|
Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: As everybody finally realized, this is Marian Carr. In the above photo, she’s showing a derringer being displayed at an antique show, Oct. 19, 1946: It’s a mystery guest with a gun! How cool is that? And how about that wallpaper? |
|
|
| |
|
May 29, 1960: Former Times Editor in Chief L.D. Hotchkiss (1893-1964) writes a long advance on the Democratic National Convention, which starts July 11 at the Sports Arena. He says that although he worked for a Republican paper for 40 years, the Democrats put on better shows. Hotchkiss says that one of the best speeches he ever heard was given by Alben Barkley at the 1952 Chicago convention. Barkley, if you don't recall, was vice president under Harry Truman. |
|
|
|
May 29, 1910: Judge Frank R. Willis talks to The Times about the success of his program to put criminals on probation instead of sending them to prison. Of the 100 men sentenced to probation, 88 men are holding responsible jobs, seven have broken probation and been sentenced to serve their terms, and five had disappeared, The Times says. "Three-quarters of the men charged with petty crime come from the ranks of waiters and hangers-on in the cheap cafe and hotels," Willis says. |
| "Since When Does a Boy Brag About a Girl Out o' Respect for Her Brains??" |
|
May 28, 1960: John Steinbeck writes an essay in Esquire about life in Pacific Grove during the Depression. Matt Weinstock adds a bit about his own experiences in Los Angeles. DEAR PESTERED: The next time he calls, tell him you do not want to go out with him any more. And don't feel sorry for him, no matter what he says, because if you date him again, you'll be back where you started from. This man sounds possessive, jealous and childish. And people who react favorably to being treated “dirty” are also a little sick, Abby says. |
|
|
May 28, 1960: Paul Coates’ cat ladies, Beth Lawrence and her daughter Betty, have new troubles. TV host Jack Linkletter was interviewing them (and their 13 cats) in Bronson Canyon Park when their white Persian cat named Prince Baba escaped from one of the show’s assistants and fled into the wild. The cat ladies are still looking for husbands, btw. And on the jump, Japan welcomes former Cpl. Masashi Ito and Pfc. Bunzo Minagawa, who hid on Guam for 16 years after the U.S. captured the island in fierce fighting in 1944. |
| “Diff’rent Strokes” premieres, Nov. 3, 1978 |
|
March 2, 1979: "It's always the same. Three minutes. And me and George Carlin was just gettin' into it," Gary Coleman tells Howard Rosenberg about an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson." |
| |
|
May 28, 1940: “Linda Darnell, locationing at Lone Pine, Cal., where the thermometer has been scoring 114, postcards she's lost seven pounds,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
|
|
|
May 28, 1980: George Lucas tells Rolling Stone that movie folks are "rather sleazy, unscrupulous people. L.A. is where they make deals, do business in the classic corporate American way, which is screw everybody and do whatever you can to make the biggest profit. "They don't care about people. It is incredible the way they treat filmmakers, because they have no idea what making a movie is about. To them, the deal is the movie." … Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” has a big opening in a limited release, taking in more than $600,000 [$1,541,985.35 USD 2009] in the first four days. … And Warner Bros. is planning a musical based on "Tiger Beat." Kim Friedman has been signed to direct, with a script by Mark Kudlow and Larry Kaplan, The Times says. |
|
|
|
May 28, 1910: Mrs. Frances Squire Potter of the National Suffrage League says the day is coming when women will serve as police officers, lawyers, judges and jurors. She says: "In that good time coming, the woman will pick her husband instead of being picked. There will be more divorces for a while, because of more mistakes being made than when the men did the picking, but by and by when more of the matrimonial arrangements are made by the women, the standards will be raised so much higher that divorce will be done away with." The story also notes that she’s against women wearing men’s clothing. |
| |
|
May 27, 1960: Matt Weinstock talks about the marriage of two ideas: advertising and satellites orbiting the Earth. CONFIDENTIAL TO "MRS. FORGET ME NOT": If your religion permits it, visit your PLANNED PARENTHOOD CENTER. They will give you full instructions on how to control the size of your family. The advice is free, Abby says. |
|
|
May 27, 1960: Paul Coates follows up on his survey of prisoners with the transcription of an inmate interviewing another. Sample quote: “It isn't my fault that I was born with a Cadillac appetite into a sharecropper's life.” |
|
|
|
May 27, 1940: “Jane Withers, newest bowling addict, knocked off 145 pins her first game,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
|
|
|
May 27, 1980: George Bush’s campaign director, James Baker, says: "We didn't have the long-term base that Reagan has out there." Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan takes the news in stride, saying: “I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet.” On the jump, the Washington Post’s Jim Hoagland interviews the former Shah of Iran in Cairo. Hoagland writes: "He is convinced now that 'the West wanted this Islamic republic (Iran's revolutionary government), perhaps thinking that with Islam it could contain communism.' He specifically blamed the British and U.S. governments and the Western media for promoting his downfall. 'Well, now you have it. Are you happy? Do you have human rights there now? Democracy? Liberalization? … What they are doing to my country in the name of Islam just makes people go away from Islam.' " |
|
|
|
May 27, 1910: Elizabeth La Rue, a costumer at the Majestic Theater Building, is in the news for grabbing a man who rented one of her costumes and was trying to sell it at a secondhand shop. La Rue took the fellow by the neck, dragged him back to her office and held him until police arrived. She explained: “Why should any able-bodied woman be afraid of a mere man?” |
| Former Police Sgt. Charles Stoker’s “Thicker’n Thieves” has attained a measure of respect that it never had when it was published in 1951. Even five or six years ago, it was possible to pick up a copy for almost nothing in a used bookstore (I got my two copies, one of them autographed, in the Pasadena Salvation Army store less than $10 total). These days, however, we have listings such as this one on EBay, with bidding starting at $189.
Debunking the book would be a life’s work, so let me put it simply and plainly: “Thicker’n Thieves” is a self-published book by a disgruntled crackpot. In later years, Stoker actually gave away copies of his book, asking readers to send him money if they liked it. If you’re actually eager to read the book, get it from the library. Don’t pay any big money for it and above all, do not give it any credence. |
| |
|
May 26, 1960: Watch out for the bus home from Hollywood Park, which takes the long way to Glendale, Matt Weinstock says. CONFIDENTIAL TO JENNIE: Of course, the "circumstances" are important, but I would say that a man who has been married and divorced four times was a very, very, very, very poor risk for marriage, Abby says. |
U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. displays a passive listening device, concealed in the Great Seal that hung in the residential office of the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union from about 1945 to 1952. The National Cryptologic Museum has more information and a replica on display.
|
|
May 26, 1960: Paul Coates looks at a survey of 500 American convicts conducted by the prisoners at Atlanta Penitentiary. |
|
The Los Angeles County Hall of Records, which survived a 1910 bombing attempt, as it appeared during the realignment of Spring Street in 1929.
|
|
In the months leading up to the bombing of the Los Angeles Times by union agitators on Oct. 1, 1910, the city had endured several overlapping strikes. The first one was against local breweries, which began on May 19, 1910, and was followed by another against local foundries and ironworks on June 1. Famous for its support of the open shop, The Times staunchly focused on companies’ efforts to continue operations rather than on labor’s demands, so there is far more information about employers than about what was being sought by unions. The Times reported May 20, 1910: "The bottlers are asking $2 [$45.48 USD 2009] a man a week," said Secretary Kraemer of the Southern California Brewers' and Bottlers' Assn. "They are now getting $17 to $18 [$386.56- $409.30] a week as against $12 and $13 [$272.87-$295.60] a week in Eastern breweries. The drivers demand a raise of $3 [$68.22] a week. They are receiving $18 to $20 a week, and the scale in Eastern breweries is $16 to $18 [$363.82-$409.30] a week." A June 2, 1910, story said that metalworkers wanted a minimum of $4 [$90.96 USD 2009] a day, an eight-hour day and double pay for working holidays. The average wage was 37 1/2 cents [$8.53] an hour and most employees worked a nine-hour day. The Times seems to have been premature in declaring the brewery strike over, although the strike seems to have dissipated in about a month. The strike against the foundries and metal shops was fought with far more determination, and on Sept. 10, 1910, The Times reported a plot to dynamite the Hall of Records, which was then under construction, because it was being built with non-union steel. |
We’re on an Oviatt’s streak with another item today: A tuxedo jacket from the famous Los Angeles menswear store. Bidding on this item starts at $124.99 or Buy It Now for $349.99. As with everything on EBay, an item and vendor should be evaluated thoroughly before submitting a bid. |
| |
|
May 25, 1960: That fellow who seemed to be listening intently to a speaker at an AA meeting was actually following a Dodger game on a transistor radio, Matt Weinstock says. And Abby has advice for a woman who’s thinking about going back to work so she doesn’t have to be a free babysitter for her grandchildren. |
