A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movies

Posted on July 31, 2009 by lmharnisch

July 31, 1953, Movies
July 31, 1953: "Ride Vaquero!" has a giant, full-stage screen. And it's not on Netflix.

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Movie Star Mystery Photo

Posted on July 31, 2009 by lmharnisch
 

 July 27, 2009, Mystery Photo

 Los Angeles Times file photo

July 6, 1960: Barry Atwater in "Alcoa Presents: The Day the World Wept — the Lincoln Story."

Update: As many people guessed, this is Barry Atwater, who died in 1978.

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: Grace Bradley!

July 28, 2009, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: Barry Atwater in "The Reach of a Giant" on "Medic," Oct. 1, 1956.

Here's another photo of our mystery guest, without his Abe Lincoln makeup–just the usual "white goop" treatment from The Times' art department. Please congratulate Carmen, Nick and Don Danard for identifying him!

July 29, 2009, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Barry Atwater, Nov. 2, 1961.

And another photo of our mystery guest–slathered with goop by The Times' art department. Please congratulate Annie Frye, Michael Ryerson, Lisa Mateas, Margie and Dewey Webb for identifying him.

July 30, 2009, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Barry Atwater in the play "Uncle Marston," May 5, 1963.

Here's another photo of our mystery guest. Please congratulate Thom, Lee and Megan, Ted Mark, "Laura" fan Waldo Lydecker, Greg Clancey, Barbara Klein, Roget-L.A. and Mike Hawks for identifying him.

July 31, 2009, Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: A badly wrinkled picture of Barry Atwater promoting his appearance in a production of "A Man for All Seasons," 1965. Please congratulate Mary Mallory and Cynthia K. for identifying him!

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | 55 Comments

Pilgrimage Play Opens

Posted on July 31, 2009 by lmharnisch
May 31, 1920, Pilgrimage Play  

May 31, 1920: Preparations are underway in El Camino Real Canyon for "The National Pilgrimage Play."

Aug. 26, 1938, Nuestro Pueblo  

Aug. 26, 1938: Joe Seewerker and Charles Owens visit what was then Pilgrimage Play Theater for Nuestro Pueblo. The play wasn't presented in 1938 because the theater was being used for a production of "Faust."

July 31, 1939, Pilgrimage Play

July 31, 1939: Jesus cures a leper in a scene from "The Pilgrimage Play."

July 1, 1939, Pilgrimage Play July 31, 1939, Pilgrimage Play

Until the early 1960s, when a legal ruling ended its government funding, "The Pilgrimage Play" was one of the more enduring fixtures in The Times' drama pages, along with "The Mission Play" and "The Drunkard."

Originally called "The National Pilgrimage Play" in hopes that people from across the U.S. would come to Los Angeles to see the annual production, the play was "transcribed from the Scriptures by Mrs. W. Yorke Stevenson, with assistance from Brander Matthews, Clayton Hamilton, Sheldon Cheney and Prof. Baker of Harvard," The Times said in 1920. 

The script consisted of 14 scenes, divided into a prologue, two acts and an epilogue. The original production was directed by Stevenson and H. Ellis Reed.

The play was presented every summer until a fire destroyed the original structure in 1929. After a two-year gap for construction what is now known as the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in honor of the former county supervisor, production resumed, with another gap during World War II. In 1943, the property was deeded to Los Angeles County.

Construction of the Hollywood Freeway once again interrupted productions, which resumed in 1955 under John Arnold Ford, the son of John Anson Ford. 

In 1961, Atty. Gen. Stanley Mosk ruled that the play could not receive city or county funding on the principle of the separation of church and state. A privately funded production was given in 1964 and John Arnold Ford presented some scenes in 1978.

Nov. 4, 1978, Pilgrimage Play

Nov. 4, 1978: John Arnold Ford presents scenes from "The Pilgrimage Play." A movie version, partially shot at the amphitheater with some segments filmed on  leftover sets from "Joan of Arc," was released in 1949.
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Nuestro Pueblo — San Pedro

Posted on July 31, 2009 by lmharnisch
July 31, 1939, Nuestro Pueblo

July 31, 1939: Nuestro Pueblo visits San Pedro and encounters an irascible lighthouse keeper, Irving Conklin. "Some idiot will write a story with a lighthouse in it," Conklin says of filmmakers. "It doesn't matter if the lighthouse is in the Mediterranean or in Siberia. Down they will come and shoot ours."

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For Men Only

Posted on July 31, 2009 by lmharnisch
July 31, 1899, Men Only  

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

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Small Boys in Trouble!

Posted on July 31, 2009 by lmharnisch
  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

Posted on July 30, 2009 by lmharnisch

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

Posted on July 30, 2009 by lmharnisch

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.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on July 30, 2009 by lmharnisch

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

Posted on July 30, 2009 by lmharnisch

 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!

Posted on July 30, 2009 by lmharnisch
 

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

Posted on July 30, 2009 by lmharnisch

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

Posted on July 29, 2009 by lmharnisch

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

Posted on July 29, 2009 by lmharnisch

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

Posted on July 29, 2009 by lmharnisch

 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

Posted on July 29, 2009 by lmharnisch
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

Posted on July 29, 2009 by lmharnisch
 

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

Posted on July 29, 2009 by lmharnisch

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

Posted on July 28, 2009 by lmharnisch

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

Posted on July 28, 2009 by lmharnisch

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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