Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Nov. 14, 1959

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Mash Notes and Comment

Paul Coates    "Dear Mr. Coates:

    "Humorous though your column about taking your wife with you to Japan was, I just wanted you to know that it did the hearts of many women good to have you come right out and say you are glad your American wife is as she is, and not the servile Oriental type.

    "We get so much silly drivel these days by men who want all the good things this modern world offers, yet evidently want wives of a bygone era, those 'dedicated to the needs of men.'

    "Thank goodness the best and smartest young men recognize there is much more to life and to marriage than simply having a woman to wait upon them.

    "Good for you.  You're a fine writer.  It was good to see a man write an honest column like that."  (signed) Ruth King, Los Angeles.

    -That was no man.  That was my wife.

::

Nov. 14, 1959, Roman Pochylski     (Press Release)  "It is said by the working psychiatric force that there is a very thin line bordering the genius from the moron.

    "It too follows in the field of comedy — a microscopic boundary between the humorist as opposed to the ham hock.  But Tom Lehrer is a wit one cannot serve on rye.
   
"He is the master of the absurd, and the caustic.  At gatherings, he usually is referred to in chic conversation as the 'Elvis Presley of the Avante Garde,' and just as handsome.

    "Certainly no sideburns, but a faint Listerine scent about him that makes him wonderful to be near.

    "And Tom Lehrer is all man — never swears, always tells the truth.
   
"Quite a strange phenomenon for a gentleman in the theater, one must admit.

    "Tom Lehrer and I first met through his record.  He recorded satirical ditties while teaching at Harvard.  Purpose of this was to make a little pin money to buy gas for his car.

    "I wore the grooves out in learning by heart his 'Masochism Tango,' 'When You Are Old and Gray' and the lifting 'Poisoning in the Park' — and sang them constantly in the shower.

    "Seven years later, we met.

    "I told Tom my feelings and he understood — for 200,000 other girls had worn out their records, too.

    "Having a competitive spirit, I decided to woo him.

    "One day, we spoke of marriage.

    "Tom told me with kindness that it was out of the question, for we weren't compatible . . . " (signed) Audrey P. Franklyn, Public Relations, Hollywood.

    –Those Listerine-users!  They turn their nose up at everything.

::

    (Press Release)  "Sen. John F. Kennedy is a man with an enormous head and a small body.
   
"At least, that's the way Kennedy's pretty wife, Jacqueline, says he would appear if she were drawing a picture of him.

    " 'He's much more serious than I thought he was before I married him,' says Mrs. Kennedy in an article in the current Look magazine.

    " 'He looks young,' she adds, 'but he's never been a boy.  After I got to know him, I went out and took a course in American history.' " (signed) Public Relations Dept., Look Magazine, New York.

    -Nothing wrong with his head, Mrs. Kennedy.  Give him a decent haircut and he'd look like the rest of us.

   
   

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | 2 Comments

Carl Reiner Explains All About Klutzery

Nov. 14, 1959, Carl Reiner

Nov. 14, 1959, 31 Flavors

Nov. 14, 1959, Sports  

Braven Dyer writes about the death of W.L. "Pop" Guthrie, a Warner Bros. location manager and USC fan who had adopted the football team in 1926 and had been sitting on the Trojan bench for many years. Guthrie had a fatal heart attack at his desk at the studio, The Times said. He was 77.

Nov. 14, 1959: Carl Reiner calls himself a “wractor,” a “writing actor” … And mince pie ice cream. I don’t think Baskin-Robbins has had it in a while. 

Posted in Film, Food and Drink, Hollywood | Comments Off on Carl Reiner Explains All About Klutzery

School Board Sells Downtown Property

Nov. 14, 1909, Comics
Clare Briggs on the day after Halloween.

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Nov. 14, 1919: Here’s one of the problems of research – a story about the sale of Mercantile Place, which is so well known that the reporter doesn’t say where it is. 

June 12, 1904, Mercantile Place

June 12, 1904: Aha! It was between Broadway and Spring Street, and 5th and 6th streets.

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Sept. 3, 1906: The Board of Education closes the Broadway and Spring Street entrances to Mercantile Place.

Feb. 15, 1924, Arcade 
Feb. 15. 1924: The remodeled Mercantile Place opens as the Mercantile Arcade Building—an indoor shopping center.

  

Voila! The Broadway Arcade via Google maps’ street view.  

Posted in Architecture, art and artists, Comics, Downtown, Education | Comments Off on School Board Sells Downtown Property

November 14, 1909: Nude Man Prances on Bunker Hill

November 14, 1909:  The problem with identifying the man gamboling about the top of Angel Flight* without clothing is that none of the women who complain to police have taken a good look at him.

And Eddie Foy offers advice to aspiring actors: “When you next visit a theater, note how few real actors there are in the company. With some, every word spoken is distinct, every action suits the word and the audience clearly understands, not only what the actor is doing and saying, but why he is doing and saying it. On the other hand, note the indistinctness and the mealy-mouthedness of the majority.” Continue reading

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November 13, 1959: Matt Weinstock

November 13, 1959: Comic panel: "You know what makes people tick -- Artists always seem more sensitive than hardboiled business stiffs like me. Help me, Ames!

The End Is in Sight

Matt WeinstockBravely ignoring the tear-inducing smog which was seeping in through the woodwork, the gentlemen of the copy desk yesterday, between, editions, went into their daily seminar titled “Whither Drifteth?”  Their despondent conclusion, delivered to my desk, is as follows:

“Meteorological trends indicate it will never rain again in Los Angeles.  If this becomes fact, it is safe to predict that by 1975 there will be no one left except perhaps a few standby guards.  Their job will be to keep an eye on public buildings to see if they dry up and blow away or disintegrate in the smog.  Their reports will be of value, of course, when examined in some future era by scientists seeking to determine wha hoppen.  You are welcome to this information free.” Continue reading

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Nov. 13, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

November 13, 1959: Dear Abby

 

Hucksters of Horror Tell How to Succeed

Paul Coates, in coat and tieI listened in on a trilogy of success stories this week.

They were about three local-boys-who-made-good.  Their ages averaged 25.  Each was married, with two to four children.  None had any special educational advantages.  In fact, two never finished high school.

Yet, today, they’re earning between $25,000 and $50,000 a year apiece.  Tax free.

They live in good neighborhoods, drive good cars, wear good clothes.  Their neighbors respect them, and apparently the police do, too.  Because none of them has so much as one arrest to mar his record.

Continue reading

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist


 Nov. 13, 1950, Hedda Hopper 
 
Nov. 13, 1950: Ginger Rogers has friends over to watch three hours of dance excerpts from her movies with Fred Astaire.

Posted in Columnists, Film, Hollywood | 1 Comment

Movie Star Mystery Photo

Nov. 9, 1959, Mystery Photo
Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: This week’s mystery star is Jane Frazee, above, in “Kansas City Kitty,” June 19, 1945. 

Sept. 8, 1985, Jane Frazee

Sept.8, 1985: The Times reports the death of Jane Frazee at the age of 67.

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: Lili Gentle!

Nov. 10, 1959, Mystery Photo Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: “Introducing Mr. Timmy – more formally known as Timothy Glenn Tryon, son of Republic’s beautifully young star, Jane Frazee, and Glenn Tryon.” 

Here’s another photo of our mystery guest with what I believe is a first for the Daily Mirror – a mystery baby! Please congratulate Don Danard, Jeff Hanna, Carmen and John C. Marshall for identifying her.

Nov. 11, 2009, Mystery Photo Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: “Marjorie Montgomery makes a cholo coat of Guatemalan cotton, worn by Jane Frazee, at the left. Vera Ralston models a Western Fashions casual,” Jan. 2, 1947.

Here's another photo of our mystery woman with a mystery companion (how about those shoes?). Please congratulate Kylie for identifying her!

Please congratulate Jeff Hanna, Carmen, Mary Mallory and Mike Hawks for recognizing Ralston.

Nov. 12, 2009, Mystery Photo Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: Jane Frazee in “Gay Ranchero.” Presumably that’s Roy Rogers under all the paint.  I think just about everybody recognized him!

Here’s our mystery gal with a mystery companion. Please congratulate Nick Santa Maria for identifying her and Jeff Hanna, Carmen and Dewey Webb for identifying yesterday’s mystery companion.

2009_1113_mystery_photo_02 Los Angeles Times file photo
Jane Frazee in a 1975 handout photo. Please congratulate Megan, Lee and Thom; Brent Walker, Mike Hawks, 

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | 34 Comments

Reporters Walk Out on Rockefeller

 

Nov. 13, 1959, Times Cover
 
New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s plan for separate news conferences for print and broadcast reporters backfires when the TV and radio crews in Los Angeles walk out on him.

Nov. 13, 1959, Lovers 

Louie Malle’s New Wave film “Lovers” is just plain immoral, Philip K. Scheuer says.

Nov. 13, 1959, Sports “Bruins Tiff Wolfpack?” Keith, can you translate that for me?

 

Nov. 13, 1959: Smog clouds the view on Broadway, looking south from 1st Street … And a temporary employee with the U.S. Forest Services admits setting the Angeles Crest fire that burned 14,000 acres and killed two firefighters.

Posted in Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Richard Nixon, Sports | 3 Comments

Hard Cider Is a Soft Drink

Nov. 13, 1919, Horse Meat 
 
Someone had fun writing this story. But “Remember the Mane"?

Nov. 13, 1919, Cider

Cider, even hard cider, is a soft drink.

Nov. 13, 1919, Doughnuts

 

Nov. 13, 1919: Pastry was flying at the Lewis Bakery, 448 S. Hill St., after Thomas H. Whitfield complained that he was being charged too much for three doughnuts. He says a "ferocious woman" hit him with six cupcakes and a plate, but that he couldn’t escape because his face was covered with sticky pastry.

Posted in #courts, Food and Drink | Comments Off on Hard Cider Is a Soft Drink

Few Killers Are Executed, Reports Show


Nov. 13, 1909, Death Penalty 

Nov. 13, 1909, Thumb
 

Nov. 13, 1909: More than 100 murders were committed in the 30 years since the capital punishment law was passed, but only five killers from Los Angeles County have been executed, The Times says. A convicted killer has a 1-in-20 chance of being executed, statistics show.

A severed thumb is the key evidence in the trial of Burt Thornburg on charges of trying to burglarize the store of Yee Sam, 515 N. Main St. … And a judge drops charges against a motorcyclist accused of going more than 30 mph. (He said his motorcycle wouldn’t do 20 mph).

Posted in #courts, Homicide, Transportation | Comments Off on Few Killers Are Executed, Reports Show

November 12, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Serious Slapstick

Matt WeinstockAs you may have read, that was quite a comedy of errors the other night in the little city of Cypress in Orange County.

On a tip that Louis Ross Lord, 35, road camp escapee, was there, two Norwalk deputies, D.W. Llewelyn and D.J. Hawkins, went to a house on Sumner Pl.

When Lord opened the door and saw them, he struck Llewelyn, knocking him down.  Llewelyn got out his gun and shot at Lord and he went down.  As Llewelyn bent over to see if Lord was wounded, Lord jumped up and knocked him down again.  He hadn’t been shot, he’d fainted. Continue reading

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November 12, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Nov. 12, 1959: Mirror CoverThe Mirror follows the Lillian Lenorak story. Below, Paul Weeks profiles suspect Tord Ove Zeppen-Field. Continue reading

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Nov. 12, 1949, Hedda Hopper 
 
Nov. 12, 1949: "I wish Metro would find a good dressmaker for Judy Garland instead of making her rip off those much-needed pounds. What if she is fat? A clever dressmaker can hide the bumps.”

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Former Nixon Aide Kills Family, Self

Nov. 12, 1959, Times Cover  

Lifeguard Duffie Fryling pries his arm out of a shark's jaws while swimming near Paradise Cove. Fryling, who was treated for cuts on his wrist, says he eluded several other sharks in rushing to the beach.

Nov. 12, 1959, The Lovers

The Lovers” is opening at the Beverly Canon.

Nov. 12, 1959, Jeane Hoffman

Jeane Hoffman takes a look at Rocky Marciano’s future. 

Nov. 12, 1959: Charles Richard Gardner, 38, is found dead at his Pebble Peach home next to the bodies of his wife and two children in an apparent triple murder and suicide. Unfortunately, we don’t have the rest of the story, so there’s no explanation of Gardner’s connection to Richard Nixon.

Posted in Richard Nixon, Suicide | 1 Comment

IWW Official Lynched After Shots Are Fired at Armistice Day Parade

 Nov. 12, 1919

Nov. 12, 1919, Centralia, Wash.
 

Nov. 12, 1919: An AP dispatch says a mob in Centralia, Wash., hanged an IWW official –originally believed to be Britt Smith and later identified as Wesley Everest – for allegedly being one of the union members who fired on an Armistice Day parade and killed a former serviceman in the resulting riot. Three other men were killed and two more were wounded, the AP said.

Posted in Homicide | Comments Off on IWW Official Lynched After Shots Are Fired at Armistice Day Parade

Illinois Mob Lynches Two Men

Nov. 12, 1909, Lynching 
 

Nov. 12, 1909: A mob in Cairo, Ill., goes on a murderous rampage, lynching a Will “Froggy” James, an African American, and Henry Salzner, who was white. Sheriff Frank Davis tells Illinois Gov. Charles S. Deneen: "The streets are filled with people and they are crazy. They are storming the jail now and are trying to batter down the doors. I called for volunteers to help suppress the rioting and not a soul would help me. I must have troops."

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November 11, 1959: Matt Weinstock

A Dog’s Life

Matt WeinstockSeveral weeks ago Glen Shahan’s miniature schnauzer, Henry, developed a cough.  When it persisted, the veterinarian recommended that Henry’s tonsils come out.  This was done but poor Henry continued to wheeze, and the other day Glenn, ABC TV publicist, took him back to the vet for examination.

“There’s nothing more I can do,” the vet said.  “The only thing now is to send him to Palm Springs for a week.  That ought to clear it up.”

“You’re kidding,” Glenn said.

“Oh no,” was the reply, “you just put him on the bus and I’ll arrange to have him met and picked up in a station wagon and he’ll stay in a nice, sunny place.” Continue reading

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Nov. 11, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

November 11, 1959: Mirror cover: Crazed Killer Hunted in Palm Springs Case

John Law Gets Sort of Rough Now and Then

Paul Coates, in coat and tieFor a minute.  Talk to him for just a minute and you know that he’s not the man who looks for trouble.

He’s a quiet man.  Everything about him is quiet.  His voice.  His manner of dress.  The way he walks into your office.  He makes no noise.

Age:  Mid-40’s.  Distinguishing characteristics: None.

He’s just one of the 2 1/2 million people in this city.

What sets him apart from the rest — for today, at least — is his story.

“I manage a cafe,” he starts.  “It’s a nice place.  Family type.

“When my partner and I took it over seven years ago, it had a bad name.  We worked hard to make it clean and respectable and that’s what it is now. Continue reading

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

 
Nov. 11, 1948, Hedda Hopper 

Nov. 11, 1948: Edgar “Slow Burn” Kennedy dies of throat cancer at the Motion Picture Country Hospital. “He had been ill quite a long time and suffered untold agonies,” Hedda Hopper says. 

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