Matt Weinstock

Feb. 21, 1958

In addition to their other credentials, newspaper photographers must now carry letters signed by Police Chief William H. Parker authorizing them to listen to police radio calls.

With the understanding, that is, that they will use these permits only in connection with their work.

No ambulance chasing on the side, see? Or Ordinance 92,524, Section 52.44 of the Municipal Code will getcha. Section 52.44 states it is unlawful for a person in a vehicle to listen to police and fire messages broadcast over transmitting stations operated by the LAPD.

THIS LATEST INSULT to the intelligence of hard-working newspapermen is an outgrowth of a case last June.

Two men were arrested at the scene of an accident in Canoga Park for taking pictures of the wrecked cars. Officers said they had repeatedly seen the youths at accidents and had reason to believe they later offered such pictures for sale to insurance companies as evidence. Obviously, the youths had hastened to the scene of the collision after hearing the report broadcast on the police radio.

When their case came up in court, however, Municipal Judge Harry C. Shepherd quickly freed them, declaring the ordinance unconstitutional.

He said at the time, "I don't see how by the greatest stretch of the imagination that the City Council, the state Legislature or the U.S. Congress can tell me what I can or cannot listen to over the radio."

Parker immediately announced he was disregarding Judge Shepherd's opinion and had instructed his men to continue to arrest unauthorized persons caught listening to police calls on their car radios.

The photogs shrug off the whole matter as merely another instance of the petulance that emanates from the chief's office.

ONLY IN L.A. -- During Wednesday's downpour a young woman who recently moved into a new home on the edge of a canyon got a call from her mother, who asked anxiously if the newly planted lawn and trees were holding firm.

"I've stopped worrying about the backyard," said the frantic daughter. "I'm just hoping the house won't float down the hill."

AS THOSE WHO are precise about such things know, it's Colorado Street (not boulevard) in Pasadena. And St. Luke Hospital, not St. Luke's.

Well, they're building a wing to the hospital and a sign proudly proclaims the addition as St. Luke's.

AND THEN, observes Ernest Oplatka of Sun Valley, there's the one about the new man on the rubbish collection truck who had such a hard time figuring out front from back from side on the ultra-contemporary home that he summoned the owner and said, "Take me to your litter!"

 

Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection in the the Regional History Collection of USC Libraries
Above, July 24, 1958, mechanics move an MG that was damaged when a man repeatedly smashed the car into a Malibu drugstore in hopes that he could commit suicide by making the building collapse on him. He suffered minor scratches but caused $75,000 damage to the store.

At top, Aug. 7, 1958, Marilyn Monroe plays “Happy Days Are Here Again” after learning that her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, had been acquitted of contempt of Congress for declining to name former Communist associates. Monroe was preparing to film "Some Like It Hot," in which she plays a ukulele. From "Mobsters, Molls, and Mayhem: A Year in the Life of Los Angeles" at the Doheny Library.

ONLY IN Sherman Oaks--A woman answered the doorbell and was confronted by a little girl who asked, "Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"

She said she was sorry, she had already bought some. Then she noticed standing alongside the Girl Scout a mad carrying a shopping bag full of the ookiecays.

MISCELLANY -- A new nurse at General Hospital got lost trying to find one of the neighboring buildings. A taxi driver, seeing her plight, directed her. But a little while later he saw her again, still lost. She'd completed a circle without finding the building. So he drove her to her destination without charge, a nice thing.

Seymour Westerman has an employee who makes up his own words to describe things. The other day he reported, "The office we delivered the desk to was very small but the owner insisted that we put it khaki corner and while we were moving it one of the legs carbunkled right under it."

John Richards, who spent some time in Japan, says the Japanese pronounced it Sy-a-natta. 

Comments

[Michael in LA]

That nut ruined a perfectly good MGA. Wonder where it ended up?