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

Posted on January 7, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 7, 1960, Mirror Cover

Columnist Gets Nosy About First Ladies

Paul Coates    Every Monday morning, two thin eight-page bulletins find their collective way into my mailbox.  Both are called "The Insider's Newsletter."

    One, on white bond trimmed neatly in blue, is subtitled, "An every Monday report for busy MEN who need to know what's going on."

    The other, on tattletale gray tastefully embroidered in kind of an off-shade fuchsia, is subtitled, "An every Monday report for busy WOMEN who need to know what's going on."

    I read both.  Not always on Monday — but before the week's over, I've pretty well digested them.

    The sheets, a product of Cowles  publications, keep me abreast of matters national, international, financial and political, among others.  They do cause me certain secret embarrassment, however, in that the report "for busy women who need to know what's going on" generally holds my attention more than the report "for busy men who need to know what's going on." It kind of gives me the feeling of peeking in where I shouldn't be looking.

Jan. 7, 1960, Finch Trial     For example, this week, while we menfolk were being told that Rockefeller's unhappy, Detroit's optimistic, and that radioactivity is at its lowest level since September, 1958, the women were getting the low-down on the female powers behind our leading Presidential candidates.

    "Unless a dark horse pops up between now and election time," the nation's busy women and I were told, "one of the following women will become the nation's number one hostess . . . "

    The magazine then listed Mrs. Richard Nixon, Mrs. Stuart Symington, Mrs. John Kennedy, Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, Mrs. Hubert Humphrey and Adlai Stevenson's sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Ives, and proceeded immediately to pick to pieces their talents as prospective First Ladies.

    Broadly, the magazine concluded that the Mesdames Symington, Johnson, Nixon and Stevenson Ives would be real cut-ups at official White House social functions.  In fact, I got the impression that they'd be a barrel of fun at anybody's party.

    But the editors hesitated on giving their stamp of approval to Mrs. Kennedy ("she doesn't especially like the social whirl") and Mrs. Humphrey ("she has a habit of forgetting names").

    The Newsletter also probed into the First Lady candidates' backgrounds, interests and characters, just deep enough to give us some insight into the power they would wield over their spouses, and the influence they might have on the course of our nation.

    It came up with some startling facts.  For example, that hot tip about Mrs. Humphrey's inability to remember names.  A shortcoming like that could have dire international consequences.

    At a formal White House cocktail party for visiting dignitaries, it's not unlikely that in her role as hostess she might take Nikita Khrushchev by the arm, steer him across the room to the French minister of finance and introduce him by saying: "Monsieur, you know the premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mr. What's-His-Name."

    Or in Calcutta, while accompanying her husband on a future round-the-world peace mission, there's the awful danger that she might become confused and refer to the dinner partner on her right,Pandit Nehru, as Sabu.

Jan. 7, 1960, Finch Trial     The Newsletter points out that Jacqueline Kennedy is, among other things, devoted to modern art.  There's a threat to our heritage in that.  She could decide to take down the White House portrait of Washington by Stuart and replace it with Salvador Dali's "Melting Pocket Watch."

    And don't think she isn't the type who might feel that the quaint furniture and four-poster bed in the Lincoln Room is "icky," and should be done over in Swedish modern.

    Besides, she's simply not experienced enough for the job for First Lady.  She didn't even have enough influence on her husband to insist that he comb his hair before he threw his hat in the ring.

    Pat Nixon, they tell me, is another First Lady candidate.  She's got all the necessary experience and charm, but let's be blunt about it — she hasn't got the wardrobe.  How would it look for her to walk into the White House in a plain cloth coat?

    Lyndon Johnson's wife is named Lady Bird.  And I think we're all in agreement that that alone disqualifies her.

How High the Vittles

    Symington's Edie, according to the Newsletter, is a lavish entertainer.  With our national debt already staggering, I think the added grocery bill she would cause would eliminate her from consideration. 

    That would seem to leave Adlai Stevenson as the logical candidate.  For the purposes of this discussion, his marital situation is ideal.  He's single.

    But he's got an older sister who would act as his official hostess.  Her name is Evelyn Ives.  The Newsletter identifies her as a big-game hunter.

    And a First Lady wearing a pith helmet and bearing an elephant gun is just a little more than even you and I should be asked to take.

   

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Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Jan. 9, 1960

Posted on January 7, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 9, 1960, Mirror Cover

Mash Notes and Comment

         
Paul Coates“Dear Mr. Coates:

          “It is again our privilege to have a dance date for the purpose of raising funds for the ‘March of Dimes’ Saturday evening, Jan. 23.

          “We were unfortunate in having you at our last year’s date and we trust you will be free to attend as our guest this year.”

(signed) Gertrude Moss and Perry Minetti, Circle J Ranch, Newhall.

          –I’m free, but if that’s the way you feel about it, I’m not coming.

 

::

 

          “Coatsy-

          “What happened, old man?

          “I been watching you on TV for a long, long time now but lately, mister, you’re going downhill.

 Jan. 9, 1960, Finch     

    “Not your programs.  I got no complaint against them.

          “I’m talking about YOU!

Jan. 9, 1960, Finch           “Your face.  Those bags under your eyes.  What happened?  No sleep?

          “And that five o’clock shadow on your chin and lack of it above your forehead.

          “It even looks to me like your ears are bigger these days, but maybe you’re just getting your hair (what’s left of it) trimmed a little closer.

          “And come on, Coatsy, those droopy shoulders.  What’s so hard about sitting up straight?

          “And that perpetual sneer, can’t your make-up man do something about that!

          “I’m sorry that I have to be the one to tell you, buddy, but somebody should.  You’re a REAL MESS.)

          (signed) Sammy J., El Monte.

          –You think I look bad.  You should see Hal Humphrey without his glasses.

 

::

 

          “to Paul

          “I took six people to Bayshore Hiway tonite in my taxi.  I had half a turkey in my back seat and some roast beef that a resterant friend of mine gave me.

          “My custermers were going to get a gal. of wine and on the trip they ate up the turkey and the roast beef.  They stopped and got a gal. of wine to wash it down Paul.  I helped them with the wine.

          “I got them all home OK and then they can’t pay me for the ride.  They were all broke.
 

This Cabby Has a Real Beef

          “One of them says Parkey friend, hold my wrist watch and I will pay you next week.  I said keep it I might get loaded myself and sell it.

          “The taxi trip cost me one half turkey and the roast beef and Im stuck for the ride.

          “People talk about Tortilla Flats, Paul.  They should know my friends!!!”

          (signed) Parkey Sharkey, 2077 Bay Road, Palo Alto.

          –They’re not really your friends, Parkey.  The
y’re just using you.

 

::

 

          (PRESS RELEASE) “CONFIDENTIAL KUDOS  . . . THE NEW YORK TIMES last week backed up the item appearing in a previous ‘CONFIDENTIAL MEMO’ that the Birth Control issue in the current Presidential hassle is being used, especially in the South, against Se. John Kennedy.

          “And, do you recall that we wrote weeks ago that Adlai Stevenson would shortly become a strong candidate for the nomination?

          “Don’t want to brag, but . . . “

          (signed) Confidential Magazine, New York City.

          –Oh go ahead.  It took real guts to go out on the limb like that.

 

   
   
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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on January 7, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 7, 1945, Hedda Hopper 

Jan. 7, 1945, Hedda Hopper

“Hot as a Robot Bomb!”
 
Jan. 7, 1945: Hedda Hopper pays tribute to nurse Frances Slanger, who was killed by a German shell Oct. 21, 1944. 

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Child Witnesses Missing in Mazdaznan Cult Sex Case

Posted on January 7, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 7, 1920, Briggs

"Wonder What a 21-months-old Baby Thinks About?" by Clare Briggs.

image

Jan. 7, 1920: The Times publishes the names of children who were allegedly molested by Otoman Zar-Adusht Hanish. The Times discontinued identifying sex crime victims years ago, but it was once common in American newspapers.

A letter from Leona Harper to W. Earl Ross is submitted as evidence in Helena Edith Ross’ divorce proceedings. Harper wrote: “I just put my clothes to soak and among them was the nightie I had at Taft and I just thought to myself, 'If nighties could only talk.' “

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Pilots Assemble Planes for Aviation Meet

Posted on January 7, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 7, 1910, Aviation Meet
 
Jan. 7, 1910, Aviation Meet

Two views of the Gill-Dosh biplane at Dominguez Station.

Jan. 7, 1910, Aviation Meet

Jan. 7, 1910, Aviation Meet   
Jan. 6, 1910, Wireless

3rd and Boylston streets, home of the Collins wireless station, via Google maps’ street view.
 
Jan. 7, 1910: Airplanes are being assembled at Dominguez Station for the Aviation Meet and a tent has been erected to serve as a hangar. Los Angeles radio enthusiasts have been sending bulletins along the coast and plan to erect an antenna above the grandstand: a “skyhook” 750 feet long and 60 feet in the air. Messages are being sent at 15 words per minute using the Continental rather than American Morse Code.

Posted in broadcasting, Science, Transportation | Comments Off on Pilots Assemble Planes for Aviation Meet

University of Wisconsin Students Risk Insanity by Going Without Sleep!

Posted on January 7, 2010 by lmharnisch

 

Jan. 7, 1900, No Sleeping
Jan. 7, 1900: I think I just found my new favorite kicker, “An Idiotic Idea.” It’s almost as good as “Created Two-Headed Dog,” but not quite. What is it with the University of Wisconsin? The faculty bans flirting … and the students give up sleep.* 

"If those young men in Wisconsin succeed in carrying out their plan they will all be in their graves or in insane asylums by the time their efforts are finished. If Thomas A. Edison say he lives on four hours' sleep I should like to see proof," says Dr. Horatio C. Wood, head of the department for the study and treatment of nervous diseases at the University of Pennsylvania. 

*Note:  My great-grandfather graduated from the UW in 1890 and my great-aunt was on the faculty for many years, so I feel perfectly entitled to make fun of what I know is a great institution.  

Posted in Education, health | Comments Off on University of Wisconsin Students Risk Insanity by Going Without Sleep!

Matt Weinstock, Jan. 6, 1960

Posted on January 6, 2010 by lmharnisch

Jan. 6, 1960, Mike Nomad
“Turn Me Down and I'll Spill Everything!”

Stay-Away Record

Matt Weinstock

    Before the record book for the decade is closed, J. Barrington Farrington Arrington, who retired undefeated as a police reporter for the old Daily News and now gets his kicks as the sage of Bunker Hill, wishes to insert a footnote.  He believes he holds some sort of record for not going anywhere.  

    "I've never seen a Tournament of Roses parade except on TV nor a Rose Bowl game,"  he said proudly.  "I've never been to the Coliseum nor in Griffith Park's Greek Theater.  I've never been to Mt. Wilson or Mt. Palomar.  I've never been to Catalina Island, Death Valley, Tijuana, Palm Springs, Yosemite, Santa Anita or Del Mar.  Furthermore, I've never been inside a motion-picture studio and the only movie stars I ever met were in jail, where I couldn't avoid them."
   
ARRINGTON, who came to L.A. from Colorado 38 years ago, ruefully admits he has a blot on his escutcheon. 

Jan. 6, 1960, Monorail     "One afternoon in 1947," he said, "I got fried with a wealthy friend and he lobbed me into a cab and took me to Hollywood Park.  He gave me $50 to bet and I won $200.  But I was not in full control of my faculties."

    A near downfall occurred in 1940.  "I was bragging about my non-attendance record," he recalled, "and some playful friends decided to shanghai me and spirit me to Pasadena on New Year's Day.  But I was too cunning for them.  I found out about their plot."

    The nearest he ever came to defeat was in 1945, when he was working on another paper.  The city editor, Jack Berger, selected him as one of the crew to cover the Rose Parade. Arrington protested that the assignment would destroy a perfect record.  Besides, he didn't like flowers.  "I wouldn't want to be guilty of ruining any one's record," Berger said, and selected another reporter.

::


        A TAXI DRIVER in a Hollywood coffee shop remarked wryly, "You know, every time I pick up a fare and start the meter nowadays I get to wondering if I'll be accused of payola."  To which, eavesdropper Tom Lempertz reports, the waitress added, "I know what you mean — I'm almost afraid to pick up my tips!" . . . Speaking of which, Bill Tanner, chief engineer and disc jockey at radio KAFY in Bakersfield, lives on Paola St. there — but he hasn't had a single offer.

::


    AH, THE WHIMS of children.  A boy in the second grade turned in a spelling paper without his name on it.  The teacher asked if he wanted to write it on top.  "I never write my name on Tuesdays," the boy said solemnly.

::


    A MAN WHO knows all sorts of people ran into an old pickpocket friend the other day and the wallet snatcher, known as "The Fast Mail," related a recent mad experience.  As if by signal, pickpockets from all over appeared in Canada last year during Queen Elizabeth's visit there to open the St. Lawrence Seaway.  It was like a convention, he said.  They came, of course, because they knew there would be crowds, where they do their best work, and a profitable time was had by all.  Afterward, he said, many of them came to L.A. for Christmas, where the pickings were also good.  In fact, police statistics for 1959 stated the greatest increase in reported crimes was in pickpocket cases, up 19.6%.  Presumably they're still here for the winter, so beware.

::


    FOOTNOTES — Rich Fowler reports there's no truth to the rumor the new Rose Bowl pact will provide the Big Ten must send Wisconsin at least once every five years . . . And, in the light of what happened, one of the other papers had a delightful typo — called it the Rose Bawl game.

::


    PUBLIC AT LARGE — Martin Glasser wishes to thank the telephone company for installing phone booths all over town.  Wonderful places to light his pipe on windy days . . . A teen-age boy phoned Tom Cassidy at KFAC and insultingly suggested drastic changes in his programming.  Tom, an expert in such matters, listened politely.  Later, relating the incident to a friend, he remarked, "I was young once myself — but never again!" . . . A flatbed truck with three gray caskets lashed tightly was careening along Hollywood Freeway yesterday.  Joe Weston wonders if someone runs it back and forth — for effect.

Jan. 6, 1960, Abby 

 
Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock, Transportation | 1 Comment

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Jan. 6, 1960

Posted on January 6, 2010 by lmharnisch
 
Jan. 6, 1960, Mirror Cover

Story of Little Indian Boy's Broken Heart

Paul Coates    (From the files of The Mirror News, Oct. 19, 1959.)  The raging Angeles Forest fire claimed a second life today.  Philip Chavez, 27, an Indian firefighter from Zuni, N.M., died in Glendale Sanitarium, where he was taken after being overcome by smoke on the fire line last night.

    "My hobby," Danny Davey told me, "is saving the lives of Indians.  Some people collect stamps.  Some people make model airplanes.  I try to save Indians.

    "There's no gimmick to me," he added.  "That's just what I do.  I got the idea in World War II, when I was in South Pacific.  I was in a real tough spot and I told God that if he'd save my life, I'd save other people's lives . . . "

    Davey was calling from his home in Santa Ana.

    "But that's just sort of to let you know what I do," he explained, "and how I happened to run into the wife of Philip Chavez.
   
Jan. 6, 1960, Finch Trial     "My friend, Pat Patterson, and I stopped in a little cafe in Gallup, New Mexico.  We'd been delivering Christmas packages to the Hopis and the Navajos.  This year we had 40 tons of gifts — blankets, milk, wardrobe trunks, toys — to deliver.

    "It was two days after Christmas and I saw this sad Indian lady sitting across the counter from us so I started to talk to her  . . .

    "Well, when I started questioning her, she told me that her husband was one of the two Indians who were killed last October fighting the fire above La Canada.  She works in Gallup now.

    "Her trouble," Davey went on, "is with her son, who's three years old.  The boy is dying.  That's what the doctor tells her.  And nobody can cure him.  He just gets weaker and weaker."

    Davey sighed.  "The boy is dying from lonesomeness."

    "From lonesomeness?"  I said.

    "That's what she said," he continued, "and I believe her.  The boy has lost eight pounds since his father was killed.

    "Then he gets excited.  He saw his father leave to fight the fire in an airplane and he keeps expecting him to come back in one.  Mrs. Chavez — her first name is Ella — keeps taking the boy to the doctor but nothing seems to help.

    "On Christmas Day, she did what the doctor told her to.  She took all her husband's pictures down and put them away where the boy couldn't see them.  She hid everything that might remind him of his father.

    "But even that," Davey added, "doesn't seem to help.

Jan. 6, 1960, Finch Trial     "I believe her story," he repeated.  "She said the boy and his father were as close as any human beings could be.  Other people in the cafe said it was true, too.  That the little Indian boy was dying from a broken heart."

Something Might Help

    I reminded Davey that the call was long distance, that he was spending a lot of money to tell me about it.

    "That's all right," he answered.  "I've got a regular job — with United Parcel.  I'll run up a bill a foot long if you'll write something that'll help."

    "How," I said, "could I write something that'll help?"

    "Well," he replied, "maybe some of the towns that the Indian firefighters saved from burning would do something for the little boy if they knew about it.

    "Or," he added after a pause, "just by letting people know the suffering that's caused by these fires, maybe they'd be more careful."
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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on January 6, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 6, 1943, Hedda Hopper
Jan. 6, 1944, Hedda Hopper 
Jan. 6, 1944 – Hedda Hopper writes: "There hasn't been much said about 'Jubilee,' an all-Negro show on a par with 'Mail Call' and 'Command Performance' done weekly for our men overseas. I heard Lena Horne and Rochester singing 'Solid Potato Salad.' Boy, you ain't heard nothing 'til you hear that!"

Note: "Jubilee" is available from several Old Time Radio collectors. I have been dealing with Jerry Haendiges for years and always check his logs first.

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Jurors Visit Murder House

Posted on January 6, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 6, 1960, Finch Trial

Jan. 6, 1960, Cover

Jan. 6, 1960: “Mexico acknowledged the serious problem of illegal narcotics crossing the border and in a major concession accepted a U.S. proposal to exchange narcotics enforcement agents as the two-day conference between representatives of both governments adjourned today.”

Jan. 6, 1960, Border Drug Crackdown

Jan. 6, 1960, Finch Trial

Jan. 6, 1960, Finch Trial

“Tears flowed freely from the pretty brown eyes of Carole Tregoff yesterday as she returned to the scene of the death which has brought her to trial for murder.

"In marked contrast, the red-haired ex-model's lover, Dr. R. Bernard Finch, seemed almost bored by the official court visit to the $65,000 West Covina home where his wife, Mrs. Barbara Jean Finch, was slain last July 18.”

Jan. 6, 1960, Finch Trial

Jan. 6, 1960, Finch Trial

Jan. 6, 1960, Finch Trial

Jan. 6, 1960, Mayor's Radio Address 

Weekly radio talks by the mayor of Los Angeles were once a tradition dating to at least the Fletcher Bowron administration. In this radio address, Mayor Norris Poulson notes the upcoming Democratic National Convention and demurs on answering the question of whether he will run for another term in 1961. Poulson sought another term but lost to Sam Yorty on May 31, 1961, by 16,628 votes in a bitterly contested race. Research note: Transcripts of Bowron’s radio addresses are at the city archives and are a great time capsule of Los Angeles.

image

This cartoon turned out to be more prescient than anyone imagined in the day when Westerns were a staple of TV programming. 

 Jan. 6, 1960, Sports

The number of home runs hit in the Coliseum declined from 1958 (193) to 1959 (172), even though the right field fence was lowered, Frank Finch writes.The 193 homers hit in 1958 were a major league record, but in 1959, more home runs were hit in Detroit (202) and Cincinnati (185), Finch says.
Jan. 6, 1960: I haven’t done much with the R. Bernard Finch case (so many stories, only one Larry Harnisch), but the trial is finally underway and the jurors visit the home in West Covina where the killing occurred. I’ll try to run more of the trial as it unfolds.

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Yankees Clinch Babe Ruth Deal on Griffith Park Golf Course

Posted on January 6, 2010 by lmharnisch
 Jan. 6, 1920, Babe Ruth 
 
Jan. 6, 1920: Yes, it’s true. “Manager Miller Huggins of the New York Yankees arrived in Los Angeles yesterday morning. Late last night he announced that he had met Babe Ruth on the Griffith Park golf links yesterday afternoon and had signed articles with him, completing his purchase from the Boston Americans.”

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Theater Planned for 7th and Broadway

Posted on January 6, 2010 by lmharnisch

Jan. 6, 1920, Theater

An artist’s early concept of the building planned for 7th and Broadway.

Nov. 12, 1921, Loew's State Theater

Nov. 12, 1921, Loew's State Theater

Nov. 21, 1921: The interior of Loew’s State Theater.
 
image

Jan. 6, 1920: A theater and office building are planned for 7th Street and Broadway, “the most valuable corner in Los Angeles,” The Times says.

Posted in Architecture, Downtown, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on Theater Planned for 7th and Broadway

African Americans Hanged for Assaulting Woman

Posted on January 6, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 5, 1910, Execution 

Jan. 6, 1910, Execution

Feb. 9, 1910, Execution

Jan. 6, 1910: George Reynolds and John Williams of Kansas City are sentenced to hang for assaulting Mrs. W.F. [or W.H.] Jackson, a violinist who was attacked on her way home from performing at a concert. Judge Ralph H. Latshaw refused to order the men’s execution on a Friday, the traditional day for hanging, explaining: "They don't even deserve to be classed with the murderer who must pay the penalty for his crime with his life. It would be an insult to these men, who had at least a spark of manhood in their hardened souls, to have such brutes as these put in their class. I don't care to desecrate the day by ordering these two brutes hanged on the legal hanging day.” Reynolds and Williams, who were African American, were the first in Missouri to be executed for what was evidently a sexual assault.

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Matt Weinstock, Jan. 5, 1960

Posted on January 5, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 5, 1960, Peanuts image

Pity the Plants

Matt Weinstock     All over town it's leotards for the ladies and old but wool-lined army and navy jackets for the men and shocked talk about the icy blasts.

    A girl named Kathy, 14, on the way to school yesterday, said, "I think this is the coldest it has ever been."

    A water hose froze and exploded in a gas station on Vanowen St.

    Sunday the ushers in a west side church disappeared during the service.  They were across the street in a store getting coffee.

    A thin-blooded downtowner heading for a Mexican restaurant said, "This is real enchilada weather, con chili Colorado."

    And pity the poor plants.  They don't know whether they're coming or going.  Only a week ago they were blooming far ahead of schedule because of the unseasonably warm weather.  Yesterday many hardy  specimens, particularly in San Fernando Valley, were blackened by frost.

    It's awful what those people up in Squaw Valley will do for publicity.

::

Jan. 5, 1960, Rod Serling     THAT LEGENDARY little old lady in Pasadena apparently has moved.  Hanson Kellogg saw her put her foot on the running board of a shiny 1929, yes 1929, Chevrolet coupe in a Glendale parking lot and tell another woman, "Yes, we're going to trade it in next year, when my husband retires!"

::

    A LITTLE GIRL named Cheri Helms was taken to the San Diego zoo and one of the first things that excited her was a peacock relaxing its tail.

    "Look daddy," she cried, "living color!"

::


    NOISY TOO
Idle gossip — that's the
    phrase
That throws me in a tizzy,
For gossips have not idle
    ways.
Indeed, they're very busy.
        –PEARL ROWE

::


    OTHERS, TOO, presumably are still sorting and rearranging their intentions for 1960.  Yes, intentions.  Resolution is much too strong a word at this stage of the game.  And if this seems sneaky, at least it's realistic.

    I am determined, momentarily at least, to make better use of my time. More reading and writing, less TV.  I'll outwit that cyclops in the living room yet.  It thinks it has me hypnotized and my hands tied behind me but I've been slowly working the ropes loose.  I think I'll make it out of frustration at the next drama or commercial featuring a bratty youngster and his dog.

    That's as far as I've gotten.  Come to think of it, it's quite a ways.

::

    A MAN IN A San Gabriel bar was toasting in the new year when he realized suddenly he'd forgotten to administer his eye drops.  To fellow patrons' astonishment, he performed the operation at the bar, then rejoined the fun.  Next morning he reached in his coat pocket for his eye drop kit and pulled out a shot glass.  Now he vaguely comprehends his comrades' consternation at his self-administered eye treatment.  He also wonders if the bartender served anyone a jigger of eye drops.

::

    TOWARD THE START of a genuinely happy new year Ralph N. Schmidt, writing in the Toastmaster, deplores speakers who begin by greeting almost everyone in the room with some such spiel as "Mr. Chairman, Judge Black, Col. Brown, Rev. White, President Green, distinguished guests from Alpha chapter, distinguished guests from Omega chapter, ladies and gentlemen."  Hurray for Ralph.

::

Jan. 5, 1960, Abby

     AT RANDOM — Bill Richardson of the S.C. Gas News reports one serviceman left another this special instruction:  "Oven not lit but customer is" . . . There's still hope for the short story.  The Atlantic has a couple of minor classics by J.W. Dickson and Peter Ustinov . . . What happens to old proofreaders?  Leon Clifton is turning in his eye shade at 72 for a lecture tour titled, "Crime Stories I Have Punctuated During 50 Years of Newspaper Editing" . . . Surely, thinks Marvin Press, someone could figure out a Finger Bowl game.
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Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Jan. 5, 1960

Posted on January 5, 2010 by lmharnisch
 
Jan. 5, 1960, Cover

Paul Coates    I spent an uncomfortable morning standing over the city room teletypes and watching the Holy Season dispatches pour out of Germany.

    I read the bulletin from Cologne about the synagogue that had been desecrated on Christmas Eve.  I saw copy that the Berlin police had found the slogan "Juden Raus" (Jews Get Out) in letters a foot high painted over commercial billboards.  The cold, mechanical machinery typed out the grim news that Berlin cops had also broken up a demonstration of neo-Nazi students who met in a park, raised the swastika and sang the songs that hadn't been sung since 1945. 

    Or, at least, hadn't been publicly sung.

    I read about smashed windows, threatening letters and the report — maybe just a report — from a London newspaper that 50,000 teen-age Germans are undergoing training in secret Nazi camps of West Germany to prepare for a fanatical purge of Jews. 

    It depressed me to read it.  But it didn't come as too much of a surprise. 
Jan. 5, 1960, Anti-Semitism 
Jan. 5, 1960, Anti-Semitism     All it did was refresh my memory of two years ago, when I visited the post-Hitler Germany.  The new Germany that we were told was riddled with guilt feelings for the horror it had allowed to happen to the world.

    The Germany I saw was a remarkable place.

    There was no indication, anywhere, that this was the same nation that had wreaked the greatest, most sadistic havoc in the history of the world.  The people were smiling, well-dressed,Germanically plump and exceptionally considerate of American tourists.  Their stores, restaurants and night clubs were jammed.  We Americans were having a recession.  But our very recent enemy was, with the benefit of our financing, enjoying a fantastic economic boom.

    And nowhere was there a sign, a plaque, anything to recall that this wealthy, happy, vanquished country, had once supported the paranoidal whims of a madman dedicated to committing genocide on a whole race of people.  A dedication he damn near fulfilled with what, realistically, had to be their silent approval, and, in most cases, their outright assistance.

    There were, however, no Nazi sympathizers in this post-war Germany.  It was almost as if they wanted you to believe that Hitler was at the head of an invading horde who occupied them against their will. 

    But if you looked closely, you couldn't quite believe that.

    The latest outrages teletyped from Germany have refreshed my memories of other things I saw and heard.

    I remember the blond young man who goes to college at night and works as a tourist guide during the day.  He walked with a limp and his right arm hung uselessly from the effects of five years in a Russian prison camp.  "Nazis?"  he told me.  "They will never come back.  We know that Hitler was wrong. Besides, we like Americans too much.

    "But," he added, "someday we could have trouble with the English.  They're not like you Americans.  They're too arrogant."

    And I remember the U.S. Army major in intelligence who told me:  "Nazis? Sure!  They're starting up again.  You'd have to be a fool not to see it.  What are we doing about it?  Nothing, pal.  Not a thing."

    And the Jewish waiter who said, "I was a purser on ocean liners before the war.  Now I'm a waiter.  When I go for a job here, there are none.  I came back because, even though I'm a Jew, I'm a German first.  But for the Jew, nothing is different.  Nothing has changed.  There is still no place for us in Germany."

Nazi Business as Usual

    That was two years ago.  And, I'm afraid, they were prophetic words.

    There were 175,000 Jews in Berlin before World War II.  There are only 7,000 there today.  And most of them are the elderly.  The "Germans" who came back to die in the fatherland that Hitler had denied them.

    But the paint smearings, the street gangs and the smashed windows have started again.  The smoldering, insane hate is bursting into flame again. 

    And again, I'm afraid we'll just sit by for a few years, and let it happen.
Posted in Columnists, Front Pages, Paul Coates, Religion | Comments Off on Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Jan. 5, 1960

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on January 5, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 5, 1943, Hedda Hopper  
Sign a Bomb!

Jan. 5, 1943 — Hedda Hopper says: The first thing Bob Hope did when he heard that Bing Crosby's house had burned down was to phone from Arrowhead and ask the family to move in with them. But Bing's four boys are living with Bill Goodwin, a neighbor, and Dixie is at Larry Crosby's. Bing stays at a Hollywood apartment until his picture, "Dixie," is finished. It's a strange coincidence that in the picture, owing to Bing's carelessness, he starts five fires — burns down two houses, two theaters and a river boat … One of the first to reach the scene of the fire was Bette Davis. It was through the burning of a Christmas tree that she was all but marred for life.

Camarillo Street via Google maps’ street view.

Faulty wiring in Christmas tree lights was blamed for a fire that swept Crosby’s house at 10500 Camarillo on Jan. 3, 1943. The fire destroyed everything but the living room, kitchen and servants’ quarters, including a large collection of Crosby's recordings and sports trophies.

Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood, San Fernando Valley | 1 Comment

Nixon’s Role in Settling Steel Strike

Posted on January 5, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 5, 1960, Nixon
Jan. 5, 1960, Nixon
Jan. 5, 1960, Nixon 

Jan. 5, 1960, Kennedy

Jan. 5, 1960, Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins — Hollywood's mixed-up young movie star! And why does Jerry West go to pieces against a mediocre team?

Jan. 5, 1960: The Times publishes what’s known in the trade as a “tick tock” on Vice President Richard Nixon’s role in resolving the steel strike that had paralyzed American industry. And the editorial page lobs a few darts at Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. An analysis of Nixon and the steel strike is far beyond the scope of this blog, but it’s interesting to note the newspaper’s tone toward Nixon and Kennedy. According to a March 23, 1960, analysis by James Reston, Nixon won little support from labor because of his intervention in the steel strike.

March 23, 1960, Nixon

Posted in Film, Hollywood, JFK, Richard Nixon | Comments Off on Nixon’s Role in Settling Steel Strike

Teachings of Mazdaznan Cult Exposed

Posted on January 5, 2010 by lmharnisch

Jan. 5, 1920, Briggs

“When a Feller Needs a Friend,” by Clare Briggs.

image
Jan. 5, 1920: The Times quotes the writings of Otoman Zar-Adusht Hanish: "To raise one's vibration and interest it is well to speak sentences on one breath, such as inhaling through the nostrils for four seconds and upon exhalation speaking slowly. Open, O Thou World-Sustaining Sun, the Entrance unto Truth, hidden by the vase of dazzling Light!" Of course, “Health and Breath Culture” has been reprinted and is widely available.

Posted in #courts, art and artists, books, Comics, Religion | 1 Comment

Food Poisoning Kills 9

Posted on January 5, 2010 by lmharnisch
Jan. 5, 1910, Auto

Jan. 5, 1910: A manly man car, built for a Russian prince.

Jan. 5, 1910, Baker Electric

A clean, dainty electric for the ladies. “Any girl could learn to operate the Baker after 30 minutes’ instruction…. Moves like a drifting cloud.”

Jan. 5, 1910, Cover
image
 
Jan. 5, 1910: It was impossible to choose one story today.

First, there’s the deaths of nine people who were killed by ptomaine poisoning in some preserved pears at the Valdez home in Sawtelle … And the massive undertaking to build grandstands for Aviation Week at Dominguez Junction. Work continues around the clock with 400 men on the day shift and 100 men on the night shift, The Times says.  The grandstands are 750 feet long, 250 feet wide and rise to a height of 40 feet and require 15 carloads of nails, The Times says … And finally, mining man George Mitchell buys a Panhard armored automobile built for Prince Orloff, who rejected the car out of concerns that it might not be sturdy enough to withstand an attack.  The price is $17,000 [$388,112.31 USD 2008].

Posted in Food and Drink, Front Pages, Transportation | 1 Comment

Matt Weinstock, Jan. 4, 1960

Posted on January 4, 2010 by lmharnisch
 

   Jan. 4, 1960, Predictions


 

Contest With Clam

Matt Weinstock     A friend  of a friend who had gone clamming near Pismo Beach asked Viola Swisher, "Would you like a clam?"  Viola, who covers ballet for the drama department and loves steamed clams and clam chowder, said yes.

    She realized instantly this was a mistake.  The clam handed her was a fearsome six inches across and alive. 

    From that moment a desperate contest ensued.  She wanted to be friends with the clam, which she named Charley, but she knew it would be unwise to coddle it lest it get the upper hand, or even the lower hand, when it snapped its shells together.

    She put it in the refrigerator, then wondered if it would be too cold.  She started to take it out, then decided the change of temperature might be harmful.

    SHE BECAME AWARE also that Charley had a personality.  When she tentatively tried to pry it apart it stuck out its tongue at her, or maybe it was part of his whole body, then withdrew it.

    The next time she took it out of the refrigerator she swears Charley purred, but with bubbles.

image[27]    Mustering her courage and closing her eyes, she opened it and dropped it in boiling water.  Later she tasted it but that's all.  Too rubbery.

    Charley is gone now and Viola's glad.  She never envisioned the day she'd be a clam sitter for two days.

::


    A WOMAN inspecting an exhibit of violently abstract paintings in an L.A. art gallery found them repugnant and remarked, "I suppose I'm wrong to dislike them but I think this is self-expression at its most undisciplined."  Her companion, a man who is an art authority, soothed, "Why not regard them simply as studies in color and composition?"

    The lady took another look and said, "Let's call them studies in decomposition!"

::


    INSOMNIA
I lie on this side, then
    on that.
My mind whirls 'round on
    a mem'ry spree.
The arm I lie on goes
    to sleep.
Oh Morpheus: Why not
    take all of me!
        –GINNY LENZ

::


    KID STUFF — When James Bell's daughter, 6, tried to find room for her Christmas toys she said she wanted to give her old but still good toys to poor children.  "I think we better call the Celebration Army," she said . . . En route to Arrowhead, Katy, 6, described a sudden mountain hailstorm: "Look, Molly, it's raining little ice cubes!"
  
Jan. 4, 1960, Peanuts 
Jan. 4, 1960, Peanuts
SAM PONTON, fish and game writer for the Antelope Leger-Gazette, is surprised I never heard of his solution to the surplus pigeon problem, as follows:  After catching, pluck and clean, then refrigerate for two or three days and bake in a 325-deg. oven, breast side up.  Baste occasionally with wine, preferably white.  Serve with fried hominy and cranberry jelly.

::


    THE MYSTERY of the scaffolding — unused for six months — on the County Engineering Building, 108 W 2nd St., deepens.  A spy reports the new scaffolding put up last Tuesday was not the same as that taken down, for reasons that are inscrutable, the day before.  It appears we may have a first-class boondoggle here.

::


    TWO TV EXECUTIVES were discussing what to do with a performer with a  reputation as an adult delinquent and one said, "If we could only find a spot for him that we could be sure no one ever listened to!"  Without realizing it, he may have voiced the solution to one of the great problems of the day.

::


    MISCELLANY — Part of the E on the "Eat Here" neon sign on a Sepulveda Blvd. hamburger place is blacked out, Jerry Custis reports, and it seems to state, "Fat Here" . . . And Scotty Rosenberg saw a motorist trying to nudge onto Hollywood Freeway from the Gower St. ramp furiously biting his finger nails . . . Incidentally, the worried look on the faces of out-of-state drivers is genuine.  They're terrified of L.A. traffic.  Even those who come here every year say it's the worst they ever saw.
Posted in Columnists, Comics, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, Jan. 4, 1960