For Men Only

July 31, 1899, Men Only  

July 31, 1899: Dr. Talcott for whatever ails men. Private entrance.

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Small Boys in Trouble!

  July 31, 1889, Small Boys in Trouble
 

July 31, 1889: This looks like a dull, gray page. But read some of the stories: A saloon fight … a feud between neighbors over dirt thrown down a well … a man writes an insulting letter to a woman … and a smart-aleck young boy in the Brooklyn Tract makes a nuisance of himself. 

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Drinking With the Junior League — 1952

Special-daiquiri

Special Daiquiri Cocktail: "This cocktail hits like a sap to the back of the head."

Brady Potts takes over in this week's Cooking With the Junior League and examines mixology from Memphis, 1952:

"Oh my.

"This…this is a tasty, tasty cocktail. Were I the proprietor of a trendy bistro I would put it on the menu in place of the mojito, as a more elegant take on that South American standby that requires no muddling and looks smashing in a cocktail glass adorned with mint leaves. It is light, delicious, pretty, and requires very little in the way of mixology: mint, rum, sugar, and lime juice. What could be more simple?"

Read more>>>

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Matt Weinstock, July 30, 1959

July 30, 1959: Comic strip panel. A woman says "Seems to Me You Have a Complete Disregard for the Female of the Species." the man says he is choosy“Seems to Me You Have a Complete Disregard for the Female of the Species.”


Beatnik Memo

Matt WeinstockAs others before him, Lawrence Lipton, Boswell of the beatniks, has learned that all sorts of unlikely things can happen when a person writes a book. Exhibit A is a letter Lipton received from D.A. MacInnes of Chicopee Falls, Mass. In it was a wryly amusing sales pitch MacInnes had received from a plywood firm in Memphis.

Offering with seeming reluctance to supply materials for beatnik shops, the firm wrote, “I guess there is a little beatnik in all of us, especially in the summertime. This letter is to show how far people will go to get out of work and to warn you that if you have any salesmen or secretaries who are either growing beards or wearing leotards you had better either replace them, marry them or send them to Memphis.”

Memphis to Chicopee Falls to Venice, Cal. Don’t try to make sense out of it, it’s pure irrelevance.

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Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, July 30, 1959

July 30, 1959: Los Angeles Mirror Cover

Confidential File

A Crumbled Kookie Caper, and No Comb

Paul Coates, in coat and tieI don’t know Edd Byrnes personally, and it’s probably for the best.

In person, he might be a charming, very likable young man.

And if that were the case, all of my firm convictions about him would be destroyed.

Mr. Byrnes — for those of you who don’t have straying teen-age children — is the latest of Hollywood’s incessant stream of male idols.

They call him, for reasons beyond my aging ken, “Kookie.”

I first became aware of him as a peril to my peace of mind when my kids began performing the ritual of chanting “Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb.”

Naturally, I hadn’t the vaguest notion what it meant. And I hadn’t the vaguest interest in finding out.

But I did. Continue reading

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Elite Spy Agency

 July 30, 1952, CIA in Look Magazine

July 30, 1952: Look, the also-ran weekly rival to Life, runs a story about the elite, super-secret Central Intelligence Agency. The title, "Inside CIA," is a play on John Gunther's book "Inside USA" and its successors.

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Bicycles on Sale!

 

July 30, 1899, Bicycle

July 30, 1899: A bicycle on sale for $35 ($894.21 USD 2008).

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Sanity Hearing for Clara Lightfoot

July 30, 1889, Clara Lightfoot

 

July
30, 1889: Former Mother Superior Clara Lightfoot is suffering from acute mania. She will be taken to the asylum today … Henry Penk and J.H. Gomer shoot a dog and are arrested for discharging firearms within the city limits. 

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Matt Weinstock, July 29, 1959

Great Scott! I've Kept You Rigid for Almost Two Hours!“Great Scott! I’ve Kept You Rigid for Almost Two Hours! Why Didn’t You Stop Me, Miss Simmons?


Body Surfers

Matt WeinstockIt appears that Bob Lee, who, as reported here, was knocked down by an unidentified object, which turned out to be a young man, while wading at Newport Beach, has cast a slur upon a noble sport, body-surfing — riding the
waves to shore without benefit of boards, water wings or other appurtenances.

“In the old days,” B.G. of Wilmington writes, “before the shoreline was filled with feather merchants (turistas)
and the beaches were cluttered by breakwaters, the sport was wonderful.

Now we practice it at the mercy of every wave jumper. I am a native and I have been playing the surf for 30 years, taking time out to eat, of course, and have yet to be struck by a body surfer. However, my husband, also a native, recently had four stitches taken in his chin to repair the damage caused by an idiot who attacked him with his thick skull. These people should get out of the way before they really hurt someone.”

Continue reading

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Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, July 29, 1959

July 29, 1959: Hawaii Puts 2 "Orientals" in U.S. Congress. Ouch!

July 29, 1959: The “Orientals” being sent to Congress from Hawaii include future Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. And notice the story about Nikita Khrushchev being invited to visit the U.S.


Confidential File

Great White Hunter White Feels Blue

Paul Coates, in coat and tieI present you with my recently completed thesis on the subject: “Proper Protocol to Get a Wildcat Out of Your Back Yard.”

My collaborator on this project was Mr. Keith White, an engineer.

Mr. White, who lives in Northridge, first suspected that there was a wildcat in his back yard several weeks ago.

For no apparent reason, huge branches of eucalyptus trees began crashing down on the premises in the middle of the night. Two of them — 5 or 6 in. thick — were snapped off last weekend. Continue reading

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Reading Material

 July 29, 1951, Best Sellers

July 29, 1951: Some familiar titles: "The Caine Mutiny" and "From Here to Eternity" and then there's "Communism, Democracy and Catholic Power." What's this? "A study of the Kremlin and Vatican as suppressors of free thought?" Of course, you don't have to wonder what it's about. The full text is here.

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L.A. Olympics Begin

July 29, 1984, Times Cover

July 29, 1984: Two wire obits (George Gallup and James Mason) and a lead story out of Beirut with the Olympics as the main art.
Below right, July 30, 1984.


July 30, 1984, Cover The Summer Olympics opened in LA. with equal doses of drama and dazzle and very little seemed to go wrong.

President Reagan, who at one point in the festivities said he was
"bursting with pride," delivered the formal opening statement from
inside a glass-enclosed booth at the packed Coliseum. The Times' Peter
H. King called the Olympics "a mammoth undertaking challenged by
financial restrictions imposed by weary taxpayers, by boycotts, by the
threat of terrorism and by all the other calamities that have beclouded
the Olympic future."

"We wish no political statement," said Peter V. Ueberroth, the
Olympics chief and future baseball commissioner. "We wish only to show
hospitality and friendship and through these efforts make a better
world if we can."

–Keith Thursby

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Police Court

 

July 29, 1899, Police Court

July 29, 1899: John Hasty pleads not guilty to begging — and may get a bath.

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Mary Lascomb Gets Roaring Drunk

July 29, 1889, Mary Lascomb

 

July
29, 1889: A drunk Mary Lascomb makes the night "hideous with her yells and shrieks" and gets taken away by the police.

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Found on EBay — The Cyclone in Long Beach

Sept. 16, 1968, Cyclone

Sept. 16, 1968, the end of the ride for the Cyclone.

Cyclone Racer, Long Beach, EBay This postcard of the
Cyclone roller coaster at the Nu-Pike in Long Beach has been listed on
EBay. The world's longest, fastest roller-coaster was torn down in 1968
to make way for the Queen Mary exhibit. Bidding starts at $3.50.
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Matt Weinstock, July 28, 1959

July 28, 1959: Peanuts

Ticket Trouble

Matt WeinstockEveryone is in favor of motherhood, peace and traffic safety but strident voices are being raised over one phase of the crackdown on delinquent drivers.

Almost everyone goes along with DMV director Robert McCarthy’s campaign to protect the innocent from careless drivers by revoking the licenses of those who pile up too many
moving violations.

But now the insurance companies have gotten into the act. They are sending policyholders forms to fill out listing their accidents and moving violations for the last 24 months. It is
indicated that those who have sinned are going to have their rates raised. As a result, the squawks are reverberating.

Continue reading

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Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, July 28, 1959

July 28, 1959: Los Angeles Mirror cover

Confidential File

When Cash Register Is Replacing a Heart

The Almighty Dollar, that great object of universal devotion
— Washington Irving.

Paul Coates, in coat and tieSandra Gianoulis, 8, of Glendale, went to a drive-in theater last week with her mother.

They got there at 7:30. Sandra played for a while with her sister, Lynn, 7, in a recreation area on the premises. They returned to their mother’s car just before dusk.

However, a few minutes before the show was to start, the girls decided to go to the snack bar.

Lynn got out of the car first. Sandra followed, slamming the door behind her. Then, she screamed.

The middle finger of her left hand was caught in the closed door.

Quickly, her mother opened it, freeing the finger. It was bleeding badly. The tip was hanging loosely, not quite completely severed. Continue reading

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A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movies

 
July 28, 1950, Movies

 

July 28, 1950: "The Lawless" tells the story of prejudice against Mexicans in a California farming town — with Gail Russell as a Latina reporter! Alas, this is not on Netflix.

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Cooking With the Junior League — Heirloom Tomatoes

California-fresh-harvest

"California Fresh Harvest," 2001.

Mary McCoy is furious over heirloom tomatoes in her latest Cooking With the Junior League post. The reason? They put supermarket tomatoes to shame.

She writes: "When I finished eating it, I was actually filled with rage.  Because it
was so good, and because the tomatoes I buy at the grocery store are so
awful and flavorless and taste like water with skin.  Even when they’re
ripe, even when they’re in season.  And I live in California… I should
be able to buy good tomatoes at the grocery store, but I can’t because
they’re not pretty and they don’t ship well." 

She also says: "When I told Brady about this week’s menu from the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay’s California Fresh Harvest — prosciutto-wrapped figs with goat cheese, mango and brie quesadillas, candied ginger peach shortcakes– he raised an eyebrow."

“That doesn’t sound like anything I ate when I was in Oakland.”

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Hopes Dim for Mideast Peace; Drysdale Returns to the Mound

July 28, 1969, Cover

July 28, 1969; Someone thought "14 Moonquakes" would be a great screamer headline for street sales. In a story that still resonates 40 years later, Bill Tuohy writes that prospects for peace in the Mideast seem more remote than at any time since the 1967 war. 

Tuohy says: "The Arabs have increasingly come to refuse anything but complete withdrawal by Israel from areas occupied during the six-day war.

"Meanwhile, the Israelis have recently been calling for annexation of Jerusalem (which is nearly a fact), the Golan Heights, part of the West Bank and part of the Sinai Desert."

July 28, 1969, Ted Kennedy

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and his family attend church a little more than a week after the July 18, 1969, death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick.

"Kennedy nodded only slightly in acknowledgment and appeared somber after a troubled week in which he pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal automobile accident and then went on television to ask the voters of Massachusetts to tell him if they wanted him to remain in office."

Note: Typepad has changed the way it handles images. The above clipping looks fuzzy, but is sharp and readable if you click on it.

July 28, 1969, Sports Don Drysdale pitched five innings and the Dodgers defeated the Cubs,
6-2. A season ago on his way to the major league record for consecutive
scoreless innings, Drysdale would have made news with such a short
outing. In 1969, he made news just by pitching.

Drysdale hadn't pitched since July 3 and hadn't won since June. "I'm
encouraged," he told The Times' Ross Newhan. "There was nowhere near
the pain that there has been in the past. I feel as though I'll be able
to start again in four days, then I'll take my regular turn over the
rest of the season."

Meanwhile, the Dodgers and Angels were talking trade with the wanted
player ancient knuckleball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. The Angels eventually
would trade Wilhelm but to Atlanta.

–Keith Thursby

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