Mystery Observatory Photo — Update

Posted on September 1, 2009 by lmharnisch
Sept. 1, 2009, Mystery Observatory
Los Angeles Times file photo
Cary Schneider and Robin Mayper of The Times library were going through our photos of observatories yesterday looking for pictures of Mt. Wilson and came across this unlabeled item. It appears to have been taken in the early 1930s. Any ideas?

Update: As Dale Trader points out, this is the Astrophysics Laboratory at Caltech. Here's a photo from 1939 at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Posted in Architecture, Education, Science | 2 Comments

September 1, 1959: Ignore Khrushchev, VFW Leader Says; Koufax Strikes Out 18!

Posted on September 1, 2009 by lmharnisch
Sept. 1, 1959, Cover

Sept. 1, 1959: Vice President Nixon addresses the VFW convention being held in Los Angeles … VFW Commander in Chief John W. Mahan says of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s upcoming visit: “We ask Americans to ignore, with dignity, this man. There should be no demonstration of any sort. Frankly, we’re unhappy that he is coming here.” Bernard Abrams, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans, says: “Khrushchev comes to these shores with bloody hands.”  Notice the plans for the $800-million monorail.

 
Sept. 1, 1959, North by Northwest

In the 1950s, The Times used to run brief digests of New York film reviews, such as this one of “North by Northwest.”

 Sept. 1, 1959, Jack Smith

Jack Smith writes: “All roads in the state of California are under construction … Don’t expect to find anyplace where there isn’t already somebody else … No matter how fast you drive, somebody will pass you like a cannonball.”

 

Sept. 1, 1959, Sports Sandy Koufax struck out 18  to break the National League record and tie the major league record, leading the Dodgers past the Giants in front of nearly 83,000 fans at the Coliseum.

And he almost was overshadowed.

Wally Moon hit a three-run homer in the ninth to provide the difference in the 5-2 victory. Koufax and Jim Gilliam singled to set up the Moon shot.

As for Koufax, he said the Giants “must have been anxious. I never saw so many bad pitches swung at in one game.” Even The Times’ Frank Finch noted that was “a curious observation.”

The victory pulled the Dodgers within a game of the first-place Giants.

–Keith Thursby
Posted in Current Affairs, Dodgers, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Parks and Recreation, Politics, Richard Nixon | Comments Off on September 1, 1959: Ignore Khrushchev, VFW Leader Says; Koufax Strikes Out 18!

September 1, 1949: Fatal Farewell for Actress’ Lover; L.A. and the Angels

Posted on September 1, 2009 by lmharnisch
Sept. 1, 1949, Cover

Sept. 1, 1949:  At Cannes, France, Italian Count Giorgio Cini is killed when his private plane crashes while circling back so he could wave farewell to actress Merle Oberon. “My life is finished. There’s no point in going on,” says the actress, who fainted after seeing the crash … And tourists don’t like L.A. drivers! How about that front page: 19 stories plus the index and the weather forecast.

 
Sept. 11949, Easy Living
Victor Mature in “Easy Living.”		 Sept. 1, 1949, Mickey Cohen

Above, Times’ cartoonist Bruce Russell’s take on Mickey Cohen’s round trips to jail.

Sept. 1, 1949, Angels When did The Times start campaigning for a major league baseball team?

An editorial blasting the Chicago Cubs for mismanaging the Los Angeles Angels could be seen as the first strike by a city and a newspaper wanting to reach the big time.

“We are a proud city in the forefront of all things–except baseball.” the editorial proclaimed.  “We are the tail-enders of a second-flight outfit.”

The Times said Los Angeles “is the only team in the league operating under foreign ownership” and compared dealing with the Cubs to “Russian diplomats at international sessions [who] must run to the Moscow phone to get the party line.”

Comparing the Cubs to commies was silly for a big-city editorial. Maybe L.A. wasn’t ready for the big leagues yet.

–Keith Thursby
Posted in art and artists, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Mickey Cohen, Sports | Comments Off on September 1, 1949: Fatal Farewell for Actress’ Lover; L.A. and the Angels

September 1, 1949: L.A. Warned on Water

Posted on September 1, 2009 by lmharnisch

September 1, 1949: Surrender of Reds Near, Cover of Los Angeles MirrorSept. 1, 1949: The early days of the Mirror, when it was a tabloid.

I thought it would be fun to dip into the 1949 editions of the Mirror, if only briefly. At that time, Paul Coates was mostly covering nightclubs and had yet to become the columnist we know from the 1950s. I don’t plan to run many of these columns because they are fairly dated, but I figured a week’s worth would offer an interesting insight on a writer in progress.
Continue reading →

Posted in Columnists, Front Pages, Paul Coates | Comments Off on September 1, 1949: L.A. Warned on Water

Sleepwalker Falls From Streetcar

Posted on September 1, 2009 by lmharnisch
Sept. 1, 1909, Mayor Harper

Sept. 1, 1909: Edmund Walller "Ted" Gale draws former Mayor Harper on the witness stand.

Sept. 1, 1909, Streetcar

Francisco Tralenna breaks his arm while sleepwalking — on a streetcar. A runaway horse at 1st and Los Angeles streets leaves two men injured, including a police officer.

Posted in #courts, City Hall, Downtown, Transportation | Comments Off on Sleepwalker Falls From Streetcar

Mt. Wilson in The Times Archives

Posted on August 31, 2009 by lmharnisch

Nov. 22, 1957, Cover

Nov. 22, 1957: A wildfire forces the evacuation of Mt. Wilson.

June 9, 1889, Mt. Wilson

June 9, 1889: A trip up Mt. Wilson, including a visit to the temporary observatory.
Posted in Front Pages | Comments Off on Mt. Wilson in The Times Archives

Matt Weinstock, Aug. 31, 1959

Posted on August 31, 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. 31, 1959

August 31, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on August 31, 2009 by lmharnisch

August 13, 1959: Paul Coates has the story of a man who submitted lyrics titled "Cold Campfire Ashes" to one of those songwriting ads you see in the pulp magazines.

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off on August 31, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Posted on August 31, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 31, 1979, Comics

Aug. 31, 1979: "Drabble," in an early, crudely drawn panel, replaces "Jeff Hawke." Notice that Stan Lynde has stopped drawing "Rick O'Shay," which is being done by Mel Keefer and Marian Dern. Also notice the reference in "Apartment 3-G" to the gas shortage.
Posted in art and artists, Comics | Comments Off on A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Two Blacks Killed in Fight With White Co-Workers

Posted on August 31, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 31, 1899, Sun Glasses

Aug. 31, 1899: Boston Optical has sunglasses.

Aug. 31, 1899, Blacks Killed

A racial fight between members of a crew working on track for the Illinois Central Railroad near Rockford leaves two African Americans dead and one more injured. The contractor and his son say neither of the dead men was an employee, but the crew's cook contradicts him. After a meeting at the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the blacks of Rockford call for a thorough investigation.

Posted in Countdown to Watts, Transportation | Comments Off on Two Blacks Killed in Fight With White Co-Workers

Eastside Scandal

Posted on August 31, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 31, 1889, Starch

Aug. 31, 1889, Scandal

A juicy item about a "frisky grass widow" and a prominent real estate man — with a "deluded" wife and "two or three" children. 

Posted in #courts | Comments Off on Eastside Scandal

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Posted on August 30, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 30, 1978, Tumbleweeds

Aug. 30. 1978: I had forgotten about Tom K. Ryan's "Tumbleweeds" until I started going through the old comics pages. The strip is full of annoying stereotypes but the one I found the most obnoxious was Hildegard Hamhocker, the desperately man-hungry spinster who is, of course, dowdy and bucktoothed. The passage of time has, if anything, made her even more odious. Oh, is she cross-eyed too? Nice.

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

Study Finds Widespread Grade Inflation at L.A. County Schools

Posted on August 30, 2009 by lmharnisch

Aug. 30, 1899, Teachers

Aug. 30, 1899: Hawley, King & Co. buggies, 5th and Broadway.
The county Board of Education finds "deplorable laxness and inefficiency" in most Los Angeles County schools.

By 1899, California required each county to send standardized tests to all its schools for students in fifth grade and above. The graded exams were to be returned to the county boards as a check on teachers' effectiveness.

In previous years, the magnitude of the paperwork precluded a detailed study of the exams. This time, however, thorough scrutiny of the tests reveals widespread falsification of grades. "Some of the teachers have sent in correctly marked examination papers, but the great majority have marked their pupils' examination papers from 5 to 50 percent higher than deserved," says Luther G. Brown, president of the Board of Education.

"In a number of instances the children of trustees were graded with very much more leniency than other pupils," Brown says

 

Posted in 1899, Education | Comments Off on Study Finds Widespread Grade Inflation at L.A. County Schools

The Los Angeles Tribune Does Not Tell the Truth

Posted on August 30, 2009 by lmharnisch
 Aug. 30, 1889, Ads

Aug. 30, 1889: Mrs. E.C. Freeman is moving her bakery to 339 S. Spring St.

Aug. 30, 1889, Gen. Otis

Harrison Gray Otis responds to an article in a rival paper: "The Los Angeles Tribune, as usual, does not tell the truth." The Tribune accused Otis of warning City Council President Capt. J. Frankenfield that The Times would oppose the sewer bonds in the upcoming election unless the Police Commission members were fired.

Otis wrote that in a meeting several months earlier, he told Frankenfield the Police Department was so disorganized that it would be in the public interest if the Police Commission members were removed. Otis said he only alluded to the sewer bonds.

In a letter to Otis, Frankenfield wrote: "What you did say is that if the council desired to win the confidence of the people and carry the bond proposition, the Police Commission should be removed; and upon that question we could not agree, as I claimed there was no cause for removal."

Posted in City Hall, Environment, Politics | 1 Comment

Matt Weinstock, Aug. 29, 1959

Posted on August 29, 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. 29, 1959

August 29, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

Posted on August 29, 2009 by lmharnisch

August 29, 1959: Paul Coates hears from Elvis fans who want to forgive him for the scathing review Coates wrote of Elvis’ notorious performance at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium. Dear Abby has advice for a man whose wife doesn’t care for her dog.

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off on August 29, 1959: Paul V. Coates — Confidential File

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Posted on August 29, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 29, 1977, Comics

Aug. 29, 1977: "Kelly" is replaced with Sydney Jordan's "Jeff Hawke," another short-lived strip. 
Posted in art and artists, Comics | Comments Off on A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Comics

Movie Star Mystery Photo

Posted on August 29, 2009 by lmharnisch

Aug. 24, 2009, Mystery Photo  
 Los Angeles Times file photo

Sept. 20, 1983, LeRoy Prinz Above, Paramount dance director LeRoy Prinz with, from left, Esther Pressman, Beula McDonald, Bonita Barker, Kay Gordon, Dorothy Thompson and Dene Myles, April 15, 1935.

Update: Our mystery guest is LeRoy Pnriz.

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 prize is
bragging rights. 

The answer to last week's mystery star: Laurie Mitchell!

Randy Skretvedt  writes: I still say I'm correct, with the exception of LeRoy Prinz. Go look at
your entry for Grace Bradley (July 25, 2009) and see the picture of the
Paramount Protégés there. They are the same girls as in the first
mystery picture. The second girl is unquestionably Ann Sheridan, the
fourth is Gail Patrick (the girl you love to hate in "My Man Godfrey"
and other films, later a successful television producer), and the girl
at the very back is Wendy Barrie.

Very well, then. See for yourself:

Aug. 29, 2009, IDs.

Aug. 25, 2009, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: Six LeRoy Prinz dancers were recently given contracts as stock actresses at Paramount studio because of their all-around beauty and ability to act. They are shown with Prinz, dance director. Left to right, bottom, Esther Pressman, Dene Myles; middle, Kay Gordon, Prinz, Beula McDonald; top, Dorothy Thompson and Bonita Barker, March 5, 1935.

Here's another photo of our mystery guest with some mystery companions. Evidently there wasn't a photo in the world that couldn't be improved with a little tilting by The Times' art department.

Aug. 25, 2009, Mystery Photo Tilt

The cropped and tilted version.

Aug. 26, 2009, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: Edward A. Prinz, right, with his son LeRoy. The dancers are, from left, Esther Pressman, Dene Myles, Bonita Barker, Dorothy Thompson, Kay Gordon and Beula McDonald, rehearsing for a sequence in "Rose of the Rancho" with Gladys Swarthout, Aug. 8, 1935.  

Here's another photo of our mystery guest with even more mystery companions. Please congratulate Dewey Webb for identifying him!

Aug. 27, 2009, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: LeRoy Prinz with 12 dancers leaving Hollywood for a tour of the British Isles. Front, from left, Jean Dillon, Joan Matthews and Claudia Fargo. Middle, from left, Dorothy White, Harriet D'Busman, LeRoy Prinz and Bonita Barker. Back, from left, Sentha Williams, Jean Carmen, Althea Henley, Elizabeth Cook and Margaret Carthew, Dec. 31, 1935.  

Here's another picture of our mystery guest with more mystery companions! Please congratulate Mike Hawks and Mary Mallory for identifying him!

Aug. 28, 2009, Mystery Photo

Photograph by Los Angeles Times

Dec. 19, 1945: LeRoy Prinz, studio director-producer, as he testified at trial of Herbert K. Sorrell, union leader, on contempt charge. Prinz said he was knocked down in film strike riot and when he got up saw Sorrell standing in mob with fists clenched.

Please congratulate Jeff Hanna, Meara and James Curtis for identifying him!

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | 39 Comments

Judge Bars Bus Strike; Giants Beat Dodgers

Posted on August 29, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 29, 1959, Cover

Aug. 29, 1959: A judge's temporary restraining order prevents a bus and streetcar strike.

Aug. 29, 1959, Baskin Robbins



Someone has a Cold War souvenir in the shed. Let's fire it up and see what happens.

Aug. 29, 1959, Siren

Aug. 29, 1959, Editorial Cartoon

The threat of communist aggression casts a shadow over world peace. And Times readers are talking about singing the National Anthem, what it means to get old in America, hating Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev … and looking for a lost dog.

Aug. 29, 1959, Film Boycott

Aug. 29, 1959, Beatniks

Above, more trouble with Beatniks: Mrs. Swan kept a record of "goings-on" in and around the Gas House.

It contained such notations as, "Music not so loud tonight … closed at 2 a.m."

But it also told how one beatnik was "kissing and messing around" on the beach in front of the Gas House on July 12. On the same date, the bongo drums began at 10 am. until police stopped the bearded beats at 10 p.m., she testified.

At left, leaders of the National Council of Churches, encouraged by Paramount President Y. Frank Freeman, study whether to begin calling for a boycott of films that emphasize sex and violence.

George A. Heimrich, who initiated the idea, says: "We have no interest in harming the movie industry, but apparently producers feel it's difficult to get good box office and that they need sex and violence. We are well aware of the importance of the motion picture industry and we are as much for good box office as the producers. But we don't feel sex and violence are the best answer."

Aug. 29, 1959, Li'l Abner

One nice thing about ProQuest is that it's possible to enlarge the comics and see the details that aren't visible in the newspaper, especially strips like "Li'l Abner."

Aug. 29, 1959, Synanon

Aug. 29, 1959, Steaks

Above, an expert calls for fluoridation of water to prevent dental cavities. In time, the fluoridation of water came to be viewed — at least by some — as a shadowy communist conspiracy … calling Dr. Strangelove!  

At left, trouble for Synanon. In the 1950s, The Times wrote stories praising the program's success. But by the late 1960s, leader Charles E. Dederich turned the drug treatment program into a cult.

Read more>>>

Aug. 29, 1959, Sports

After losing to the Pirates and the Phillies, the Giants beat the Dodgers in a 5-0 shutout.

Posted in #courts, #Jazz, art and artists, City Hall, Comics, Dodgers, Film, Food and Drink, Front Pages, Hollywood, LAPD, Nightclubs, Politics, Religion, Transportation, Venice Division | Comments Off on Judge Bars Bus Strike; Giants Beat Dodgers

Wife Shoots Cheating Husband in the Head

Posted on August 29, 2009 by lmharnisch

Aug. 29, 1899: Cupidene restores lost manhood. Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, Homicide | Comments Off on Wife Shoots Cheating Husband in the Head