Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, Aug. 3, 1959

Posted on August 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

Confidential File

‘Lost’ Youth’s Letter Tells Tragic Story

Paul Coates, in coat and tieToday, the story’s a grim one.

It starts with a letter I received last week.

The letter begins: “Dear Mr. Coates:

“I’m 18 years old. I live with my parents in Los Angeles.

“I have an older married brother.

“Now you know a little about my family.

“What I’m writing to you about is help for mentally ill people.

“I don’t consider myself outright crazy, but I have a feeling inside me that’s building up to the point where I feel I’m going to be before very long.

“I can’t tell my parents or friends what all is wrong. That’s why I wanted to see a physchiatrist (spelled wrong, I know). I need to talk to someone trained in this field who can ask leading questions to find the real motivations of people’s problems. Continue reading →

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Matt Weinstock, Aug. 3, 1959

Posted on August 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

Free Enterprise

Matt WeinstockThe 30-cent bite for a pack of cigarettes in vending machines is still outraging the addicts and, free enterprise being what it is, two regulars in a downtown saloon have set up an unusual business operation.

They take turns watching for customers heading for the cigarette machine. This is not always easy to do, if you know this saloon.

When one appears he is intercepted and given a fast hustle. As long as he is about to invest 30 cents in cigarettes, how about skipping the machine and letting a pal buy them for him around the corner? Continue reading →

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Aug. 3, 1947: ‘Kingsblood Royal’ by Sinclar Lewis Leads Bestseller List

Posted on August 3, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

“Kingsblood Royal,” like “Gentleman’s Agreement,” deals with prejudice, in this case, discrimination against blacks. Lewis’ novel was criticized in some reviews for superficial characters and a didactic, melodramatic plot and praised in others for focusing on racism. It received an award from Ebony magazine because it “did the most to promote racial understanding in 1947.”

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Aug. 3, 1907: Gasoline Stove Explodes, Destroys House

Posted on August 3, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 3, 1907
Los Angeles

An enormous explosion shattered the night in the Dayton Heights neighborhood near what is now Virgil Avenue and Middlebury Street.

“The shock of the explosion awakened people for blocks around, many of them rushing out of doors in their nightclothes, fearing that an earthquake had occurred,” The Times said. “Several men were on the scene in a few minutes.”

Continue reading →

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Flying Saucers Over L.A.!

Posted on August 2, 2025 by lmharnisch

August 2, 1960, Air Force Flying Saucer

Aug. 2, 1960: Oh they didn’t really do that, did they? Yes, they did.

Note: This is an encore post from 2010

Gabriel Green, Flying Saucer Candidate for President

Incomplete article on flying saucersAug. 1, 1960: Only a portion of a front-page story about UFOs was saved in the microfilmed edition of The Times. Continue reading →

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Aug. 2, 1947: Los Angeles County Clerk Refuses Marriage License for Interracial Couple

Posted on August 2, 2025 by lmharnisch

 

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Her name was Andrea and she was 24. His name was Sylvester and he was 26, a World War II veteran working at Lockheed. And they were in love. So like many young couples, they wanted to get married.

But unlike every other couple, they were refused a marriage license at the Los Angeles County clerk’s office because Andrea Perez was white and Sylvester S. Davis Jr. was black. And Section 60 of the California Civil Code stated: “All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mongolians, members of the Malay race, or Mulattoes are illegal and void” while Section 69 forbid issuing licenses for such marriages.

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Aug. 2, 1907: Dr. Lucy Hall-Brown Dies

Posted on August 2, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006 and reflects the minimal online resources that were available 12 years ago. 

Aug. 2, 1907
Los Angeles

The Times reports the death of Dr. Lucy Hall-Brown, a prominent woman physician who was active in the Red Cross. Although we know where she lived (Vermont and 30th Street), we have no idea where she went to school, her age or whether she had any survivors. Nor are we told why she was buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y., rather than Los Angeles.

A Google search reveals that Hall-Brown was a frequent correspondent with Clara Barton, but not much more.

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Matt Weinstock, August 1, 1959

Posted on August 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Yes? No?

Matt WeinstockSomeone at the Allied Artists Studio got an idea the other day for a gimmick to draw attention to the opening Aug. 5 of the movie, “The Big Circus” — have a wire walker go back and forth on a high wire stretched across Broadway from the roof of the Orpheum theater. Publicist Ted Bonnet was assigned to get permission.

He went to the Police Commission in the Police Facilities Building and was told, “This is a traffic matter. The man for you to see is the chief of the traffic division on the sixth floor.”

He went there and was told, “This is not a police matter. The man to see is the chief of the  streets use division of the Board of Public Works. When we’re notified that the permit has been issued, we’ll handle the matter.” Continue reading →

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Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, Aug. 1, 1959

Posted on August 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Confidential File

Mash Notes and Comments

Paul Coates, in coat and tie“Dear Mr. Coates:

“You are my court of last resort. I’ve tried everything but my mind will not rest.

“On June 12, we went into a pet shop in Inglewood, as a friend of mine told me they had a 2-month-old bobcat kitten for sale for $75. She knew we had been watching for one.

“I first phoned the pet shop and the owner told me this was so. So when my husband came home from work we went right over to purchase the kitten. There was a large sign on the cage: FOR SALE, 2-month-old BOB CAT, $75 (male).

“So when my husband wanted to buy it and take it home, the owner said he’d like to clean it up a bit and keep it for a few days for attraction.

Continue reading →

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1944 in Print — Hollywood News and Gossip by Louella Parsons, Aug. 1, 1944

Posted on August 1, 2025 by lmharnisch

Aug. 1, 1944, Comics

Aug. 1, 1944

What a picture for Clark Cable, “The Life of Lucky Baldwin,” who was one of California’s most colorful characters. Lunched with Louis B. Mayer and he told me producer Everett Riskin is now preparing the biography for Clark, and there are two women of equal important who were wooed and won by that impetuous gentleman. Continue reading →

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Aug. 1, 1907: Swarm of Bees Terrorizes Downtown Los Angeles

Posted on August 1, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

Aug. 1, 1907
Los Angeles

A mass of bees “wandering in from the country” swirled along Broadway, forcing dainty young women and the toughest police officer to seek cover in a vain attempt to avoid being stung.

“Whether attracted to the neighborhood by the bevy of pretty girls who happened to be there or by the flowered hats on display in the show windows is not known,” The Times said.

Continue reading →

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Found on EBay — Quiet Birdmen

Posted on July 31, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2009.

This Quiet Birdmen belt buckle has been listed on EBay.
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Matt Weinstock, July 31, 1959

Posted on July 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

Responsibility Law

Matt WeinstockEvery motorist has heard of the financial responsibility law. Today a man named Tom furnishes a horrible example of how it can work.

On May 20 he stopped in the left lane at Sepulveda Blvd. and Vose St., Van Nuys, behind a car which was signaling a left turn.

As he waited, a third car, driven by a woman, crashed with terrific impact into his rear, jamming his car into the car ahead. The skid marks measured 60 ft. before the crash, according to the police report.

Tom suffered a serious whiplash of the neck and lower spine. He has been under treatment since the accident. Curiously enough, he was the only person injured. He has lost 10 weeks’ work and his car, although partially repaired, is still a mess.

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Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, July 31, 1959

Posted on July 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

Confidential File

‘Stop the Press,’ Cries Flash Reporter Joe

Paul Coates, in coat and tieTo you, the Laurel Canyon fire may be old news.

But I just heard about it.

And I’ve got to admit that it’s a matter of special embarrassment to me, because I should have been the first to know.

I happen to be the only newspaper columnist in the world with a bona fide personal news correspondent in Laurel Canyon. His name is Joe Oliveira. His age is, roughly, 12.

His loyalty, however, is divided between me and a mimeographed weekly neighborhood sheet which he publishes himself, called The Little Press.

Ordinarily, Joe keeps me up-to-the-minute on Canyon activities, ranging from stray
cats and broken windows to juvenile plots to extort fudge bars from Sam, the Ice Cream Man.

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1944 in Print — Walter Winchell and Louella Parsons, July 31, 1944

Posted on July 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

July 31, 1944, Comics
Note: This is an encore post from 2014.

July 31, 1944

Walter Winchell says: Times Sq. Ticker: Otto Preminger’s production of Vera Caspary’s hit novel “Laura” gives the villainous role to Clifton Webb, his first film. It’s a racy mystery murder with Gene Tierney in the role Jennifer Jones was touted off by D.O. Selznick … The author always denied that the crime-writer-columnist-radiorator villain was [Alexander] Woollcott but sophisticated New Yorkers will immediately think it is. Even though he is called Waldo.

Louella Parsons says: I knew there was some deal with a Mexican star in the offing for Mary Pickford, but every time I put it up to Mary she’d just look mysterious and say, “I can’t talk.” Well, today she told me that she, Hunt Stromberg and Dudley Murphy have made a three-way deal with Pedro Armendariz, famous Mexican actor — the first triple star ownership. Armendariz was in “Maria Candellari” with Dolores Del Rio, and that is as fine a picture as has ever been made in Mexico. The deal is made so the young man can return to Mexico and appear in Dudley Murphy’s pictures there also. Mary first saw Armendariz when she visited in Mexico last year. His first American picture is “Dishonored Lady” for Hunt Stromberg, which goes into production in October.

LEO: If you keep emotions sensibly controlled you need not fear difficult spots today may produce. Chin up, be enthusiastic. You’ll shine as you usually do.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer via Fultonhistory.com

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1944 in Print — Life Magazine, July 31, 1944

Posted on July 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

image

The stony-faced Russian on the cover is Marshal Grigory (frequently rendered Georgi)  Zhukov, 49, sometime chief of operations of the Russian general staff and commander on the southern front. He wears at his neck Marshal’s Star; at upper left, two Orders of Suvorov; and at upper right the Gold Star as a Hero of the Soviet Union. Others: two Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner, Stalingrad medal.

Note: This is an encore post from 2014.

July 31, 1944

I’m a bit late in posting this issue….

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, President Roosevelt is nominated for an unprecedented fourth term. Vice President Henry Wallace, however, loses the nomination to Harry Truman, “a machine politician who has made a good Senate record and who had the blessing of President Roosevelt. Neither an extreme New Dealer nor an extreme conservative, he was promptly dubbed “The Missouri Compromise,” Life said.

Meet professor Alexander Ivanovich Petrunkevitch, Yale’s “spider man.”

In the movies this week: Linda Darnell.

Via Google Books.

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July 31, 1907: After a Day at the Beach, Beer, a Fight and Gunshots

Posted on July 31, 2025 by lmharnisch

July 31, 1907: Woman Bound Over for TrialNote: This is an encore post from 2006.

July 31, 1907
Los Angeles

After a delay due to illness, newsboy Charles “Winnipeg” Wilson took the stand to testify against Evelyn Ferguson, who is accused of shooting him because he was attacking her friend Grace Ryan.

Although “she was not in a condition at the time of the shooting to remember much about how it happened,” Ryan testified that she and Ferguson had returned from a day at the beach when they began fighting with Wilson and a group of companions.

Continue reading →

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Matt Weinstock, July 30, 1959

Posted on July 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

July 30, 1959: Comic strip panel. A woman says "Seems to Me You Have a Complete Disregard for the Female of the Species." the man says he is choosy“Seems to Me You Have a Complete Disregard for the Female of the Species.”

Beatnik Memo

Matt WeinstockAs others before him, Lawrence Lipton, Boswell of the beatniks, has learned that all sorts of unlikely things can happen when a person writes a book. Exhibit A is a letter Lipton received from D.A. MacInnes of Chicopee Falls, Mass. In it was a wryly amusing sales pitch MacInnes had received from a plywood firm in Memphis.

Offering with seeming reluctance to supply materials for beatnik shops, the firm wrote, “I guess there is a little beatnik in all of us, especially in the summertime. This letter is to show how far people will go to get out of work and to warn you that if you have any salesmen or secretaries who are either growing beards or wearing leotards you had better either replace them, marry them or send them to Memphis.”

Memphis to Chicopee Falls to Venice, Cal. Don’t try to make sense out of it, it’s pure irrelevance.

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Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, July 30, 1959

Posted on July 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

July 30, 1959: Los Angeles Mirror Cover

Confidential File

A Crumbled Kookie Caper, and No Comb

Paul Coates, in coat and tieI don’t know Edd Byrnes personally, and it’s probably for the best.

In person, he might be a charming, very likable young man.

And if that were the case, all of my firm convictions about him would be destroyed.

Mr. Byrnes — for those of you who don’t have straying teen-age children — is the latest of Hollywood’s incessant stream of male idols.

They call him, for reasons beyond my aging ken, “Kookie.”

I first became aware of him as a peril to my peace of mind when my kids began performing the ritual of chanting “Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb.”

Naturally, I hadn’t the vaguest notion what it meant. And I hadn’t the vaguest interest in finding out.

But I did. Continue reading →

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July 30, 1947: Peaches Strange at the Follies Burlesque

Posted on July 30, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

She was born Mildred Strange in Oklahoma in 1910. Raised by her uncle, a Methodist minister, she taught Sunday school in Shawnee, east of Oklahoma City. For a while, she ran a bookstore in a small town.

And then she joined Minsky’s burlesque as Peaches Strange. On her first trip west, she and co-star Myrna Dean broke 20-year box office records at the Follies Burlesque, 337 S. Main St., a theater that is a story in itself.

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