Paul Coates

March 6, 1958

I was visited yesterday by one of the women who placed the following classified ad in a local community newspaper:

WIVES of union members who protested conditions at Union Headquarters--sued by Union officials for 1/2 million dollars--need money desperately for defense of lawsuit by April 1st. We will sew, wash, iron, scrub, do yard work and rough carpentry. GE 3-7209, ME 3-8703.

The lady gave her name as Mrs. Clara Alberty. She wasn't timid about giving her age, either.

"I'm 60," she told me. "Two years younger than my husband."

I asked Mrs. Alberty to sit down and she did--on the edge of her chair.

She clasped her hands together and began:

"My husband is a member of Local 250, Steamfitters Union. I like unions," she said. "They're wonderful if they're run right. But this one isn't run right."

Mrs. Alberty opened her purse and handed me the classified ad. I read it.

"What happened," she explained, " is that when a reform group moved in and tried to clean the mess up, the local was suspended by the international.

"Their men are running it now, and it's no better than it ever was. Our men can't even get a decent day's work now."

"How did the wives get involved?" I asked.

Mrs. Alberty leaned further forward on her chair.

"Well, naturally, we all took a little interest in our husbands' work. We got together now and then and finally, last year, we decided to form a ladies auxiliary--a social club.

But at the meetings we got so riled up at what was happening to our husbands--at the way some of the officials were stealing money from them and the way the goons and ex-cons were coming from the East to take over their jobs--that we finally decided to do something about it.

"So, last fall, we set up a picket line of wives. We carried big signs telling the union bosses what we thought of them."

"What did the signs say?" I asked.

 

Mrs. Alberty smiled. "Oh, they said plenty. Things like 'McClellan, Where Are You?' "

"Are all the wives being sued?"

"Oh no," she answered. "They just picked out seven of us. Seven whose husbands were active in the reform movement."

"Who's doing the suing?" I said.

"There's a Mr. Schoemann, he's head of the International," she answered. "And a Mr. Gelski. He's the man Mr. Schoemann sent out here to manage things after he took away our local autonomy."

Mrs. Alberty continued:

"My husband was getting lots of work until the local was suspended. But he hasn't been given a job out of the local since last May. He's had to work out of Riverside.

"Lots of others have just moved away. They've been starved out. But they're not going to starve me out. This is my home. I shouldn't leave."

"What does the suit charge you with?" I said.

"Well," Mrs. Alberty spoke, "we picketed them a few times and we hung them in effigy once. They're suing us for libel."

"And you go to court next month?"

"That's right. They've got a lot of money--some of it our own money we paid in dues ... against us. But I think we'll come out all right. We've got some facts."

I handed the classified ad back to Mrs. Alberty. Standing, she folded it and placed it in her purse.

"This ad wasn't just a joke," she said. "We still need money to fight them. And like our men, we're not afraid of work."

Lies and consequences

Perhaps other folks were shocked by the revelation that "Love and Consequences" by Margaret B. Jones, a.k.a. Margaret Seltzer, was a complete fake. It was old news to me.

Here's my own experience, from Donald H. Wolfe's 2005 "The Black Dahlia Files," published by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins.

As a published author, Wolfe was granted access to the Los Angeles County district attorney's files on the 1947 Black Dahlia case. To bolster his absurd contention that Elizabeth Short was killed by Bugsy Siegel, Wolfe produced what appeared to be an official document.

Let me show you how he faked it.

First we take this authentic memo:

Then we snip off the top:

Then we get another memo:

And we snip a piece of out that:

And get another piece from the next page:

The finished product looks like this and appears on Page 198 of "The Black Dahlia Files":

I originally pointed this out two years ago. Was the book recalled? Ha! Did anyone involved with the book apologize? You can't be serious! Did Wolfe respond to a request for a comment? Of course not! This is how the book publishing industry works, folks. You should be outraged, you should be sad but you should not be surprised. This will surely happen again until the industry's attitude changes. It is really no more complicated than that.

Email me

March 6, 1958

Above, Hey look what I found! An interview with Saul Bass. Is this cool or what? Below, Marie McDonald and Harry Karl, alias "Karl the Shoe Man." You may recall earlier posts about the Jane Russell film "Fuzzy Pink Nightgown." This is what I was talking about ...

Email me

March 6, 1938

It's Sunday in Los Angeles, which means The Times runs all our special weekly features. At top, the home plan of the week. Above, a full page ad for Camels in the comics, showing that champion skaters smoke like chimneys without affecting their endurance. Below, another incident with Japanese troops, this time in Shanghai, and  recovery from the storm continues ... Stokowski and Garbo? Really?! ... At bottom, another photo page of the destruction.

Email me

March 6, 1908

Fritz Kreisler and ostriches, with the White Sox thrown in. No shortage of things to do in 1908 Los Angeles ... Below, in an ideal world The Times would have packaged its three stories about red activists, two on the cover of the second section and one inside. All are worth reading. One talks about immigration agents targeting socialists and malcontents--native and foreign-born. In another, a fire official traveling with the White Sox talks about revolutionaries in Chicago. The third reports on a meeting of activists. To be sure, the writing is incredibly slanted. But the account is vivid and immediate.

 

Email me

Matt Weinstock

March 5, 1958

A few days before his father died in 1936, F.B. Kelley sent him a postal money order for $50.

Last month, in going through some old papers, Kelley came upon the familiar green piece of paper--uncashed.

It was made out at Rockefeller Center Station, New York, Serial No. 345914, dated Nov. 17, 1936.

Kelley, advance man for the play "Middle of the Night" at the Biltmore Theater, tried to cash it. He was told he'd have to fill out a form requesting issuance of a duplicate and submit it to the Money Order Center in St. Louis. He did.

A few weeks ago he received a printed slip stating, "We regret that it is not possible to accord favorable consideration to your claim as the Public Law No. 65 (84th Congress) stipulates no money order shall be paid after 20 years from the last day of the month of original issue."

"Everywhere I travel I see post offices," says Kelley, who lives in Delaware, Ohio, "so I assume they are still in business. But that doesn't get me back my $50. I suppose a law is a law."

G. BERNARD SHAW, in his day a stern advocate of spelling reform, once spelled fish as ghoti--the gh as "rough," the o as in "women," the ti as in "fiction."

Publicist Felix Mendelsohn Jr., who agrees with old G.B.S., has taken it from there and coined the word potzwabshmuckeling.

Pronounce the p as in "psalm," the o as in "leopard," the l as in "valet," z as in "rendezvous," w as in "wrong," a as in "head," b as in "tomb," s as in "demesne," h as in "catarrh," m as in "mnemonic," u as in "four," c as in "czar," k as in "know," e as in "awe," l as in "could," i as in "cruise," n as in "condemn" and g as in "reign."

In short, potzwabshmuckeling is an utter deathlike silence.

ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD -- A man named Al who lives in a second-floor flat answered the doorbell at 11:35 the other night and a young man said, "I'm with an organization that's trying to help people. We're making a survey--"

Talk about fully loaded: This GMC pickup has a dome light! A lock on the glove compartment! Vinyl insulation instead of cardboard!!!!

 

"Not at 25 minutes to 12, you're not," interrupted Al, "and if you don't get out of here I'll throw you out!"

The young man fled but ever since Al has been wondering, are things that tough?

A MATRON met a friend at a women's club and after a few minutes' chatter reached in her purse and said, "Have I shown you the latest snapshots of my grandchildren?"

"No," squelched the friend, "and I'm certainly grateful to you."

SILVER LINING NOTE -- Vic Knight argues that people shouldn't worry about a recession or whatever it is. Any day now, he predicts, all the things amateur do-it-yourselfers put together will start falling apart and professional craftsmen will be called in to correct their mistakes, creating a business upturn.

MISCELLANY -- One of the most popular desk signs at Northrop is "Are you helping solve the problem or are you part of it?" ... L.E. Emigh of Woodland Hills is afraid his wife is watching too many TV westerns. When she drives her tiny Metropolitan on the Hollywood Freeway she gets a panicky feelings, "like the head heifer in a stampede" ... Diabolic inquiry from Barney Hutchison: "Tell me, is President Hagerty's golf game improving?" ... The internal revenuers have been checking Irish sweepstakes winners in Culver City. So beware, happy horse players ... Have you noticed, people say "There's more truth than poetry" when there isn't a fragment of verse in sight ... Nobody will believe it but a gray squirrel has joined the blue jays, sparrows, towhees, juncos and thrushes in the backyard. Permits you to come within about three feet before jumping onto a tree. Loco, hombre, loco!

       

Found on EBay

Regular reader Callbox Sam pointed out this item on EBay: A copy of the Feb. 8, 1947, Herald-Express with the Page 1 story about Joseph Dumais' confession in the Black Dahlia killing. Dumais conned Army investigators (but not the LAPD) that he was the killer. He had nothing to do with it. The item is listed as $499. Would I pay that kind of money? No way. Your mileage may vary, however.

Email me

Pellicano file

June 29, 1977

Isn't this a grim little story.... How odd that Pellicano was involved in it. Hm.

March 5, 1958

Above, note the longstanding popularity of mysteries--alas, the Daily Mirror won't be doing mystery tunes anytime soon. Below, a prowler who cures his nausea by being a peeping Tom is arrested near the scene of the Marjorie Hipperson killing ...  He is later cleared in that murder but is arrested on a couple of old traffic warrants, never to appear in The Times again ... Arizona State College students riot in the state Capitol over plans to change the school's name to Tempe University ... Will Nixon go to the Soviet Union?

Email me

March 5, 1938

Los Angeles begins to repair the damage from the floods, finding time to run a photo of a couple of attractive young women ... The death toll reaches 85 ... Be sure to look at the photos of the storm's destruction. 

 

Email me

Columnist death match

Here's a fun game ... Whom would you read in a hypothetical match-up? William F. Buckley on Sunday Telegraph editor Peregrine Worsthorne's newfound opposition to the Vietnam War? Or Dear Abby on women's padded fannies? Both columns are from March 1968.

Email me

 

March 5, 1908

A cat poisoner is loose in Watts ... Mayor Harper plans to crack down on free boxing match tickets for his aides ... Three months ago, the mayor caused a near-riot at City Hall by forbidding his secretary to let free tickets come into his office, The Times says ... A father sues Pacific Electric over an accident that required the amputation of his toddler's right arm ... A judge berates reds for wanting a jury trial, saying that such things hamper the wheels of justice ...    Col. Harris Weinstock talks about "The Political and Social Status of the Jew in America" ... And the streets are in terrible shape because of heavy loads of dirt being hauled through the city.

Email me