This week’s mystery movie was the 1946 MGM film Undercurrent, with Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Edmund Gwenn, Marjorie Main, Jayne Meadows, Clinton Sundberg, Dan Tobin, Kathryn Card, Leigh Whipper and Charles Trowbridge. Continue reading
Here’s Boxie and I with this month’s “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel.
In this session, I followed up on the hemicorporectomy, which George Hodel supposedly performed on Elizabeth Short — at least in the alternative reality that is the world of Steve Hodel.
I also discussed William J. Mann’s forthcoming book, Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood, at least as it pertains to George Hodel.
And paranormal “influencer” Dalen Spratt’s visit to Elizabeth Short’s grave with a “spirit box” and a Bluetooth speaker (TACKY!)
This week’s mystery movie was the 1945 Columbia film A Thousand and One Nights, with Evelyn Keyes, Phil Silvers, Adele Jergens, Cornel Wilde, Dusty Anderson, Dennis Hoey, Philip Van Zandt, Gus Schilling, Nestor Paiva, Rex Ingram, Richard Hale and John Abbott. Continue reading
Reminder: Boxie and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel and Steve Hodel on Tuesday, July 15, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube and Instagram.
Among other subjects, I will discuss William Mann’s forthcoming book on the Black Dahlia and what it says about George Hodel.
Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! The video will be posted once the session ends so you can watch it later. Remember, this is ask me anything, so please remember to ask questions rather than make comments. Thanks!
Occidental Studios, photograph by Mary Mallory.
Film production in the mid-1910s quickly transformed Hollywood the farming community into the world’s film manufacturing hub. Originally employing simple buildings like barns, ex-saloons, and laundry yards as studio headquarters and stages, the industry quickly began constructing actual production facilities as they turned increasingly professional. Most were located adjacent or within blocks of others in such areas as central Hollywood and Edendale.
Los Angeles sportsman turned ferry owner Frank Garbutt and Selig Studio star Hobart Bosworth decided to construct their own state-of-the-art facility more than a mile from any other movie studio, isolating themselves from distractions or interruptions. Located at 201 N. Occidental Blvd. a block off Temple Street and distant from downtown Los Angeles, the new intimate film studio focused on quality, not quantity. Significant visionaries as diverse as Lois Weber, Mary Pickford, and Howard Hughes advanced the industry from this location. Continue reading
This week’s mystery movie was the 1940 MGM film Gallant Sons, with Jackie Cooper, Bonita Granville, Gene Reynolds, June Preisser, Leo Gorcey, William Tracy, Tommy Kelly, Edward Ashley and El Brendel. Continue reading
July 4, 1944: Uncle Sam in a cartoon by Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale for the Los Angeles Examiner and republished in the Milwaukee Sentinel.
Note: This is an encore post from 2014. Broken links: FIXED!
Here’s a look at how Los Angeles has celebrated Independence Day over the years. Continue reading
Construction of the Statue of Liberty, artwork by John Durkin, Harper’s Weekly, Jan. 19, 1884.
Note: This is an encore post from 2018.
Written in 1883 to help raise money for building the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty would stand, Emma Lazarus’ 14-line poem “The New Colossus” would take on a life of its own: becoming enshrined on the statue as a memorial to the poet and as a statement of welcome to those seeking refuge in our country. As we approach Independence Day, the meaning behind its words rings even clearer today.
Born July 22, 1849, in New York City as the fourth of seven children to wealthy merchant Moses Lazarus, Emma received a strong private education, learning to speak at least four languages and becoming an excellent writer, especially in poetry. Ralph Waldo Emerson mentored her. She translated works of literature as well as setting down her own odes, many based on romantic literature and others on troubling historic events regarding her fellow Jews, receiving much praise upon their publication. She also worked to alleviate the suffering of women and the poor.
Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.
In the July 2025 Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, I talk about my work in progress, Heaven Is HERE!
I also discussed: Continue reading
This week’s mystery movie was the 1940 MGM film Third Finger, Left Hand with Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Walburn, Lee Bowman, Bonita Granville, Felix Bressart, Donald Meek, Ann Morriss, Sidney Blackmer, Ernest Whitman and Halliwell Hobbes. Continue reading
Eddie Muller’s Dark City Dames, available from Amazon.
Women have been integral to the history and creation of the American film industry. Their attendance at films by 1910 gave the fledgling business respectability, exploding its popularity. Female participation in its workforce allowed it to keep the production line flowing as women created new fields like casting and costume design, while remaining a potent force in each of its major creative professions. The popularity of women behind and in front of the camera turned moving pictures from middling studios into major factories.
Moviemaking attracted women for the same reasons it lured men: higher salaries, more creative possibilities, and especially leadership and power opportunities. Both sexes turned to the new field looking to support family, earn a living, find adventure. Over the decades, many determined, dramatic dames left their marks on moviemaking and acting, luring intrepid writers to tell their riveting stories. In the last few years, several biographies have documented the achievements and eccentricities of some of these accomplished women, who fought the system to bring dynamism and strong characters to the screen. Most of these females were more daring, dishy, and strong than the characters they sometimes portrayed onscreen, fighting the system and society mores to demonstrate true courage, smarts, and balls. Continue reading
Boxie and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on the Black Dahlia case Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, on YouTube and Instagram (yes I’ve decided to go back).
This week’s mystery movie was the 1939 Twentieth Century-Fox film Stanley and Livingstone, with Spencer Tracy, Nancy Kelly, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Henry Hull and Henry Travers. Continue reading
Here’s Boxie and I with this month’s “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel.
In this session, I’m going to trace lies about the Black Dahlia case from former Examiner reporter Will Fowler to John Gilmore in Severed, to Steve Hodel’s Black Dahlia Avenger franchise.
And then I’ll talk about the hemicorporectomy, which George Hodel supposedly performed on Elizabeth Short — at least in the alternative reality that is the world of Steve Hodel.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1939 Warner Bros. film Blackwell’s Island, with John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell, Victor Jory, Stanley Fields, Morgan Conway, Granville Bates, Anthony Averill, Peggy Shannon, Charley Foy, Norman Willis and Joe Cunningham. Continue reading
A detail of Ord’s 1849 survey of Los Angeles, showing street names in Spanish and English.
Note: This is an encore post from 2022.
Hispanic Heritage and history have greatly contributed to the rise and evolution of California and Los Angeles from Spanish colonization through Mexican land grants to the rancho period and on to today. Many streets and cities in and around Los Angeles are named after significant people and places in this long Spanish history, though often corrupted or Anglicized over time. Edward O.C. Ord’s map in 1849 shows street names in English and Spanish, such as Calle Primavera and Spring, and Calle Principal and Main. The following is a small list of streets and place names that honor our Hispanic past. Continue reading
On June 6, one of the University of Southern California’s most legendary icons turned 95. Tall, handsome, and imposing, Tommy Trojan, the “Spirit of Troy” proudly protects and salutes his spirited school in the heart of the campus. This monumental artwork survived possible scandal and to rule regally today.
Three members of the University’s Alumni Association selected the preliminary model of renowned sculptor Roger Noble Burnham’s majestic warrior statue design from many submitted works to honor the 50th anniversary of the school’s founding in 1930. Harry Lee Martin, President of the Pacific Mortgage Guarantee company, Kennedy Ellsworth, former chairman of the Alumni Club and the leader of Los Angeles’ Junior Chamber of Commerce, and Frank Hadlock, executive secretary of the Alumni Association, selected the eyecatching figure of the warrior because “the Trojan tradition is emblematic of the University of Southern California, and “because of its embodiment of courage, skill and wisdom,” as the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record reported in mid-September 1929. Campus President Rufus von Kleinsmid believed “it typified the Trojan spirit; intrepid courage, charging forward to meet any opposition.” Continue reading
Reminder: Boxie and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel and Steve Hodel on Tuesday, June 17, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube and Instagram.
Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! The video will be posted once the session ends so you can watch it later. Remember, this is ask me anything, so please remember to ask questions rather than make comments. Thanks!
This week’s mystery movie was the 1938 MGM film The Girl of the Golden West, with Jeannette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Walter Pidgeon, Leo Carrillo, Buddy Ebsen, Leonard Penn, Priscilla Lawson, Bob Murphy, Olin Howland, Cliff Edwards, Billy Bevan, Brandon Tynan, H.B. Warner, Monty Woolley, Charley Grapewin, Noah Beery Sr., Bill Cody Jr., Jeanne Ellis and Ynez Seabury. Continue reading
T.C. Jones, male actress
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 Los Angeles Times file photo T.C. Jones in “Mask and Gown,” 1958. |
 Note: This is an encore post from 2008. He was one of the newest — and certainly one of the freshest — of the “New Faces of ’56,” a Broadway show directed by Paul Lynde with sketches by a variety of writers, including Neil Simon and his brother Danny.His name was Thomas Craig Jones, but he was best known as T.C. Jones and he was, according to The Times’ Philip K. Scheuer, “the greatest female impersonator I have seen and heard since Julian Eltinge — and that’s going back a long way.”In an August 1958 Times story, Charles Stinson described Jones as “a husky, medium-sized fellow in his 30s with a Yul Brynner coiffure and a most affable manner.”Times movie critic Kevin Thomas said in response to my query: “The 1950s were his decade. He was a terrific entertainer, more a male actress, as Charles Pierce described himself, rather than a traditional female impersonator. His rendition of his signature song, ‘Ten Cents a Dance,’ was unforgettable, really wrenching.”Jones was a Navy veteran and a graduate of Carnegie Tech who appeared on Broadway in 1944 as a dancer in “Sadie Thompson,” starring June Havoc. Before becoming a female impersonator, he had worked as a nightclub emcee, standup comic, dancer and actor. He was married, The Times says, and his wife, Donnie Dickson Jones, told Stinson “I keep his wigs in order.” “One night when I was doing stock,” Jones said, “another of the players brought me some comic sketch material that was hilarious. The only catch was that it more or less required a woman to deliver it. He suggested I do an impersonation. I told him I didn’t know if I could bring it off. I had never done any female impersonations and I was starting a career as a male comic. “I finally agreed to try it, though, and it surprised me and went over big. Strangely enough it was in a revue called ‘I’m Not Myself Tonight’ and I haven’t been most nights since.” In “Mask and Gown,” Jones portrayer Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Mae West, Judy Holliday, Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn and Ethel Merman. “It is curious, in passing, how impersonators always latch on to the same handful of stars to lampoon,” Scheuer said. “They are the most distinctive!” And, yes, he did Judy Garland too. The Times said in 1965: “Judy Garland and her rendition of ‘Over the Rainbow’ will never be the same after the telling treatment of Jones.” The Times said: “Mrs. Jones has done a splendid job in picking out the proper attire for her husband’s vignettes. Her choice of wigs and outfits matched the mood perfectly.”
T.J. Jones in 1965. He often ended his act by removing his wig to show his bald head. Although Jones said he planned to return to Broadway in a male role in the fall of 1958, the show apparently fell through and he continued as an impersonator for most of his career, although he did appear in a male role in the 1964 production of “Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt” with Mamie Van Doren. Jones made several records and occasionally appeared on television, including a Jackie Gleason TV special in 1960 and a cult episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” He was in the 1968 Bob Rafelson film “Head,” starring the Monkees. Writing in 1973 on a reappraisal of the film, Charles Champlin said: “One of the lads slugs female impersonator T.C. Jones, then argues with director Rafelson whether it’s right for the image. (The grips and extras shy away from him as from someone unclean.)” Jones died Sept. 25, 1971, at the age of 50. The Times did not publish an obituary on him. He is also featured in a 1955 article in the Mattachine Review, “The Other Side of the Coin.” |
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