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May 9, 1910: “The first automobile purchased by the Police Department was an electric patrol wagon. This proved to be a failure, was used but little, and is now stored in the basement of the jail. Then a gearless machine for the University Station was purchased. It has been used some but is not dependable and has cost a small fortune for repairs,” The Times says. |
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May 8, 1940: “When the Flo Ziegfeld estate was auctioned a plaster bust of Billie Burke went for $3.50,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
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May 8, 1980: “Many times Reagan has told his staff and his supporters that the vice presidential nominee must be someone who would carry on the Reagan philosophy if anything should happen to him,” The Times’ Richard Bergholz says. |
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May 8, 1960: The headline would make any Dodger fan shudder: "Vince Scully Turns Back Pages to Worst Moments Before Mike." The story by The Times' Jeane Hoffman actually was an entertaining |
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May 8, 1910: A London tattoo artist says, “Not long ago, too, a lady came to me to have a cat's head tattooed on her arm. It was a portrait of a pet animal which she recently had lost. Well, I preserved the animal's outline in colors and it cost her 5 guineas.” Also on the Daily Mirror: Councilman Seeks to Regulate Tattoo Shops, Sept. 3, 1943. |
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May 7, 1960: Shades of 1953 -– Pink shirts for men are back. They go with those charcoal gray suits. |
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May 7, 1940: “Walter Pidgeon and John Carroll are packing tackle for a fishing trek to Texas Gulf resorts,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
| Los Angeles Times file photo I am always amazed by the Daily Mirror’s “brain trust,” which is my nickname for our readers. I never fail to be impressed by how much people know – or can find out. These mystery guests are a perfect example because I was starting to think I’d stumped everybody and Evelyn Tremble came along Thursday and identified them. Please congratulate her. (She says it was easy, thanks to Google).
In selecting the mystery photos, I always look for a set of five pictures with at least one especially interesting image. In this case, the first photo of these dancers – as children – was the reason. As Arye (Leslie) Michael Bender pointed out in a comment, these is a certain JonBenet Ramsey quality to the way the young girl is made up like an adult. Update: a reader comments: This week's entry is ridiculous. You violate the your concept of Movie Here's your answer: You raise an interesting question. I suppose The mystery photos are actually all This dance team performed under a variety of names. Here’s a video of them. They’re best known as Billy and Beverly Bemis, although they also performed as Edith and Bill Wilshire. This Times item from June 10, 1927, gave their names as Billie Bevans and Vivian Mitchell. I'm not entirely certain they were even brother and sister. The back of the photo gives one address for Billy and another for Beverly, who is listed as Vivian Mitchell, but has the same phone number. Billy decided to give up dancing and get married about 1938 and Beverly tried to build a career on her own, although she evidently didn’t have much success. I can’t find anything further about them in The Times. These were mystery guests who really were mystery guests! |
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| May 7, 1910: Messages from the great beyond are causing trouble in Los Angeles! The last time Lee Yew Yee was charged with telling fortunes, he got 60 days on the chain gang, but this time he received a suspended sentence of 30 days. Mrs. Jennie S. Hadsell got sued for $50 plus legal fees after decided she had misconstrued a divine message about opening a grocery store. |
| An EBay vendor has listed this Aug. 12, 1948, wire photo of Hollywood Madam Brenda Allen with defense lawyer Max Solomon, right, and Deputy City Atty. Lindsay Dickey examining a "little black box" of clients’ names seized during a vice raid. Bidding starts at $9.99. |
| Far into the future, villains will smoke cigarettes!
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May 6, 1960: “It can be stated unequivocally that in his new album Elvis is as good as he ever was, which is better than the swarm of sickening imitators who have waggled out of the ooze in his absence,” Matt Weinstock says. On the jump, a mother asks Abby what to do with her sons’ pinup pictures when the minister visits. |
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May 6, 1960: Paul Coates profiles Neysa Washington, who was badly injured in 1945 trying to stop her runaway car. She hopped on the running board when it began rolling down Beachwood Drive and, unable to get into the car, steered it for half a mile by reaching through a window until it crashed between two trees at 6053 Yucca St. |
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May 6, 1940: “Ann Sheridan takes along her own rumba records to be played while she dines,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
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May 6, 1980: Times Pulitzer Prize winner William Tuohy writes that British commandos stormed the Iranian Embassy in London, freeing 19 hostages, killing three terrorists and capturing two others. The attack was ordered after the terrorists, opponents of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, executed two of their hostages because the Iranian government refused to release political prisoners held in Khuzistan, Tuohy says. On the jump, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, on the campaign trail, says: — Jimmy Carter “tells us to turn the thermostats down so we'll be miserable when we're home; don't drive or drive too little or drive slowly. The truth of the matter is we're an energy-rich nation. — "It's time we told the rest of the world we don't care whether they like us or not, we want to be respected." — "Government creates inflation; therefore, government can make it go away." |
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May 6, 1960: Although the Soviets shot down a U-2 on May 1, the story didn’t appear in The Times until five days later. It’s particularly interesting to note that the paper treated this as a second-day story, even though there was no previous coverage. I suspect this was in response to TV and radio reports, but that’s only a guess.  Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Francis Gary Powers, who formerly piloted the Pilot Francis Gary Powers was convicted and served nearly two years before being freed in February 1962 in exchange for spy Rudolf Abel. Powers eventually became a helicopter pilot for KNBC-TV Channel 4. He and his engineer, George Spears, died in an Aug. 1, 1977, crash near a Little League field at 17500 Oxnard St. The helicopter was evidently out of gas, The Times said. Newer, highly modified versions of the U-2 aircraft remain in service. |
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May 6, 1910: S. Forzly is forced to close his eastern cafe in the basement of the Central National Bank at 4th Street and Broadway after bank employees get a restraining order due to the lunch room’s pungent, exotic odors. Onions! Garlic! The horror! On the jump, The Times finds some comic relief in an elderly black man’s painful encounter with a feather duster…. |
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May 5, 1960: Here’s another take on Cynthia Lindsay and “Procals.” Her term describes the people of the Southland, who are “pro California.” I’ll be taking a look at Lindsay’s 1960 book “The Natives Are Restless” in an upcoming post. |
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May 5, 1960: Ruth and Betty Lawrence are looking for a good man to marry one of them and take on their 13 cats. |
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May 5, 1941: “Pieces of Deanna Durbin's wedding cake, begged from guests by autograph hunters, are bringing fancy prices,” Jimmie Fidler says. On the jump, “Citizen Kane” will premiere at the El Capitan. |
