Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, Sept. 8, 1959

Sept. 8, 1959, Paul Coates

Paul Coates profiles private detective Fred Otash, one of the more colorful figures of Los Angeles of the 1950s.

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Valentino’s Funeral

Sept. 8, 1926, Valentino

Sept. 8, 1926: Valentino's funeral, invitation only, Church of the Good Shepherd, Beverly Hills.

Sept. 8, 1926, Valentino

Pola Negri "went to the casket moaning in grief and at times sobbing loudly. She lifted the old rose pall and her flowers upon it and kissed the coffin fervidly and many times. She collapsed. Friends lifted her to a divan, where she recovered shortly.

"When the casket had been placed in the crypt in the mausoleum corridor, Alberto [Guglielmi] stood before the unclosed aperture, head bowed and grief-stricken, a pitiful figure. He leaned toward the casket, touched its end with his forehead, kissed it and turned away. He was the last to touch it. The crypt was closed with a marble panel."

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When ‘Bull’ Durham Became ‘Steer’ Durham

 

Sept. 8, 1919, Bull Durham

Sept. 8, 1919: "Bull" Durham with calf-maker intact and a white spot in the shape of the United States. That's one patriotic head of livestock!

March 23, 1924, Bull Durham

March 23, 1924: Bull Durham — redesigned. The U.S. map is gone and the calf-maker has been turned into mountain oysters. 

And then there was the dark day when "Bull" Durham became "Steer" Durham because some ad director was worried about offending delicate sensibilities. I suppose this says something about America gradually losing touch with its rural roots as the 20th century unfolded, but frankly I just find this damn funny.

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Good Girl Becomes a Fallen Woman

Sept. 8, 1909, A.G. Wells

Sept. 8, 1909: A.G. Wells, as drawn by Edmund Waller "Ted" Gale. As before, the Daily Mirror cautions against walking on railroad tracks. Pedestrians and cows  usually come out second best in encounters with trains.

Sept. 8,, 1909, Fallen Woman

The story of Mabel Massey, who fell in with the wrong crowd and ended up living with a man from a prominent family (detectives are withholding their name to shield them from shame).

Oddly enough, this page turns up in the Sept. 8 and Sept. 9, 1909 editions.

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Found on EBay — Pacific Electric

Pacific Electric Sign EBay

This bit of memorabilia from the Pacific Electric days has been listed on EBay. Not cheap with bidding that begins at $899.99.
Posted in Transportation | Comments Off on Found on EBay — Pacific Electric

September7, Matt Weinstock: A Visit to Ojai

September 7, 1959: Mirror Front Page

September 7, 1959: Police Chief William H. Parker advises Los Angeles residents on how to behave during Khrushchev’s visit.

“A state of aloof detachment or uninterrupted pursuit of our daily activities would be very satisfactory to those of us charged with security measures,” Parker says.

The chief “suggested residents realize the world interest ‘in our behavior’ and exercise self-discipline regardless of personal feelings toward the visit.”

And Matt Weinstock goes to Ojai…

 

Posted in Columnists, Front Pages, LAPD, Matt Weinstock | 1 Comment

September 7, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

September 7, 1959: Paul Coates writes about a young woman's experiences in traffic court. Hint: she wore a tight, revealing dress that she made herself, and has flaming red hair.

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movies

Sept. 7, 1925, The Gold Rush

Sept. 7, 1925, Gold Rush

Sept. 7, 1925: "The Gold Rush" is playing at Grauman's Egyptian. "Chaplin is quoted as predicting that the films of the future probably
will be enlarged character presentations which follow one individual
through a series of episodes rather than continuing to revive time-worn
plots that have raised the question: 'What's the matter with the
movies?' "

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

The Might of American Workers

Sept. 7, 1959, Labor Day

Sept. 7, 1959: The Mirror-News has a Page 1 cartoon for Labor Day, showing the might of American workers to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on his upcoming visit to Los Angeles.

Sept. 7, 1959, Editorial Page

The Times editorial page takes a different slant on Labor Day, emphasizing the corruption of the Teamsters in a cartoon by Bruce Russell. Note the attitudes among farmers toward the braceros. As far as these letter writers are concerned the Mexican field workers most certainly don't need a union! … Another writer complains that local schools bankrupt the poor taxpayer and use the money to teach his child how to finger paint … and another reader says that gun control is the first step toward communism and a police state.

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Jazz Musician Syncopates Jail

Sept. 7, 1919, Shoes  

Sept. 7, 1919: C.H. Baker has three shoe stores on Broadway and one on Spring Street.

1919_0907_jazz_jail

African American jazz musician William H.F. Wilkins is put in jail for not being able to "give a satisfactory account of himself." What's an "onion trombone/trambone?" Beats me.

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Poison From a Secret Admirer

Sept. 7, 1909, Car Ads

Sept. 7, 1909: Car shopping a century ago.

1909_0907_briefs

A bottle of wine from a secret admirer nearly kills Mrs. J.G. Cash, Reno telephone operator. Cash went to the hospital because she felt ill and when a doctor prescribed some wine as a treatment, she sent to her home for the bottle. Cash shared a drink with two nurses and all three become quite ill.

The torso of a woman about 20 is found tied in a bag in Ecourse [Ecorse] Creek, near Detroit … and in Spain, peasants beat a bicyclist to death because he shot a dog. 

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Random Shot — Third Street Promenade

Sept. 6, 2009, Diesel
Photograph by Larry Harnisch / Los Angeles Times

I was out at Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade for tomorrow's drawing by Marion Eisenmann and took this photograph of the Diesel display window.

Posted in art and artists, Fashion | 1 Comment

Khrushchev Is Coming to L.A.!


Sept. 19, 1959, Khrushchev Arrives Photograph by Ben Olender / Los Angeles Times

Nikita Khrushchev and his entourage arrive at Los Angeles International Airport, Sept. 19, 1959.

Sept. 19, 1959, Khrushchev

Sept. 19, 1959, Khrushchev
Photograph by Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is coming to visit! Stay tuned to the Daily Mirror for details!

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movies

Sept. 6, 1924, Movies

Sept. 6, 1924: We're celebrating at the Daily Mirror HQ! It's not every day you have Julian Eltinge AND Trixie Friganza on the same page! … and Fanny Brice at the Orpheum!
Posted in Film, Hollywood, Stage | 1 Comment

Seeking Remedies for Anti-Drug Law

Sept. 6, 1919, Comics

Sept. 6, 1919: Looking for a way to save money on clothes in Bud Fisher's "Mutt and Jeff."

Sept. 6, 1919, Addicts

Doctors, druggists and a revenue agent seek ways for patients who legitimately need narcotics to  get them after passage of the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act.

"The Harrison Anti-Narcotic law now does not provide for the treatment of those who have contracted the habit through illness. If opium was taken away from everyone tonight, it would mean that before morning scores of pharmacies would be broken into and thousands of dollars' worth of drugs stolen, for a drug addict will take hazardous chances to obtain the opiate he desires," Dr. John V. Barlow says.

It's been a while since The Times brought out a farm and tractor issue.

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Man Saves Woman From Burning to Death

Sept, 6, 1909, Hero

Sept. 6, 1909: Edmund Waller "Ted" Gale draws Gen. Adna R. Chaffee, head of the Board of Public Works.

Civil engineer W.O. Secor tells a remarkable story: As he was riding the Downey Avenue streetcar at Naud Junction, a flame shot from an automobile going south on Main and set fire to the clothes of a woman standing on the corner. He hopped off the streetcar, extinguished the flames — which had burned away almost all the woman's clothing below the waist — and got back on the streetcar. It was only when he resumed his ride to Eastlake Park that he realized he had burned his hand and went to the hospital.

Feb. 5, 1940, Naud Junction
Feb. 5, 1940: The Naud Junction signal tower at Alameda and Ord is torn down, evoking memories of the old days of railroading in Los Angeles. (Note: Because of the way Typepad handles images, this looks fuzzy but if you click on it, the image is readable).

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Cooking With the Junior League — Phoenix

Tomatillo Salsa

This week in Cooking With the Junior League, Mary McCoy takes a look at recipes from Phoenix. She writes: 

Saturday was a good day not to leave the house.  Outside, temperatures
were in the 90s, and the air in our neighborhood was smoky from the
wildfires blazing to the northeast.  Inside, there was a baseball game
on television, a fridge full of iced tea, lemonade, and beer, and a
cookbook full of things that I very much wanted to eat.  So, I spent
the day with the Junior League of Phoenix’s Pomegranates and Prickly Pears, and considered it very well spent indeed.

Read more>>>

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Matt Weinstock, Sept. 5, 1959

Aug. 17, 1959, Weinstock Is on Vacation

Matt Weinstock is on vacation.
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September 5, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

September 5, 1959: Paul Coates writes about the unusual publicity campaign for the new film "Private Property."

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movies

Sept. 5, 1923, Movies

Sept. 5, 1923: "The Lone Star Ranger," starring Tom Mix, premieres at the Symphony at Broadway and 6th Street … and "Wayfarer" is being produced at the Coliseum.

"The Wayfarer," written by J.E. Crowther, was a pageant with a cast of about 7,000 people under the direction of Montgomery Lynch. The prologue, titled "The God of War," depicted what was then known as the World War.

"From this scene, Understanding, as played by a beautiful woman, leads the solitary Wayfarer back through the ages and shows him the moral victory that is the aftermath of seeming defeat," The Times said.

A.B. Kachel, a drama teacher at Hollywood High School, had the role of the Wayfarer while Katherine Rodkin was Understanding and Lola La Pere was the Angel. The prologue was read by William Jennings Bryan. Music in the production drew heavily from Handel's "Messiah" and "The Wayfarer" concluded with a mass singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The dress rehearsal was broadcast on KHJ. When the last performance concluded on Sept. 23, 1923, an estimated 150,000 people had seen the pageant. "The Wayfarer" was also performed in Columbus, Ohio, in 1919 for the Centenary Celebration of American Methodist Missions, and in New York's Madison Square Garden from December 1919 to January 1920. It's unclear if it has ever been staged since the Los Angeles production.

Sept. 9, 1923, Wayfarer

Sept. 9, 1923: The Times' Edwin Schallert reviews "The Wayfarer."

Posted in broadcasting, Film, Hollywood, Music, Religion | 1 Comment