| Somewhere in the last 6,000 posts on the Daily Mirror, I ran something about this unusual 1977 chess set in which all the pieces fit together to make two cubes. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to locate the entry at the moment. In any event, a Scaccomatto chess set designed by Franco Rocco, one of 1,000, has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $1,600. As with anything on EBay, an item and vendor should be evaluated thoroughly before submitting a bid. |
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May 19, 1960: Matt Weinstock writes about a science fair project in which a student tested the effect of wine and vodka on rats … and instant nostalgia: the Castelar ramp of the Pasadena Freeway. Also on the jump, Abby has advice for a woman who met a man at a dance…. |
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May 19, 1960: Attorney Jerry Giesler seems larger than life, almost continually in the headlines defending Hollywood stars who were in in trouble with the law. Paul Coates has a story about a different sort of case – and it’s a good one. |
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May 19, 1941: Jimmie Fidler on the “Texas” set: “Bill Holden says 'Easy life, eh? Look! Because my shirt's open in this movie I have to shave the hair off my chest. Try that when the thermometer's at 90 degrees!' " |
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May 19, 1980: Mt. St. Helens erupts in what The Times called “the largest volcanic eruption in historic times in the contiguous United States.” The eruption killed 57 people, including 21 who were never found, The Times said. The victims included Spirit Lake lodge owner Harry Truman, 84, who refused to evacuate, telling Charles Hillinger, “If I was forced to leave it would kill me.” |
| Prices start at $1,750 [$39,792.93 USD 2009].
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May 19, 1910: Hundreds of students at Valparaiso University rampage through the city, brawling with citizens armed with clubs and baseball bats. The students dragged Sam Ling from his Chinese laundry and beat him, tried to free prisoners in the County Jail and fought with police. Unfortunately, The Times’ wire story doesn’t provide the reason for the melee, nor can I find any further stories. An official history of the campus is curiously silent on the matter. |
| “Now to Conduct a Little Experiment!” |
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May 18, 1960: Matt Weinstock writes about the days when there was no extra charge for an unlisted phone number – incredible, I know. CONFIDENTIAL TO MITZIE: Truth serum is not 100% reliable and I doubt if it is available to the public, Abby says. |
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May 18, 1960: The Board of Education wants to save money by eliminating the “behind the wheel” portion of drivers’ education classes. “Those opposing the elimination of driver training predict wholesale traffic slaughter if our leaders of tomorrow don't have practical training in self-preservation on our freeways to go along with their diplomas,” Paul Coates says. Bonus links: “Signal 30,” a 1959 traffic safety film. This film was so graphic that our high school instructor had us come in on our own time if we wanted to see it. Of course, we did. And here’s “Last Date,” from 1949, with a maniacal Dick York. |
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May 18, 1940: “Bing Crosby received word yesterday that war conditions may bar shipment of race horses he purchased in Australia,” Jimmie Fidler’s staff says. |
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May 18, 1960: The Dodgers sent Carl Furillo, one of the Boys of Summer from Brooklyn, packing. An unhappy Furillo was given his release and the Dodgers recalled Frank Howard from the minors. Furillo, a career .299 hitter who had been with the Dodgers since 1946, had been hurt. He felt the decision was unfair. "I think we're going to the commissioner about it," he told The Times' Paul Zimmerman. "We have to go for youth in a situation like this," said the Dodgers' general manager, Buzzie Bavasi. "Carl knows you can't keep a man on forever. … The players told me he would create a stink when he went out—and they were right." Furillo wasn't just some old hero from Brooklyn. He played a key role in the Dodgers' World Series victory in 1959 and in the playoff against the Milwaukee Braves. –Keith Thursby |
June 28, 1904: The rotary phone is putting Los Angeles switchboard operators out of work! |
| May 18, 1910: John Lyons had two beers late one night and decided to go home – only he wasn’t sure where home was. Unable to find his house at 946 W. Washington St., he decided that the one at 1206 W. 6th St. looked very much like it.
“He entered the place determined to find solace in sleep. He began to collide with strange articles of furniture. He stumbled over beds, chairs and bric-a-brac, fell downstairs and did other gymnastic stunts until W.P. Henly, the owner, was aroused,” The Times says. Neighbors helped hold Lyons prisoner while waiting an hour for the police to arrive but became so entranced by the passing of Halley’s Comet that they more or less forgot about him and when the case came to trial, his sentence was suspended. On the jump, Moses Staple and Clarence Moore are each fined $15 for cheating brickyard workers with loaded dice. |
| “Joel Ames!! That Monster!” |
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May 17, 1960: An empty water cooler – and a nearly empty floor – shows the extent of cutbacks at one of the major motion picture studios, Matt Weinstock says. And woman who is otherwise happily married to a widower asks Abby what to do when he refers to his late spouse as “my wife.” |
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May 17, 1960: Paul Coates runs a humorous piece by future Times arts writer and screenwriter Burt Prelutsky, who was then a UCLA student. And yes, Prelutsky is still writing. |
| Los Angeles Times file photo It’s Friday, which means it’s time to identify our “mystery” guest. As everyone knows, she’s Lucille Ball. I have to say I enjoyed going through her photos so much that I have another week’s worth of photos. That’s right, two weeks of Lucille Ball. There’s lots of wonderful mystery companions.
For last Monday, we have, from left, Lucille Ball, Margaret Callahan, Joy Hodges, Anne Shirley, Phyllis Brooks and Molly Lamont. I believe Mary Mallory is the only reader to get them all. Congrats! |
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We have commenter Fibber McGee to thank for this week's movie. Also, I have a new boyfriend, and his name is Tod Slaughter! (Both of those are real names! Oh, OK… Tod's real first name was Norman…)
I read Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White" many years ago on a long train trip, and remember it as being the slow-burn variety of Victorian novel, with very careful pacing and many long descriptive passages that don't pay off until hundreds of pages later… it's wonderful, but requires many hours of devoted attention. Well, that simply won't do for director George King and his team (the credited writers are Edward Dryhurst, Frederick Hayward and H.F. Maltby), who boil the entire complicated story down to 69 minutes of melodrama. We open with Mr. Slaughter hammering a tent stake through someone's head, and the action only ratchets up from there!
The nice thing for King et al. about Collins' novel is that, while it may be long and complicated, it's not particularly subtle — the hero is named Hartwright, for one thing. So it actually translates fairly smoothly to the melodrama treatment. Slaughter's victim in the first scene is a wealthy baronet named Sir Percival Glyde; Slaughter's unnamed character simply steals Glyde's identity and comes home to England, where he swiftly marries beautiful heiress Laura (Sylvia Marriott) and menaces everyone else in sight, including the mysterious woman who claims to be Glyde's first wife (also Sylvia Marriott). When clever Dr. Fosco (Hay Petrie) threatens to expose the impersonation, Slaughter snarls, "I'll feed your entrails to the pigs!"
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I came across an EBay listing of a postcard showing a leatherback turtle that was caught off Santa Catalina Island. According to a May 9, 1906, story, the turtle was netted by Jerry Marincovich and died trying to free itself. Bidding starts at $4. |
| “BLANGG!” |
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May 16, 1960: Matt Weinstock says, “It is an accepted thing among literary people that most novels today deal boldly with sex and misbehavior. Which gives pertinence to an exchange between two writers discussing Caskie Stinnett's book ‘Out of the Red.’ One remarked there wasn't a dirty word in it. ‘Yeah,’ the other retorted, ‘that Stinnett will stoop to anything to get attention!’ ” And Abby has advice for a writer who says: “With the H-bomb ready to go off in our faces any minute, we young people should get in all the fun and loving possible. It may be our last chance.” |
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May 16, 1960: The Revell model toy company decided not to release a kit version of the U-2 spy plane because “it had a few interesting features, but basically, it lacked color,” Paul Coates writes. Then Francis Gary Powers was shot down and the company could have sold a million kits in two weeks. |
| Isn’t this a great photo? There’s a little story that goes with it.
Update: As everybody realized, this is an extremely casual Otis Chandler in one of the few pictures I’ve ever seen of him in which he’s not wearing a suit – and notice the beard. I found this unlabeled snapshot on a vacant desk after one of the rounds of layoffs and kept it because it showed a Duesenberg. It was only after I had it for a while that I realized it was Otis. The photo was presumably taken at a car show, but I have no idea when or where, although the photo paper says that Kodak is a sponsor of the Olympic Games, narrowing the date to about 1984. |
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