Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Mack Sennett and Studio City’s Central Motion Picture District

Posted on August 30, 2021 by lmharnisch


Studio City CMPDistrict


Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Eighty-five years ago, the Mack Sennett Studio opened at 4024 N. Radford in Studio City. The studio functioned as a magnet in hopes of drawing other film production companies and studios to the surrounding land owned by Central Motion Picture District.

The Central Motion Picture District land syndicate was conceived by Harry Merrick, formerly president of the Chicago Assn. of Commerce, now a local real estate man. Merrick helped organize Chicago’s Central Manufacturing District and recognized that the wide-open space near the Los Angeles River in North Hollywood could function in a similar fashion for the movie industry.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – Vice Raid and Early TV in Hollywood’s Biggest Storehouse

Posted on August 24, 2021 by lmharnisch

Hollywood Storage, Courtesy Google Earth
The Hollywood Storage Building as seen in Google Earth.

Originally Los Angeles’ tallest building when opened in 1926, the Hollywood Storage Building at the southwest corner of Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard towered over the rapidly expanding film city. Today it ironically advertises entertainment programming with giant billboards on its edifice. The Hollywood Storage Building still serves as one of Hollywood’s premier storage locations, as beautiful as it is practical.

Los Angeles residents needed little to no extra storage space pre-1900, as few possessed many superfluous items. With the rise of department stores and the birth of credit, many began purchasing consumer products advertised in magazines or newspapers to keep up with their acquisitive neighbors. Most storage facilities began small, more for businesses to store records and documents, led by the Bekins family and their moving/storage business.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on August 23, 2021 by lmharnisch

Beyond the Rocks Poster

This week’s mystery movie was the 1922 film Beyond the Rocks, with Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Edythe Chapman, Alec B. Francis, Robert Bolder, Gertrude Astor, June Elvidge, Mabel Van Buren (which I’ve been reading as “Martin Van Buren” all week, though the movie isn’t THAT old), Helen Dunbar, etc.

Directed by Sam Wood, written by Jack Cunningham from the 1906 novel by Elinor Glyn.

Beyond the Rocks is available on DVD and via streaming. A video on the restoration of the film is on YouTube. Here’s the AFI entry on the film.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on August 16, 2021 by lmharnisch

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This week’s mystery movie was the 1944 Twentieth Century-Fox film Four Jills in a Jeep, with Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, Mitzi Mayfair, Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra, John Harvey and Phil Silvers. “Introducing Dick Haymes in his first motion picture.” Guest stars Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda and George Jessel.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Norvell, Astrologer to the Stars

Posted on August 16, 2021 by lmharnisch

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Norvell and Hedy Lamarr in Screenland.

Note: This is an encore post from 2015.

 

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines astrology as “the divination of the supposed influences of the stars and planets on human affairs and terrestrial events by their positions and aspects.” For thousands of years, practitioners of this pseudo-science have attracted legions of followers hoping to divine their futures. Those that more accurately predicted events rose to positions of great power and influence, like the renowned Nostradamus.

Astrologers have always been popular in the film and entertainment industries, fields where luck and timing often influences who will become big stars or successes. Many are superstitious, because their careers depend so much upon chance and their futures can be problematical. Many insecure or questioning performers often turned to these fortune tellers hoping to make the right decisions in shaping their careers or finding love and romance.

Mary Mallory’s “Hollywood land: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on August 9, 2021 by lmharnisch

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This week’s mystery movie was the 1952 MGM comedy Young Man With Ideas, with Glenn Ford, Ruth Roman, Denise Darcel, Nina Foch, Donna Corcoran, Ray Collins, Mary Wickes, Bobby Diamond, Sheldon Leonard, Dick Wessel, Carl Milletaire, Curtis Cooksey, Karl Davis, Faye Roope, John Call, Nadene Ashdown, Barry Rado/Norman Rado, Wilton Graff and Martha Wentworth.

Screenplay by Arthur Sheekman.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: How the Walk of Fame Was Born

Posted on August 9, 2021 by lmharnisch

Walk of Fame Groundbreaking

Gigi Perreau and Linda Darnell, center, at the groundbreaking for the Walk of Fame, with Francis X. Bushman and Charles Coburn, right, in an L.A. Times photo.

“Everyone needs a gimmick” goes a lyric in the musical “Gypsy,” and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce dreamed up a great one in the mid-1950s to attract business and tourists to the area. Tying in with the concept of Hollywood and fame, the group decided to fashion dream streets filled with flashy lights, colored sidewalks, and starry tributes to filmland celebrities, what we know now as the Walk of Fame. In August 1958, the first test stars were premiered to test the viability and look of the notion.

In the 1920s, Hollywood Boulevard stood as one of the most glamorous streets in the world, filled with upscale shops catering to celebrities and other cognoscenti. Posh restaurants and nightclubs lined the boulevard, which attracted thousands of people to watch the annual Santa Claus Lane parade. By the 1950s however, much shopping and retail had moved to suburbs and neighborhood centers, leaving Hollywood Boulevard a shell of its former success……

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‘Breakfast in Hollywood’ – Behind the Scenes

Posted on August 2, 2021 by lmharnisch

Breakfast in Hollywood

Mary Mallory sends along a promotional brochure from last week’s mystery movie Breakfast in Hollywood. Thanks, Mary!!

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Posted in 1946, Film, Hollywood, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on August 2, 2021 by lmharnisch

The Big Knife, Main Title

This week’s mystery movie was the 1955 film The Big Knife, with Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Ilka Chase, Everett Sloane, Wesley Addy, Paul Langton, Nick Dennis, Bill Walker and Mike Winkelman. And Miss Shelley Winters as Dixie Evans.

Adapted for the screen by James Poe. From the stage play by Clifford Odets.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – Brazil Touches Off Riot at 1932 L.A. Olympics

Posted on August 2, 2021 by lmharnisch

1932 Olympics

The Xth Olympiad hosted by Los Angeles from July 31 through August 14, 1932, overflowed with drama and intrigue in everything from finances to competition. None was as striking as the Brazilian team’s adventure in making it to California, using coffee as its payment. Although all countries suffered financial setbacks due to the Great Depression, none dreamed up as creative a scheme to fund their trip.

It was a miracle the Games even made it to Los Angeles, as many of Europe’s reigning sports elites viewed the city as a sleazy frontier outpost. Real estate man Billy Garland spent 12 years lobbying and winning the rights to the 1932 Olympics for Los Angeles, unsure of how to garner public support or financing for the Games in the city. Once the stock market bottomed out in 1929, global financial doldrums led to the possibility of few teams participating or sending fans while ticket sales plummeted.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 26, 2021 by lmharnisch

July 31, 2021, Breakfast in Hollywood, Main Title

This week’s mystery movie was the 1946 film Breakfast in Hollywood, with Tom Breneman, Bonita Granville, Ray Walburn, Beulah Bondi, Billie Burke, Edward Ryan, Zasu Pitts, Hedda Hopper, Andy Russell,  Spike Jones and His City Slickers and the King Cole Trio.

Original story and screenplay by Earl Baldwin.

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Mary Mallory: Hollywood Heights – Hollywood Country Club

Posted on July 26, 2021 by lmharnisch

Feb. 6, 1921, Hollywood Country Club

Note: This is an encore post from 2012.

With the name Hollywood Country Club, one would assume that a golfing club so named would be located in the actual city or hills of Hollywood, California. While a club by that name was twice attempted to be organized, it failed to materialize. In the late teens a group formed to build a new Hollywood Country Club, this time in the hills between Ventura Boulevard and what would become Mulholland Drive, in what is now Studio City, California.

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Saluting Marilyn Thomas — Miss Muscle Beach 1953

Posted on July 19, 2021 by lmharnisch

Marilyn Thomas
Marilyn Thomas in an undated photo on Muscle Beach.

In 2005, I did a blog post for the 1947project on Miss Muscle Beach of 1947. Back then, only the Los Angeles Times was online, so when I listed the winners, I couldn’t verify who took the title of Miss Muscle Beach 1953. I said: “Not recorded, possibly Marilyn Thomas.”

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 19, 2021 by lmharnisch

July 24, 2021, Mystery Photo

This week’s mystery movie was the 1943 RKO Picture Gildersleeve’s Bad Day, with Harold Peary, Jane Darwell, Nancy Gates, Charles Arnt, Freddie Mercer, Russell Wade, Lillian Randolph, Frank Jenks, Douglas Fowley, Alan Carney, Grant Withers and Richard LeGrand.

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – Sweets for the Jazz Age at Paulais

Posted on July 19, 2021 by lmharnisch

Paulais 1925
The exterior of Paulais at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, c. 1925. Courtesy of the University of Southern California Libraries and the California Historical Society.

The 1920s Jazz Age brought high-spirited verve, flamboyance and progressivism in reaction to the haunting death and destruction of World War I. Blending eclectic cultural elements, eye-catching colors, and lavish ornamentation, design of virtually every type reflected the more optimistic and exuberant period.

Dessert shops and cafes combined lavish decoration and sweet treats, appealing to all the senses. Why just buy treats when one could enjoy luxurious and upscale furnishings suggesting plentiful times for everyone? Henry G. Mosler and Saul Magnus’ Hollywood branch of their Paulais Cafe did just that, reflecting the jazz-mad time in its lush and stylish interiors. Two years before the opening of the Pig’N Whistle on Hollywood Boulevard, Paulais brought high-end elegance to dessert just east of the Egyptian Theatre.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 12, 2021 by lmharnisch

The Leopard Man Main Title
This week’s mystery movie was the 1943 RKO picture The Leopard Man, with Dennis O’Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, James Bell, Margaret Landry, Abner Biberman, Tula Parma and Ben Bard.

Music by Roy Webb. Musical direction by C. Bakaleinikoff. Photography by Robert de Grasse. Art direction by Albert S. D’Agostino and Walter E. Keller. Set decorations by Darrell Silvera and Al Fields…

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Posted in 1943, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 47 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Saving a Historic Hollywood Home, Thanks to Alice Harrod

Posted on July 12, 2021 by lmharnisch

Mission Revival House at 6831 De Longpre Avenue
The home at 6831 De Longpre Ave., via Google Street View, as shown in 2014.

Historic buildings tell as much about people and their eras as they do about architecture and usage. Preserving the actual structure celebrates the past and honors those who inhabited or worked in the building. Historic preservation can entail restoring and preserving in place, maintaining its original use or adapting it for new purposes, or by moving a structure.  Alice A. Harrod preserved what is now 6831 De Longpre Ave. by moving it a few blocks from its original Highland Avenue address, keeping its story alive.

Born March 18, 1858, as Alice Dixon, Harrod grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, with her family, loyal to her church and community. In 1877, she married fellow Waterloo resident Shelton R. Harrod and gave birth to three daughters. Along the way she became a nurse, serving homebound patients. Shelton Harrod raised and purchased horses as well as property, serving one term as tax assessor for their city. He died of cancer in 1893 in Illinois.

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 5, 2021 by lmharnisch

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This week’s mystery movie was the 1943 MGM short “Inflation,” with Edward Arnold, Horace (Stephen) McNally, Esther Williams and Vicky Lane.

Original story by E. Maurice Adler and Julian Harmon. Screenplay by Gene Piller and Michael Simmons.

Photography by Henry Sharp, musical score by Max Terr and David Raksin.

Art direction by Richard Duce, edited by Adrienne Fazan.

Directed by Cyril Endfield.

“Inflation” is not commercially available. It airs on TCM every so often.

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Posted in 1943, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Emma Lazarus’ ‘The New Colossus’ Calls to All Immigrants

Posted on July 5, 2021 by lmharnisch

Jan. 19, 1884, Harper's Weekly
Construction of the Statue of Liberty, artwork by John Durkin, Harper’s Weekly, Jan. 19, 1884.

Note: This is an encore post from 2018.

Written in 1883 to help raise money for building the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty would stand, Emma Lazarus’ 14-line poem “The New Colossus” would take on a life of its own: becoming enshrined on the statue as a memorial to the poet and as a statement of welcome to those seeking refuge in our country. As we approach Independence Day, the meaning behind its words rings even clearer today.

Born July 22, 1849, in New York City as the fourth of seven children to wealthy merchant Moses Lazarus, Emma received a strong private education, learning to speak at least four languages and becoming an excellent writer, especially in poetry. Ralph Waldo Emerson mentored her. She translated works of literature as well as setting down her own odes, many based on romantic literature and others on troubling historic events regarding her fellow Jews, receiving much praise upon their publication. She also worked to alleviate the suffering of women and the poor.

Mary Mallory’s “Living With Grace” is now on sale.

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Black Dahlia: ‘Bosch’ Author Michael Connelly Says Dahlia Case Is Unsolved

Posted on July 1, 2021 by lmharnisch

Michael Connelly: Black Dahlia Still Unsolved

Former L.A. Times reporter and Valley Edition colleague Michael Connelly, author of the “Bosch” novels and TV series, among many other achievements, talks to Tai Freligh of the Wonderland Murders podcast. Mike ends with the kicker that he considers the Black Dahlia case unsolved. Which is remarkable since Steve Hodel likes to brag that Mike endorses his claims that his father, Dr. George Hodel, killed the Black Dahlia.

I wonder if Steve Hodel will have to recalibrate.

March 7, 2019, LAPD statement on allegations that George Hodel killed the Black Dahlia

Mike’s offhand remark follows the LAPD’s response to the “Today” show in 2019 about allegations in the TV series “I Am the Night” and podcast “Root of Evil” that Dr. George Hodel killed Elizabeth Short.

 

Posted in 1947, 2021, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Black Dahlia: ‘Bosch’ Author Michael Connelly Says Dahlia Case Is Unsolved