Charles Champlin on Farrah Fawcett

Posted on March 9, 2010 by lmharnisch
March 9, 1980, Farrah Fawcett
March 9, 1980, Farrah Fawcett

March 9, 1980: Charles Champlin profiles Farrah Fawcett, 33, on the next phase of her life, when she’s more confident in her own judgment and less influenced by advisers.  

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Hedda Hopper, March 9, 1944

Posted on March 9, 2010 by lmharnisch

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March 9, 1944: Hedda Hopper tells Betty Bacall to forget this Lauren stuff. “ ‘Betty Bacall’ is euphonious and easy to say,” Hopper says. Gosh did she ever get anything right? 

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Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood | 1 Comment

Kennedy, Nixon Lead in New Hampshire

Posted on March 9, 2010 by lmharnisch


March 9, 1960, Combs Family

On the jump, an attorney seeks to keep state officials from removing Alice Marie Combs, 4, center, from her foster home in an effort to find a more intellectually stimulating family for the girl, who has an IQ of 138.

March 9, 1960, Cover  

March 9, 1960: Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Vice President Richard Nixon lead their parties in the New Hampshire primary.  The Associated Press story noted that although the Republican candidate usually runs a 2-1 ratio to the Democratic candidate in New Hampshire, the difference between Kennedy and Nixon was much closer, 53,111 to 38,012.

Also on the jump, jurors resume deliberations in the Finch case after listening to a nine-hour reading of Dr. R. Bernard Finch’s testimony.

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Posted in #courts, art and artists, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, JFK, Politics, Richard Nixon, Sports | Comments Off on Kennedy, Nixon Lead in New Hampshire

Black Dahlia on Display

Posted on March 9, 2010 by lmharnisch

  March 4, 2010, Dahlia Exhibit

One of many mistakes in the Black Dahlia poster from “Behind-the-Scenes: The LAPD Homicide Experience.” Notice that the location is wrong – the body was actually half a block away.

Note: Most of the media’s attention to the LAPD’s “Behind-the-Scenes” homicide exhibit focused on the Kennedy family’s protests over the display of Robert F. Kennedy’s bloody clothes, but the Daily Mirror was more interested in material relating to the 1947 killing of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the Black Dahlia.

Because I couldn’t make a quick trip to Las Vegas, I asked my friend Gwen Sharp, who is a partner in the Sociological Images blog, to look at the display, get some photos and write about it. What follows are her observations.

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Posted in Homicide, LAPD | 5 Comments

Lawyers Too Greedy, Attorney Says

Posted on March 9, 2010 by lmharnisch

March 9, 1920, Lawyers 

March 9, 1920: Attorneys have given up criminal defense work in favor of wealthy corporate clients and civil cases, attorney Samuel T. Untermyer tells the  county bar association.

More on the jump, plus Clare Briggs.

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Car Thief Bluffs His Way Out of Tight Spot

Posted on March 9, 2010 by lmharnisch

 March 9, 1910, Auto Thief

March 9, 1910: One car thief is a fellow with a lot of nerve who tries to talk himself out of a bad situation.

On the jump, the rest of the story… and a dying woman uses her children’s wooden blocks to spell out a final message.

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Matt Weinstock, March 8, 1960

Posted on March 8, 2010 by lmharnisch

 
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March 8, 1960, Caryl Chessman

Nervous Cat's Tale

Matt Weinstock     As the animal regulation department's files prove, life in our vast jungle compound is fraught with peril.  It is not uncommon for people to be frightened, by roving pythons or straying wildebeests and to be bitten by ocelots,coati mundis or owls.

    One night recently around 7, Jeanne Weston, who lives on Mulholland Dr., received a call from a neighbor who said excitedly that Jeanne's Siamese cat Farkleberry was having a fight with a wildcat.

    Armed with a broom and a flashlight that didn't work, Jeanne joined the neighbors on their front yard.  They were shining lights on the growling wildcat which had retreated under a bush. Farkleberry had retreated home.

    Apparently the wildcat had been stirred out of its habitat by another Cat — Caterpillar tractor, that is — which has been noisily carving a path through the nearby wild section.

    Everything is normal again except Farkleberry.  He's as nervous as a human.

::

 

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Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, March 8, 1960

Posted on March 8, 2010 by lmharnisch



 
March 7, 1960, Foster Child

About Common Folks, Even as Many of Us

Paul Coates    For a while yesterday, I felt fine.

    I got up on the right side of bed (which in itself is no easy feat for a Monday), showered, talked for a while about nothing in particular with my wife and kids, had a leisurely breakfast, and drove unhurriedly to work.

    Things were going fine.

    A first-edition Mirror News, fresh off the press, was waiting for me when I arrived at the office and sat down at my desk.  It was folded, on top of my typewriter.

    The ritual, with me, is to open it and skim the headlines.  All of them — Page 1, Page 2, right on through.  Then I start over.  Read the stories that interest me most.

    That's the way I began it yesterday, Page 1.  The actors were on strike.  That was the main line.  Taxpayers favor trash fee.  Finch jurors ponder, L.A. youth on crime spree.  Colonel's son chews out GI.

  

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Star Tells ‘Tonight’ Host That New Movie Is Terrible

Posted on March 8, 2010 by lmharnisch
 March 8, 1980, Robert Blake

March 8, 1980: Robert Blake goes on “The Tonight Show” and trashes his upcoming movie “Coast to Coast,” which he called “What’s That Funny Smell?”

On the jump, Oakland wants Raiders owner Al Davis to go to jail. But he wants to come to Los Angeles.

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Hedda Hopper, March 8, 1944

Posted on March 8, 2010 by lmharnisch

 
March 8, 1944, Hedda Hopper 

March 8, 1944:  Hedda Hopper says, "How would you like to see Joan Crawford play 'Nurse Kenny?' She wants to do it badly." I can’t help but wonder whether that slip was intentional.

On the jump, divorce for Myrna Loy.

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Meet Jackie Kennedy

Posted on March 8, 2010 by lmharnisch

March 8, 1960, Jackie Kennedy 

March 8, 1960: Fletcher Knebel writes about Jacqueline Kennedy as part of his series on presidential candidates’ wives. It’s hard not to feel a pang of sorrow when Knebel notes that the Kennedys have just celebrated their daughter Caroline’s second birthday, Nov. 22.

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Mystic Author Visits Los Angeles

Posted on March 8, 2010 by lmharnisch

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March 8, 1920: The Times seems quite taken with Francis Grierson, author of “Modern Mysticism,” quoting him at length on world politics and spiritualism. The poor fellow died of starvation, The Times says, while working on an anthology of poetry.

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Police Kill Unmuzzled Dogs Under New Rabies Law

Posted on March 8, 2010 by lmharnisch

March 8, 1910, Rabies 

March 8, 1910: In response to concerns about rabies, city officials give police permission to kill any dog that isn’t wearing a muzzle as required by a new law. The Times describes thousands of loose dogs that will soon be shot as a precaution. 

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From the Vaults: ‘The Little Shop of Horrors’ (1960)

Posted on March 8, 2010 by lmharnisch

Note: Since we began in 2007,  the Daily Mirror has wanted to provide posts about historic films, but like the rest of the DM, we wanted to make it a unique, personal view. We found a fresh, original voice in Anne Elisabeth Dillon, who works around the corner from us on the National copy desk. Please welcome her — lrh

little_shop01Roger Corman's “The Little Shop of Horrors” (1960) is a movie I'd been avoiding since seventh grade. That's around the time I first rented a copy of the 1986 musical, starring Rick Moranis and Vincent Gardenia, and fell profoundly in love. I still know that movie backward and forward. (The dentist scene shot from inside the patient's mouth — oh my God, that's still the apex of cinematic hilarity to me.)

My feeling about Corman's original has always been something like: well, I'm sure it's historically noteworthy, but clearly the material has since been perfected. In recent years, though, I've become two things: kind of a Roger Corman fan (“The Raven” cracked me up eight ways from Sunday); and a carnivorous-plant gardener. And both those things have made me feel guilty for not looking into this movie.

So the situation was remedied recently and oh my, I owe Corman a massive apology. His “Little Shop” could not be more fun. All the elements in the musical version are there already, just more concise and not set to song. And there are pleasingly surreal elements that could never have been replicated.

The basic story is the same: Seymour Krelborn (Jonathan Haze) is an unappreciated gardener working for Mr. Mushnik's flower shop on skid row, yearning for his beautiful colleague Audrey (a serenely demented Jackie Joseph). A nasty, weird carnivorous plant nicknamed Audrey Jr. brings unexpected success to Mushnik's shop, but poor Seymour has to keep it supplied with human flesh. (The musical renames the plant Audrey II, which I still think is funnier.) Can Seymour keep the original Audrey from learning his horrible secret?

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Posted in Film, From the Vaults, Hollywood | 2 Comments

Matt Weinstock, March 7, 1960

Posted on March 7, 2010 by lmharnisch

March 7, 1960, Desliu

Jiggers! The Revenooers!

 

Matt Weinstock

    On a recent weekend, as reported here, a Laurel Canyon couple held an old-fashioned home brew party for 40 guests.  The man obtained the crock and makings from a market which stocks them, put up four batches, 56 quarts, of which 48 were guzzled, and a high old time was had by all.
 
    It now becomes my stern duty to advise these people that they violated the law and are subject to fine, imprisonment or both.  They are what were known during the prohibition era as scofflaws.
 
    A man from the Treasury Department's alcohol tax division saw the item, telephoned and said, "If you know who these people are you better tell them to bust up their equipment or they're liable to be in trouble."

    I presented a hypothetical question.  If he had their address would he knock over the place?  He doubted it.

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Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, March 7, 1960

Posted on March 7, 2010 by lmharnisch

March 7, 1960, Mirror Cover

Alarmed Officials Often Alarming

Paul Coates

    In case you haven't noticed, all public officials worth their salt have, for years, been opposed to traffic accidents.

    They're against drunk drivers, speeders, reckless drivers — any individuals who endanger the lives of other people when they slide in behind the wheel of an automobile.

    And while I admire our elected and appointed representatives for taking  a  forthright stand on such  a controversial issue, I occasionally get the sinking sensation that they're mouthing hollow words.

    That they don't really care whether their constituents get a dented fender, or something a little more serious, now and then.

    It's nothing that they do or say that gives me this impression.  It's the things that they don't do.

[On the jump, “Lucy” Finale Brings Tears]

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Charles Champlin on Dore Schary

Posted on March 7, 2010 by lmharnisch

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March 7, 1980: Charles Champlin interviews former MGM executive Dore Schary, who talks about the declining role of the producer. 

On the jump, Schary recalls giving advice to Louis B. Mayer about what he should do in retirement.

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Westbrook Pegler

Posted on March 7, 2010 by lmharnisch

March 7, 1941, Westbrook Pegler 
March 7, 1941: I thought it would be interesting to spend some time this month looking at the columns of Westbrook Pegler, a 1920s sportswriter who became a rather vicious national columnist and was ultimately sued for libel by Quentin Reynolds.  In this item, he talks about readers who don’t understand when writers are being sarcastic and when they’re sincere. 

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In Support of Libraries and Librarians

Posted on March 7, 2010 by lmharnisch
main_library
Photograph by Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times

The downtown public library, which survived a devastating fire, is now threatened with budget cutbacks and layoffs.  

The Daily Mirror is a big supporter of libraries and librarians, and we’re utterly opposed to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s proposed cutbacks at the Los Angeles Public Library, because without the LAPL and archives like it,  the Daily Mirror couldn’t exist.

Anyone who conducts serious research about Los Angeles and Southern California will tell you that our history is spread among a nearly uncountable number of libraries and archives, as reflected in the annual Archives Bazaar. One of the Daily Mirror’s primary resources is the Los Angeles Public Library, which provides access to the only available copies of historic newspapers like the Examiner, the Herald-Express, the Daily News, the California Eagle and the Los Angeles Sentinel.  In addition, we rely on the public library for city maps, rare and obscure books,   digitized phone books and city directories going back to 1915,  an online photo archives, and — most of all — advice on how to conduct research that is acquired only through many years of experience.

But the Daily Mirror’s use of the library is only part of the story. The LAPL provides a host of services for other members of the community, whether it’s genealogists, children, young adults, people reading in all the languages we encounter in L.A., and countless others.

Unfortunately, the city’s proposed budget cuts are falling heavily on the public library.  As my friend and fellow blogger Mary McCoy of the history department says:

“Most of the people they'll be laying off (or to be honest about it, firing) are in their 20s and 30s. For most of them, this is their first job out of library school, most of them are children's and young adult librarians, and most of them have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for what they do. So, the city will be throwing out the future of the institution, the people who work with kids, and some of the hardest-working staff they have.”

As Times business writer Alana Semuels has reported, more people are using the library to cut their expenses in the weak economy, whether it's checking out books, DVDs and CDs or using free Internet access to look for a job, making this the worst time to cut back.   

What can library supporters do? Speak out. Let city officials know what the library system means to you. And thank your local library. There’s also a website.

Posted in books, City Hall | 2 Comments

Hot Stove League – You Call It!

Posted on March 7, 2010 by lmharnisch
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March 7, 1960: People seem to like our Hot Stove League feature. Here’s another one!

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