“I walk alone,” the voice on the phone told me, more as an apology than as a boast. “With me, it’s habit. I guess I never learned any other way.”
The voice was a man’s and a drawl. It continued: “Funny I should be calling somebody like you for help after all these years of going it alone.”
The time was about 3:45, yesterday afternoon.
“What do you need?” I asked.
“I need-” he started, and stopped. “Is this phone tapped?”
“No.”
Continue reading
| |
| Nov. 19, 1956: "Jose Quintero, bright young director of the "Long Day's Journey Into Night," is a rage overnight. He's a Hollywood boy who couldn't make good in his hometown — tried as an actor there and came to a little theater project in Greenwich Village. Mrs. Eugene O'Neill saw his direction for "The Iceman Cometh" and insisted he direct the O'Neill autobiography." |
| |
| A lot of letters written to Ann Toth, who was the roommate of Elizabeth Short – the Black Dahlia, were listed on EBay. The vendor carefully noted that the letters were from the 1950s to the 1970s, rather than from 1946, when Toth lived with Short at the home of Florentine Gardens executive Mark Hansen. The vendor also noted that none of the letters were written by Toth. Instead, there are letters from a son, a bill for auto insurance, employment contracts, a receipt for the purchase of a television set and miscellaneous letters of transmittal, etc. |
| Clare Briggs on “That Guiltiest Feeling.”
|
| Nov. 19, 1919: Pietro Buzzi, operatic tenor, is take to the psychiatric ward of county hospital after being removed from a Hollywood studio. According to a 1916 story in The Times, he portrayed Kaiser Wilhelm in an unidentified Universal film. |
| |
| Nov. 19, 1909: The Moquis of Arizona, now known as the Hopis, throw some Mennonite missionaries out of Oraibi. |
Everyone remembers certain of his teachers, particularly the ones who inspired or stirred him, even if he has lost touch with them and never sees them now.
Julius Sumner Miller, physics instructor at El Camino College and KNXT commentator, is more fortunate. His old math prof, the revered Robert Ernest Bruce, of Boston University, lives in retirement in Redlands. Miller occasionally visits him.
They recall the great men of the Boston U. faculty and how they literally radiated knowledge and instilled in their students a respect for learning.
On a recent visit, during such a discussion, Bruce, now in his late 80s said, “Julius, I think you are now entitled to call me Robert.” Continue reading
While we’re all gathered here together, in this smoke-filled room, I’d like to say a few words in behalf of politicians.
They are our friends. Behind that stodgy facade that they put up, they’ve all got hearts as big as Daddy Warbucks’.
And what they do, they do in our best interests.
I am prepared, I might add, to give you an example.
You remember, a couple of months ago, when Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois drafted a resolution calling for a government expenditure of $200,000 to permit himself and his 99 colleagues to fly to Waikiki to welcome Hawaii into our union of states? Continue reading
| |
| Nov. 18, 1955: While on tour in Chicago with “The King and I,” Yul Brynner worked on a doctorate in philosophy at Northwestern and gave drama lessons to the rest of the cast, Hedda Hopper says. |
|
Nov. 18, 1959: Shirlee Garner Witty seeks a divorce, saying that her husband was always making snide remarks. Witty competed for the title of Miss Universe in 1956 even though she was a wife and mother, because at that time married women weren't banned from the beauty contest.
|
 “The Sound of Music” opens with more than $2 million in advance ticket sales. |
| “You Know I Can’t Get Better.” |
|
| Hey, Keith, will the Bruins smite USC in their tilt? |
Aug. 19, 1938: Joe Seewerker and Charles Owens find a windmill on a farm at Garfield Avenue just north of Gage Street. Below, the area today, via Google maps’ street view. It’s interesting to note that Seewerker refers to Mayor Fred Eaton’s role in the aqueduct because he’s usually overshadowed by William Mulholland.
| |
| Aug. 24, 1938: Joe Seewerker and Charles Owens find evidence of an old brickyard in Chavez Ravine and touch on the Chinese Massacre.
Note: The original run of Nuestro Pueblo concluded in 1939. I’m going back and picking up the entries that I missed the first time. |
| Dance tonight at the Roma, 616 S. Hill St.
|
| Nov. 18, 1919: The housekeeper of a downtown rooming house is sought in the robbery and murder of the proprietor, W. Frank Sheets, and police are also looking for her husband and an associate in the killing.
Police say that the housekeeper, Margaret Evans, was secretly married to Philip Gargano and that witnesses identified photos of Gargano and Alfonso Bassano as the two men seen running from the Santa Anita rooming house after the killing. A pistol found near the rooming house was registered to Gargano, police say. |
|
|
| Nov. 18, 1909: In Chicago, Bruno Verra testifies against Vincent and Joseph Altman, brothers charged with several bombings and arson fires on behalf of the carpenters union. Verra says he was paid $5 each to hit non-union carpenters and later got a steady job "to commit lawless acts" for $25 a week. |
Well, today’s the day. If we get past it we’re in. Of course, no one is sure for what or for how long.
Today, according to Kenneth D. Wilkins of Manhattan Beach, a momentous event in world history will occur. He doesn’t know what.
Wilkins bases his theory on a careful study of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Pyramidologists, he told reporter James Hubbart, believe the mathematics of its construction are too profound and precise to be coincidence.
They contend that such things as the length of the solar year in days and weeks, the earth’s solar diameter and distance from the sun and the equinoxes are built into the famous stone monument in Giza. They regard it as a “witness in stone” to man’s prophesied 6,000-year span on earth, ending, the way they figure it, Jan.28, 2001. Continue reading
The 1907 Shriners convention in Los Angeles inspired all sorts of commemorative trinkets. Most of the items were pins, badges, glassware and ceramics, which frequently turn up on EBay. Here’s something I’ve never seen before, a spoon that was evidently issued by the lodge in Wheeling, W.Va. Bidding starts at $9.95. |
Young schoolchildren who are found after tests to be retarded are placed in a Point 1 group, as it is called, and given special tasks to perform.
A little boy in such a group in a suburban school was instructed as part of his therapy to plant radish seeds in the school garden. Soon he harvested a large, healthy crop. As he proudly took his radishes into class the teacher discreetly asked why he had planted them in a circle instead of rows.
“That’s the way you get them in the market,” the boy explained innocently.
A commercial vegetable grower heard of the incident and now grows his radishes in circles. The idea, he realized immediately, is a boon to stoop labor required for the job. Continue reading
Jerry Baker, the promising young coffee-house poet, appeared in my office yesterday afternoon, shortly after being released from Lincoln Heights jail.
He sat down, gazed fondly at an open pack of cigarettes on my desk, and informed me, “You smoke my brand.”
I offered him one. He took it, thanking me.
“I’m here,” he said, “because I’m told you’re a fair man. You have a good reputation. You come very highly recommended.”
Borrowing a match, he lit his cigarette.
“In fact,” he continued, “not one, but two of my cellmates recommended you as the man to see.” Continue reading
| |
| Nov. 17, 1954: "Touch Connors has been signed to play a Confederate soldier — and he'll be mighty handsome in that uniform — in 'Five Guns West' with John Lund and Dorothy Malone."
Eventually “Touch” Conners became known as Mike Connors, star of “Tightrope” and “Mannix.” “Five Guns West” gets 2.9 stars on imdb, slightly less than “Robot Monster” but more than “Eegah.” |
Nov. 17, 1959: Investigators speculate on whether a bomb exploded on a National Airlines DC-7B that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 42 people. Ultimately, no cause was ever determined. … And Gene Sherman reports on border drug traffic.
Jack Smith writes: "It is easy enough to find statistics suggesting that we are soft — mentally, physically and morally. More people are in hospitals. More people are swallowing pills. More people are in jails. More people have tics and syndromes. The New York Yankees are falling apart and the heavyweight champion of the world is a Swede."
Robert R. Kirsch says John Gosling’s “Ghost Squad” is “a must for every true crime buff.” ”Mother, May I Go Steady?” |
|
Nov. 17, 1959 Jeane Hoffman had a typically interesting story about all the wannabe teams hovering around Los Angeles. The Chargers—yes, they started in L.A.—were the closest to reality. Then there were the Stars (baseball) and Jets (basketball), teams that had to overcome several factors to become real franchises. The Chargers looked like the real deal, heading to the Coliseum in 1960. "We get fourth choice in Coliseum dates but that's enough for seven home games," said Tom Eddy, assistant to Barron Hilton. The Stars were lined up with names like Branch Rickey as president of the Continental League and Mark Scott, host of TV's "Home Run Derby," as team vice president. But where to play if they really got going? Hoffman said the Stars were talking to Walter O'Malley about playing in the Dodgers' yet to be built ballpark "but if he doesn't let them in they'll have to go to Orange County—or to court." As for the Jets, who apparently had Bing Crosby involved, they were confident that an L.A. franchise would come their way. Said Len Corbosiero, "If we can't get a new franchise, we hope to move out an established team." –Keith Thursby |
| The Chicago players have been waiting for more than a month for their money from the World Series.
|
| Nov. 17, 1919: Pacific Coast League umpires want the league to pay for pressing their pants. |
