Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 29, 2019 by lmharnisch

Green Fire

This week’s mystery movie was the 1954 MGM picture “Green Fire,” with Stewart Granger, Grace Kelly, Paul Douglas, John Ericson, Murvyn Vye and Jose Torvay.

Written for the screen by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Music by Miklos Rozsa. Photographed in Eastman Color, photographed by Paul Vogel, art direction by Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm Brown, edited by Harold F. Kress, color consultant Alvord Eiseman, assistant director Joel Freeman, lyrics for theme song “Green Fire” by Jack Brooks, recording supervisor Wesley C. Miller, set decorations by Edwin B. Wilis and Ralph Hurst, special effects by A. Arnold Gillespie and Warren Newcombe, Grace Kelly’s costumes by Helen Rose, hairstyles by Sydney Guilaroff, makeup by William Tuttle. Produced by Armand Deutsch. Directed by Andrew Marton.

“Green Fire” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

Mary Mallory also has a book on Grace Kelly, “Living With Grace.”

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 22, 2019 by lmharnisch

July 27, 2019, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie was the 1936 MGM picture “Tough Guy,” with Jackie Cooper, Joseph Calleia, Rin Tin Tin Jr., Harvey Stephens, Jean Hersholt, Edward Pawley, Mischa Auer and Robert Warwick. Original story and screenplay by Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf. Musical score by Dr. William Axt, recording director Douglas Shearer, art direction by Cedric Gibbons, associates Paul Crawley and Edwin B. Willis, photographed by Leonard Smith, edited by James E. Newcom.

Produced by Harry Rapf. Directed by Chester M. Franklin.

“Tough Guy” is available on DVD from Warner Archive, but TCM has a slightly better price.

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Posted in 1936, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 45 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – The Hollywood American Legion: The House That Boxing Built

Posted on July 22, 2019 by lmharnisch

HOLLYWOOD AMERICAN LEGION

Hollywood American Legion Post 43, courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

World War I was a bruising, mentally jarring affair for returning American soldiers. Dazed, hardened, in pain, the men looked for an opportunity to gather together with like-minded individuals for camaraderie, comfort and counsel. The American Legion was formed in 1919 to give all veterans a place to congregate together in fellowship as well as memorial.

Hollywood formed its own post in 1919, chartered originally at Toberman Hall at 6416 Hollywood Blvd. Space was small in their rented facilities, so the group built a boxing arena called the American Legion Stadium at North El Centro Avenue and Selma Avenue to bring in a steady income and raise funds for constructing their own headquarters. Timing was perfect; boxing ranked among Americans’ favorite spectator sports and profits soared. Weekly, if not daily fights, occurred at the stadium, with boxing legend Max Baer and others throwing punches. Soon, Hollywood American Legion Post 43 ranked as one of the wealthiest branches in the country.

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Black Dahlia: ‘Suspect’ Dr. Adam Fairall — Another Wikipedia Prank

Posted on July 15, 2019 by lmharnisch

Wikipedia, Black Dahlia Suspects
Here we have a purported list of “Black Dahlia Suspects” from Wikipedia. At least as it was of May 20, 2019. Wikipedia, being Wikipedia, this could change at any moment.

This list is allegedly the 25 suspects named by Lt. Frank Jemison of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. In reality, Jemison listed 22 suspects in his report of Feb. 20, 1951. Jemison did not list Dr. Adam Fairall, Jacob Edward Fisk or Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. They are relatively recent and completely bogus additions,  with ardent Wikipedia users (are there any other kind?) altering the total to agree with the number of names.

Comparing every change on the Black Dahlia suspects entry is quite a chore. Like all entries, it’s frequently subject to vandalism (see the prank entry of “Jacob Edward Fisk” April 2009), reversions and random and totally unnecessary repairs, and random tweaking.  In other words, business as usual for the zealous if factually and grammatically challenged editors of Wikipedia.

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Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Homicide, LAPD, Wikipedia | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 15, 2019 by lmharnisch

July 20, 2019, Mystery Photo

This week’s mystery movie was the 1959 Allied Artists picture “The Big Circus,” with Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Rhonda Fleming, Kathryn Grant, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, David Nelson, Adele Mara, Howard McNear, Charles Watts and the World’s Greatest Circus Acts. Guest star Steve Allen, and co-starring Gilbert Roland.

Screenplay by Irwin Allen, Charles Bennett and Irving Wallace, from a story by Irwin Allen. Photography by Winton Hoch. In Cinemascope and Technicolor.  Music composed and conducted by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter. Title song “The Big Circus” by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. Production manager Lowell J. Farrell. Art director Albert D’Agostino, costume designer Paul Zastupnevich, choreography by Barbette, production illustrator Maurice Zuberano, construction supervisor Burt Dreyer, edited by Adrienne Fazan, assistant director William McGarry, script supervisor Irva Ross, makeup by William Tuttle, hairdressing by Sydney Guilaroff, sound effects by Finn Ulback and Bert Schoenfeld, Technicolor consultant Morgan Padelford, optical effects by Robert R. Hoag, set decoration by Robert Priestley, recording supervisor Franklin Milton, sound by Conrad Kahn, music editor Audray Granville, technical advisor Jimmie Wood. Lenses by Panavision.

Produced by Irwin Allen. Directed by Joseph M. Newman.

Lyrics from the theme song: “There’s nothing as gay as a day at the circus with you.”

“The Big Circus” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

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Posted in 1959, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 71 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hollywood’s Little Country Church – Emblem of Bygone Days

Posted on July 15, 2019 by lmharnisch

Little Country Church_rotated

Note: This is an encore post from 2013

Throughout its history, the city of Hollywood has seen much come and go in the name of “progress.” Instead of remodeling and reusing a historic structure, as is done in Europe or the East Coast, most builders simply tear down the old to make way for the “hip” and “modern.” Occasionally, acts of vandalism destroy grand old buildings. At some locations, however, both unfortunate actions occur.

ALSO BY MARY MALLORY

The Magic Castle
Jerry Giesler, Miracle Man
‘I Lost My Girlish Laughter’
Charles Butterworth, Professional Silly Ass

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Black Dahlia: ‘Suspect’ Jacob Edward Fisk — Wikipedia Prank Takes on a Life of Its Own

Posted on July 9, 2019 by lmharnisch

Wikipedia Black Dahlia Suspects

Let’s see what happens when Wikipedia vandalism takes on a life of its own. That would be Black Dahlia “suspect” Jacob Edward Fisk. Never a suspect. It was all just a prank.

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Posted in 1947, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, Homicide, LAPD, Wikipedia | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hermoyne Apartments, Regal Dowager on Rossmore Avenue

Posted on July 8, 2019 by lmharnisch

image
The Hermoyne Apartments, 569 N. Rossmore Ave., directly across from the Ravenswood Apartments, via Google Street View.

Still as gorgeous and stately as when it opened in 1929, the Hermoyne Apartments at 569 N.Rossmore Ave. demonstrates the best in high-class apartment hotels built around Los Angeles in the late 1920s. Offering a touch of class in amenities as well as looks, the residence seems as luxurious as any movie pied a terre, located on a graceful curve of Rossmore Avenue.

H. B. (Herbert) Squires, owner of his self-named company, which served as one of the largest purveyors of electric equipment to the motion picture and other large industries in the 1920s, looked for a safe investment to grow his wealth. Beginning as a town assessor in 1907, by the early 1920s Squires ran a large company in San Francisco. Within a few years, he opened branches in Seattle and in Los Angeles at 229 Boyd St.

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

 

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Posted in Architecture, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 8, 2019 by lmharnisch

July 13, 2019, Crime Doctor's Diary.

This week’s mystery movie was the 1949 Columbia picture “The Crime Doctor’s Diary,” with Warner Baxter, Stephen Dunne, Lois Maxwell, Adele Jergens, Robert Armstrong, Don Beddoe and Whit Bissell.

Screenplay by Edward Anhalt, story by David Dressler and Edward Anhalt, based on the radio program “Crime Doctor” by Max Marcin. Photography by Vincent Farrar, art direction by Harold MacArthur, editing by Jerome Thoms, set decoration by George Montgomery, musical direction by Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Produced by Rudolph C. Flothow,  directed by Seymour Friedman.

“The Crime Doctor’s Diary” is available on DVD on the gray market.

Here is 30 seconds of “My Little Brass French Horn.” Can you stand it?

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Posted in 1949, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

Remembering Herbert Berghof

Posted on July 7, 2019 by lmharnisch

2019_0706_mystery_photo_02

Gary writes of Herbert Berghof, as seen in “5 Fingers.”

In the mid late 1970’s I took some acting classes at HB Studios near my apartment in the West Village. For the most part we studied the Uta Hagen text and did her method and exercises. HB himself was always a presence in the hallways, etc. But I never understood what his function was there. I think he was the administrator of the school…little more. He was an unwell old man in those days. I would not have recognized him from the photos from 5 Fingers that you posted. Be that as it may … it is nice to have my memories stirred back into life.

Berghof died in 1990 at the age of 81.

Posted in 1950, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Stage | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on July 4, 2019 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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L.A. Celebrates the Fourth of July 1889 – 1960

Posted on July 4, 2019 by lmharnisch

image

July 4, 1944: Uncle Sam in a cartoon by Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale for the Los Angeles Examiner and republished in the Milwaukee Sentinel.

 

Note: This is an encore post from 2014.

Here’s a look at how Los Angeles has celebrated Independence Day over the years.

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Posted in 1863, 1907, 1910, 1947, 1957, 1960 | Tagged | 1 Comment

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Jacques Kapralik, Reading Between the Lines

Posted on July 1, 2019 by lmharnisch

Kapralik Hepburn Taylor MP Herald

While most people don’t recognize the name Jacques Kapralik, they recognize his wonderful art. One of the premiere key art illustrators at Hollywood’s motion picture studios in the 1940s and 1950s, Kapralik could do more with line and paper than an architect with a ruler and a pen.

While little is know of the celebrated artist prior to his arrival in the United States, Kapralik was born October 29, 1906 in Bucharest, Romania. Newspaper sources list him as a painter before he immigrated to the United States to possibly escape Nazi persecution in Romania. Kapralik landed in upstate New York on August 1, 1936, at which date he petitioned to become a naturalized citizen of the country.

Mary Mallory’s latest book, “Living With Grace: Life Lessons From America’s Princess,”  is now on sale.

 

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Posted in Art & Artists, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on July 1, 2019 by lmharnisch

July 6, 2019, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie was the 1952 Twentieth Century-Fox picture “5 Fingers” (often rendered “Five Fingers”) with James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie, Walter Hampden, Oscar Karlweis, Herbert Berghof, John Wengraf, A. Ben Astar and Roger Plowden. Screenplay by Michael Wilson, from the book by L.C. Moyzisch, music by Bernard Herrmann, photography by Norbert Brodine, art direction by Lyle Wheeler and George W. Davis, set decoration by Thomas Little and Walter M. Scott, editing by James B. Clark, wardrobe by Charles Le Maire, makeup by Ben Nye, photographic effects by Ray Kellogg, sound by W.D. Flick and Roger Heman. Produced by Otto Lang. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

“5 Fingers” is available on DVD from TCM.

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Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Downtown Los Angeles, 1950: ‘Underworld Story,’ Part 4

Posted on June 26, 2019 by lmharnisch

Underworld Story

Here’s another sequence from “The Underworld Story,” an especially interesting one that features the Globe Lobby in the old Los Angeles Times Building. Leading man Dan Duryea walks through the lobby. That’s the bust of Harry Chandler in a space that was later occupied by a bust of Otis Chandler.

As I pointed out previously, the Times Eagle wasn’t installed in the niche next to the pay phones when the movie was filmed in 1950. The Eagle was on the roof until it was taken down because of smog damage.

Downtown Los Angeles in “The Underworld Story” Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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Downtown Los Angeles, 1950: ‘The Underworld Story’ Part 3

Posted on June 24, 2019 by lmharnisch

'Underworld Story'

Here’s another sequence from “The Underworld Story” filmed in downtown Los Angeles. The camera is across Spring Street, opposite City Hall.

Downtown L.A. in ‘Underworld Story’ Part 1 | Part 2

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Posted in Architecture, City Hall, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Location Sleuth | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on June 24, 2019 by lmharnisch

June 29, 2019, Mystery Photo
This week’s mystery movie was the 1946 (copyright 1945) Monogram Pictures film “Fear,” with Peter Cookson, Warren William, Anne Gwynne, Francis Pierlot, Nestor Paiva, James Cardwell, Almira Sessions, William Moss, Harry Clay, Johnny Strong, Ernie Adams and Charles Calvert.

Original screenplay by Dennis Cooper and Alfred Zeisler, photography by Jackson Rose, edited by Ace Herman, production manager Glenn Cook, unit manager Clarence Bricker, art direction by F. Paul Sylos, technical direction by Dave Milton, chief set electrician John M. Lee, set decorations by Charles Thompson and Vin Taylor, wardrobe by Tom Lambert and musical director Edward J. Kay. Produced by Lindsley Parsons.  Directed by Alfred Zeisler.

“Fear” is available on DVD from TCM.

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Posted in 1945, 1946, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: There Is a Lake in Toluca Lake

Posted on June 24, 2019 by lmharnisch

J. Blair Toluca Lake
Photo: Janet Blair sits on the little platform off the banks of the Lakeside Golf Club. Courtesy of Mary Mallory

Note: This is an encore post from 2013.

Surrounded by homes and the Lakeside Golf Club, Toluca Lake is all but obscured from view by the public. Like the movie stars that soon flocked to it, the attractive little lake helped sell the community that grew up around it.

This area of the San Fernando Valley originally fell under the auspices of the San Fernando Mission before being broken into segments and sold off in chunks to Southern California businessmen like Isaac Van Nuys and J. B.Lankershim, among others.  Gen. Charles Forman bought up ranchland just north of the Cahuenga Pass, growing Bartlett pears, walnuts, citrus and other fruit. He suggested the name Toluca for the post office erected in 1893 across from the Chandler railroad depot in North Hollywood, also known as Lankershim.

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Downtown Los Angeles, 1950: ‘The Underworld Story’ Part 2

Posted on June 19, 2019 by lmharnisch

Underworld Story

Here’s another frame from the opening of “The Underworld Story,” last week’s mystery movie. This appears to be one of the Hill Street tunnels, which were demolished in 1955.

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Posted in 1950, Architecture, Downtown, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Downtown Los Angeles, 1950: ‘The Underworld Story’

Posted on June 18, 2019 by lmharnisch

'Underworld Story'

“The Underworld Story,” last week’s mystery movie, had quite a few interesting shots of downtown Los Angeles from about 1950.

Here’s one from the opening titles. It shows the Fashion League Building, which was at Hill and 2nd streets. Notice the overhead wires and tracks for the streetcars.

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Posted in 1950, Architecture, Downtown, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments