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March 29, 1958
Two cars cruised La Puente on a Friday night. One car carried Fred
Avila, 20, and three unidentified young women. The other carried four
young men from La Puente: Manuel Garcia, 19; Refugio Luna Jr., 20; John
Ramirez Jr., 19; and Robert Charles Perez, 19.
The two groups had crossed paths in La Puente's business district, The
Times said, calling out insults to one another. Avila headed for the
weekly dance at La Puente High School. The other car followed and
pulled up next to Avila's auto outside the high school gym, where about
500 students were gathered.
One of Garcia's friends grabbed a .22-caliber rifle, got out of the car
and pointed it into the window of Avila's vehicle. "Who's that guy?" he
asked, presumably talking to one of the young women.
Avila got out and began grappling with the other young man over the
rifle. Garcia and the other two friends joined the struggle and the
rifle went off, hitting Garcia in the head. "You got me," he said,
falling to the ground 10 feet from where he had scratched his nickname,
"Quinky," in wet concrete three years earlier.
He was killed by his own rifle, The Times said.
Luna, Ramirez and Perez were arrested on charges of murder, but The
Times never followed up on the case so we don't know what happened.
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Above, U.S. military forces in Hawaii stage war games to prepare for a possible invasion. Apparently the defenders detected their mock enemy long before an invasion could be staged. Below, several prominent Angelenos sharply question German Consul Georg Gyssling during a Town Hall appearance at the Biltmore. When Gyssling rebuffs the first question, attorney Joseph Scott threatens to resign from Town Hall if "the other side" is not heard, The Times says. Town Hall officials promise another gathering in which "the other side" could air its views ... The Times interviews an 11-year-old girl who was struck on the head with a rock and sexually attacked--and we publish her picture. It is one thing to know newspapers once published these kinds of stories and quite another to actually see one.
Quote of the Day: "The consul also said, in answer to a question, that the Jews in Austria would not be deprived of property rights any more than German Jews had been. This brought laughter from the audience but the consul doggedly kept on talking." --The Times, reporting on a Town Hall appearance by Georg (George) Gyssling, shown above in Los Angeles in 1934
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Here's another ethnic caricature by Times cartoonist Edmund Waller "Ted" Gale ... The accompanying article about a Chinese American woman who adds a contemporary "Merry Widow" hat to her traditional costume is unsigned but is quite probably by Harry Carr, who often did these kinds of Sunday features.
The Chinese massacre also provides a little levity for our unidentified writer.
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March 29, 1908
Here's the northeast corner of Washington and Wilton, 1908. Today it looks like this. The home was built by Herman Blumenthal and designed by Robert D. Farquhar.
March 28, 1958
March 28, 1958
Above, Mickey Cohen is in trouble again. Shocking, I know. This time he has a black eye courtesy of U.S. drug agent Howard W. Chappell. Cohen was eventually fined $200 for disturbing the peace. Below, the death of W.C. Handy, composer of "The St. Louis Blues," makes the front page.
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Above, five-suit bridge. Hard to imagine, but there it is, introducing eagles as the new suit. Below, Austrian Catholic leaders embrace Nazism ... Minnesota granite is being installed on the Federal Building ... Film director David "Pecados de Amor" Kirkland is freed from a Mexican jail after "killing a drunken Indian with his automobile," The Times says. Kirkland gives the man's widow 300 pesos. Quote of the Day: "We gladly acknowledge that the National Socialist movement has achieved and is achieving outstanding results in the sphere of national and economic reconstruction as well as in social welfare--especially for the most needy section of the populace. We are also convinced that through the efforts of the National Socialist movement the menace of all-destroying godless Bolshevism was averted. The bishops give their sincerest blessings to these efforts in time to come and will also advise the faithful in this spirit. On the day of the plebiscite it will be for us bishops a self-evident national duty to declare our loyalty as Germans to the German reich (nation) and we expect all faithful Christians that they know what they owe to their people." --Theodore Cardinal Innitzer and the bishops of Austria
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Above, the circus is coming to town--apparently. I can't find any further mentions of "Towle's Circus." Below, Rep. J. Thomas Heflin hates African Americans and he hates drinking, so you can imagine how he feels about African Americans who drink liquor.
Heflin, accompanied by Rep. Edwin Ellerbe of South Carolina, was taking a streetcar to church, where Heflin was to deliver a temperance lecture. According to The Times, two African Americans boarded and one of them, Thomas (or Lewis) Lundy, was about to take a drink of whiskey when Heflin told him to stop. A congressman from Alabama, Heflin had introduced a measure to add Jim Crow cars to the Washington, D.C., streetcar system and he had received permission to carry a gun because of the resulting death threats.
Heflin threw Lundy off the streetcar after a fight and many passengers also got off the car during the brawl, The Times says, including Thomas McCreary and his wife. Lundy got up from the pavement and reached for his pocket, so Heflin fired his .38 at him through a streetcar window, missing Lundy and hitting McCreary in the leg, The Times says. Heflin fired again and struck Lundy in the head at least once, the paper says.
McCreary was taken to the hospital in a carriage because he refused to ride in an ambulance with an African American. Heflin was indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, but The Times never reported on the outcome of the case or whether Lundy and McCreary survived.
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March 27, 1958
A man driving east on Melrose Avenue about three weeks ago around 6 p.m. turned left into an alley near Western Avenue.
He was stopped by a gendarme and given a citation for violating Sec.
544 A of the vehicle code--illegal turn. The motorist didn't agree with
the officer and said so.
The other day when he appeared in traffic court he was prepared to pay
the fine and forget it. He can't afford the time that pleading innocent
would entail.
BUT INSTEAD of
the usual routine he was informed a formal complaint had been filed
with the city attorney's office charging him with the offense and
giving a more detailed account of his alleged derelictions.
It stated (take a deep breath) he "willfully and unlawfully turned such
vehicle from a direct course and moved right and left upon the roadway
when such movement could not be made with reasonable safety and without
giving an appropriate signal of his intention to turn such vehicle
continuously during the last 100 feet traveled by such vehicle before
turning, when there were other vehicles which might have been affected
by such turning movement."
Our man took a look at the amended charge and became a tiger. It
happens he is employed by the Motor Vehicle Department and knows
something about the rules. He whipped out his big, fat Motor Vehicle
Code and pointed out to the judge that it is a violation of Sec. 739.2
for a police officer to alter or add to the charge as written at the
scene of the alleged violation. The judge agreed and set a date for the
case. Incidentally, the motorist spent from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in traffic
court getting his point across.
And so, in this corner, Irate Citizen. In this corner, Majesty of the Law.
ONLY IN Santa
Monica -- A man and his wife recently decided to sell their home. They
listed it with a real estate firm, meanwhile sought another.
A house-for-sale ad in last Sunday's paper caught their eye. It was
just what they wanted. Moreover, the same real estate firm that was
acting as their agent was handling it. You know the rest. A salesman
drove them to their own home.
Mighty potent adjectives the boys use.
SHORT SHORT STORY -- At
7 a.m. the other day a man was changing a flat tire in the right lane
on the Hollywood Freeway outbound near Santa Monica Boulevard. It would
have been safer for him to have moved his car off the freeway, onto the
siding, But obviously he was too disgusted to give a darn. He was
wearing shoes, socks--and a knee-length maroon bathrobe.
ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD -- A
girl filling out an employment application in a theatrical agency
Monday looked up and asked another girl, also filling out a blank,
"What date is it today?"
"It has to be the 24th," was the reply, "because Wednesday is Oscar day and that comes on the 26th, remember?"
AROUND TOWN -- Remember
the recent panel showing Carmichael, ax on shoulder, saying fiercely,
"I didn't get any coffee but at least I got my dime back"? Well,
they're posted on every coffee machine at Hughes Aircraft ... A
postcard from Paul Drus contains 228 legible, pencil-printed words.
Anyone want to try for 456? Or is everybody busy engraving the U.N.
Charter on the head of a pin? ... Youngsters can be embarrassing. Robin
Gee, 4, of Palmdale insists she "flushes" the toaster ... Don Quinn's
definition of a greedy agent: A hog that lives high on the ham ... A
trash box on Beverly Boulevard near June Street had the Christmas
wrappings of at least a dozen liquor bottles strewn on top. What a
party that must have been Imagine people still Yule-tiding.
March 27, 1958
An Earthman came to my office yesterday. He brought an object with him
in a shopping bag. Gingerly, he removed it from the bag and placed it
upright on my desk.
It stood about 2 1/2 feet high and was a heavy steel and plastic
cylinder complete with safety valves, cranks and ominous looking
buttons. A steel disk covered on end. The other end, about 4 inches in
circumference, was filled with dirt.
"Look at it," he demanded.
I assured him that I was--that I wouldn't take my eyes off of it for a second. "What is it?" I asked.
He cleared his throat and looked me straight in the eye. "It's an object," he announced, "that attacked me from outer space."
He didn't flinch when he said it.
But I did.
"It was Monday night. About 10-10:30. I was walking down Loma Linda Avenue," he continued.
"Yes."
"I was nearing the corner of Serrano. On my way to the drugstore."
"And?"
"To buy some cigarettes."
"And?"
"Filter tips," he explained.
"And?" I said impatiently.
"I'm getting to it," he snapped. "It came flying out of the sky. Missed
my ear by inches. My right ear. I heard this terrible
whish-thump-splat."
"You saw it?" I said.
"I saw it after it hit the ground. It missed the sidewalk by 8 inches, maybe."
He pointed to the bottom of the object. "Look at the dirt and grass
inside the plastic cylinder. It cut a sharp hole a few inches deep in
the lawn of this apartment house and then bounced out again and lay
down on its side."
"What did you do then?"
"I was very cautious. I sneaked up on it and touched it."
He glanced quickly to his right and left. We were alone. He whispered.
"It was warm."
"Warm?" I cried.
"Yes. But I poked it and it didn't move. So I picked it up and took it
over under the street lamp and examined it. It looked harmless enough
so I took its handle and cranked it."
He demonstrated for me, cranking the handle vigorously.
"Nothing," he continued. "Nothing happened. I've been carrying it
around ever since, showing it to people. Nobody knows what it is.
There's not a marking on it.
"Mr. Coates, you've got to help me find someone who knows what it is."
"I do?" I asked.
"Absolutely. Because so far it's nothing more than an Unidentified
Flying Object. And to be perfectly honest with you, I don't believe in
such things."
[Note: The Mirror didn't run a picture of this object, unfortunately, so we have to rely on our imaginations--lrh]
 Here's an unusual mystery photo. We know the name of the man on the right. He's James "Jim" Bassett (to his family, he was known as Mike). In 1972, about the time the photo was taken, he was living in Tustin. What we don't know is the story that goes with the photo because, unfortunately, he died in 1993. According to Jim's sister, he was working at a Circle K (note the shirt) and either reported a robbery or stopped a robbery. He is shown here receiving a reward from a man believed to be a Circle K executive. Jim's family would very much like to know the rest of the story. The Times clips, unfortunately, are most unhelpful.
Any Circle K retirees out there who can help?
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Above, Gail Patrick , who was later a producer on "Perry Mason" ... Below, Field Marshal Hermann Goering says all Jews must leave Austria ... Dr. J. Leon Lazarowitz, head of the Rambling Hoboes of America Union, wants to come to Los Angeles for Passover but is afraid he'll be arrested as a vagrant ... The stock market is falling like a rock ... Rep. Martin Dies (D-Texas) suggests sending German and Austrian refugees to Paraguay so that the U.S. won't be "flooded by the persecuted and jobless of Europe" ... And the state orders the quarantine of dogs and cats to halt the spread of rabies. Quote of the Day: "Vienna is not a German city because 300,000 Jews live here. Vienna must become German again. The Jew must know we do not care to live with him. He must go." --Field Marshal Hermann Goering
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March 27, 1938
Los Angeles
I'm starting to think that no comic strip of the late 1930s was complete without a great white hunter contending with cowardly native tribesmen in "darkest Africa." This is Al Capp's "Li'l Abner."
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Above, Joseph H. Maulhard becomes the first firefighter to be buried in the Firemen's Relief Assn. plot at Inglewood Park Cemetery. Unfortunately, I can't find any information about whether his death was related to his job or some other cause. Below, hurt feelings and distress at Magnolia Avenue Christian Church after Sunday school teacher Charles O. Goodwin, a wealthy bachelor, banishes some young women for planning a party where there was to be dancing! And let's not even talking about the "kissing games" ... The Times gleefully reports the Hearst papers' latest efforts to clear three newsmen accused of stealing Great White Fleet photographs from a San Diego studio and publishing them in the Los Angeles Examiner. There are lots of stories about "the Hearstlings" doing things like this, but it's nice to see it confirmed in print.
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March 26, 1958
Library Week has passed and it is to be hoped that it stimulated and rekindled interest in reading.
It also stirred the conscience of a Studio City man named John. Let him tell it.
"Library Week unaccountably set me to thinking about my past as a
library thief. In the summer of 1936 or 9137, when I was a sophomore at
Illinois State Normal University, I became depressed at my prospects
for the future and went off to New Orleans for the summer. My father
was a railroad engineer so transportation was free.
"I promptly got a job as a bedpan commando at Southern Pacific Hospital. The salary was around $10 a week. My room on St. Charles
Street cost $5.
"ONE DAY I came upon a copy of Ben Hecht's 'Count Bruga'
in the New Orleans Public Library and I willfully stuffed it inside my
belt. I got by the desk by legitimately borrowing George Borrow's 'Romany Rye.'
"Well, Library Week set me to feeling guilty again so I mailed back the
purloined 'Count Bruga' with a letter of apology, including a copy of
Hecht's 'A Child of the Century,' more or less in expiation.
"There the matter stands. It may never be resolved. The fact is that I
mailed the book from San Francisco. And signed the letter 'Ben Hecht.' "
THIS IS the
last week of school before Easter vacation and Mrs. Carmen Oldani is on
the qui vive, wondering what her second-graders will dream up this time.
Last year when she asked what Easter songs they'd like to sing a sprout named Carey suggested "My Bunny Lies Over the Ocean."
IF THERE'S anything
that irritates a lady named Betty it's a car backfiring in the night.
Makes her jump. In fact she gets so unnerved she wishes backfiring were
made illegal instead of shooting. Then when someone makes the usual
exasperating explanation she could say, as casually as possible, "Sure
I heard it but I thought it was just gunshots."
SHANE LESLIE, 73, Irish biographer and critic, spoke at UCLA a few days ago on Winston Churchill, his first cousin, whom he admires greatly.
A gay, witty forthright gentleman in Irish saffron kilts, Leslie
charmed his audience as he did the publishers of the book "Twentieth
Century Authors" when asked for his biography.
He wrote of himself: "He was born in London, on a site now
commemoratively covered by Selfridge's Stores, where his remaindered
works may be purchased cheap. At present he is chiefly known and
dreaded as a reviewer. He still believes it necessary to read through a
book before writing its review. He claims to have had an unsuccessful
life though a happy one. He has often been blackballed but never
blackmailed. He believes it is better to interest or amuse people than
to make them rich or prosperous."
Quite a fellow.
AROUND TOWN -- A
timid old gentleman asked Harry Kabakoff, newsboy at 7th and Broadway,
"Can you tell me where I can get a raspberry bus?" Meant Asbury, of
course ... In case a quizmaster asks you to name the first movie dog
don't say Rin-Tin-Tin. Mrs. Russell Hale, vice president of the
Glendale Kennel Club, which will hold its spring show Sunday, looked it
up and learned that a Russian wolfhound named Czar appeared in
Universal films 40 years ago ... As far as Jim Van Derpool is
concerned, it's about time for whoever is furnishing the faith to move
the Elysian Park mountain down on the freeway every time it rains to
cease and desist. Makes him late for work ... Pico Novelty Co. on South
Los Angeles Street has added to its line of luminous rear window
admonitions, "Help Stamp out Car Stickers." That ought to do it.
March 26, 1958
In an effort to hammer down the rising price of beef, housewives in
several Southland communities are organizing boycotts on expensive
cuts.
Their methods of resistance to the boosts include:
In Pasadena, a group of women is passing petitions to be forwarded to
their congressmen demanding immediate reduction of prices. They're also
shunning all meats on which prices have recently been upped.
In the Glendora-Azusa area, a 2-week-old campaign to boycott beef is reported picking up new backers.
And in several areas throughout the San Fernando Valley, a
"chain-phone" drive to snub the butcher shop is claimed to be picking
up momentum.
Each woman contacted by phone is requested to make no purchases of beef
for the following two weeks, and to telephone five of her friends with
the same request.
The phone campaign was launched by Mrs. Harriet Wasserman, 5915 Adela
Ave., Encino. She called 11 persons in Sherman Oaks, Canoga Park, San
Fernando and Encino.
"Each promised to call five others to keep the campaign rolling," she said.
One of the persons called by Mrs. Wasserman was Mrs. Naomi Gruberman,
3828 Woodcliff Road, Sherman Oaks. Mrs. Gruberman said she called 10
persons.
According to stockyard officials, beef prices have climbed skyward
because of a current shortage caused by the droughts of 1954, '55 and
'56. The dry years forced breeders and growers to cut their herds.
"If that's the case," one aproned campaigner told me last night, "we'll
create a dandy surplus for them so they can bring the prices back to
our reach again."
Most of the women I contacted did not blame their local butchers. They all seemed to suspect a mysterious "middleman."
A typical boycotter was Mrs. Barbara Crill, 1125 E. Walnut, Glendora.
With a few neighbors, she's been circulating petitions to send Sen.
[Thomas] Kuchel, plus urging friends and strangers alike to stay away
from beef or any other meat on which prices are raised.
"It's not so much out of anger we're doing it," she told me. "It's out of necessity."
Mrs. Crill, mother of three, said that her budget ordinarily called for
a biweekly meat expenditure of between $15-$18 ($109-$131.18 USD 2007).
Her decision to desert her butcher came last week, she said, after she
figured out she was spending $3-$4 more and actually getting less meat.
"At my market, just last week," she added, "chuck roast went up 8 cents
(58 cents), steaks up 20 cents ($1.46), round stake up 10 cents (73
cents) and round bone roast up 8 cents.
"I asked my butcher about it and he said beef prices figured to
continue going up about half a cent a day and that if his costs on pork
continued to rise, he'd probably have to boost those prices too."
A spokesman for the Meat Purveyors Service Bureau said that so far
butchers have reported no noticeable effects from the so-called boycott
campaigns.
"I sympathize with the housewives," he said, "but the fact is there is
a noticeable shortage of beef, and that's the reason prices are up."
Philip Melnick, secretary-manager of the Southern California Retail
Meat Butchers Assn., agreed that no effects from the "boycott" have
been reported by butchers.
"The boycott probably wouldn't hurt us anyway," he said. "We're just as angry about the high prices of beef as the housewives.
"In fact, our margins of profit on beef are so low we'd be happy to sell more of other meats."
Melnick predicted beef prices will start down in 30 or 40 days.
Mrs. Crill conceded that her campaign, begun March 10, is just getting off the ground.
"So far we have 100 names on petitions to congressmen," she said.
She said her group--which includes four other Glendora women and one in
Van Nuys--was looking ahead to a "boycott week" during which housewives
wouldn't buy beef.
"We'll buy fish and poultry for that week," she said. "Maybe that will bring the price of beef to a reasonable level."
But so far, she said, even she herself hasn't boycotted beef altogether.
"I'm still buying the cheaper cuts," she said. "I'm just staying away from the more expensive cuts so far."
March 24, 1958
Los Angeles
Just because the deadline passed 50 years ago doesn't mean the Daily Mirror can't have a little fun. There are no prizes, only a little vintage amusement.... Send me your best interpretation of the NBC Peacock and remember to color inside the lines. Neatness counts! Remember: There are NO prizes! The deadline passed 50 years ago! The only reward is fun!
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Well at least one person took me "seriously." Thanks to Howard Decker!
Reader Holly Cannon's entry. Now there are two!
Above, one movie that is not on Netflix (although "Bitter Victory" is available) ... Below, The Times' editorial page pays tribute to attorney Joseph Scott ... and notes the fifth anniversary of Jonas Salk's announcement that he had discovered a polio vaccine... Notice that The Times published a daily Bible passage. This one is from Revelation.
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March 26, 1938
Los Angeles
Immigration, by the numbers, March 1938, according to The Times:
260,000 Jews in Austria.
25,957 annual quota of Germans eligible to immigrate to the U.S.
8,000 annual quota of Jews allowed to immigrate to Palestine under Britain.
1,413 annual quota of Austrians eligible to immigrate to the U.S.
[Note: U.S. quotas for Germany and Austria were combined after the union of the two countries--lrh]
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Above, with the Great White Fleet on its way to Los Angeles, the PE promotes pleasure excursions to see ships in Venice ... Below, 14 socially prominent women patients who have undergone face peels testify on behalf of J.T. Harris, 1818 Lennox St., who is charged with practicing medicine without a license. The women wore heavy veils to protect their sensitive skin from the elements, The Times says, and they looked like boiled lobsters ... More problems with vagrants ... and in fact a look back at California history shows that the unemployed and the homeless were an early problem. Quote of the Day: "It is wonderful, wonderful. My face was awful in its hundreds of wrinkles and now look at me, just look at me.... I am very happy. I am going to be beautiful again. I have found the fountain of youth. Once more I shall have the world at my feet. Did it hurt when they skinned my face? I should say not." --Woman speaking to a reporter on behalf of J.T. Harris
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March 24, 1958
I've been accused of making some uncomplimentary remarks about Elvis Presley in the past.
I've been accused of saying that he struck me as the kind of child that
other children are traditionally "not allowed to play with."
I've been accused of making the comment that his abdominal gyrations
give me the same queasy feeling that I get watching somebody get sick
in public.
I've also been accused of hinting that Elvis was unkempt looking, that
he committed perpetual murder on the English language and that he
needed a haircut.
In fact, some people have gone so far as to accuse me of making the flat statement that I didn't like Elvis Presley.
The only reason I stand accused on all of these points is because, at one time or another, I said all those things about Elvis.
But that's all in my past now. I've said them. I can't deny them. Everyone makes rash judgments now and then.
I only hope now that it's not too late to patch things up a little bit.
You see, because of what happened yesterday I'd like to retract them. No. Not exactly retract them.
I'd just like to sort of rearrange my attitude toward Elvis.
I'd like to say that Elvis is really--
No. That's not quite it, either.
What I'd like to make clear is that, after all, Elvis is joining a very patriotic organization.
There's nothing subversive about this boy.
I'd like to add that now, for the first time, I've found a soft spot in my heart for him.
In fact, I feel downright sorry for him.
Because he's not going in like the rest of us went in--quietly, with a
few tears from Mom, a slap on the back from Dad, and a modestly
inebriated farewell party.
When Elvis reported to his Memphis induction center yesterday, his
activities were documented and photographed for an entire world.
And as any man who has been through an induction center before knows, this definitely constitutes a certain invasion of privacy.
There are some traditional Army inspections which are nobody else's
business, save the inductee, the doctor and the men standing fore and
aft.
But I've got to hand it to Elvis. Judging from the front-page pictures I saw, he took it all in stride.
I just hope that Elvis stands up under the pressures of his double life for the next two years as well as he did on opening day.
Because it's obvious that he'll be hounded by cameramen as well as sergeants until the hour he's discharged.
There will be the stock shots of his first time amid greasy pots and
pans on KP, a ritual called latrine duty, and more flashbulbs popping
when he receives his initial $78 ($568.44 USD 2007) monthly paycheck.
Then, guard duty, inspection, target practice, bivouacs, barracks poker
games, marches and Elvis gyrating prone through the infiltration course.
Of course, there'll be the great day when Presley completes basic
training and the greater day when photographers catch him sewing on his
corporal stripes.
He may not emerge the biggest hero the Army ever had, but already he's a sure thing for the most shot-at.
My lone worry is, he may turn out to be such a good soldier that he'll outrank Col. Parker.
By Keith Thursby
Times Staff Writer
 The
Dodgers’ one-night return to the Coliseum has the team wrestling with a
familiar problem—parking.
The Dodgers are offering round-trip shuttles
from the Dodger Stadium parking lot to the Coliseum for their March 29 exhibition
game against the Boston Red Sox. That wasn’t an option in 1958 before the
Dodgers’ first game in Los Angeles.
The Times
reported on April 8 about a press conference involving local police and
transportation officials who cautioned baseball fans to take advantage of mass transit, which in 1958 meant buses. The
officials warned that drivers would face traffic jams and increased
neighborhood parking fees. There had been talk of local lawn and backyard lots
charging up to $6 a car for certain games.
The officials said the Coliseum
parking lot would continue to charge $1 a car.
Meanwhile,
at least one high-ranking baseball official didn’t think much of the Dodgers’
decision to start their Los Angeles years in the Coliseum.
Phil Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs
and referred to in an April 10 Associated Press story as the man who opened the
West Coast to the Dodgers, said the Coliseum "just isn’t suited for
baseball."
"When
people go to a baseball game, they expect to see it played in a baseball
park," said Wrigley, who sold his Pacific Coast League franchise in Los Angeles to Brooklyn.
Of course, Wrigley had an idea where they
should have played—the cozier Wrigley Field.
That
eventually became the first home of the Los Angeles Angels, who played there
before sharing Dodger Stadium with the Dodgers until their own new stadium was
built in Anaheim.
keith.thursby@latimes.com
*Update: A reader notes that there were more options available than buses. What I was
referring to was the press conference, in which the officials said buses should
be the mode of transportation for mass transit. But point
taken.
Above, a Navy officer is welcomed home by his family after a Westpac cruise. Below, Jack Smith visits Pershing Square and his column shows that it hasn't changed much from today--except for the landscaping. Art Buchwald writes about the Amazing Randi, who fails to amaze Parisian jailers.
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Above, "Yiddle With His Fiddle." The Times apparently erred in calling it the first talking picture in Yiddish. ... Below, the U.S. can take 1,400 Austrian immigrants and in the last 48 hours, more than 3,000 people have applied at the U.S. Embassy ... How to get a rough estimate of tax receipts: Have tax collectors kick the mailbags to guess their weight ... Quote of the Day: "They are treated with magnanimity considering what the Jews did to the Austrian people." --Josef Buerckel, Reich commissioner for the Saar.
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Above, time to get ready for barbering the lawn ... Below, the Korean community voices strong criticism of Durham W. Stevens, an American adviser to Japan, who was assassinated in San Francisco. Feelings against Stevens are so strong among local Koreans that he might have faced a similar attack here, The Times says ... The city is quickly building a stockade to house homeless men ... Advocates who want to keep flies out of schools run into objections from the Board of Education, which notes that the problem is not so bad unless the schools are next to a stable or a corral ... And Ben, the seal from Westlake Park, is having trouble fitting in with his fellow creatures on Santa Catalina Island.
Quote of the Day: "Stevens must be shot and killed. He is not only an enemy to my poor country; he's an enemy to the civilized world. I am a Christian boy. My religion commands me not to kill. My pastor teaches me the lessons of forbearance. Yet I do not believe God would forbid me to kill this wretched scoundrel." --P. Cynn, Korean student at USC, on the shooting of Durham W. Stevens by a Korean youth.
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Here's a Korean American view of the Stevens assassination.
Here's Cecil Smith's two-part series on Michael Todd, published in The Times in May 1957.
David Niven called him, "The best thing to ever hit Hollywood." John Farrow, fired as the director of "Around the World in 80 Days," said: "Mr. Todd and I had our differences but I consider him a splendid showman."
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March 24, 1958
A Beverly Hills lady named Eve is willing to stipulate that--at the
moment at least--it's a very temporary world, particularly for those
who aspire to the drama.
A few mornings ago she was visited by a tax assessor who confided after
a few minutes' chat that he wasn't regularly a tax assessor. He was
really an actor but things had been a little slow.
That afternoon Eve went to the hospital for an operation. She was lying
in bed, reading Variety, when a man came into take a blood test.
Seeing what she was reading, he asked if she was in the entertainment business. No, she said, but her husband was.
"I'm an actor," he said, "but things have been a little slow and you know how it is, a fellow has to make a living."
YOU KNOW HOW cold and efficient and merciless Boris Karloff is when he plays the part of a mad scientist or a zombie?
Well, there he was in a market at Sunset and Laurel Canyon boulevards
the other day, tugging mildly at a shopping cart telescoped into a
whole batch of them, trying in vain to get it loose. A magnificent
study in quiet desperation.
Finally, reports writer John D. Weaver, a woman at the check stand
finished with her cart and Boris, in great relief, appropriated it to
do his shopping.
AN ENGINEER from Northrop Aircraft Inc., gave a talk the other night at which films of the development of the Snark missile were shown.
A spy who was there reports the engineer commented wryly, "You've all
read about the trouble the Navy had getting the Vanguard into orbit
after so many of them plopped into the sea. Well when we were testing
our missile at Cape Canaveral we used to refer to the Atlantic Ocean as
'the Snark-infested waters.' "
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