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July 7, 1960: Two beautiful girls walking past the Lyndon Johnson quarters in the Biltmore were asked by guards at the entrance if they'd wear Johnson buttons. They agreed, then passed out cards inviting the Johnson people to the Pink Pussy Cat, which specializes in strippers, Matt Weinstock says. |
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July 7, 1960: Paul Coates has the story of a clever scheme being used by a Long Beach con man. |
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July 7, 1942: Edgar Bergen visits ailing veterans at Olive View Sanatorium but insists on no publicity, Jimmie Fidler says. "Bergen's audience was a Negro veteran who lay at the point of death — so near the edge, in fact, that hospital officials warned Edgar the man might die at any moment and asked if he would rather not go in. But Bergen went in; he spent 30 minutes in that room and for 30 minutes the dying man watched Charlie McCarthy's painted face with a happy smile. He died shortly after they left, still with the smile on his lips. Doctors said it was the Negro veteran's first smile in months." |
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July 7, 1910: Times cartoonist Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale comments on the race riots that followed Jack Johnson’s defeat of James Jeffries in the Fight of the Century. Many cities barred theaters from showing film of the fight for fear of more violence. On the jump, The Times draws parallels between Independence Day and “Industrial Freedom,” its term for the open shop. |
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July 6, 1960: Robert Sorrma, 9, is wise beyond his years, Matt Weinstock says. CONFIDENTIAL TO BILL F.: If the nickel has no 'mint mark,' it is a counterfeit, Abby says. |
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July 6, 1960: Paul Coates writes about using animals in medical experiments and the upcoming Democratic National Convention. |
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July 6, 1940: “Wallace Beery will return to Jackson Hole, Wyo., on completion of his current role to supervise construction of a landing field adjoining his new hunting lodge,” Jimmie Fidler’s staff says. Also on the jump, Times reporter Tom Treanor, who was killed covering World War II, files a story from Bermuda en route to Europe. |
| The other day while researching the 1910 Times bombing, I discovered a digitized book that I have been trying to buy for years: Dr. George H. Kress’ “A History of the Medical Profession of Southern California.”
Notice that this is the second edition. The first edition was being prepared for publication at the time of the bombing and was destroyed in the explosion and fire. The book had to be entirely redone for the second edition. Copies of this book are exceedingly rare and can only be found in a few libraries (this scanned copy is from the Medical Sciences Library at UC Irvine). As a writer, Kress is rather dry and uses the starched, stiff style of the era. But the book provides marvelous glimpses of the earliest days of the medical profession in Los Angeles, and these stories do much to dispel the notion that the past was a “kinder, simpler time.” Here’s Kress on one of the amusing crackpots of the day, William Money, who wrote what is probably the first or second book published in Los Angeles. Kress’ book and Abraham Flexner’s “Medical Education in the United States and Canada,” also published in 1910, do much to dispel the image of doctors – at least in this era — as saints in white gowns. |
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July 5, 1960: Brentwood homeowners are fighting property tax increases, Matt Weinstock says. CONFIDENTIAL TO 'LOSING THE BATTLE': You signed yourself appropriately. A man has been known to divorce his wife — but he has never been known to divorce his mother, Abby says. |
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July 5, 1960: I have to hand it to Paul Coates. For this column, he tries to beat an 80-year-old con woman at her own game. Here’s his Jan. 28, 1960, piece about her. Notice the Page 1 story about the killing of New York attorney Karl Dieffenbach, who was found nude, beaten and smothered in his room at the Disneyland Hotel. On the jump, the trial of two teenagers who said he invited them up to his room for drinks and then made “inappropriate advances.” Dieffenbach was visiting Orange County to renegotiate a labor contract at an Anaheim manufacturing plant, The Times said. |
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July 5, 1940: “Helene Whitney is trying to organize her actress-pals for a half-in-fun, half-serious treasure hunt in New Mexico, where she's been informed there's gold,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
| Los Angeles Times file photo Update: This is Constance Dowling in a promotional picture for “Up in Arms,” stamped Feb. 29, 1944.
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We continue last week's gore theme with, at last, a Hammer Films selection!
Hammer is, of course, the British production company known for its high-gothic horror films, made between the 1950s and 1970s, and often involving elaborate costumes, lots of movie fog, candelabras, swooning damsels and copious amounts of rather orangey blood.
I was all excited to write about Christopher Lee, but when "Brides of Dracula" arrived I discovered that he's not in this one; which makes sense, since his character (that's Dracula, kids) is killed at the end of the preceding Hammer film, 1958's "Horror of Dracula."
Fortunately, he was to be revived in "Dracula: Prince of Darkness" (1966) and many other ensuing Hammer films (my favorite being "Dracula Has Risen From The Grave" — I love that title! I mean, what else does Dracula do?).
But with "Brides" we're on our own, star-power-wise, with Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing, and that turns out to be quite a fine thing indeed.
"Brides of Dracula" opens as a carriage rushes through a forest, and a voiceover informs us that we are in Transylvania. Although Dracula is dead, the voiceover tells us, his "cult" persists. Then we meet Marianne (Yvonne Monlaur), our resident damsel, and through her viewpoint we're plunged into an entirely new, Dracula-style story of frightened innkeepers, terrified coachmen and spooky old castles. Marianne ends up in the castle of Baroness Meinster (Martita Hunt), who's keeping her own son (David Peel) captive; the son gets ahold of Marianne, explains to her that he's the rightful Baron, and convinces her to free him. Next thing we know, the baroness is dead and so is a local peasant wench. Oh dear!
I got so caught up in this storyline that I forgot about poor Cushing entirely, but eventually he does show up. Van Helsing has been summoned by locals who were already concerned about the Meinster situation even before the Baron got out. The good doctor rescues Marianne from the woods, where she has been fleeing the Meinster castle, and drops her off at the girls' school where she teaches. Then he repairs back to the local inn for a drink with the village priest. Together they diagnose the problem as vampirism, brought on by the Baron! Will Van Helsing defeat the undead?
What kind of question is that? Does a damsel faint in the woods?
| Photograph by John Malmin / Los Angeles Times |
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July 5, 1910: The Scottish American community of Los Angeles celebrates the Fourth of July with the Highland Fling and the caber toss. And there’s nobody on talk radio to tell them to go back “home” if they don’t like it in the U.S. On the jump, two items of special interest. The first is the account of a fire at a brewery, which may – or may not – have been due to union agitators, depending on whether one reads The Times or the Herald. The second is accounts from The Times and the Herald about usage of the streetcar system from downtown to the beaches on the Fourth of July, 1910. The Times said: "The exodus began early in the morning and officials of the Pacific Electric say that with the possible exception of fleet week, there has never in the history of Los Angeles been such heavy travel in one day." The Times also said: "Every bit of passenger rolling stock of the Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Pacific was called into service and during the morning hours the trains were run as close together as they could be with safety." |
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July 4, 1960: Matt Weinstock takes a drive up the 101 and remembers when it was called Roosevelt Highway. "There is precious little advice (but much sympathy) for a 21-year-old girl who has three babies and a 22-year-old husband who 'isn't ready to settle down.' But printing your letter might sober up some of these 17- and 18-year-old love-struck readers who believe all they need is a wedding ring and life will be rosy," Abby says. |
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July 4, 1960: Paul Coates has an amusing story about the British forces. I won’t spoil it. You’ll just have to read it for yourself. |
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July 4, 1910: The Herald publishes a cartoon showing James Jeffries and Jack Johnson. I found this photo of the fight in The Times archives. On the jump, more photos of Johnson. |
| Meet Tom Treanor, who died covering World War II for The Times. |
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July 4, 1940: "Is that a disillusioned expression adorning Lana Turner's kissable lips?" Jimmie Fidler says. |
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