A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Posted on August 25, 2009 by lmharnisch

  

   Aug. 25, 1973, Doonesbury

Aug. 25, 1973: The Times continues to alter its comics lineup, eliminating "Dark Shadows" and adding Jack Moore's "Kelly." Notice the much more sophisticated draftsmanship in "Doonesbury," compared with the panels two years earlier.

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Coming Attractions — Mexican Science Fiction Films

Posted on August 25, 2009 by lmharnisch

Ana Bertha Lepe Regular Daily Mirror reader Mary Mallory notes that former Mystery Movie Star Ana Bertha Lepe, left, will be featured in "La Nave de los Monstruos" ("The Monsters' Ship") at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at the Hammer Museum.

The plot summary: "The last man on Venus has died. Beta and Gamma, two Venusian women,
have been sent on an intergalactic mission to collect bizarre male
specimens from throughout space. And a monstrous collection they are
too, all scales and fangs and exposed brains."

Co-hit: "Santo vs. the Martian Invasion." Admission is free.

Read more>>>
Posted in Film, Hollywood Division, Mystery Photo, UFOs | 1 Comment

USC Coed Killed; O’Malley Confident on Chavez Ravine

Posted on August 25, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 25, 1959, Cover

The imam of Yemen beheads several "Christian agitators" and has others mutilated in a crackdown on liberal reforms … USC student Linda Edna Martin, 21, is found naked and bleeding to death outside her boyfriend's apartment.

Aug. 25, 1959, Parker T-ball Jotter

The Parker T-Ball Jotter is the ballpoint pen of choice at the Daily Mirror HQ. Perfect for doing New York Times crosswords.

Aug. 25, 1959, New York Philharmonic  

 Aug. 25, 1959, Coed

In January 1962, John P. Schoeneweg will confess to killing Martin when she stepped out of the shower and surprised him after he broke into her boyfriend's apartment and was taking money from her purse. Schoeneweg also confessed to killing Emeline Ferber and Dors (no, not Doris) M. Wilson.

Schoeneweg was convicted of killing Ferber and Wilson, but found not guilty in Martin's death because his confession didn't match the facts. State death records show that a man named John P. Schoeneweg died in 1972 at the age of 39.

Aug. 25, 1959, Coed

Aug. 25, 1959, Princess Phone

A Princess phone, a major innovation at the time.
Aug. 25, 1959, Immigration

Aug. 25, 1959, Chubby

Is this girl supposed to be "chubby"? A point of departure for a long conversation.

Aug 25, 1959, Immigration

At left and above, an installment of Charles Hillinger's series on illegal immigration.

"There is no opportunity for someone like me in Tijuana. I sell candy and gum at a stand. Make $5 ($36.54 USD 2008) a week if I'm lucky. It's enough to get by on. But what kind of a future is there?"

Aug. 25, 1959, Blue Angel

We're still in the 1950s for a few more months. But notice that in theme and in spare, simplified design, this ad for "The Blue Angel" could have been done in the mid-1960s.

Aug. 25, 1959, Mickey Cohen

Aug. 25, 1959, Valentino

Above, 50 people attend the 33rd memorial for film star Rudolph Valentine. There was no sign of the "lady in black."

At left, lawyer Melvin Belli introduces Mickey Cohen as guest speaker "Professor O'Brien," at a bar convention. 

Aug. 25, 1959, Comic

"You Neanderthal Brute!"

Aug. 25, 1959, Walter O'Malley

No doubt about it, Walter O'Malley was an optimist.

His deal with the city to build his Dodgers a ballpark in Chavez Ravine was still held up in the courts, and city leaders were starting to worry about spending money for road construction just in case there wasn't going to be a ballpark at the end of the road.

O'Malley was still making plans and staying hopeful. He told The Times' Jeane Hoffman the plan was to start digging by Sept. 15 and have the stadium finished by July.

"We would first have to level the stadium site and hills, then get ready to pour the concrete," he said. "The city in turn will close off several roads. It means we're jumping the gun, but we feel it's a good risk."

— Keith Thursby

Posted in #courts, Charles Hillinger, Comics, Dodgers, Fashion, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Sports | 1 Comment

Man Sleeps Off Drunk on Top of Brooklyn Bridge

Posted on August 25, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 25, 1899, Dr. Wong  

Aug. 25, 1899: Dr. Wong offers free consultations, 713 S. Main.

Aug. 25, 1899, Drunk New Yorker

 
Mr. Wagner sleeps off a drunk on top of the Brooklyn Bridge and is rescued by "Jim the Climber." No, he doesn't remember how he got there … Officer George H. Walker resigns from the Redlands Police Department after killing Clinton P. Hawley.

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Profiles in Domestic Violence

Posted on August 25, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 25, 1889, E. Adam

Aug. 25, 1889: Prince Albert suits for $14 ($331.36 USD, 2008).

Aug. 25, 1889, Abused Wife

The late 19th and early 20th century newspapers are full of harrowing stories about domestic violence, usually alcoholic men beating their wives and children. The women in these reports typically say that they endure countless beatings because they are unable to support themselves and their children, and because the husbands, once sober and/or in jail or in court, promise to reform.

In fact, the husbands almost never reform and the drinking and beatings escalate until the women end up in the hospital and the husbands are prosecuted, even though the wives refuse to press charges.

I've come across an interesting variant of these stories in the papers of the 1950s. As the abused children grow older, one of them — usually a son in his mid-teens — confronts the drunk, abusive father as he's beating the mother and kills him. I haven't read enough of the earlier papers to know if this occurs regularly, but these stories are a fixture of the mid- to late 1950s.

Posted in #courts, 1889, LAPD | Comments Off on Profiles in Domestic Violence

Matt Weinstock, Aug. 24, 1959

Posted on August 24, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 17, 1959, Weinstock Is on Vacation

Matt Weinstock is on vacation.
Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, Aug. 24, 1959

August 24, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on August 24, 2009 by lmharnisch

August 24, 1959; Mirror CoverGreat Impostor Fools Our City Too

Paul Coates, in coat and tieFerdinand Waldo Demara Jr., age 37, is, by profession, an impostor.

Without benefit of a high school diploma, he has masqueraded as a college dean of philosophy, a surgeon in the Royal Canadian Navy (where he performed major operations), a Trappist monk, a cancer researcher, assistant warden of a large Texas prison and half a dozen other professions of equal status.

With each new job he assumed a new identity and a new personality. And, from his superiors as well as subordinates, new respect.

With rare exceptions, he conned them all. Continue reading →

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates, Religion | Comments Off on August 24, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Posted on August 24, 2009 by lmharnisch

  

 

 
Aug. 24, 1972, Comics

Aug.
24, 1972: "Momma" and "Broom-Hilda."

Posted in art and artists, Comics | Comments Off on A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Baseless Prosecution of Homeless Addict

Posted on August 24, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 24, 1899, Orpheum

Aug. 24, 1899: The Orpheum presents barrelistic wonders and rag time comedians, plus Joseph Adelman, master of the xylophone.

Aug. 24, 1899, Broken Glass

The Times reports "baseless prosecution" of Richard Woodward, a homeless drug addict who accidentally broke a pane of glass at a Ferguson Alley saloon.

"Chinatown":

GITTES
					-- So how are you, Morty?

			Morty is wheeling in another body with the help of an
			assistant.

							MORTY
					-- Never better. You know me, Jake.

			As he begins to move the body into the refrigerator, he
			breaks into a wrenching spasm of coughing. Gittes spots
			the other body, lowers the. sheet on Mulwray.

							GITTES
						(picking up on cough)
					-- Yeah -- so who you got there?

			Morty pulls back the sheet.

							MORTY
					Leroy Shuhardt, local drunk --
					used to hang around Ferguson's
					Alley --

			Morty brushes some sand from the man's face, laughs.

							MORTY
						(continuing)
					-- Quite a character. Lately he'd
					been living in one of the downtown
					storm drains -- had a bureau dresser
					down there and everything.

		98 Gittes has already lost interest. He starts away.

							GITTES
					-- Yeah.

							MORTY
					Drowned, too.

			This stops Gittes.

							GITTES
					Come again?

							MORTY
					Yeah, got dead drunk, passed out
					in the bottom of the riverbed.

Posted in #courts, Film, Hollywood, Music, Stage, travel | 1 Comment

A Gruesome Day on the Gallows

Posted on August 24, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 24, 1889, Clothing

Aug. 24, 1889: Note that the Daily Mirror does not advocate walking on railroad tracks. Pedestrians (and cows) always come out second best in a contest against a locomotive. The above item is for illustration purposes only.

Aug. 24, 1889: Hangings

When California made its transition to the gas chamber for executions (the state continued to use the gallows for a while), some longtime prison officials were horrified at the new process and said hanging was a more quick and humane method. As the above account shows, hanging could also be a slow, ghastly death.

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Posted on August 23, 2009 by lmharnisch

  

Aug. 23, 1971, Comics

Aug. 23, 1971: On a dark day in May 1971, The Times changed its comics lineup, keeping the crudely drawn and unfunny "Momma" while eliminating "Nancy" to make way for something called "Doonesbury." Note "Dark Shadows" and "Friday Foster," two more short-lived strips.

Posted in art and artists, Comics | Comments Off on A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Southland Fires; Dodgers on the Radio

Posted on August 23, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 23, 1969, Cover

Charles T. Powers has the lead story on fires that burned 40,000 acres, while Gary Libman covers a smog alert for the Los Angeles Basin. From Jerusalem, Louis Fleming reports the arrest of an Australian Christian in a fire that destroyed part of Al Aqsa [Aksa] Mosque.

In response to a $3-billion cut ordered in Defense spending, the Navy plans to reduce its strength by 72,000 men and mothball 100 ships.

 
Aug. 23, 1969, Katz
Above, a father and son play a jazz Bar Mitzvah. 		 
Aug. 23, 1969, Mosque

Above, "Stung by Arab accusations of arson, Israeli officials hit back with a statement recalling the desecration of Jewish holy sites during the 19 years of Jordanian control of the Old City."

"I had a grim feeling today that we were back in the days of the British mandate with the recurring violence and curfews," a longtime resident of Jerusalem said.
Aug. 23, 1969, Tiffany Jones

"Tiffany Jones"

1969_0823_don_page_thumb Don Page was worried about the youth of America.

The Times' veteran radio and television columnist thought he had spotted a disturbing trend about the Dodgers.

"Although the Dodgers are doing well in attendance, the old fire
among the fandom seems to be diminishing. .. You don't hear the Dodgers
on the air in public places as much as before and the teenagers in
particular aren't charmed by [Vin] Scully or baseball," Page wrote.

Not charmed by Scully? Impossible.

Still, it was better to be the Dodgers than the struggling American
League team to the south: "The Angel broadcasts are practically
nonexistent in stores, supermarkets, garages and taverns."

I do wonder how many taverns and garages Page surveyed for his analysis.

–Keith Thursby

Jim Tison I
remember the '65 and '66 World Series games being on the radio
everywhere, and I remember LA being rabid for the Dodgers during those
days. It was almost as if the loss of the '66 World Series and the very
flat 1967-69 seasons that followed sucked the air out of Dodgers fans.
And then they split the leagues into divisions in '69 … the game
changed; some say for the worse. (From Facebook).

Posted in broadcasting, Dodgers, Front Pages, Richard Nixon, Television | 2 Comments

Humane Officer Shoots Injured Horse

Posted on August 23, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 23, 1899, Weak Men

Aug. 23, 1899: Miracle electric belt restores vitality as you sleep!

Aug. 23, 1899: Injured Horses

The old newspapers are full of stories about terrible things happening to horses. Think about the way some people treat their cars and then imagine what it would be like to abuse an animal that way.

Posted in Animals, Transportation | 1 Comment

A Fallen Woman’s Death Ride

Posted on August 23, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 23, 1889, Sewer Map

Aug. 23, 1889: I always enjoy looking at old maps of Los Angeles. This one shows a proposed sewer system. Much of the lettering is upside-down, but flipping the map 180 degrees makes it  even more confusing. Many of the street names are different than what we know now. Note, for example Michel Torrance St., which I suspect became Rampart, although ProQuest doesn't shed light on the question.  

1889_0823_michel_torrance

Aug. 23, 1889, Sewer Map

Aug. 23, 1889, Fallen Woman

The name of the woman in the above story is a little hard to make out. I believe it's Kitty Harris. I can't find anything further about her in ProQuest, so I don't know what became of her and her sister.

Posted in Environment, health, Suicide | 1 Comment

Matt Weinstock, Aug. 22, 1959

Posted on August 22, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 17, 1959, Weinstock Is on Vacation

Matt Weinstock is on vacation.

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Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, Aug. 22, 1959

Posted on August 22, 2009 by lmharnisch

Note: Devon McReynolds, the Daily Mirror’s UCLA intern, is off to
Paris. Until our next intern starts in September, the Daily Mirror
won’t be able to transcribe Paul Coates or Matt Weinstock. Rather than
discontinue the columns, we’ll be posting them as image files. Because
of the way Typepad handles images, the thumbnails are murky, but the
full-size images are readable.
August 22, 1959: A letter writer tells Paul Coates that the great songs of the past are enduring while today's music is fleeting.

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, Aug. 22, 1959

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Posted on August 22, 2009 by lmharnisch

  


Aug. 22, 1970, Nancy

Aug.
22, 1970:  Some people dismiss Ernie Bushmiller because he portrayed the everyday human comedy rather than events of the day.

Then again, being topical isn't always a good idea:

Aug. 22, 1970, Clive

Here we have a panel crowded with dialogue and a contemporary reference in "Clive," a strip so short-lived and so lame that even I don't remember it.
Posted in art and artists, Comics | 3 Comments

Hawaii Becomes 50th State; Redskins Beat Rams

Posted on August 22, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 22, 1959, Cover

Aug. 22, 1959: The Redskins beat the Rams in The Times annual charity game ,,, Sir Thomas Beecham, 80, marries his 27-year-old secretary … and Hawaii officially becomes the 50th state. The House Un-American Activities Committee cancels hearings on communist influences in California's schools. Teachers subpoenaed by the committee will instead be interrogated by their local school boards.  
Aug. 22, 1959, Gun Ad

Our favorite Pasadena gun store has a sale on Webley .38s and riffs on Nikita Khrushchev's upcoming visit.

Aug. 22, 1959, Hawaii

Hawaii becomes the 50th state and Bruce Russell provides one of his cryptic editorial cartoons: The American eagle wearing a monocle that says: "Hawaii." Presumably Mr. H-Bomb, the Dove of Peace. Uncle Sam, the Russian Bear, the Taxpayer and other stock editorial cartoon characters had the day off.

Aug. 22, 1959, Stephen Nash

Stephen Nash, one of the most despised men on death row, is executed in the gas chamber. Seeing prosecutor J. Miller Leavy among the witnesses, Nash winks as he's being strapped into the death chair.  

Nash, who killed 11 people, gazes at Leavy and  says: "Unfortunately, I've never been able to live like a man. However, I expect to die like a man."

 

Aug. 22, 1959, Hedda Hopper

Hey, look! It's Si Zentner!

Aug. 22, 1959, Nancy Valentine

Above, Nancy Valentine relaxes after the stress of making Jack Webb's "-30-" by doing yoga at the Self-Realization Fellowship center in Encinitas. According to The Times, she spent three years at the fellowship's Mt. Washington center before deciding to return to the outside world.

At left, an increasingly irrelevant Hedda Hopper (d. 1966) says good Americans will boycott Charlie Chaplin's films and blathers about "the good old days" she witnessed at the Garden of Allah, which is to be torn down. I recently saw her in "Midnight" and she was dreadful.

Aug. 22, 1959, Christ in Bronze

Philip K. Scheuer reviews "Christ in Bronze," a Japanese film about the persecution of Christian missionaries. Scheuer makes the film sound interesting, but alas, it's not on Netflix.

Aug. 22, 1959, Nancy

Nancy is a resourceful young lady!
Aug. 22, 1959, Sports

The Giants beat Philadelphia, putting them 2 1/2 games ahead of the Dodgers in the pennant race.

Posted in #courts, @news, art and artists, broadcasting, Comics, Dodgers, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Politics, Religion, Sports | 1 Comment

Supervisors Back Bike Route to Santa Monica

Posted on August 22, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 22, 1899, Cycleway

Aug. 22, 1899: The Los Angeles County Supervisors endorse a cycleway on Washington Street from the city limits to Santa Monica, starting with a two-mile segment separated from the road by stakes or posts … and John O'Brien steals 35 pounds of tea to get money for whiskey.

An ad for Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound says: "The advent of womanhood is fraught with dangers which even careful mothers too often neglect."
Posted in #courts, health, Transportation | Comments Off on Supervisors Back Bike Route to Santa Monica

Prostitutes Arrested for Fighting

Posted on August 22, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 22, 1889, Del Coronado

Aug. 22, 1889: Grand ball at the Del Coronado.

Aug. 22, 1889, Prostitutes

A couple of French prostitutes, Louise and Vangoethan, got into a fight on Alameda Street and were brought to the police station by Officer Shannon …  Charley Robinson is the toughest Negro in the city … and a lynching in Meridian, Miss. 

I seem to recall reading about Officer Michael Shannon in Harry Carr's "Los Angeles: City of Dreams." I'll have to check.

Posted in #courts, LAPD | Comments Off on Prostitutes Arrested for Fighting