Great White Fleet

Above, a souvenir of the Great White Fleet's visit to Los Angeles, obtained from that wonderful repository of historic goodies: EBay.

And here's the 100-year-old message, written from Fullerton:

 

 

The Kansas (BB-21) was broken up for scrap in the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard in 1924.

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April 26, 1938

Below, the prosecution prepares to call bombing victim Harry Raymond in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette ... The proceedings are interrupted as bailiffs throw an old drunk man out of the courtroom after he yelled "Look out! Look out!" ... Sam Goldwyn says movies are terrible, even the "A" pictures. He blames writers, actors and directors. "They all get too much money, he said," according to The Times ... Nazi violence against Jews breaks out in Theusing, Czechoslovakia ... State liquor agents are accused of soliciting a bribe to renew a cafe owner's license..

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April 26, 1958

This anonymous writer simply couldn't resist a cheap shot about women's vanity.   

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April 26, 1908

Meet an earnest young scientist named Fred Horowitz, who received a wireless message sent from across the city, a newsworthy achievement in 1908. The other young Edison is Mars Baumgardt, whom you may recall from a previous post on the 1947project as the inventor of a radio-controlled boat.* 

Sadly, Fred was badly injured the next month in another experiment. While trying to launch a kite by trailing it from his bicycle, he was hit by a car near Huntington Boulevard and Alhambra Road, The Times said. He suffered a concussion and a broken leg. Unfortunately, The Times never reported further on his adventures with radio. He was the son of Moses Horowitz, a merchant. 922 W. 1st St.

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* The 1947project website seems to be broken and my friends have moved on to their Bunker Hill project, so rather than redo the post, I've published a draft version I wrote in 2006.

Home of the week

Miracle of miracles, this house at 1233 S. Bonnie Brae is still standing.

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Here's an image from Google's street view. Someone in the last century has tinkered with the porch and we have a non-period satellite dish, but by golly it's still there and that makes me a happy man. The Times doesn't say too much about Adrian Loeb except to note his name in half a dozen society columns. He was apparently a produce executive in early Los Angeles. I have the notion that I visited this neighborhood for an Architectural Rambling when I was working on the 1947project, but I can't find the post. The architect, who used the names Cooper Corbett, B. Cooper Corbett and Benjamin Cooper Corbett, flourished in Los Angeles from about 1900 to 1915 and designed many homes in the West Adams district.

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Matt Weinstock

April 25, 1958

Paul Coates

April 25, 1958

April 25, 1958

Above, the L.A. Dodgers appear in a crossword puzzle, always a barometer of popular culture ... Below, Cheryl Crane is released from custody ... Secret Service agents detain a woman who burst out of a crowd and insisted on seeing President Eisenhower ... Vice President Nixon's remedy for the economy: A tax cut. The Times plays the story on the front page while noting: "Basically, there was nothing new in Nixon's advocacy of a tax cut..."

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April 25, 1938

I guess I'm just a sucker for holy men who run backward. And no, I can't find out anything else about Goliath Messiah ... Below, the United Palestine Appeal advocates a program to settle 500,000 Jewish refugees in Palestine over five years ... In Germany, the Nazis threaten a year in prison for anyone who helps disguise Jewish ownership of a business ... Austria limits Jewish enrollment at universities to 2 percent ... And the Nazis force Austrian Jews to picket their own businesses.

Quote of the Day: "Louis Lipsky of New York, chairman of the administrative committee of the United Palestine Appeal, condemned the liberal forces of the world for what he said was a betrayal of the Jews." --The Associated Press

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April 25, 1908

Above, no, I can't find any follow-up stories and it would be interesting to know what happened. Below, Los Angeles says goodbye to the Great White Fleet. Many people spend the night on the beach so they can see the ships off in the morning ... A marine sergeant from one of the ships commits suicide in the ocean at Redondo after fighting off a rescuer ...  And, as should be no surprise, not all the sailors get back to their ships in time.

 

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Mob killings

April 29, 1959

I stumbled across this page yesterday while looking for details on the Les Bruneman killing at the Roost cafe. Unfortunately, the front page didn't get microfilmed, so all we have is the jump. Still, it's a nice, tidy list of all the mob killings in Los Angeles dating back to 1906, at least according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

NOTE: You may notice a March 4, 1934, killing at 3049 S. Norton Ave. and try to infer a connection to the 1947 Black Dahlia case (Elizabeth Short's body was found on South North Avenue between 39th Street and Coliseum). The locations are a mile apart. The victim in the 1934 case, cafe owner Ralph Monterastelli, was in his garage when he was fatally wounded during a robbery.  How an unsolved robbery and murder became a mob case is a question I can't answer. I suspect, unfortunately, it's because the victim was Italian American.

April 24, 1938

Above, Police Capt. Peter Del Gado. As I said before, keep your eye on him. Below, a night with a radio car: A nude woman roaming, a couple of drunks and a car accident that involved liquor.

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