Hard Times on Eastwood Set; Los Angeles Radio, April 6, 1969

Posted on April 6, 2009 by lmharnisch

An image that resonates with the famous 1971 ad of Iron Eyes Cody.

It's Easter Sunday in 1969, and The Times features a story about the date of the crucifixion on Page 1. Biologists tally the number of seals who are dead or dying from the Jan. 28 blowout of the Union Oil Co. platform. Four U.S. troops are killed and 13 are wounded as a sustained attack by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces continues in Vietnam. More than 200 enemy fighters have been killed, military officials say.

The Del Mar Hotel, a former landmark, is to be demolished. President Nixon praises a Vietnam veteran for acting against student radicals. Crazy hippies smoke catnip!

Spring Street between 3rd and 7th is in danger of becoming a ghost town as the financial district moves to the area around the library.

Shirley MacLaine discusses the hardships of making "Two Mules for Sister Sara."

"Sara" is sort of the "African Queen" gone west, Clint Eastwood says.

"All I ever learned in high school was how to be elected cheerleader and cheat at algebra."

–Shirley MacLaine.

Johnny Hart was criticized for proselytizing in "B.C." Here's how Stan Lynde did it earlier in "Rick O'Shay."

What kind of radio station is worse–too boring or too loud?
Depending on the decade, that was choice provided to Los Angeles
listeners, according to The Times' radio critic.

Don Page called radio in 1969 Los Angeles "worse than
terrible–you're just dull." His big issue was too many stations with
the same format. "It isn't a question of being good, but a matter of
being so incredibly alike, boring each other [and the audience] with an
indistinguishable ooze," Page wrote. Probably could write the same
thing today.

He attacked the various formats and the competition–talk, rock and
what he called middle-of-the-road music: "You're lazy and you cop out.
You're fickle and gutless. You lack imagination and foresight." Sure
wish he'd just come right out and tell us how he felt.

Ten years earlier, in a column on April 5, 1959, Page had other,
seemingly simpler concerns. "More and more stations are adopting the
blasting jingle, the outer-space newscasts [you know, those blips that
call one's attention to the latest news flash] the way-out announcer
and that agony stuff they call the Top 40," he wrote like a parent
having a bad day: "Turn down that radio!"

I was too young to notice the outer-space newscasts and the volume
increase but I remember well L.A. radio in the late '60s. The first Top
40 station I listened to was KFWB, before its shift to all news. I
heard Wolfman Jack on KDAY, thanks to my older brother who was trying
to enlighten or corrupt me. Stations such as KRLA and the early FM
stations seem so brave and wild now, I wonder how they would do on
today's airwaves (Jim Ladd still provides a glimpse of non-programmed
radio late at night on KLOS).

I'm certainly too old for most radio demographics but I'd listen just for that chance to hear something different.

–Keith Thursby

Posted in @news, Comics, Environment, Film, Front Pages, Hollywood, Politics, Religion, Richard Nixon | 2 Comments

Nuestro Pueblo, April 5, 1939

Posted on April 6, 2009 by lmharnisch

Every week I visit former Times reporter Eric Malnic in the hospital, where he's recovering from cancer surgery. There's a large blowup of an old postcard of the Figueroa Tunnels on the wall across from the elevators, so I always pass it on the way to his room. I thought this would be a nice little get well card for Eric. Please keep him in your thoughts.

Posted in Architecture, art and artists, Freeways, Nuestro Pueblo, Transportation | Comments Off

Found on EBay — Batchelder Fireplace

Posted on April 5, 2009 by lmharnisch

An entire Batchelder fireplace has been listed on EBay. The fireplace is located in Fullerton, Calif. Bidding starts at $20,000.

Posted in Architecture, art and artists, Real Estate | 2 Comments

Baseball Season Opens, April 7, 1985

Posted on April 5, 2009 by lmharnisch

[Note: I didn't really know Art Seidenbaum except to nod when I passed him in the hallway. I wish now that I had gotten acquainted — lrh].

Play the Pastime With Country and Catfish

April 7, 1985

By Art Seidenbaum, Art Seidenbaum is The Times Opinion Editor

Baseball season opens, April 2, 1939

The game of yesterday begins again this week, with the men in funny flannel knickers and billed caps who more often chew than puff.

Baseball is beloved for being childhood, for suggesting open skies and open spaces, for remaining simple while the outside world — even other outside sports — become ever more complicated and predicated on team efforts, systems solutions, electronic relays. The human relays from shortstop to second base to first — the classic double play — are probably the most group-intensive activities of a most singular game.

The modern world depends upon message centers. The baseball catcher relies on one or two fingers stuck out near his groin. Corporate life demands the appearance of constant motion. The baseball outfielder is expected to stand and wait. Basketball and football require actions memorized and mutually executed, not unlike the precision of a corps de ballet. The baseball batter is all by himself; most of his teammates, not so incidentally, are sitting down. Consider the static nature of a game involving 18 players on both sides, as many as 15 of them doing nothing at most given moments.

Baseball season opens, April 5, 1959

The game of yesterday is linear and played within strict limits. Almost all sports have marked fields of play, but baseball has lines within lines. Pitchers must throw within inches of a peculiar pentagon; batters must stand within boxes. The action is serial rather than simultaneous, discrete and not diffuse.

Natural ability is better for batting and pitching than brains or higher education. Listen to the superior players forever speak of "hitting it good." I visited the California Angels' spring training camp at about the turn of the '70s, to write a story on the growing number of college graduates reaching baseball rosters. The upcoming generation of yesterday was supposedly changing. There were six college grads, as I recall, in Palm Springs, out of three dozen athletes. Only one of them survived spring to become memorable, a post-UC Berkeley pitcher named Andy Messersmith who later applied his considerable wit to winning contractual disputes. But even now the new wrinkles of free agency and arbitration are confusions for most competitors whose professionalism is play. And while they have business managers to handle money confusions, their baseball managers are usually most endearing when mangling the language; Sparky Anderson of Detroit probably holds the current records for most grammatical errors in a championship series.

The players come of age at 18 or 19, out of high school. While many do attend college for a time these days, they still improve by experience instead of by degrees. They come from small-town places where the roadhouse is the community center and the road signs have been pinged by hunters on the way home, from places where jets do not land and trains used to run. They acquire nicknames from field and stream, such classic identities as Country and Catfish, Bird and Goose, Daffy, Ducky and Moose. The Los Angeles Dodgers' 1985 roster shows two-thirds of the young men having been born in small cities or little hamlets across the United States and Central America.

The "dean" of the Dodgers, Bill Russell, entering his 16th season in the National League, comes from Pittsburg, Kansas, population 18,770; Russell began playing organized baseball at age 18 with the one-time Ogden A's of the Pioneer League. Outfielder Terry Whitfield hails from Blythe, California, a rest stop of 6,805 residents between here and Phoenix. Young Mike Ramsey comes from Harlem, Georgia, population 1,485; he attended Gulf Coast Community College before converting to a life on the pitcher's mound and then converting again to a place in the outfield. Young power hitter Mike Marshall was born in Libertyville, Illinois, population 16,520, starred at Buffalo Grove High School, grew into a size 14 shoe and began his professional career at 18 for the old Lethbridge Dodgers of the Pioneer League. The Ogden A's are now in Pocatello and the Lethbridge Dodgers have moved to Great Falls but the heritage, like the hometowns, continues semi-rural.

Not one of the 39 players on the Dodgers' roster comes from New York City or Chicago or Philadelphia, although three are from the sprawl of Los Angeles sandlots (Bobby Castillo, Ken Landreaux, Larry White). Baseball players — white, black or Latino — seem to grow among the weeds, the hardy natives from an earlier time, when exercise was for fun or fame, not for health discipline or mating display.

Sure, many of the present players talk the good Nautilus talk of lifting weights, like other well-paid performers. Yet baseball players needn't approach the conditioning of wide receivers or even tennis servers. Look at Fernando Valenzuela for every-four-day proof that a fine screwball is not a function of diet or jogging discipline. Remember Babe Ruth and realize he must have eaten much more than Wheaties.

Drug scandals are a disguise for the innocence of a nice, quiet national pastime. Piles of statistics mask the simplicity of small boys playing catch with a small ball. The game of yesterday persists, scoreless inning after scoreless inning, April after April, because it keeps childhood alive — in mind, if not body.

Posted in books, Dodgers, Sports | Comments Off

In the Theaters, April 5, 1921

Posted on April 5, 2009 by lmharnisch

Posted in Film, Hollywood | 1 Comment

Second Takes — Billy Wilder

Posted on April 5, 2009 by lmharnisch

Aug. 21, 1940, a half-page ad for "Rhythm on the River" and no sign of Billy Wilder's name anywhere.

If you didn't know, you probably wouldn't guess from this clip that Wilder was involved in this film.

Not a trace of Billy Wilder in the review, either.

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Second Takes | Comments Off

Trouble Was His Business — Raymond Chandler

Posted on April 5, 2009 by lmharnisch

THE WRITING LIFE

Judith Freeman on Raymond Chandler

A letter led to friendship with Dorothy Fisher, once Raymond Chandler's secretary.

By Judith Freeman

April 5, 2009

The number of people who actually knew Raymond Chandler and who are
still alive can pretty much be counted on one hand. Chandler died 50
years ago last week, on March 26, 1959, at the age of 70. Among his
surviving friends are Natasha Spender, wife of the late poet Stephen
Spender (now in her 90s), and the writer Neil Morgan, who, as a young
journalist at the San Diego Tribune, met the writer.

A few other less-well-known individuals still survive and, through an
unusual circumstance, I met one of them a little over a year ago. Her
name was Dorothy Fisher — née Gruber. In the fall of 2007, she wrote
me a letter after reading a review of my book "The Long Embrace:
Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved" in this newspaper. She said
she'd enjoyed the review very much and was anxious to get my book —
especially, she said, because she had been Chandler's secretary in the
1940s at Paramount Studios. "I have many stories I'd like to tell you,
if you're interested," she wrote. "You may not be interested, but if
you are, give me a call," and she included her phone number.

CBS Cancels Hit Comedy Show Over Censorship; Sweet Lou Returns, April 5, 1969

Posted on April 5, 2009 by lmharnisch

A Requiem by Benny Carter is performed at a memorial for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Restaurants lost thousands of dollars to hippies who ate meals but left without paying. The ACLU says Palm Spring police violated the Constitution by escorting the hippies out of town.

Above, Chuck Hillinger reports on the Agua Caliente Indians throwing thousands of hippies out of Tahquitz Canyon. "Attracted here from throughout the West by a week of rock 'n' roll concerts, the strangely clad, bearded hippies and their female companions camped out in the canyon. There, according to police, they cavorted in the nude, smoked marijuana and drank cheap wine," Hillinger wrote.

UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young agrees with the "thrust" of demands by United Mexican-American Students.

A prosecution psychiatrist testifies that Sirhan B. Sirhan wanted to plead guilty because he was tired of psychiatrists interviewing him. "I have actually gotten somewhat to like Sirhan," Dr. Seymour Pollack says.

CBS cancels "The Smothers Brothers" because the show failed to deliver advance copies of shows for review by the network — a charge that Tom Smothers denies.

On one page, conductor Thomas Shippers and "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken."

Continuing the tradition of unfunny comic strips based on cartoons, we have "The Flintstones," which makes fun of — hippies!

The Angels had moved out of Dodger Stadium but continued to bring reminders of Los Angeles to Anahem.

Former Dodger Lou Johnson returned to Southern California in a trade with the Indians. Sweet Lou, as he was known, was ready for his "new lease."

"Cleveland is bad enough," he told The Times' Ross Newhan. "When you're in Cleveland and not playing, well, you die."

Johnson hit 40 home runs from 1965 to 1967 after joining the Dodgers as a fill-in for the injured Tommy Davis. Johnson also was an original Angel and played briefly in the team's first game in 1961. "I feel great, I'm ready to play 162 games … plus some. Yes, plus some. That's where the money is."

Very little went right for the Angels in 1969 and Johnson's acquisition didn't provide any magic. He hit .203 and drove in only nine runs in 67 games.

— Keith Thursby

Posted in #courts, classical music, Comics, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Sports | Comments Off

Found on EBay — Florentine Gardens, Earl Carroll’s

Posted on April 4, 2009 by lmharnisch

Florentine Gardens, 1944

Florentine Gardens, no date.

Earl Carroll's 1943

An EBay vendor has listed three nightclub souvenir photos from the 1940s. The two at left are from the Florentine Gardens on Hollywood Boulevard, the one above is from Earl Carroll's. I used to collect pictures like this until they got expensive … and I ran out of room.

Bidding on each photo starts at $19.99.

Posted in Nightclubs | Comments Off

Matt Weinstock — April 4, 1959

Posted on April 4, 2009 by lmharnisch

TV Cliches Shocking

About
a year ago a registered nurse inquired here what the frontier doctors
on TV wanted with all the hot water they were forever demanding when
about to deliver a baby. Her inquiry raised quite a storm. The gist of
most of it was that the doctors' peremptory command, "Boil all the
water you can!" was merely a diversion to get the men folks out of the
room.

She refused to accept this corny explanation and resolved never to bring up any more TV medical cliches.

SHE HAS BROKEN her
resolve. She finds herself curdling every time she hears a TV doctor
say, "She (or he) is in shock." Usually the patient has had an
unpleasant experience.

But witnessing something shocking,
screams I.R.N. (Irate Registered Nurse) is not being in shock. Shock is
brought on by severe pain, loss of blood or other body fluids. It is a
dangerous state and death will result if immediate anti-shock treatment
is not started.

And if the teleplay boys don't cut it out I.R.N. will go into shock.

WHILE IN Birmingham recently to appear at a benefit for retarded children, Pat Buttram of CBS visited his father, Rev. W.M. Buttram, 85, of Anniston, Ala. When he showed his dad pictures of his new Northridge home with swimming pool, the old gentleman commented, "Well!" Pat's got a washin' hole in his back yard."

CONVERSATIONS

Some people like to dice
Some just love to give advice,
Some may preach and some may pray,
While some just yack the livelong day.
A favored few converse with squirrels,
But I'd much rather chat with girrels.

–MARTIN HATFIELD

STU GALBRAITH has built up quite a guilt complex over what happened last Sunday in San Fernando Valley and wishes expiation here.

He was driving on Canoga
Park Avenue toward the hills when he caught up with half a dozen
slow-moving cars and trailers. As he passed, he gaily sounded his horn
— "shave and a haircut — two bits." After all, it was a nice day and
he was on his way to a party.

To his surprise, they fell in behind him and when he turned off onto a narrow road snaking off into the hills the trailercade followed him — around hairpin turns and barely squeezing by parked cars.

Stu
didn't know what to do and as he rounded a turn and came to his
destination he gunned up the driveway and sat still as the trailer
group streamed by.

He slunk into the house and after a while
peeked out the window. The trailers were apparently wandering aimlessly
up another hill. He hopes they got where they were going.

LOOK FOR controversy over Dr. Franklin Loehr's
book, "The Power of Prayer on Plants," to be published this month. It
presents evidence that prayer can be scientifically proved. Two trays
of seeds were planted under precise laboratory conditions. One was
ignored, the other received the attention of Dr. Loehr's prayer group. Analysis of 900 experiments showed that plants which had the benefit of prayer were superior.

FOOTNOTES — Not
all the streets and sidewalk hieroglyphics are put there to indicate
projected sewer, storm drain, utility or street work. Some are for the
guidance of bill peddlers and house-to-house distributors of samples —
so they won't cover the same ground twice … A four-page press release
headed "The Recession in the Congo" states there is uneasiness about
the economy there. To put it another way, the natives are restless …
Shame on somebody, attributing to Frank E. Marlowe the gag about people
who jaywalk repeatedly having their shoes taken away. It's in Mort Sahl's record, "Look Forward in Anger" … Mac Tuesley, taking a quick course in photography from Otto Rothchild, says he keeps forgetting to pull the slide. "I can't teach you anything about that," Otto said sadly.

Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off

Paul Coates — Confidential File, April 4, 1959

Posted on April 4, 2009 by lmharnisch

Confidential File

Mash Notes and Comments

"I spent most of my early life in the saddle in West Texas and New Mexico. In 27 years I'll be 100, but I am still just a kid.

"I
wonder if you know the egg-shell trick, or mystery. That you can't
break an egg shell by holding it in your hands in a certain position
and squeezing it. It is supposed to resist 400 pounds of pressure.

"You can squeeze until you are blue in the face or blister your hands.

"There has been a lot of money lost on that trick.

"Anyone who didn't know it, would stake a fortune on the fact that he could break it.

"There is another trick, Paul, which I would like to explain to you …"

(signed) G.E. Chaplin
1430 Mt. Pleasant St., L.A.

–Wait till I wipe the egg off my hands.

"I am 67 and have lots of hair on my head.

"The average social lion has hair on his upper lip.

"The backwoods bears have hair on their backs.

"The rain water washes the bears' backs, which goes to prove that rain water is the best hair washer.

"You never saw a bald-headed Indian when Columbus discovered America. As proof that rain water never did harm to anyone's hair, ask any of the direct descendants of Noah.

"Noah kept on preaching to the two-footed animals to watch out for the abundant rain that was to fall.

"But they just laughed at Noah and kept right on washing their hair with chlorinated fire hydrant water!"

(signed) Leo F. Quinn, P.O. Box 385, L.A.

–They could afford to laugh. Noah didn't even know there were fire hydrants.

"I have some REAL news for you!

"I have written the world's first 'Organic Food song' in collaboration with Dr. Albert Denis Tessier,
who composed the chorus and arranged the music. He has a distinguished
European background as a concert pianist, to mention but one of his
artistic talents.

"He also teaches music, Latin and Spanish.

"The
'Organic Food Song' (copyright 1959) is a musical salute to organic
food fans and is attracting favorable comment from all sides.

"Has a foot-tapping, hand-clapping chorus ideal for group singing, or for barbershop quartettes.

"What
do you say we bring in the tape recording of the 'Organic Food Song'
(copyright 1959) so that you and your staff can join in a rousing
chorus for organic living?"

(signed) Hazzie Goodell, L.A.

–Crazy!

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off

In the Theaters, April 4, 1917

Posted on April 4, 2009 by lmharnisch

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Stage | Comments Off

Second Takes — Billy Wilder

Posted on April 4, 2009 by lmharnisch

Dec. 5, 1939: "Ninotchka" opens tomorrow!

And no, not a word about the screenwriters in this anonymous review, which appeared in The Times on Dec. 7, 1939.

"I still remember the day of the funeral," Billy Wilder said of Ernst Lubitsch. "After the ceremony William Wyler and I walked silently to our car. Finally, I said, just to say something to break the silence, 'No more Lubitsch.' To which Wyler replied, 'Worse than that — No more Lubitsch filmes.' How right we were. For 20 years since then we were all trying to find the secret of the 'Lubitsch touch.' Nothing doing. Oh if we were lucky we sometimes managed a few feet of film here and there in our work that momentarily sparkled like Lubitsch. Like Lubitsch, not real Lubitsch. His art is lost. That most elegant of screen magicians took his secret with him."

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Second Takes | 1 Comment

Jordan’s King Hussein Visits L.A.; Rams to Play Night Game, April 4, 1959

Posted on April 4, 2009 by lmharnisch

The Times' art department retouched Neil Clemans' photo of Marlon Brando giving the finger to photographers. Let's see if we can get a copy of the original.

At left, King Hussein of Jordan waves to photographers in Palmdale after flying a Lockheed F-104D over the Mojave Desert. The Times emphasized that Hussein was "Islam's sworn foe of communism" and said he "scorned Soviet aid to the Middle East and offered a three-point plan to save the cradle of religion from the 'sweep of atheism.' "

Communists and Peronists riot in downtown Buenos Aires … Princess Grace's appendectomy is Page 1 news … and Judge Martin Katz of Van Nuys asks a woman charged with advertising fortune telling whether she can predict his verdict. She couldn't. And Katz fined her $25.

And the weather? "Smog today."

Elizabeth Duncan is sentenced to die.

Hey, it's "On Stage" by Leonard Starr. Haven't seen that one in years.

Even in Southern California, football fans deal with the weather.

The Rams announced plans for a Saturday night game to open the 1959
season. "For the last four seasons the Coliseum temperature has been in
the high 80s," general manager Pete Rozelle said. "We feel that Ram
fans would prefer a night game while the weather is still warm."

You have to wonder if Rozelle, the future commissioner, also was
envisioning a future of night games and prime-time television audiences
for the NFL.

–Keith Thursby

Posted in #courts, @news, Film, Front Pages, Homicide, San Fernando Valley, Science, Transportation | 1 Comment

Found on EBay — Long Beach Plunge

Posted on April 3, 2009 by lmharnisch

This postcard of the Plunge in Long Beach has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $2.

At left, an orchestra provides music for Ladies' Day at the Plunge in Long Beach. Above, ladies, please cover up!

Posted in Architecture, Long Beach, Parks and Recreation | Comments Off

Paul Coates — Confidential File, April 3, 1959

Posted on April 3, 2009 by lmharnisch

Posted in Columnists, Paul Coates | Comments Off

In the Theaters, April 3, 1913

Posted on April 3, 2009 by lmharnisch

Posted in Film, Stage | Comments Off

Matt Weinstock — April 3, 1959

Posted on April 3, 2009 by lmharnisch

Righting of the Left

Not long ago a New York bank announced it had made left-handed checks available to southpaw patrons.

Now Mattell, Inc., the firm on W. 102nd Street which makes toy guns, has come out with a left-handed holster.

Clearly, what we have here is a trend. The way things are going, left-handers, who constitute about 10% of the nation's population, will no longer find themselves frustrated outcasts in a right-handed world.

At least lefties stalking along Dry Gulch Blvd. for the shootdown will have an even break on the draw with right-handed skulkers.

Oh, I tell you, significance is everywhere.

THE DOORBELL rang at a nice home in Brentwood and the lady at the door announced, "I'm the assessor."

A pained expression came over the housewife's face and she exclaimed, "Oh dear, we haven't even paid the taxes we've got!"

You listening, supervisors? Maybe it's a quiet revolt, but it's a revolt.

FOR HIS first book report, Steven Kruschen, 7, an A-2 at 3rd Street school, chose the child's version of "Noah's Ark" by Tony Palazzo.

One question on the printed sheet asked, "Who was your favorite character?" Steve wrote, "God."

Next question, "Why?" "Because," Steve wrote, he thought the whole thing up."

BACK TO NORMALCY

'Twas the morn after Easter
And all through the news
The headliners were shouting
"Us guys can lick youse."
–RWA

MENTION HERE of literary coincidences — use of similar names or situations by fiction writers unknown to each other — recalled an experience Harold Bell Wright once told Al Ball of Manhattan Beach.

Shortly after Wright's book "When a Man's a Man" was published, a stranger called on him, identified himself as a college professor, and said he had written a play three years before titled "When a Man's a Man." Furthermore, his principal character was Rags — Wright's was Patches. In addition, he said there were 80 identical situation in the two stories.

Wright could only express amazement.

"How did you do it, Wright?" the stranger went on. "My manuscript has been locked in a safe for three years. No one ever read it but me. It isn't possible."

He wasn't angry, only baffled. So was Wright.

A LADY NAMED Louise was discussing instant coffee with a friend who had never used it and suggested she try Decaf. "Where do I get Decaf?" the woman asked. "Fromde cow and de bull," responded Louise, a lady of impulse, subject to such whims. Besides, it was a hot day.

THE SOCIETY for Reducing Everything to a Pat, Provocative Phrase will come to order. This remark was heard in the city room: "Can't you see Susan Hayward playing the part of Mrs. Duncan?"

TEN YEARS AGO Pepper Blethen, 9, unaccountably stumbled and fell while running with playmates in Gardena. When it happened again a doctor diagnosed his ailment as progressive muscular dystrophy. He was given only a short time to live.

But life was pleasant to Pepper, even when he was forced to take to a wheelchair and then bed. He was helpless for years and slowly wasted away. But he remained cheerful, buoyed up by his devoted family and well-wishers.

On Tuesday at the age of 19, he died, long beyond the time doctors gave him to live. A funeral Mass was held today at St Antony's Church and his mother thanks all those who have sent him messages of good cheer.

Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off

Second Takes — Billy Wilder

Posted on April 3, 2009 by lmharnisch

Sept. 16, 1939: The Times' review lists Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder for the first time.

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Second Takes | 1 Comment

Movie Star Mystery Photo

Posted on April 3, 2009 by lmharnisch

Los Angeles Times file photo

Just a reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on
Monday and reveal the answer on Friday. 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.

Update: This is Sheila Ryan in a photo dated Dec. 29, 1941.

The answer to last week's photo: Sharon Lynn

Check back Monday for another mystery photo!

Los Angeles Times file photo

Here's another photo of our mystery woman and a mystery companion. Please congratulate Eve Golden's "co-worker Mel" for recognizing her first. Also congratulate Anne Papineau, Dewey Webb, Nick Santa Maria, Jeff Hanna, "bjth" Don Danard and Gerald McCann!

Update: Our mystery fellow is Tony De Marco in an August 1943 photo.

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times

Here's another clue! Please congratulate William Weathersby, Dave and Jeff for correctly identifying her. And hats off to Dewey Webb for identifying her mystery companion!

Sheila Ryan, 23, seeking a divorce from cowboy actor Allan Lane, Feb. 22, 1946.

Los Angeles Times file photo

Here's another photo of our mystery woman. Please congratulate Annie Frye and R. Ahuna for correctly identifying her. Check back tomorrow when we reveal the name of our mystery movie star!

Update: Sheila Ryan in a still from "Getting Gertie's Garter."

Los Angeles Times file photo

This is is Sheila Ryan, who was married to western star Pat Buttram. Isn't this a great photo? When I got it out of the archives I found The Times art department had butchered it down to a one-column mug shot. Here is it, stripped of all the white goop we used to put on pictures.

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | 85 Comments

Hard Times on Eastwood Set; Los Angeles Radio, April 6, 1969

Nuestro Pueblo, April 5, 1939

Found on EBay — Batchelder Fireplace

Baseball Season Opens, April 7, 1985

Play the Pastime With Country and Catfish

In the Theaters, April 5, 1921

Second Takes — Billy Wilder

Trouble Was His Business — Raymond Chandler

Judith Freeman on Raymond Chandler

CBS Cancels Hit Comedy Show Over Censorship; Sweet Lou Returns, April 5, 1969

Found on EBay — Florentine Gardens, Earl Carroll’s

Matt Weinstock — April 4, 1959

TV Cliches Shocking

Paul Coates — Confidential File, April 4, 1959

Confidential File

Mash Notes and Comments

In the Theaters, April 4, 1917

Second Takes — Billy Wilder

Jordan’s King Hussein Visits L.A.; Rams to Play Night Game, April 4, 1959

Found on EBay — Long Beach Plunge

Paul Coates — Confidential File, April 3, 1959

In the Theaters, April 3, 1913

Matt Weinstock — April 3, 1959

Righting of the Left

Second Takes — Billy Wilder

Movie Star Mystery Photo

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