Black Dahlia: For Elizabeth Short’s 100th Birthday, a Brief Glimpse at My Book, Heaven Is HERE!

Posted on July 23, 2024 by lmharnisch

Folks…. On Monday, July 29, 2024, for Elizabeth Short’s 100th birthday, I will be posting very brief excerpts from my book. Two pages from various chapters to show that, yes, I’m working on a book, and no, I don’t have writer’s block and I haven’t given up. Here’s the catch: I’m posting them for ONE DAY ONLY. On Tuesday, July 30, they come down.

Posted in Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Homicide, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 22, 2024 by lmharnisch

2024_0727_mystery_photo
This week’s mystery TV show was Happy Birthday Marvin, a 1973 episode of Insight, a Paulist Production, with Bob Newhart, Anne Francis, Harold Gould, Clint Howard and Ivor Francis.
Insight aired in syndication from 1960 to 1983. Continue reading →

Posted in 1973, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , | 36 Comments

George Hodel: Ask Me Anything, July 2024

Posted on July 17, 2024 by lmharnisch

Here’s Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I with this month’s “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel.

In this session, I discuss the flurry of interest in rumors that the creators of the hit video game L.A. Noire were releasing a sequel titled Sowden House (they are not). And how, unfortunately, the gaming world pounced on the story, unskeptically picking up Steve Hodel’s claim that his father was “the prime suspect” in the Black Dahlia case. (No, he was not). 

I also discussed Steve Hodel’s indignant rebuttal to last month’s Ask Me Anything on George Hodel in which he said:
Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Drag Comes to Hollywood at B.B.B.’s Cellar

Posted on July 16, 2024 by lmharnisch

Ad for B.B.B. Cellar, caricature of a man smoking a cigar.
Long before Silver Lake’s Black Cat Cafe or the first LBGT parade down Hollywood Boulevard in the 1960s, Hollywood highlighted female impersonators and the gay community in a popular, energetic nightclub called B. B. B.’s Cellar and led by host Bobby Burns Berman. Introducing tasteful female impersonators elegantly attired, many more conservative audiences found the drag and atmosphere a little too much. Lasting three years, the nightclub could be the beginnings of gay life in Los Angeles.

Bobby Burns Berman grew up ready with a song and a laugh, as he and his brother Harry joked around in New York, singing and performing in clubs. While Harry would go the Ziegfeld Follies route, Bobby first served as master of ceremonies in Atlantic City and wrote cabaret reviews for Variety under the pseudonym “B. B. B.,” employing it as his stage name.. He drew up his own nightclub act, devising humorous songs, making wisecracks, caricaturing celebrities and engaging in witty repartee with club audiences, starting in Greenwich Village and moving on to Chicago. Continue reading →

Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Mary Mallory, Nightclubs | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 15, 2024 by lmharnisch

2024_0720_main_title
This week’s mystery movie was the 1948 Allied Artists movie The Hunted, with Preston Foster, Belita, Pierre Watkin, Larry Blake, Russell Hicks, Frank Ferguson, Cathy Carter, Joseph Crehan, Edna Holland, Carole Donne, Robert Earle and Tristram Coffin. Continue reading →

Posted in 1948, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

‘Ask Me Anything’ on George Hodel – July 16

Posted on July 10, 2024 by lmharnisch

Reminder: Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel and Steve Hodel on Tuesday, July 16, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube and Instagram.

Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! The video will be posted once the session ends so you can watch it later.

Posted in Ask Me Anything, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases | Tagged , , | Comments Off on ‘Ask Me Anything’ on George Hodel – July 16

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Douglas Fairbanks, Author

Posted on July 8, 2024 by lmharnisch

Fairbanks-Making Life Worthwhile
Douglas Fairbanks: “Teaching his dog to smile.”

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Douglas Fairbanks exploded onto the filmmaking scene in 1915 after a successful career on Broadway as a dashing leading man. His jaunty joie de vivre and flashy acrobatics wowed audiences on stage and soon enthralled filmgoers as well. By 1917, the successful Fairbanks opened his own production company called the Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corp. The handsome star represented the best qualities of America – drive, confidence and goodness.

Continue reading →

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 8, 2024 by lmharnisch

Main Title: Letters superimposed over a brackish stream with weeds on the banks. This week’s mystery movie was the 1941 Columbia picture Ladies in Retirement, with Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Edith Barrett, Isobel Elsom, Emma Dunn, Clyde Cook and Queenie Leonard. Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

L.A. Celebrates the Fourth of July 1889 – 1960

Posted on July 4, 2024 by lmharnisch

image

July 4, 1944: Uncle Sam in a cartoon by Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale for the Los Angeles Examiner and republished in the Milwaukee Sentinel.

Note: This is an encore post from 2014. Broken links: FIXED!

Here’s a look at how Los Angeles has celebrated Independence Day over the years. Continue reading →

Posted in 1863, 1907, 1910, 1947, 1957, 1960 | Tagged | Comments Off on L.A. Celebrates the Fourth of July 1889 – 1960

Black Dahlia: Ask Me Anything, July 2024

Posted on July 3, 2024 by lmharnisch

In the July 2024 Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, I talk about some of the most influential websites dealing with the murder of Elizabeth Short.
Continue reading →

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Reminder – My Next ‘Ask Me Anything’ on the Black Dahlia Case Is July 2

Posted on July 1, 2024 by lmharnisch

Reminder: Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on the Black Dahlia case Tuesday, July 2, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, on YouTube and on Instagram.

I’ll give an update on the book and discuss some of the more influential websites dealing with the Black Dahlia case.

Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! I’ll also get to the backlog of questions from previous sessions. The video will be posted once the session ends so you can watch it later.

Remember, this is only Black Dahlia questions. I have a separate Ask Me Anything on George Hodel on July 16, at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Emma Lazarus’ ‘The New Colossus’ Calls to All Immigrants

Posted on July 1, 2024 by lmharnisch

Jan. 19, 1884, Harper's Weekly
Construction of the Statue of Liberty, artwork by John Durkin, Harper’s Weekly, Jan. 19, 1884.

Note: This is an encore post from 2018.

Written in 1883 to help raise money for building the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty would stand, Emma Lazarus’ 14-line poem “The New Colossus” would take on a life of its own: becoming enshrined on the statue as a memorial to the poet and as a statement of welcome to those seeking refuge in our country. As we approach Independence Day, the meaning behind its words rings even clearer today.

Born July 22, 1849, in New York City as the fourth of seven children to wealthy merchant Moses Lazarus, Emma received a strong private education, learning to speak at least four languages and becoming an excellent writer, especially in poetry. Ralph Waldo Emerson mentored her. She translated works of literature as well as setting down her own odes, many based on romantic literature and others on troubling historic events regarding her fellow Jews, receiving much praise upon their publication. She also worked to alleviate the suffering of women and the poor.

Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.

Continue reading →

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 1, 2024 by lmharnisch

2024_0706_main_title
This week’s mystery movie was the 1975 film Murph the Surf, with Robert Conrad, Don Stroud, Donna Mills, Robyn Millan, Ben Frank, Pepper Martin, Morgan Paull, Paul Stewart, Burt Young and Luther Adler.
Continue reading →

Posted in 1975, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments

George Hodel: Ask Me Anything, June 2024

Posted on June 29, 2024 by lmharnisch

Here’s Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I with this month’s “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel.

In this session, I discussed people who “find hidden messages” in the postcards and letters written to the police and the newspapers in the Black Dahlia case. (Warning: Finding “hidden messages” in the Black Dahlia prank mail is a ticket to Crazytown).

I also discussed an article by R. Marc Kantrowitz on Jean Spangler and possible links to George Hodel. Kantrowitz says Spangler “knew” Elizabeth Short from the Florentine Gardens, claiming that Elizabeth Short worked as a waitress at the Florentine Gardens in 1947. False because Elizabeth Short never worked as a waitress at the Florentine Gardens, also in 1947 she was dead. https://web.archive.org/web/202406030…
Continue reading →

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on June 24, 2024 by lmharnisch

Lettering over a blank background with a stick figure of The Saint

This week’s mystery film was Escape Route, an episode of the British TV series The Saint, with Roger Moore, John Gregson, Wanda Ventham, Ivor Dean, Donald Sutherland, Jean Marsh, Jeremy Burnham, Terry Yorke, Romo Gorrara, Vicki Wolf, Tony Doonan, Eric Mason, Edwin Brown, Walter Horsbrugh and George Zenios. The episode apparently aired in the UK in 1966, but wasn’t broadcast in the U.S. until 1967 or 1968, depending on the market.   Continue reading →

Posted in 1968, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘Don’t Be a Sucker’ Promotes American Values

Posted on June 24, 2024 by lmharnisch

Aug. 21, 2017, Don't Be a Sucker
“Don’t Be a Sucker” is on YouTube.

Note: This is an encore post from 2017.

Still as relevant today as when it was first produced over 70 years ago, the United States Army Signal Corps’ short “Don’t Be a Sucker” describes the founding principles of the United States’ Declaration of Independence and Constitution, that all people are created equal and should share in the bounties and freedom that they and all parts of our melting pot have created. From its beginnings, our country has welcomed people from around the world, blending voices and lives to create a wonderful smorgasbord of culture. Without all those beautiful grace notes, America would not be the country it is.

The Signal Corps created all types of films for the Army during World War II: training and instructional films, propaganda, rallying, and patriotic pieces, all aimed to get soldiers to devote their all in fighting our enemies to preserve our way of life. Most were never intended to be viewed by the general public, aimed strictly at the boys going overseas, both during the fight and then to prepare them for returning home and demonstrating these honorable values to others.

Hollywood at Play, by Donovan Brandt, Mary Mallory and Stephen X. Sylvester is now on sale.

Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hale’s Tours Offer Virtual Reality in 1906

Posted on June 17, 2024 by lmharnisch

George C. Hale
George C. Hale in the Salt Lake City Herald, Oct. 20, 1905.

Note: This is an encore post from 2016.

Technology changes often move with the speed of lightning, upending life as it moves hurly burly into a brave new world. The early 1900s saw many new-fangled products introduced such as radio, air conditioning, and vacuum cleaners, while several relatively new inventions such as telephones, automobiles, and electricity moved more into the mainstream.

In the same way, motion pictures began undergoing their own revolution around 1905-1906, when retired Kansas City Fire Chief George C. Hale introduced his Hale’s Tours and Scenes of the World to paying audiences. Filmgoing would soon move beyond kinetoscopes into nickelodeons and eventually movie palaces. More importantly, audiences would no longer just view a movie, but experience it as well.

“Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays” by Karie Bible and Mary Mallory is available at Amazon and at local bookstores.

 

Continue reading →

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on June 17, 2024 by lmharnisch

Main Title: Cursive lettering in red
This week’s mystery movie was the 1952 MGM film Lovely to Look At, with Kathryn Grayson, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, Marge and Gower Champion, Ann Miller, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kurt Kaszmar and Marcel Dalio. Continue reading →

Posted in 1952, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 44 Comments

‘Ask Me Anything’ on George Hodel – June 18

Posted on June 16, 2024 by lmharnisch

Reminder: Boxie (formerly Boxy) and I will be doing a live “Ask Me Anything” on George Hodel and Steve Hodel on Tuesday, June 18, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube and Instagram.

Can’t make the live session? Email me your questions and I’ll answer them! The video will be posted once the session ends so you can watch it later.

Posted in Ask Me Anything, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases | Tagged , , | Comments Off on ‘Ask Me Anything’ on George Hodel – June 18

Black Dahlia: Ask Me Anything, June 2024

Posted on June 12, 2024 by lmharnisch

In the June 2024 Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, I talk about the books on Elizabeth Short’s murder. Continue reading →

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