Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 28, 1959

Posted on December 28, 2009 by lmharnisch
 

Dec. 28, 1959, Mirror Cover

Bus Crash felt in Redondo Beach

 

Paul Coates          (News item) TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 20.  A double-decker bus and a cattle truck collided head on today, killing nine persons and injuring 32.

          The bus was a Greyhound special added for holiday travelers.  On the Los Angeles-to-New Orleans run, it was only minutes out of Tucson when the crash occurred . . .

::

          “I’m the commission agent for Greyhound in Redondo Beach,” Helen Stierli told me.  “I know that I’m not supposed to become personally involved in these matters.  It shouldn’t be any of my business, really.

          “But in a small town — well, things are a little more personal than in a big town.”

          Mrs. Stierli explained that she first heard about the crash on Sunday night. 

          “Immediately, I had the terrible feeling that I’d sold somebody a ticket on that bus,” she said.  “I was restless and worried all night.  Then, Monday morning, I rushed to the office and checked the list.

image           “And sure enough,” she added, “there was Mrs. Rodden and her two sons.  I saw those names and I just broke down.”

          (The news reports read:  Dead:  Johnny Lee Rodden, 7, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rodden, Redondo Beach.  Injured: Mrs. Margaret Rodden, 38; Charles Rodden Jr., 15.) 

          Mrs. Stierli continued: “I’ve been in Redondo 11 years, but I didn’t know the family.  Not until the week of their trip.  They were going to spend Christmas with Mrs. Rodden’s mother in Lubbock, Texas.

          “Just the mother and the boys were going.  Mr. Rodden was going to stay in Redondo and work.  I don’t know.  Maybe he was going to join them later.

          “She called me three times about the trip.  The first time was just for information.  The second time was on how much baggage they could take.  And the last time was to ask if she could wait until Friday to pay for the tickets.  That’s when her husband would get his paycheck.

          “I remember the last call.  She said she was turning it over on her mind whether she should drive, instead.

          “I told her . . .” Mrs. Stierli hesitated.  “I told her that it was safer to go by bus.  You see, I was in a head-on auto crash once.  And five years ago, my husband lost a leg in a traffic accident. 

          “Maybe that’s why I can’t keep out of this case.  I know the sorrow and the hardship.  At times like these the financial strain can make it so much worse, and the Roddens were just average people.  They weren’t rich.”

          Mrs. Stierli sighed.  “The day she came in for the tickets, they were $10 more than she’d figured.  She’d misadded.  Two round-trips from here to Lubbock were $60.45 apiece, plus the half-fare ticket for Johnny Lee.  The $10 difference seemed to mean a lot to her.
 
Asks About Refund
 

          “That’s why, after the accident, I checked with Greyhound downtown right away to find out about getting their fare money back for them.  That way, before they came in, I would know how to handle it.

          “I’ve never had a situation like this before.”

          “And what happened?” I asked Mrs. Stierli.

          “Well,” she replied, “the man in the traffic office checked company policy for me.  He told me that when they brought the tickets in, I could refund for the distance from Tucson to Lubbock and the return trip.

          “But,” she added, “they’d have to pay for the trip from Los Angeles to the time of the accident.  That’s the policy.

          “I can’t say as I understand it,” she told me, “bu
t there’s a lot of things nowadays that I don’t understand.”   

Dec. 28, 1959, Abby

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on December 28, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 28, 1939 Hedda Hopper 
Dec. 28, 1939: Hedda Hopper calls “Of Mice and Men” one of the best pictures of the year.

Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

The Age of Anxiety and the Age of Maturity

Posted on December 28, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 28, 1959, The 1950s  

Dec. 28, 1959, The 1950s

Dec. 28, 1959: “Should the president have consulted Congress before ordering Americans into action?

“Would there be time, in the next war, to consult Congress?

“In this new age, what was the role of infantry, battleships and conventional weapons?

“Should American troops be dispersed overseas or kept home to man the walls of a ‘Fortress America?’ 

“How much reliance could be placed on the allies of the United States?

“In short — Where do we stand? How do we survive?

“Americans searched for a single, all-embracing answer and found none.

“So the 1950s began as the age of anxiety.”

Posted in Politics | Comments Off on The Age of Anxiety and the Age of Maturity

The Empty Prophecy of Prohibition

Posted on December 28, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 28, 1919, Raid  
Detectives Brown, Barnett and Harry Raymond in a raid on a club in Little Tokyo.

image

Dec. 28, 1919, Prohibition

Dec. 28, 1919:  The Times analyzes the first six months of Prohibition and finds that many predictions have not come true. Some minor offenses have decreased, but violent crimes have risen sharply, police say. Instead of needing fewer officers, the LAPD says it needs to double the force and build bigger jails for all the prisoners charged under the new laws.

"The best prophets all seem to have died in time to get written up in the Bible. Many things that were expected to happen after last July 1 have not happened; some unexpected things have. No prognosticator who held forth last June seems to have been altogether right, unless he confined his remarks to the obvious and then qualified that," The Times says.

Posted in #courts, Food and Drink, Front Pages, LAPD, Nightclubs | Comments Off on The Empty Prophecy of Prohibition

An Actress and Her Dog

Posted on December 28, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 28, 1909, Cover 

"Five iron manhole caps, each weighing more than 100 pounds, shot into the air last night when "burn-out gas" in the sewer between Spring Street and the northeast corner of 1st and Main streets blew them higher than the trolley wires."

olga_nethersole_crop

It’s our old friend, Olga Nethersole!

Dec. 28, 1909, Nethersole

Dec. 28, 1909: I couldn’t decide on a single story in today’s paper because the whole page is interesting. There’s the unfortunate deaf and dumb man who is arrested for being drunk and is booked as John Doe No. 2 … A couple of con artists passing themselves off as the American Salvation Army … Preparations for a huge project to tunnel through the Newhall grade … And an interview with Olga Nethersole that’s quite unlike the celebrity interviews published today.

A sample: "Nethersole has become famous through doing plays that concern questionable damsels who kiss like a house on fire and in the last act tear up the rugs and generally rough-house the furniture of the flat and cry: 'You shall not leave meh; you shall not leave meh; yow, yow, yow.' "

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on December 27, 2009 by lmharnisch

Dec. 27, 1938, Hedda Hopper 

Dec. 27, 1938: “On the ‘Wizard of Oz’ set they've added 50 schoolchildren to the 150 midgets, being sure the kids were the same size. Makes it mighty difficult for Miss MacDonald and her staff of schoolteachers, because the minute a scene is finished they grab the kids for their lessons and nine times out of 10 what they find on their laps is a midget.”

Posted in Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Predictions for the 1960s

Posted on December 27, 2009 by lmharnisch

Dec. 27, 1959, Cover

Dec. 27, 1959: The Times leads with the Nixon-Rockefeller story. 

image 

Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) expresses strong support for Nixon.

 Dec. 27, 1959, Kyle Palmer

Times Political Editor Kyle Palmer, as to be expected, is all for Nixon.

Dec. 27, 1959, Nixon, African American Workers 

Nixon calls for job training for African Americans. Note the statistics on complaints, mostly  from African Americans, about job discrimination by government contractors.

Dec. 27, 1959, The 1950s 

The 1950s: A decade of shadow and light.

Dec. 27, The 1950s

"Our age," said the historian Arnold Toynbee, "will be remembered, not for its horrifying crimes or astonishing inventions but because it is the first age since the dawn of history in which mankind dared to believe it practical to make the benefits of civilization available to the whole human race."

 Dec. 27, 1959, Bert Heath

The Times publishes the obit of Bert Heath, the pet editor.

Dec. 27, 1959, Hedda Hopper 

Hedda Hopper picks next year’s stars: Juliet Prowse, Roger Smith, Dwayne Hickman and Shirley Knight.

Dec. 27, 1959, Hedda Hopper 

Keep your eye on Jo “Thirteen Ghosts” Morrow!

Dec. 27, 1959, Hedda Hopper 

  Also watch for Maggie “My Mother the Car” Pierce!

Dec. 27, 1959, Sports
Casey Stengel praises the Dodgers' Walter Alston.

 
Dec. 27, 1959: Sure, it’s easy to make fun of these predictions, whether they are political or in film. The most poignant lines are from AP roundup on the decade, in words that ring true 50 years later: “Hunger and illiteracy, aggravated by the ‘population explosion,’ lay heavily over vast areas of the earth.”
Posted in Dodgers, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Politics, Richard Nixon, Sports | Comments Off on Predictions for the 1960s

Angeles Ship Launched

Posted on December 27, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 27, 1919, Clare Briggs 

“Wonder What a Man Window-Shopping Things About?” by Clare Briggs.

Dec. 27, 1919, Angeles

Dec. 27, 1919: The Angeles, an 8,800-ton cargo ship, is launched at the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. 

Posted in art and artists, Comics, Transportation | Comments Off on Angeles Ship Launched

Minister Vanishes After Predicting Christ’s Return on Christmas Day

Posted on December 27, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 27, 1909, Lynching

Dec. 27, 1909: A mob in Hurley, Va., lynches Henry Pennington after he killed Samuel Baker, who was on his way to a Christmas program with his family. Pennington had run away, but Baker’s wife tricked him into coming back by asking him to help her take the body home. When Pennington returned, she grabbed his pistol and shot him. Pennington got the gun away from her, shot her and tried to kill the two Baker children and a companion.

Dec. 27, 1909, August Vollmer 

The Rev. E.A. Devennis flees after promising Portland, Ore., worshipers that Christ would return for Christmas.

Notice the mention of Police Chief August Vollmer of Berkeley. Vollmer took a one-year appointment as police chief in Los Angeles from 1923 to 1924 and is often credited with many reforms in law enforcement. He was replaced by Chief R. Lee Heath, who was followed in 1926 by Chief James Davis, a prominent figure in the corrupt Frank Shaw administration of the 1930s. 

Dec. 27, 1909, Shoplifters 

A vegetarian hotel in Kansas City!

Dec. 27, 1909: The stores and police are relieved that the Christmas shoplifting season is over. One woman is arrested after stealing an envelope of merchandise held as evidence in another shoplifting case.

Posted in City Hall, Downtown, Food and Drink, LAPD | Comments Off on Minister Vanishes After Predicting Christ’s Return on Christmas Day

Matt Weinstock, Dec. 26, 1959

Posted on December 26, 2009 by lmharnisch

Paper in a Trash Pile

Matt Weinstock     Another frantic call came into the county sanitation office the other day.  This time it was a woman on the west side excitedly reporting she'd inadvertently discarded her divorce papers in the trash can.  She had to get them back, she said desperately.

    Fortunately she'd gotten the number of the collection truck, 36261.  If it could be stopped, wherever it was, and unloaded, she'd rush over and look through the stuff herself.

    Frank Bowerman told her this was impossible.  He explained that when a load is picked up and emptied into the hopper, a hinged pressure plate packs it tight until capacity is reached.  Only thing to do was to go to Landfill No.1 on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where it could be dumped, and look.

Dec. 26, 1959, Predictions     She appeared there with another couple, located the load, and after more than three hours of pawing through four tons of debris, found her precious divorce papers.  She thanked the superintendent and triumphantly headed home.

   

::


    THE WAY A fellow in the next booth was telling it, the driver of a panel truck doing a steady 55 on Santa Ana Freeway kept reaching out the window and banging the side with a tire iron.

    A policeman, baffled by this procedure, caught up with him and shouted, "Do you mind telling me what you're doing?'

    "Well, you see, officer, this is a two-ton truck and I've got three tons of canary birds in the back and I have to keep one ton of them in the air."

::


    LINES AT 5 P.M.
It doesn't take cable,
It doesn't take rope,
To be tied up, unable
To see any hope.

Frustratingly pent by
The cars all around,
To learn what is meant by
The term, homeward
    bound.
    –RICHARD ARMOUR

::


    UNFORTUNATELY this city has no one around, as far as is known, to record the picturesque speech of city and county officials as Herb Caen of the S.F. Chronicle recently uncovered up there.  The champion phrase-maker was a former supervisor named James McSheehy.
   
Studying plan for a public building, he said, "It has all the earmarks of an eyesore."  On another issue he thundered, "The handwriting on the wall is as clear as a bell."

    Others:  "Let's call a shovel a shovel, no matter who we hit!"  "Ladies, I pave here some figures which you can carry in your heads, which I know are concrete!"  "Yes, I agree that it is all water over a wheel, but now it has come back to haunt us!"  His all time classic was probably, "You can't straddle the fence and still keep your ear to the ground!"

::


    A PERSON WOULD suppose that New Zealand is shielded by distance from some of the effusions of our civilization but apparently not.  This letter from R. White, Northumbria, Henderson, Auckland, was received by Jack Brown of Armed Forced Radio Services in Hollywood:

    "On local networks here we get such a heavy dosage of rock n' roll, clanging geetars, popular slang and jargon that it really does a great country like the United States as injustice.  Fortunately, your correspondent knows your country is not populated entirely by 13-year-olds."

    Are you sure?

::


    FOOTNOTES — A man playing cards in the Horseshoe poker parlor in Gardena was also listening to music via an earplug attached to a portable radio and reading a pocket book.  Furthermore, a spy reports, he was losing . . . Jim Albert, 8, seeing the first flying fish on a trip to Catalina Island, exclaimed, "Mommy, when we come next time can I take some birdseed to feed the flying fish?"

Dec. 26, 1959, Abby

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Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 26, 1959

Posted on December 26, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 26. 1959, Mirror Cover

Tipping Tip: Don't Forget Your Barber

Paul Coates    As we approach the turn of a new decade, the soundest advice I can offer you for a long, full life is never lie to your doctor or your lawyer.

    And above all, never stiff your barber at Christmastime.

    They are hypersensitive, sentimental souls with long memories, razor-sharp razors and a lust of revenge.

    At least, Maury Mandell is.

    He's the boys' beautician at Rothchild's, and trims such noteworthy scalps as Tony Martin's, Brod Crawford's, Gig Young's and Tony Curtis'.

    But Maury's biggest spender had always been the shoe king, Harry Karl.  He hands his barber a holiday tip that approximates what most people hand out for a down payment on a house.
 
   And since Maury usually spends it in advance, he waits all year for Karl's Christmas visit.

Dec. 26, 1959, Rockefeller     A year ago, Karl left town shortly before the holidays.  He was off on an extended European jaunt and didn't return for six months.

    Early in June, he walked into the barbershop and up to his customary chair.

    With a flourish, Maury whipped the sheet across the customer's midriff, nodded to him, and cried jovially:

    "Merry Christmas, Mr. Karl."

    I neglected to tell you, didn't I, about the American pilot who was on aircraft duty in the Pacific during World War II?

    Without a doubt, he was the most ineffective flier on the carrier.  He could never get his plane off the deck, or back on, without a near accident.  His guns and equipment were never properly checked before take-off.  And he couldn't seem to keep in formation on a mission.

    Finally, his commander called him aside,

    "You haven't done anything right since you joined up," he said bitterly.  "You're a detriment to the entire service.

    "One more mistake," he added, waving a warning finger, "just one more, and I'm going to have you grounded."

Prays He'll Do Right

    That night, the pilot went to his quarters and said an urgent prayer.  "Just once," he pleaded, "let me do everything right."

    The following morning, he woke up feeling vastly reassured.  He made a perfect take-off from the deck.  His guns had been checked and all were in excellent working order.  He stayed right in the flight plan until the enemy planes broke the formation.

    But even then, he was responsible for shooting down three Japanese planes. 

    Then he sighted the carrier, swooped down, made a perfect landing, jumped out and saluted smartly.

    "Well, sir," he said proudly, "how about that?  I didn't do anything wrong."

    The officer looked up at him, smiled, bowed low and replied:

    "Ah so.  Just one r'itta mistake." 
   

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on December 26, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 26, 1963 
Dec. 26, 1963: “I was horrified by ‘The Victors,’ from which I expected so much. It's the last picture in the world you'd want to see this season. I'm amazed at Carl Foreman, who wrote 'River Kwai' and 'Guns of Navarone.' He seemed to go out of his way to show the American solider at his brutal, bestial worst. One shoots a puppy dog that follows a transport. Grimmest scene shows a deserter being shot on Christmas Day, with hundreds of GIs looking on in the snow as Frank Sinatra sings 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.' Oh, no!”

And it's not on Netflix! –lrh

Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Movie Star Mystery Photo

Posted on December 26, 2009 by lmharnisch

Dec. 21, 2009, Mystery Photo
   Los Angeles Times file photo

 
Just a reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on Monday and reveal the answer on Friday … or on Saturday if I have a hard time picking only five pictures; sometimes it's difficult to choose. To keep the mystery photo from getting lost in the other entries, I move it from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, etc., adding a photo every day.

I have to approve all comments, so if your guess is posted immediately, that means you're wrong. (And if a wrong guess has already been submitted by someone else, there's no point in submitting it again).

If you're right, you will have to wait until Friday. There's no need to submit your guess five times. Once is enough. The only reward is bragging rights. 

The answer to last week's mystery star: Daria Massey!

Dec. 22, 2009, Mystery Photo Los Angeles Times file photo
Here’s another photo of our mystery star. Please congratulate Mike Hawks and Greg Clancey  for identifying him.

Dec. 23, 2009, Mystery Photo Los Angeles Times file photo Here's another photo of our mystery guest with a mystery companion.

Dec. 24, 1959, Mystery Photo Los Angeles Times file photo
Here’s another photo of our mystery fellow with a mystery companion. Please congratulate Mike Hawks, June Dare and Dewey Webb for identifying yesterday’s mystery companion.

Dec. 26, 2009, Mystery Photo Los Angeles Times file photo
Christmas interfered with the mystery photos, so here’s another one of our mystery guest with another mystery companion.

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | 35 Comments

Predictions for 1975

Posted on December 26, 2009 by lmharnisch

Dec. 26, 1959, Dondi

“All That Is Behind You, Darling.”

Dec. 26, 1959, The Future

Dec. 26, 1959: Somehow, the forecasters failed to predict the energy crisis, leisure suits and disco. 

Dec. 26, 1959, St. Vibiana's
Cardinal McIntyre celebrates Mass at St. Vibiana’s.

Dec. 25, 1959, Bells of Bethlehem 

“The Bells of Bethlehem” by Aimee Semple McPherson (d. 1944) will be performed at Angelus Temple. By the 1980s, the temple was showing a film of the production.

image

Dec. 26, 1959, Stella Stevens

Stella Stevens makes news for posing for the centerfold of the January 1960 issue of Playboy. [She was paid $21,921.90 USD 2008 ]. She also says she kidnapped her son Andy in a custody dispute. 

Dec. 26, 1959, Mouse That Roared

Peter Sellers “is a good enough actor, but … he fails to create anything memorable” in “The Mouse That Roared.
 
image 

Darrall Imhoff shows off his hook shot.

Dec. 26, 1959, Sports

Sid Gillman may be going to the Chargers.
Posted in art and artists, Comics, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Religion | Comments Off on Predictions for 1975

Hips Are Coming Back!

Posted on December 26, 2009 by lmharnisch
 
Dec. 26, 1919, Briggs  “When a Feller Needs a Friend,” by Clare Briggs.

Dec. 26, 1919, Harry Carr
 
Dec. 26, 1919: New York is on the verge of another police scandal, The Times’ Harry Carr writes and hips are coming back. “I did not know that hips had gone or where; but if that fact holds any message for any aching soul, why there it is: hips are coming back!”

Posted in art and artists, Comics, Fashion, Nightclubs | Comments Off on Hips Are Coming Back!

Fliers Spend Christmas Overhauling Planes for Aviation Week

Posted on December 26, 2009 by lmharnisch

Dec. 26, 1909, Girl of the Golden West

Frances Nordstrom stars in “The Girl of the Golden West” at the Burbank.

 Dec. 26, 1909, Aviation Week  
 

View Larger Map

7th and Los Angeles Streets, via Google maps’ street view.

Dec. 26, 1909: Fliers work on their airplanes on Christmas at the official Aviation Week Committee repair shop at 7th and Los Angeles Streets … And “drunkenness and jealousy over a woman were the motives for a duel with knives between two Mexicans on Mitchell Avenue near East 7th Street last evening.”

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Matt Weinstock, Dec. 25, 1959

Posted on December 25, 2009 by lmharnisch
 

Dec. 25, 1959, Nixon

Ribbing St. Nick

Matt Weinstock     In December, 1823, Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) wrote a poem titled "A Visit From St. Nicholas" which, as everyone knows, began:

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring — not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

    I keep wondering what old Clem would think if he knew what has been done to his timeless verse.

    The most noted parody for years has been the paisano version "Feliz Navidad, Amigos!" which includes this lilting bit:

Santa is down at the corner saloon,
Muy borracho since mid-afternoon.
Mama is sitting beside la ventana
Shining her rolling pin para manana.

image     This year parodies busted loose all over the place.  Some sort of compulsion seems to have gripped people to create their own.

    The Mt. Washington Star, monthly stencil-printed newspaper published by two youngsters, Ed Carpenter and Pete Coonradt, had a Christmas Fable with this couplet:

Santa was dressed all in red
    and he looked just
    like granny,
The only thing was,
    he needed Vic Tanny.

Rich Fowler cut loose
    with one which began:
'Twas the night before
    pay day and all
    through the house
The women were stirring
    and starting to grouse;
"We need shopping
    money!" was the gist
    of their plaint–
But I showed them my
    pockets, where money
    there ain't.

    Noel Toy and Carleton Young uncorked a 28-stanza job for their Christmas card which opened:

'Twas the night before
    Christmas and all
    through the pad
Not a creature was stirring,
    not even old dad.
The chick had her nylons
    draped on a chair
(This Freudian slip showed
    she's still a bit square.)
I said, "Babe, this whole
    Christmas kick is a rig,
Just stop with that jazz
    before I flip my wig.
He's taking payola,
    this Santa Claus creep
So quit bugging me and
    go on back to sleep.

::


    SPEAKING OF parodies, every year about this time I get to thinking of comedian Fred Allen and the classic satire on "The Christmas Carol" he repeated annually.  In it he played a reluctant and depressed St. Nick who found the world in such a sad state that he announced, "I ain't agoin' to ride tonight!"

    But such were the pleadings of a small boy that he finally agreed and as he harnessed his reindeer and took off, he shouted his unforgettable "Maaayreee Christmas!"

    Fred's death in 1956 was one of the great losses of the departing decade.

Dec. 25, 1959, Abby

::


    AMONG OTHER reasons why postal clerks get gray was an incident overheard by a lady named Nola in the branch post office at 9th and Broadway.  A sweet little lady asked the clerk, "Do you have 1-cent stamps?"  He said yes and she wanted 12 of them.  As she dug in her purse she added thoughtlessly, "How much will 12 of them be?"

::


    HERE AND THERE — Melissa Caron isn't claiming a record but her hands are numb from gift wrapping more than 1,000 packages for a Brentwood drugstore . . . A beleaguered salesgirl in a Crenshaw Blvd. store was overheard muttering, "With all this confusion I'll be surprised if Santa over there doesn't get gift-wrapped" . . . Lady on the phone: "We all know Christmas has its commercial aspects but I think some stores sunk to a new low this year, I received a brochure from one store describing the very gifts I'd just bought — but at reduced prices.  For instance, I paid $2.90 for a child's present and it was advertised in the after-Christmas sale for $1.77.  I think they could have waited a few days."

::


    FOOTNOTES — You'd hardly recognize Jayne Mansfield on her Christmas card family portrait- she wears a black wig . . . Actor Marc and writer Fanya Lawrence broke loose from the chains of tradition in their card.  It states, "Merry Christmas and a Glad New Year."  Instead of happy . . . Fate worse than death dep't .: A young woman on Broadway was overheard telling a companion, "The minute I heard about their divorce I cut them off my Christmas card list!" . . . Lady named Mary Louise: "Every Christmas I hope I'll get two things- a square cut emerald and half a dozen dish towels.  I made it 50% again — the dish towels."

 
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Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 25, 1959

Posted on December 25, 2009 by lmharnisch
 Dec. 25, 1959, Mirror Cover

Mash Notes and Comment

Paul Coates    "Dear Paul,

    "Following is a little Christmas spirit I dreamed up while writing the Keely Smith-Louis Prima show here in Las Vegas:

    "A WESTERN
    CHRISTMAS

" 'Twas the night before
    Christmas
And all was serene
Not a cowboy was stirring
On our TV screen.
A lasso was hung by the
    chimney with care
In hopes that Saint Nick
    would be caught in its
    snare.

"Young Junior was lying
Secure in his bed
With guns by his side
And a spear by his head;
Then he soon fell asleep in
    his fortress supreme
And the heroes he worshiped
    came to life in his dream.

Dec. 25, 1959, Bethlehem"All at once from the lawn
There arose such a clatter,
Junior grabbed both his guns
To look into the matter.
In the dark all he saw were
    some shadows that
    hovered
So he cried, 'Don't you move
    'cause I've got you all
    covered.'

"The moon broke the gloom
And shone down on the
    snow,
Gave a luster of midday
To the objects below;
His heart pounded wildly,
    for Junior saw then
A stagecoach on runners
    drawn by eight mounted
    men.

"Now who is that driving?
It can't be Saint Nick:
He's tall, and he's wiry-
Why, it's Maverick!
More rapid than eagles
His coursers they came
And he howled and he
    hooted
And called them by name.

"Now, Cheyenne, now Sugarfoot,
Lucas McCane;
On, Ringo, On, Zorro.
Wahoo!  Bronco Lane.

"So up to the housetop
The cowboys all flew
With the coach full of toys
And Wyatt Earp, too:
And then in a twinkling,
He heard on the roof
The patter and clatter
Of each horse's hoof.

"He ran to the fireplace
And guess what he found-
From the chimney
Marshall Dillon came in with
    a bound.
He looked like he had
A big hump on his back
For a bundle of toys
Were all stashed in his pack.
"Junior said, 'Have a drink?'
And he offered a cup;
Matt Dillon was willin'
So he answered, 'Yup!'

"And then all at once
All the rest came in view.
The heaven sent seven
And Maverick, too.
They spoke not a word
But went right to their task
And filled all the stockings.
What more could one ask?

"There were Bowie knives,
Shotguns and bullets galore,
Enough ammunition
To start a new war.
Some real cowboy boots
And some real wild Western clothes
And when they were through
Up the flue they all rose.

"They sprang on their
    mounts
And before you could say
'A word from the sponsor'
They went that-away.
But he heard them exclaim
As they rode out of sight
'Those guns are to play with
So peace, and good night'."

    (signed) Sid Kuller,
                Las Vegas

    -And a Merry Christmas from me, too.

   
   

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on December 25, 2009 by lmharnisch
image 
Dec. 25, 1962: "To Harold Lloyd, Christmas has always been a great feast at home. The mammoth tree stands in a high, vaulted room, the center of the family gathering. But Lloyd has been away a great deal this year because the reissue of his old pictures came in at the box office as strong as in his heyday, captured the heart of the world all over again. He never had time to supervise the taking down of 1961's tree and there it stands this year–gleaming, golden, fabulous. Some of the green has faded to a soft olive-beige; it's a fragile old beauty but will see this year out."

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Christmas, 1959

Posted on December 25, 2009 by lmharnisch
City Hall Cross
Photograph by the Los Angeles Times

Dec. 25, 1959, City Hall

Dec. 25, 1959: City Hall is lighted, as usual, for Christmas. The tradition was discontinued in the 1970s after a long court battle.

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