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.

 

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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

Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Downtown, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Downtown Los Angeles, 1950: ‘Underworld Story,’ Part 4

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

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, San Fernando Valley | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: There Is a Lake in Toluca Lake

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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

Black Dahlia: Why Dr. George Hodel Didn’t Kill His Secretary

Posted on June 17, 2019 by lmharnisch

Ruth Spaulding Death Certificate

Here’s the May 9, 1945, death certificate of Ruth Frances Spaulding. Notice that the Los Angeles County coroner determined that Spaulding committed suicide at the age of 27.

If you have listened to Steve Hodel at all, you will have heard him say that Dr. George Hodel was a “suspect in the death of his secretary, Ruth Spaulding.”

Like so many things Steve Hodel says, this is a lie.

George Hodel wasn’t a suspect in the death of his secretary because nobody thought she was killed and therefore nobody was a suspect. Not George Hodel nor anyone else.

So how did she die?

Continue reading →

Posted in 1945, 1947, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on June 17, 2019 by lmharnisch

June 22, 2019, Mystery Photo

This week’s mystery movie was the 1951 MGM picture “The Law and the Lady,” with Greer Garson, Michael Wilding, Fernando Lamas, Marjorie Main, Hayden Rorke, Margalo Gillmore, Ralph Dumke, Rhys Williams and Natalie Schafer.

Screenplay by Leonard Spigelgass and Karl Tunberg, based on the play “The Last of Mrs. Cheyney” by Frederick Lonsdale.  Photography by George J. Folsey, art direction by Cedric Gibbons and Daniel B. Cathcard, editing by James E. Newcom and William Gulick, music by Carmen Dragon, recording by Douglas Shearer, set decoration by Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore, special effects by Warren Newcombe, women’s costumes by Walter Plunkett, men’s costumes by Gile Steele, hairstyles by Sydney Guilaroff and makeup by William Tuttle. Produced and directed by Edwin H. Knopf.

“The Law and the Lady” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1951, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 44 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Norman Kerry, Preservationist

Posted on June 16, 2019 by lmharnisch

Norman Kerry Truth About the Movies 1924
Norman Kerry in 1924.

Long before billionaire investor Ron Burkle purchased and restored such historic architectural properties as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis-Brown House, Harold Lloyd’s Greenacres, and Bob Hope’s Palm Springs and Toluca Lake houses, silent film star Norman Kerry became one of the first Los Angeles-area preservation angels by rescuing a doomed Greene and Greene Brothers Craftsman home in the Wilshire Boulevard district. The 109-year-old landmark still stands near the Beverly Hills Hotel, the only Greene and Greene home in that city.

Multi-talented Earle C. Anthony originally constructed the graceful home after becoming one of the West Coast’s most successful Packard dealers. An automotive pioneer, Anthony designed Los Angeles’ first electric car at the age of 17 before founding the Western Motor Car Company with his father in 1904. Diversifying his portfolio around transportation, Anthony created an intercity bus line and constructed a chain of gasoline stations which he sold to Standard Oil Company in 1913.

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

 

Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Norman Kerry, Preservationist

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on June 10, 2019 by lmharnisch

June 15, 2019, Mystery Movie
This week’s particularly fun (for me, anyway) mystery movie was the 1950 United Artists release “The Underworld Story,” with Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm, Howard Da Silva, Michael O’Shea, Mary Anderson, Gar Moore, Melville Cooper, Frieda Inescort, Art Baker, Harry Shannon, Alan Hale Jr., Stephen Dunne, Roland Winters, Sue England, Lewis L. Russell and Frances Chaney.

Screenplay by Henry Blankfort, adaptation by Cyril Endfield from a story by Craig Rice. Associate producer Bernard W. Burton, photography by Stanley Cortez, production manager Allen K. Wood, assistant director William Calihan, art director Gordon Wiles, film editor Richard Heermance, set decorations by Ray Boltz, dialogue director G. Joseph Dell, technical advisor Ben F. Melzer, sound by Tom Lambert, set continuity by Bobbie Sierks, hairstylist Stephanie Garland, makeup by Tom Tuttle, wardrobe by Esther Krebs and Leonard Harris, set supervisor Dave Milton, musical director Irving Friedman, music by David Rose. Produced by Hal E. Chester. Directed by Cyril Endfield. Presented by Jack Dietz.

“The Underworld Story” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1950, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 47 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Julian Eltinge Says ‘I’m at Your Service, Girls’

Posted on June 10, 2019 by lmharnisch

I'm at Your Service Eltinge

Note: This is an encore post from 2016.

 

One of the most famous female impersonators of all time, but now also one of the most forgotten, Julian Eltinge stood as one of the most successful headliners of the early 1900s, setting attendance records at vaudeville and theatre box offices. He entertained audiences as one of the best dressed and most hilarious women on stage for decades, with many shows written around his unique talents. For his 1915-1916 theatre musical, “Cousin Lucy,” he saw to it that a song was created that summed up his career, his audience, and his life.

Eltinge began performing on stage in the mid-1890s per historian Tony Slide in his book, “New York City Vaudeville.” The New York Tribune February 2, 1902, states that Eltinge is “well known to Boston, New York, and Newport society as a female impersonator of talent and stunning costumes.”

“Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays” by Karie Bible and Mary Mallory is available at Amazon and at local bookstores.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1915, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Stage | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

ALLIES INVADE FRANCE! JUNE 6, 1944; Complete Radio Coverage

Posted on June 6, 2019 by lmharnisch

June 7, 1944, D-day

June 7, 1944, D-Day Map

The headline and map by Charles Owens from The Times.

Note: This is an encore post from 2014. Reposting to fix some broken links.

June 6, 1944: Complete radio coverage of the D-Day Invasion. This was pool coverage using correspondents from various news organizations. By 10 a.m., CBS had resumed regular programming with news bulletins, so I’ll only post up to noon. The full day is at archive.org.

It’s worth noting that German radio was the source for most of the information in the early hours of the invasion. The eyewitness accounts are vivid and it’s worth listening to Quentin Reynolds’ analysis on how the Allies learned from disastrous surprise invasion at Dieppe in 1942.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1944, Radio, World War II | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on ALLIES INVADE FRANCE! JUNE 6, 1944; Complete Radio Coverage

James Ellroy: ‘This Storm’ — Racism and Anti-Semitism Masquerading as History

Posted on June 5, 2019 by lmharnisch

Dec. 6, 1953, L.A. Times

A historical aside to everybody gushing over James Ellroy’s latest, “This Storm,” which opens with a speech from Father Coughlin’s supposed bootleg radio station in Mexico. (Coughlin was a notorious right-wing radio broadcaster of the 1930s who was silenced by Catholic superiors in 1939).

Did.

Not.

Happen. (See above).

And also, Coughlin said nothing about the U.S. declaring war on Japan (via the New York Times).

N.Y. Times, Dec. 9, 1941.
And also, also:

ellroy_this_storm_page_03
Let the record show that Ellroy’s text is nothing like Coughlin’s broadcasts, which are available on Archive.org.

I mean “waterlogged wetbacks?”

It’s worse on the jump: Full Ellroy in “Jew-inspired boondoggle…”

“our Jew-pawn president, Franklin “Double-Cross” Rosenfeld….”

 

Continue reading →

Posted in 2019, Books and Authors, Radio | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Black Dahlia: Newsweek Mangles the George Hodel Story Beyond All Recognition

Posted on June 4, 2019 by lmharnisch

Newsweek Black Dahlia

About 1980, when I was in journalism school, one of my classes heard guest speaker Martin Kasindorf, who impressed the room of aspiring reporters with his tales of being a Newsweek correspondent. (He was later the magazine’s New York bureau chief, worked at Newsday and was White House correspondent for USA Today before retiring in 2007.)

From Kasindorf in 1980, it has been a long, hard fall to 2019 and Kelly Wynne, who graduated from The New School last year and currently writes about culture for Newsweek.

I typically ignore Newsweek. But then it attempted to write something about the Black Dahlia case. Oh dear.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, 2019, Another Good Story Ruined, Black Dahlia, Cold Cases, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on June 3, 2019 by lmharnisch

image

This week’s mystery movie was the 1929 MGM picture “The Last of Mrs. Cheyney,” which was released in sound (8,651 feet) and silent (6,484 feet) versions.

With Norma Shearer, Basil Rathbone, Herbert Bunston, George Barraud, Hedda Hopper, Moon Carroll, Madeline Seymour, Cyril Chadwick, George K. Arthur, Finch Smiles and Maude Turner Gordon. From the play by Frederick Lonsdale, continuity by Hans Kraly and Claudine West, recording by Douglas Shearer, art direction by Cedric Gibbons, photography by William Daniels, gowns by Adrian, editing by Conrad A. Nervig. Directed by Sidney Franklin.

“The Last of Mrs. Cheyney” is available from Warner Archive or on sale from TCM. Also available in streaming video from Amazon.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1929, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: First National Building Banks On Hollywood’s Future

Posted on June 3, 2019 by lmharnisch

Hollywood First National Building

Hollywood First National Bank Building, Courtesy of Mary Mallory.

Note: This is an encore post from 2014

Soaring to the skies, displaying confidence in Hollywood’s unlimited future, the First National Building, constructed and opened in 1928, brought Art Deco-Gothic beauty to Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Operating as bank and office building for decades, the First National Building celebrated Hollywood’s business success and its glorious potential, a economics temple.

The Hollywood and Highland intersection served as the western end of Hollywood Boulevard’s business district, anchored by the regal Hotel Hollywood. Businesses sprang up around it, two blocks north of Hollywood High School. The First National Bank of Hollywood built a branch here, leasing space on its upper floor to the Frank Meline Co. Meline operated its Hollywood office here at 6777 Hollywood Blvd. from 1920, offering properties in the immediate area for sale. Buster Keaton even filmed a scene from his 1921 short “The Goat” looking south from a garage at 1741 N. Highland Ave. toward the intersection, per John Bengtson on his blog, “Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Film Locations.”

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

Continue reading →

Posted in 1927, Architecture, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Maria Ridulph, Mary Mallory, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: First National Building Banks On Hollywood’s Future

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Commercial Photographers and Hollywood

Posted on May 27, 2019 by lmharnisch

Van Rossem Santa Monica Intl Photo 4-31

Thanks to the work of often uncredited talented stills photographers during the era of classic Hollywood, movie stars appeared sexy, glamorous and larger than life, gods and goddesses the moviegoing public could only aspire to. These stills men and women created the stunning iconography of classic Hollywood thanks to their sharp eyes for details, lighting and composition.

While a few such as Ruth Harriet Louise, George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull and Eugene Robert Richee achieved renown for their output, the vast majority remained virtually anonymous to the general public, just camera cogs in the giant studio system. Most of the time their stunning prints appeared uncredited in magazines and newspapers, though occasionally their last names would be mentioned in captions.

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

Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Commercial Photographers and Hollywood

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on May 27, 2019 by lmharnisch

June 1, 2019, Mystery Photo

This week’s mystery movie was the 1935 Twentieth Century film “Les Miserables,” with Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Rochelle Hudson, John Beal and Frances Drake. Directed by Richard Boleslawski, associate producers William Goetz and Raymond Griffith, screenplay by W.P. Lipscomb, photography by Gregg Toland, art direction by Richard Day, edited by Barbara McLean, musical direction by Alfred Newman, sound by Frank Maher and Roger Heman, costumes by Omar Kiam, assistant director Eric Stacey. A Darryl Zanuck production, presented by Joseph M. Schenck.

“Les Miserables” is available on DVD and streaming from Amazon.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1935, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 46 Comments