Republican National Convention

Posted on June 17, 2008 by lmharnisch

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Big deal for Dodgers

Posted on June 16, 2008 by lmharnisch

June 16, 1958

By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer

1958_0616_dodgers Dropcap_t_1904 he struggling Dodgers traded a piece of their past for a player rich in Los Angeles minor league history.

Steve Bilko, who hit 148 home runs in three seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, was traded by the Reds in exchange for pitcher Don Newcombe, a former National League MVP who had been a disappointment in Los Angeles. Two others were involved in the transaction, but the story in The Times predictably focused on the two key figures.

Bilko had become a minor league legend with the Los Angeles Angels by hitting 55 home runs in 1956 and 56 in 1957 playing his home games in cozy Wrigley Field. He had hit only four home runs for the Reds at the time of the trade. With the Dodgers going nowhere fast in 1958, he probably seemed like a low-risk deal. "Bilko’s a pull hitter, and maybe he can hit some home runs in the Coliseum for us," General Manager Buzzie Bavasi told The Times.

And in Los Angeles, he had name value. Less than a year before, The Times chronicled Bilko’s run at the Pacific Coast League home run record of 60, set in 1925 by future Yankee Tony Lazzeri. The Times  pictured Bilko next to a photo of Babe Ruth, who held the major league homer record, also with 60.

Manager Walt Alston seemed less enthusiastic about the trade. Maybe he was trying to figure out how to use three first basemen — Bilko, Gil Hodges and Norm Larker. "The deal’s been made. That’s all there is to it. We’re satisfied. I think it will help both clubs," Alston said.

Bilko wasn’t the answer in 1958. He hit only seven home runs for the Dodgers and next went to Detroit. But he returned to Los Angeles and Wrigley Field in 1961 as a member of the expansion Los Angeles Angels. He hit 20 home runs, then eight more in his final season with the Angels in 1962.

keith.thursby@latimes.com
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June 16, 1938

Posted on June 16, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Dropcap_y_1944 ou might well wonder whether the designers actually expected to run "motorways" right through buildings in downtown Los Angeles — the answer is yes, they did.

There’s quite a bit of data in this installment of Ed Ainsworth’s series on traffic in Los Angeles. If I had the time, I would track down population growth figures to see how successfully the Southern California Auto Club predicted the future. Alas, there are so many stories, and only one Larry Harnisch. I’ll leave it to my interested readers to see how the Auto Club did.
 
But here’s the interesting material that should resonate 70 years later:

"… Los Angeles, above all other cities, depends upon the automobile for its actual everyday traffic needs.

"This is what Automobile Club engineers say: That if the streetcars were to stop, life would go on about as usual. San Antonio –a city of a quarter of a million — has led the way by being the first major American city to abolish the streetcar in favor of buses.

"If the buses were to stop, there would be hardly a flurry.

"But if automobiles were to suddenly to cease to function, the whole economic and social structure would be disrupted."

And the jury is out in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette in the Harry Raymond bombing … Stay tuned.

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Mystery photo

Posted on June 16, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Los Angeles Times file photo
Just for a change, I decided to have a "what" question instead of another "who" question featuring an old movie star.

Well, what is it?

  • Watering trough for horses? (Tim Ahern) Absolutely right. This watering trough was on Broadway near Slauson. Note that the people on the right side of the photo are standing on a "safety island" for the streetcars.

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June 16, 1908

Posted on June 16, 2008 by lmharnisch

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Boxing at Chutes Park during the visit of the Great White Fleet, about April 20, 1908.
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hutes Park is not the sort of place where responsible parents want their children. Not only does it have boxing, above, there is dancing. The Sunday Rest League and Councilman Lyon have begun a "purity campaign" that would ban minors younger than 18–especially girls–from public dances unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian, The Times says.

"Sunday night I went to the Chutes grounds myself to see what kind of a place is conducted there. I saw a dance in the open where the dancers went to the tables and drank liquor between dances. I never saw a worse dance on the Barbary Coast. Among the dancers were two girls not more than 12 years old. They were dancing with ‘roughnecks’ and some of the toughest characters in town," Councilman Lyon says.

There has been no clamor for coverage of the 1908 Republican National Convention, so I’ll skip the matter (political pundits, please note the perishable nature of your labors).

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June 15, 1938

Posted on June 15, 2008 by lmharnisch

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A detail of the arch, as shown on San Pedro High School’s website. For the full image, go here.

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A cloverleaf interchange, as envisioned in 1938. Note the extensive landscaping on both sides of the freeway.

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A map of proposed "elevated motorway" routes. One of many that have been prepared over the years.


Dropcap_t_1910 his victory arch at San Pedro High School was salvaged from the Federal Building (1910-1937), which was at Main and Temple. I’m always thrilled to discover that any piece of old Los Angeles has survived, no matter how small. If you click on the photo below, it will appear full size and you can see similar entryways all along the right side of the building.   

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At left, the prosecution’s closing arguments in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette follows the trail of civic corruption to Joe Shaw, the mayor’s brother. With Kynette convicted, attention will turn to the Shaws and the recall movement will gain momentum.

Part 4 of Ed Ainsworth’s series on Los Angeles traffic lays out an elaborate proposal for 420 miles of "elevated motorways."  As superficial as this story is, it contains key elements of what transformed Los Angeles transportation into what we contend with today:

"Street railways would gradually be eliminated and bus service substituted, both on surface streets and the elevated motorways."

"The elevated motorways would not run along above present streets. They would be cut through the middle of blocks. Preliminary surveys disclose that is is possible to run practically all of these through so-called blighted areas."

Would the motorways be an architectural eyesore?

"Definitely not. It is almost an axiom of modern civilization that man’s highest achievements in industrial design are in themselves objects of symmetry and beauty."

Recall that there are some essential differences between what was proposed and what we have today: One of the original plans called for parking structures to be placed at intervals along the motorways. Also take a good look at the map of the network: It’s massive.

So here we have a blueprint from 1938: Get rid of the streetcars, switch to buses that can use surface streets as well as elevated lanes and build a massive freeway system.

Most important, note the source of the proposal: The Auto Club of Southern California. Not a name one usually hears in discussions of what happened to the streetcars. But the Auto Club was a major player in the demise of the streetcar system.

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June 15, 1908

Posted on June 15, 2008 by lmharnisch

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Dropcap_l_1904_2 et’s take a brief survey. One question: How much interest is there in reading stories from the Republican National Convention of 1908? The Times sent two veterans to cover the gathering in Chicago: George W. Burton, above, a longtime editorial writer who died in 1921, and Harry Carr.

Out of curiosity I checked to see how we covered previous conventions and learned that we used AP for the 1900 GOP convention in Philadelphia (McKinley-Roosevelt) and sent another veteran reporter, John McGroarty, to the 1904 convention in Chicago.

Recall that William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt won the 1900 presidential race and that Roosevelt became president when McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Roosevelt was reelected in 1904 with Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, a senator from Indiana.

Interestingly enough, Roosevelt did not support Fairbanks for president in 1908, backing William Howard Taft, the secretary of War. (Spoiler: Taft defeated Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan.)

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June 14, 1958

Posted on June 14, 2008 by lmharnisch

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 Dropcap_p_1906_2
eople sometimes ask me if I’m related to the Rev. J. Lester Harnish, above. The answer is no, but here he is. Folks tell me he was quite a good preacher.

At left, the country is in a terrible fix. Speaking at the 28th annual convention of the International Assn. of Accident and Health Underwriters, E.H. O’Connor says Social Security is a mess. "There must be a halt to helter-skelter and misguided philanthropy," he says. He also calls on the industry to oppose mandatory health insurance legislation.

J. Edward Day, also addressing the conference, criticizes rising medical and surgical costs in Southern California. Day calls on the medical profession to prescribe the same care and service for the same fees, regardless of whether a patient is insured.

And at Baskin-Robbins, pink grapefruit ice…

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June 14, 1938

Posted on June 14, 2008 by lmharnisch
Earle_kynette_1938_0120_lat
Photograph by the Los Angeles Times

Police Capt. Earle Kynette before altering his appearance for his trial in the Harry Raymond bombing.

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1938_0614_detailDropcap_p_1937 erhaps it came as a shock — at least to Police Capt. Earle Kynette, if no one else –that he was convicted in the Harry Raymond bombing. At the moment, the trial is in its final few days. Not to give anything away, but the jury is going to find him guilty quite soon.

We also have the third installment of Ed Ainsworth’s series on traffic problems in Los Angeles, which included the illustration above.

For some reason, Ainsworth illustrates the problem of traffic by using three women who are running errands, which I’m not sure is entirely fair or accurate. His point is that surface traffic is prone to congestion: "Automobiles and streetcars were mixed in a jerky, slow-moving mass, all practically paralyzed."

Next, he explores the strengths and weaknesses of subways, particularly the cost of tunneling (sound familiar?) and Los Angeles’ lack of densely populated urban areas that benefit most from underground transportation, he says: "In Los Angeles, the sprawling population is too spread out."

The conclusion, according to Ainsworth, is to build elevated transportation. To be continued…

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June 14, 1908

Posted on June 14, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Wilshire and Westmoreland via Google street view

Lake and Hoover via Google street view
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Dropcap_n_1928 ow if only research led in a straight line — but thankfully, it doesn't. Research corkscrews and jets off at unexpected angles. Today's project was supposed to be about the home of the week — in this case, the house built by Reuben Shettler at Wilshire and Westmoreland. At top, we have the home as it appeared in 1908 and the corner as it appears today via Google street view. (Bonus view: Hoover and Lake, the site of the other home of the week.)

Of course, it would be nice if I had a little information on Reuben Shettler, so I dug up the personal note about him and his wife entertaining Ransom E. Olds, maker of the Reo automobile, at 3100 Wilshire Blvd. It turns out that Shettler's son Leon was an early Los Angeles car dealer.

But in tracking down that information, I stumbled across new details on the Chinese massacre of 1871 — on the society page, of all places. The woman being interviewed, Mrs. William LeMoyne Wills, says her father sheltered Chinese to protect them from the violence of the mob. This is the first I've ever heard of anyone offering sanctuary to the Chinese during this tragic incident.

Then, in researching the Chinese massacre, I came across a photo of our old friend the dragon in Chinatown that was once part of The Times' flagpole.

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I really need to go looking for this thing to see if it's still there.

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Bad traffic, 1938

Posted on June 13, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Dropcap_p_1921 erhaps this isn’t the most sophisticated illustration of how traffic evolved from caveman days to the mid-20th century. But the panels do tell a story. Times reporter Ed Ainsworth describes the rise of cities in the Middle Ages, sort of the way old Disney cartoons explain rocketry. "Most streets had been created haphazardly, primarily for men on foot." (And yes, we are still in the caveman days in terms of inclusive language.)

Now this sounds familiar: "Men discovered that because of the railway lines they could work in one place, live in another possibly miles away where they could have the rural atmosphere for which mankind has always seemed to yearn — fields, flowers, livestock, fresh air, a retreat ‘out in the country.’ "

Ainsworth describes how human beings built rail lines radiating from a city core like the spokes on a wheel, with minimal traffic between the spokes. (This scenario, in fact, has been used to describe early 20th century Los Angeles.)

"As new subdivisions were laid out, there was provision, of course, for automobile roads. But these were not correlated with the roads of other subdivisions. Dead ends and blind alleys abounded. Bottlenecks were created on every hand," Ainsworth says.

And this was in 1938.

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Giant bomber

Posted on June 13, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Above, The Times’ drawing of Douglas’ bomber, June 13, 1938.
Xb19

Here are a couple of photos of the XB-19 from the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The XB-19 made its first flight in 1941.

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My thanks to P.J. Connolly to pointing out the XB-19.
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June 13, 1958

Posted on June 13, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Dropcap_n_1902 ow here’s an interesting way to beat traffic, at least if you’re Judge Leo Freund. It seems that Freund didn’t care for being stuck while big dump trucks building the San Diego Freeway used Santa Monica Boulevard.

Freund decided that Benjamin Frank White was doing a poor job stopping traffic at the construction site. So he complained to police. Officers put White under surveillance, then complained to his boss, Robert Check, who fired White that day.

White’s fellow members of Laborers Union, Local 300, complained that Check was being unfair. Finally, someone called Judge Freund, who said he didn’t want White fired; he just thought the man was doing a lousy job. So White got his job back — at a different location. 

Judge Leo Freund died Sept. 29, 1976, but was reelected to the bench because the ballots had already been printed. He was replaced by Nancy M. Brown.
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June 13, 1938

Posted on June 13, 2008 by lmharnisch
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 Dropcap_c_1887 orrect me if I’m wrong, but this plane at left looks like a DC-4E. Either that or a very weird B-17 with six engines and the tail of a constellation.  Times staff writer James Bassett takes a look at the "flying dreadnought" being built by Douglas … (My, is that a hed bust on Page 1? Oops!)

Also: A hiker finds the remains of an airliner that crashed in March during a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles … the former French premier says France is ready to mobilize if Germany invades Czechoslovakia …   Rudolf Hess accuses Czechoslovakia of being a menace to the peace of Europe … And 30 prisoners at Lincoln Heights jail become ill from food poisoning — either because of the lima beans or the rice pudding.

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June 13, 1908

Posted on June 13, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Dropcap_b_1908_2 eer, anyone? Remember that beer is a health drink — liquid bread! Just a bit of alcohol to aid digestion … (Isn’t this old typography great?)

At left, a true novelty for the ladies –political speeches! The Times says 400 members of the Friday Morning Club got the "thrill of a real political meeting without the unladylike accompaniment of foul tobacco" when two male speakers addressed "machine politics." 

Mrs. Shelby Tolhurst "surprised the men present by the self-possession with which she presided over the political meeting," The Times says.

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June 12, 1958

Posted on June 12, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Dropcap_a_1920_2 bove, David J. Moke is arrested on charges of kidnapping a teenage girl from school. He’s convicted and faced the death penalty under the Little Lindbergh Law, but the judge reduces his conviction to simple kidnapping because the death penalty requires robbery to have been a motive. 

Also, Dean Martin and Rosalind Russell are named the best-dressed stars of the entertainment world by the California Fashion Creators. Russell wears an Orry-Kelly gown and Martin wears a blue mohair "cocktail suit" … Scientist Krafft Ehricke says space flight will enable us to someday meet intelligent beings from another solar system.
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June 12, 1938

Posted on June 12, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Dropcap_t_1901 he unidentified Times photographer who took this picture at Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street in 1938  had no idea we would be dissecting it today. My best guess is that this is looking south on Alvarado rather than west on Wilshire, which has that gentle curve in it at MacArthur Park.

So what do we notice? Well, in 1938, there was curb parking in both directions … and there’s one 1902 model streetcar (1938 – 1902 = 36 years) in a line of vehicles. Realize that the streetcar would be stuck if the tracks were blocked by a stalled auto or an accident.

Now look at the modern picture from Google’s street view … There’s no parking allowed at the curbs — at least at the corner, although we have parked vehicles farther down the street.


And we have a bus, which can maneuver around a stalled vehicle or an accident because it’s not on tracks embedded in the street. What if we had a mass-transit vehicle on tires that was powered by an overhead wire? Well, we had a few of them after World War II. They were called the "trackless trolleys" and enjoyed a brief popularity in Los Angeles. 

As for The Times’ series on traffic, as you might expect, Part I states the problem: Los Angeles’ streets are congested. Compared with the 1938 photo, traffic on Alvarado today doesn’t seem so bad, does it? Of course, we don’t know exactly when Google cruised the streets, although it was apparently early in the morning. You might wonder whether our grandparents managed to solve Los Angeles’ traffic problem — or at least this particular traffic problem.

And in case you are wondering about the Earle Kynette case, it’s Sunday and the court is dark.

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June 12, 1908

Posted on June 12, 2008 by lmharnisch
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Dropcap_y_1887 ou may (or may not) be wondering why the unfortunate Edson S. Fancher, at left, was sprinkling the street when he had an encounter with a streetcar at Darwin and Avenue 20 (see above). I would presume that this was to keep the dust down because the street was unpaved. I always find it startling to see the early photographs of Broadway with some of the same familiar buildings and dirt streets. (Bonus factoid: The home at 1929 Darwin Ave. was built in 1903, according to Zillow and Property Shark.)

Also: Henrietta Brown has no interest in young British nobles traversing America in search of adventure … Salvador Malacara, formerly a tax collector in Mexico, is arrested at 114 N. Hope on charges of "extensive monetary irregularities" … Two employment agents are charged with fraud for taking money from prospective workers in exchange for nonexistent agricultural jobs in the Imperial Valley … And a police officer shoots an African American man who stole a hat from a store and threw rocks at the officer when he was ordered to stop running.

Speaking of Broadway, it was my great pleasure to hear Bob Mitchell at the organ of the Orpheum Theatre last night before the showing of "Goldfinger" in the L.A. Conservancy’s Last Remaining Seats series.
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The streetcars

Posted on June 11, 2008 by lmharnisch

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Photograph by the Los Angeles Times, 1911
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seem to have antagonized some people by having the audacity to
question the notion that Los Angeles’ streetcar system
was anything less than a shining glory and by poking fun of the idea that it was the victim of a
shadowy cabal (think wheels within wheels of corruption). In Los Angeles, this is, of course, heresy of the worst sort. (And here are the results of a Google search for cabal, shadowy, conspiracy, streetcars, "Los Angeles")
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OK, let’s go reality. Above, here’s a photo of the Los Angeles streetcar
system on Main Street in 1911, with a detail at left. Note how the streetcars are flowing with
clocklike efficiency. Notice that the streetcars aren’t backed up at
the intersection. Yes, the wonderful old streetcars are gliding along
the shimmering tracks, whisking  passengers to their destinations quickly and
safely without a care in the world. (It’s a bit difficult to tell from the photo, but I believe these are the "Huntington Standard" cars of 1902).

Don’t take my word for it, read The Times editorial (Aug. 19, 1911) at left about the wonders of the city’s streetcar system.

Let me quote a bit of it:

"Each car clings tenaciously to its overhead wire, waiting like a sailing vessel in the doldrums to catch some favoring breeze; "as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean." Once in a while a barnacle is detached and creeps painfully and laboriously from its resting place on the corner of 2nd and Main to another snug berth prepared for it between 2nd and 3rd. Then the great calm returns, the delicious peace of eventide settles again on the motorman and the conductor. The yellow and red dragon wags its tail and goes to sleep once more."

Don’t get me wrong. I support mass transit and I use the Red/Purple Line almost daily. But history shows that congested traffic in Los Angeles is a century old and that the city’s streetcar system was problematic at best. 

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June 11, 1938

Posted on June 11, 2008 by lmharnisch

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Dropcap_a_1901
s difficult as this may be to believe (and I’m sure it is), traffic is not a new problem in Los Angeles. The city’s streets were congested 50 years ago, they were congested 70 years ago and, yes, they were a mess a century ago. As regular readers of the Daily Mirror know, proposals for elevated trains, subways, one-way streets, bans on curbside parking and prohibitions against large, cumbersome vehicles have been kicked around for decades.

So here we are in 1938, taking yet another look at the city’s impassible streets. You might find yourself asking why people living 70 years ago didn’t adore our sainted streetcar system, because this is before (according to conspiracy theorists, anyway) the shadowy cabal of bus companies and car manufacturers plotted the postwar demise of the beloved Red Cars.

And there’s an update in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette in the Harry Raymond bombing, in which the defense, out of desperation in a doomed case, throws everything imaginable at the jury in a vain attempt keep their client out of jail.

Above left, apparently all one needed for a dialect joke in 1938 was an African American and a mule. Incredibly enough, this gem of ethnic humor appeared on The Times editorial page.

Really.

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