April 10, 1938

Above, an interesting picture. Keep your eye on Police Capt. Peter Del Gado. And no, in case you're wondering, the Haldeman of Savage-Haldeman Pontiac is Henry F. Haldeman. Harry F. Haldeman was the father of H.R. "Bob" Haldeman of Watergate fame. Below, needy children belonging to an organization called the Knothole Gang attend a showing of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." The youngsters are extending their arms to salute the flag, in case you are wondering. I've never seen this type of salute before. Maybe someone can shed some light on the issue ... Harry Raymond is ready to testify in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette ... Officials tighten enforcement of a dog quarantine due to the risk of rabies ... And Senaida Guzman, granddaughter of Don Antonio Rocha I, who received the land grant for Rancho La Brea, dies at the age of 69.

Email me

Comments

[jaded]

wow, handcrafted leather shoes for less than $15...

but what the heck is "chaudon"?

[Joe Vogel]

The photos of Americans doing the stiff-arm salute now so closely associated with German Fascism are not very common, but they are out there. Libertarian conspiracy theorist and flag salute opponent Rex Curry would say it's all part of the plan to conceal the true origin of the flag salute as part of a plan by Socialists, Theosophists and the Freemasons to brainwash Americans into accepting big government. Curry has made such a nuisance of himself on the Internet that he's actually been banned from Wikipedia, which has even banned links to his website from any of its pages. Given the amount of tripe that does make it onto Wikipedia, Curry's virtual absence from the site is telling.

You can visit Curry's own website to see many more historic photos of Americans doing the stiff arm salute, and read Curry's own take on that salute's apparent origin in American Socialism (he points out that Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge of Allegiance, was a socialist, and the sister of Edward Bellamy, author of the Utopian socialist novel "Looking Backward." That a passage in that novel is said to have provided the inspiration for the Bradbury Building's atrium gives an interesting Los Angelean connection to the whole thing.) Nuisance or not, Curry's evidence that the stiff-armed salute was used in the U.S. long before it was picked up by the Nazi's is compelling. I think we have to give the conspiracy theorists this one.

If you don't want to give Curry's site any traffic, go to the L.A. Public Library's website, click on the "Regional History" link and, on the resulting page, the link to the Department of Water and Power's collection of historic photos, and then search on "salute", and you'll find a photo of DWP employees giving the stiff-armed salute to the American flag. The site identifies the photo as being from 1930, but the shiny, streamlined cars in the picture reveal the real date as several years later- possibly as late as 1939.