Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 30, 1941

April 30, 1941: Horatio Winslow fills in for columnist Lee Shippey, who is recovering from surgery, with a piece about the Women's Ambulance and Defense Corps of America. The organization, unofficially supported by the Army, is intended to respond to local emergencies, Winslow says.  Tom Treanor pays the price of not getting a visa when his ship visits Bermuda. With George Raft and Edward G. Robinson refusing to speak, W.B. execs are punch drunk trying to soothe wounded feelings and get "Man Power" finished," Jimmie Fidler says.

Jim Murray, April 30, 1961

April 30, 1961: Down on the field, a team called the Los Angeles Angels were playing once again. It was possible to close my eyes and go back to 1944, the first time I ever saw a ballgame in Wrigley Field. To me, a ballpark is like an old song. It's fun. But it's also sad. You remember the darndest things about ballparks. Some of them have nothing to do with baseball.

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 29, 1941

 

April 29, 1941: Irvin S. Cobb fills in for Lee Shippey once again. Height of Something or Other: Gertrude Lawrence's reported plan to auction Vic Mature's appendix (well preserved in a bottle) for British war relief!

From the Stacks – 'Portraits of Crime' (1977)

Two years after writing about  LAPD Det. Ector Garcia, I finally located a copy of his book, “Portraits of Crime,” which arrived in the mail from the U.K. while I was on vacation. No one will ever mistake this book for great literature. The editing is weak (as in “Leo” LaBianca) but the rough, raw writing gives “Portraits” a freshness and immediacy that might be missing in a more polished work. Written by LAPD artist Garcia (d. 1987) and Charles E. Pike, “Portraits” consists of composite sketches and brief summaries of  29 cases from the 1950s to the 1970s. Aside from the Tate-LaBianca and Son of Sam murders, most of the subjects are obscure killings, kidnappings and rapes that could easily be the raw material for several seasons of TV crime shows.

'The Chinese Murder,' April 29, 1891

April 29, 1891: The Times reports the death of a Chinese woman named Ah Gue/Goot Gue, who was shot in the abdomen by her husband, Wong Ark/Gam Duck, outside a brothel on Apablasa Street. Ark allegedly killed Gue because she didn't give him all the money he wanted for gambling. The Times covered this case extensively, and said that because the Chinese witnesses were “heathens,” they were unconcerned about telling the truth under oath. The first jury deadlocked. In his second trial, Ark was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, but the conviction was overturned on appeal because the dying woman’s statements were inadmissible. (The Times reported that she said "him killee me.") Ark was convicted of manslaughter at his third trial and served six years at San Quentin. Bonus factoid: Apablasa Street vanished during construction of Union Station, which was built on the old Chinatown.

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 28, 1941

April 28, 1941: Irvin S. Cobb fills in for Lee Shippey, who is still recovering from surgery.   Tom Treanor files a report from a press junket to Venezuela, saying that reporters are treating it as a vacation while the sponsors consider it serious business. The trip was organized by Standard Oil, the Grace Line and “various business interests," Treanor said. That George Raft-Edward G. Robinson feud has become so venomous that their portable dressing rooms have now been moved to opposite sides of the stage, Jimmie Fidler says. I can find no further information about “Dr. Koch,” the purported Nazi film that was banned from being shown at the Pacific Electric Theater,  627 S. Los Angeles St. It might be “Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes.”

Jim Murray, April 28, 1961

April 28, 1961: Jim Murray dips into the mailbag and finds letters from Frank Capra and George Kennedy, among others. Meredith Willson wants Murray to write a baseball comedy so he can use it for a musical!   ps. The Angels lost to the Twins, 4-2.

President Kennedy Urges Self-Censorship for Newspapers

April 28, 1961: President Kennedy calls on the nation's newspapers to censor themselves in publishing information that could be useful to global communism in the cold war.  "Communism, he said, is a 'monolithic and ruthless conspiracy' that is attacking us all around the world with cold war tactics conducted with wartime discipline. "He recalled that enemy leaders have boasted that American newspapers had supplied them with valuable facts they could not have obtained elsewhere except by espionage."

San Francisco Clinic Cures 'Bad Girls'

April 10, 1949: A San Francisco "promiscuity clinic" is working to treat "bad girls." No, really! After citing some terrifying statistics (68% of U.S. brides are not virgins!) Howard Whitman profiles the Psychiatric Service of the San Francisco City Clinic, which has "treated some 2,000 cases of promiscuity." And while it has helped "many a young girl back to wholesome living," the clinic has made some amazing discoveries, including: "These girls don't enjoy sex." Got that, bad girls?

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, April 27, 1941

April 27, 1941: Lee Shippey files  a column from his hospital bed! OUR PARTY FOR VENEZUELA met in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center before sailing today. We could look out across the city at the spires which last year seemed as solid as rock cliffs, but now look fragile and brittle for bombs in the pearly, iridescent haze, touched today with sun and faintest color of the rainbow, Tom Treanor says.    Few stars can wear an evening gown with such dazzling effect as Loretta Young, Jimmie Fidler says.

Jim Murray, April 27, 1961

April 27, 1961: The Angels make their debut at a refurbished Wrigley Field against the Minnesota Twins. Jim Murray says: "You have to marvel that, at 1:30 this afternoon, they will bravely begin an extended run of 81 performances in the face of nearly unanimous critical opinion that they shouldn't bother and that they'll be playing only to ushers within a week."

UC May Have to Charge Tuition – Someday

 

April 27, 1961: The Senate Education Committee turns down a proposed tuition fee for University of California students but says one may have to be imposed -- eventually.