Above, Thomas Mann, “The Drunkard” and “Fra Diavolo” with an African American cast. Below, former President Herbert Hoover (yes, a graduate of Stanford, home of the Hoover Institution) discusses his views on international relations after his European tour.
Above, Aunt Lucy Chiviss. If you look closely, you’ll notice this page says "Wednesday" and "Sunday" and the caption type is pied. Someone was certainly having a bad day. Below, the story of Lucy Chiviss. Yes, I know slave narratives can be problematic and the WPA project on former slaves is a subject unto itself. Still, this a vivid story. The type is barely legible, unfortunately, but the story is compelling. Her description of being sold in the slave market is worth the struggle it takes pick out the words. If I get time I’ll keyboard it into the blog. The Times said she lived at 14th and Clayborne, but I’m having trouble locating Clayborne and I’m wondering if it was an error.
By Keith Thursby
Times Staff Writer
There’s a long line of people
willing and able to criticize the Dodgers for the traffic mess at the Coliseum
Saturday. But what could people have expected?
Unless you’ve been under a
rock for a few days, you know that more than 115,000 people crammed in and
around the Coliseum to see the Dodgers play the Red Sox. The Dodgers provided
free shuttle service to the Coliseum and back from Dodger Stadium and depending
on the newspaper or blogger, it was a disaster or worse.
We did fine.
I left my home in Irvine on Saturday with my
two teenage sons at about noon. The plan was to have lunch and get to Dodger
Stadium by 2. We arrived right on time to find few people and several buses
waiting for baseball fans.
Yes, it was ridiculously
early for a 7 p.m. game. But we had 115,000 reasons for getting there so early.
We got to the Coliseum about
3 and waded through the thousands already there. Clearly we weren’t the only
people arriving early. We got into the stadium a little after 4 and saw the
real baseball highlight of the night, batting practice.
We cheered Vin Scully, ate
overpriced junk food and had a good time with our friends. But we couldn’t help
but notice all the late-comers. We started hearing stories all around us about
people delayed by the long lines at Dodger Stadium.
Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection in the the Regional History Collection
of USC Libraries
The Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants on opening day at the Coliseum, April 18, 1958, from "Mobsters, Molls, and Mayhem: A Year in the Life of Los Angeles" at the Doheny Library.
So we decided the easiest
thing to do was abandon ship. We lasted five innings, enough to soak in the
weirdness of baseball at the Coliseum and the drunks and the near-fights and
the knuckleheads throwing peanuts at every Red Sox fan who walked by.
We got to the bus line at 9
and nearly an hour later we were on the way back to Dodger Stadium. It wasn’t
pretty or efficient but for a crowd that big, it was pretty peaceful. We were
back in Irvine
before midnight.
We didn’t want to leave the
game early, but figured it was our only option. And we weren’t
complaining. This was free parking and
transportation, after all, even if it was messy.
I don’t have any baseball
memories of the Coliseum. My memories are the 1984 Olympics, the Rams and Notre Dame or UCLA against USC. But we wanted
to experience Saturday’s event.
So it was beyond crowded. Too
many lines and too little baseball (can’t remember the last time we left
anything early). But my kids and I knew it wouldn’t be perfect, just something
we can say we did.
My friends over the 1947project have done a soft launch of their new
site. Instead of selecting another year for daily entries, my longtime
crime buddies (and some new authors) have chosen a vanished neighborhood:
Bunker Hill. The blog is titled "On Bunker Hill, a Lost Neighborhood Found."
Kim Cooper writes:
This is an inspired project. Years ago, my former wife and I were involved
in a somewhat similar effort in Tucson exploring a historic downtown
neighborhood that was wiped clean for urban renewal. The project was a wonderful way to make amends and ease some of the bad feelings among the Latinos who were displaced from that area.
I wish Kim Cooper, Nathan Marsak, Mary McCoy, John Toomey, Ed Fuentes (author of View From a Loft), Joan Renner, Christina Rice and Joni E. Johnston the best of luck and I’m looking forward to their updates.
Happy Foot!
Above, Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster in "Run Silent, Run Deep," directed by Robert Wise. Below, fighting in the Middle East … For the first time in its history, the Legislature adjourns without a budget. The governor calls legislators back into a special session … A fight breaks out at Los Angeles Speedway when a NASCAR race is canceled because of poor ticket sales and there are no refunds because the money has been seized by the courts … And a contretemps among the royals.
Above, film novice Charlie McCarthy blows his top. Below, vegetable peddler George Sakalis, a key witness in the Earle Kynette case, gets additional protection after complaining that he is being followed by private detectives … The head of the VFW calls for assistance in the form of jobs or pensions for the "Lost Generation" of World War I … Dogs are under a state quarantine because of rabies … And Harold "Bud" Marshall hopes to regain the use of his legs after being paralyzed when he was shot in the spine during a robbery.
I stumbled across this item while researching the previous post. It’s one of the strangest stories I’ve ever seen: Not only does a horse have a wooden leg, but it caught fire when the animal was standing too close to burning rubbish.
Above, the city introduces the concept of a traveling blacksmith who shoes all of the Fire Department’s horses rather than take them to the nearest blacksmith. The Times says the blacksmith (for some reason, we didn’t use his name) shoes about 150 horses on a monthly rotation. But the new program didn’t last long.
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.
