Man Poses as Woman Golfer

Posted on January 4, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Jan. 4, 1921, Golfer  

Jan. 4, 1921: Well isn’t this an awkward moment on the golf course!  Miss Eleanor Fox, a tall and dashing brunette, drives a ball 200 yards and loses her tam – and her luxurious tresses – revealing that she is William E. Donahue.

On the jump, LAPD statistics for 1920, and crime is up in almost every category. Arrests for intoxication are increasing and remember, this is during Prohibition. Homicides rise from 37 to 48. And despite the rise in crime the LAPD hasn’t added any officers, The Times notes.

Also on the jump, Alexander and Oviatt is having a sale!

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Matt Weinstock, Jan. 3, 1961

Posted on January 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Jan. 3, 1961, Comics  

Jan. 3, 1961: Matt Weinstock says that New Year’s drinking was far less than usual. And the Daily Mirror wonders: could “The Quietest Place in Town” have been the reason?

CONFIDENTIAL TO SHIRLEY: Horse sense is what keeps a woman from becoming a nag.

ALSO

The Quietest Place in Town

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Paul Coates, Jan. 3, 1961

Posted on January 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Jan. 3, 1961, Mirror Cover  

Jan. 3, 1961: The Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area surpasses Chicago as the second-largest urban area, although Chicago is still ranked the second city, census figures show. 

… and Paul Coates writes about his “jail mail,” including a poem from one guest at the Hall of Justice.

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Jan. 3, 1941

Posted on January 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

  Jan. 3, 1941, Air Bombs Ravage Dublin  

  Jan. 3, 1941, Bremen  
  Jan. 3, 1941, Bremen  

Jan. 3, 1941: After the sneak, Frank Capra recalled the cast of "Meet John Doe" for retakes that will shorten the picture, Jimmie Fidler says.

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On the Frontiers of Fashion

Posted on January 3, 2011 by lmharnisch

  image  

  Jan. 3, 1936, Judges' Robes  

Jan. 3, 1936: Los Angeles County Superior Court judges begin wearing robes  at the suggestion of California Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Waste. Not all judges like wearing robes and some continue to appear on the bench in business suits, The Times says. 

Bonus fact: The first woman judge appointed to Los Angeles County Superior Court was Georgia Bullock, 1931. Bullock, who died in 1957, was the first woman judge in California, The Times said.  

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Posted in #courts, 1936, Crime and Courts, Fashion | 1 Comment

Matt Weinstock, Jan. 2, 1961

Posted on January 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Jan. 2, 1961, Comics  

Jan. 2, 1961: Walt Hackett took his first stroll in months on Hollywood Boulevard and was awed by the gals' puff ball hairdos. His description: tumbleweeds with feet. Matt Weinstock says. 

DEAR ABBY: Every year countless wives sit home while their husbands are out drinking and dancing with other women. This is called "The Annual Christmas Party." If people want to disregard the bonds of holy matrimony, must it be done in the name of our Lord Jesus?

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Paul Coates, Jan. 2 1961

Posted on January 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 

  Jan. 2, 1961, Mirror Cover  

Jan. 2, 1961: Paul Coates (yes, he’s a native New Yorker) compiles a list of civic sins – Bloody Christmas and the county grand jury, included – but declares for the new year that he actually likes the place.

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Jan. 2, 1941

Posted on January 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

 

 
 

  Jan. 2, 1941, Rose Parade  

  Jan. 2, 1941, Rose Parade  
  image  

Jan. 2, 1941: Hollywood's pale-pink stars encountered a devastating pain in the neck in the person of Mr. Martin Dies, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on January 2, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Jan. 1, 2011, Mystery Photo  

  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: Here’s the original caption pasted on the back of the photo:

  2011_0101_mystery_photob  

[This was evidently from a Sunday rotogravure section that wasn’t microfilmed, so I can’t refer to the original.

[First, there’s no Dick Curwood listed in imdb, although there is a Dick Kerwood, a stuntman who was killed Oct. 15, 1924, when he fell from an airplane while preparing to jump into a car.

[Second, I can’t find any movies in imdb in which Bob Curwood and Nena/Nina Quartaro/Quartero appeared together.

[A true mystery!]

All right, let’s see what’s going on here….  And this really is a mystery because the caption information appears to be wrong.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 4 Comments

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Jan. 1, 1941

Posted on January 1, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Jan. 1, 1941, Roosevelt Denounced by Nazis  

  Jan. 1, 1941, Romania  

  Jn. 1, 1941, Hitler Denies World Conquest  

Jan. 1, 1941: Reports are some drastic cutting must be done, else Hattie McDaniel will steal "The Great Lie" from Bette Davis, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Amazing Predictions for Aviation!

Posted on January 1, 2011 by lmharnisch

  Jan. 1, 1911, Airplanes  

  Jan. 1, 1911, Aviation  

  Jan. 1, 1911, Trolley Tracks  

Jan. 1, 1911: The Times asks pilots who are in Los Angeles for the Aviation Meet about the future of flying. The Times said:

"We will see in the next few years, if the predictions of the bird-men come true, aeroplanes which will fly easily from coast to coast. We will see great express-carrying airships and mail-carrying flying machines which will take matter quickly to the farthest corners of the world. We will see aircraft which will attain without effort the almost inconceivable speed of 200 mph, and which will flash back and forth across the ocean in a day's time….

"… we will also see aeroplanes active in war both as scouts for the navy and army and also as awful engines of destruction for cities and fleets!"

They were wrong about a few things, including the notion of wireless transmission of electricity to power aircraft, and they expected that personal airplanes would soon be as  common as automobiles.

Also on the jump, crews of men are laying streetcar tracks from Hollywood to Van Nuys. Today, there would be public hearings, environmental impact reports, etc. etc. In 1911, they just got lots of men, cut down trees, moved houses and scooped out dirt at the amazing rate of a wagon load every 28 seconds.

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Paul Coates and Matt Weinstock, Dec. 31, 1960

Posted on December 31, 2010 by lmharnisch

  Dec. 31, 1960, Comics  

Dec. 31, 1960: It's unwise to quarrel with the economists because they speak with such assurance they seem to know what they're talking about. But they keep insisting on the necessity of increasing something they call the Gross National Product. I'm not sure what it is, but I wish they would hold it still long enough so we could find out. I think it's another way of saying inflation, Matt Weinstock says.

Paul Coates has another first-person plea from beyond the grave for safe driving. This one is attributed to  Irene Thornton of Los Angeles.

CONFIDENTIAL TO "TERRIBLY INDEBTED": Give back the gifts. The gentleman (?) obviously expects an immediate return on his investment.

ALSO

The Quietest Room in Town and Please, God, I’m Only 17

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Dec. 31, 1940

Posted on December 31, 2010 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Dec. 31, 1940, Roosevelt Speech  

  Dec. 31, 1940, Tom Treanor  

Dec. 31, 1940: C. Chaplin's discovery, Dorothy Comingore, uses that name in Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane," but goes under contract to RKO as Linda Winters. After she welcomes the stork, she gets a star buildup, Jimmie Fidler says.

ALSO

Orson Welles on the Daily Mirror

“Citizen Kane” on the Daily Mirror

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Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on December 31, 2010 by lmharnisch

  Dec. 31, 2010, Mystery Photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: ROYAL DENIALS …. Prince Mikhail Ouratieff and his wife, Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna, don the garb of butler and maid and prepare to wait on the banker and his wife ….. a scene from Warner Bros. "Tonight's Our Night," the screen version of "Tovarich," in which Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer are starred. Anatole Litvak is directing. In this scene, a crane shot, Mikhail and Tatiana are on their way upstairs with the master's dress tie and the mistress' gown. Behind them, but not in the picture, is the Pekingese dog, for which they have been looking, and the master's shoe, which they are also seeking. The dog and the shoe are together. ]

Here’s our mystery camera crew…

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

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Posted on December 31, 2010 by lmharnisch

  2010_1230_mystery_photo  
  Los Angeles Times file photo  

[Update: STRAIGHT FROM THE GOVERNOR — Making motion picture history, Governor James V. Allred of Texas started cameras turning on the first scene of Paramount's "The Texas Rangers" via long-distance telephone from the Texas Centennial headquarters, Dallas, Texas, to director King Vidor's location site 1,000 miles away on the plains of New Mexico, near Gallup. Here Vidor, seated, is receiving the opening-scene direction tips as members of the cast, left to right, Jack Oakie, Fred MacMurray and Lloyd Nolan, wait for the word "action." The opening marks the first time that a governor has participated in the actual filming of a motion picture scene.

[Filming “The Texas Rangers” in New Mexico?]

This photo is just a bit strange … See if you can figure out what’s going on. More details on the jump.

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Posted in Animals, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 28 Comments

Major Crimes Increase in L.A., 1960

Posted on December 31, 2010 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Dec. 31, 1960, Laos Invaded  

  Dec. 31, 1960, Comics  

Dec. 31, 1960: Most crime, except for drunk driving, increased in 1960, according to Police Chief William H. Parker. The 4.2% decrease in DUI was probably due to longer jail sentences, Parker said. "In other words, it takes habitual drunkards longer to get out and get drunk again," he said.

Homicides are up 10.9%, from 134 to 149, the LAPD says. Robberies showed the largest increase, 39.4%, to 6,160. 

ALSO

Crime statistics on the Daily Mirror

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Found on EBay – Oviatt’s

Posted on December 30, 2010 by lmharnisch
oviatt_clock_ebay This unusual Oviatt item has already been sold but it’s worth noting because it’s quite unusual.

Marc Chevalier says: The elusive "Alexander & Oviatt" Swiss clock. I've seen three others identical to it: all were once owned by James Oviatt's nephews, who worked as managers of the store. I was told that they were commissioned by James Oviatt in 1928 or '29 as gifts for his nephews. Each clock is faced in ivory, and the images are hand-painted. Oddly enough, the artist has painted a completely fictional carillon of bells on the top.

This item sold on EBay for  $200.
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Matt Weinstock, Dec. 30, 1960

Posted on December 30, 2010 by lmharnisch

  Dec. 30, 1960, Comics  

  Dec. 30, 1960, Quiet Room  

Dec. 30, 1960: “The Quietest Room in Town” is the sort of piece, like “Please God, I’m Only 17,” that used to appear regularly in newspapers to encourage safe driving.

Matt Weinstock says: Former newsman Darr Smith recalls interviewing Clark Gable in his trailer while making a film at MGM. "Gable's previous film, ‘Parnell,’ had been a dismal flop, savagely panned by American critics. On the wall of the trailer was a rave review of ‘Parnell’ from the North China Daily News, framed in bamboo. Under it, Gable, a man of great, quiet humor, had written: ‘400,000,000 Chinese can't be wrong.’ ”

DEAR ABBY: The company my husband works for had a Christmas party. I got down on my hands and knees and begged him not to go this year because last year he came home drunk with lipstick all over his face. Well, he went anyway and came home drunker this year than last and full of lipstick. I hit him on the head with…..

On the jump, “Please, God, I’m Only 17,” from June 16, 1976. Notice that Abby didn’t write “Please, God,” someone sent it in, explaining that it was an editorial clipped from “our local newspaper.”

Bonus information: Ann Landers had "Please, God" on Sept. 13, 1971. This version has a two-paragraph introduction that was later excised and the source is: "a Kalamazoo teenager who asked me to reprint this fantasy, which appeared in the Tiger Tattler, the school paper of Lawrence." At that time it was titled "In Love With Life — or How It Would Be if I were Killed in an Automobile Accident."

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Paul Coates, Dec. 30, 1960

Posted on December 30, 2010 by lmharnisch

  Dec. 30, 1960, Mirror Cover  

Dec. 30, 1960: Academy Award winners Gale Sondergaard, Albert Maltz and Nedrick Young are among 12 Hollywood figures suing the studios over being blacklisted. The suit was brought by A.L. Wirin under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

And Paul Coates dips into his mailbag….

ALSO

A.L. Wirin on the Daily Mirror

The blacklist on the Daily Mirror

Albert Maltz on the Daily Mirror

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Posted in #courts, Crime and Courts, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul Coates, Dec. 30, 1960

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Dec. 30, 1940

Posted on December 30, 2010 by lmharnisch

 
 

  Dec. 30, 1940, London in Flames  

  Dec. 30, 1940, Evacuation of Dunkirk  

  Dec. 30, 1940, Dunkirk  

  Dec. 30, 1940, Ribbon  

  Rose Queen Sally Stanton, Gov. Culbert Olson and Highway Patrol Chief E. Raymond Cato at the ribbon cutting of the Arroyo Seco Parkway (Pasadena Freeway), Dec. 30, 1940.  

  Dec. 30, 1940, Arroyo Seco Parkway  

Dec. 30, 1940: George Brent has enrolled in a night school navigation class to ready himself for that California to Hawaii yacht race, Jimmie Fidler says. 

ALSO

The Pasadena Freeway/Arroyo Seco Parkway on the Daily Mirror

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