Found on EBay -- Bullock's Wilshire

This dress from Bullock's Wilshire has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $9.99.

Matt Weinstock -- March 14, 1959

Case of the Glass Dogs As always, last week's phenomenon becomes an ordinary event this week. Remember the piece here about the Irish settler seen gnawing away at the glass window of a parked car in Coronado? Let Lucile McNeil of Independence, Cal., tell about her claustrophobic mongrel, Cappy. One time in Salt Lake City she left Cappy, a girl dog, in the car while she and her husband went to a theater. Half an hour later Cappy was in the theater looking for them. There was a jagged hole in the window Lucile had left lowered for ventilation. Six months later in Lone Pine Cappy, who hated containment, did it again. Two years later while having lunch with a friend in a Pomona restaurant the dog came into their booth. Refused admittance at the front door, Cappy had gone around to the the rear and come in through the kitchen.  In all cases Cappy had cut her mouth but didn't swallow the glass. * * WHILE IN New York last week attending the National Book Awards, Rex Barley was introduced to a distinguished literary critic who asked superciliously, "Do people really read books in Los Angeles?" Rex thought he was kidding but he went on, "I know they read about yoga and things like that but do they actually ever read a serious book?" Rex walked away, shaken by the thought that the man has helped mold literary opinion for 20 years. Los Angeles is second to New York in book sales. * * STRANGE SEASON Confliction mars this season's time: While Spring implies we'll be re-born Stern income tax, with grimmer rhyme, Retorts we'll merely be re-shorn. --WILLIAM BAFFA * * AFTER A recent concert, violinist Mischa Elman was having a midnight supper with Irwin Parnes, under whose auspices he will appear in Philharmonic Auditorium next Saturday, when a young man came over to the table and said, "Mr. Elman, I've wanted to meet you for many years to thank you."  He related that when he was 10 his parents took him to a concert in his home town, Fargo, N.D., and he became so inspired he took up the violin. Lacking the talent for the concert stage, he said, he joined a jazz group and had had a satisfying life in music. "I wanted you to know," he concluded, "I owe it all to a concert I'm sure you have long since forgotten." "Oh, no," said Elman, now in his 80s, "I remember that Fargo concert very well. They paid me with a bad check." * * THIS IS TO advise city and county overseers that the natives are restless again over proposed tax increases. To quote on of them: "How can they justify a $5 auto tax in the face of their giveaways? This turnip is out of blood. Where does the line form for the protest march?" * * "THE SPACE AGE is beyond me," Sallie Fiske says, "and when I read that scientists expect to recover and bring home one of our satellites to the launching pad I wondered, will it have 'Yankee, go home!' on it?" No, probably just a busted nose cone. * * FOOTNOTES -- In his interview with Frank Evans on KRHM-FM George Shearing expressed admiration for Buddy DeFranco and mused, "If he made an album with Mort Sahl do you suppose it would be called 'Buddy and Sahl'?" . . . Coincidence note: There's a David Crockett working at Disneyland -- on the caissons for the upcoming Matterhorn, Monorail and Submarine rides . . . Doris Hellman gets piqued when she encounters the word "razed" as in "Fire Razes Building." "Fire really lowers it," she says slyly . . . Terri McDaniel observes: "People who live in glass houses must spend a fortune on draw drapes" . . . It's only a matter of time, Frank Barron reasons, until a bearded musician tells a barber, "OK, now let's take it from the top" . . . Thought for the week: Imagine, vaporlock in mid-March!

Paul Coates -- Confidential File, March 14, 1959

CONFIDENTIAL FILE Mash Notes and Comments "Dear Coatsee-- "This week OSCAR will be taping the OSCAR LEVANT show. We think this is an occasion worth noting and celebrating. "It has been a wonderful and dramatic year for the multitudes of LEVANT fans: "We can remember with fond smiles the first day he appeared with KCOP. The show was later at night and it was so cold you could build igloos out of your frosty breath, but people came in droves to see the fabulous man. "Remember the time OSCAR took the sponsor's word for it and threw the 'unbreakable' radio on the floor, only to have it fly into two parts? "Remember OSCAR distributing daily piles of lye, grease and ink on the floor to mop up for the linoleum sponsor? "Remember how the camera rushed over to capture the intriguing sight of OSCAR with his head hidden under the shade of a gigantic lamp another sponsor was displaying? "Remember once, during a commercial, when one of the huge backdrop pieces fell over and missed hitting him on the head by not more than an inch? . . ." (signed) Some of OSCAR'S Fans, Maggie Rose, Rita Carter, ShirleySiegel, Diane White.  -- It missed him? Seems to me SOMETHING must have hit him on the head. * * "Mr. Paul Coates, "Recently you wrote about being in the hospital for a check-up. A doctor once asked me, 'How long since you had a check-up?' "I told him, 'I never had one.' "Trouble with you is that you have been placed in the wrong economic bracket by the doctors. If you had been Bill Jones, a garbage collector, the doctors would not find a thing wrong with you. "The doctors have made the wrong diagnosis of your financial status. Don't try to fool me. You must follow your destiny and you better like it. "Send $2.00 for complete horoscope and analysis." (signed) Gordon Stuart, 1015 Galloway Street, Pacific Palisades. -- Sorry. One check-up a year is all I can afford. * * "Dear Sir: "If making money doesn't interest you, this letter won't either. "I'm writing on the assumption that you and your firm are in business for profit. And that you intend to be next year, the year after, and the years after that -- adinfinitum.  "That's Fortune Magazine's intention, too. "Does that mean that money is your, and our, only reason for doing our respective jobs as well as we can? "We'll risk a categorical 'No' for both of us, trusting you go along with Churchill's dictum, 'Never do anything for money alone.' "Don't even take us up on this extraordinary offer just because it represents a substantial saving under Fortune's regular rate. But if I can convince you that Fortune can help you do -- or fill -- a better job, you'll never find a better buy than this: "Eight months of Fortune for only $5. "AND, along with your subscription you will receive -- at absolutely no extra cost to you -- a copy of a truly remarkable book. 'The Exploding Metropolis.' "A bargain no matter how you look at it. From your point of view: you get $10 --a-year, $1.25-a-copy Fortune at the exceptionally low rate of only 63 cents an issue. ". . . if you subscribe NOW you can be sure of receiving the next eight issues for the small outlay of only $5. "Your signature on the enclosed card will bring you: "Eight months of Fortune plus 'The Exploding Metropolis' both for only $5. This offer must be withdrawn shortly. So please airmail your order card TODAY." (signed) David Forrest, Fortune Magazine. -- Are you sure you're not in this for the money?

In the Theaters -- March 14, 1937

Trouble Was His Business -- Raymond Chandler

Oct. 7, 1954, "The Long Goodbye" comes to television.

The Times failed to review Chandler's "The Long Goodbye," but we did a brief advance on the television show. Notice that "Climax!" was a live program. I have no idea whether there is a kinescope, but it's nice to think that there might be. Note: To mark the 50th anniversary of Raymond Chandler's death, the Daily Mirror is revisiting some of The Times' stories about his life and influence. We invite the Daily Mirror's readers to share their thoughts.

Re-Creating Ballgames in the Days of Radio, March 14, 1959

Los Angeles Times file photo KHJ-TV sportscasters Lyle Bond, left, and Bill Brundige in a 1957 publicity shot for their coverage of the Los Angeles Angels.

I've always associated radio re-creations of baseball games with an earlier, simpler era. So I was surprised to find this story about KDAY starting re-creations of Yankee games. Guess I believed 1959 was too hip for such primitive programming, only months from the start of the swinging, Space Age, New Frontier '60s. I didn't expect an L.A. radio station would be interested in American League games when the Dodgers had taken the town by storm. Sure, the Yankees were still the Yankees but would people really be interested in broadcasts of games that were, well, less than authentic since the broadcaster was in a studio and not at the ballpark? And I was a little surprised by the approach taken by Times radio writer Don Page. He spun the news as good for local employment. "When the Dodgers came west many of our local announcers were relegated to lesser jobs with the demise of Coast League baseball," Page wrote. "Understandably, the Dodgers wanted their announcers, Scully and Doggett. One of our local boys is back in business, however." The local voice was Bill Brundige, who called Los Angeles Angels games on TV from '52-57. Brundige was no minor leaguer--he broadcast the Cubs and Phillies before coming to Southern California. Any Daily Mirror readers remember the Yankee weekend games on L.A. radio? --Keith Thursby

California's Condors; Spring Training in L.A., March 14, 1949

A California condor soars over Ventura County.

Couple found shot in parked car. Times reporter Ken Nevins and photographer Art Rogers take a backcountry trek with game warden Leslie Edgerton to visit what Nevin called "Condor Cave." Sixty years ago, there were about 25 left, Nevins said.  View Larger Map The 5400 Block of East Jillson Street via Google maps' street view.

King of the sky "Brenda Starr," "Li'l Abner" and "Dick Tracy."

Back when Southern California was a spring training stop for big league teams, a collection of major league stars played the Hollywood Stars before a packed crowd at Gilmore Field. More than 11,000 fans watched the all-stars shut out Hollywood, 5-0, in the 10th Kiwanis Club benefit. One of the hitting stars was Jack Paepke, the all-star's first baseman who homered. "Paepke became a 'major league all-star' for the day because the winners found themselves without a first sacker when they gathered at Gilmore Field," wrote The Times' Braven Dyer. Paepke was a pitcher for St. Paul the previous season, many years before the Twins gave Minnesota a major-league franchise. "Although the cast was considerably shy of top big league talent ... there were no reports of anyone asking for their money back," Dryer wrote. "But in the future Kiwanis leaders and baseball officials will be smarter if they give this most worthy game more support than most of the major league clubs did yesterday." --Keith Thursby

Found on EBay -- Batchelder Tile

A vendor has listed about 20 separate pieces of Batchelder tile, including the one at left. (And no, I don't know the vendor, who is evidently a collector). Bidding starts at $75 for this piece.

Matt Weinstock -- March 13, 1959

Mayor's a Creek That wasn't smog around the City Hall the other day, it was a smoke signal denoting Mayor Poulson's induction into the Creek tribe. Their ceremony was intended to make people aware of the 15,000 Indians in the L.A. area who are being assimilated into normal society. Take Creek Chief Wah-Nee-Ota, for instance, who helped officiate. His other name is William McGuire. He is 42, a musician and actor, married and has three daughters, wears his hair in braids and has a wonderful sense of humor. When he came here from Muskogee, Okla., in 1937, he went out to Republic studio hoping to get work in westerns. He noticed that sixNavahos with long hair were always grabbed first by the casting director. The others were on a next-best basis. He let his short hair grow, got some jobs and hasn't cut it since. When Bill applied for membership in the musicians union -- he plays the vibrola, something like a guitar -- he was given a questionnaire. To the question "Do you speak any foreign languages?" he wrote, "Yes, English." To the question, "Are you a citizen?" he wrote, "No." When called before the board he explained that he is a member of the Indian nation and technically his tribe still is at war with the United States. No peace treaty has ever been signed. WHENEVER POSSIBLE Bill tries to straighten people out on the matter of scalping. "We learned it from the white man," he explains. When the early settlers came from England they were paid a bounty for every Indian body. Things became a little cluttered, and the king's treasurer announced he'd pay on the head, then the scalp. When the live Indians learned what was happening to the dead Indians they adopted this supposedly sacred ritual of their very own. "It's all in the history books under 'The Art of Scalping.'" Bill said. How did he get along with Mayor Poulson? "We are blood brothers now," Chief Wah-Nee-Ota said stoically. * * ONLY IN L.A. -- The girls in Classified are giggling again. A woman placed a for-sale ad stating, "Boxer puppies, golden red fawn" -- describing their color. Three persons called wanting to buy the fawn. * * THESE GHOULISH THINGS REMIND ME Even funeral ads to my budget do cater, The billboards encourage die now and pay later. -- M.L.G. * * MONDAY at 9 a.m. a county crew arrived at the handsome, modern new courthouse in Torrance to set the scene for the dedication ceremony scheduled for 10:30. The men moved a portable platform on the front lawn, put the bunting around it, attached the loudspeakers and set up about 200 folding chairs. As the time approached the dignitaries took their places on the platform and the commoners found seats. At 10:30 sharp the ceremony was called to order. At 10:45, as the oratory shifted into overdrive, the automatic sprinklers went on, soaking the celebrities. * * DURING a lesson in phonics, Dorothy Feist, 2nd grade teacher at Galt elementary school in Van Nuys, gave the word "night" and asked the class to furnish similar sounding words. One youngster said "sight." Randall Marco said "fight" -- emphasizing the first letter. "And how do you start 'fight' "? she asked. "With a gun," he replied. * * MISCELLANY -- As might be expected, Mother's Day gags about Elizabeth Duncan and Frankie are circulating . . . A business associate phoned Bob Hope in Palm Springs regarding his TV show tonight and the long distance operator said, "Give him my love." When the Banning operator plugged in she said, "Tell Mr. Hope to take care of himself." Such is the esteem in which the man is held . . . June Street north of 1st should be a safe place. Emmett C.McGaughey, police commission president, lives in the 100 block and Duncan Shaw, a member, in the 500 block.

Paul Coates -- Confidential File, March 13, 1959

CONFIDENTIAL FILE Troubled Boxer Finds Glory Faded A year and a half ago I received a letter from a badly confused kid. He was 22. But his life was behind him. Mentally -- well, he never graduated from grammar school. Physically, he was maimed, chewed up and probably incapable of a full day's work. In his letter he admitted he was a washout. A bum. Broke. Just about friendless. And it hurt a little extra, he said, because he knew what it was like to live big. He'd had half a dozen years of it. Big paychecks. Big friends. Big following. Big write-ups in the newspapers. In his set, the little guy had been a big man. There was a lot of bitterness in the kid's letter. It was scatter-gunned bitterness, aimed at everybody and nobody at the same time. At everybody but himself, that is. He couldn't quite figure out how he could have been, in part, to blame. The kid's name, if you haven't already guessed, is Bobby Woods. As a boxer, he was once the 10th-ranked lightweight of the world. He fought against the best -- Jimmy Carter, Sandy Saddler, Joey Lopes, Willie Pep, Cisco Andrade. Sports writers kept the public informed on him in those days. But yesterday, this town's police reporters took over the job. Bobby made Page 1 the hard way. Jobless and broke, he was picked up and booked on suspicion of robbery after bungling an attempt to hold up a 60-year-old woman clerk in a liquor store. I remember a year and a half ago, that I answered Bobby's letter. I suggested that he drop by some time. I remember that he did. We sat, and we talked for quite a while. He told me about how he grew up in boxing, in CYO gyms. One of his buddies was a kid named Kenny Teran. I asked him what was the difference between him and Kenny. How he'd managed to stay straight. Bobby couldn't put his finger on the answer. "There was some bad in my crowd. Plenty of temptation," he said. "Maybe I was just too busy." Bobby told be about his last fight, in July of '56, and about his eyes -- how a detached retina in the right one and a cataract on the left on had forced him out of the ring. Boxing Damages Sight He said he'd fought with his bad eyes for quite a while, that most states didn't bother to examine them before a match. As a result, when I talked with him, he was almost blind. He also admitted that when he was through and broke, nobody in boxing offered him so much as a cup of coffee. But he wouldn't blame them completely. The memories were still too near and too sweet. There was a lot of glory. I told Bobby that I'd like to interview him on my television show, to let him tell his story. "Do you think I might get a job offer out of it?" he asked. "I need work. I'm not doing anything." I said maybe. People do call up after shows sometimes. Bobby went on the program, and told his story. And there were some calls, about three or for of them job offers. I passed them along to Bobby to check out. I remember there was one which interested him especially. An automobile dealer was willing to take the young, washed-up ex-fighter and teach him the ropes of selling cars. "I can make a topflight salesman out of that kid," the dealer told me. I haven't seen Bobby since the day I told him about the offer. But I'm sorry -- damned sorry -- it didn't work out.

In the Theaters -- March 13, 1936

Trouble Was His Business -- Raymond Chandler

Filming at the Bradbury Building, which is filled with garment workers! "...The dialogue, as clever as it was then, had become totally dated. I couldn't use 90% of it." -- Stirling Silliphant, screenwriter

Kevin Thomas writes a feature about filming Chandler's novel "The Little Sister" while it was in production in 1968. A special surprise for me: Sugar Giese, the dance captain at the Florentine Gardens in the 1940s, turns up as an extra. Although "The Little Sister" was only 19 years old, Los Angeles had changed so much that it was impossible to make a period film, Thomas said. The movie, with an updated setting, was eventually released with the title "Marlowe."