Above, Ernie Bushmiller, a feminist? Who knew? Below, with less than 48 hours remaining before its sessions ends, the state Legislature is unable to agree on a budget–shocking, I know … The Times promotes an upcoming series on the Strategic Air Command, which historians may some day credit for stopping the spread of Communism … Landslides block Malibu Canyon Road … And the Soviet Union protests U.S. atomic tests in the Marshall Islands. Continue reading
Above, The Times editorial page opposes allowing wholesale immigration of German and Austrian Jews to America. The Times notes that they would be penniless and that many of them would either go on welfare or take jobs from Americans. Instead, The Times says, let them go to South America … if the South American nations want them. Unfortunately, the anonymous authors are not available to atone for this piece. Below, Earle Kynette claims he conferred with anti-vice crusader Clifford Clinton and his attorney over a possible defense. Alas, we did not contact Clinton for a comment. Bonus fact: Kynette is being held in the same cell block as convicted killer Robert “Rattlesnake” James, who was the last man to be executed by hanging in California. Continue reading
Above, a look at the Great White Fleet in Magdalena Bay. Below, the federal government interviews prisoners and mental patients in Los Angeles in a campaign to deport immigrant radicals. Recall that The Times bombing will occur Oct. 1, 1910. Continue reading
March 29, 1958
Two cars cruised La Puente on a Friday night. One car carried Fred
Avila, 20, and three unidentified young women. The other carried four
young men from La Puente: Manuel Garcia, 19; Refugio Luna Jr., 20; John
Ramirez Jr., 19; and Robert Charles Perez, 19.
The two groups had crossed paths in La Puente’s business district, The
Times said, calling out insults to one another. Avila headed for the
weekly dance at La Puente High School. The other car followed and
pulled up next to Avila’s auto outside the high school gym, where about
500 students were gathered.
One of Garcia’s friends grabbed a .22-caliber rifle, got out of the car
and pointed it into the window of Avila’s vehicle. "Who’s that guy?" he
asked, presumably talking to one of the young women.
Avila got out and began grappling with the other young man over the
rifle. Garcia and the other two friends joined the struggle and the
rifle went off, hitting Garcia in the head. "You got me," he said,
falling to the ground 10 feet from where he had scratched his nickname,
"Quinky," in wet concrete three years earlier.
He was killed by his own rifle, The Times said.
Luna, Ramirez and Perez were arrested on charges of murder, but The
Times never followed up on the case so we don’t know what happened.
Above, U.S. military forces in Hawaii stage war games to prepare for a possible invasion. Apparently the defenders detected their mock enemy long before an invasion could be staged. Below, several prominent Angelenos sharply question German Consul Georg Gyssling during a Town Hall appearance at the Biltmore. When Gyssling rebuffs the first question, attorney Joseph Scott threatens to resign from Town Hall if "the other side" is not heard, The Times says. Town Hall officials promise another gathering in which "the other side" could air its views … The Times interviews an 11-year-old girl who was struck on the head with a rock and sexually attacked–and we publish her picture. It is one thing to know newspapers once published these kinds of stories and quite another to actually see one.
Quote of the Day: "The consul also said, in answer to a question, that the Jews in Austria would not be deprived of property rights any more than German Jews had been. This brought laughter from the audience but the consul doggedly kept on talking." –The Times, reporting on a Town Hall appearance by Georg (George) Gyssling, shown above in Los Angeles in 1934
Here’s another ethnic caricature by Times cartoonist Edmund Waller "Ted" Gale … The accompanying article about a Chinese American woman who adds a contemporary "Merry Widow" hat to her traditional costume is unsigned but is quite probably by Harry Carr, who often did these kinds of Sunday features.
The Chinese massacre also provides a little levity for our unidentified writer.
March 29, 1908
Here’s the northeast corner of Washington and Wilton, 1908. Today it looks like this. The home was built by Herman Blumenthal and designed by Robert D. Farquhar.
Above, Mickey Cohen is in trouble again. Shocking, I know. This time he has a black eye courtesy of U.S. drug agent Howard W. Chappell. Cohen was eventually fined $200 for disturbing the peace. Below, the death of W.C. Handy, composer of "The St. Louis Blues," makes the front page.
Above, five-suit bridge. Hard to imagine, but there it is, introducing eagles as the new suit. Below, Austrian Catholic leaders embrace Nazism … Minnesota granite is being installed on the Federal Building … Film director David "Pecados de Amor" Kirkland is freed from a Mexican jail after "killing a drunken Indian with his automobile," The Times says. Kirkland gives the man’s widow 300 pesos.
Quote of the Day: "We gladly acknowledge that the National Socialist movement has achieved and is achieving outstanding results in the sphere of national and economic reconstruction as well as in social welfare–especially for the most needy section of the populace. We are also convinced that through the efforts of the National Socialist movement the menace of all-destroying godless Bolshevism was averted. The bishops give their sincerest blessings to these efforts in time to come and will also advise the faithful in this spirit. On the day of the plebiscite it will be for us bishops a self-evident national duty to declare our loyalty as Germans to the German reich (nation) and we expect all faithful Christians that they know what they owe to their people." –Theodore Cardinal Innitzer and the bishops of Austria
Above, the circus is coming to town–apparently. I can’t find any further mentions of "Towle’s Circus." Below, Rep. J. Thomas Heflin hates African Americans and he hates drinking, so you can imagine how he feels about African Americans who drink liquor.
Heflin, accompanied by Rep. Edwin Ellerbe of South Carolina, was taking a streetcar to church, where Heflin was to deliver a temperance lecture. According to The Times, two African Americans boarded and one of them, Thomas (or Lewis) Lundy, was about to take a drink of whiskey when Heflin told him to stop. A congressman from Alabama, Heflin had introduced a measure to add Jim Crow cars to the Washington, D.C., streetcar system and he had received permission to carry a gun because of the resulting death threats.
Heflin threw Lundy off the streetcar after a fight and many passengers also got off the car during the brawl, The Times says, including Thomas McCreary and his wife. Lundy got up from the pavement and reached for his pocket, so Heflin fired his .38 at him through a streetcar window, missing Lundy and hitting McCreary in the leg, The Times says. Heflin fired again and struck Lundy in the head at least once, the paper says.
McCreary was taken to the hospital in a carriage because he refused to ride in an ambulance with an African American. Heflin was indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, but The Times never reported on the outcome of the case or whether Lundy and McCreary survived.
March 27, 1958
A man driving east on Melrose Avenue about three weeks ago around 6 p.m. turned left into an alley near Western Avenue.
He was stopped by a gendarme and given a citation for violating Sec.
544 A of the vehicle code–illegal turn. The motorist didn’t agree with
the officer and said so.
The other day when he appeared in traffic court he was prepared to pay
the fine and forget it. He can’t afford the time that pleading innocent
would entail.
BUT INSTEAD of
the usual routine he was informed a formal complaint had been filed
with the city attorney’s office charging him with the offense and
giving a more detailed account of his alleged derelictions.
It stated (take a deep breath) he "willfully and unlawfully turned such
vehicle from a direct course and moved right and left upon the roadway
when such movement could not be made with reasonable safety and without
giving an appropriate signal of his intention to turn such vehicle
continuously during the last 100 feet traveled by such vehicle before
turning, when there were other vehicles which might have been affected
by such turning movement."
Our man took a look at the amended charge and became a tiger. It
happens he is employed by the Motor Vehicle Department and knows
something about the rules. He whipped out his big, fat Motor Vehicle
Code and pointed out to the judge that it is a violation of Sec. 739.2
for a police officer to alter or add to the charge as written at the
scene of the alleged violation. The judge agreed and set a date for the
case. Incidentally, the motorist spent from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in traffic
court getting his point across.
And so, in this corner, Irate Citizen. In this corner, Majesty of the Law.
ONLY IN Santa
Monica — A man and his wife recently decided to sell their home. They
listed it with a real estate firm, meanwhile sought another.
A house-for-sale ad in last Sunday’s paper caught their eye. It was
just what they wanted. Moreover, the same real estate firm that was
acting as their agent was handling it. You know the rest. A salesman
drove them to their own home.
Mighty potent adjectives the boys use.
SHORT SHORT STORY — At
7 a.m. the other day a man was changing a flat tire in the right lane
on the Hollywood Freeway outbound near Santa Monica Boulevard. It would
have been safer for him to have moved his car off the freeway, onto the
siding, But obviously he was too disgusted to give a darn. He was
wearing shoes, socks–and a knee-length maroon bathrobe.
ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD — A
girl filling out an employment application in a theatrical agency
Monday looked up and asked another girl, also filling out a blank,
"What date is it today?"
"It has to be the 24th," was the reply, "because Wednesday is Oscar day and that comes on the 26th, remember?"
AROUND TOWN — Remember
the recent panel showing Carmichael, ax on shoulder, saying fiercely,
"I didn’t get any coffee but at least I got my dime back"? Well,
they’re posted on every coffee machine at Hughes Aircraft … A
postcard from Paul Drus contains 228 legible, pencil-printed words.
Anyone want to try for 456? Or is everybody busy engraving the U.N.
Charter on the head of a pin? … Youngsters can be embarrassing. Robin
Gee, 4, of Palmdale insists she "flushes" the toaster … Don Quinn’s
definition of a greedy agent: A hog that lives high on the ham … A
trash box on Beverly Boulevard near June Street had the Christmas
wrappings of at least a dozen liquor bottles strewn on top. What a
party that must have been Imagine people still Yule-tiding.
March 27, 1958
An Earthman came to my office yesterday. He brought an object with him
in a shopping bag. Gingerly, he removed it from the bag and placed it
upright on my desk.
It stood about 2 1/2 feet high and was a heavy steel and plastic
cylinder complete with safety valves, cranks and ominous looking
buttons. A steel disk covered on end. The other end, about 4 inches in
circumference, was filled with dirt.
"Look at it," he demanded.
I assured him that I was–that I wouldn’t take my eyes off of it for a second. "What is it?" I asked.
He cleared his throat and looked me straight in the eye. "It’s an object," he announced, "that attacked me from outer space."
He didn’t flinch when he said it.
But I did.
"It was Monday night. About 10-10:30. I was walking down Loma Linda Avenue," he continued.
"Yes."
"I was nearing the corner of Serrano. On my way to the drugstore."
"And?"
"To buy some cigarettes."
"And?"
"Filter tips," he explained.
"And?" I said impatiently.
"I’m getting to it," he snapped. "It came flying out of the sky. Missed
my ear by inches. My right ear. I heard this terrible
whish-thump-splat."
"You saw it?" I said.
"I saw it after it hit the ground. It missed the sidewalk by 8 inches, maybe."
He pointed to the bottom of the object. "Look at the dirt and grass
inside the plastic cylinder. It cut a sharp hole a few inches deep in
the lawn of this apartment house and then bounced out again and lay
down on its side."
"What did you do then?"
"I was very cautious. I sneaked up on it and touched it."
He glanced quickly to his right and left. We were alone. He whispered.
"It was warm."
"Warm?" I cried.
"Yes. But I poked it and it didn’t move. So I picked it up and took it
over under the street lamp and examined it. It looked harmless enough
so I took its handle and cranked it."
He demonstrated for me, cranking the handle vigorously.
"Nothing," he continued. "Nothing happened. I’ve been carrying it
around ever since, showing it to people. Nobody knows what it is.
There’s not a marking on it.
"Mr. Coates, you’ve got to help me find someone who knows what it is."
"I do?" I asked.
"Absolutely. Because so far it’s nothing more than an Unidentified
Flying Object. And to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t believe in
such things."
[Note: The Mirror didn’t run a picture of this object, unfortunately, so we have to rely on our imaginations–lrh]
Here’s an unusual mystery photo. We know the name of the man on the right. He’s James "Jim" Bassett (to his family, he was known as Mike). In 1972, about the time the photo was taken, he was living in Tustin. What we don’t know is the story that goes with the photo because, unfortunately, he died in 1993. According to Jim’s sister, he was working at a Circle K (note the shirt) and either reported a robbery or stopped a robbery. He is shown here receiving a reward from a man believed to be a Circle K executive. Jim’s family would very much like to know the rest of the story. The Times clips, unfortunately, are most unhelpful.
Any Circle K retirees out there who can help?
Above, Gail Patrick , who was later a producer on "Perry Mason" … Below, Field Marshal Hermann Goering says all Jews must leave Austria … Dr. J. Leon Lazarowitz, head of the Rambling Hoboes of America Union, wants to come to Los Angeles for Passover but is afraid he’ll be arrested as a vagrant … The stock market is falling like a rock … Rep. Martin Dies (D-Texas) suggests sending German and Austrian refugees to Paraguay so that the U.S. won’t be "flooded by the persecuted and jobless of Europe" … And the state orders the quarantine of dogs and cats to halt the spread of rabies.
Quote of the Day: "Vienna is not a German city because 300,000 Jews live here. Vienna must become German again. The Jew must know we do not care to live with him. He must go." –Field Marshal Hermann Goering
March 27, 1938
Los Angeles
I’m starting to think that no comic strip of the late 1930s was complete without a great white hunter contending with cowardly native tribesmen in "darkest Africa." This is Al Capp’s "Li’l Abner."
March 27, 1938
Los Angeles
Above, plans to modernize Philharmonic Auditorium at 5th Street and Olive, across from Pershing Square and on a diagonal from the Biltmore. And yes, today it’s a parking lot.
A postcard of the new auditorium in a photograph looking east from 5th and Olive, with what is now Pershing Square on the right. Note the streetcar and notice especially how narrow 5th Street is.
A later view of Philharmonic Auditorium as seen from Pershing Square.
And an undated view of the auditorium’s interior.
A photograph of Pershing Square and the remodeled auditorium. As pointed out by Nathan Marask, this angle was used for one of the shots in the opening sequence of "Double Indemnity."
Philharmonic Auditorium and Pershing Square as seen in "Double Indemnity," 1944.
