UCLA Fires Angela Davis; Meet Halo Harry

Sept. 24, 1969: Johnny Hart on the new incivility. The late Ken Reich interviews Angela Davis. Reich writes: Angela Davis, 25, says her role in the "struggle for black liberation" had marked her as a special target for the University of California regents. She accused them of "fascist encroachment" on her rights. "As a black woman, my politics and political affiliation are bound up with and flow from participation in my people's struggle for liberation, and with the fight of oppressed people all over the world against American imperialism," she says. Rex Harrison and Richard Burton play two hairdressers who live together in "Staircase." No, it's not on Netflix. Sept. 26, 1969: Charles Champlin reviews "Staircase," saying that Harrison and Burton do a credible job of portraying two gays.

Before the Rally Monkey there was  Halo Harry. The Angels didn't have many fans in 1969 but they did have a cheerleader of sorts, a regular guy who got fed up with his fellow fans acting as if they were in a library. "I just got sick and tired of watching everyone just sit there," Jay Freese told The Times' Dave Distel. So one day he started wearing a straw hat with a halo attached by a wire. I remember seeing Harry at the Big A, walking through the ballpark trying to get people to clap or cheer, anything. He certainly wasn't an in your face cheerleader, threatening your manhood because you didn't want to help him start The Wave. I hate those guys. Distel pointed out that Harry seemed to have a winning effect on the team, just as today's Angels broadcasters love to trumpet the Rally Monkey's impact. He certainly wasn't improving the attendance. A day after the story appeared, the Angels played their final home game in front of only 5,728 people. --Keith Thursby

Matt Weinstock, Sept. 23, 1959

Sept. 23, 1959: To folks who think traffic in Los Angeles is a new problem, please read the stories on 1) freeways 2) new buses 3) moving sidewalks. Bonus story 4) drunk drivers.

Matt Weinstock on the complaint that teachers spend too much time maintaining order in the classroom and too little time teaching. "And yet I happen to know that on the third day of school a knife with a 3-inch blade was taken from an arrogant 9-year-old by a child welfare and attendance officer, who says grimly: "It looks like another tough year." And you thought the 1950s were a kinder, simpler time.

Groundbreaking for Dodger Stadium

Photograph by Harry Chase / Los Angeles Times Ground-breaking for Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine. President Eisenhower quietly told the world today he is just as confident of the verdict of history as Soviet Chairman Khrushchev. "He is always saying ... history is going to decide between us," the president said. "I believe history, in the long run, is going to decide in favor of the free system." A rally protesting Khrushchev's visit is planned for the Rose Bowl. Los Angeles prepares for Khrushchev's visit.

Capitalism and advertising can't exist without each other, Madison Avenue says. Bruce Russell on Khrushchev's visit to the Lincoln Memorial. "I'll Bet I Make a Terrific President Some Day ... of the School Mothers' Club!" The Dodgers provide boxes so guests can take souvenir dirt from the groundbreaking at Chavez Ravine.   The Dodgers beat the Reds, 4-3, making them tied for second with Milwaukee and two games behind the first-place Giants. The three teams have eight remaining games.    Kappa Sigma was in difficulty in the fall of 1955 when a stripteaser complained that the "boys got out of hand" during a stag party, The Times says. "Prohibition of hazing is a cardinal principal of our fraternity," says Kappa Sigma national President James E. Ivins. "The national officers extend heartfelt sympathy and deepest feelings of remorse to the bereaved."

USC Fraternity Pledge Chokes to Death During Hazing

Sept. 17, 1959: The X-15 makes its first powered flight.

"The other boys began slapping him on the back and one stuck his finger down Swanson's throat to try to dislodge the meat," Police Lt. William R. Porter says of Kappa Sigma pledge Richard Swanson, who choked to death during a hazing ceremony.   "When that didn't work, they held him upside down by his heels and tried to shake it out of him. Then, being kids, they just went to pieces. Some of them went out to their cars and prayed. Others became downright hysterical." Ambulance attendants said Kappa Sigma members wouldn't let them get close to Swanson. "Those guys gave me nothing but a bad time. One kid kept telling me not to touch the boy or I'd be held responsible if anything happened to him," ambulance attendant Nathan Rubin says. "According to students and police, Kappa Sigma is considered the wildest on campus," the Mirror says.

USC Fraternity Pledge Dies During Hazing; Dodgers Lose

Sept. 17, 1959: Buried on an inside page are some names that will soon be famous --  Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard and Wally Schirra. Deke Slayton is the only one missing of the Mercury 7 astronauts.  Richard Swanson, a 21-year-old dental student at USC, chokes to death on a piece of raw liver during pledge hazing at the Kappa Sigma house on Fraternity Row. Some members were expelled and the fraternity was closed, but beyond that very little was done except some soul-searching and accusations that an official was blocking an inquiry because he was a USC graduate. Unless you count a riot that began when fraternity members hanged  USC President Norman Topping in effigy because he tried to impose rules that required the Greeks to get average grades. "The ice of the cold war ... has started to crumble" as a result of his visit to America, Khrushchev says.. "I think one of the facts which characterize the position of the Jewish people in our country is the fact that among the persons who took foremost part in the launching of the rocket to the moon the representatives of the Jewish people hold a place of honor.... The question of a man's religion is not asked in our country. It is a matter for the conscience of the person concerned. We look upon a person as a person," Khrushchev says.

"The Soviet Union stands for the development of relations between states on the basis of the principles of peaceful coexistence. These principles were bequeathed to us by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the great founder of the Soviet state. And we are true to these principles." This story has nothing to do with Nixon and the Bible, an item that appears on the cover rather than the runover, but it's a grabber headline. Bruce Russell on the Constitution vs. Marxism. What Khrushchev said: ""We have plenty of dead cats we could fling at you." Translation: "If there is a desire that our discussion here take that turn, of course, we for our part could think of quite a few questions of a similar character." Gene Sherman writes about a molestation victim and sex offenders. Good news, bad news for the Dodgers. They reached 2 million in home attendance for the first time in franchise history but lost to the Reds, 7-4. The Dodgers slipped into third place, two games behind the Giants. Charlie Neal hit two home runs and Wally Moon added another shot but it wasn't enough. --Keith Thursby

A Shotgun Divorce

Sept. 9, 1919: Military schools are flourishing in Los Angeles.

Someone came up behind Frank Gentile while he was sleeping on the couch and blew off the back of his head with a 16-gauge shotgun. Because he was Italian, police naturally assumed it was the work of mobsters. But no, further investigation discovers a double-barreled 16-gauge shotgun, recently fired, in a closet and Gentile's wife, Maggie, is charged.

Mystery Observatory Photo -- Update

Los Angeles Times file photo

Cary Schneider and Robin Mayper of The Times library were going through our photos of observatories yesterday looking for pictures of Mt. Wilson and came across this unlabeled item. It appears to have been taken in the early 1930s. Any ideas? Update: As Dale Trader points out, this is the Astrophysics Laboratory at Caltech. Here's a photo from 1939 at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Study Finds Widespread Grade Inflation at L.A. County Schools

Aug. 30, 1899: Hawley, King & Co. buggies, 5th and Broadway.

The county Board of Education finds "deplorable laxness and inefficiency" in most Los Angeles County schools. By 1899, California required each county to send standardized tests to all its schools for students in fifth grade and above. The graded exams were to be returned to the county boards as a check on teachers' effectiveness. In previous years, the magnitude of the paperwork precluded a detailed study of the exams. This time, however, thorough scrutiny of the tests reveals widespread falsification of grades. "Some of the teachers have sent in correctly marked examination papers, but the great majority have marked their pupils' examination papers from 5 to 50 percent higher than deserved," says Luther G. Brown, president of the Board of Education. "In a number of instances the children of trustees were graded with very much more leniency than other pupils," Brown says

L.A. Welcomes Astronauts; Plane Buzzes Dodger Stadium

Aug. 13, 1969: Linda Mathews on college students' problems in getting loans, Ken Reich on a salute to the Apollo 11 astronauts, Dial Torgerson on the Tate killings and Lee Dye on the slaying of William Lennon, father of the Lennon Sisters singing group.

Meet Vin Scully, police reporter. The Times tried to solve the mystery of a plane that buzzed Dodger Stadium during a game. Who better to ask than Scully, with his view of the stadium and its surroundings? Scully told The Times the plane followed "exactly the same pattern" as a craft the buzzed the ballpark during a game a month earlier. And he thought it was the same plane both times, although he couldn't be sure. Hard to imagine a more credible witness. -- Keith Thursby

Men Paid More Than Women at L.A. Schools

Aug. 3, 1889: A statistical breakdown on schools, a doctor is charged in an abortion and allegations of incest. What's this? Male teachers average $88.55 ($2,095.87 USD 2008) a month, and female teachers average $75.36 ($1,783.68).