Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

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This week’s mystery movie was the 1949 Paramount film The Great Gatsby, with Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey, Ruth Hussey, Barry Sullivan, Howard Da Silva, Shelley Winters, Henry Hull, Carole Mathews, Ed Begley, Elisha Cook Jr., Nicholas Joy, Walter Greaza and Tito Vuolo. Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated) + + + +

Main Title: Lettering over basket woven textile and palm fronds.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1963 Paramount film Donovan’s Reef, with John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Elizabeth Allen, Jack Warden, Cesar Romero, Dick Foran, Dorothy Lamour, Marcel Dalio, Mike Mazurki, Jacqueline Malouf, Cherylene Lee, Tim Stafford, Edgar Buchanan and Jon Fong. Continue reading

Posted in 1963, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 31 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Highbourne Gardens, Bungalows to Apartments

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Architect’s rendering of Highbourne Gardens
from Architect and Engineer.


Real estate development is all about money, expanding and “improving” on property to obtain high financial rewards. HIghbourne Gardens shows the evolution of what is called multi-famlly housing in Los Angeles, beginning as an intimate, cozy bungalow court and expanding to include an elegant apartment building just minutes from Hollywood Boulevard, extending back into what is now Whitley Heights. All that remains today is the lovely 96-year-old apartment building, facing busy Highland Avenue, just down the street from the Hollywood Bowl.

In 1915, Allen and Edgerton Shore constructed 12 furnished bungalows ranging from 3-6 rooms in a loose complex at 1920-1962 N. Highland Ave. called Highbourne Gardens, surrounded by lush landscaping and featuring its own steam heating plant. The elegant apartment hotel development adapted a small part of Italy to Los Angeles, offering a homey, cozy atmosphere for those homesick for family or looking to create a new one in the booming film town of Hollywood.

Continue reading

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George Hodel: Ask Me Anything, January 2024

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

I responded to a Steve Hodel supporter who challenged my credentials and asked for my “substantiation.” Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + +)

Main Title: Lettering over miniature of mad scientist's HQ
This week’s mystery movie was the 1944 Republic picture The Lady and the Monster, with Vera Hruba Ralston, Richard Arlen, Erich von Stroheim, Helen Vinson, Mary Nash, Sidney Blackmer, Janet Martin, Bill Henry, Charles Cane, Juanita Quigley, Josephine Dillon and Antonio Triana and Lola Montes. Continue reading

Posted in 1944, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Mary Mallory: Hollywood Heights – James Montgomery Flagg

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Photo: What is advertised as an original copy of James Montgomery Flagg’s “Tell That to the Marines!” is listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $361.66.


Note: This is an encore post from 2011.

Illustrator James Montgomery Flagg is best remembered today for creating the iconic image of Uncle Sam on a U. S. Army recruitment poster in World War I, but he was also a successful filmmaker during the same period.  Not only did Flagg create posters and art titles for film studios, but he also made a series of shorts.

Flagg studied in New York, Paris, and London before illustrating for magazines and books.  He became an author himself in the early 1900s, writing and illustrating his own works.  Illustrators were well paid; the Feb. 6, 1910, The New York Times estimated that Flagg earned $15,000 for drawing in 1910, and Harrison Fisher made $75,000.  In 1914, The Los Angeles Times hired Flagg to author and draw columns. Continue reading

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Black Dahlia: Trim Your Roses on Jan. 15 to Remember Elizabeth Short

Today is Jan. 15, the anniversary of Elizabeth Short’s death. As is the custom, the Daily Mirror will be dark.

Trim your roses in her memory.

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Crime and Courts, Homicide, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

‘Ask Me Anything’ on George Hodel – Jan. 16

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

Note: Today marks the beginning of Elizabeth Short’s “missing week.” And regardless of what Steve Hodel claims, yes, there was a “missing week.” I encourage everyone to make a charitable donation in memory of Elizabeth Short to the agency of your choice, though I favor groups that work with abused women or the homeless.

In this session, I’ll look at Steve Hodel’s claims of “validation from beyond the grave” by conveniently dead law enforcement officials who (Steve claims) said he solved the case. And some folks who say he’s full of it.

Steve also likes claim to that Boxie was Frank Jemison’s “second set of books”; that investigator Frank Jemison was “ordered” to turn over the district attorney’s files to the LAPD, which “destroyed them” (at least in the parallel reality of Steve Hodel). And that Boxie here was Jemison’s “second set” of files that he left for Steve to magically find decades later. So we’ll look at what’s in Boxie. How much actually pertains to evil genius George Hodel?

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.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Main Title over art of the Mississippi River.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1954 MGM picture Tennessee Champ, with Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin, Earl Holliman, Dave O’Brien, Charles Buchinsky (Bronson) and Yvette Dugay (Duguay). Continue reading

Posted in 1954, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 27 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: 2178 High Tower Drive, L.A.’s First Community Elevator

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The Tower appeared in the March 24, 1939, installment of Nuestro Pueblo by Joseph Seewerker and Charles Owens of the Los Angeles Times.


Note: This is an encore post from 2020.

Both marketing gimmick and necessity, the elevator shaft that gave the name High Tower Drive to a street in the Hollywood Highland Avenue Tract is now an icon in Los Angeles. Almost 100 years old, the tower represents the can-do spirit of Los Angeles and its residents.

In 1901, Los Angeles investors H.J. Whitley, F.H. Rindge, Griffith J. Griffith, M.H. Sherman, and E.P. Clark organized the Los Angeles Pacific Boulevard and Development Company to purchase land for development north of Prospect Boulevard in Hollywood. Sherman and Clark, brothers-in-law from Arizona, owned the streetcar line around the city adjacent to land they purchased for later sale as residential lots. Their trolley line ran down Prospect Boulevard and up Highland Avenue as well. The November 18 Los Angeles Evening Press stated “the purpose of this corporation is to boom Hollywood, to make it an attractive suburban town.”

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

Continue reading

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Black Dahlia: Ask Me Anything, January 2024

In the January 2024 Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case, I talk about Elizabeth Short’s so-called missing week and whether it’s real.

I also covered Leslie Dillon; Frank Jemison’s attitude toward Elizabeth Short; Los Angeles newspapers of the 1940s and how they covered the Black Dahlia case; whether the murder of Elizabeth Short affected property values in Leimert Park; whether Jim Richardson’s account of talking to Elizabeth Short’s killer was true; and other unsolved murders of women in Los Angeles in the 1940s.

Coming up on YouTube: On Jan. 16, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, I’ll do an Ask Me Anything on George Hodel. 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 1947, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Homicide, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Columbia Picture’s Centennial and Early Film ‘Mary of the Movies’

Mary of the Movies Lobby Card
Hollywood grew from a small rural community into a city of massive movie studios in the early 1920s, as tens of thousands arrived hoping to become part of the entertainment bonanza. Cashing in on the city and industry’s popularity, studios released several films in 1923 focusing on young women attempting to break into the movies. Two survive, “Souls For Sale” and “The Extra Girl,” with “Hollywood” considered lost. Discovered incomplete over 10 years ago and needing restoration, the C.B.C Film Sales Corporation moving picture “Mary of the Movies” helped usher in Columbia Pictures, which officially turns 100 January 10, 2024.

A story that dealt with “a girl’s struggles to break into the inner portals of stardom in the movie Mecca of Hollywood,” similar to the recently released “Souls for Sale,” “Mary of the Movies” took a gentler, lighter touch on making it in the movie town. Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

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This week’s mystery movie was the 1933 Twentieth Century picture Blood Money, with George Bancroft, Judith Anderson, Frances Dee, Chick Chandler, Blossom Seeley, Etienne Girardot and George Regas. Continue reading

Posted in 1933, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 50 Comments

Mary Astor’s Lost Film ‘New Year’s Eve’

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Note: This is an encore post from January 2020.

Since TCM is featuring Mary Astor, here’s a brief post on her lost movie “New Year’s Eve.” (A tip of the hat to Lou Lumenick, who tweeted about the movie on — New Year’s Eve.) I also uploaded a version of this post to IMDB, in case you see it there.

Fox originally announced the film under the title “Strong Arm,” based on the story “$100” by Richard Connell, published in the August 1928 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. The film was supposed to star Lois Moran and George O’Brien in the leads, under the direction of J.G. Blystone. Fox initially planned the movie as a talkie, but released it as “New Year’s Eve,” a silent directed by Henry Lehrman with sound effects and music, designated “sound on film.”

Continue reading

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

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

I’ll give an update on the book and discuss Elizabeth Short’s “missing week.” Is it real or was it concocted by the newspapers?  I’ll also remind people to trim their roses on Jan. 15 in memory of Elizabeth Short and suggest a donation in her name to a charity that works with the homeless and/or abused women.

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 Jan. 16, at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Main Title, Lettering in an emblem.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1931 Chesterfield Motion Picture film The Devil Plays, with Jameson Thomas, Florence Britton, Thomas Jackson, Richard Tucker, Robert Ellis, Lillian Rich, Edmund Burns, Dorothy Christy, Lew Kelly, Carmelita Geraghty, Jack Trent and Murdock McQuarrie. Continue reading

Posted in 1931, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: A 1940s Christmas Story in ‘Star in the Night’

Star in the Night, re-creation of manger scene from 1940s film
An updated version of the Nativity in Warner Bros. Star in the Night.


Note: This is an encore post from 2021.

Made as a twenty-minute film to complete a program slate for movie theaters, the 1945 Warner Bros. two-reel short Star in the Night provides an understated, moving example of an offbeat contemporary take on the traditional Christmas nativity story. Featuring a much larger budget and more experienced cast than normal for shorts, the powerful featurette proved popular with audiences making it a perennial hit.

While the norm at the dawn of cinema, one- and two-reel shorts came to be seen as just an entertaining morsel or appetizer for the more respected feature film by the 1920s. Providing a training ground for rising talent or work for fading stars, these short films covered the gamut – newsreels, documentaries, travelogues, musical numbers, slapstick comedy, and playlets – offered entertaining product at low prices for local theater owners.

Continue reading

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George Hodel: Ask Me Anything, December 2023 / The George Hodel Bugging Transcripts


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

I talked about Steve Hodel’s bizarre new book “Black Dahlia Avenger IV” and one of his staunchest enablers, Luigi Warren.

Then I reviewed the LAPD guidelines for managing a stakeout to see if the George Hodel bugging transcripts show the surveillance was compromised. Answer: Yes. Totally yes.

The George Hodel files Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 |Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Agnes Grew, Pioneering Paramount Executive

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Agnes Grew with a map showing the results from a survey of women movie-goers, 1945.


A leader in almost everything she tried, Agnes Grew is mostly forgotten like many other women working in the motion picture industry during the 1920s-1930s. Longing for both power and an opportunity to help others, she would lead departments as well as serve others both in her job and in private opportunities. Her aim was to inspire and aid women, demonstating their leadership capabilities.

Born February 14, 1891 in Brooklyn, New York as Agnes Mengel, she was raised in a middle class family, with her father Calvin a broker. While she claimed on one census form to have attended college, New York census records show her working as a secretary at 19. Grew soon became a bookkeeper for a clothing factory. Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

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This week’s mystery movie was the 1945 Paramount picture Love Letters, with Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway, Gladys Cooper, Anita Louise, Robert Sully, Reginald Denny, Ernest Cossart and Byron Barr. Continue reading

Posted in 1945, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 35 Comments