I ended up making two trips to 7th and Main to see if I could photograph the 50-year-old plaque commemorating the birth of the film industry in
Los Angeles. Although I didn't locate the plaque, I at least found where it used to be (the story of so many historic sites in Los
Angeles).
This intersection, which I have now named "Charles Bukowski Square," is
home to Craby Joe's, apparently Bukowski's favorite watering hole.
However, the Daily Mirror gave up bars that open at 10 a.m. many years
ago, so there are no pictures of the interior.
At the northeast corner of 7th and Main, just south of Craby Joe's, is
a shoe shop. Not a terribly likely candidate for a plaque.
At the northwest corner is a large, old building that I'm not readily
able to identify. Obviously the right vintage, but no plaque.
At the southwest corner, there's a restaurant--and no plaque.
Aha. Dearden's. The original Times story said the plaque was installed
on a large furniture store, but there was nothing on the building's
exterior.
I retired to the Daily Mirror HQ for further research and an
examination of the Los Angeles street directory for 1956, thanks to the
Los Angeles Public Library.
On my second trip, I roamed the store and I have to say that
going through the doors at Dearden's is like stepping back to the
department stores of my childhood: Toys, major appliances, kitchen
gadgets and furniture (no clothing, however). And the store was packed.
Finally, someone escorted me out to the corner to show me where the
plaque used to be. Alas, it has either disappeared or is beneath a
metal facade installed as part of the roll-down security doors.
The former site of the plaque honoring the birthplace of the film industry in Los Angeles.
Ah well, at least I confirmed the location.
While I was wandering the area, I got a couple of random shots.
Here's some interesting figures in a shop window (yes, they also
read Tarot cards here).
And the back of the Palace Theatre, as seen from
Spring Street.
What impressed me the most is how much this area is becoming
gentrified. When I started at The Times, the current parking structure
was under construction so we had to use a shuttle that took us to a
huge parking lot at 4th and Main, which I considered the DMZ. I never
thought I would see the day that there was an upscale pet supply store
at 6th and Main in downtown Los Angeles.
And maybe one of these days, Cole's will reopen. Let's hope.
A youngster held by Police Officer Bill Heim receives a present from Santa Claus as Officer Mike Peterson watches during a party at the Toland Way Children's Center given with help from the Northeast Division.
When I started at the paper in the 1980s, The Times Women of the Year were treated as a quaint, horse-drawn practice of the pre-Otis Chandler era that provoked polite amusement. Begun in 1950, the Women of the Year awards had been abandoned long before I arrived, so I never encountered the subject except when we ran an obit on one of the recipients (the Women of the Year always rated an obituary).
Here we have 10 of them for the eighth annual awards, presented to readers in profiles that tend toward the superficial and light. I'm running the entire section, not because I expect anyone to read the whole package but because it's a time capsule. Except for Dinah Shore, very few of them are familiar today. You might remember that Madelyn Pugh Martin was a writer on "I Love Lucy" and wonder whether Mrs. Harry Francis Haldeman was related to the late Watergate figure (the answer is yes, she was H.R. "Bob" Haldeman's mother). Otherwise they are fairly obscure.
Unfortunately, most of the recipients are dead so we can't ask them how perceptions of women have changed since 1957. I would welcome thoughtful, insightful impressions about our award winners and on the larger question of women's changing roles over the last 50 years.
And if any former Women of the Year are reading, drop me a line.
Larry
The Women of the Year for 1957:
Mary Bowling (Mrs. James R. Bowling). Possibly deceased, but it's unclear.
Mrs. Ida Mayer Cummings (died 1968)
Margaret Ettinger (died 1967)
Mrs. Harry Francis (Katharine "Betty") Haldeman (died 1987)
Stella Hanania (died 1987).
Mrs. Leiland Atherton (Florence M.) Irish (died 1971)
Jack Webb, William Conrad and James Bell in a scene from "--30--".
Howard Decker, formerly of the Examiner, writes:
Regarding Jack Webb's film --30-- you are right. Webb made a copy of the
Examiner city room at the film studio. I worked in this city room for years
and knew it well.
There were two small mistakes in the film version. In
the real Ex city room there was a spike where people put wire copy for the
managing editor. In the studio set, the spike looks different than the
one in real life. I forget the other mistake.
Otherwise, it is an amazing
copy of the real thing. In the film David Nelson (Ricky Nelson's older
brother) plays a copy boy. That could have been me (I was kind of a goof
off at the time) although I admit Nelson has me in the good looks
department. Such is life.
I rarely read old editorials except for amusement. Here's why. In the middle of the San Fernando/San Gabriel Valley housing boom, The Times says the outlying tract home is dead and that more people are abandoning the suburbs for downtown apartment buildings. (The Westside and beach cities? O-ver!) I wonder if whoever wrote this ever looked at the real estate section.
Police Lt. Harry Fremont denies mistreating a prisoner in the Dec. 25, 1951, "Bloody Christmas" police beatings. Fremont was cleared of criminal charges, but suspended for 90 days for failing to stop the beatings by LAPD officers and for failing to enforce regulations banning liquor consumption at a police station.
Actress Taina Elg and Mayor Norris Poulson at Main and 7th streets in a photo published Dec. 13, 1957.
HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN JUBILEE
1907-1957
MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FILMING IN LOS ANGELES BEGAN AT THIS LOCATION IN THE FALL OF 1907 WHEN SCENES FOR A FOURTEEN-MINUTE FEATURE, "THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO," WERE TAKEN. FROM THIS BEGINNING, HOLLYWOOD BECAME THE WORLD'S MOTION PICTURE CAPITAL. PLACED DEC. 12, 1957
There was a mob "of holiday shoppers and idlers" at 7th Street and
Main in 1957 as MGM actress Taina Elg and Mayor Norris Poulson arrived
to unveil a commemorative plaque, which was fastened to the wall of
a large furniture store. According to The Times, a Chinese laundry once
stood on the site and some exterior shots for "Monte Cristo" were taken
on the roof.
And then, a bit like Banquo's ghost in Macbeth,
an "unidentified man with a scraggly mustache, wearing cowboy clothes
and carrying spurs under his arm, came forward to insist that the
location was wrong--that the shots in question were actually filmed at 8th and Olive."
"I was there. Talked to Bosworth himself," he said, referring to Hobart Bosworth, a popular stage actor who appeared in the early films of the Selig Polyscope Co.
Someone told the man that he was wrong and said that Thomas Persons, the cameraman on the picture, confirmed the location.
"The crowd listened with amusement to the argument for a while but then forgot it when Miss Elg appeared," The Times said. "That's a sight you don't see at 7th and Main every day." (Above right, Elg in a Times photograph by Edward Gamer; below, a scene from "Les Girls").
So
I set out to discover which site is correct. Unfortunately, The Times
failed to realize the historical significance of the occasion and never
wrote a word in 1907 about filming these scenes on Main or on Olive.
Unlike
the unidentified Times reporter from 1957, who didn't have access to
ProQuest, we can easily find that the first reference to filming at 7th
and Main was in 1926 when Persons, by then an executive with Biograph
studios in New York, visited Los Angeles and returned to his old haunts.
Persons
told Marquis Busby of The Times that he arrived in 1906 to shoot water
scenes for "Monte Cristo" (the company filmed the interiors in
Chicago).
According to the Nov. 7, 1926, story, Persons used the roof of a
tinsmith's shop at 7th and Main, which "was considered an ideal
location for a studio," Busby wrote. "It was quite a bit removed from
the center of the business district of that day and, being upon a roof,
nothing could interfere with sunlight upon which the producer was
dependent."
The article also says that Persons shot several
other movies on the roof of the shop, including "Carmen," with Lillian
Hayward and "The Magician" with Francis Boggs.*
That seems to
confirm the Main Street site. But how did a tinsmith's shop become a
Chinese laundry? And what about the unidentified man's claim that the
film was shot at 8th and Olive?
In fact, he was right about the location (more or less) but wrong about the date.
Two
years later, Persons moved to "a new studio at 7th and Olive, across
from the site of the present Athletic Club building," Busby wrote.
Instead of relying on direct, unfiltered sunlight, Persons had begun
using overhead diffusers of unbleached muslin, apparently eliminating
the need for rooftop filming.
"For this corner lot and the use of one or two decrepit buildings there
was an outlandish rental to be paid of $25 ($541.14 USD 2006) a month,"
The Times said.
Aha! When we get to 1929, we find the first
mention of a Chinese laundry in a story about actor Hobart Bosworth
donating his early movie material to the Southwest Museum. Citing a
date of May 8, 1909, the story says Bosworth made a film titled "The
Sultan's Power" at a Chinese laundry "near 8th and Olive streets."
A Feb. 4, 1929, story identifies the business as Sing Loo's laundry, "the present site of the Knickerbocker Building."
A ProQuest search for further information about Sing Loo, alas, is entirely unhelpful. Another search shows that the
Knickerbocker Building was at 643 S. Olive St. "just north of 7th
Street." Hm. Sounds like shoddy research to me.
Fortunately, a May 5, 1929, story provides two first-person accounts.
Tom Santschi,
one of the Selig actors, said: "We arrived in Los Angeles sometime
between March 16 and 21 [1909] and began shooting almost
immediately.... We found a studio in the backyard of a Chinese laundry
on Olive Street, between 7th and 8th streets."
Bosworth wrote:
"On May 8, 1909, I went over to a vacant lot behind a Chinese laundry
on Olive Street between 7th and 8th streets. Here I found the quiet,
exquisitely dressed gentleman who was James L. McGee. He introduced me
to a still quieter little gentleman with the bright, smiling eyes I was
destined to know and love so well. Francis Boggs, who made me
comfortable and put me at my ease."
At last, determination pays off. There was a Chinese laundry (shown here in a clipping from 1895)! The reward for a diligent researcher.
There is a famous story about the filming of a scene from "Monte
Cristo," and like all Hollywood stories, it gets better with every
telling. Here is the 1926 version:
The entire "Monte Cristo" company, consisting in toto of
Tom Persons, the director, Francis Boggs, the leading man, a rented wig
and prop beard, set forth for La Jolla.
Perhaps all might have been well but when Boggs got wet he suffered from sciatica shocks. So it was necessary to hire a double for the scenes wherein Monte Cristo emerges from the sea. Without much difficulty they persuaded a carefree La Jolla native to do the "emerging" for the munificent sum of $1.50 ($32.46 USD 2006) a day.
Everything was set for the shooting of the scene when the director
looked up to see the pseudo Monte Cristo riding helplessly in the
general direction of Honolulu on the crest of the waves.
"Save him!" yelled Persons.
"Save him, h--l!" returned the more practical Boggs. "Save the wig and whiskers."
But kind fate returned wig, whiskers, Monte and all, and the picture
was completed without further mishap. The whole action transpired in
1,000 feet.
Nancy Olson, the script girl in "Sunset Boulevard?" No.
Marthe Errolle? Interesting guess. But no.
Taina Elg? (Several people). Absolutely. I received this terrific message:
The lady is Tania [Taina] Elg and she's probably promoting the musical film "Les
Girls" which came out in 1957. A friend of mine and I took a couple of young
ladies to see an industry screening of this film in '57 and sat right
behind Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner. The young ladies were very impressed.
That, of course, was when the world was young.
That's exactly right. Taina Elg and Mayor Norris Poulson were photographed for a Dec. 13, 1957, Times story about the installation of a plaque at 7th Street and Main honoring it as the place where the first motion picture was shot in Los Angeles. (Exterior scenes for "The Count of Monte Cristo"). Was it really? Is the plaque still there? I'm going on a field trip to find out.
Stay tuned. This story is much more complicated that it sounds.
Want another clue, eh? Very well then:
Los Angeles Times file photo
Here's our mystery woman, ready for Christmas, 1955
Los Angeles Times file photo
Here she is in a publicity photo for a staged version of "Irma La Douce," 1962
Los Angeles Times file photo
Finally, here's the mystery woman with Lionel Barrymore in 1954 at MGM. Take a look at the head shots on the wall behind them: Clark Gable, Gene Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor... They had faces then.
Someone using Google keeps landing on the Daily Mirror in trying to answer this question: "What was the name of the woman who passed away in July 2007 and at the funeral the family gave away ornaments from her Christmas trees and what was her nickname?"
I'm quite sorry to report that Alexander Sputnik Ornelas did not live to see his 50th birthday, but died at the age of 44. A reader sent me the news in a comment, which I posted without realizing it was taken from another paper (a no-no). Here's the link instead:
The Daily Mirror salutes his memory.... Here's to you, Alexander Sputnik Ornelas.
No, I don't know anything further about Baron the German shepherd, but I do have more information about Nyals A. Andreason, thanks to a reader.
According to an online obituary, Nyals graduated from Brigham Young University and was a computer program analyst. He was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in 1983 married his wife, Judith, at the LDS Temple in Los Angeles. His survivors included a son, stepchildren, grandchildren, siblings and his father.
Now for the bizarre touch: Nyals died Dec. 11, 2006, a day after the 49th anniversary of the holdup in which Baron the dog was shot--and less than two weeks before the anniversary of the fatal holdup.
This began as a story about a dog and ended in death.
On Dec. 10, 1957, a gunman shot a German shepherd named Baron that had
been ordered to attack as the robber was leaving a liquor store at
15023 Leffingwell Road, La Mirada.
The Times said that clerk Robert M. Nelson had taken precautions after
a previous holdup by concealing a .45-caliber pistol under the counter
and teaching his dog to attack. When the robber was backing out of the
store, Nelson dropped behind the counter, fired at the gunman and
ordered: "Get him, Baron!"
Nelson missed, but Baron was almost on top of the gunman when he was
shot twice in the chest, with one bullet lodging near his spine. The
dog was taken to a local veterinarian, where he was under observation
to see if he would recover from being partially paralyzed.
This close call did nothing to dissuade the gunman from further
holdups, however, and on Dec. 26, 1957, he shot clerk Paul Robertson,
44, as he and a companion were robbing a liquor store at 14317
Studebaker Road, Norwalk. Robertson lingered for a few days before
dying of a bullet wound to the abdomen.
On Jan. 6, 1958, police in Las Vegas arrested Nyals A. Andreason, 16,
and Charles Galbraith, 16, as runaways and found they were carrying
$300 ($2,149.59 USD 2006) and a .22-caliber revolver. Under
questioning, the youths admitted they were part of the "Black Mask
Gang," a group of Norwalk teenagers that was responsible for killing
Robertson and for the holdup in which Baron was shot.
To say that Nyals T. Andreason, the principal of Centennial
Intermediate School in Norwalk, was stunned by the arrest of his oldest
son is to do injustice to the word.
Andreason, a devout Mormon and the founder of the Norwalk YMCA, didn't
think it was possible. Nyals was a "sweet boy," he said. In fact, "They
were all good boys, just trying a crazy adventure." He had no idea
Nyals had bought a .22 on a Thanksgiving trip to Utah, he said.
Nyals didn't need the money, his father said. "He saved $200 from
delivering papers. He works in a supermarket and does a wonderful job.
He has two bank accounts--one with $150 and the other with $190."
Andreason refused to believe the allegations until he heard the
confession from his son's lips. Wasn't the Excelsior High School
student "considered by his teachers as 'one of the nicest boys in the
school?' "
"He's broken up," the father told The Times. "He said, 'Dad, I didn't
mean to hurt anyone. I was just doing it for a lark. The fellow told us
to get out and I was just going to shoot at a bottle.' "
In identifying gang members, Nyals implicated his younger brother
Aaron, 14, and said they were also responsible for robbing another
liquor store at 14147 Imperial Blvd., and burglarizing Norwalk High
School.
Nyals and gang member William G. Hughes were tried as adults
and convicted of manslaughter and robbery.
Paroled in less than a year, Nyals A. Andreason was arrested in 1963
after he drew a .22-caliber semiautomatic on two sheriff's deputies in
Norwalk (50 years ago, officers were apparently far less likely to use
deadly force than they are today). He was charged with the armed robbery of two homes in
Pico Rivera.
The Times never pursued this story, so there's no further information
on Nyals A. Andreason or his father. According to an online obituary,
Nyals T. Andreason and his wife, Mary, who died in 2005, were active in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and upon retirement
moved back to Salina, Utah. We can only hope that in later years,
things somehow turned out for the best.
Marines from Camp Elliott in San Diego pose with some of the 3,000 Christmas trees they cut in Sequoia National Forest for use in hospitals, military camps and USO centers in Southern California. Most of the Marines had returned to the U.S. after serving overseas, The Times said.
And here's a close-up of some of the men. Merry, Christmas, guys!
Photograph by William S. Murphy / Los Angeles Times
Darryl Anness, 4, receives a gift from Santa Claus at the annual party held at the Hollywood Bowl for the Crippled Children's Society. To the right is Harry Ramsburg holding his son Johnny, 3.
As far as I can determine, there is only one outdoor mailbox "near the cathedral" and it's in front of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration on Hill Street just south of Temple, less than half of block from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. (The cathedral is a beautiful building, by the way; be sure to visit).
People who are unfamiliar with downtown Los Angeles may not realize that this mailbox is in a heavily traveled part of the Civic Center. Like the cathedral, it is on Hill Street, a main artery feeding cars from the Pasadena Freeway into downtown Los Angeles.
Important cultural and government buildings are concentrated in this area, including including the Music Center (kitty-corner from the cathedral to the west), the Hall of Records (kitty-corner from the cathedral to the east), the Criminal Courts Building (one block east of the cathedral on Temple) and the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, which is just south of the Hall of Administration.
In other words, this area has heavy pedestrian traffic and lots of motor vehicles. With two courthouses nearby, it's also crawling with attorneys and law enforcement officers. And then there are all these surveillance cameras, mounted on the Hall of Administration, above the intersections and even on the cathedral (trust me, there are even more that I didn't photograph).
And yet, despite the presence of all these people and vehicles, and the heavy surveillance by security cameras, apparently not a single person saw one of the most prominent men in Los Angeles being viciously beaten and kicked in broad daylight (pickup at mailbox No. 9001200082 is Monday-Friday at 4:30 p.m. I have to assume that if the mail was so urgent that the cardinal was delivering it himself he was trying to get there ahead of the mail carrier).
Huntington Park Postmaster George J. Nevin observes high school students hired to help deliver an unprecedented volume of Christmas mail. On a recent day, the Huntington Park post office canceled 250,000 letters and packages, handled 50,000 packages and sold $5,000 ($56,319.06 USD 2006) in War Bonds, The Times said.
Larry Harnisch. The leading Black Dahlia expert and a collaborator in the 1947project, Harnisch has been a copy editor at The Times since 1988. He has appeared on many TV shows discussing the Dahlia case, notably "James Ellroy's Feast of Death."
Join him for a spin through old Los Angeles in the Mirror's radio car. Keep your eyes open for Mickey Cohen and Tempest Storm. It's quite a ride.
The reporter's badge belonged to Sid Hughes (1908-1958), legendary reporter who worked at nearly every newspaper in Los Angeles.
Keith Thursby. Keith has been an editor at The Times in news, sports and design since 1986. The Rams moved to St. Louis on his first day as assistant sports editor of the paper's Orange County edition. He grew up in Norwalk and lives in Irvine.
Larry Harnisch. The leading Black Dahlia expert and a collaborator in the 1947project, Harnisch has been a copy editor at The Times since 1988. He has appeared on many TV shows discussing the Dahlia case, notably "James Ellroy's Feast of Death."
Join him for a spin through old Los Angeles in the Mirror's radio car. Keep your eyes open for Mickey Cohen and Tempest Storm. It's quite a ride.
The reporter's badge belonged to Sid Hughes (1908-1958), legendary reporter who worked at nearly every newspaper in Los Angeles.
Keith Thursby. Keith has been an editor at The Times in news, sports and design since 1986. The Rams moved to St. Louis on his first day as assistant sports editor of the paper's Orange County edition. He grew up in Norwalk and lives in Irvine.