Found on EBay -- Enrico Caruso

Caruso in "I Pagliacci."

What appears to be a collection of ephemera given by Enrico Caruso to Rosa Ponselle has been listed on EBay. There is no strong tie to Los Angeles, although both of them performed here. For example, Caruso appeared in a Met production of "Lucia di Lammermoor" in 1905 at Hazard's Pavilion and Ponselle was at the Hollywood Bowl in 1923. I'm noting these items because there may be a few Caruso or Ponselle fans among the Daily Mirror readers who would enjoy knowing about them. Bidding starts at $429.99.

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

CBS Cancels Hit Comedy Show Over Censorship; Sweet Lou Returns, April 5, 1969

A Requiem by Benny Carter is performed at a memorial for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Restaurants lost thousands of dollars to hippies who ate meals but left without paying. The ACLU says Palm Spring police violated  the Constitution by escorting the hippies out of town. Above, Chuck Hillinger reports on the Agua Caliente Indians throwing thousands of hippies out of Tahquitz Canyon. "Attracted here from throughout the West by a week of rock 'n' roll concerts, the strangely clad, bearded hippies and their female companions camped out in the canyon. There, according to police, they cavorted in the nude, smoked marijuana and drank cheap wine," Hillinger wrote. UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young agrees with the "thrust" of demands by United Mexican-American Students. A prosecution psychiatrist testifies that Sirhan B. Sirhan wanted to plead guilty because he was tired of psychiatrists interviewing him. "I have actually gotten somewhat to like Sirhan," Dr. Seymour Pollack says. CBS cancels "The Smothers Brothers" because the show failed to deliver advance copies of shows for review by the network -- a charge that Tom Smothers denies.

On one page, conductor Thomas Shippers and "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." Continuing the tradition of unfunny comic strips based on cartoons, we have "The Flintstones," which makes fun of -- hippies!

The Angels had moved out of Dodger Stadium but continued to bring reminders of Los Angeles to Anahem. Former Dodger Lou Johnson returned to Southern California in a trade with the Indians. Sweet Lou, as he was known, was ready for his "new lease." "Cleveland is bad enough," he told The Times' Ross Newhan. "When you're in Cleveland and not playing, well, you die." Johnson hit 40 home runs from 1965 to 1967 after joining the Dodgers as a fill-in for the injured Tommy Davis. Johnson also was an original Angel and played briefly in the team's first game in 1961. "I feel great, I'm ready to play 162 games ... plus some. Yes, plus some. That's where the money is." Very little went right for the Angels in 1969 and Johnson's acquisition didn't provide any magic. He hit .203 and drove in only nine runs in 67 games. -- Keith Thursby

Voices -- Maurice Jarre, 1924-2009

Q & A MAURICE JARRE Ode to David Lean August 8, 1993 By SUSAN KING, TIMES STAFF WRITER Oscar-winning composer Maurice Jarre leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a special salute to his frequent collaborator, the late director David Lean, in "Great Performances: Lean by Jarre," premiering Monday on PBS. Highlighting the hourlong concert are suites from "Lawrence of Arabia," "Dr. Zhivago"--including the famous "Lara's Theme"--"Ryan's Daughter" and "A Passage to India." Recorded at London's Barbican Hall, the special features clips and behind-the-scenes footage from those classic films. Jarre, 69, had composed the music for more than 40 films, including "The Longest Day," before he was hired by "Lawrence of Arabia" producer Sam Spiegel to compose that film's now-legendary score. Lean, who died in 1991 at age 83, encouraged Jarre in the use of electronic and ethnic instruments in film music. Today, the French composer is recognized as a pioneer in that field. Jarre has received 10 Academy Award nominations and received Oscars for "Lawrence," "Zhivago" and "India." His most recent screen credits include "Witness" and "Ghost." Jarre discussed Lean and the art of film music with Times Staff Writer Susan King. Was the tribute to Lean your idea? Yes. When he died I wanted to do a concert, a tribute to him, in London. When we recorded "Passage to India" it was with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. We decided to do this tribute to David Lean with the orchestra. Exactly eight days before the concert somebody from a video company said why not try to videotape this concert because it will definitely be something we should have an account of. In one week, they managed to organize the thing. I think everybody was very concentrated, very professional. These musicians wanted to play better than just for a normal concert. We did it for David. You got very emotional at the conclusion. Yeah, because when I heard all of this applause, I knew that was not only for the orchestra and me, but it was for David Lean. So at that point I almost broke up. His work was really applauded as much as mine. Is it true you had very little time to compose the music for "Lawrence of Arabia"? It was real panic time. I had six weeks to compose two hours of music and record it. The problem was David was editing the second part of the movie before the first part, so when I was doing the music I couldn't start the music in a chronological order. I had to start the second part imagining what I was to do in the first part. That was really another challenge. To make a working schedule perfect, I managed to sleep every three hours for 10 minutes. I could go just days and nights without stopping. After that, I had three or four months to recuperate just sleeping and doing nothing. I hope your schedule was easier with the other Lean films. In the first place, with "Lawrence of Arabia," I arrived at the end of the picture. With "Dr. Zhivago," I was involved from the beginning and that was much better. I read the book and the script. I went on location with David. He was always insisting after "Lawrence of Arabia" for me to be involved from the beginning and to go on location to have a little flavor of the artist's concept for the film. I went to Ireland for three months for "Ryan's Daughter" to work on the music there. "Passage to India," unfortunately ... I couldn't go to India but I was not too keen on going to India. I like to see India from photos and films, but it's not a country I am very interested to see because I don't feel comfortable in a tropical climate. Do most directors you work with want you to go with them on location? Sometimes when you work for the first time with the director, the film is finished and they decide to hire a composer. If I work with a director more than once, the second time, if he likes what I did with the first collaboration, he asks me to go on location with him. That's what I did sometimes with Peter Weir or Visconti or even John Huston. That's much better. When they ask you when the film is finished, you are confronted with the problem that you have to digest the concept of the director and the story in a few weeks. Sometimes they work on the film for two years. How can you in a few weeks be on the same wavelength as the director and the producer? Music always seemed to play such an important part in Lean's films, even the ones you weren't involved in like "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Brief Encounter. Absolutely. Also with David, it was very interesting. When he was writing the script with Robert Bolt or by himself, he always put the music cues in the script. These notes about the music are extremely thorough and precise. David Lean never had a big musical culture. He loved music and had tremendous intuition about music, but he never really had musical references like Visconti or Peter Weir. By the way, Peter Weir, I think, has the largest spectrum of musical culture I have ever met in a director. He knows very well classical music, modern music, electronic, new wave, opera. It's amazing. What's your favorite score you composed for a Lean movie? Well, sentimentally I think it's "Lawrence of Arabia." I met David because of that. I liked very much "Ryan's Daughter" because we tried a lot of little experiments in the sound, music and concept.

Found on EBay -- 1905 Performance of 'Parsifal'

Listed on EBay: An usher's ribbon from the 1905 performances of "Parsifal" in Los Angeles. Bidding starts at $9.99.

The 1905 performance of "Parsifal" was such a significant event that The Times published the names of what appears to be everyone who attended. The performance by Conreid's Metropolitan Grand Opera had most of the Met's opening night cast, including conductor Alfred Hertz and Alois Burgstaller (Parsifal).

New Pope Crowned; Fleeing Jews Trapped in Snow, March 13, 1939

Ads for Gilmore gas take a more informal tone than most others.

Czech mob attacks Nazis. The world's Roman Catholics welcome a new pope, Pius XII, the first time a  papal coronation was broadcast on radio.  The guests included Joseph P. Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to London, his wife and eight children, The Times says. Kennedy family correspondence on the coronation may be found at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. A wedding in St. Louis is picketed because the canopy installed to protect guests from the rain was put in by non-union workers. And The Times begins a series by Winston Churchill, whom The Times identifies in the byline as "Noted British Statesman."

The Times notes that the new pope once visited Southern California. Photos of the new pope sent by radio--and a feature on women's hats.

Marlene Dietrich and Ernst Lubitsch attend a concert by Richard Tauber. The White Sox beat the Pasadena Merchants in spring training.

Baghdad Welcomes Leader; Senate OKs Hawaiian Statehood, March 12, 1959

 

Iraqi Premier Abdel Karim Kassem waves to a crowd in Baghdad after putting down a rebellion. He was overthrown and executed in February 1963 after surviving an assassination attempt by a team that included Saddam Hussein.

"Throwback" Thursby threw me for a loop today. He was all set for a post on Bill Brundige (stay tuned for that) and I noticed something quite peculiar: A broadcast of the Met's premiere production of "Wozzeck." It's hard to imagine what impression Alban Berg's opera--performed in English--made on 1959 audiences but I would guess they were fairly perplexed. It turns out that ProQuest popped a gear and only has a few of the March 12, 1959, pages. The rest are actually for March 14. What we do have is the cover and Kim Novak with Pyewacket publicizing the PATSY Awards for animals in motion pictures and TV.   May 4, 1930: A Times feature on "Wozzeck."

In the Theaters -- March 8, 1925

Rediscovering George Garner, March 5, 1939

From The Times, Feb. 12, 1933.

Seven lines of type in the March 5, 1939, issue of The Times unspooled into quite a story. If the beginning of the tale is a bit unclear, the end is even more enigmatic. All we're left with is the great middle. The focus of our story is the Rev. George Robert Garner III, who achieved so many firsts in his lifetime that it's remarkable so little has been written about him: Garner was the first African American to solo with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, c. 1927. He was the first African American teacher in Pasadena. He was the first African American lead in a production at the Pasadena Playhouse. According to a 1933 interview in The Times, Garner was born in Chicago and his father was the longtime butler of the Timothy Blackstone household. According to a 1932 Time magazine feature, Garner sold papers, worked as a bellhop and sang in the choir at Olivet Baptist Church as a young man. Although Garner was clearly talented, his father opposed a career in music, insisting instead on something more practical. Garner eloped with a young musician (presumably pianist Netta Paullyn/Paullyin Garner) and eventually won the financial support of Mrs. Blackstone and other arts patrons so that he was able to study in England for six years. By 1933, Garner had arrived in Pasadena. The next year, he became the first African American to star in a production at the Pasadena Playhouse, "Finder's Luck," by Alice Haines Baskin. By that time he had established the George Garner Negro Chorus, which performed concerts at the Rose Bowl and took part in the first performances of a choral symphony by David Broekman titled "Harlem Heab'n." The chorus was also recognized for performances at expositions in San Diego and San Francisco. Garner also began the Negro Music Research Foundation, 470 Blake St., Pasadena. Unfortunately, The Times wrote very little about it except to say that the goal was to preserve spirituals. The group later opened a center at 440 N. Westmoreland, Los Angeles. According to a 1938 article in The Times, Garner received a bachelor's degree in music education at USC and became Pasadena's first African American teacher. There's very little about him in The Times in the 1940s except that he led an interracial chorus that performed Dubois' "Seven Last Words of Christ" for Palm Sunday, 1947. The Times critic described Garner as "one of the city's outstanding Negro choral directors." Interesting enough, by 1949, he appears as the Rev. George Robert Garner III in The Times, which says he was regional director of the National Assn. of Negro Musicians. He delivered the invocation at a 1953 Republican fundraiser and campaigned in Illinois for the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket. In the 1950s, he was music critic and arts editor for the Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly serving the African American community, and the conductor of an interfaith chorus sponsored by the Pasadena YMCA.  He was also a leader in the Los Angeles County Forum Lyceum. In 1959, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors honored him as executive vice president of the George Garner Music Research Center of Pasadena. He was also recognized as the founder of the Pasadena Assn. for the Study of Negro Life and History, which was founded in 1937 and met at First Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd. What became of him after that is unclear. California death records list a George R. Garner dying Jan. 8, 1971, but it's not certain if this is the same man. The only current reference I can find is a chapter of the National Assn. of Negro Musicians in Altadena that's named for him. One nice thing about history blogging is that questions can be open-ended. I've asked the Chicago Symphony Orchestra about Garner's historic performance and I'll be interested to see what else turns up. And then there's the citations at the Pasadena Public Library. If I get a chance I'll take a look and see if I can fill in some of the blanks.

Woman Loses Children Over Nude Photos; Angels Earn Most of Cubs' Income, January 29, 1949

A panel from "Terry and the Pirates," by George Wunder.

At left, The Times' comics page from 1949. Moon Mullins ... Li'l Abner ...  Brenda Starr ... Dick Tracy ... Orphan Annie ... but also Ella Cinders ... Napoleon ... Harold Teen ... Abby an' Slats ... And Nancy. Always Nancy. Below left, Jeanne Shapiro pleads on her knees as a court awards custody of her children to her estranged husband, Arthur, a musician, after he introduces as evidence a picture of her in bed with another musician, Thomas Mace. "Mrs. Shapiro ... protested that she was a good mother and cited her work with children's groups," The Times said.

A woman sues General Hospital, accusing a doctor of brutality. MGM denies rumors that it plans to make "Brigadoon" with Gene Kelly.

There was nothing minor about the money made by Los Angeles Angels in 1949. The Angels' profit was big enough to help the other team playing in a ballpark called Wrigley Field--the Chicago Cubs. A story in The Times from the Cubs' board of directors meeting tried to put the money in some perspective. Perhaps the paper was already starting to promote the idea of the major leagues should look toward California--or at least that the Pacific Coast League deserved major league status. The Cubs earned $141,000, but $109,890 came from the Angels, who played in Los Angeles' Wrigley Field. Much of the Angels' profit had been spent to retire part of the corporation's stock, which left the minor leaguers $39,890 to work with in the coming season. So permit a little bit of math here. According to the story, if you subtract the Angels' profit from the Cubs' overall profit, the big club had $39,110 for working capital. So the major league team and the minor league team ended up with about the same money? Granted the Cubs were dreadful in 1948. But the Angels obviously were a major help to Chicago's bottom line. Or as The Times' story concluded, "There's your argument, fellas. Is the Angel team big league or minor?" Wonder if Walter O'Malley was already taking notes. --Keith Thursby