Historians’ Clearinghouse

Posted on October 28, 2006 by lmharnisch

Fast forward to the future for a moment and plan to attend what sounds like a wonderful event for researchers: A bazaar in which many local archivists will be available at the Huntington to discuss their collections and set up appointments on the spot.

As anyone who has researched local history can tell you, material on the city’s past is scattered all over the Los Angeles Basin—would you believe that the documents and photos on the early days of USC’s Medical School are at UCLA?

The Los Angeles Archives Bazaar (they’re calling it the “First Annual,” but I won’t hold that against them) will be held at the Huntington Library on Saturday Nov. 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More than 30 archives will be represented, including:

  • Autry National Center

  • Beverly Hills Police Department

  • Beverly Hills Public Library

  • Bison Archives (that’s a new one on me)

  • Cal State Northridge

  • Center for the Study of Political Graphics

  • Delmar Watson Photo Archives—run by one of the Watson brothers, who is a walking encyclopedia of Los Angeles history.

  • Eighth and Wall Inc. (another new one on me).

  • Historical Society of Long Beach

  • L.A. as Subject Online Directory

  • Los Angeles City Archives

  • Los Angeles Public Library

  • Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

  • Marymount High School and Good Samaritan Hospital

  • Mayme Clayton Library, Museum and Cultural Center

  • Occidental College Library

  • ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives

  • Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

  • Santa Monica Public Library

  • Shelley Gazin (another new one on me).

  • Society of Southern California Archivists

  • Southern California Library

  • Special Collections of the Claremont Colleges

  • St. Vincent Medical Center Historical Conservancy

  • UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

  • UCLA Special Collections

  • USC Specialized Libraries

  • Wally G. Shidler Collection of Southern California Ephemera (yet another new one on me)

Admission is free and no registration is required. The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens is at Allen and Orlando in San Marino.

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On the Comics Page

Posted on October 27, 2006 by lmharnisch


Oct. 27, 1907
Los Angeles

Along with “Little Nemo,” “Buster Brown” was a popular feature of the Sunday comics. Like other cartoons of the era, such as “The Katzenjammer Kids” and “Foxy Grandpa,” that were full of naughty children, Buster Brown was fond of pulling pranks on adults.

Unlike Hans and Fritz, who usually ended up getting a good paddling and threats of being sent to reform school, Buster Brown usually learned his lesson the hard way and in the final panel always promised to mend his ways in a long block of text titled “RESOLVED.”


One bit of Buster Brown’s wisdom has stayed with me since I read it as a kid in an anthology on the history of comics: “If the carpet were as worn in front of the bookcase as it is in front of the mirror it would be a better world.”



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The Deadly Inferno

Posted on October 26, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 26, 1907
Los Angeles

Two women in the West Adams District were badly burned and expected to die after a bowl of gasoline they were using to clean a soiled dress exploded, engulfing their apartment at 42 St. James Park in flames.

Mrs. James P. Burns (identified helpfully by The Times as the wife of James P. Burns) and maid Catherine Blake had spread a dress across a table and wrapped their hands with rags soaked in gasoline to clean it. Because the electric lights weren’t bright enough, Burns told Blake to light several candles. The candles ignited the bowl of gas, which in turn set off a nearby tank of gasoline.

With her clothes on fire, Blake ran to the rear porch of the second-story apartment and jumped to the ground while Burns fled to a hallway. The building manager ran to the second floor upon hearing the explosion and wrapped Burns in a rug to extinguish the flames.

“Nearly all of her hair had been burned off and only a few charred garments remained about her badly burned body,” The Times said of Burns. “Examination by surgeons disclosed a pitiable condition. They expressed little hope of her recovery.”

In the meantime, neighbors got a blanket and rolled Blake on the grass to put out the fire. “Miss Blake was burned about the face, breast, arms and legs,” The Times said. “In some places the flesh fell away. She fainted several times before reaching the hospital.”

Bad streets hampered the Fire Department’s response to the blaze. The Lawrence Apartments, where the blaze occurred, suffered $10,000 ($205,235.70 USD 2005) in damage while the adjoining Mayfair Apartments suffered $3,000 damage, mostly from water.

Burns died the next day, having been put under anesthetic to allay her pain. There was no further word on Blake.

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Adieu to the Boys of Summer

Posted on October 25, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 25, 1907
Los Angeles


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On the Frontiers of Medicine

Posted on October 24, 2006 by lmharnisch


Oct. 24, 1907
Los Angeles

Upon the suicide in February of Dr. H. Russell Burner, advocate of the “radium milk” cure, his sanitarium at 2033 E. 4th St. was taken over by Dr. F. S. Kurpiers, who is now in trouble with the Health Department.


Kurpiers didn’t have a medical license, so he obtained the certificate of Dr. C.H. King, a dying physician who wept as he told authorities that the only way he could support a few relatives was to rent out his license.


Rather than a “radium milk” cure, Kurpiers suggested that patients follow their instincts in when to eat—preferably never. Rachel Golder, a nurse at the sanitarium, quit because she never got to eat and relatives charged that one patient had become a bag of skin and bones under Kurpiers’ care.

Kurpiers explained his philosophy this way: “Only instinct knows what’s best for you. A child’s antipathy to bitter medicines is the unavailing protest of nature against science. When a learnedly-foolish mother gags the baby and pours deadly stuff down, then science rubs its fleshless claws, chuckles with ghoulish glee and glides away to line the coffin with divine dispensation.

“Baby always knows.”

The Board of Health suspended the sanitarium’s license, but it’s unclear what became of Kurpiers.

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Great Moments in Police Work

Posted on October 22, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 22, 1907
Los Angeles

A trolley conductor at 4th Street and Hill complained to a patrolman that one of the passengers looked like a holdup man. The officer investigated and laughed when the man produced a deputy’s badge and claimed that he was Mayor Harper’s son, Oscar.

The skeptical police officer took the alleged deputy to the central station, where the officer, identified only as “No. 303,” discovered that the young man was indeed the mayor’s son.

No. 303 apologized, exclaiming: “But I thought real deputy sheriff’s stars had numbers on them!”

Bonus fact: Some historic Los Angeles County deputies’ badges had numbers and some didn’t.

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Toward a Better Los Angeles

Posted on October 21, 2006 by lmharnisch


Oct. 21, 1907
Los Angeles

There’s no shortage of opinions on how to improve the quality of life in Los Angeles. Most people advocate better roads—paved roads that connect the city with Pasadena and the beach. Others suggest more schools, hospitals, better jail facilities, enforcement of blue laws and closing the saloons.

And then there’s Dr. E.O. Sawyer—who wants to kill all the cats in town. Look at it this way, Sawyer says, any good cat loves to hunt rats and mice (no argument there). Of course what happens is that the cats feast on these diseased rodents and then come home to be babied by families laboring under the misguided notion that they somehow “own” the cats.

“Stray dogs in this city are caught and killed,” Sawyer says, “because of the belief that dogs sometimes have hydrophobia. But cats are let alone and they are so thick in some sections that you can see them on every vacant lot. Every one of them may have been feasting on diseased rats.”

The Board of Supervisors fired Sawyer as public health officer in 1915, and Southland felines napped just a bit easier.

Shout out to Evil, you are in safe hands!

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October 20, 1907: The Imp

Posted on October 20, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 20, 1907
Los Angeles

Winsor McCay and his cartoons never completely go out of fashion and are periodically rediscovered—as in the current Taschen anthology. He was a fabulous artist and his Sunday panels remain a marvel of fantasy and rebellion against the tyranny of pigeonhole boxes. Living as we do in the era of legacy comics (Charles Schulz has been dead since 2000); bland, humorless writing; weak drawing; and panels shrunk to the size of postage stamps, it’s easy to think that comics aficionados 100 years ago were fortunate to get strips that ran a full page.

And then there’s Imp. Continue reading →

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An American Education

Posted on October 19, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 19, 1907
Los Angeles

On a visit to Japan, K. Tsuneda of California met an attractive young woman named Toku. Telling her family that he was a wealthy Stanford student, Tsuneda married Toku and they embarked for the United States so his new wife could get an American education.

Her education began the moment they arrived in San Francisco: Tsuneda revealed that he was neither wealthy, nor a Stanford student. In fact, they both had to go to work. They moved from Berkeley to Redlands, where they separated. After reuniting briefly in Los Angeles, Tsuneda vanished, Toku said in seeking a divorce.

In court, Toku told Judge Charles Monroe that her father wouldn’t let her return to Japan until she got a divorce. Monroe rejected her claim of desertion and took her claim of failure to provide under advisement.

The Times never followed up on what it called the first Japanese divorce tried in Los Angeles, so it’s unclear what became of Toku.



Judge Charles Monroe, who presided over Divorce Court for many years, and his wife, Ella, were married in 1880 in Kansas. At that time, the state did not require a marriage license.

As Quakers, they were required to stand up at a meeting one month before the intended wedding, hold hands and state their intentions to marry. “It they passed without objections being presented, then the principals themselves read their own service and the ceremony was duly sanctioned by a wedding certificate signed by all the witnesses present,” The Times said.

Monroe was appointed to the Superior Court in 1905 and retired in 1927, at that time, the longest service of any judge in the state. He died in 1937 at the age of 88.

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An Artist Makes His Point

Posted on October 18, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 18, 1907
Los Angeles

For the last month, the pages of The Times have been peppered with pen-and-ink cartoons signed Gale—in fact some of them have already appeared in the blog, with Nathan’s post on Japanese hobos and mine on Marco Vessella. But that was only the beginning. By the end of the month, Gale’s cartoons have become a regular feature of The Times, usually paired with text by Harry Carr. Gale specializes in ethnic caricatures: Chinamen with long queues, bucktoothed Japanese, Mexicans with sombreros—and don’t even ask how he draws African Americans.

His name was Edmund Waller Gale, but he was known as Ted or “Cartoonist Gale” and he was an institution at The Times, drawing editorial cartoons for decades, on an irregular basis before they became a daily feature in 1922.

“I am not an artist,” he said in 1933.”I never thought I was and never tried to be one. The first work I ever did was cartooning and in this work it is the idea, not the drawing, that counts. Once I get my idea, my day’s work is practically done, for I put it on paper as fast as I can. I often spend six or eight hours figuring out my subject and one hour doing the drawing. I don’t think the actually task of transferring an idea to paper ever took me more than three hours.”

One of Gale’s more enduring creations was “Miss Los Angeles,” an attractive young Latina that provoked a great deal of criticism at one time, mostly for his inattention to detail.

“Funny how fussy people are about drawing, even in cartoons,” he said. “I really didn’t go through any brainstorms when I created Miss Los Angeles. I just dashed off a girl of a Spanish type to typify this part of the country and imagine my discomfiture when her appearance was greeted with a shower of sarcastic letters, informing me that no Spanish lady wore a bullfighter’s vest and a bolero and that the high comb was entirely wrong and the lady was just the same as nude unless I added a mantilla.” I’ll leave it to another historian to trace the history of Miss Los Angeles from Anglo to Latina. Here’s one version from 1929.

A left-handed Santa Claus (he claimed he didn’t even notice) and flags with the wrong number of stars and stripes were also Gale’s bugaboos. “Thousands of people seem to have nothing to do but count the stars and stripes and their ideas of what constitutes an insult to the colors is simply beyond belief,” he said.

Of his first cartoons, he said: “Times have changed a lot since those early days and the style of cartoons has altered too. Nowadays public opinion is molded rather than led and there is little or none of the vicious element that was deemed essential in the cartoons of former years.”

Gale quit The Times in 1934 in a disagreement over its editorial policies and went to the competing Examiner. He died in 1975.

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Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Posted on October 17, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 17, 1907
Los Angeles

Mr. Woolin, left tackle of the USC team, took great exception to be tackled by one of the black players on the Whittier State team (one of Whittier’s five black players) and voiced his displeasure, emphasizing his point with his fist.

Whittier’s coach, Mr. McLouth, rushed to intervene, whereupon Mr. Woolin further expressed his disdain by striking him in the face. Coach McLouth responded in kind. Peace was eventually restored until Whittier’s water boy came onto the field and retaliated against Mr. Woolin, and had the Whittier team not retreated from the field, the unpleasantness might have continued.

As the score was 37-0 in favor of USC and the visiting Whittier team needed to catch the streetcar home, the game was halted 15 minutes into the second half.


Here’s to Brice Union Taylor, who in 1925 became USC’s first All-American player. He was later a pastor at First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. By the way, he only had one hand.



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A Man Ray Jigsaw Puzzle

Posted on October 16, 2006 by lmharnisch


The Detroit News has published an article on book dealer John K. King, who is offering “Man Ray: Photographs 1920-1934 Paris” inscribed by Man Ray to Dr. George Hodel. The book sold Sept. 14, 2006, for $4,600 in an auction by PBA Galleries.

King is offering it for $8,500. Not a bad profit. Of course it would be worth even more if Man Ray had said something incriminating like, “In fond memory of our murderous little rampage across Los Angeles, you evil genius, you.”

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Solve this as a jigsaw puzzle. (Note: The link is broken)

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Matrimonial Accounting

Posted on October 16, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 16, 1907
Santa Ana

George S. Best is a great believer in marriage and strongly opposes divorce, which is why he has three of one and none of the other.

His most recent troubles began when his wife Anita discovered that he had married young Cecile Fleming, the daughter of a prominent local businessman. Upon investigation, Anita Best of Los Angeles and Charles Fleming of Santa Ana discovered that Best had married Cecile in back of the county clerk’s office. After returning to Los Angeles long enough to get his belongings, avoiding his mother and his wife Anita, Best and Cecile left for San Francisco, where he was arrested for bigamy.

When Best went before the judge, he explained it this way: His wedding to Anita Best was actually invalid because he already had a wife, Bertha, whom he married in 1900. Bertha had died since then, Best said, so his marriage to Cecile was, at least in his mind, legal.

“My intentions were honorable, your honor,” Best said.

Bertha, however, was found to be quite alive and presumably well-rid of her husband, who was sentenced to a $1 fine and 10 years at San Quentin.

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Test Posting

Posted on October 15, 2006 by lmharnisch

Here’s a little game. Let’s see if it works.

Here’s another one.

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Fire Threatens Orpheum

Posted on October 15, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 15, 1907
Los Angeles

On a rainy night in Los Angeles, a fire broke out in the four-story brick office building at 235 S. Spring St. housing the Orpheum Theater and the Elks Hall, which was engulfed in panic as visitors at a Japanese festival rushed for the exits. The second-floor hallways were so jammed that members of the Elks Club rushed to the rear of the building to use the fire escapes.

At Orpheum, on the floor above the Elks Club, veteran actress Minnie Seligman calmly made the smoke and the sound of fire engines part of her skit. Rushing offstage for a moment, she returned covered with soot and announced: “Oh the gasoline stove exploded. It will break up housekeeping for good!”

The audience was dismissed and except for a few people in the rear who called “fire!” theatergoers remained calm. After leaving the building, they stood across the street in a light rain to watch.

The Times noted that the toll could have been much worse. “Had the firemen allowed the flames to get through the ceiling of the [first-floor] store and get a hold in Elks Hall they would have swept along the second floor, cutting off the exit of the Orpheum gallery and might have made their way through that gallery.”

Assistant Fire Chief O’Donnell cut his hands and knees crawling into the jewelry store below the Elks Club, where the fire apparently started in the faulty wiring of an electric motor. He continued to fight the fire and only later was treated at the Receiving Hospital.

Two engine companies rushing to the fire also suffered accidents. One of the horses pulling an engine slipped while turning from 1st Street onto Spring and was dragged for some distance, nearly overturning the fire engine. Another horse pulling an engine was badly cut when it fell on the slippery pavement at 3rd Street and Spring.

The jewelry store, an optical shop and a clothing store reported significant smoke damage and a cafe in the basement suffered water damage.

Bonus facts: First Orpheum Theater–Main and 1st Street.
Second Orpheum Theater–229-235 S. Spring St. Renamed the Lyceum, demolished in 1941.
Third Orpheum Theater–630-636 S. Broadway. Renamed the Palace.
Fourth Orpheum Theater–842-844 S. Broadway.



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Nine out of Ten

Posted on October 14, 2006 by lmharnisch


Oct. 14, 1907
Los Angeles

“In nine cases out of ten, where there is a shooting, there is also a woman,” said The Times.

In this case, there was Oscar E. Otto, a young chauffeur with a hot temper and a gun. There was his 19-year-old wife, the former Irene E. Jester, “a silly little creature with futile tears and French heels.” And there was J.C. Henderson, another chauffeur with a gun and better aim or more luck.

Untangling the story of this fatal triangle—at least it was a triangle in the mind of Mr. Otto if no one else—is difficult, in part because of the charges and countercharges and partly because the presses weren’t properly inked and much of the text is faint.

But a few things seem clear: In May, about the time of the Ottos’ first anniversary, Henderson was hired to take a man and two women from the Saxonia apartments to Fred Ward’s roadhouse on Mission Road, otherwise known as the East Side Athletic Club.

“Both women were introduced to him as single women and it was not until their return to the city, when one of the women refused to ride down Pico Street, that Henderson suspected she was married,” The Times said.

The next day, Henderson said, he received a phone call from Mrs. Otto, asking to meet him on Main Street. He said he barely recognized her because her face was swollen from a vicious beating. She asked him for $10 ($205.24 USD 2005), explaining that after her husband beat her, he ripped up her clothes and threw her out of the house.

Sometime later, she barged into Henderson’s hotel room and darted into a closet, claiming that her husband was out to kill her. Mr. Otto, although he was a smaller man, followed and beat Henderson viciously.

Of course, Mr. Otto had a different story. He sued Henderson for alienation of affection in August, charging that his wife and Henderson had gone for many long drives, and visited resorts and cafes, where his wife “drank intoxicating liquors to excess,” The Times said.

Since then, witnesses at the murder trial said, Otto had talked constantly of revenge. On the night of the killing, a friend said, the two of them had gone for a drive to East 9th Street and Tennessee, where Otto said he had an appointment with a man.

Finding Henderson (at right) at the garage at 9th and Tennessee, Otto said: “There’s the _______,” according to The Times. Although it was too dark to see much, the friend said, he noticed a man backing away from Otto, who cried out: “I am shot!” Otto ran back to the car, drove almost two blocks and collapsed, saying, “Get a doctor.”

Henderson testified that he had been driving down Broadway when Otto jumped on the running board and threatened to kill him before jumping off at 9th Street. Henderson said he took his car to the garage on Tennessee Street and spent about 15 minutes putting it away when Otto arrived.

As Otto jumped out of his car, Henderson said, he saw a flash of light and was sure that Otto had fired at him. He was afraid to run because Otto might shoot him in the back, so Henderson stood with his hand on the pistol in his pocket until Otto got close.

“He called out as he came near and as I kept backing away, ‘Pull it out, you _______. That’s just what I want. Pull it out,’ ” Henderson said.

“I backed as far as I could, and then, as he reached out his left hand and struck me on the face, I fired. I did not dare to take my hand away from my gun as I thought it was his intention to provoke me into doing so and that then he would shoot me.”

“I did not think that I had hit him and it was not until he had run back to within 15 feet of his auto that I heard him say, ‘I’m shot.’ Still, I thought he had only been hit slightly. I did not fire but once as I was satisfied when I saw him retreat.”

The jury in Henderson’s murder trial returned a verdict in two minutes: Not guilty.

And in an intriguing but unexplained footnote to the story, shortly before he died, Otto asked to see Miss Jossie Golman. She said he was nothing to her but a friend and refused to go.

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2 Die in Tong War

Posted on October 13, 2006 by lmharnisch


Oct. 13, 1907
Los Angeles

Gunmen imported from out of town by the Hop Sing Tong entered the tailor shop of Lem Sing at 806 Juan St. in Chinatown and under the pretense of having some clothing made, wounded him when he turned to reach for some material. The men also killed Wong Goon Kor, who was, according to The Times, “lying in a bunk under the influence of opium.”

The three fleeing men threw away their revolvers as they ran down Marchesault Street, through Stab in the Back Alley to Apablasa Street, where they got into a vegetable wagon that took them away.

But apparently unfamiliar with Chinatown, the gunmen went into the wrong business, mistaking it for the shop at 802 Juan St. run by Joe Fong.

At the hospital, Sing told police: “I owe Chan Mon money. He asked me for it today. Then he sent Deputy Constable McCullock to collect it. I could not pay. Then three Hop Sing Tong men came to my store and asked for clothes. When I turned around, they shot me and my tailor. I fell upon the floor and remember no more until I was brought in here.

“One of the men was about 20 years old, had no queue and was about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and wore American clothes. The second man was about 30 years old and had chin whiskers, and the third man was about 43 years old and wore a queue. He did the shooting.”

Gravely wounded, Sing died the next day after identifying three men as the assailants, although his statement was questioned because he had previously identified three different men.

 A few days later, an arraignment was held for Charley Wing of Portland, Ore., a man of mixed ancestry described by The Times as “a man of good education, speaks English fluently and is a power among the yellow men. His hair is brown, his mustache light brown and there is but little appearance of the Oriental in his makeup. In court yesterday, he looked more like some student of theology than like a murderous highbinder.”

Charges were also filed against Charley Sam Foo Ling, known as “the Bakersfield Kid,” and Wong Chung.

The Times noted: “Chinese tong men yesterday buried the dead tong gladiators. From the Pierce Brothers’ morgue, a dismal procession wended its way to the Chinese Cemetery in Boyle Heights. There, the Chinese were interred, money being thrown into the caskets, together with food and paper prayers to see them safe on their journey to heaven.

“On top of the grave, other food was placed to attract the attention of evil spirits lingering near. The chief dish was a fine roast chicken. As soon as the Chinese left the cemetery, evil spirits in the form of barefooted Negro youngsters swarmed down upon the grave and carried off the roast fowl as a prize.”

Historic details like that are certainly vivid, and it’s nice to have them, but they make me wince at the same time.

Unfortunately, there is no further information on the three defendants in the tong killing.

Bonus fact: Apablasa Street was named for the owner of the rancho where the original Chinatown (now the site of Union Station) was built.

Read the Marsakster’s posts on the tong war here and here and here.

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A Foul Wind Blows Over Boyle Heights

Posted on October 12, 2006 by lmharnisch

A Foul Wind Blows Over Boyle Heights

Oct. 12, 1907
Los Angeles

After repeated complaints to police because half a dozen dead dogs had laid in the streets for two weeks,  the health department tried to charge C.T. Hanson, who held the contract for removing carcasses. But according to the city attorney,  Hanson was only guilty of not abiding by his contract and nothing more.

In fact, Hanson had tried to get out his contract, claiming that he was losing money, but the city refused. “The opinion expressed at the City Hall is that Hanson has grown lax in the collection of carcasses, thinking that he may be able to force the city to more favorable terms,” The Times said.

Hanson also operated a fertilizer company plant in Boyle Heights, drawing the fury of neighbors. He apparently used the issue of not removing dead animals as a bargaining chip in deflecting attempts to close his fertilizer plant.

“I don’t blame those Boyle Heights people for kicking,” Mayor Harper said after visiting the plant. “The stench from that so-called factory is awful. I wouldn’t live on Boyle Heights to the windward of that plant if they would give me the whole hill.”

Unfortunately, no further information is available. Removal of dead animals is now handled by the Bureau of Sanitation.

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Death of a Millionaire

Posted on October 11, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oct. 11,1907
Los Angeles

Perhaps John Bryson’s early life was something out of Horatio Alger, but the death of the Los Angeles developer and self-made millionaire could have easily been taken from the pages of Charles Dickens.

Born in Lancaster, Pa., in 1819 and one of 13 children, Bryson served an apprenticeship as a carpenter and cabinetmaker. Lured by the opportunities of the West, Bryson and his wife, Emeline, moved to Ohio in 1845. From there, the couple moved to Muscatine, Iowa, and then to Los Angeles.

Arriving about 1879, Bryson used his knowledge of construction and the lumber industry to begin as a developer. One of his main projects was the Bryson Block on the northwest corner of Spring and 2nd Streets, a site now occupied by the Los Angeles Times. Active in local affairs, he was elected mayor in 1888 and served one term.


But by 1907, his life had unraveled. Aged and ill, he had separated from his wife and was almost constantly in the company of his longtime nurse, Gladys Lamberton. At odds with his family, Bryson fought constant legal battles with his wife and children, who were seeking to declare him mentally incompetent and under Lamberton’s control so they could obtain control of his vast financial holdings.

Granting an interview to reporters from his bed at the Hotel Alexandria, Bryson answered when asked about Lamberton’s purported influence over him:

“Why, what on earth do you think I am?” Then, bending forward and shaking a bony finger at the reporter, he said: “I paid her for what work she did and for things she purchased for me and not one cent more. To tell the truth, I lived cheaper with her than I did before I left my wife. It used to cost me at the least estimate $1,000 ($20,523.57 USD 2005) a month to run the house before my separation from my wife, and afterward less than $400 a month covered my expenses.

“Hell, man, this thing makes me mad. Here I have lived in this city for over 25 years and have been spoken of as having the usual amount of common sense. The people of Los Angeles elected me mayor. I have amassed a comfortable competence in this city and then someone says that a woman makes me follow her about like a dog and that I take orders from her, and, in short, that I am crazy and a fool. Well they will find out that I am not. I made my money and I am going to keep it to the end.”



I don’t claim to be intimately familiar with Alger’s works, but I doubt his heroes talk this way.

Sadly, the fighting between the nurse and the family continued after Bryson’s death. He was hurriedly buried in a secret ceremony at Rosedale Cemetery.

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Posted in 1907, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, LAPD, Streetcars | Comments Off on Death of a Millionaire

The Want Ads

Posted on October 10, 2006 by lmharnisch

Posted in Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, LAPD, Streetcars | Comments Off on The Want Ads