Men in Blue Auto Sought in Attempted Kidnappings

“Somebody Is Always Taking the Joy Out of Life” by Clare Briggs.

Nov. 29, 1919: For the fourth time in a month, two men in a blue car have tried to kidnap Mrs. Blanche Fisher, 2343 Scarff St., while she was walking by herself. Police say men matching the description of the kidnappers have tried to abduct women nearly every day in some part of the city. View Larger Map

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 27, 1959

Another panel you'll never see in the legacy sitcom version of "Peanuts." Dog's Day in the Sun     Inasmuch as the subject was brought up here, it's only fair that we have a final report on Glenn Shahan's miniature schnauzer, Henry.  It may be recalled that Henry developed a persistent hacking cough and  a veterinarian said the only thing was to send him to Palm Springs for a week in the dry sunshine.  The pooch, not Glenn -- he can't afford it.     While there Henry lounged around in a plush Doggie Dude ranch, presumably with swimming pool and chuck wagon chow.  As a result of mention here he received three hand-knit sweaters, a car coat, a parka, an Ivy League cap, several boxes of dog candy and a flock of get-well cards.  Furthermore, he flew back from Palm Springs, his health recovered.      He also acquired a furtive look and Glenn suspects he is secretly planning another cough so he can go to Acapulco next time.  Take Glenn's word for it, he's only going one place -- back to obscurity. ::     THE controversy over the Pasadena art find reminded Jeff Davis of a classic story heard in art circles.     Just before WWII a South American millionaire bought a Titian in Italy for a high price.  Fearing the broker would tip off government officials and he wouldn't be able to get it out of the country, he hired an artist to do a portrait of Mussolini over the Titian and he got it through without trouble.     When it arrived in South America the owner hired an expert to remove the Mussolini portrait.  He did so, then scraped off a little of the Titian preparatory to restoring it.  Underneath he found another portrait of Mussolini. ::     LIKES GIRLS Seven radiant maidens     vying for Rose Queen- Lovelier contestants seldom     have been seen. Good thing I'm not judging     or they all would ween!     --JUAN LIGHTHEART ::     A PUBLICIST who is on all sorts of mailing lists received an invitation the other day to a $100-a-plate dinner in January.  He happens to be unemployed at the moment and any thought of attending it is out of the question.  But he was fascinated by its note of urgency.  "Better hurry," it concluded, "first come, first served." ::     FURTHER PROOF that school teachers watch over their little ones in more ways than parents suspect was contained in this note, printed in huge letters, which Craig Atterbury, 6, brought home:  "Dear Mother: I was not a good citizen today at school.  I walked under the slide, I bothered four children and I ran through Miss Rattray's game circle." ::     THEN THERE WAS the letter Kimberly Clement, 5, brought home from her kindergarten teacher, Toni Criley, at Silver Spur school in Rolling Hills, titled "Teacher Observations": "Kimberly is a happy, well-adjusted girl who co-operates cheerfully with others.  She is a good worker, finishing every project she starts.  She speaks clearly and distinctly.  She learns easily and enjoys using the concepts and words which she has learned.  However, she sometimes seems to daydream during class and thus misses some of the things which are said." ::     ON THE EVE of another football week end let us unleash two inescapable thoughts which seem to permeate a topsy-turvy season:     1.  All football is dull when your team loses.     2.  Gloating is what the opposition does, never you. ::     AT RANDOM -- When a sporting postman on a Hollywood beat delivers a postage-due letter to recipients  with gambling instincts, they flip a coin -- double or nothing . . . Pictorially and dramatically the $15 million movie "Ben-Hur" is magnificent.  But it does get gory here and there.  In fact, after the press review one gal remarked, "No wonder the price of ketchup went up!" . . . A pleasant gentleman sat down at deputy registrar Bernard Wiener's table in front of a market at Sepulveda Blvd. and Devonshire and said he had changed his residence and wanted to re-register.  After he'd gone, a bell rang for Wiener.  It was Ken Maynard, his boyhood idol.  He regrets he didn't express his admiration.

Times Opposes Picture Brides

Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale on a Thanksgiving theme – a union turkey.

Nov. 26, 1919: The Times editorializes against picture brides, charging that they are just a maneuver around a California law that prevents Japanese immigrants from owning land.

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 25, 1959

Fresh but Polluted     In the broad scheme of things, the Fern Dell water hole isn't very important.  But people who knew about it and went there to fill their jugs with cool, fresh spring water are disquieted since the Health Department declared it unfit to drink because of pollution.     The spring represented to people a renewed contact with nature and, symbolically perhaps, purity in a poisoned and synthetic world.  Also, as one man commented, "It was the last thing around here that was free."     The word from the Recreation and Parks Department is that the Health Department is working on the job but the contamination is difficult to trace.  It's not a simple matter of replacing the old, possibly rusted outlet pipe.  First, the source of the spring, somewhat high in the hills, must be traced.  Then the possibility of seepage into it from a sewer must be checked.     So, all ya thirsty ones, patience. ::     EVERYONE KNOWS about the mental torment of writers.  They brood, they get discouraged, they seize upon excuses to put off writing.     At a party a lady named Wynn Laws, who has been working on a novel for nearly a year, was pensively staring at nothing when a friend said, "Why, there's Wynn, sitting in a corner and contemplating her novel!"     The line has been used before but now every time she goes to her typewriter the remark haunts her and she has hardly been able to write a line. ::     UCLA'S UPSET 10-3 win over SC is still reverberating.  Edd McGrail said, "I think I shall never see a Kilmer capable as B"- meaning the Bruins' Bill . . . When the announcer said, "Rosenkrans replaces Kilmer," a sepulchral voice, possible an Eng. Lit. major, in back of Arcadius Stewert inquired, "And where is Guildenstern?" . . . Guy Mullen's sentiments are titled "Smithered" as follows: In spite of Marlin and     his twin The Bruins were destined     to win. Somehow I knew they     couldn't miss When they had Smith,     Smith, Smith and Smith. ::     THE PAYOLA disclosures don't surprise Mario Corona, who says, "Nobody in his right mind would play that junk because he wanted to!" . . . Al Diaz can't understand all the fuss either.  It's common practice elsewhere.  "Didn't they ever hear of mordida -- the bite?" he asks. ::     A LONG BEACH merchant named Spiros overestimated the public's appetite for pumpkin pie and the other day decided to return a load of large ones to the L.A. Produce Market.  He was driving 55 and 60 on Long Beach Freeway when he became aware he was being tailed by a gendarme.  He became so nervous he pulled his truck to the side and waited for the officer to catch up and begin the countdown.     "Say," the officer said, "I wonder if you can spare one of those pumpkins?" Spiros' sigh of relief was so immense it stirred the Algerian ivy in the parkway. ::     WORD PLAY -- A tired-looking old Mercury on Hill St. had this lilting, rear fender inscription:  "Pal-a-tin" . . . And Jack Perkins reports a knitting bag displayed in a Santa Monica shop had the attached note, "Half done, will ravel" . . . Meanwhile, another paper didn't state exactly what it meant in reporting the Manhattan Beach City Council had honored comedian Hal Perry for contributing his talents to charitable and philanthropic enterprises.  "He is giving up his residence in the city," the story continued, "and the council wanted to show its appreciation."  Fortunately Hal laughs easily. ::     AROUND TOWN -- A woman got into one of the automatic, self-operated Courthouse elevators and asked, "Oh, is this hand operated?"  "No ma'am," a bailiff said, "it runs on electricity" . . . Charles L.W.Vocke spotted this sign on the door of the walk-in ice-box in a Torrance market: "Special note to Kool Kats -- Drinking egg nog in dairy box.  If you get caught like man you're fired like now" . . . A final word on the subject by Frank Barron: "Isn't it odd that a person will smoke two packs of cigarettes a day yet refuse to eat cranberries once a year?"

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 23, 1959

Adrift in the City       A bellboy, 25, was in municipal court a few days ago charged with impersonating an officer.  His arrest grew out of an argument in a saloon when the bartender refused to sell him a drink.     When he went into an irrelevant outburst in which he threatened to "pull the switch on this whole town!"     "I've been sent down here from the moon to straighten things out," he went on, "but after looking around I'm not sure I can get the job done."     There was laughter, of course, and many persons reading this may also be amused.     But judges and court attaches no longer smile at such outbursts.  They know they have before them a disturbed person, one of many cast adrift in the city. They also know the inadequacy of the facilities to provide desperately needed psychiatric care for such persons.   ::       A WOMAN CAME to a well-known artist and asked if he would paint her portrait.  She wanted to give it to her husband for Christmas, she said.  Then she added, with studied gaiety. "I'll pay you a handsome fee if you'll make me look 10 years younger."     The artist, whose fees are high enough so that he can be independent, replied, "I'll tell you what we can do.  I'll paint you as you are today and you can give it to your husband 10 years from now."   ::       LIFE Steak and violins, crystal     chandeliers- Corned beef hash in tins,     followed by two beers.     --JOSEPH P. KRENGEL   ::       A WOMAN PHONED the Health Department the other day and said urgently, "I ate some cranberries yesterday -- what do I do now?"     The health officer patiently assured her she was in no danger.  When he hung up the receiver he shook his head sadly and remarked to a man visiting him, "I wish we could get through to people how ridiculous this cranberry scare is.  On the basis of the amount of poison required to induce cancer in rats, a person would have to eat 15,000 pounds of cranberries.  That's 100 pounds a year for 150 years.  I don't think anybody is going to make it."   ::       CONTINUING discussions, sometimes reaching the feud stage, are being held by northern and southern groups to settle on an agreement on water rights.  Unless surplus Northern California water can be delivered here, this area, with its exploding population, some distant day could virtually revert to desert.     After a frustrating session Assemblyman Tom Rees, who represents the Brentwood Section, remarked wryly, "Well, at least I've got the riparian rights to the water in 13,000 swimming pools!"   ::       ON HIS RETURN from his first Boy Scout camp out Mike Allison, 11, reported, "The food was terrible.  The steak was raw, the bacon was black and I never want to thing about scrambled eggs again."  Who, his father asked, did the cooking?     "I did, to earn points on my badge," the boy said, then added brightly, "but I sure had some good hamburgers on the way back!"   ::        ONLY IN L.A. -- So that there will be  a fair distribution of funerals of unidentified and unclaimed dead, who are buried at county expense, undertakers designate  a Coroner of the Month, who gets the business for that period.   ::       AT RANDOM -- The TV scene that bugs the boys in the City Council pressroom is the one in which the gal collapses when told a loved one is dead and the hero mushes up and says, "Can I get a glass of water,ma'm?"  Why water?  the pressroom boys ask.  At a time like that any doctor would prescribe wheesky . . . Did you hear about the householder, doing some weekend carpenter work in the garage, who called to his boy, "Son, get me a screwdriver, will you?"  The boy returned in a moment with a glass of orange juice and said, "Pop, I can't find the vodka!" . . . Several employees in a downtown office received credit cards they hadn't applied for.  They're angry, feeling someone was presuming.

Injured Diver Dies After Falling From Rescue Helicopter

“Mary and Pete Are Reunited.”

Skin diver Harold B. Gavenman dies after a tragic series of accidents in which he was struck by a boat propeller and fell 100 feet while being lifted to a rescue helicopter.

Nov. 23, 1959: Jack Smith profiles Debbie Reynolds, 27, who is returning to the screen after an absence for the birth of her daughter, Carrie, and the breakup of her marriage to singer Eddie Fisher. "With tomboy energy, Debbie has bounced back into stardom -- and with astounding success. Today she is possibly the busiest star in Hollywood," Smith says. Debbie Reynolds is “too busy for bitterness,” Smith says.

Is it possible that Hal Holbrook has been doing Mark Twain for 50 years? Yes it is.  Here he is in 1967. Dec. 2, 1959: Philip K. Scheuer reviews “Mark Twain Tonight.”

Jeane Hoffman profiles Rams general manager Pete Rozelle. “It’s hard to get Pete’s mind off football,” his wife, Jane, says.

Seniors Make Foolish Marriages, Judge Says

“A Pathetic Scene on the Nineteenth,” by Clare Briggs

Nov. 22, 1919: A judge trying a divorce case between a 55-year-old woman and her 67-year-old husband says: "I wish you would keep your old folks down in Long Beach from making foolish marriages." "It can't be done, your honor, as long as we have parks and the Pike," the attorney replies.

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 21, 1959

Car Troubles     Two years ago, Bob Joseph bought a two-cylinder French Panhard, which has positively no area in front for a license plate.  He has been driving it with only the rear plate.     On consecutive days recently he received two citations.  A new law went into effect in October requiring cars to have both plates, and it is being enforced.  He explained ineffectively to the officers that the dealer sold him the car with only one plate.     He went to the Traffic Fines Bureau at 810 Wall St., where a courteous marshal showed him the nice new law and advised him to go to the Motor Vehicle Department at 35th and Hope Sts. and get new plates.     He did, then asked where he could put the one in front.  The man there saw no possibility and directed him to the Highway Patrol at 4th and Vermont.     There he retold his sad tale.  An officer circled the car, looking for a spot to put the front plate.  When he came up with nothing Bob asked, "What do you suggest?"      "Sell it," the officer said. ::     UNDERGRADUATE ENTHUSIASM for today's game is about even.  First SC students swiped a UCLA air horn, which was returned.  Then UCLA students put a blue paint coating on Tommy Trojan, the SC statue.  Then four SC students put a red paint job on UCLA's Founder's Rock but were caught swiping two banners.  An SC student policing group has curtailed their privileges. ::     THIN MARGIN When getting on a bus that     is packed The avoirdupois I long     have lacked Is then a  joy, a thing     of merit, As past the fatter forms     I ferret.     --DELLA SKELLETT ::     IT IS traditional and inevitable that reporters, who write the news stories, and copy readers, who edit and put heads on them, should quibble.  Reporters contend copy readers destroy their lilting prose.  Copy readers accuse reporters of slaughtering the language.  They went at it again the other day.     A rewrite man turned in a  story about a W 8th St. liquor store holdup in which a case of Scotch was stolen.  The reporter, obviously a naive fellow, identified it as "Hague and Hague" instead of Haig and Haig.     A surly copy reader asked him, "Are you sure it wasn't a case of Holland gin?" ::     IN HIS latest Desert Rat Scrap Book, all about good Injuns, Harry Oliver tells of a party of tourists visiting some Indian ruins in a desolate section of Arizona.  To get to them they had to leave their cars and walk.     En route, a woman exclaimed, "Gracious, I forgot to lock the car!"     "Don't worry," the Indian guide said, "there isn't a white man within 50 miles." ::     IT MAY BE comforting to know that the Health Department is watching over you, even if you don't care.     Bob Martin received a notice the other day that his dog Concho had been quarantined for 14 days as a rabies suspect.  Puzzled, he phoned County health and asked why.  "Because he bit you," he was told.     Then Bob remembered.  Six weeks ago the dog playfully bit or scratched him on the leg.  About a week ago the sore looked infected and Bob stopped at Hollywood Receiving Hospital, where a doc put a bandage on it.  He also turned in a dog-bite report which went to Central, then to County health, then to Burbank, where Bob lives, and boom -- quarantine for Concho.     Meanwhile, the wound was healed. ::     FOOTNOTES -- It was a big week for bird watching.  In addition to the usual sparrows, towhees, blue-jays, juncoes and flickers, four stately quail, a long absent thrush, the first robin of fall and a yellow-breasted number tentatively identified as a MacGillivray's warbler visited the back yard.  That's what it states in Ernest Sheldon Booth's "Birds of the West" -- MacGillivray's warbler . . . Councilman Ransom Callicott, chatting with a friend about car mileage, remarked, "Five gallons of gas is just a light lunch for my car."

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 20, 1959

About Football     This is Big Game Week and I might as well get into the act, too.  I suppose it's true -- once a sports writer, you never get over it entirely.     SC and UCLA are being criticized for the way they play football.  Also the Rams, who can't win for losing.  Everyone's disgusted with them.     The Trojans have a great defense, the hecklers say, but their offense falters.  Oh sure they're No. 2 in the nation, but that's because of the wonderful McKeevers.  The heck its is.  It's because they're strong in all 11 positions.     UCLA, newly come alive, sends the self-appointed experts into despair.  The team looks good one game, bad the next.  Not only that, it plays the single wing, which the critics call horse and buggy football.  I happen to find the single wing a refreshing change from the ubiquitous T system, with all its variations.     AND SO THE HECKLERS say the colleges ought to open up the game.  Be more imaginative.  Well now, Stanford plays a flashy game.  Dick Norman leads the nation in passing, Chris Burford in receiving.  The Indians are gamblers.  They'll pass on fourth down and four to go in their own territory.  And where are they?  Nowhere.  Mostly because their defense is pitiful.     It could be that the Dodgers did L.A. a disservice in their magnificent drive for the pennant and their World Series victory.  Every team here is now expected to be not only victorious but also spectacular.  Fans go out to see them win.  They can't abide a loser.  Contrast this with the Middle West, where 75,000 people will sit in the cold or rain to watch teams which have been beaten repeatedly.  But it's their team.     My theory is that college football suffers mostly from the fickleness of the fans and too much undeserved criticism.  I like it as it is. ::     THIS IS to report an incredible, world-shaking event.  Tuesday an editor handling a piece of copy wasn't sure how to spell Khrushchev (most people forget the first h) and looked through the day's papers for verification.  Mr. K was not mentioned that day in any news story or column. ::     PUPPY DOGS They are cuddly- Also puddly. --JOSEPH P. KRENGEL ::    ONLY IN L.A. -- A semi-private City Hall elevator, used mostly by the brass to get to upstairs from the basement garage, is notoriously temperamental.   Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  To warn users that it is unreliable it now bears a handsome brass, lighted, permanent sign, "Out of Service" . . .  Actress Dodie Drake awakened one night recently hearing strange noises.  Thinking someone was trying to break into the house, she called police.  The culprits?  Avocados falling off a tree and rolling down the roof. ::     JOHN CORNELL, who keeps tab on the changing L.A. scenery, reports another landmark on N. Broadway, not far from the vacant and mourned Ptomaine Tommy's, has gone out of business.  It was a store, notable for its sign, "Dental Equipment Refishishing."     Boss probably went refishishing where they were biting better. ::     FOR Red Rowe of CBS TV, Halloween was  a treat, not trick, night.  Pranksters removed a For Sale sign from a nearby lot and stuck it in the front lawn of the new Woodland Hills home into which he was preparing to move.  Next day a doctor's wife saw the sign and offered him so much more than he'd paid he couldn't refuse.  So Red's house-hunting again. ::     AT RANDOM -- Harrie Mabie heard a newscaster on KMPC say, "Smoke was noticed by the officer passing through the ventilator."

Opera Tenor Confined to Mental Ward

Clare Briggs on “That Guiltiest Feeling.” Pietro Buzzi in 1905.

Nov. 19, 1919: Pietro Buzzi, operatic tenor, is take to the psychiatric ward  of county hospital after being removed from a Hollywood studio. According to a 1916 story in The Times, he portrayed Kaiser Wilhelm in an unidentified Universal film.