In the Theaters — March 18, 1945

Posted on March 18, 2009 by lmharnisch




1945_0318_movie_ads
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Trouble Was His Business — Raymond Chandler

Posted on March 18, 2009 by lmharnisch

1955_chandler_phone2_crop

 My friend Mary McCoy passes along Raymond Chandler’s listing from the 1955 San Diego phone book, which she discovered while going through the directories at the Los Angeles Public Library. 

Note: To mark the 50th anniversary of Raymond Chandler’s death, the
Daily Mirror is revisiting some of The Times’ stories about his life and
influence. We invite the Daily Mirror’s readers to share their thoughts.

Posted in books, Raymond Chandler | Comments Off on Trouble Was His Business — Raymond Chandler

Yankees’ Spring Training — Without Mickey Mantle, March 18, 1969

Posted on March 18, 2009 by lmharnisch




1969_0318_sports

1969_0318_sports_runover
The Yankees were turning a page in 1969, getting ready for a season
without Mickey Mantle. Some people thought they just didn’t look like
the Yankees anymore.

The Times’ John Wiesbusch watched as people visited with Manager Ralph Houk about his team and mostly about the retired Mantle.

"Yeah, believe me it’s not the same. It’s not the same now but it
won’t really hit us until we get to Yankee Stadium," Houk said.

"The locker room is the thing that will be different. They say it
was the same with Ruth and Gehrig and I know it was with DiMaggio.
That’s why you tuck their uniforms away in trophy cases along with the
memories."

But this being spring, the news wasn’t all bad.

"Watch that No. 28, Thurman Munson, a catcher," Houk said deep in
the story. "He’s going to be a great one. … When you get on base
against this guy you better just stay there on the bag. … I wouldn’t
be afraid to use him, but naw, he needs a year or two more in the
minors."

Munson played in 26 games in 1969 and eventually became the Yankees’
captain. He was killed in a plane crash during the 1979 season.

–Keith Thursby


Posted in Front Pages, Sports | 4 Comments

Nazis Seize Czechoslovakia, March 18, 1939

Posted on March 18, 2009 by lmharnisch

1939_0318_nazi_map
1939_0318_hopper

Hedda Hopper writes about a new type of producer-director unit at RKO making "Gunga Din."

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain denounces Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s "lawless and sinister" destruction of Czechoslovakia … war fears send the stock market tumbling.

1939_0318_cover

William "The Fox" Hickman’s holdup partner is paroled from San Quentin. And not a single bit of art on the front page.

1939_0318_runover
A wave of Czech suicides is reported.

1939_0318_comics
Comics of yesteryear: "Big Chief Wahoo" and "Harold Teen." With "Dick Tracy" and "Li’l Abner." 		1939_0318_sports

Cubs beat Sox 10-2 at Wrigley Field. I love the old sports writing: The "Pale Hose" … swatsmiths … but "turkey-necked Cub third-baseman?"

Posted in @news, Comics, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Politics, Sports | Comments Off on Nazis Seize Czechoslovakia, March 18, 1939

Found on EBay — Batchelder Tile

Posted on March 17, 2009 by lmharnisch

Batchelder_birds_ebay

 This Batchelder tile has been listed on EBay. As I recall, a tile similar to this one is part of the fireplace at the Angelus Temple museum, which was formerly the home of Aimee Semple McPherson. When I get a chance I’ll post a picture that I took during the recent L.A. Conservancy tour, "Seekers." Bidding on the tile at left starts at $9.99.
Posted in Architecture, art and artists, Real Estate | Comments Off on Found on EBay — Batchelder Tile

Matt Weinstock — March 17, 1959

Posted on March 17, 2009 by lmharnisch




Spoofing Session

Matt_weinstockdThose who attended the Screen Writers Awards dinner are still
rolling with some of the punches the authors tossed at each other and
life in Hollywood generally. The proceedings started out with a solemn
oath to stamp out togetherness and along toward midnight things became
downright gamey.

A skit having to do with "Lolita" brought out a remark, "This thing couldn’t get a seal of approval in Tijuana."

A
comedy-writing team came up with a tired routine and one said, "Put an
exclamation point after that so he’ll know it’s a joke."

One
of the most devastating spoofs was a parody of Ed Murrow’s "Person to
Person" show. A man resembling Ed sat on the edge of the stage smoking
a cigarette and talking long-distance with his subjects.

1959_0317_weinstock
THE LIGHTS
came on a scene showing a man shaving in his bathroom. "You got the
wrong house, Mac," he told Murrow, "Mr. Jessel’s three doors down."

The
next subject was a renowned author shown in his dilapidated one-room
shack in the Deep South. Asked if he used an electric typewriter he
said, "No, that’s a butane typewriter." Between killing a  huge rat and
scratching himself the overalled author said to his grown but childish
sister, "Why don’t you go down to the schoolyard and play?" She
replied, "Ain’t nobody to play with but the National Guard."

Program
notes on the event were also illuminating. One writer was described as
"Nero’s rosin boy." It was stated of another that he didn’t believe in
putting anything in writing. Of another that although he wasn’t born in
a log cabin he moved into one as soon as he could afford it.

THEN THERE
were the collaborators who abandoned writing and concentrated on
punctuation, contributing commas, dashes and three dots to 14 feature
films and one quivering colon for TV.

Guests also received the
first draft of the menu with penciled revisions. Comment on the cracked
crab: "Let’s call it maladjusted." Red cabbage: "Offensive to Formosa."
Baked Alaska: "Good! Very topical."

So don’t give up on movie making. There’s life in the old industry yet.

* *


1959_0317_poitierTHEIR BOSSES
may not be aware of it but legal secretaries, while waiting for the
next sentence to be dictated, idly scan the alphabetical titles of law
books. One of them, named Priscilla, remains intrigued by Vol. 16 of
Cal. Jur. 2nd, ‘Descent and Distribution to Drains and Sewers’ and Vol.
40 of the same, ‘Privacy to Public Officers.’"

* *


OBVIOUSLY
there’s disquiet in Detroit. After loftily ignoring the outcries for
smaller, plainer, cheaper, more economical cars, the big boys are
rushing into production with them.

Perhaps they’ve been reading the scorching letters of the last three months in the magazine Product Engineering. A few samples:

"The
American car can no longer be regarded as a means of transportation.
Rather, it has degenerated into an expression of social prestige."

"They are merely rolling nightmares, four-eyed blathers of whirling nonsense, contorted, obscene and trivial."

1959_0317_edsel"There is nothing more ridiculous than high fins and a rocketlike appearance on a Los Angeles street at 30 m.p.h."

"Current automobile design trends indicate a moral decay in America that is most alarming."

Boo!

* *


EXCEPTION
Telling the truth is all very fine,
But not when you’re 30, goes on 29.
–GLADYS FOREMAN

* *

AT RANDOM — The
line "You can’t get there from here" isn’t apocryphal argues Ben
Cherroff of the Terminal Annex Post Office. While in S.F. he asked a
policeman how to reach Judah Street and the officer said it and meant
it. Something about a bay intervening . . . Note from John Odell of
Alhambra re the new picture: "I’m afraid it’s hopeless. You still look
like a Main Street wino with a hangover." . . . To keep the record
straight, Tom Cassidy of KFAC presented a program on stereophonic tape
in December, 1955.

Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock — March 17, 1959

Paul Coates — Confidential File, March 17, 1959

Posted on March 17, 2009 by lmharnisch




CONFIDENTIAL FILE

Girls’ Love Calls to Bernie Bedrock

Paul_coatesSometime last November, death made a date with Mrs. Reva Bedrock.

Seven days ago the appointment was kept.

Mrs. Bedrock died of cancer.

I knew her. She called me at the time the doctors told her she was going to die.

Mrs.
Bedrock wanted my help in finding her husband Bernie. She wanted him
home to care for the couple’s two children, Bonnie, 9, and Linda, 11.

Last June 29, Bernie stepped into oblivion.

He was last seen in Las Vegas, in a Fremont Street gambling casino.

He was wearing coveralls with the legend "Bedrock’s TV Service" stitched across the back.

1959_0317_red_streak
Until
that time, Mrs. Bedrock thought his mind, tortured by memories of a
Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, had gone blank, that he was a victim of
amnesia.

But the friend who saw him in Las Vegas found his
mind uncluttered by any psychological problems. Bernie Bedrock had
apparently run away from responsibility.

When she called, Reva
Bedrock asked me to remind him of that responsibility, asked me to
recall for him how much he loved his kids. I directed an appeal to
Bernie, but he either missed it or ignored it.

Now, a North Hollywood neighbor of the Bedrocks, Mrs. Lydia Snitkoff, has asked me to make the appeal once more.

She telephoned me yesterday.

"I wish you could print something again," she said. "Now that the girls’ mother is gone, they need their father more than ever.

1959_0317_duncan"They still love him," she continued. "They still drag out the family photo album and talk about him.

"I feel so helpless," she told me.

The sentiment was similar to that expressed by Mrs. Bedrock.

"Bernie’s got to come home," Mrs. Bedrock said. "He’s part of us.

"And when I’m gone, who’s going to take care of the kids?"

Too Many Drifters

I asked her at that time if there were any words she would speak if she knew her husband could hear.

"Yes, I want him to come back for our daughters’ sake. There are already too many drifters in the world." 

1959_0317_abbyAnd
she might have added that there are too many fatherless kids in the
world. Mrs. Snitkoff did. And she asked me to tell Bernie that in the
last days, Bonnie and Linda worked hard to make their mother
comfortable.

"They’ve sort of become self-sufficient," Mrs. Snitkoff told me. "You know, they do things for themselves."

Which is OK, but every kid needs a father.

That’s you, Bernie.

Reva was buried Saturday at Sholom Memorial Park Cemetery.

Bonnie and Linda are still alive.  

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul Coates — Confidential File, March 17, 1959

In the Theaters — March 17, 1943

Posted on March 17, 2009 by lmharnisch




1943_0317_movie_ads
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Soliah Indicted, February 27, 1976

Posted on March 17, 2009 by lmharnisch

1976_0227_soliah
1975_0822_bomb

 Now this is interesting … and not at all what I expected.

According
to our 1976 story on the indictment of Kathleen Soliah (now Sara Jane Olson), above, an 18-inch pipe bomb was found in the parking lot of
a restaurant at Sunset Boulevard and Orange Avenue in Hollywood on Aug.
22, 1975, at left. Both Times’ stories said the bomb had been placed on the ground beneath
an LAPD patrol car and was noticed by restaurant customers after the
car had driven away.

The Times also reported that after
discovery of the first pipe bomb, police ordered a department-wide
safety check and an officer at the Hollenbeck Division found a similar
bomb on the ground beneath his car.

In neither instance, according to the original report, was the bomb attached to the vehicle.

Let’s look at today’s story by Andrew Blankstein:

[John] Hall and his partner were leaving an International House of Pancakes
restaurant in Hollywood when someone noticed a long, cylindrical object
protruding from under their car.

When the bomb squad eventually disabled and removed the device, Hall
learned how close his brush with death had been: One-sixteenth of an
inch separated the two metal contacts from the bomb detonator.

Authorities estimated the explosive and tightly packed nails in the
device would have killed or maimed up to several dozen people.

Victims would have included a baby girl in her high chair and her
8-year-old sister, who waved to the officers from behind the
restaurant’s plate glass window as the officers were leaving, Hall said.

"It should have gone off," said Hall, who served with the LAPD for
31 years before retiring in 2002. "That it didn’t was a stroke of
extreme luck. The death toll would have been horrendous."

Let’s see what we can find out. Stay tuned….


Posted in #courts, Front Pages, Hollywood, LAPD | Comments Off on Soliah Indicted, February 27, 1976

Trouble Was His Business — Raymond Chandler

Posted on March 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
1959_1004_marlow_01
Philip Carey discusses his new TV show, "Philip Marlowe," written by Gene Wang, formerly of "Perry Mason."  		1959_1004_marlow_02
Archive of American Television interview with Philip Carey, 2002.
Posted in books, broadcasting, Hollywood, Raymond Chandler, Television | 1 Comment

February 5, 2009: Burbank Time Capsule Revisited

Posted on March 17, 2009 by lmharnisch

Cinda Cates, Burbank public information specialist, passes along the images that were recovered from the 1959 time capsule placed in the Magnolia Boulevard Bridge. The anonymous photographer recorded the city’s civic buildings (City Hall, a fire station, etc.) and took quite a few pictures of the new bridge.

Spend a moment on the predictions of Kenneth E. Norwood of Burbank’s Planning Department. He envisioned a city where only 12% of the people lived in single-family homes, with 88% in multi-unit garden apartments made of plastic that were incorporated in commercial complexes. “These complexes are supposed to be the ultimate in urban living, combining offices, hotels, apartments, shops, restaurants, etc., in one continuous complex of buildings, malls and arcades,” he wrote. Continue reading →

Posted in @news, Architecture, City Hall, Education, Environment, Film, Freeways, Real Estate, San Fernando Valley, Science, Transportation | 3 Comments

Nuestro Pueblo — March 17, 1939

Posted on March 17, 2009 by lmharnisch
1939_0317_nuestro

Below, 2062 N. Highland via Google maps’ street view.

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Found on EBay — Bullock’s Wilshire

Posted on March 16, 2009 by lmharnisch

Bullocks_wilshire_collegienne_dress

 Bullocks_wilshire_collegienne_dre_2

This dress from the Collegienne department at Bullock’s Wilshire has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $19.99.

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Matt Weinstock — March 16, 1959

Posted on March 16, 2009 by lmharnisch




Highly Qualified Man

Matt_weinstockdIt is rare in this era of conformity to encounter a gesture of defiance but that’s what we have today.

It concerns a gentleman of the old school — let’s call him Sabatini — who some months ago fell out of a building. At least that’s what they told him.

He
has recovered with the help of AA, and the other day went in pursuit of
a job as a restaurant checker. This involves checking the food and
drink waiters take out of the kitchen and bar. During the lunch and
dinner hours the pressure is intense. Naturally his prospective
employer inquired as to his qualifications.

1959_0316_poitier
Did Sabatini meekly plead for a chance? Did he say he would get a testimonial letter from his high school principal?

Not Sabatini. He said, "Mister, this job it a breeze. I handled the parlays for the biggest bookie in Hollywood for two years!"

* *

RECENT MENTION here of the mad language emanating from computersville, it turns out, barely tapped the surface.

Deep
thinkers in the nuclear reactor field, it can be told, have named their
computer programs Trixy, Topsy, Mug II, Angie, PDQ-2, GNU-II, Zoom,
Moonshine, Percolator,Tugwit and LYI Abner. 

Other irrelevancies in the computer catalog, furnished by Bob Forest of Burroughs Corp. in Pasadena, are Mamat, Swac, Flac, Illiac, Mobidic launched, one report notes, "on a sea of data" I and a proofreader’s nightmare. Haystaq, which is not designed to locate needles.

Man, this is from endsville.

* *

1959_0316_poitier_ro
NO, THANKS
Interplanetary travel? Me?
Why, Ferris wheels unravel me.
–TERRI McDANIEL

* *


THE CONVERSATION around a lunch table the other day turned to pixie telephone calls and someone recalled the time Robert Meltzer, a movie writer, was looking up a number in the directory and came upon the name Werbizerk-Piffl, Gisella.

Seized with an irresistible impulse, he phoned her number and when she came on the line he asked, "Are you the Gisella Werbizerk-Piffl I knew in Cleveland in 1917?

Miss W-P, who proves to be a German actress, replied, "No, I’ve never been to Cleveland in my life."

"Oh, I’m sorry," Meltzer said, "it must have been another Gisella Werbizerk-Piffl."

* *

A PERSONABLE stranger
came to Lew Allison’s home the other day and asked if Lew minded
telling him how much he’d paid for his 1953 Chevrolet. Lew told him,
$600, but was curious why he wanted to know.

The man told this
sad story: Six months before Lew acquired the car last May he’d bought
it from a different dealer for $1,000. He’d paid $425 down and made two
payments of $37.50 each when he suffered a broken back. That was $500
for three months’ use of the car. On his failure to make the third
payment the car was repossessed. Now a collection agency is trying to
collect an additional $268.

Lew doesn’t understand it either.

* *

1959_0316_cohen_2
REMEMBER WHEN little
boys yearned to become locomotive engineers, policemen, firemen,
athletes and, more recently, airplane pilots? Adolph M. Brown tells of
a boy of 3 who was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up and he
replied, "A sign." The elders thought they’d misunderstood but that’s
what he wanted to be — a highway sign. Maybe the kid’s smart. At least
he’d know where he was heading.

* *

MISCELLANY —
Oops, a press release states, "A 49-star American Flag commemorative
stamp will be issued by the Post Office Department on July 4. An
initial printing order of 120 million new flag stamps has been
authorized." Hawaii today, boys? . . . A man strolling along W Olympic
Boulevard was wearing a brown derby . . . Mrs. Ben Ray asks a
typographical posy for an unknown cabby. Her daughter, Betsy Ann, 6, got lost on Hollywood Boulevard, hailed the cabby, who, although she had no money, drove her home, where she calmly awaited her frantic mother. 

Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on Matt Weinstock — March 16, 1959

Paul Coates — Confidential File, March 16, 1959

Posted on March 16, 2009 by lmharnisch




CONFIDENTIAL FILE

Fascinating Stuff About Cholesterol

Paul_coatesListen, did I ever tell you about my cholesterol?

Now
wait a minute. Don’t just walk away. This is pretty fascinating stuff.
And, if you don’t mind my saying so, far more intriguing than the
inside story of your appendectomy.

Cholesterol is the latest
boon to the cause of hypochondria. It has a certain ring to it that
bursitis never had. And, obviously, it’s a damn sight more glamorous
than post-nasal drip.

According to the best informed, most
expensive medical sources, my cholesterol is too high. Consequently, my
physician has put me on a special diet prepared by the Ultra-Centrifuge
Group, Donner Laboratory, University of California. How about THAT?

The
boys out at Ultra-Centrifuge have whipped up a nifty little
low-cholesterol diet which, if followed faithfully, is comparable to
being set adrift in the Pacific Ocean without survival rations.

1959_0316_red_streak
They
begin by warning you away from anything that contains egg yolk or
butter-fat. And, of course just about everything worth living for does.
Then they add a few unkind words about a multitude of other dining
potentials.

These are the "visible fat" foods. If there’s any
delicacy not indicated under this heading, it gets picked up in a
dragnet a few paragraphs down which is labeled "invisible fats."

Perhaps
to soften the stunning impact of this blow to the appetite they tell
you that marshmallows and molasses have no cholesterol fats. So, go
have yourself a ball.

It may seem as though the only solution
is to resolutely kick the eating habit altogether. But the diet offers
hope, at least, for advanced mathematicians. In one chapter it
instructs: "Estimate the fat in mixtures and baked foods according to
the amount of fat in the recipe. Divide this total amount by the number
of servings to get the amount of fat in each serving."

I don’t
have any idea what that means, but I was willing to give it a whirl.
As a dinner guest at the home of friends last week, I strolled casually
into the kitchen. The cook watched me with a dark glint of suspicion in
her eyes. "Zum zing?" she asked.

1959_0316_duncan"Just checking for invisible
fats," I told her pleasantly, lifting the lid from one pot. "Green
peas," I noted. "Afraid I’ll have to ask you to wash the cream sauce
off mine."

"Vass ist?" she said.

"Egg noodles," I murmured, glancing at another pot. I shook my head decisively. "Out of the question."

Overstays Welcome

The cook glared, and edged her way protectively in front of the stove. "Bleaze," she demanded, "mitt za hands off za pods and panz."

I peered over her shoulder. "I see we’re having chicken. Will you be good enough to peel mine?"

She looked at me incredulously for a long moment, then pointed at the door and shouted angrily: "Oud!"

1959_0316_ballona
"I’m going," I told her, taking my good time about it. "You don’t have to get huffy, Heidi."

I left her wallowing in high cholesterol, and didn’t touch a thing at dinner. I haven’t been invited back since.

However,
it doesn’t matter. I get along pretty well these days on marshmallows.
True, they cement my gums together. But, after all, a man must eat to
live.

 
Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off on Paul Coates — Confidential File, March 16, 1959

In the Theaters — March 16, 1941

Posted on March 16, 2009 by lmharnisch
1941_0316_movie_ads
Posted in Film, Hollywood | Comments Off on In the Theaters — March 16, 1941

The Rosey Grier Show, March 16, 1969

Posted on March 16, 2009 by lmharnisch




Roosevelt_grier_1965_0120_crop

Los Angeles Times file photo

The Fearsome Foursome: Merlin Olsen, David "Deacon" Jones, Lamar Lundy and Rosey Grier make their singing debut on "Shindig," 1965. 

1969_0316_rosey
Rosey Grier is no one-dimensional ex-football player. He’s well
known as a singer, needlepoint enthusiast and sometime actor who became
an associate of Robert F. Kennedy during the late senator’s run for the
presidency in 1968.

In 1969, Grier had become the star of a weekly show on Channel 7,
which The Times’ Ray Loynd said was "designed as a personal showcase
and the obligatory look of today … framed by Grier’s random efforts
‘to reach all the kids I can. I dig kids. I really dig ’em.’ "

Grier had been a defensive lineman for the New York Giants and Los
Angeles Rams, and a member of the Rams’ Fearsome Foursome that included
Hall of Famers Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen. Grier certainly was not
the first Los Angeles athlete to find his way into television or
movies, but Grier might have been the most talented. Duke Snider on
"The Rifleman" he was not.

"I started singing gospels when I was 5 in Benevolence, Ga.," he
told Loynd. "When I left I took my whole roots with me. I haven’t been
back."

Grier briefly recounted his relationship with Kennedy. "We’ve
forgotten the great need of a man like Kennedy," Grier said. "We should
care more, not wait for tragedy to bring up our need to love one
another."

— Keith Thursby


Posted in broadcasting, Hollywood, Music, Politics, RFK, Sports | Comments Off on The Rosey Grier Show, March 16, 1969

Trouble Was His Business — Raymond Chandler

Posted on March 16, 2009 by lmharnisch




1958_1015_playback
 

The Times: Oct. 15, 1958
We finally review a Chandler novel and, alas, it’s "Playback." Not a great book, but Kirsch offers some concise analysis. "There is no mindless violence in Chandler," Kirsch writes. "There are no gimmicks in Chandler, artificial devices of plot for the purpose of surprise. He does not write the classic puzzler." 

Note: To mark the 50th anniversary of Raymond Chandler’s death, the
Daily Mirror is revisiting some of The Times’ stories about his life and
influence. We invite the Daily Mirror’s readers to share their thoughts.


Posted in books, Raymond Chandler | Comments Off on Trouble Was His Business — Raymond Chandler

Coy Watson, 1912 – 2009

Posted on March 16, 2009 by lmharnisch




James Caughey "Coy" Watson, Jr., 96   

 

Child Movie Star, News Photographer, Inventor, Television Pioneer, Author

By Pattie Watson Price
(Daughter of Coy Watson Jr.)

    James Caughey
"Coy" Watson, Jr., 96, went home to be with our Lord on Saturday, March
14, near his home in Alpine, CA, a mountain community in San Diego
County.  He died from complications of stomach cancer. 

    Coy was born November 16, 1912, in his home in Edendale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, the oldest of nine children born to Golda and Coy Watson.

   
From the age of nine months to 21, Coy Watson appeared in more than 65
motion pictures. He became know as "The Keystone Kid." His father, Coy
Watson Sr., was an early motion picture pioneer. He worked as an
assistant director and special effects man for many studios, and
periodic member of the famous "Keystone Cops" of the Mack Sennett
Studio.
   
Coy Jr. appeared in early silent pictures (his
first, "The Price of Silence", 1913, Selig Studio) and "talkies"
playing feature roles and small parts with Hollywood greats such as Lon
Chaney, Mary
Pickford, Mae West, Cary Grant, Joan Bennett, Fatty Arbuckle, Jackie Coogan, Buck Jones and John Barrymore. Some of his directors included Mack Sennett, Marshal Neilan, King Vidor,
George Marshall, Sam Wood and George Hill. Coy appeared in the opening
scene of one of the first "sound on film" motion pictures, "Puttin’ on the Ritz" (1930), with Joan Bennett and Harry Richmond.
   
Coy
attended school on studio lots and Los Angeles’ Clifford Street Grammar
School, Thomas Starr King Junior High, and Belmont High School, and
graduated in 1933. All his life he battled dyslexia.  He was active in
Boy Scouts, earned the rank of Eagle Scout and later became a Scout
Master with Troop #78 in Los Angeles.  Throughout his life he worked
with boys at camps and helped establish a Los Angeles County Camp for
delinquent boys while President of the Los Angeles Press Photographers
Association in 1946, an organization he help found in 1936.

   
In 1929 Coy stepped behind the camera to pursue a career in news
photography. At age 4, Coy remembered watching his grandfather, James,
a Captain in the Salvation Army, magically developing film in their
pantry. He worked with Pacific and Atlantic Photos news-picture
syndicate, which became Acme New Pictures, still later becoming UPI and
now, Reuters.

    From 1935 to 1940 Coy worked with Acme New
Pictures, The Los Angeles Post Record, The Los Angeles Times, and The
Los Angeles Herald Express. With these organizations he photographed
all types of news stories for local and national newspapers and
magazines. Watson covered the big LA news stories of the day, including
the mysterious death of Thelma Todd, Franklin Roosevelt’s visit to Los
Angeles and was an official photographer of the Los Angeles Olympic
Games in 1932.  Coy’s photos appeared in the first and second issues of
LIFE magazine — November and December, 1936.

    In 1939, Coy invented and manufactured the Coy Watson Lite Beam Focuser,
a built-in camera device that assured accurate still camera focusing in
total darkness. It’s believed this invention marked the first time a
battery was ever placed in a camera.  During 1940 and ’41, Coy received
orders from around the world and traveled throughout the U.S. selling
and installing the Lite BeamFocuser in cameras of newspaper and professional photographers.
   
Coy
served his country (1942 – 1945) in the US Coast Guard during World War
II as a Boatswains Mate and Chief Photographer. In 1943, at a show
staged at the Hollywood Bowl for MadamChiang Kai-shek (there to raise
awareness and money for China), Coy took official still photos of Coast
Guard personnel and movie stars for the Coast Guard and newspapers, but
also took 16 mm motion pictures for his own historic interests. That
evening his motion picture film became  the first filmed news story
ever to be televised in the Los Angeles area on L.A.’s first television
station. There were less than 40 TV sets in the city.

    In
1945, Coy Watson Photos was established to serve the Los Angeles area
with photographic and public relations services. In 1948 he became a TV
news and film photographer "stringer" forWPIX and TeleNews , New York,
TV news services and was invited to become a member of the
International Photographers of the Motion Picture Industries Union (IATSE) Local 659. In 1949, NBC/New York assigned Coy to cover on 16mm film the historic story of Kathy Fiscus,
a little girl who had fallen into an abandoned well. It was the first
news story in California to be televised live — continuously for 52
hours.
   
In 1949, Coy shot Hollywood’s first TV commercial on
film for Vermont Motors. It aired between the televising of the Santa
Anita horse races. The film replaced the usual "ad-card" advertising.
That same year he made the first TV film documentary. Coy’s story,
"Operation Endurance"  forMcMillian Oil, featured two former W.W. II
pilots "staying in the air" in a single-engine plane over 1,000 hours
(42 days). Coy captured the non-stop re-fuelings, family-on-the-ground and other elements documenting this world-record-breaking event.

   
Recognition of this milestone in TV film production lead to the reunion
of two former Hollywood news buddies who would also make television
history together. Coy and syndicated Hollywood columnist Erskine
Johnson joined together to make "Hollywood Reel"; the first film-series
for American television featuring motion picture stars and their real
lives in Hollywood. The 52, 30-minute shows were broadcast across the
U.S. revealing stars at play, trendy fashions of the day, and behind
the scenes moments at studios and everyday events in Hollywood.  While
producing these shows, Coy married his secretary and production
assistant, Imelda "Willie"Niemer.

    After a sojourn running
cattle on his ranch near Sacramento, Watson returned to Hollywood in
1953 to pioneer television news as a TV news cameraman, organizing and
contributing to the film operations of CBS, ABC andKTLA . He originated
the Man on the Street Interview; spotlighting average citizens and
their views on current events. Among the many stories he covered were
the first atomic bomb tests in Yucca Flats, NV and was assigned to join
the White House Press Corps in Denver, CO during the hospitalization of
President Eisenhower. 

    He was also News Director at NBC’s KCRA in Sacramento, and produced films for the State of Oregon while operating Coy Watson Productions in Medford, OR.  In 1965, Coy took his pioneering spirit and family to Perth, Western Australia to train the TV film news department at TVW, ABC (Australia Broadcasting Co.)

   
In 1984, after managing the Vista Chamber of Commerce, serving as
public relations officer for a fast food corporation and building
miniature cameras for oil drilling exploration, Watson moved toRancho Bernardo, San Diego County, to retire.

    Nineteen ninety-two marked the return of the "Hollywood Reels" when the historic films aired for five years on AMC
(American Movie Classics, cable TV.)  After 80 years, producer Peter
Jones returned Coy to his roots and featured him in a production about
early Hollywood with Mary Pickford and Lon Chaney Sr.

    Coy
received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 from The Press
Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles for his dedication,
pioneering foresight and professionalism in the arena of news
photography.

    In 1999, Coy Watson Jr. and his parents, Coy
Sr. and Golda Watson, and five brothers and three sisters were honored
with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Known as the "First Family
Of Hollywood," the nine kids literally grew up in Hollywood. Coy Sr.
started with the Mack Sennett Studio in 1912, and collectively the
family appeared in more than 1,000 motion pictures with some of motion
picture’s biggest stars.  No other theatrical family can match their
accomplishments.

    In his "golden years" Coy reflected on his
life, family and accomplishments by writing a book about his early
years in the motion picture industry that included historic photos from
his personal collection as well as the famous "Watson Family Archives":
four generations of Los Angeles photos.  "The Keystone Kid: Tales of
Early Hollywood," was published in 2001.

    In 2004 he was
delighted to "receive" a San Diego Emmy Award for "San Diego Insider:
Coy Watson, The Keystone Kid," a documentary by COX San Diego Channel 4
about his life.

    Along with his many accolades, "firsts" and
professional achievements, Coy was a wonderful father, brother, husband
and friend. His incredible sense of humor was a joy to all who knew
him. He always tried to make people feel good, with a joke or kind
word, wherever he went.  He was the eldest of the "nine Watson kids"
followed by Vivian, Gloria, Louise, Harry, Billy, Delmar, Garry and
Bobs.  He was a member of the fraternal organization ofDeMolay and Freemasonry and a long time member of Wisdom Lodge #202.

   
Coy is survived by his wife, "Willie", daughter Pattie Watson Price and
grand-daughter Haley Christine Price, of Alpine, CA. and son JamesCaughey "Jim" Watson III, grandson J.C. "Jim" Watson IV, and great grandson James Caughey Watson V, and grand-daughter Kimberly Cottrell
, and three additional great grandchildren, all residents of Perth,
Western Australia.  His sister, Louise Roberts and brothers Billy and
Garry are the surviving members of the nine Watson siblings.

Coy
Watson will be memorialized at a family ceremony and his remains will
be interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery at a later date.
Posted in @news, Film, Hollywood, Obituaries | 2 Comments

Alcindor Plays Final Home Game, March 16, 1969

Posted on March 16, 2009 by lmharnisch




1969_0316_sports

1969_0316_alcindor
Lew Alcindor played his last game at Pauley Pavilion and led UCLA
one step closer to another national championship. Alcindor had 17
points as the Bruins defeated Santa Clara, 90-52, advancing to the
Final Four in Louisville.

Jeff Prugh captured the back-and-forth between Alcindor and
reporters after the game, trying to put his remarkable UCLA run in some
perspective.

‘"How does it feel to be playing here for the last time?" they
asked. "Kinda weird,’" he said. "It’s funny you have to wait until the
NCAAs to get good officiating here." … Someone wanted to know if his
four years of college basketball were what he had expected them to be.
"No," he said. "I thought it would be a lot more difficult — as a
player and difficult on me personally."

Prugh tracked Alcindor as he left Pauley for the last time as a college athlete.

"Wearing dark glasses, casual jacket and slacks, and a paisley
neckerchief, he took his traditional walk in front of the half-empty
bleachers where the Bruin rooters had cheered him for four seasons. …
There were kids of assorted sizes trailing him. And Lew Alcindor was
still signing autographs as he climbed the stairs and walked out the
door of the place where he threw in 56 points in his first varsity game
three winters ago."

— Keith Thursby


Posted in Sports | 4 Comments