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At left, Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty! But wait, there's roller derby: the San Francisco Bay Bombers vs. the Los Angeles Braves!
Talk about mind-rotting nostalgia: "Heckle and Jeckle," "Mighty Mouse" and "Howdy Doody."
And, hmm.... "Bowling Time" or "Topper"? Oh, I think I'll watch "Topper."
Tough choice at 8 p.m.: Gale Storm, Perry Como or Spade Cooley.
On second thought, I'll wait until 8:30 p.m. for "Have Gun, Will Travel."
Best of all: "Perry Mason."
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 Floyd Roberts of Van Nuys, who gained much of his experience on the dirt track at Ascot, wins the Indianapolis 500.
Roberts averaged 117.2 mph in a four-cylinder car (at left) built and owned by Lou Moore and designed by Harry Miller, both of Los Angeles.
In Oakland, Earl Ortman of Los Angeles sets a record in closed-course speed flying, 265.539 mph.
James Bailey Cash Jr., 5, is kidnapped from his bed in Princeton, Fla. The FBI searches for clues in the abduction and killing of 12-year-old Peter Levine of New Rochelle, N.Y., as the boy's mutilated body is cremated. (Franklin Pierce McCall is convicted of killing the Cash child and executed in the electric chair. The Levine kidnapping was never solved.)
And rumors spread in Vienna as the Nazis round up hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of Jews, according to incomplete reports.
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Above and at left, the "white and many-pillared mansion of commerce" opens at Broadway and 8th in Los Angeles.
According to The Times, Hamburger's Department Store was the largest building on the West Coast and had California's first escalator.
In 1923, Hamburger's was sold to the May Co., which renovated the building in 1924.
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At left, a quote from a 12-part series running in The Times. Howard Whitman is identified as a "noted writer and commentator." After filing stories from wartime London in 1944 and the D-day invasion, Whitman returned to such fare as "Smoldering Youth" (1946), "Sex Education Grows Up" (1948) and "What Makes Good Girls Bad?" (1949).
"Modern science for the most part views homosexuality as a personality disease, comparable to alcoholism or drug addiction"
-- Howard Whitman," from "Crisis in Morales"
After "Crisis in Morals," Whitman wrote "Our Drinking Habits" (1958), "Frontiers in Living" (1960) and "The U.S. Way of Love" (1964).
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May 28, 1908
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May 29, 1908
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We will have to trust the Los Angeles Times when it says Peje Storck was a famous pianist of his day. According to The Times, the pianist arrived in town in 1903 with English violinist Herbert Ritchie, who studied with violin virtuoso Eugene Ysaye. (The Times refers to Storck as Norweigian in some articles in and Swedish in others).
The duo performed many concerts in Los Angeles and received glowing reviews in The Times. "Mr. Storck's art is finished, his tone limpid, lucent, pure, his intellectual force unusual, his execution flawless and his mental attitude that of a poet and idealist," The Times said Nov. 21, 1903.
But we will have to trust the Los Angeles Police Department that Storck was gay--of course even as late as the 1940s, newspapers didn't dare use words like "homosexual."
Instead, The Times tiptoed around the matter, saying: "Storck was arrested in a small private room of the 4th Street depot of the Los Angeles-Pacific Railway Co. Seven other men were arrested at the same time, all charged with vagrancy. The real offense was that attributed to Oscar Wilde."
"... police received complaints ... that a number of well-dressed, well-appearing men were making themselves obnoxious at the 4th Street station. Officers Cline and Cook were sent to the station to watch. They arrested the men one at a time, whenever they could secure direct evidence and Storck was taken with several others."
Despite the intercession of many prominent individuals, Storck was sentenced to six months on the chain gang, where he was forced to work with "Negroes, cholos and tramps," The Times said.
After that, Storck vanishes from The Times. All we know is that in January 1909, state Sen. Estudillo of Riverside introduced a bill calling for a year in prison for the "unmentionable offenses" so that "degenerates of his class" would "not get off so easily in the future."
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Above and at left. two World War I planes are parked with a Super Sabre to publicize a flight to Pittsburgh for an air show. Times aviation writer Marvin Miles noted that the planes had machine guns, Vickers on the Nieuport 28 and Spandaus on the Fokker D-VII ...
Also: A three-column picture of Charles Stack and his mother, Rosemarie Bowe, while his father Robert Stack is filming a movie in Spain ... A witness tells a state Senate panel that the Mexican border should be closed to those who don't have passports or visas to curb drug traffic.
"It is no coincidence that a flood of heroin started coming in when the Communists completed consolidation of the Orient," Robert A. Neeb Jr. says.
And the Biltmore Theater at 5th Street and Grand is sold after a 34-year run. The site, at left, was used for expansion of what is now the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. (Note: Google's street view gets horribly confused if you try to follow 5th Street from Spring to Grand in downtown Los Angeles).
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Photograph by the Los Angeles Times
Police chemist Ray Pinker with the steering wheel from Harry Raymond's car, in a photo from the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette dated May 4, 1938.
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At left, here's where we see corruption spread through City Hall like cancer: Allegations that defense witnesses in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette were given city jobs. Although one witness denies any such deal, it's interesting to see how many defense witnesses happened to have jobs with the Health Department.
With the jury excused, the judge asks the defense attorneys how much longer they need to present their case.
"It is very obvious that the jury paid little if any attention at all to the testimony that has been offered here this morning. I believe that they think we are wasting their time. I think it is wise to find out where we are going."
--Judge Thomas L. Ambrose
Also: Chief James Davis' rock garden is dedicated at the Police Academy ... downtown is wreathed with colorful banners for the Shriners' convention ... A witness in a lawsuit says he conferred with Joe Shaw, the mayor's brother, about a Mexican radio station but declines to reveal whether the station was going to broadcast gambling results.
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Above and at left, I'm not sure which is more remarkable, the story about Kate Welsh, the sister of prizefighter Fred Welsh, or the byline: Louise M. George.
As late as the 1950s, reporters rarely got bylines, so it's impossible to tell who wrote a story, making it especially difficult to determine how many women writers were working in a newsroom in the early 20th century. The usual assumption is that they were rare and relegated to the women's pages.
But Louise M. George is not only remarkable for being a newswoman, even more noteworthy: she wrote about boxing. Not just this story, but a few others as well. Don't get me wrong, she also wrote a fair number of society stories, but she made occasional ventures into sports.
Here's a sample of her writing about Kate Welsh: "... the boxers (I believe that is the polite name) had on shockingly few clothes but every man straightened himself and forgot the coarse jest on the tip of his tongue when this slip of a girl drew near."
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Photograph by the Los Angeles Times, dated April 13, 1938
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Above, the defendants and their attorneys in the Harry Raymond bombing ... At left, more angry exchanges between Deputy Dist. Atty. Eugene Williams and Police Capt. Earle Kynette ...
Also: The mayor of Santa Monica, accompanied by police, orders the gambling ship Rex to cease operations. The order also applies to water taxis ferrying people to the ship ... A furious brawl breaks out between strikers and police at the Goodyear plant in Akron, Ohio, injuring more than 100 people ... And Congress begins the investigation of un-American activities after Rep. Martin Dies (D-Texas) reports on gatherings of Nazi sympathizers in the U.S. At one Nazi "camp," a speaker advocated the assassination of President Roosevelt, Dies says, without identifying the camp or the speaker.
On the jump, extensive quotes from Kynette's testimony under questioning by Williams.
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Los Angeles Times file photo
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Well?
- Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons? Alas no.
- Margaret Dumont? Sorry, no.
- Doris Kenyon and Theda Bara? (Alexa Foreman). Theda Bara yes! Very good. Doris Kenyon, alas no.
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Above, time to start planning summer getaways to Tahoe ... At left, fruit peddler Leonardo Vett, accused, along with his wife, of stealing diamonds from local jewelry shops.
"Vett looks like a Jew but says he is an Italian," The Times says in one of those stunning details that fill early 20th century newspapers, adding: "His wife, a pretty little woman with soft, dark eyes and a wealth of dark hair, cannot speak a word of English."
Also, Police Sgt. Sebastian (I wonder if this is future Police Chief Charles Sebastian) is blockading stores in Chinatown suspected of running opium dens on the side--at least to white customers. White men are willing to pay more for drugs than Chinese American customers and blocking the whites has forced several stores to close, The Times says.
What about Chinese American opium addicts? Apparently that's not considered a problem.
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May 27, 1958
By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer
Even without a team, Wrigley Field was always ready for its closeup.
The ballpark had more than its
share of film and TV credits during its years in Los Angeles, from the
"The Pride of the Yankees" to "The Munsters." Wrigley Field also was
the location for the television show "Home Run Derby," where major
league hitters competed for up to $2,000 an episode. Yes, it was a long
time ago.
In 1958, Wrigley Field became a
location for the musical "Damn Yankees." The story focused on a
longtime Washington Senators fan who gets his wish and is transformed
into a slugger leading the hapless Senators past the hated Yankees. Of
course, it's not that simple and there's dancing and singing.
Writing in The Times, Jeane
Hoffman pokes some fun at the Dodgers while describing the action.
Writes Hoffman: "There was the thought that the Dodgers, lounging in
last place, might profitably emulate ... the dancing on toes, split
leaps and graceful whirls. But then things are bad enough."
Hoffman mentions star Tab
Hunter as the only "player" who looked at home on a baseball field.
Also noticed was Bob Fosse, a 30-year-old dancer taking Casey Stengel's
place as manager of the Yankees. Calls himself a choreographer, Hoffman
writes.
You could say that. He
eventually won eight Tony Awards for choreography, another for
direction, and won an Academy Award as best director for "Cabaret".
As for the Senators and
Yankees, the real variety returned to Wrigley Field in 1961 when the
Angels played their first season in Los Angeles.
keith.thursby@latimes.com
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May 27, 1958
By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer
Walter O'Malley wanted it clearly understood he wasn't going anywhere.
"The players and our staff want to stay in Los Angeles. We like the location, the weather, the fans and the attendance records," O'Malley said during a news conference covered by The Times' Al Wolf. "We plan to be in Los Angeles permanently. I pledge myself to try to keep major league baseball here."
O'Malley was responding to statements by National League President Warren Giles, who apparently was concerned that Los Angeles voters might reject Prop. B in local elections June 3. The ballot measure was a vote on the contract already forged by the Dodgers and the city to build a baseball stadium in Chavez Ravine.
Giles said that if voters turned down Prop. B, thus turning down the contract and putting the new stadium in jeopardy, he would recommend finding another city for the Dodgers to call home. According to Wolf's story, it would take at least a 6-2 vote by National League owners to force the Dodgers to move.
It's hard to imagine why Giles made such a fuss. Forcing the Dodgers to move after barely a season in Los Angeles would call into question further attempts to expand or move west. And abandoning Los Angeles would leave the San Francisco Giants as the only West Coast team. That would make for some awkward road trips for teams traveling west.
Perhaps he was only trying to suggest baseball fans get out and vote. The Times' story noted that Giles sent O'Malley a telegram insisting that he only wanted to state the facts in the case.
O'Malley was asked about his plans if Prop. B was defeated.
"I have no plans for the simple reason that I can't conceive of the proposition losing," he said. "I am playing this thing right down to the wire without considering any possible alternatives."
keith.thursby@latimes.com
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Above and at left, authorities arrest five members of the July 26 Movement in a plot to make arms for Fidel Castro's rebel army in Cuba. A machine shop set up in a garage at 3144 Oakwood Ave., Lynwood, was apparently using first-class equipment to turn out well-made arms.
Also: Gene Sherman writes about a horse-racing scam using postcards to solicit bets ... an analysis of violence during Vice President Nixon's tour of Venezuela ... And massing of the colors for Memorial Day at St. Paul's Cathedral. (Some of you may recall that in the 1950s, Memorial Day was celebrated May 30).
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May 26, 1958
By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer
The next time you go to Dodger Stadium, imagine arriving on express buses that stop right in front of the ballpark. When the game is over, the buses will be waiting to take you home. But don't forget to pick up your kids. The youngest will be in the nursery for preschoolers and the older ones will be playing in the 40-acre recreational area built adjacent to the ballpark.
These were a couple of features announced to the public by Joe E. Brown, a Hollywood personality who was chairman of the Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball.
It's not uncommon for ballparks to have plans that don't make it into reality. But you have to appreciate the timing of making this early vision public with the June 3 election in Los Angeles looming. At stake, after all, was the construction of the Chavez Ravine stadium.
Brown said the instructions by Dodger owner Walter O'Malley to his architects were to "make this the baseball showplace of the world and preliminary plans indicate it will be just that."
He might as well have added, don't forget to vote.
keith.thursby@latimes.com
Photograph by the Los Angeles Times
Harry Raymond testifies about his injuries from the bomb placed in his car, in a photo dated April 30, 1938.
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Police Capt. Earle Kynette insists that he is being framed as he argues with Deputy Dist. Atty. Eugene Williams over the transcript of an Oct. 3, 1937, conversation recorded by the LAPD between Clifford Clinton, Dave Hutton Jr. and Hutton's wife.
Clinton sounds like he's honest: "She has to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth..."
But the names he throws around must have scared City Hall: Joe Shaw and Guy McAfee.
Clinton says: "Joe Shaw is with the administration. Joe Shaw runs our city. Joe Shaw is the mayor's brother, you see, and is the mayor's secretary, who watches. Handles the mayor's--that particular stuff as he does the city government. It's one and the same thing. Most of these things that are--work right out of the mayor's office."
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May 25, 1958
Wow! Some day in the future, students will have computers in the classroom! Notice that none of them are texting their pals or playing World of Warcraft! |
Photograph by Andrew H. Arnott / The Los Angeles Times
Attorney Joe Fainer, left, and police chemist Ray Pinker examine pieces of Harry Raymond's bombed-out car in a photo dated May 6, 1938.
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Police Capt. Earle Kynette testifies in the Harry Raymond bombing, saying that police chemist Ray Pinker didn't find detonator wire while searching Kynette's garage. It's ordinary bell wire, Kynette says.
Kynette also attempts to link Raymond to a series of notorious Los Angeles killings, including the deaths of Harry "Mile Away" Thomas and George "Les" Bruneman.
Also on the cover, Max Baer Jr. is recovering from pneumonia--in fact he will live to play Jethro Bodine in "The Beverly Hillbillies."
George Thompson of Beacon, N.Y., is given a six-month suspended sentence for spanking his daughter Loretta because she stayed out past midnight. Loretta is 34 years old.
And Republican Assemblyman William B. Hornblower of San Francsico is accused of accepting $2,500 ($35,748.84 USD 2007) to kill a bill that would have closed Monterey Bay to commercial fishing.
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Above, The Times interviews Manitoba Police Chief E.J. Elliott, who is visiting from Canada to extradite a fraud suspect.
At left, a parishioner stabs a priest after Mass at a church in Salisbury, Mo. As he lay bleeding and expected to die, Father Joseph F. Lubeley expressed forgiveness for his attacker, Joseph Schuette. Lubeley recovered, The Times reported the next day. There is no further word on what became of Schuette, who was apparently angry with the priest over his intervention in an argument with another farmer.
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May 24, 1958
By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer
A day after saying Los Angeles could lose the Dodgers if voters don't back a plan to build a stadium in Chavez Ravine, National League President Warren Giles turned politician. He played both sides of the fence.
Giles insisted to a Times reporter that he wasn't threatening Los Angeles or making an ultimatum when he suggested that a defeat of Prop. B in the June 3 election would mean National League owners would work to find the Dodgers a new city. Preferably one that wanted to build a new stadium.
"All I am doing is stating the facts," Giles told The Times' Frank Finch. "I am not presumptuous enough to indicate how the citizens of Los Angeles should vote."
Of course not.
In the same story, Giles said there would be no difficulty in finding a new city for the Dodgers to call home. He wouldn't get specific, but the story mentioned Minneapolis, Houston and Toronto as prospects.
Meanwhile, the issue seemed to bring out the best in two of Los Angeles' best quotes, Mayor Norris Poulson and City Councilman Patrick McGee.
"Los Angeles would be the laughingstock of the nation if we went back on our word," said Poulson. And in the other corner, here's McGee: "Giles' threat is an insult to the intelligence of the people of the city of Los Angeles."
keith.thursby@latimes.com
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Above, 16 people are injured at a balloon ascension in Berkeley when the gas bag ruptures at an altitude of 300 feet and the airship plunges to earth. The hydrogen gas bag, made of cotton treated with kerosene oil, was 450 feet long, 36 feet in diameter and the ship was powered by five auto engines, The Times says. (This was an enormous aircraft, twice the length of a 747, which has a fuselage 225 feet long).
The victims include the inventor, John A. Morrell, and several photographers.
Unfortunately, The Times never says what became of Morrell except that he was charged with obtaining money under false pretenses.
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A panel from "Buster Brown," May 24, 1908.
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690 S. Burlington, Los Angeles, Calif.
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Above, still standing after more than a century, a few blocks east of MacArthur Park. This home in Pico Heights once belonged to H.R. Lacy, The Times says.
According to Property Shark, the neighborhood is 70% Hispanic and Latino, 34% white, 20% Asian, 3% black or African American and 37% "others." (Yes, this adds up to more than 100%. Welcome to L.A.)
45% of the people in this neighborhood are citizens and 4% speak English, Property Shark says.
And there are 73 registered sex offenders living in this ZIP Code (90057), according to the Department of Justice.
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May 23, 1958
By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer
 A heavy hitter jo
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