Abby says. Continue reading
Oooh! “Fatty” is a headline word!
Aug. 9, 1960: The family that boats together, floats together, Paul Coates says.
And the Mirror introduces a column by Jack Searles. Continue reading
Photograph courtesy of the Dodgers.
Vin Scully and Walter O’Malley before the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.
Is it a stretch to suggest that Walter O’Malley was the man chiefly responsible for pro sports in Southern California?
Consider that the Lakers might not have moved to L.A. as early as 1960, or that the American League might not have expanded to L.A. in 1961. Never mind about the Kings and Ducks who came much, much later.
Without O’Malley’s decision to bring the Dodgers to Los Angeles, everything might have been different.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Their names were Carl Joseph Masterson and Edward Jerome Duffy, who went by the nickname Harry. Carl was 40, born in Kansas and lived at 1032 Julius St. in Downey. Harry was 21, born in Nebraska and lived 2061 Saturn Ave., Huntington Park.
Carl was stationed at the Lopez Canyon guard station and Harry worked in the Deer Creek firefighting camp. They suffocated when they were caught in a ravine while fighting the Big Tujunga Canyon wildfire, which burned 3,600 acres in four days before thunderstorms gave the mostly volunteer crews the upper hand.
Mushroom Trouble
For some unknown reason this has been a big year for Lapiota morgani, the poisonous plant resembling the mushroom, which grows on lawns and in shaded places. As a result, about a dozen persons, more than in preceding years, have been rushed to hospitals. However, there have been no fatalities.
The cases follow a pattern. Someone, usually a European who claims to know the difference, eats them or gives them to friends to eat. Result: a stomachache.
Lapiota morgani, the commonest variety, is only mildly toxic. In fact, some people are
immune. Continue reading
Confidential File(Press Release) “COOK’S MUSICAL NOTES, by Ira Cook:
“If you’re statistically-minded about your music, just tune to the Ira Cook Show on KMPC, and we’ll keep you posted on the progress of the never ending parade of platters.
“To date, I have received just over 3,000 45-speed records and 660 albums.
“Now, just for fun, let’s see what we can do with these figures . . .
“If I had started stacking up my 45-speed records on Jan. 1, 1959, I would have, today, a stack 20 feet high!” . . .(signed) Publicity Department, KMPC, Hollywood.
— Well, Ira, there’s no use crying over spilt milk.
Aug. 8, 1953: An extension of the Harbor Freeway carrying traffic into downtown Los Angeles opens — and is jammed immediately. Traffic engineers say the backup was caused by the timing of the signals at 6th Street and Figueroa.
Movie critics don’t like the current crop of 3-D films, the latest opus being “The Stranger Wore a Gun.”
A stunning example of racial stereotyping in the comics
Benjamin Ward Tims Jr., a 22-year-old Marine from Long Beach Naval Station, thought he would rob a liquor store at 3540 Santa Barbara Ave. (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard).
About 10:30 p.m., while his girlfriend, Sue Ann Cook, 22, waited in the getaway car, Tims entered the store, wearing a brown tweed jacket, yellow T-shirt, white gloves and a straw hat.
Carl Baggett, 23, and his wife, Virginia, 21, who bought the liquor store in January, were watching TV in the rear of the building when Tims entered. Virginia nudged her husband because she thought Tims looked suspicious. They had been robbed of $268 the previous day and were taking extra precautions.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
The Times runs a picture page, taking stock of changes since the end of the war. In Nijmegen, Holland, townspeople adopt the graves of men from the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions who died taking Nijmegen Bridge.
In Essen, Germany, mothers struggle to feed their children one meal a day. At the current rate, it will take 130 years to rebuild Essen, The Times says. Elsewhere, women at the Dachau war trials hide their faces from news photographers.
On Corregidor, the jungle is overgrowing military emplacements. “The rock-strewn tunnels still hold bones of Americans,” The Times says.
And then there’s Paris, where Christian Dior is unveiling what will become known as his “New Look,” creating a terrible scandal not only because his creations use so much fabric—but because his model’s dress is unbuttoned to the waist, revealing a pink brassiere.
“The audience of sophisticates—buyers and fashion writers, many from the United States—gasped. Unbelievers, they thought the mannequin had forgotten to button up. But she tossed her head and swung slowly around.”
“The men like it, you know,” a Dior saleswoman whispered to the dubious.
Aug. 8, 1944
If the Indians ever pick out a tribe name for Joyce Reynolds it should be “Little Miss Sittin’ Pretty.” Not only is Joyce zooming to fame, but she is by way of becoming the richest junior miss in pictures. The Reynolds girl, now 19, inherited the $200,000 estate of her aunt and bachelor uncle, Belle and Fred Reynolds, and she comes into control of the money when she is 21. As though that weren’t enough of a nest egg for such a young girl, she will get the Texas oil properties of her late father when she is 24.
But Joyce is getting 10 times as much of a thrill out of her good fortune at Warners as from her cash fortune. She has two terrific pictures coming up, “Janie,” which is being released right away, and the well-touted “Junior Miss,” for which Jack Warner paid a small fortune.
Clark Gable has never looked as handsome as he does now with the little touch of gray in his hair. We played gin rummy the other evening, Clark, Kay Williams, Virginia Zanuck and myself, and he told me how interested he is in doing “Lucky Baldwin.” He knows the story of California’s fabulously wealthy character so well he could write a book himself. “Who told you so much?” I asked. He said, “Horace McCoy, who is writing the screenplay.” This is the first time I felt Clark has shown interest in returning to the screen. He goes to Washington with his Army film before he actually gets started at MGM.
LEO: Cheerful outlook for ambitious, venturesome Leo, especially if you take cognizance of practical angles and necessary details. Private and outside interests rate.
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
BY CHRISTY FOX
Outstanding on the summer bridal calendar was the wedding yesterday of Elizabeth Sheedy, daughter of Mrs. Martin Sheedy and Frank Ainsworth Sheedy, to Timothy Michael Doheny, son of Mrs. Leigh M. Battson of Beverly Hills and the late Edward Laurence Doheny Jr. The ceremony took place at 4:30 p.m. in All Saints Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills.
Rev. Herbert J. Smith officiated in the presence of assembled friends and relatives. The church was beautifully decorated in all-white flowers with candles and clusters of gardenias marking the aisle and gardenias and dahlias at the altar. A reception followed at Los Angeles Country Club where bridal white flowers were used similarly.
A tired old car died suddenly Tuesday while stopped for the signal on Olympic Blvd. at Georgia St. It was first in line in the center lane with the blinkers flashing for a left turn. The driver tried to start it but the engine wouldn’t catch.
Meanwhile, those backed up behind were becoming impatient. Of course, the driver immediately behind made no offer of a shove. This simply isn’t done, except by drivers of other old cars. And so the disgusted driver got out and pushed the weary old bus to the
curb, miraculously avoiding being clobbered by cars approaching in the other lanes.
He let it get its breath and after a while, with considerable wear and tear on the battery, it started. It has been running since. Continue reading
One of the more humiliating aspects of my personality is that I am hopelessly under the influence of advertising slogans.
The persuasive power of Madison Avenue guides my destiny and shatters my ego.
And that’s the way it’s been since my tenderest years.
I felt, for example, that I suffered from the creeping darkness of 5 O’clock Shadow years before I was even ready for my first shave.
When research scientists at the Listerine Laboratories announced to the world that they had discovered a brand new social disease called Halitosis, it suddenly dawned on me that girls were always friendly at first but when the evening was over they never asked me for another date.
Aug. 7, 1944
The honeymoon is over when the bride has to go back to work. At least, that is what Gail Patrick laughingly told me when I talked with her on the telephone. She got back in Hollywood to report for a top role in “Brewster’s Millions” yesterday. The picture gets underway a week from Monday with Dennis O’Keefe and funnyman Garry Moore, and while Gail likes her role and is excited about making the comedy you can’t listen to her five minutes without realizing her heart is somewhere “down South” with a Lt. Arnold White.
LEO: Some A.M. benefic influences, that’s about all today. Press to clean up urgent items, bringing all your native resources into play. This campaign should help you click.
Geraldine Fitzgerald was born in Dublin, Ireland, and is a product of that city’s famous Gate Theatre. Her initial appearance on Broadway in Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” brought offers from all major Hollywood studios. Now under contract to Warner Bros., she is currently appearing in 20th Century-Fox’s lavish $5-million production of “Wilson.” As the second Mrs. Wilson, she handles with skill the role of a mature and dignified first lady.
Aug. 7, 1944
Geraldine Fitzgerald is the cover photo as Life features the rarely seen movie “Wilson.”
Lonnie Smith, a Houston dentist, casts a ballot after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that African Americans could not be barred from voting in Texas Democratic primaries.
Life reports on the unsuccessful July 20 bomb plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
This week’s photo essay by photographer Ralph Crane shows various techniques of making movies. Above, a set of what is identified as Warner Bros.’ remake of “The Petrified Forest.” Presumably this is “Escape in the Desert.”
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
Aug. 7, 1907
Los Angeles
He swore at her and told her to go to hell. He rarely worked and only helped her run their boarding house when he felt like it. She hid all the butcher knives to keep him from killing her and their little girl. She hid his pistol in a bag of rags and sold it. She threw his razor down between two houses.
Finally, she sought a divorce after he came home drunk Feb. 22, 1907, and began hammering on the doors, threatening to break them down, and promising to kill her and their daughter, who had sought refuge with one of the lodgers in their boarding house.
Of Men and MachinesMan’s dependence on mechanical devices was chaotically demonstrated again the other day in a huge market in San Fernando Valley.
A motorist rammed into a power pole outside the store, disrupting the electricity inside. Suddenly the customers were groping around in semidarkness, grabbing cabbages when they wanted lettuces.
Amid frantic phoning to get the power restored, a few crank handles were found to operate the registers manually. The rest of the cashiers had to get back to basic pencil-and-paper arithmetic.
All in all, it was a harrowing reminder that life without juice is not sweet.
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