Total Depravity ... Severed Finger ... Attempted Rape

June 4, 1889

Cooking With the Junior League: Tampa, Fla.

In this week's Cooking With the Junior League, Mary McCoy visits Tampa, Fla., 1961, She writes: Ruth Beck Bakalar, editorial director of Gourmet magazine called The Gasparilla Cookbook “the most ambitious of community cookbooks.”  Ladies Home Journal said it was “delightful,” and McCall’s, “one of the nicest regional cookbooks I’ve seen.” Read more>>>

Found on EBay -- Philharmonic Auditorium

This postcard of Philharmonic Auditorium, at Olive and 5th streets in downtown Los Angeles, has been listed on EBay. The auditorium was eventually given a modernized facade and finally torn down by a developer, leaving a vacant lot. Bidding starts at 99 cents.

Matt Weinstock, June 3, 1959

Judging the Judge As literary editor of The Times, Bob Kirsch reads at least one book a day, some days two or three, and renders his judgments in print. Today Bob's first novel, "In the Wrong Rain," reaches the bookstores and he himself must stand judgment. The title is taken from Dylan Thomas' lines "Too late in the wrong rain they came together whom their love parted." It is the intense, troubling story of a man of 42, married, with three young sons, caught in a dilemma involving a girl of 17 who lives in a nightmare world. IT IS filled with sex, hostility, compassion, guilt and the talent people have for getting in trouble. The theme is expressed in its devastating climax: "Once you invade or are invaded, there is no turning back. The aggression committed, it is only left to wander in the breached fortress and bombed streets of the soul." The locale is Hollywood, mostly the area around La Cienega and Santa Monica Blvds., but it is not another saga of life in the film factories, although Frank Chesney, the hero, is business manager for movie people. In his spare time Kirsch, 37, who attended City College, teaches creative writing at UCLA. He is very proud that last year three of the 24 students in his class had novels accepted for publication. He need have no fear that his students will scoff at the prof. He has written a serious, mature book, sparing nothing. It bears the mark of the old pro. Look for it on the best seller list. :: KID STUFF -- The big question for today was propounded by Christine Trammell, 6. She asked her father, "How do you grow mashed potatoes?" ... There are two more weeks of school after this one but the youngsters are already planning. "Thank heaven it's over" parties for the last day. :: NONE TOO NEATNIK The sloppy beatnik on the campus, Rough as a gaucho on the pampas, With sandals, stains, and beard that's molting Is, he proclaims (he's right) revolting. - RICHARD ARMOUR :: SOMETHING mighty strange, perhaps a trend toward belligerence, seems to be taking hold. Gerald H. Upson of La Crescenta reported, "Every time I read something about psychiatrists I can't help wondering whatever happened to the good old-fashioned punch in the nose" ... The same day WillHarriss overheard a customer in the Sunshine Mission Thrift store in Santa Monica tell the clerk. "So I says to him, 'God willing, I'm going to punch you right in the nose.'" :: ANY TIME YOU hear someone say life in our burgeoning community is a kind of mirage', say softly to him, "Los Angeles High School," a rather permanent asset. The classes of 1899, 1909, 1934 and 1949 will be honored at the annual alumni meeting Saturday at the Breakfast Club. :: AROUND TOWN -- A Studebaker Lark on Hollywood Freeway with three women passengers was driven by a chauffeur in livery and cap ... Considering the legal tangles, eviction hassles and inevitable traffic headaches when the Dodgers finally get into Chavez Ravine. GeorgeAnter suggests the name "Chaos Canyon" ... Heard a fine new band. Ray DeMichaels ', on KNOB-FM. Sounded like Count Basie's. Perhaps the rock and roll slush has about run its course and, as the disc jockeys say,the big bands are coming back. :: MISCELLANY -- Overheard: "You know, I'm getting so I don't care how many people hear Billy Graham speak in Australia!" ... Kent Pillsbury, former editor of the L.A. Free Press, which folded more than a year ago here, and now on the Arizona State faculty, has been awarded a $5,000 study-travel fellowship abroad ... Nothing is too good for the ladies. The phone company has installed blue and yellow pay phones in Exposition Hall at Shrine Auditorium for the General Federation of Women's Clubs convention ... Press release fromKMPC states a sportscaster scored a beat by acting "on his sixth reportorial sense." As the saying goes, it bugs me.

Paul V. Coates -- Confidential File, June 3, 1959

Confidential File Deep South Deep in Literary Criticism Two weeks ago a nursery book entitled "The Rabbits' Wedding" was hastily removed from Alabama's public library shelves as "pure integrationist propaganda" because it linked in matrimony a white rabbit and a black rabbit. Now, "The Three Little Pigs" is under attack in Florida. Segregationists there charged in yesterday's papers that the porkers are undermining Southern culture. "One of the pigs is white, another black, and the third a black and white 'mulatto,'" they pointed out in righteous indignation. Their spokesman, David Hawthorn, also declared, "The book shows the white pig getting destroyed by the wolf, but the black pig survives." Since it's apparent that there's going to be a wholesale burning of nursery rhymes below the Mason Dixon Line, I can see a lucrative field for authors who want to revamp Mother Goose to fit the southern literary market. And being a boy always interested in a fast buck, here's my first offering, entitled: "The Three Little Pigs in Dixie." Once upon a time, in a sleepy village on the banks of the Mississippi, lived three little pigs -- a white pig, a mulatto pig (which was "passing"), and a black pig. Each set out to seek his fortune. The little white pig was walking along a bayou when he met a man with a bundle of straw, and he said to him: "'Pears to me you all could give me that straw so's I could build me a house." The man gave the little white pig his bundle of straw, and the little white pig built his house of straw in one of the better residential districts of the town. The little "passing" pig was walking along Bourbon Street when he met a man with a bag of furze. "Reckon you could spare that furze, mister?" he asked. "I'm fixin' to build me a house." At Ease, Beauregard The man gave the "passing" pig his furze, and the "passing" pig built his house of furze next door to the little white pig's house of straw (which was all right, because what the little white didn't know didn't hurt him). The little black pig was walking past the town statue erected to the memory of Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard when he met a man with a load of bricks. "I knows what you gonna say," the man sighed wearily. "Go ahead. Take 'em." The little black pig took them and built himself a sturdy house of brick right across the street from the little white pig's house of straw and the little "passing" pig's house of furze. Then came the wolf! "Little pig, little pig, let me come in," he demanded. "No, no, by the hair on my chiny chin chin," answered the little white pig. "Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in," snorted the wolf. He huffed and he puffed and he huffed, but he house straw didn't budge. Slinking next door to the little "passing" pig's house of furze, the wolf went through the same bit. But not even one furze fluttered. Then the wolf moved across the street to the little black pig's sturdy house of brick, huffed once, blew down the house and ate the little black pig. Just then, Relman Morin, of the Associated Press, who happened to be down there to cover the story, walked up to the wolf with notebook and pencil in hand. "Tell me, wolf," he asked, "how is it possible that you couldn't blow down the little white pig's house of straw, but you could blow down the little black pig's sturdy house of bricks?" "Mister, folks 'round here don't take kindly to nosey Northerners askin' questions," the wolf snorted. With that, the wolf ate up Relmarr Morin -- notebook, pencil and all. And evahbody lived happily eveh after. (Author's note: In a subsequent article, I will delve into the knotty problem of Little Miss Muffett. That spider that sat down beside her? Black, you know.)

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: The Entertainer

June 3, 1914: A $44.50 record player would cost $945.436 USD 2008.

Woman, 28, Has 13 Children!

"This Is Like a Spy Movie!"

At the women's jail, "Conditions are terrible ... Sixteen patients are being assigned to rooms designed to contain eight." (As Nathan noted, that's General Hospital, not the jail--thanks Nathan!). Sax Rohmer, creator of the Chinese villain Fu Manchu, dies at the age of 76.  Akron has hanging lamps from Italy! The Silver Challenger has electric windshield wipers! Dual sun visors! View this page

Casting for "Journey to the Center of the Earth."  Morticians accused coroner Theodore J. Curphey was upsetting established protocols.  What's in the swag bags at the women's clubs convention. "It Happened to Jane" and "Face of a Fugitive."

Alicia Garnica was married and a mother at 13. Andre Previn plays in the premiere of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11. Sentenced to the Girls' Industrial School in "Mary Worth." View this page A cloud of gnats chases Hoyt Wilhelm off the mound as the Orioles play the White Sox. View this page

Retired Police Officer Charged With Incest

June 3, 1939: William D. Haislip is charged with incest.

Doctor Addicted to Painkillers

June 3, 1889: Dr. J. Sweigert is addicted to morphine.

Executive Predicts Downtown Renaissance

June 2, 1959: "The trek back from the suburbs has begun. Families will be returning to the cities in increasing numbers during the coming years, 'lured by the city's glamour, downtown business developments, new housing.' The turn for the downtown department store has come. The future never has been as bright as it is now." How did Sidney L. Solomon get it so incredibly wrong? Or was he ahead of his time?

Found on EBay -- 'They Call Them Camisoles'

This is truly an unusual item. "They Call Them Camisoles" was written by former actress Wilma Carnes using the name Wilma Wilson and describes her harrowing experiences at the state mental hospital at Camarillo. Wilson was committed to the hospital as an alcoholic and "Camisoles" describes in graphic detail how mental patients were treated in the 1930s. ("Camisoles" was the nickname for straitjackets, which will give you an idea what the book is like). In 1943, Wilson was beaten to death by Michael Strignano, a soldier, during a "drinking party" at her home in Hermosa Beach. At a military trial, he was sentenced to life in prison.  "Camisoles" was published in 1940 by Lymanhouse, a small Los Angeles firm that went out of business years ago, and the book is extremely rare. Aside from a few in libraries, there are one or two copies in private hands with asking prices of $300-$400. Bidding on this copy starts at $195, which is too much for me (I have a photocopy that suits my purposes) but notice that the book is inscribed to Los Angeles County Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz.   This is one book I've encountered in my research that I recommend to anyone who is interested in alcoholism, mental treatment in the 1930s and California history. It's the first book I would reprint it if I were in the publishing business.

"To Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz with best regards from Wilma Wilson."

Matt Weinstock, June 2, 1959

Pupil Punishment The papers had a story from Sacramento recently stating that the Assembly had passed a bill, which has now gone to the Senate, giving teachers authority to punish students who misbehave. One paper headed the story, "Teachers' Use of Rod Gets Assembly OK." The bill, No. 2299, which adds Sec. 10853 to the Education Code, states, "The governing board of any school district shall adopt rules and regulations authorizing teachers, principals, and other certificated personnel to administer reasonable corporal or other punishment to pupils when such action is deemed an appropriate corrective measure." Reads real nice, doesn't it? But, dear teachers, don't go flexing your muscles. Actually teachers have had this right all along. But it's up to the school boards to decide how far teachers may go in defending themselves against burly, belligerent students who terrorize and threaten to strike them -- and sometimes do. The school boards aren't saying. :: A DEPUTY district attorney prosecuting a case against am embezzler reiterated throughout the trial that the defendant had "gone south" with the money. The defense lawyer seized upon the phrase in his closing argument, declaring that if all the prosecution's reasoning was that fallacious its case was weak indeed. "Everyone knows, in fact my client admits," he said, "that he went to Canada. The defendant was convicted anyway. :: HIDDEN TALENT It's tough to park between two cars. And yet I'm always deft. If there's a parkway meter With at least five minutes left. - PEARL ROWE :: OUT OF THE mouths of babes come all sorts of things, some unconsciously profound. One precinct in last week's election was located at the home of Donna, 5, and her sister Vicki, 3 1/2, and they couldn't help observing people getting pieces of paper and going into the curtained booths. So next day they decided to play 'lection. Donna went into one booth, Vicki into another. Donna called, "Are you 'lectioning?" Vicki said, "Yes, are you?" They remained in the booths several minutes but when nothing happened they came out and asked their grandmother how to play 'lection. She tried to explain the process of voting but they still can't figure what people do in there. And, of course, many adult voters aren't sure either. :: FOR THOSE WHO like man-bites-dog items, a lady named Kathleen reports her cleaning man spent the Memorial Day Holiday at Hollywood Park and her laundry man went toLas Vegas for the weekend. A case of the cleaners going to the gamblers. :: ONLY IN MALIBU -- Overheard by Martin Ragaway during intermission at the Bolshoi ballet, one writer to another: "The dancing is fine but the dialogue's nothing" ... The western influence is everywhere. Lawyer James F.Bolger , formerly active in L.A. politics, is writing his autobiography titled "We'll Head 'Em Off at the Pass." It could be a juicy one ... Speaking of which, the villain in a TV western the other night said it again: "Easy on that dynamite!" ... JanetSalter's dog, Windy, which died last week at the age of 16, wasn't the oldest pooch in town. Myrl Vinyard of Maywood has a wire-haired terrier named Skipper which was 22 on April 17 last. He's quite lively although his sight and hearing are impaired.Myrl says he simply sees and hears what he wants to, a privilege of old age ... So that no one gets that "left out" feeling, L.A. not only has a Madison Ave. as previously reported, but an advertising firm - the only one -- located there, The Mailing House.