This week’s mystery film was the 1957 Universal-International film The Midnight Story, with Tony Curtis, Marisa Pavan, Gilbert Roland, Jay C. Flippen, Argentina Brunetti, Ted de Corsia, Richard Monda, Kathleen Freeman, Herburt Vigran, Peggy June Maley, John Cliff, Russ Conway, Chico Vejar, Tito Vuolo, Helen Wallace and James Hyland. Continue reading
Note: This is an encore post from 2020.
In the early 1900s, most women in the United States lacked the right to vote. Groups such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association organized to actively campaign for enfranchisement. Winning the vote would lead to other reforms regarding child rearing, property ownership, fiduciary matters, and most importantly, independence. Women could gain control of their lives and bodies, following their own dreams and career paths, moving beyond roles of mother, wife, teacher, shop clerk or secretary.
Motion pictures aided their mission, making films about the suffrage movement before producing films featuring strong and independent women, particularly in such serials as “Perils of Pauline,” “The Exploits of Elaine,” and “The Adventures of Kathlyn.” Heroines in these films confronted dastardly villains, wild animals, and dangerous adventures, investigating and solving crimes and mysteries.
Mary Mallory’s latest book, “Living With Grace: Life Lessons from America’s Princess,” is now on sale.
Here’s Boxie and I with this month’s “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1951 MGM picture Teresa, with Pier Angeli, John Ericson, Patricia Collinge, Bill Mauldin, Peggy Ann Garner, Ralph Meeker, Ave Ninchi, Edward Binns, Rod Steiger, Aldo Silvani, Tommy Lewis, Franco Interlenghi, Edith Atwater, Lewis Cianelli, William King and Richard McNamara.
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Universal City in the Washington Times, Feb. 10, 1915.
Note: This is an encore post from 2015.
In an age where businesses come and go, bought up by larger competitors or going under due to bad financial decisions, finding one in business for decades and at the same location is very rare. Film conglomerate NBC-Universal has operated for over a century at its current Universal City location, the thriving second Universal City for the company, celebrating its Centennial, March 15, 2015.
Founder Carl Laemmle jumped into the film business as a Chicago exhibitor in 1906, quickly turning his Laemmle Film Service into one of the largest film exchanges in the country in 1909. After threats and questions by the Motion Picture Patents Company, Laemmle established his own production company, IMP Corporation (Independent Motion Picture Corporation).
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
In the latest episode of Crimes of The Times podcast, Christoper Goffard talks to me, professor Anne Redding and retired LAPD Homicide Detective David Lambkin about the Black Dahlia case. Well worth a listen!
Reminder: Boxie and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel and Steve Hodel on Tuesday, March 18, at 10 a.m. Pacific time exclusively on YouTube.
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!
Violet La Plante / Edward Curtis, hand-colored by Emma G. Hoffman, courtesy of Revere Auctions.
While men dominated the still photography business in Los Angeles’ early film industry, forgotten women also participated in the field. From colorizing to servicing stills to developing negatives to even shooting images, females kept everything rolling along. Self effacing but determined, most served in anonymity, thrilled to work for booming film studios to better their skills or even support their families. Feeling inferior to fellow colleagues due to patriarchal culture and its resentments, they failed to promote themselves, just thankful for the opportunity to serve. The following women deserve praise and recognition for their work, enhancing the beauty and talents of others.
Early female commercial photographers existed in the 1800s, mostly working alongside family members like husbands, fathers, brothers, continuing businesses after the death of loved ones. They not only served as photographers, but also gallery owners, colorists, mounters, and studio managers throughout the United States, working all across the United States but failing to receive the respect and dignity they deserved, as pointed out in the book, “Women in the Dark.”
Mary Mallory’s First Women of Hollywood goes on sale March 25.
Available locally from Book Soup in West Hollywood; Skylight Books in Glendale; and from Vroman’s in Pasadena. Continue reading
This week’s mystery movie was the 1950 film Three Secrets, with Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, Ruth Roman, Frank Lovejoy, Leif Erickson, Ted de Corsia, Edmon Ryan, Larry Keating, Katherine Warren and Arthur Franz. Continue reading
Pier Angeli and her adorable little friend remind Daily Mirror readers that Daylight Saving Time begins today and to set your clocks forward one hour. Hi Eve!!
In the March 2025 Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, I talk about my work in progress, Heaven Is HERE! and my current focus on the autopsy of Elizabeth Short.
Has AI solved the Black Dahlia case? No.
TRIGGER WARNING: In this segment, I discuss autopsies and dismemberment/mutilations.
Story of a Murder: The Wives, the Mistress, and Dr. Crippen, by Hallie Rubenhold, Dutton, 512 pages, March 25, 2025. $32.
In Story of a Murder, her latest book on sensational British crimes, Hallie Rubenhold explores the 1910 case of the murderous Dr. Hawley Crippen, who absconded with his “lady typist” after burying the remains of his inconvenient wife in the cellar. As with Rubenhold’s earlier work, The Five, a ground-breaking exploration of the lives of Jack the Ripper’s victims, Story of a Murder focuses on the women in Crippen’s life, telling their stories with depth, insight and empathy. A welcome departure from the run-of-the-mill “true” crime books and a breath of fresh air for a stale, tawdry genre. Well-written and suspenseful. An excellent prospect for film or TV.
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There is something in the British national character that loves a good murder story told and retold with increasing dollops of fiction, stated with unwavering confidence until the killing becomes an epic tragedy carved ever deeper into the cultural consciousness.
But as Rubenhold says: “The process of rarefying a crime into a legend removes all nuance” and it is her gift to upend such stories that everyone thinks they know by telling them in a way that is utterly new. The Five (2020) tosses the customary narrative about the Whitechapel murders into the bin, using the victims to explore the social history of the era. The biographies take the women up to almost the moment when they have their encounter with the killer and no further. There is no blood, no gore and no speculation as to who the Ripper might be.
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This week’s mystery show was The Spores episode (1967) of The Invaders, with Roy Thinnes, Gene Hackman, Mark Miller, Patricia Smith, John Randolph, Wayne Rogers, James Gammon, Judee Morton, Kevin Coughlin, Noam Pitlik, Vince Howard, Norma Connolly, Joel Davison, Brian Nash, Stephen Liss and Christie Matchett. Continue reading
Miriam Matthews in undated photo, courtesy of Wikipedia.
At a time when African Americans found themselves stuck at the back of the bus, denied educational and work opportunities because of their race, black librarian Miriam Matthews set out to acknowledge and honor the achievements and contributions of her fellow citizens. She worked to educate and inform patrons not just through library programs and books, but by her own scholarship, combining her love of learning, curiosity, and service to become one of Los Angeles’ leading librarians and historians for 35 years. Serving as Los Angeles’ first African American librarian, the education dynamo revealed the city’s often hidden and distorted past, acknowledging the leading role people of color played in Los Angeles’ founding.
Born in Pensacola, Florida August 6, 1905, Matthews’ family moved to California in 1907 in search of greater opportunity and freedom from segregation. Discovering a love of reading and researching, she excelled at school, assertively advocating for her full education. After graduating from high school at 16, Matthews spent two years at University of California, Southern branch here in Los Angeles before finishing her degree from University of California, Berkeley, and a certificate in librarianship a year later. Continue reading
Here’s a video conversation I did about 2013 with author Joseph Wambaugh, who died today at the age of 88.
Here’s a long post from retired LAPD Lt. Max Hurlbut on Joseph Wambaugh and the Onion Field.
Boxie and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on the Black Dahlia case Tuesday, March 4, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, on YouTube. I have discontinued my videos on Instagram.
TRIGGER WARNING: I will be discussing Elizabeth Short’s autopsy and related subjects.
Continue reading
This week’s mystery movie was the 1978 film Killer of Sheep, with Henry Gayle Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett, Eugene Cherry and Jack Drummond. Continue reading
Here’s Boxie and I with this month’s “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel.
In this video, I discussed my experiences fact-checking Steve Hodel and, in response to Wikipedia Guy, the differences between ad hominem attacks and factual rebuttals.
Mabel Fairbanks in the California Eagle, Nov. 8, 1945.
Note: This is an encore post from 2022.
Knockout African American ice skater Mabel Fairbanks wowed audiences from the 1940s through the 1960s. A true natural, she exuded joy and happiness twirling and gliding upon the ice. While extremely talented, Fairbanks was never able to develop her talents to the fullest because of prejudices of the period that prevented her from belonging to skating clubs, trying out for the United States Olympics team, or performing in major ice shows.
Fairbanks was born November 14, 1923, (per Social Security Records) in Jacksonville Florida, to a large family that struggled. By the age of eight, she was an orphan, losing her African American father and her Native American mother. Fairbanks endured racism and poverty in Florida before following an older sister to New York City in 1939 and taking a business course.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1953 MGM film Bright Road, with Dorothy Dandridge, Henry Belafonte and Philip Hepburn. Continue reading
Reminder: Boxie and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel and Steve Hodel on Tuesday, February 18, at 10 a.m. Pacific time exclusively on YouTube. No more 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!
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