Tag Archives: Fires

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: T.L. Tally – L.A.’s Pioneer Film Exhibitor, Part 1 (Updated)

T.L. Tally, Moving Picture World, 1915. Note: This is an encore post from 2017. Los Angeles has stood at the forefront of not only motion picture production, but the fields of exhibition and distribution as well. Former Texan T. L. … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Broadway, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Main Street, Mary Mallory, Theaters | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oct. 26, 1907: Women Clean Clothes With Gasoline, Die After Explosion and Fire

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. 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 … Continue reading

Posted in 1907, Fires, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

October 1947: Firefighter Sits Through Movie With Dead Friend to Avoid Audience Panic

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. Moviegoers Walter Saul of Cincinnati and his wife had just settled into their seats for a double feature with his friend Aloysius Bollin and son Joseph … Continue reading

Posted in 1947, Film, Hollywood, Obituaries, Theaters | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oct. 15, 1907: Fire Threatens Orpheum

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. 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 … Continue reading

Posted in 1907, Downtown, Fires, Spring Street, Theaters | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Coming Attractions: Celebrating the Reopening of the Central Library

The Los Angeles Central Library, courtesy of the library. Los Angeles is celebrating one of its great treasures – the Central Library – this weekend on the 25th anniversary of its reopening in October 1993, seven years after a devastating … Continue reading

Posted in 1986, 1993, Architecture, Books and Authors, Coming Attractions, Fires, Libraries | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Aug. 24, 1947: Golfers Play Through as Fire Destroys Clubhouse at Inglewood

  Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. Fire which mushroomed early yesterday from the basement of the clubhouse at the Inglewood Country Club, 3424 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, left the building and … Continue reading

Posted in 1947, Fires, Sports | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Aug. 9, 1947: 2 Firefighters Die Fighting Big Tujunga Canyon Blaze

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. Their names were Carl Joseph Masterson and Edward Jerome Duffy, who went by the nickname Harry. Carl was 40, born in Kansas and lived at 1032 … Continue reading

Posted in 1947, Fires | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Aug. 3, 1907: Gasoline Stove Explodes, Destroys House

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Aug. 3, 1907 Los Angeles An enormous explosion shattered the night in the Dayton Heights neighborhood near what is now Virgil Avenue and Middlebury Street. “The shock of the explosion awakened people … Continue reading

Posted in 1907, Fires, Food and Drink | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

July 25, 1907: Fire Burns Foothill Bridge, Main Route From Monrovia to L.A.

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. July 25, 1907 Arcadia, Calif. Despite the efforts of 75 volunteer firefighters, a blaze rapidly consumed a 150-foot wooden bridge on Foothill Boulevard over the Santa Anita between Arcadia and Monrovia.

Posted in 1907, Black Dahlia, Fires, Pasadena, Streetcars, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

June 27, 1907: New to America, Wife Mistakes Gasoline for Coffee in Making Husband’s Breakfast

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. June 27, 1907 Los Angeles Louise arrived in Los Angeles three months ago from Norway with her four young children. She met a man who worked in San Pedro (we only know … Continue reading

Posted in 1907, A Kinder, Simpler Time, Fires, LAPD, Streetcars | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Found on EBay: Souvenir of Club Mecca, Site of Deadly 1957 Firebombing

A vendor has listed a cocktail napkin advertising four Los Angeles night spots, including the Mecca Cafe at 5841 S. Normandie Ave. Six people were killed when a man who had been thrown out of the club threw a five-gallon … Continue reading

Posted in 1957, Fires, Found on EBay, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jan. 4, 1947: Angry Sailor Sets Fire to Skid Row Hotel After Being Rolled

Note: This is a post I wrote in 2006 for the 1947Project. Jan. 4, 1947: Suppose, for a moment, that you are a 19-year-old mess cook second class stationed in San Pedro. Suppose further that while you are on leave … Continue reading

Posted in 1947, African Americans, Black Dahlia, Crime and Courts, Fires, LAPD | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: T.L. Tally – L.A.’s Pioneer Film Exhibitor, Part 1 (Updated)

T.L. Tally, Moving Picture World, 1915. Los Angeles has stood at the forefront of not only motion picture production, but the fields of exhibition and distribution as well. Former Texan T. L. (Thomas Lincoln) Tally pioneered in these fields, seeming … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Broadway, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Main Street, Mary Mallory, Theaters | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

152 DIE IN CIRCUS TENT DISASTER! July 6, 1944

July 6, 1944 Hartford, Conn. – The Ringling Bros. circus tent catches fire during a performance, sending an audience estimated at 6,000 scrambling to escape. It was the worst circus fire in U.S. history, with a final death toll of … Continue reading

Posted in 1944 | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Deadly Inferno

Note: I’m reposting an item for newer readers that I originally wrote in 2006 for the 1947project. Oct. 26, 1907: Two women in the West Adams District were badly burned and expected to die after a bowl of gasoline they … Continue reading

Posted in 1907, Fires | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Buck Jones Among Hundreds Killed in Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire

Nov. 30, 1942: Saying “My hands are trembling all over this typewriter keyboard,” Associated Press writer Harry C. Glasheen writes of his experiences covering Boston’s Cocoanut Grove fire, which had a final death toll of 492 people, including Western movie … Continue reading

Posted in 1942, Comics, Film, Fires, Hollywood, World War II | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Fire Chief Injured in Blaze

A lot of five photos showing the Jan. 23, 1913, fire at the Los Angeles Wallpaper and Paint Co., 529 S. Main St., has been listed on EBay. The blaze injured Fire Chief Archibald “Archie” J. Eley and 18 men, … Continue reading

Posted in 1913, Fires, Found on EBay, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

30 Firefighters Escape Blaze in Box Canyon

Aug. 24, 1942: Sheriff’s deputies break up a planned fight between the Lincoln Heights Square John gang and the Huntington Park Levis gang at Central and Florence avenues, arresting 17 members of the Square John gang (no members of the … Continue reading

Posted in 1942, Art & Artists, Comics, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Spring Street revisited

  C.C. Pierce & Co. Photographers, Los Angeles, Cal., U.S.A. An undated photograph of the Phillips Block, 1887-1912.   After looking at the old photos of Spring Street over the last few days, I wanted to learn more about the … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Downtown, Front Pages | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Topanga Canyon blaze

spark from an electrical short in the pump house at Hertz Ranch was blamed for a fire that burned 125 acres before it was contained, The Times says. Six other fires were also burning in Southern California, The Times says. … Continue reading

Posted in Front Pages, San Fernando Valley | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment