| Larry Harnisch Reflects on L.A. History | Page 358

On Assignment – Times Bombing

Posted on September 20, 2010 by lmharnisch

Oct. 2, 1910, Times Bombing

As the anniversary of The Times bombing draws near, I thought I’d ask Daily Mirror readers what they might like to know about the incident. I have spent the last few weeks researching the bombing and I’ve had access to a great many original documents, which have been enlightening. It’s been a rather bittersweet journey to see how many artifacts (and buildings) have been lost over the years.

Posted in 1910 L.A. Times bombing | 9 Comments

From the Vaults: ‘The Wolf Man’ (1941)

Posted on September 20, 2010 by lmharnisch

Well, I am fudging on the year again this week, mostly because I had 1941's "The Wolf Man" in my queue and felt like watching it. And here at From the Vaults, that means I felt like writing about it! Let's go!

Starring lovable lummox Lon Chaney Jr., this is the Universal classic that helped create the modern werewolf trope, embroidering moonlight, silver and pentagrams onto an Old World shape-changer story. (As with "The Mummy," there's no direct source material.) Lycanthropic hero/monster Larry Talbot would go on to be resurrected Jason-style in a string of sequels, all featuring Chaney, whose name became synonymous with the role — his character is even listed in the opening credits as just "The Wolf Man." (I guess there wasn't much point trying to surprise the audience.) To watch this movie is to watch horror history. It's even got Bela Lugosi!

After his older brother's death, Larry comes home to the family estate, still run by his hale and hearty dad (a no-nonsense Claude Rains). As horror heroes go, Larry's not a real cerebral guy — he's not theatrical like Dracula or brainy like Dr. Frankenstein or interested in raiding old tombs like all those "Mummy" guys. He's more of a guy's guy, who likes to fix stuff and check out babes; after repairing his dad's telescope, he's soon using it to spy on beautiful shopgirl Gwen (Evelyn Ankers). Gwen turns out to be engaged, but persistent Larry gallantly escorts her and a friend to a gypsy fair anyway. Big mistake!

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

Voices – Roderick Mann

Posted on September 19, 2010 by lmharnisch

July 6, 1975, Roderick Mann

March 7, 1976, John Wayne

Here are two of the hundreds of profiles done for The Times by Roderick Mann, who died Friday at the age of 87. His first byline in The Times was a 1975 interview with Ava Gardner (d.1990), in London. In a 1976 interview with John Wayne (d. 1979) on the set of “The Shootist,” Wayne says he regrets turning down “Dirty Harry.”

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Obituaries, Roderick Mann | 2 Comments

A Notable Absence – Updated

Posted on September 17, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 16, 1910, Mexican Centennial

Sept. 16, 1910, Mexican Independence

Note: A bloodless bullfight at Schuetzen Park. [Update: Schuetzen Park was renamed Rose Hills Park about 1923.]

Sept. 16, 1910: Many writers have noted that Gen. Harrison Gray Otis wasn’t in Los Angeles when The Times was bombed but almost no one examines the reason. Here’s what happened:

Otis was one of the prominent Americans representing the U.S. for Mexico’s centennial celebration in Mexico City. Other goodwill envoys included Massachusetts Gov. Curtis Guild Jr.; Judge James Watson Gerard; Sen. Lee Slater Overman of North Carolina; Rep. Edwin Denby of Michigan; Rep. William Marcellus Howard of Georgia; Col. Charles A. Rook, founder of the Pittsburgh Dispatch; Sen. Coe Isaac Crawford of South Dakota; and Rep. David J. Foster of Vermont.

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Posted in 1910 L.A. Times bombing, Animals, Parks and Recreation | 1 Comment

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Sept. 17, 1940

Posted on September 17, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 17, 1940, National Guard

Sept. 17, 1940: Tom Treanor writes that Italy has banned The Times!

No handsomer twosome at the moment than Lana Turner and Victor Mature, Jimmie Fidler says.

And: "Climbing Jacob's Ladder," an original spiritual by Prof. William Thomas Wilkins, sung by Earl Pleasant, with choral accompaniment, is a "show stopper" in the "Ship of Zion," Negro folk drama with music by Zack Williams at the Mayan Theater.

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Movieland Mystery Photo — Updated

Posted on September 17, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 13, 2010, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Here’s this week’s mystery fellow with a (not) mysterious companion.

Update: I've been completely occupied with an upcoming story about the 1910 Times bombing so I haven't had a chance to post the names of everyone who has recognized our mystery guest so far. There's a lot of folks:

Dewey Webb, Carmen, Pat in Michigan, Mike Hawks, Periwinkle, Margie, Lee Ann Thom and Megan, Steve Stoliar, Herb Nichols, Julie Merholz, Barbara Klein, Lana, James Curtis, Gregory Moore, Cold in PHX, Michael Ryerson, Zabadu, Mary Mallory, Fibber McGee, Rotter, William, Grammy Flo, Eve, Anne Papineau, Richard Wegenscheide, Waldo Lydecker (where you been?), Dr. Fudd, Space Hanlon, Jenny M, Candy C, RJ, Dan Bazarian, Mark Heimback-Nielsen, Pamela Porter, Don Young, Rosalyn, Sue, Claire Lockhart, Arye Michael Bender, Roget-L.A., LC, Rick, Randy Skretvedt, Sandy, Steven Moshlak, Cathy and Stacia.

Just a reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on Monday and reveal the answer on Friday … or on Saturday if I have a hard time picking only five pictures; sometimes it's difficult to choose. To keep the mystery photo from getting lost in the other entries, I move it from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, etc., adding a photo every day.

I have to approve all comments, so if your guess is posted immediately, that means you're wrong. (And if a wrong guess has already been submitted by someone else, there's no point in submitting it again).

If you're right, you will have to wait until Friday or Saturday. There's no need to submit your guess five times. Once is enough. The only reward is bragging rights.

Last week’s mystery guest was Jean Negulesco!

There’s a new photo on the jump!

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Photography | 62 Comments

Found on EBay – Bullock’s

Posted on September 16, 2010 by lmharnisch

bullocks_collegienne_ebay

bullocks_collegienne_ebay_label

This outfit from the Collegienne department at Bullock’s in the San Fernando Valley has been listed on EBay. Of the Bullock’s items that are listed on EBay, those from the Valley store are by far the most rare. The outfit is listed as Buy It Now for $79.99. As with anything on EBay, an item and vendor should be evaluated thoroughly before submitting a bid.

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Sept. 16, 1940

Posted on September 16, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 16, 1940, British Down 185 Nazi Raiders

Sept. 16, 1940, Tom Treanor

On a slow day in wartime Rome, Tom Treanor joins the foreign
correspondents in a day at the beach.

Sept. 16, 1940: Hollywood Parade — Clark Gable, in a boulevard sports good store, trying the fit of a new shotgun while three early teensters stare in awed admiration, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood, Tom Treanor | Comments Off

Pages of History

Posted on September 16, 2010 by lmharnisch

Los Angeles -- The Chemically Pure

“Los Angeles – The Chemically Pure” by Willard Huntington Wright/S.S. Van Dine in the March 1913 issue of “The Smart Set” is frequently cited, but almost never quoted. I tracked down the article (which also appears in “The Smart Set Anthology,” 1934) in hopes of uncovering the roots of the ridiculous story about Gen. Harrison Gray Otis’ “armored car.”

There was nothing about the car, but I was struck by the tone of Wright’s article, for it is the full-blown “Los Angeles as the coastline of Iowa” attitude (fashionable writers would call it a “trope”) that defines the Eastern school of writing about Los Angeles and is readily found in just about any current issue of the New York Times or the New Yorker.

“The Smart Set Anthology” is in the Los Angeles Public Library and many other Southern California libraries. Or you can find much of the article quoted in a rebuttal by George Wharton James in a 1913 issue of Out West.

Bonus on the jump: The first page of James' article and a photo of Pershing Square as it appeared before the construction of the Biltmore.

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Posted in 1910 L.A. Times bombing, books, Pages of History | Comments Off

An Important Visitor

Posted on September 16, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 16, 1910, Bankers Convention

Sept. 16, 1910: And what could possibly be interesting about a bankers’ convention? Notice the dates: Oct. 3-7. So if William J. Burns, head of the Burns National Detective Agency, comes to Los Angeles for the convention and arrives a few days early, he’ll be here when The Times is bombed on Oct. 1. And “Goo-Goo” Mayor George Alexander can hire him to investigate the bombing. Which is exactly what happened.

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Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Sept. 15, 1941

Posted on September 15, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 15, 1941, RAF Joins Reds

Sept. 15, 1941: Gracie Allen, pioneer. Typical of Miss Allen's resolute spirit is the campaign which she launched, following curtailment of Japanese silk imports, to persuade every Hollywood woman to buy a mulberry tree and a silk worm, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Posted in art and artists, Columnists, Film, Hollywood, Nuestro Pueblo | Comments Off

Charles Lummis, Columnist

Posted on September 15, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 13, 1917, Cartoon

Sept. 13, 1917: I thought I’d take a little detour to 1917 after visiting the Southwest Museum the other day to go through Charles Lummis’ materials on the 1910 bombing of The Times. You may recall that “Charlie” Lummis was The Times’ first city editor.

One thing I came across was correspondence between Gen. Harrison Gray Otis (referred to as the Chief or the Old Chief) and Lummis over a column titled “I Guess So.” Lummis was being paid $25 [$414.61 USD 2009] per Sunday column and shortly before Otis died in 1917, he agreed to pay Lummis $20 [$331.69 USD 2009] for another installment of “I Guess So” that would run midweek.

After Otis died, Harry Chandler withdrew the agreement, explaining after a long series of protests by Lummis that the government had imposed wartime restrictions on newsprint, noting that newspapers were weighing whether to cut the comics, rotogravure sections and anything else that wasn’t news.

I have no idea as to the artist on this editorial cartoon, which is unsigned. Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale was the usual editorial page artist in this era, but he always signed his work.

Lummis’ entire column is on the jump –- plus an editorial against saloons. The Times says it doesn’t oppose serving liquor with meals and calls “bone-dry prohibition” a failure. But the “stand up and take a drink bar” should be closed, it says.

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Posted in 1910 L.A. Times bombing, art and artists, Columnists, Food and Drink | Comments Off

We’re Searching For …

Posted on September 14, 2010 by lmharnisch

Rise of the Organized Labor Movement in Los Angeles

I’m looking for Pauline Jacobson’s “Otis: Jehovah of Industrial Freedom,” which appeared in the Dec. 9, 1911, issue of the San Francisco Bulletin. It was also reprinted in “The Struggles of Organized Labor in Los Angeles.” Does anyone happen to have access to this little item? The citation, by the way, is from Grace Heilman Stimson’s “Rise of the Labor Movement in Los Angeles.”

Posted in 1910 L.A. Times bombing, books | 1 Comment

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Sept. 14, 1940

Posted on September 14, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 14, 1940, British King

Sept. 14, 1940, Tom Treanor
Tom Treanor, who was killed covering World War II, on a cocktail party in Rome.

Sept. 14, 1940: Jimmie Fidler’s staff says Orson Welles, who's worried about recent weight losses, now eats two big steaks, five potatoes and a dish of cereal every day — for BREAKFAST!

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Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood, Tom Treanor | Comments Off

Garbo Turns 75, Sept. 14, 1980

Posted on September 14, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 14, 1980, Garbo

Sept. 14, 1980, Alexander Walker, the author of "Garbo: A Portrait," on the actress' 75th birthday.

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Posted in books, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Sept. 12, 1940

Posted on September 13, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 12, 1940, British Blast Invasion Fleet

Sept. 12, 1940, Buckingham Palace

Sept. 12, 1940: Can it be that Johnny Weissmuller is going conservative? His yacht and Duesenberg racer are up for sale, Jimmie Fidler says.

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Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off

Luncheon to Celebrate Centennial of LAPD’s First Policewoman

Posted on September 13, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 14, 1910, Alice Stebbins Wells

Sept. 14, 1910: The Herald reports Alice Stebbins Wells’ appointment as the first policewoman in Los Angeles. The Herald treated her with far more dignity than The Times, which found her to be somewhat amusing.

Wells will be honored with a luncheon on Sept. 15 at 11 a.m. at the Police Academy Lounge. Tickets are $35 and reservations are required. Further information is here.

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Posted in LAPD | Comments Off

From the Vaults: ‘Portrait in Black’ (1960)

Posted on September 13, 2010 by lmharnisch

"Portrait in Black" has just about everything you need for a campy good time: Sandra Dee! Lana Turner in an increasingly elaborate selection of diamond earrings! A very tan Anthony Quinn! Former silent film actress Anna May Wong as a housekeeper named Tawny! It goes on a little long, but this thriller is almost never boring. Pour yourself your favorite vintage cocktail (perhaps an Aviation?) and have a look.

Sheila Cabot (Turner) is weary of nursing her unpleasant invalid husband, a shipping magnate who lies in his hospital bed stroking his Siamese cat and running his empire with the help of sidekick Howard Mason (the aptly named Richard Basehart). About the only bright spot in Sheila's days is her affair with her husband's doctor, David Rivera (Quinn). Together they decide to put her husband out of his misery. How unethical!

After the murder, things are looking good for the couple until Sheila starts receiving taunting, anonymous notes, and Quinn soon realizes that committing murder is like eating potato chips. Are the notes coming from Mason? Tawny? The chauffeur, who keeps hovering around the mailbox? Discontented stepdaughter Sandra Dee? Her fiance, who has a score to settle with the Cabot family? Before you know it, you're knee-deep in intrigue.

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Posted in Film, From the Vaults, Hollywood | 6 Comments

Coming Attractions — Archives Bazaar, Oct. 23

Posted on September 12, 2010 by lmharnisch

Two women and a car near Eagle Rock, left, from the California Historical Society
collection; Los Angeles County citrus exhibit in Toronto, 1927, from the
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce collection.

The fifth annual Archives Bazaar will be held at USC’s Doheny Library on Oct. 23 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The bazaar is a terrific way to learn about the incredible number of historic collections that are scattered all over the city. There will be panels throughout day, including one on the past, present and future of newspapers in Southern California with someone you may recognize (ahem). More information is here.

Posted in books, Coming Attractions, Photography | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo

Posted on September 11, 2010 by lmharnisch

Sept. 6, 2010, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

May 11, 1930: Caricature of Will Rogers by Jean Negulesco.

Update: Our mystery guest is film director and artist Jean Negulesco. The above photo was released in 1949 to publicize his nomination for an Academy Award for directing “Johnny Belinda.” Mary Mallory sends along an EBay listing for one of Negulesco's drawings, priced at $1,200.

Just a reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on Monday and reveal the answer on Friday … or on Saturday if I have a hard time picking only five pictures; sometimes it's difficult to choose. To keep the mystery photo from getting lost in the other entries, I move it from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, etc., adding a photo every day.

I have to approve all comments, so if your guess is posted immediately, that means you're wrong. (And if a wrong guess has already been submitted by someone else, there's no point in submitting it again).

If you're right, you will have to wait until Friday or Saturday. There's no need to submit your guess five times. Once is enough. The only reward is bragging rights.

Last week’s mystery guest was Lynne Baggett.

There’s more on the jump!

Continue reading →

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