Pastor Accused of Stealing Church Funds, Eloping With Choir Member

Posted on December 22, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 22, 1909, Cover

Dec. 22, 1909: I had a difficult time picking a story this morning because the entire page is fascinating. First there’s the pastor from a small town in Indiana who is accused of stealing money from his church and eloping with a member of the choir … Then there’s the boy who was bitten by a rabid dog … The young girl who died after being run over by a truck (The Times blamed the parents, who didn’t take her to a hospital out of “racial distrust” — they’re Italian, you see) … and a powerful “stray” electrical current that paralyzes a man working on the pipes beneath the firehouse of Engine Co. 7 and several firefighters who come to his aid.

Posted in Front Pages, health, LAPD, Religion | 1 Comment

Matt Weinstock, Dec. 21, 1959

Posted on December 21, 2009 by lmharnisch
  
image

Death in December

Matt Weinstock     The National Safety Council has focused its apprehension this Christmas on the office party.  Before me as I write this is its Drinking and Driving Fact Sheet, a sobering document.
 
  It begins, "During 11 months of the year, drinking is a factor in approximately 30% of all fatal accidents.  In December the figure jumps to 55%."

    Another punch line, "It takes at least three hours to oxidize (eliminate) one ounce of pure alcohol (about two cocktails)."

    And then this one, "Coffee or other stimulants will not offset the effects of alcohol."

    NOW JUST A MOMENT, NSC.  Are you telling us that drinking black coffee won't bring someone out of his alcoholic lassitude?  Are you stating that we've been wrong about its well known medicinal values?

image

Dec. 21, 1959, 1950s      You know, gentlemen, this could be heresy.  Don't you realize that black coffee is the traditional prop on which tottering humanity has depended for generations?  Why, it's as basic as the movie scene in which the unfrocked doctor, prevailed upon to perform a delicate operation or deliver a baby in a wilderness cabin, shouts hoarsely, "Boil water!  Boil all the water you can!"

    Come to think of it, the safety people may have the problem upside down.  Why not simply urge people to drink coffee instead of liquor at office parties?

::


    NOT LONG AGO reporter Don Dwiggins wrote about an L.A. inventor.

    The other day he received a handsome Christmas card from him with this personal message:  "Thanks for the nice article about me.  My next item will be  a button radio operated by the sun.  No larger than a dime.  You will write about me again in about 8 years.  What I want to make will be a ray that will destroy anything within a mile.  Merry Christmas."

::


    DREAMER
Now that disc jocks can
    no longer beguile,
Perhaps music will come
    back in style.
        –OSCAR TUCKER

::


    A WEST L.A. householder wishes to add his complaint to those recorded recently by telephone users before the state public utilities commission.
   
His phone bill last month was unreasonable and on his indignant inquiry he was told there was a $40 charge for a call to Covina.  He'd made the call, he said, but not $40 worth.  Someone checked and found there'd been a tabulating machine mistake — it should have been 40 cents — and he would be credited for the amount.

Dec. 21, 1959, 1950s     But when he got this month's bill the $40 charge was still on it.  Screaming like a wounded eagle, he said he wouldn't pay it and wanted to know why such a mistake couldn't be corrected in a month. 

    "Well, after all," he was told, "these things take time!"

::


    MOST FRUSTRATED parents in town are the Ed Hardings.  He's a child welfare and attendance worker.  They took their 4 1/2-year-old daughter to see Santa Claus and afterward her mother asked, "What did you tell Santa you wanted for Christmas?"

    "You'll see!" was the mysterious response.

::


     AN enterprising radio reporter decided to broadcast "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" in 12 foreign languages and was going along fine, with the co-operation of UCLA foreign language departments and consulates, until he came to Thailand. 

Dec. 21, 1959, Abby
    "I'm sorry we have no such greeting," a man at the Thailand consulate said.  "We're Buddhists, you know."

::


    AT RANDOM — Lady on the phone asks a typographical posy for Robert Burke, driver of  a 42 bus.  A woman passenger left her briefcase on the seat when she got off at Clinton St.  The driver found it when the bus reached Melrose and he stopped, ran the block and gave it to her and ran back.  His explanation:  "It looked important" . . . There's a gripe about the parking meters springing up all over town.  Some people think the fees — 1 cent for 6 minutes, 5 cents for 30 and a dime for an hour — are exorbitant . . . Mike Molony overheard an actor type fellow in a Beverly Hills bat cave say to his companion, "So this joker is bucking for Hamlet like always!"

 
Posted in Columnists, Film, Matt Weinstock, Richard Nixon, Rock 'n' Roll | 1 Comment

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 21, 1959

Posted on December 21, 2009 by lmharnisch
 Dec. 21, 1959, Mirror Cover

Tokyo Rose Story Stirs Up Little Ire

Paul Coates    If you're a newspaperman, it's nice to stay in the good graces of your readers.  But it's not essential.

    There's no hard-and-fast rule in journalism that the customer is always right.

    I, for example, have a little more leeway than a small businessman.  I deal in views and opinions in their multitude of shades and degrees, and therefore, I'm permitted the luxury of offending a certain number of paid-up subscribers.

    It's a justified luxury, I like to think, because when your product is opinion, you're bound to make enemies. 

    It doesn't take many years in the profession, either, to know exactly what to avoid writing if you don't want your editor to be overwhelmed with letters demanding your resignation.
   
Take the rabies vaccination law.  Or the abolition of capital punishment.  Or psychiatric care — rather than jail terms — for the criminally insane.
   
Dec. 21, 1959, Shah Wedding

No newspaperman would come out in favor of any of these if his judgment were dictated by apparent reader reaction to his views.

    There are certain opinions, and facts, which  automatically stir large groups in our society to pick up their pencils in violent protest.

    Two weeks ago, I was sure I'd found another tender spot in reader reaction.  I printed an interview with Iva Toguri d'Aquino, known to the world as Tokyo Rose.  It was the first interview which she has ever granted.

    In it, much of her side of the story came out.  She told of her attempts to get out of Japan, both before and during World War II.  She stated that there was nothing that she considered treasonous in her Radio Tokyo broadcasts to U.S. troops, and pointed out that she was actually selected for the "disc jockey" job by Allied prisoners of war, none of whom where punished for their participation in the same broadcasts.

    And although her statements were supported by documented proof, I expected a flood of angry letters.  Through legend, the name "Tokyo Rose" became synonymous with the treachery of the enemy in the Pacific.

    But for some reason, the letters failed to come.  There were a few.  But they were actually outnumbered by correspondence from individuals who were just plain interested in hearing Mrs. d'Aquino's account of what happened.

    One of the most interesting came from a man who is currently employed as an electrical engineer at a local aircraft plant.

    For two years, he listened to the broadcasts of Mrs. d'Aquino (who, I should point out, never used the name Tokyo Rose — she called herself Orphan Ann.)

    "As a radio operator with the 1st Marine Division," he wrote, "I had the opportunity to tune in to any broadcast that could be received in the South Pacific.
image   
"The three main broadcasts of interest were the Australian, the Armed Forces Radio and Radio Tokyo. The Australian broadcasts were not too good, as they were directed toward the Aussie humor and musical tastes.  However, both the Armed Forces Radio and Radio Tokyo had good American music along with their respective versions of the news.

    "I remember 'Orphan Ann'. We called her 'Orphan Annie'.  Her broadcasts were typical of American disc-jockey shows.  I mean they were of professional caliber, prepared to furnish a maximum of listening entertainment . . .

    "The news reports, always given by male announcers, were so colored that they were utterly ridiculous to anyone having average intelligence . . .

Sweet and Smug

    "As to Orphan Annie's attitude during the broadcasts, the impression I recall is that of one having a sweet, sugary voice a little on the smug or haughty side, giving the effect of superiority.

    "Whether this attitude was real or put on for the show, I don't know, but since we were winning the war while she was broadcasting, we felt we had the last laugh. 

    "If there was one question that the troops all had about her broadcasts, it wasn't about her position as a possible traitor.  It wasn't about the biased news, but, rather, it was 'Where in hell does she get all the new late released records?' "

    And that, come to think of it, is one question I forgot to ask her.

 
Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 21, 1959

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on December 21, 2009 by lmharnisch
 Dec. 21, 1958, Hedda hopper 
Dec. 21, 1958: Jeffrey Hunter says of making “The Last Hurrah”: “Working with Spencer Tracy was great. Some of the most telling scenes between me and my wife, played by Diane Foster, had to be cut out in editing the overall picture, which is essentially the story of a character. My role is chiefly that of an observer. In the original script there was a well-defined subplot about Diane and me, but now she has only two scenes or so left in."

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

Christmas 1608

Posted on December 21, 2009 by lmharnisch

 
Dec. 21, 1959 Christmas 1608

"The General Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Islands," on display at the Huntington Library.

Dec. 21, 1959, Christmas 1608

"Sleeping in his boat, accidentallie one fired his powder bag, which tore the flesh from his body and thighes, nine or ten inches square in a most pitiful manner, but to quench the tormenting fire, frying him in his cloaths, he leaped overboard into the deepe river where ere they could recover him he was neere drowned."
 Dec. 21, 1959, Christmas Past
And another version of an old Christmas.
Dec. 21, 1959, Race Relations

“A Negro Doctor” writes to The Times.

image
The shah says he is marrying Farah Diba because he wants a son to succeed him.

Dec. 21, 1959, Hemingway 

Ernest Hemingway’s favorite TV show is “Col. Flack” and he also is a fan of “The Real McCoys.” 

Posted in books, broadcasting, Television | 1 Comment

Voices – Erich von Stroheim

Posted on December 21, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 21, 1919, Von Stroheim 
 

Dec. 21, 1919, Von Stroheim

 
Dec. 21, 1919: Edwin Schallert profiles Erich von Stroheim and talks about his new film, "Blind Husbands."  “Everything Stroheim does is [characterization]; he can't talk to you for five minutes without starting to act.”

Posted in Film, Hollywood | 1 Comment

Officials Seek Location for Aviation Meet

Posted on December 21, 2009 by lmharnisch
 Dec. 21, 1909, Aviation Meet 

 
Dec. 21, 1909: The racetrack at Santa Anita is eliminated as a place for the aviation meet because there are too many trees. “The site which appears to meet with most favor is on the Pacific Electric and Southern Pacific roads on the way to Long Beach this side of Dominguez station.”

Posted in Transportation | Comments Off on Officials Seek Location for Aviation Meet

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on December 20, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 20, 1957, Hedda Hopper

Dec. 20, 1957: (While Miss Hopper is away, column is being compiled by her staff). Preston Sturges is in Paris writing a screenplay on the most fabulous swindler of our era, F. Donald Coster. Story is based on New Yorker articles "The Metamorphosis of Philip Musica." This East Side barber's son changed his name, became owner of a vast drug chain during prohibition, got away with millions. Scandal rocked the nation in the '30s.

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

Last Civil War Veteran Dies at 117

Posted on December 20, 2009 by lmharnisch

Dec. 20, 1959, Peanuts

Dec. 20, 1959: “Peanuts” characters not only discuss Christmas, but they go to church.
 

Dec. 20, 1959, Christmas Decorations 

W.N. Chandler decorates his home at 13060 Otsego St. for Christmas.

13060 Otsego St., Sherman Oaks, via Google maps’ street view.

Dec. 20, 1959, Civil War Veteran

“What do you mean ‘what is a forager?’ I stole food, that’s what,” Walter Williams said. 

Dec. 20, 1959, Civil War Veteran Dies

Williams first made his claim as a veteran when he filed for a Texas Civil War pension in 1932.

Dec. 20, 1959, Gun Clock

Oh, here’s what I want for my room!

Dec. 20, 1959, Shah

Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran forbids the ritual sacrifice of animals along the route to his palace wedding out of consideration for his bride, Farah Diba.

Dec. 20, 1959, Iron Lung

The Mary MacArthur Memorial Respirator Center was named in honor of the daughter of Helen Hayes and Charles MacArthur, who died of polio. 

Dec. 20, 1959, Gambling Raid 

A raid on a purported gambling establishment captures eight Valley housewives playing panguini.

Dec. 20, 1959, Home Hair Dryer

For the lady on your list.

Dec. 20, 1959, Gallup Poll

Lyndon Johnson is the leading presidential candidate among Southern Democratic voters, a Gallup poll finds.

Dec. 20, 1959, Remington

Primitive electric shavers – headed for the back of the closet by January. 

Dec. 20, 1959, Movies
Hm. “Suddenly Last Summer” or “The Miracle?”

Dec. 20, 1959, Sports
Sports editor Paul Zimmerman profiles Wisconsin coach Milt Bruhn, in town for the Rose Bowl.

Posted in Comics, Front Pages, Obituaries, Politics, Religion, Sports | 2 Comments

Prison for Drunk Driving

Posted on December 20, 2009 by lmharnisch
 Dec. 20, 1919, Dome Cafe

The Dome Cafe has a New Year’s dance contest!

Dec. 20, 1919, Drunk Driving
 
Dec. 20, 1919: People convicted of drunk driving may go to prison, starting Jan. 1, 1920.

Posted in #courts, Food and Drink, Nightclubs | Comments Off on Prison for Drunk Driving

Fire Roars Through Lumber Yard, Threatens Homes

Posted on December 20, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 20, 1909, Fire

 
 

Dec. 20, 1909, Fire

 
Dec. 20, 1909: A fire apparently started by a homeless person roars through a lumber yard and a factory that made doors and window sashes, spreading to an adjoining rooming house and a home.

About 50 horses were rushed to safety as the fire threatened stables at the side and rear of the lumber yard.  “The animals, wild with fear, plunged and kicked and hung back on their halters, fighting the rescuers at every step while the fire engines thundered down upon them from every side,” The Times said. 

Posted in Animals, Downtown | Comments Off on Fire Roars Through Lumber Yard, Threatens Homes

Matt Weinstock, Dec. 19, 1959

Posted on December 19, 2009 by lmharnisch
 

Dec. 19, 1959, Peanuts
Dec. 19, 1959, Peanuts

On Eucalyptus Trees

Matt Weinstock     On a distinct hill, eucalyptus trees are things of beauty, particularly to roving artists, who depict them standing as graceful sentinels against the sky.  Up close as in your backyard, phooey!  In a strong wind the branches, the twigs, the leaves and the buds come crashing down, cluttering everything and impregnating whatever they touch with their pungent Vick's Vapo-Rub odor.  Tree men refer to them as "Australia's revenge."  They were originally imported from there as windbreaks but, turned loose on their own, got away from everybody.

    And so it is that after every breeze I am there with my bamboo rake and aching back, cleaning up the mess. This is also to report that those who adore them esthetically, including the departed Joyce Kilmer, can have them, and that the windstorm last Sunday and Monday was the worst of all time, eucalyptuswise.

    There, I knew I could work in that horrible word somehow.

::

Dec. 19, 1959, Censorship     A POSTCARD addressed to Dr. Frank C. Baxter, "c/o UCLA" somehow came to the UCLA library.  There some bookworm who has a friend with a TV set knew right off that Dr. Baxter is the erudite gentleman who talks about literature on KNXT and also teaches English at SC and forwarded the card across town.  Unavoidably, the bookworm read the message on the postcard:  "Please to where I could find the Bengerman Franklin book which Mr. Baxter is reving."

    Dr. Baxter, thanking the librarian for sending the card, wrote, "I am proud of the literate and articulate quality of the audience that is moved to such response by my efforts in educational television.  I will also send our friendly inquirer important information about Georg Walsington and  his wife, Marta, and about Tomas Jefferstein."

::

    TOO MUCH, TOO LATE
No late TV for me tonight,
My nerves are all ajar.
I've been livin' the life
    of Rooney
And I'm not up to Paar.
    –JUNE R. DRUMMOND

::

    BEING OLDER, Gretchen Geisler, 4 1/2, felt it her duty to instruct sister Heidi, 3 1/2, on the meaning of Christmas.  As overheard by their father, Bill, it went like this:  "There was this man Joseph and his wife Mary was going to have a baby.  Well, they were on their way to Jerusalem and they kept on going along the road but all the motels were filled up.  So finally Joseph stopped at this motel that had its lights on and he knocked on the door and asked the man if he had any vacancies and the man said, 'No, but come on in, and have a drink anyway,' and so."

The rest, Bill reports, stuck pretty well to the script.

::


Dec. 19, 1959, Mass Transit    

A YOUNG MAN, his wife, his sister and his sister-in-law came into the wholesale Christmas tree terminal at 8th and Alameda and bought for different-seized trees from Harold Woolley.  Then the young man said, "Now I want a real ugly little one."  Harold showed him one and he said no, it wasn't ugly enough.  Harold showed him another, which he had considered throwing away, and the young man nodded.  "It's for my mother-in-law," he confided.

::


    ANYONE WHO has listened to a stethoscope knows the sound of a heartbeat is similar to that of a horse pounding down the stretch.  The other day a doctor went to see a patient at his  home and forgot his stethoscope.  After he had arrived back at his office the patient phoned and said, "Hey, doc, you forgot your race result getter!"

::


    FOOTNOTES — The Hollywood chapter of the national Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy has this postscript on its stationery: "Contributions, always welcome, are not deductible.  Neither are human beings" . . . A group of welfare workers were discussing the case of a man of 70 whose family is disturbed because he runs around with younger women.  His answer to them: "Well, I'd rather smell perfume than liniment!"
Posted in Columnists, Comics, Matt Weinstock, Transportation | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, Dec. 19, 1959

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 19, 1959

Posted on December 19, 2009 by lmharnisch
 Dec. 19, 1959, Mirror Cover

Mash Notes and Comment

Paul Coates    (Form letter)  "Kind Friends —

    "A joyous year of rich fulfillment to you all!

    "A severely bitten hand (received when a frightened little dog at our shelter misunderstood my attempts to feed it) has put my typing hand out of commission for  a while.

    "This had made impossible the preparation of our usual Christmas Bulletin.  We are therefore using this means to wish you the joys of the Holiday Season, and to express our loving gratitude for the help you have rendered our little orphan animals in the past.

    "P.S. I have discovered that the operation of an IBM Electric Typewriter (Executive model) places less strain on my injured hand and would enable me to carry on this important phase of our work with far less effort.

    "May I express the wistful hope that Santa might deliver such a machine to us as a Christmas gift, so that I can serve the creatures more effectively?"  (signed)  Rosalie Gordon, president.  Good Shepherd Foundation, Inc., 133 Van Norman Rd.,Montebello.

    –If Santa's got any sense, he won't come near your place while that nasty little dog's running loose.

::

Dec. 19, 1959, Beating     (Press Release)  "Television advertisers are reportedly flirting with subliminal messages again — this time aimed at dogs, states Product Engineering,McGraw-Hill publication.
 
   "The trick would be to transmit supersonic barking, which a dog can hear but a man can't, along with a  picture of a dog-food can.

    "The viewer's dog would bark in answer, and the viewer, presumably, would rush out to the market and buy the food."  (signed) Publicity Dept.,McGraw-Hill Publications, New York City.

    –While you're there, better pick up a bottle of iodine and a box of Band-Aids.

::

    (Press Release)  "Campaign strategists for Sen. John Kennedy have convinced the presidential candidate to make a 'Go for Broke' battle against favorite sons in a number of states.
   
"With Kennedy's popularity slipping, he will need convincing victories against Gov. Di Salle of Ohio, Sen. Morse of Oregon, Gov. Tawes of Maryland and Sen. Humphrey of Wisconsin."  (signed) Publicity Dept., Confidential Magazine, New York City.

    –That Edmund G. (Pat) Brown of Idaho won't be any pushover either.

::

    MIDNIGHT MEMOS:  That ornate Zeppelin hangar, the Moulin Rouge, has long been the last stronghold of lavish show business in Hollywood.  Frank Sennes has never been chintzy about loading the place with beautiful girls, and he's outdone himself with his new Oriental revue.  He seems to have more girls in the chorus than there are customers in the house.

    The show's only flaw is that it is a bit overlong, and a few of the acts would be  helped some by taking one or two less encores.  Not to be included in that category, however, are the Kim sisters — one of the most talented song, dance and just-about-everything-else acts I've seen in quite  a while.

::

    A HOLIDAY NOTE:  For the price of a new toy, kids and adults can catch a special program at Embassy Auditorium, 847 S Grand, tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. There'll be music, entertainment and ice cream and cake for the kids.  Among personalities scheduled to make an appearance are Shelley Winters, David (Mr. District Attorney) Bryan, Nancy Valentine and Bozo the Clown.  Contributed toys will be distributed by churches of all denominations to kids in our town who otherwise might have been forgotten at Christmas this year.

Dec. 19, 1959, Abby 
  

Posted in Columnists, Homicide, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 19, 1959

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on December 19, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 19, 1956, Hedda Hopper 
Dec. 19, 1956: Burl Ives, who played Big Daddy on stage in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" will repeat his characterization on screen. Burl has also been chosen by Don Hartman to play the father in Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" with Sophia Loren and Tony Perkins."

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

Writer Blacklisted by Mistake Clears His Name

Posted on December 19, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 19, 1959, Blacklist 

Dec. 19, 1959, Blacklist

Dec. 19, 1959, Movies 

“Super-Sonic Hell Creatures No Weapons Can Destroy!”


“The Killer Shrews” [What? Only 3 stars on imdb?]  and “The Giant Gila Monster” [2.8 stars on imdb?] now playing at the Avenue Drive-In in Downey!  And of course that Mr. Magoo opus “1001 Arabian Nights,” gets 5.8 stars on imdb. Mr. Magoo = 5.8 stars? 
Dec. 19, 1959: Screenwriter Louis Pollock discovers that he has been blacklisted after being confused with another Louis Pollock. “My wife never lost faith in me," he said. "But I know the boys got to wondering what was the matter with the old man. Beating that mill all day and just barely enough money coming in to keep us together.”

Posted in Film, Hollywood | 1 Comment

Deceived Woman Kills Herself

Posted on December 19, 2009 by lmharnisch

Dec. 19, 1919, Pots and Pans

Beauty and everyday usefulness of aluminum utensils are bound to be appreciated.

Dec. 19, 1919, Suicide

Dec. 19, 1919, Suicide

Dec. 19, 1919: Muriel McMunn kills herself after discovering that she was deceived into marrying a streetcar conductor who claimed to be an Army investigator and vanished shortly after the wedding.

Posted in Food and Drink, Suicide | 1 Comment

On the Frontiers of Medicine

Posted on December 19, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 19, 1909, Hospital Cot

The Receiving Hospital cot where more than 600 died.

Dec. 19, 1909, Hospital Cot
Dec. 19. 1909, Hospital Cot

Dec. 19, 1909: “Within a few days the old rubber-covered cot at the Receiving Hospital in the Central Police Station will be removed, and a new and more sanitary operating stand will take its place. The successor of the old piece of furniture, on which thousands of human beings have been stretched, is nearly completed.”

Here’s an explanation of all the old references to police surgeons. A century ago, trauma patients were taken to the Receiving Hospital at the Central Police Station, 318 W. 1st St.

Posted in Architecture, Downtown, health, LAPD | Comments Off on On the Frontiers of Medicine

Matt Weinstock, Dec. 18, 1959

Posted on December 18, 2009 by lmharnisch

Code 3

Matt Weinstock     Late one afternoon about two weeks ago, as Jack Fuller was driving past Pico Blvd. and Roxbury Dr., en route home from his job at the Hollywood office of civil defense, he saw a commotion inside the door of the market there.  As he watched, two young men ran out, pursued by a third, apparently the owner or a clerk.

    Fuller instinctively braked to a stop.  To his trained eye it looked like trouble, possibly a robbery.  He was a policeman for 10 years, minus three days, during part of which time he was bodyguard and driver for the mayor.  He quit the force in September, 1957, over a sharp difference of opinion with the LAPD high command.  He was denied a work permit for a off-duty TV job.

    FULLER RUSHED OVER and grabbed one culprit, a large fellow.  He wrestled him to the pavement and with some difficulty pinned his arms behind him so others could hold him.

    Then he got in his car, made a fast U-turn and caught up with the second suspect half a block away.  He shook him down and held him against his car with his left hand, kept a foot in position to trip him if he made a wrong move, and with his right hand reached for his microphone.  Civil defense cars have the same radio equipment as police cars.  He gave his old code number, Zebra 7, the address, and said, "Officer needs help.  Code 3."

Dec. 18, 1959, Robber     All this time he was wondering subconsciously what he should have been doing with his right hand.  Suddenly it hit him.  He should have had a gun in it.  Then he remembered he was no longer a policeman, he was a civilian.

     In minutes the area was swarming with boys in blue.  An "officer needs help" call is always a prime emergency.  Five cars and four motorcycles came from West L.A. division, three from Beverly Hills.  They quickly took over the two suspects.  A third, it turned out, got away.

    When the situation was under control a policeman came over to Fuller and asked, "Where's the officer who put in the call?"  Fuller couldn't imagine and silently slipped away.  After all. he didn't want to get taken in for impersonating an officer.

    Recalling the incident yesterday Fuller mused, "I guess I acted instinctively because of my police training.  I sure wish people would learn about civil defense so they could react the same way in case of trouble."

::


    IT HAPPENS every year.  Tina Powell, 4, of North Hollywood, confided her wishes several days ago to a department store Santa Claus.  Yesterday when her mother took her grocery shopping, there was another Santa.

   Dec. 18, 1959, LAAC He said, "Hello, little girl, what's your name?"

    When she told him he said, "What would you like me to bring you?"

    "I already told your brother at the May Company," she said.

    Smothering a snort, Santa said, "I'm sorry, I guess my brother forgot to give me the message."

::


    CABBIES ARE talking about the thing that befell a driver last Monday, the day of the big wind, as he responded to a call at a modern apartment with the pool in the center of the patio.  Cap down over his eyes, leaning into the gale, he walked, plop, right into it, clothes and all.  And although soaked, he got his passengers to their destination in time.
  

::


    THE WAY Don Dwiggins heard it, and it's a little shaggy, Tom Edison was working feverishly in his workshop in Menlo Park when his wife called to him that his dinner was getting cold.  "Not now!" he shouted.  "I think I've got it!  This could revolutionize the world!"  He'd melted some glass, blown it into a bulb, inserted a filament and closed the bulb.  With a deep sigh of expectation he went into the next room and put the ends of the two wires together.  He ran to the door, looked and saw with delight that the light was on.  He rushed over to it and shouted, "Hello! Hello! Hello!"

::

    MISCELLANY — Gangster rubout of Roger Touhy in Chicago recalled the old underworld paraphrase, "He who lives by the Smith & Wesson shall die by the Colt" . . . Overheard by actor Frank Allocca in a Hollywood restaurant, one gal to another, "I don't mind his whims — it's his whams that get me" . . . Another eavesdropping, at the Press Club:  "He's the kind of guy who uses words like 'minimal.' "

 
Posted in Columnists, LAPD, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, Dec. 18, 1959

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 18, 1959

Posted on December 18, 2009 by lmharnisch
 
Dec. 18, 1959, Mirror

Captain Is Dedicated to Prisoners' Return

Paul Coates    Capt. Eugene R. Guild, U.S. Army (ret.), has a few close friends in his home town of Glenwood Springs, Colo.

    Townfolk shy away from him.  He's a distinguished looking man, clean in habits and speech, but his neighbors would feel a little more at ease if he'd pack up and settle somewhere else.

    The conservative element is afraid that the 82-year-old retired Army combat officer is going to give their town a bad name.  That he enjoys an occasional day running river rapids in a tiny rubber life craft doesn't particularly offend them.  That's a harmless little idiosyncrasy.

    But they are bothered by his "rabble-rousing," his continuing fight with the U.S. government over its unwillingness to admit the possibility that more than 3,000 U.S. servicemen may today be prisoners of the Red Chinese.  And its timid refusal to take positive, strong action.

    Yesterday, I reported how the government recognized, with some reluctance, that Communist China could be holding as many as 450 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines from since the days of the Korean war.

    Capt. Guild sets the figure at 3,141. This he arrived at by taking the number of servicemen (4,735) still unaccounted for after the war and subtracting the number of remains which the Chinese finally were pressured into returning to U.S. authorities (1,550), plus 44 others who were later established as dead.

    The Chinese claim they have no more bodies.  They refuse to admit knowledge of ever having held any of the missing men in question. 

    "The U.S. government is still asking the Chinese about the fate of the 450 whom they've established were at one time or another in the hands of the Reds," the captain told me yesterday.  "Over the years I've compiled evidence as strong, or stronger, on dozens of the others."

    The captain, in a voice disarmingly soft, continued:

    "But instead of adding to their list as more information comes to light, the government is backing down, soft-pedaling the issue.

Dec. 18, 1959, Abby

    "The Communists have a habit of secretly holding prisoners. A few years ago, after keeping 289 Spaniards for 11 years and denying it all the time, they suddenly released them.  They've done the same with Italian and German prisoners.

    "The Italians claim that the Russians still have 63,000 of their men. The Germans set their figure at 300,000."

    Today, Capt. Guild heads a loose organization known as "Fighting Homefolks of Fighting Men," made up of 1,000 relatives and friends of still missing GIs.  He gets no salary.  In fact, much of his pension check goes into his crusade.

    "We gather information and we try to keep public interest alive on the issue," he told me.  "The government's attitude is (1) they're dead, or (2) there's nothing more we can do about them than what we're doing now, short of war.

    "This, naturally, scares the public because none of us want war.
   
"What the government doesn't point out is that there's a middle ground. 

    "Instead of wasting postage on perfumed diplomatic notes and keeping men in Warsaw and Panmunjom making token protests," Guild continued, "the U.S. could use severe economic and diplomatic pressures.

    "We, as a nation, could generate worldwide opinion and force the Reds into accounting for the missing men."

Cute Game of Bum Steer

    Capt. Guild shook his head.  "But we don't.  Instead, our government officials deliberately misinform and mislead the men's kin.  In the case of an Army captain, they actually withheld the information that the Chinese admitted having the soldier as a prisoner.  They withheld the facts from the captain's father.

    "Mothers of some of the missing who have been too persistent in their pleas to Washington have actually been visited by the FBI.  I've had post office inspectors come around to see me.

    "These men," the captain, who, himself, lost a son in Korea, concluded, "proved their loyalty on the battlefield.  Now it's time for the U.S. government to prove its loyalty."

   
   

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 18, 1959

A Kinder Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Posted on December 18, 2009 by lmharnisch
Dec. 18, 1955, Women of the Year

Dec. 18, 1955, Hedda Hopper

Dec. 18, 1955, Hedda Hopper

Dec. 18, 1955: Hedda Hopper is named one of The Times’ Women of the Year!

Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood | 1 Comment