Below, notes on pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski during his stay in Los Angeles. A typical musician, he is usually so wound up after his performances that he doesn’t go to bed until 4 a.m., then sleeps to noon … The Times boasts about its gains in circulation … Temperance speaker William Murphy is to be honored in a celebration at Temple Auditorium … And Coulter Dry Goods Store moves its ribbon counter.
March 11, 1958
Committees have been formed, speeches are being made and posters and
slogans are everywhere to discourage that abomination of society, the
litterbug.
It is clear that in the scale of villainy he is barely one notch below
the wife beater, the monster who puts slugs in telephones and the
fellow who gets drunk and disorderly.
At his worst he is hopelessly bugged on the subject of litter. Come what may, he throws it from his car.
Well, this corner today offers a cataclysmic idea that may help pull
the plug on this enemy of society. Perhaps it could be integrated into
the campaign propaganda.
IT’S UTTERLY simple.
Advise potential litterbugs to remove the contents of their so-called
glove compartments–the broken comb, the torn map of Northern
California, the rusty pliers, the flashlight with the dead batteries,
the unused instruction manual — and use the space to stuff the stuff
ordinarily tossed out the window.
Those who have formed a strong affinity for this potpourri could stow
it under the turtle back or, if a late-model car, the deck.
Of course, those who actually use the glove compartment for gloves can just skip the whole thing.
A LADY I KNOW was
banging on an heirloom radio which had suddenly stopped working when
the phone rang and a voice asked pleasantly if she were listening to a
certain TV program.
She said no, she didn’t approve of television although her husband did,
particularly westerns. The caller said she should try it oftener and
perhaps she’d find things she liked.
Just then the radio, as if fearing competition and anxious to get back in her good graces, began working again.
THE CHILDREN have the floor again.
Colleen Clement, 7, came home from school after being absent several
days because of the flu and announced, "I think I’m getting adjusted."
When her parents laughed she thought she’d used the wrong word so she
corrected, "I think I’m getting group oriented."
Of course, Colleen is the same little number who, while in a
supermarket, asked in awe, "Do people eat lion?" Her mother saw the
sign on the meat counter and corrected, "That’s loin."
And then there’s Laurel Phinney, 7, whose grandmother was telling her
how God created heaven and earth and the animals and plants and the air
and water. Laurel thought this over briefly, then inquired, "Then who
made the devil?" Grandma is still stumped.
AS THE public
address announcer at International Airport called the arrival of a
flight from Chicago, a young-looking woman remarked, "Here comes the
end of my freedom."
"Why," asked a devilish fellow waiting alongside, "is your husband coming home?"
"No," she squelched, "my three grandchildren."
LOOSE ENDS — On
his return from a trip to the Caribbean, Hatton Hulett was accosted by
a friend who kept calling him Cookie. He finally asked why and the
friend triumphantly explained–because he’d been a wafer a while. H.H.
promises not to let it happen again … Dan Pursuit, director of the
Delinquency Control Institute at SC, is on the traffic safety congress
program March 17. If anyone can catch those elusive youngsters, he can
… Noel Coward is appearing in his own plays at the Huntington
Hartford Theater, recalling that classic remark attributed to an
anonymous Frenchman, "I’m brave the rest of the year, but I’m a Noel
Coward" … No snarling, please. This is National Smile Week.
March 11, 1958
He sat across the desk from me, and while he didn’t admit it outright,
I got the feeling that he knew–by standards of our society–he was the
lowest form of human being.
Because in our kind of society a man like him walks without friends.
Every step of the way, he walks afraid and alone.
He wonders how long it’ll be before somebody gets him.
He does, because he’s a fink. A stool pigeon.
Or, in polite language, an informer–a man who profits by telling tales
on his underworld acquaintances and neighbors, who fingers them for the
police.
He explained that financially there wasn’t much gain in being a fink.
Not for him, anyway. A few bucks now and then from a narco cop. No
money–no big money–like there is in pushing H.
Maybe his gain was strictly mental, he suggested. Sort of an atonement for past sins, for the two stretches he did at Quentin.
Or maybe it was a personal grudge against junkies, against pushers.
Getting even with them for the way they got his kid brother hooked.
That’s what he wanted most to believe. That’s what he wanted me to believe too.
"My brother was only 15," he said. "A pusher got to him young. Honest,
it’s just the pushers I finger. Nobody else. Not even users."
He told me that he had arranged 15 or 20 setups for the narco officers.
"Most of them are doing time now because of what I did," he said. "He said it without pride, without remorse.
I asked him about the people he sent up. Close friends? Casual friends?
"One of them," he answered, "was my brother."
"Your brother?"
"Yes. That’s right."
"For pushing?"
"No. For armed robbery."
"But you said–"
"I did it for his own protection."
There was a pause.
"You see," he began again, "he was pulling too many jobs. He was
getting careless. He’d go in with two guns, but sooner or later
somebody would be there waiting for him. They’d blast him from the back
room before he had a chance.
"I turned him in to a real nice cop who promised to go along when the robbery detail picked him up."
Still, I didn’t quite understand.
"I’d rather have him alive, doing time," he explained, "than see him blasted to death."
"Does he know that you turned him in?"
"No. But if he ever found out, he’d hate me for it. He hates stool pigeons."
I was beginning to wonder why the man came to me. I asked him.
"The police," he said finally. "I set up a big one for them–a big pusher. I was going to make the buy. But I got nervous.
"The pusher was a big man. Lots of friends."
He studied the floor and looked up again.
"Either way I was caught in the middle."
He leaned toward me.
"I chickened out. I backed down. I left the cops looking awful foolish.
"Now," he went on, "they hate my guts. Last week they told me to get out of town. Not to come back. They meant it too.
"Then this weekend, Saturday, suddenly nobody else was talking to me. The bookie, the prostitutes, the users.
"They used to talk to me. But now they won’t touch me with a pole."
With a certain finality, he added:
"Nobody will."
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
"There’s nothing I can do," the informer told me.
March 11, 1958
Los Angeles
As rackets go, it was a pretty good one. There was a lot of quick, easy
money to be made from suckers. And because the victims were breaking the law, they couldn’t complain that they had been scammed. Not bad.
It worked like this:
Step 1) Distribute ads offering dirty pictures to be sent through the
mail, and of course, in 1958, sending smut through the post office was
against the law.
Step 2) Don’t send out anything that is actually illicit–keep it tame.
Sept 3) Haul in $400,000 ($2,915,080.89 USD 2007) a year.
Step 4) Ignore complaints because what are they going to do? Go to the
cops? The postal inspectors? They’re breaking the law by receiving
illicit material.
Repeat as needed.
Of course, some men complained to authorities anyway.
And so we have the case of Edward E. Paramore III, 30, 8801 Encino
Ave., Jacob Heiderich, 32, 12437 Ventura Blvd., and Kathleen Walker,
19, 13554 Rye St. Police confiscated two truckloads of photos and movies, The Times said.
Unfortunately, The Times never followed up on this story. In fact, it
received far more coverage in the Mirror, including a photo of Walker,
who insisted she was only a secretary at the Ventura Boulevard company.
A little research shows that Paramore was an interesting character and
not just because of his name. (Bonus fact: The Times says his father, Ted, helped found the "Screenwriters Guild"). Here’s Dick Adler’s interview with him from 1968.
March 11, 1968
Dear Stuck With Mother, boy do I hear you…. At 55, your mother is exactly the age that the Eskimos put their "ancient ones" on an ice floe and push them out to sea–just to solve problems like yours … Let’s do a little math, girlfriend. Your mom is 55 and has been married 35 years. That means your folks got together when she was 20 and she started right in raising you with the diapers and baby bottles–and arguing with your dad. Cut her some slack and enjoy her company while you can! You’re lucky to have her. At least she’s not nagging you about when are you going to make her a grandmother!! … Dear E.C., it’s 1968, man. Who are you to put your head trip on this young woman? Does she make fun of your love beads and your sandals? Just groove on the open communication. And if you think this is bad, wait till she stops shaving her legs! … Dear Father, exiling the young children from the dinner table is one solution. Then again, why don’t you get with it and start eating frozen dinners around the TV set like the rest of America? … Note to W.H. These still sound like secret messages to enemy agents.
Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection in the the Regional History Collection of USC Libraries
OK, who are they?
Above, an early column by Jack Smith. Click on the thumbnail for the entire story … Below, meat prices are going up by 3 cents to 21 cents a pound (22 cents to $1.53 USD 2007) … The U.S. will apparently increase military spending to fight unemployment–watch for more orders for B-52 bombers! … Vice President Nixon calls for a tax cut as a cure for the recession rather than increased government spending … And a bill is introduced in the Legislature to require a college prep curriculum. Under the proposal, every high school student would be required to take at least a year of science, math and English.
Above, The Times not only identified a woman who says she was the victim of an attack (notice how we tiptoe around the word "rape"), we even ran her picture. Even though I knew newspapers used to do identify rape victims, it’s quite another thing to actually see one of the stories in print. Aggie Underwood once complained of being sent out something like five weeks in a row to interview rape victims. Unfortunately, we never followed up on the story so there’s no further information. Below, a father is in jail on charges of whipping his daughter … Good grief, was there really a state commission for the protection of children and animals? … Austria descends into civil unrest, especially in Graz, the hometown of our future governor, with rioting and violence against Jews … On the jump, Florsheim shoes, as worn by Jake Gittes in "Chinatown."
Below, 100 masked night riders shoot and whip African Americans in Birmingham, Ky. … A man is arrested after a fight over a woman turns deadly … And there’s pandemonium in prices at Bukowski Square, courtesy of Overell’s. Continue reading
March 10, 1958
In the dark days of the Depression of the 1930s, Police Chief James E.
Davis deployed 40 L.A. policemen to the Arizona state line to turn back
the stream of jobless people heading for California.
The rumor spread a few days ago that again out-of-staters were flocking here.
This is to report that, on the contrary, there is no mass depression migration from the South.
However, there has been a sharp increase of transients entering
California–mostly at Indio–since Dec. 1 of last year–but to escape
the severe cold in the South.
During that month one railroad recorded more than 2,100 ejections from
freight trains in the Southern California area. That’s 90 a day,
compared to an average of 40 a day the year before. This is not
counting those who managed to escape the scrutiny of railroad guards by
jumping off freights in railroad yards.
The influx tapered off during January to approximately 70 a day on this railroad and to about 40 a day in February.
When apprehended, the men are asked to identify themselves and warned
that if caught again they will be arrested. Some pay their fare.
Ironically, a current gag among railroad men is that some freights
carry more passengers than passenger trains.
Incidentally, there’s no longer a wetback problem. The strong new fence along the Mexican border seems to be doing the job.
And there’s no such thing any more as riding the rods, that is, hiding
under a moving car. Transients now prefer freight cars or, in sunny
weather, open gondolas. One railroad man said the last time he pulled a
hobo from under a car was in 1950.
In fact, most of the freeloaders are friendly and cooperative, just footloose and down on their luck.
WHILE DRIVING in East L.A., Bart Antista, field agent for Pacific Telephone, was waved to the curb by a policeman in a patrol car.
Unaware he’d committed a violation, he was about to ask why when the officer inquired, "Where can I pay my phone bill?"
"You can pay me," Antista said. So the officer counted out the money, got his receipt and drove off.
Now all together–there’s a switch!
ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD — Bill Kiley heard a man in an elevator say to his companion, "Did you go to church last Sunday?"
"No," was the reply, "was it any good?"
AGE OF MIRACLES — Dora Albert, author of the recently published book, "You’re Better Than You Think," recently ordered a table refinished.
When the furniture man delivered it a few days ago and waited to
collect the $25 her mother said, "She isn’t here but I’ll show you
where she is." She turned on TV and there on the screen was Dora being
interviewed by Al Jarvis.
AT RANDOM — A
list of changes of address of B.F. Goodrich stores throughout the
country reveals that the store in Dodge City, Kan., has moved from 110
W. Chestnut St. to 110 W. Wyatt Earp Blvd. That Hugh O’Brian is
positively ubiquitous … Employees at an aircraft factory were given a
brochure to read which instructed them to "contact telephonically"
certain people. Doubtless written by a member of the
Never-Use-One-Word-When-Two-or-More-Will-Clutter-Up-the-Meaning Society
… While looking through the writers’ archives at Paramount studio
Elma Mixson came upon a number titled "Border Flight," released in May
1936 based on a story by Ewing Scott … The Let’s Have Better Mottoes
Association selection for March, reports Secretary E.V. Roberts, is
"I’ve Heard So Much About You–Now Let’s Hear Your Side of the Story."
March 10, 1958
He’s a character actor.
In movie circles his name is well known, and if I told it to you you’d probably say it sounded familiar.
But he’d prefer that I didn’t use it. He’s suffered enough embarrassment already.
I’ll tell you, though, that he’s married, with two children. And that
he’s regarded in the business as a very conscientious, mild and
honorable individual.
The only black mark on his record was registered 10 years ago, when he was booked on an assault charge which was later dropped.
But it was enough to get his picture pasted in a police "mug" book–a
volume fingered through almost daily by victims of various crimes.
And this was the cause of his recent trouble.
There was, not long ago, an attempted burglary of the Brentwood
residence of an elderly, prosperous businessman. It was a daylight job
and the businessman caught the burglar in the act. He chased the
suspect off his property and watched him get into a car and escape.
Then he called police.
He gave them a description of the vehicle and a partial license number.
They asked him to go down to the station and look through the mug books.
He did. And when he came to the photo of the actor, he stopped.
"That’s the man," he said.
The police went to work. They found similarities in the vehicle and in the license.
They visited the actor, questioned him and took him to the station. He
wanted to know what it was all about, but the officers weren’t in a
conversational mood.
They were in a booking mood. So they booked him: suspicion of burglary.
The actor says that he wasn’t allowed to place any phone calls for two
days. He was moved from one jail to another. Finally, after the third
day, he contacted his attorney.
He was released on $1,500 bail.
He learned the time and place of the crime he was accused of committing and he checked his appointment book.
It happened that at the time of the crime he was at a rather important interview with an important Hollywood executive.
He didn’t like the idea of having to reveal to the man that he was a
burglary suspect. But when you need an alibi, you need an alibi.
And besides, a Beverly Hills paper had already run the story that he was picked up and booked. Maybe the executive had read it.
As it turned out, the executive and various other persons in whose
company he had been that day willingly testified as to his whereabouts.
And the charge was dropped a few days later, even though, according to
the actor, the burglarized businessman still maintained that his
identification was correct.
When the actor told me his story, he was a very shaken man.
"People are still coming up to me and making cracks like, ‘Hey I hear you were mixed up in a burglary,’ " he said.
"Sometimes," he added, "they make their comments at very inopportune moments. It hasn’t helped me at all."
The man found it awfully hard to believe that a human being could be so badly wrong in making an eyewitness identification.
So I asked him if he’d ever heard the names of Vance Hardy or Clarence Boggie.
He said, "No. Why?"
I told him. In both of the well-known cases, positive identifications by eyewitnesses convicted the men on murder charges.
Boggie served 16 years in prison before it was proven that he wasn’t the right man.
Hardy was locked up for 27 years before his innocence was established.
I don’t know whether the man left my office feeling better or worse.
April 28, 1958
Los Angeles
As The Times noted in November 1957, NBC planned to introduce videotaped programs with the switch to daylight saving time.
Although the time switch didn’t occur until April 27 in 1958, we have already rolled the clocks ahead, so this seems to be a good time to focus on the technology that revolutionized television.
Arye Michael Bender (who worked under the name Leslie Michael Bender) worked at WBKB-TV in Chicago at a young age as mail room clerk, freelance publicity photographer and entrepreneur filmmaker. He attended Columbia College of Broadcasting while in high school in 1959. From 1960 to ’63, he worked his way through college as a staff director for WSIU-TV in Carbondale, Ill. He began working with videotape at ABC in Los Angeles in 1963. He shares his recollections of the early days:
Got into editing when a microscope was added to the razor blade and mylar tape system.
At first, at ABC Hollywood, it was the old radio engineers who practiced the "art" of editing. This was because they had been working with audio tape in the late days of network radio. Engineers tend to be better at dealing with mechanical things than they are people and the arts.
The first show to expand editing into an attempted art was "The Ernie Kovacs Show." He was a pioneer in using the developing techniques of television to illuminate comedy — in much the same way Buster Keaton did 40 years before.
The editing was very stilted because the engineers believed that you edited on pauses, rather than action. Sixty years of the motion picture art of editing had been thrown out the window.
I had just turned 21 when I was hired. I didn’t connect the dots, so never mentioned my forays in Chicago television. I got the job because I had worked as a paid staff director at my college television station in Southern Illinois.
They purchased the two videotape machines used for the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel, when the trial was over. My curiosity demanded that I learn all working TV positions, so I learned how to operate those pot metal and tube behemoths.
Since 20-year-old would-be directors from the sticks were a dime a dozen, but people who could operate a VTR were still rare, I got hired.
It was a strange and wonderful place.
At NBC in the era, they handled the aesthetics of tape editing with a unique approach.
They kinescoped the raw tape footage, then assigned the editing to a film editor.
Art Schneider was NBC’s top West Coast editor. He cut the 16-millimeter film in the traditional fashion, then an another engineer (I believe) was assigned the daunting and repetitive task of conforming the videotape with scissors and mylar.
Keep in mind that no image was on the tape itself, only vertical lines of electronic information. In order to see if the splices worked, the edited tape would have to be played back, one splice at a time, on those giant machines. Since the mylar splices would deteriorate quickly, only a very limited number of passes could be attempted.
Each time a master tape was physically handled to see image, damage was done. It was a very hair-raising process.
March 10, 1968
Dear Disenchanted … I’m going to take the high road here. I could say a lot of cynical, petty things by channeling Al Bundy, but that wouldn’t solve anything … OK, you can dump her and end up with someone else who has as many problems or you can try to address them with her. What’s important is not to keep trying to find someone who’s perfect (you never will) but to find someone who is willing to work on the challenges you’re going face. Good luck … Dear Just Wondering, I sense that you and your husband have communication issues. Until you resolve them, I suspect the Fire Department would be happier if he spent his weekends at some sports bar with his juvenile friends getting tanked and yelling at a big-screen TV. This is where you deliver the "Good for the goose, good for the gander" speech — And you might think about what I told Disenchanted … Dear Furious, It could be worse. You could be one of her patients.
Above, yes, it’s William Peter Blatty, author of "The Exorcist," writing about the Middle East. In fact, he was in the U.S. Foreign Service and stationed in Beirut … Below, attempts to control air pollution in California … Mamie Eisenhower visits her mother (this is Page 1 news?) … Republican senators want President Eisenhower to do more to address unemployment … And Ingrid Berman and Lars Schmidt plan a little getaway.
Above, two more movies that are not on Netflix … Below, Mayor Frank Shaw dismisses the recall campaign as the work of "New York vice lords" who are trying to take over the city … Please don’t pick the wildflowers … The widow of a gang victim pleads for vengeance … Creditors are trying to find the assets of a former police commissioner who has declared bankruptcy … Doctors are more optimistic that 12-year-old Ronald Wiotti, who hanged himself, may recover … And Communists have infiltrated the state prison system.
Below, a status report on construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct … Los Angeles Railway officials look into what was almost a disastrous crash between two streetcars … A 5-year-old girl is badly burned when embers set her clothes on fire in the Salt Lake Railroad yards … A former poolroom at 260 S. Main is taken over by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles … An attorney is badly beaten by an Arcadia bookmaker … On the jump, a rumormonger is spreading gossip that the Great White Fleet will only send a few ships to Los Angeles.
Above, a literary time capsule: Thomas B. Costain … James Jones … James Gould Cozzens … and Vance Packard. Below, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower calls for a huge spending program to end the U.S. recession. Eisenhower advocates civil works programs to improve the national park system and roads on Indian reservations; dams, flood control projects and other water programs; highway construction; and releasing money so Fannie Mae can buy up home mortgages.
Above, two movies you will not find on Netflix … The Harry Raymond bombing takes a crucial turn with the beginning of a campaign to recall Mayor Frank Shaw … A writ of habeas corpus is denied for Police Capt. Earle Kynette, which means he and two co-defendants must stay in jail … Male students at UCLA say they like kissing … A staging of "Romeo and Juliet" set in Japan … And a boy is expected to die after hanging himself. On the jump, a wife wins a separate maintenance decree after her husband shoots her in the head, leaving her partially paralyzed.
A woman nearly dies when she runs into a burning home at 1707 Brooklyn Ave. to retrieve $25 hidden under a mattress–another killer gasoline stove is to blame … Westminster Presbyterian Church (this time reported to be at Denker and 39th) is dedicated. It is the only African American Presbyterian Church west of the Rockies, The Times says … A driver blinded by a streetcar’s headlight crashes into another automobile at 9th Street and Grand … A comedy proves greatly entertaining–oh excuse me, I should have mentioned that it was in German. "Der Schlafwagen Controleur" … Water from recent storms has formed a stagnant pool several feet deep at 6th Street and Hill.
