Police Botch Raid on Club

Posted on July 19, 2009 by lmharnisch
July 19, 1899, Raid

July 19, 1899: Police testified about a raid on the Republican Club, run by African Americans, but although they described debauchery, they couldn't cite specific instances. They just said it was a bad place: "Officers who testified were woefully lacking in specific information as to the nature of the orgies that made the place notorious …  Men and women, white and black, had been drinking and dancing there and having a good time generally prior to the police raid."

"Mrs.Sibyl Slone of Pasadena is in deep distress over the wayward actions of her sister, Inola Reed, 17 years…. Last week Mrs. Slone called on Chief of Police Glass and stated that Inola had been sustaining improper relations with a tailor named Cohen."

Posted in #courts, Blues, Food and Drink, LAPD, Music, Nightclubs, Politics | 1 Comment

Train Derails After Hitting Cow

Posted on July 19, 2009 by lmharnisch

July 19, 1889, Cow Vs. Train

July 19, 1889: What happens when a train hits a cow … and a faithless husband was once a dancing master in Pasadena. 

Posted in Animals, Transportation | Comments Off on Train Derails After Hitting Cow

Matt Weinstock, July 18, 1959

Posted on July 18, 2009 by lmharnisch

July 18, 1959, Peanuts

Those Towers

Matt Weinstock By the nature of their work, artists are individualists. But they have become united as never before by the condemnation of Simon Rodia's Watts Towers. It has become a cause celebre to them, and every day those who can spare the time appear at the hearings in Room 216 of City Hall to back up their speakers.

The Building and Safety Department says the towers are unsafe and should be torn down.

Artists,
art lovers and plain interested citizens say no. Their arguments go
beyond the possibility that the 104-foot towers, built by immigrant
stonemasonRodia of concrete, scrap metal, ceramics and seashells, may be toppled. To them the debate is one of culture vs. ignorance.

LET DENNIS M'CALIB, L.A. artist, have his say:

July 18, 1959, Dennis "Simon Rodia's
towers are an expression of 33 years of a vision embodying the most
instinctive verities of great art. Since 1921, through rain, sun, and
the depredations of small boys, his monumental masterpiece, with its intricate embellishment representing grueling toil, has risen. Now a deadly shadow has fallen across his work, the shadow of persecution and official presumption.

"Simon Rodia's
lifetime work of love and mystic devotion to the ideal of beauty is in
danger of being cruelly destroyed. Why? Because he did not obtain a
permit and because the Building and Safety Department maintains his
towers constitute a danger to habitations and persons in the area. Mr.Rodia did not use his materials as building materials per se
. He is an artist, not an engineer. If a danger exists, as is claimed,
why not simply prohibit children getting near the towers without adult
supervision?"

Meanwhile Simon, 81, sits in retirement in Martinez, Cal., aloof from the battle.

::

July 18, 1959, Arabs Beauty Contest AT LAST REPORT
rattlesnake hunters were closing in on the deadly reptiles, forced into
the open by the heat and drought. If the hunters run out of
inspiration, they might call for Marsha Hunt, the beautiful actress.
She's an expert.

Not long ago she knocked off one with 10 rattles in her Sherman Oaks yard — with a shovel. When disbelievers — I was one — sound off, she disappears for a moment and comes back wearing the handsome belt she had made of the skin.

::

A LATE
afternoon plane was in position on the runway to take off from S.F. to
L.A. the other day when it became apparent something was amiss. The
pilot taxied back to the apron and after a systematic search the crew
found what it was looking for — a box marked "Dead case" containing a
load of ice cubes.

The plane was a little late arriving here, reports a passenger, Sydney Rosenbert, American Building Maintenance president, but nobody cared.

::

FOR THE LAST couple of years, Natividad Vacio
has played a Mexican gardener in the TV series "Father Knows Best."
Jerry Hoffman, publicity man at Columbia Pictures, where the episodes
are made, has become acquainted with him and unconsciously addresses him as Feliz. Natividad, who by the way teaches the third grade at Solano Ave. School, has never corrected him.

July 18, 1959, Abby The other day Jerry saw him on the set and said, "How are you, Feliz?" Herb Wallerstein, assistant director, heard him and asked, "What's this Feliz business? You're mixed up. Are you trying to wish him a merry Christmas?" Feliz Navidad is Merry Christmas.

Made Jerry realized he'd built up a memory association blur. So he has compromised. He now calls Natividad Vacio Chris.

::

AT HOLLYWOOD
Park one recent Saturday Mrs. Hazel Roberts of Highland Park met some
friends who suggested she and her husband occupy their grandstand
seats, which could be located by the white scarf over them. When they
got to them Mrs. Roberts found her sister and family in the next row.
They'd come down from Sacramento on a surprise visit and hadn't yet
announced their presence. Suddenly it was reunion time. Quite a
long-shot with 50,000 people at the track.
Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock, July 18, 1959

Paul V. Coates — Confidential File, July 18, 1959

Posted on July 18, 2009 by lmharnisch
July 18, 1959, Cover

Stop the presses–Big Tiny Little quits the Lawrence Welk show. Below, Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" reduced to "rinky tink piano" crapola.

Confidential File

Mash Notes and Comments

Paul Coates(Press
Release) "The Adventures of Learning in College," a guide for the young
persons who seeks profit from his college years, will be published by
Harper & Brothers on Aug. 5 . . ." (signed) Stuart Harris,
Publicity Director, Harper & Brothers, New York City.
    — It were an adventure, weren't it, Stu.

::

"To Paul,

"Paul, I got a letter from Memphis Ward. I want to get something straight. Memphis says one of your readers said I had hallatusions.

"Paul, I don't dream these things I write you about up. They happen to me.

"Every
morning in this bar where I work a bird flies in the back door. He
flies around the bar and chirps away at me. I feed him peanuts.

"Then he flies away but the next morning at 9 a.m. he is right back to see me.

"We are pals.

July 18, 1959, Kemp "Paul, people that think I have hallitousions have never been out in this world and seen things like me.

"I have been to the Grand Canyon. I went to Mexico to look for a gold mine. I have been to Colma Calif. where Sutter discovered gold.

"I have been a bouncer on the San Francisco water front. I started the first taxi on Bayshore highway south of San Francisoco. I started the first boys boxing club of Palo Alto my old home town I moved out of forever.

"I crashed Hollywood and worked in a movie with Greer Garson. In 1935 I was a beach comber at Santa Monica and boxing at Ocean Park and Redondo Beach. I was in the reform school Preston Calif.

"I could go on and on with the true story of my life, but anyway Paul tell your readers that I don't have hallitoutions." (signed) Parkey Sharkey, The Oasis Beer Garden, 241 El Camino Real, Menlo Park.
    — I would, Parkey, but I don't know how to spell it.

::

 (Press Release) "Of the 36 million pounds of snuff consumed by Americans last year, less than 1% was sniffed.

"That's
right! Twentieth century snuffers, following the lead of their pioneer
forefathers who established the product's trend fromblueblood to redblood use, prefer to taste rather than smell the flavored tobacco.

"Seeing as they modernized the ancient snuff-taking ritual — eliminating the cumbersome snuffbox, the lace hanky
and other distracting frills — it's little wonder that present-day
snuff users call to mind the spirit of the rugged, independent
Colonists whenever this one's heard: 'I've Had It!'" (signed) Snuff
Information Center, 250 Park Ave., New York City.
    — So have I. Let's get the hell out of here.

::

"Dear Mr. Coates,

"I've never written a fan letter before in my life, but I enjoy your column so much I felt an urge to write and let you know.

"I
appreciate your frankness and your worthwhile items about things that
concern all of us, or should. You bring things to light that most
writers would not dare. It's very seldom that you run across a man as
good-looking as you are who also has brains.

"I wish they would
write about you in the movie magazines so we could find out if you're
married and where you are from and all. By the way, do you have a
wife?" (signed) Kathleen M., Los Angeles
    — Yes, but she doesn't understand me like you do.
Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | 1 Comment

All-Star Game in Seattle

Posted on July 18, 2009 by lmharnisch
July 17, 1979, All Star Game Ticket

The 1979 All-Star Game in Seattle.

July 18, 1979, Sports I'm not quite sure why I still have my ticket to the 1979 All-Star
game in Seattle. I'm not much of a saver and the game doesn't rank
among the most memorable. But I'm glad it managed to survive in a
little plastic bag with a few other old items, none very valuable but
all with memories attached.

The first thing I noticed is the price–all of $7. That is
ridiculous and impossible now, but back then a college student with a
free week could drive to Seattle, see the game and not have to rob a
bank somewhere in between.

The mere fact that my brother and I could buy tickets at any price
is also impossible now. We heard one day while watching an Angels game
that tickets were available. We checked the calendar, figured why not
try and sent off a check.

All-star games are now appointment viewing. My sons are making plans
for next year's game in Anaheim, hoping they'll be able to get into one
of the various events that surround the real game. They don't even
consider watching the actual game because those tickets are out of
reach for anyone with a budget or a sense of priorities.

But things were much, much simpler in 1979. The tickets arrived and
we drove to our eldest brother's house in Portland. After staying a few
days, we drove to Seattle straight for the Kingdome, the Mariners'
stadium that's long gone now.

We missed most of the game's top play when Dave Parker's throw from
right field got the Angels' Brian Downing at home. Parker was in right
field and our seats seemed about 1,000 feet above him. He went after a
ball in the corner, disappeared from our view and then a throw came out
of nowhere headed to the plate. We were probably more surprised than
Downing.

My younger son still has a shirt I bought at the game with my last
$5.  The players are retired now and I couldn't fit half my frame into
that shirt.

The memories of the trip linger, of course. Being at an event in a
strange city. Fun times with one of my brothers before we both went off
to more adult pursuits. The stupidity of driving home from Seattle
stopping only for food and gas.

I wish my kids could find adventures that cost so little but are worth so much.

—Keith Thursby

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on All-Star Game in Seattle

GM May Recall 60,000 Cars; Angels Miss Their Scoreboard

Posted on July 18, 2009 by lmharnisch
July 18, 1979, Cover

July 18, 1979: The meltdown of the U.S. auto industry foretold — GM may recall 60,000 X-Cars (that was the Chevy Citation, Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile Omega and Pontiac Phoenix). And what's in the news? Illegal immigrants on Page 1 and the Metro cover (below).

July 18, 1979, Metro The Angels had a rotten sense of timing, finally having a good
season just as their ballpark was being redeveloped to make the new
kids from Los Angeles happy.

Anaheim Stadium was a mess in 1979 as the stadium was transformed
during the season into one of those classically bad combination
stadiums. While the Angels played, the ballpark became something almost
unrecognizable so the Rams could begin playing there the next football
season.

How big was the change? They sent the stadium's landmark scoreboard packing.

Back in the stadium's quaint early days, the scoreboard looming over
the center field fence was the perfect centerpiece. But when the
renovations started, they unplugged the Big A and eventually moved it
out to the parking lot. Progress.

That was no easy feat in 1979. The first moving day ended early when once of the dollies under its base started to tilt.

The scoreboard wasn't much by today's standards, of course. But it seemed like a lot then.

"That big board was nice because when you're not pitching and just
sitting there for nine innings you get the trivia question of the day
and a few stats to keep your mind occupied," pitcher Dave Frost told
The Times in 1979.

Without the big board, the stadium's announcers had to talk more,
bringing back memories of the Dodgers' early days in the Coliseum.
Which wasn't exactly a good thing.

"They had a small board in the peristyle and it got to the point
where there were so many announcements that they were distracting
people from the game," Dennis Packer said.

–Keith Thursby

Posted in Architecture, Environment, Front Pages, Politics, Sports, Transportation | Comments Off on GM May Recall 60,000 Cars; Angels Miss Their Scoreboard

Officer Cracks Mysterious Case

Posted on July 18, 2009 by lmharnisch
 July 18, 1899, Butcher Boy

July 18, 1899: Officer C.L. Foster unravels a series of mysterious thefts. A deliveryman from the butcher shop is helping himself to whatever he can take.
Posted in #courts, LAPD | 1 Comment

Police Commission Ignores Mayor, Fires Police Chief

Posted on July 18, 2009 by lmharnisch
July 18, 1889, Police Chief

July 18, 1889: Don't be put off because this is an extremely gray page. It's loaded with wild stories. The Police Commission decides in executive session to replace the police chief against the mayor's wishes. The chief refuses to surrender his job unless his successor is qualified.

Posted in City Hall, LAPD, Politics | Comments Off on Police Commission Ignores Mayor, Fires Police Chief

Walter Cronkite Retires — And That’s the Way It Was

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
March 7, 1981: Walter Cronkite Retires

March 7, 1981: "And that's the way it is. Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night."

March 7, 1981: Walter Cronkite Retires

Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Television, Walter Cronkite | Comments Off on Walter Cronkite Retires — And That’s the Way It Was

Walter Cronkite: Nixon Out to Destroy Press Credibility

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
May 19, 1971, Walter Cronkite  

Walter
Cronkite, May 19, 1971: "Many of us see a clear indication on the part of this administration of a grand conspiracy to destroy the credibility of the press. No one doubts the right of anyone to seek to correct distortion, to right untruths … but the present campaign, spearheaded by Vice President Agnew and Republican National Chairman Sen. Robert Dole goes beyond that."

Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Richard Nixon, Television, Walter Cronkite | Comments Off on Walter Cronkite: Nixon Out to Destroy Press Credibility

Walter Cronkite — TV’s Father Figure

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
May 12, 1970, Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite, May 12, 1970: "As news disseminators, nobody can touch us. And we have the best informed society in the world's history." He smiled wryly: "That's what worries the Establishment. No Establishment likes the people to be too well informed."

Then with a sigh, he said: "Our glaring weakness is as news gatherers. We are distinctly third-rate. without the newspaper news services, we'd die."

Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Television, Walter Cronkite | Comments Off on Walter Cronkite — TV’s Father Figure

Walter Cronkite Interviews LBJ on Kennedy Assassination

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
May 3, 1970, Walter Cronkite, LBJ

May 3, 1970: Walter Cronkite interviews former President Johnson about the assassination of President Kennedy. Johnson said he was undermined by holdovers from the Kennedy administration.
May 3, 1970, Walter Cronkite, LBJ

Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Politics, Television, Walter Cronkite | Comments Off on Walter Cronkite Interviews LBJ on Kennedy Assassination

Walter Cronkite on Nixon Era Attempt to Intimidate TV News

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
Nov. 26, 1969, Walter Cronkite, Spiro Agnew

Nov. 26, 1969: "It's not reaction to a charge made against us that is the question that is at stake here. It's the reaction to an implied threat to freedom of speech in this country."

–Walter Cronkite, on Vice President Spiro Agnew's criticism of TV news. During his speech, Agnew noted that radio and TV stations are federally licensed.

Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Richard Nixon, Television, Walter Cronkite | 1 Comment

Walter Cronkite — Covering Vietnam

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
April 28, 1966, Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite, April 28, 1966: "I am annoyed though, when I see reviews of our specials on Vietnam criticizing us because, as they put it, we didn't clarify the issues. How can we clarify the issues? Washington itself hasn't, so why would we be expected to? All we can do is throw some light on the debate."

Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Television, Walter Cronkite | 1 Comment

Walter Cronkite — JFK Dead

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
Nov. 23, 1963, Walter Cronkite

Nov. 23, 1963: "[Walter] Cronkite's voice broke when he said that the official word had come that the president was dead. Chet Huntley's eyes brimmed. David Brinkley in Washington wore sorrow in his face. [ABC Vice President James] Hagerty held his head and signed."

Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Television, Walter Cronkite | Comments Off on Walter Cronkite — JFK Dead

Walter Cronkite on TV News

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
May 24, 1962, Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite, May 24, 1962: "A major problem is that TV is a pictorial medium and we must find what we can to illustrate hard news," Cronkite said. "We are trying to use the remote interview technique that Ed Murrow developed in 'Small World' — when it's called for. Do an interview filming the subject and talking to him via telephone."

Posted in broadcasting, Obituaries, Television, Walter Cronkite | 1 Comment

Walter Cronkite — Anchor Man

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
June 19, 1960

June 19, 1960: …"A fast-moving, exciting convention — I love it. I wish we could have it every week; this is what television is made for," Walter Cronkite.

June 19, 1960, Cronkite

Posted in broadcasting, Obituaries, Television, Walter Cronkite | Comments Off on Walter Cronkite — Anchor Man

Walter Cronkite on the Suicide of Rommel

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
March 24, 1946, Cronkite on Rommel's Suicide

By Walter Cronkite, March 24, 1946 on the death of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel: "As soon as he had taken his seat in the back one of the generals immediately handed him the cyanide capsule. He put it in his mouth in the same moment. Even before the chauffeur had started the car and put it in gear to drive away I could see that the field marshal was dying.
Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Television, Walter Cronkite | Comments Off on Walter Cronkite on the Suicide of Rommel

Walter Cronkite in a Flying Fortress Over Germany, 1943

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
Feb. 27, 1943, Walter Cronkite

"Bombs away." Walter Cronkite describes a bombing raid on Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Feb. 27, 1943.  

"This is a lot of fun but sometimes I think it ain't healthy," a flier says.

Feb. 27, 1943

Posted in @news, broadcasting, Obituaries, Television, Walter Cronkite | Comments Off on Walter Cronkite in a Flying Fortress Over Germany, 1943

Found on EBay — Chester Place

Posted on July 17, 2009 by lmharnisch

Chester Place EBay

A postcard showing a home in  Chester Place has been listed on EBay. Chester Place, near Adams and Figueroa, was developed by Judge Charles Silent. The development was named for Silent's  son Chester, a Stanford student who died in a peculiar accident with a shotgun in 1907.  Bidding starts at $3.25.
Posted in Architecture | Comments Off on Found on EBay — Chester Place