May 15, 1938

Butterfinger, the health food. Well, at least we know what became of the ad agency that called beer "liquid bread."

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May 9, 1938

Above, a bottle of Pepsi costs a nickel (71 cents USD 2007) and is worth a dime ($1.43 USD 2007) ... Below,  unemployed actor and author Charles E. Royal finds another career telling tourists about City Hall in staggering detail. Royal, City Hall information clerk from 1936 to 1951, wrote more than 2,300 songs, The Times said. His wife, the former Olga Shuey, was a "child adagio dancer" ...  Geraldine "Gerry" Humason is chosen as a "typical outdoor coed" at UCLA ... And the government is encouraging foreign-born World War I veterans who served with U.S. forces or left the country to serve with the Allies to apply for citizenship.

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May 5, 1938

Above, Thelma Todd's famous (or notorious) Inn ... Below, George Sakalis says he was offered $3,000 to keep his mouth shut in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette in the Harry Raymond bombing ... Jackie Coogan says he brought a lawsuit against his mother and stepfather over his earnings as a childhood actor because his stepfather was going to cash a $100,000 life insurance policy for $7,500 ... Mussolini reportedly tells Hitler, during the Fuehrer's visit to Rome, that he has nothing to gain from a military pact with Germany. On the jump, George Farley goes on trial on charges of killing Deputy City Marshals Leon W. Romer and T. Dwight Crittenden when they tried to serve an eviction notice. Farly, 54, an African American, has entered dual pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

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April 29, 1908

Above, what could be healthier than beer except for cigarettes? OK, Helmar cigarettes at least didn't claim to be good for you. I overlooked Emma Goldman's appearance in Los Angeles, so the pages are a day late. Naturally, The Times didn't hold back on its opinion of her. But at least we covered her speech.

Quotes of the Day:

Questioner: "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

Goldman: No, I don't. I don't believe he was the son of God. I believe he had more sense  as to come from God. I thought he came from a woman."

Questioner: "Well he taught perfect obedience to the law. He said to render unto Caesar those things which were Caesar's."

The hall then broke into a small uproar.

"The fact is, Emma is a fat, well-fed, red-faced little Dutch woman who is out for cash." --The Times, on Emma Goldman

 
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April 26, 1938

Below, the prosecution prepares to call bombing victim Harry Raymond in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette ... The proceedings are interrupted as bailiffs throw an old drunk man out of the courtroom after he yelled "Look out! Look out!" ... Sam Goldwyn says movies are terrible, even the "A" pictures. He blames writers, actors and directors. "They all get too much money, he said," according to The Times ... Nazi violence against Jews breaks out in Theusing, Czechoslovakia ... State liquor agents are accused of soliciting a bribe to renew a cafe owner's license..

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Paul Coates

March 26, 1958

In an effort to hammer down the rising price of beef, housewives in several Southland communities are organizing boycotts on expensive cuts.

Their methods of resistance to the boosts include:

In Pasadena, a group of women is passing petitions to be forwarded to their congressmen demanding immediate reduction of prices. They're also shunning all meats on which prices have recently been upped.

In the Glendora-Azusa area, a 2-week-old campaign to boycott beef is reported picking up new backers.

And in several areas throughout the San Fernando Valley, a "chain-phone" drive to snub the butcher shop is claimed to be picking up momentum.

Each woman contacted by phone is requested to make no purchases of beef for the following two weeks, and to telephone five of her friends with the same request.

The phone campaign was launched by Mrs. Harriet Wasserman, 5915 Adela Ave., Encino. She called 11 persons in Sherman Oaks, Canoga Park, San Fernando and Encino.

"Each promised to call five others to keep the campaign rolling," she said.

One of the persons called by Mrs. Wasserman was Mrs. Naomi Gruberman, 3828 Woodcliff Road, Sherman Oaks. Mrs. Gruberman said she called 10 persons.

According to stockyard officials, beef prices have climbed skyward because of a current shortage caused by the droughts of 1954, '55 and '56. The dry years forced breeders and growers to cut their herds.

"If that's the case," one aproned campaigner told me last night, "we'll create a dandy surplus for them so they can bring the prices back to our reach again."

Most of the women I contacted did not blame their local butchers. They all seemed to suspect a mysterious "middleman."

 

A typical boycotter was Mrs. Barbara Crill, 1125 E. Walnut, Glendora.

With a few neighbors, she's been circulating petitions to send Sen. [Thomas] Kuchel, plus urging friends and strangers alike to stay away from beef or any other meat on which prices are raised.

"It's not so much out of anger we're doing it," she told me. "It's out of necessity."

Mrs. Crill, mother of three, said that her budget ordinarily called for a biweekly meat expenditure of between $15-$18 ($109-$131.18 USD 2007). Her decision to desert her butcher came last week, she said, after she figured out she was spending $3-$4 more and actually getting less meat.

"At my market, just last week," she added, "chuck roast went up 8 cents (58 cents), steaks up 20 cents ($1.46), round stake up 10 cents (73 cents) and round bone roast up 8 cents.

"I asked my butcher about it and he said beef prices figured to continue going up about half a cent a day and that if his costs on pork continued to rise, he'd probably have to boost those prices too."

A spokesman for the Meat Purveyors Service Bureau said that so far butchers have reported no noticeable effects from the so-called boycott campaigns.

"I sympathize with the housewives," he said, "but the fact is there is a noticeable shortage of beef, and that's the reason prices are up."

Philip Melnick, secretary-manager of the Southern California Retail Meat Butchers Assn., agreed that no effects from the "boycott" have been reported by butchers.

"The boycott probably wouldn't hurt us anyway," he said. "We're just as angry about the high prices of beef as the housewives.

"In fact, our margins of profit on beef are so low we'd be happy to sell more of other meats."

Melnick predicted beef prices will start down in 30 or 40 days.

Mrs. Crill conceded that her campaign, begun March 10, is just getting off the ground.

"So far we have 100 names on petitions to congressmen," she said.

She said her group--which includes four other Glendora women and one in Van Nuys--was looking ahead to a "boycott week" during which housewives wouldn't buy beef.

"We'll buy fish and poultry for that week," she said. "Maybe that will bring the price of beef to a reasonable level."

But so far, she said, even she herself hasn't boycotted beef altogether.

"I'm still buying the cheaper cuts," she said. "I'm just staying away from the more expensive cuts so far."

       

The Queens Arms

As I was contemplating our Easter dinner last week, I thought of the Kings Arms and Queens Arms restaurants in L.A.

They used to have the best orange sauce for ham. It was the best sauce I have ever tasted and I have never been able to duplicate it. It was what I always wanted when my parents took us there in the 1950s. I took my wife to the Queens Arms after we married in 1969.

I know I go way back, but it was fun to remember some of the old places like the "Tail of the Cock," the "Pump Room" and the "Samoa House" (I can remember when it was still on Van Nuys Boulevard.)

I guess it shows us how old we are although, if my memory is correct, the recipe for the barbecue sauce from the Samoa House was bought by Pitts & Chris and is still available.

Ken Gott

--Thanks for sharing! How about it? Anybody got the Kings Arms' recipe for orange sauce?

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Main Street

Photograph by Bruce H. Cox / Los Angeles Times
Goodfellows (or Good Fellows, the restaurant used both names) Grotto, 341 S. Main St., shortly before it closed. Notice the old-fashioned "Family Entrance."

Until it closed on New Year's Eve in 1953, Goodfellows Grotto, 341 S. Main St., was the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the city. Founded in 1905 by Matteo Dujmovich, Lucky Baldwin's cook, Goodfellows was in the heart of what was once the theater district, near the Orpheum, Belasco and Adolphus and two blocks from the opera house.

Sarah Bernhardt was a patron, as were Clark Gable, Adolphe Menjou and Edward G. Robinson. Over the years, Goodfellows served every mayor and police chief of Los Angeles, every governor of California and countless attorneys and executives.

Seating 75 people in a main dining room, with booths that could accommodate another 75 patrons, Goodfellows was originally a steak and chop house, but later specialized in seafood. It was apparently a popular spot from the beginning. In 1908, Goodfellows was one of the first restaurants to be targeted by the city in its crackdown on " 'women of the town' in large cafes and the boldness of their conduct."

Time stood still at Goodfellows through two world wars, the Depression and the Cold War, then left it in the past. Writing in 1948, Paul Coates noted: "The ancient looking waiters seem lost without the handlebar mustaches you would expect of them. Only recently have they abandoned their long church warden coats and white aprons in favor of lighter jackets. Curtained booths are still in service for diners wishing discreet privacy. The floors gleam with white and black tile which were in vogue for plushly decorated dining rooms a half-century ago."

Goodfellows remained popular, but it was gradually surrounded by the pawnshops, striptease theaters and penny arcades of skid row, losing many of its patrons to upscale restaurants near Pershing Square, Wilshire Boulevard and La Cienega.

 

John Dujmovich, who took over the restaurant from his father, said in 1953 of his decision to close:

"A few weeks ago the Fire Department said we had to fireproof the booth curtains. And a few days later the building inspectors said the wiring had to be in conduits by Jan. 3. Even the bricks themselves are powdering away.... I suppose they'll tear it down and make this another auto park."

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Found on EBay

Here's a postcard of the Chalon Restaurant, 1455 W. Manchester, a business that appeared in a 1955 Times story about fines that were imposed for smog violations. The restaurant was cited for operating an incinerator after a permit had been denied.

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Update: Look at what I found in the Mirror!

Preservation news

According to a note from the L.A. Conservancy's Modern Committee, Bob's Big Boy is interested in rebuilding the Johnie's Broiler, 7447 Firestone Blvd., in Downey that was partially destroyed in an illegal demolition. On Tuesday at 7 p.m., the committee plans to urge the Downey City Council to support complete reconstruction of the restaurant following the original plans. Downey City Hall is at 11111 Brookshire Ave.

More info is here.

Craby Joe's RIP

Craby Joe's is gone but the sign lives on.

Jeremy Hansen writes: The Museum of Neon Art is hoping to have the sign up and running by Feb. 14, the next downtown LA Artwalk.  The new location of the museum is on 4th, between Spring and Main on the south side of 4th.  Check it out.

That's great. By the way, Ed Fuentes of View From a Loft has suggested getting official designation of 7th and Main--the former home of Craby Joe's--as Charles Bukowski Square. It sounds good to me.

Poker Dog update

My earlier post on whether there were original "Poker Dog"  paintings at the Redwood prompted this response: 

Just read this and it made my day. I can assure you there are no original Coolidge poker dogs here now.

yours truly

Christian Frizzell
         current owner of the Redwood Bar & Grill

Jan. 29, 1908

Wow. Despite what I know about local history, I'm stunned by the article on the mass firing of Japanese employees across the city ... Los Angeles County is looking for another coroner ... Bad news in the courts for automobile owners--and drivers ... Horrible conditions at the county hospital ... Women on East 1st Street exact muddy vengeance on the motorman of a streetcar after it ran down a fruit vendor--another exciting day on Los Angeles' sainted transportation system!

Quote of the day: "When an unfortunate person is run over by a streetcar and his remains distributed for two blocks along the track, it is highly important that the county employ a special physician to find out what he died of."

 

Jan. 22, 1908

A juicy murder trial draws curious throngs ... Food poisoning from a bad sausage kills a Civil War hero and his wife ... And note the ad for the Salt Lake Route, which was acquired by Union Pacific in 1921...

 

Found on EBay

Here are a couple of interesting items on EBay, both related to Main Street (shout out to Bukowski Square! Let's make it official).

First, the Milano Cafe, 166 N. Main.

 

And here's a shot of Main and 3rd.

 

 

It's a bit difficult to be certain because of the low resolution, but notice a few things: It looks as though Main Street hasn't been paved, which occurred roughly in the 1890s. And note the various modes of transportation: horses, streetcars, several bicycles and pedestrians. Also note the early style of street lamps. Finally, notice that the building on the far right has fire escapes while the building in the center apparently doesn't.

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Carl Karcher

Jan. 11, 1968
Anaheim

Johnny Grant

Sept. 4, 1948
Los Angeles

The King's, 8153 Santa Monica Blvd.,  1945-1954
KWIK-AM (1490) 1947-1951
Johnny Grant 1923-2008

Health spa

Jan. 5, 1908
Los Angeles

I love looking through the early 20th century issues of The Times. For one thing, they are only about 26 pages and the ads are amazing. Here's a shout-out to Nathan Marsak of the 1947project. Feeling a little run down? Nothing like a swig of radium and sulfur to perk you up. "Sparkles like champagne AND it's radioactive." I kind of like that. 

 

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(Bonus fact: Colegrove was named for Sen. Cornelius Cole and was bounded by Melrose Avenue, Sunset Boulevard, Gower and Sewart streets, according to The Times).

Budweiser boycott

 

Nov. 7, 1957
Los Angeles
Here's a story that white Los Angeles will never see: An NAACP boycott against Anheuser-Busch because it refused to hire African American truck drivers, plant workers and office staff.   

According to the California Eagle, a weekly serving the local African American community, the NAACP was calling on 350,000 blacks in Los Angeles to stop drinking Budweiser until the company ended its biased hiring practices. African American owners of liquor stores and bars were also urged to stop serving the beer.

The story noted that although blacks constituted 8.5% of the local population, they accounted for 18% of the beer sold in Los Angeles. The businesses taking part in the boycott represented about 2,000 cases of Budweiser a month, the Eagle said.

The boycott was called after the Urban League failed to attain equality in hiring despite years of efforts, the story said. The NAACP's labor and industry committee had tried to confer with a West Coast representative of the brewer, but was also unsuccessful.

According to William Pollard of the labor and industry committee, "It is ridiculous that in their entire Los Angeles operations only two Negroes are employed by Budweiser," the Eagle said.

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Matt Weinstock

Oct. 12, 1957

Burl Ives, who took off more than 40 pounds to play the part of the viciously righteous father in "Desire Under the Elms,' was putting some of it back on the other day at Frascati's and between bites took up the slack on the three years since we last saw each other.

The word from Paramount is that Burl does a masterful job in the Eugene O'Neill play. "I'm a heck of a villain," he confided with a booming laugh.

Furthermore, it appears he'll be doing considerably more acting. He has been offered three important roles.

Despite his switch of emphasis from folk music to acting, Burl remains the same hearty, uninhibited gentleman who gets a great kick out of life.

His private passion is still boats. When he's in the East he lives aboard the one that was reported this week as having gone aground in New Jersey. "There was a 70-mile wind," he said, "but the men aboard were all blue-water sailors." He can't figure what happened, not having yet received a full account.

Since coming to Hollywood, Burl has acquired a shiny black 1934 Packard phaeton Straight 8, a beautifully restored job with white leather upholstery, red trim and pinstriping. You can't hardly get them like that any more. I was curious about the name "Fosdick" neatly painted on one door. Just a whim, he explained, then added, "Harry Emerson--not Fearless."

What about folk music? It's as big as ever, he said, but in a different way. It's no longer the sort of intellectual cult it used to be. It's now accepted by people in all categories of society: businessmen, professional men, housewives as well as devotees of pure Americana. In a recent concert in Texas, he said, he broke the attendance record.

What's his feeling about being a big actor? It's nice work if you can get it, he said, but it hasn't changed his way of life. He's still a troubadour. For instance, he likes to go out at night and do a little singing with friendly strangers.

And this is our thought for today--bearded Burl Ives, all 300 pounds of him, guitar in hand, lumbering along the elegant Sunset Strip, where he lives, looking in one bistro after another for convivial folk who might like to join him in "Blue Tail Fly," "Barbara Allen" or "Jimmy Cracked Corn"--and finding them.

KID STUFF -- Timmy Deans, 3, is fascinated by all policemen. While his mother waited for a signal to change, a motorcycle officer stopped alongside and Timmy, enchanted, called out, "Hey, police, my mommy drive too fast. Give her a tick!" The officer frowned fiercely, then smiled... A woman with two little girls got on a bus on Catalina Island and the  driver asked, "Are they under 6?" The woman retorted menacingly, "Did you ask if my girls are undersexed?"

THE PERIPATETIC publicists are with us today. Al Hix, en route to Tripoli to do the movie "No Time to Die," postcards from the island of Malta that he asked for a Malta milk and the barmaid had to be dissuaded from taking a poke at him... Jack Hirshberg writes from Munich, where Kirk Douglas is making "The Vikings," that he forgot to put his pfennigs in a parking meter and found a ticket under the windshield wiper. Seemed like old times in Beverly Hills. But when he asked a nearby policeman what to do about it, the officer wrote out a receipt, Jack handed him 2 marks--about 50 cents--and that was that.

ONLY IN L.A. -- A man named Scotty gives his Pekingese half a Miltown when it has nervous fits. Brings the Peke right out of it, he says... Civic Center cynics were saying yesterday that it was very inconsiderate of Columbus to have his birthday come this year on Saturday, already a holiday from work.

FOOTNOTES -- An attorney delivering an eloquent oration in an accident case in court the other day had a distressing interruption. The bailiff fell asleep and loudly snored... Agnes Moorehead, who created the classic role 14 years ago, will be doing "Sorry, Wrong Number" for the seventh time on CBS radio's "Suspense" tomorrow... George T. Oussen, supervising the smooth inaugural of Flying Tiger's nonstop freight service with a 43,000 payload, recalled the time in 1931 when another line started a cargo service in Chicago and a live, crated pig got loose during the loading and speaking ceremony, creating havoc, as the saying goes... Mickey Grayson, maitre d' at the Park Wilshire Hotel, has a piece of a $7 pool on which day of the week Sputnik will sputter out and disappear.

Redwood revisited

Attention art sleuths: A close examination of the Redwood ad reveals this startling detail!

 

Yes, that's right! According to this 1960 ad, the "famed 'Poker Dog' original oil paintings" were on display at the Redwood. And the paintings were insured for $25,000 ($167,025.46 USD 2006), in case they were stolen, perhaps by some inebriated newsman in search of a souvenir for his desk.

Let's ignore, just for the sake of argument, that for $167,025.46 you could buy a shipping container of "Poker Dog" reprints, and look into this.   

If, by some fantastically unlikely quirk of fate, you've never seen one of these pictures, which hang in every bar, pool hall and rec room in America, they look like this:

 

In fact, the paintings (above, "A Friend in Need") were done by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, and have been reproduced on calendars, wall clocks, decks of cards, drink coasters, bobblehead writing pens, needlepoint kits and figurines:

 

I have no idea what the Redwood hung on its walls in 1960, and whether the restaurant had any Coolidge originals is a question I can't answer. The location of Coolidge's 16 originals, done about 1903  as calendar art for Brown & Bigelow, is unclear. A pair of originals sold on EBay for $590,400 in 2005 and several other, as yet unidentified, originals have sold at auction over the years.

Obviously, a (nonalcoholic) field trip to the Redwood is in order. In the meantime, surely there are some veteran patrons who can fill me in. You know who you are. And perhaps some art historian at the Getty would like to offer an opinion on the enduring popularity of the "Poker Dogs" series.   

Where are the original "Poker Dog" paintings? Are any of them still at the Redwood? This could be like finding the Amber Room at Philippe. Stay tuned!

Here's a satiric look (at least I think satiric, though one never knows) about secret meanings in the "Poker Dogs" paintings.

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ps. Now that I have found an L.A. connection to the "Poker Dogs," I feel almost guilty making fun of the clown paintings in Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia."

Almost.

Wheel-o-meal

 

Sept. 2, 1957
Los Angeles

Let's suppose you're a clever businessman. And let's suppose your city has the nation's busiest intersection: In three days, 205,022 cars pass through Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue. Along with nine horse-drawn milk wagons.

Horses? You see, it's 1928, and Charles Wesley Scrivner, who died Sept. 1, 1957, is going to build a drive-in at Wilshire and Western.

Or so it says in Scrivner's obituary in The Times, which reported that he opened one of the nation's first drive-ins in 1928 at Wilshire and Western, and the Mirror, which declared it to be the first in the country.

Tracking down the truth is a little more difficult. The Times lists several early drive-in restaurants (southwest corner of Crenshaw and Vernon, July 27, 1930; northeast corner of Beverly and Rosemont, Sept. 21, 1930; Coffee Cup Drive-In Cafe, 9180 W. Pico July 26, 1931; Bogen's 3201 Wilshire at Vermont, 1933).

The Times also wrote about several drive-in markets in the period (Hollywood and Kingsley, March 4, 1928; Camden and Brighton, June 10, 1928; Sunset near Western, July 1, 1928; 6th Street between Alexandria and Kenmore, Oct. 21, 1928; Western and Florence, Dec. 16, 1928). But again, nothing at Wilshire and Western.

What do know is that Scrivner came to Los Angeles in 1912 and was a salesman for Meek-Barnes Baking Co. In 1921, he helped found 4-S Baking Co. with Frederick G. Scalzo and two unidentified men who presumably had an S in their names. The company was sold to Interstate Bakeries Corp. in 1930.

Scrivner opened the drive-in with Harry Carpenter, who ran a chain of drive-ins bearing his name. Scrivner was also on the boards of Henry's Drive-Ins and Hody's Restaurants and was a part owner of Thriftimart groceries.

Scrivner, 66, was a 32nd-degree Mason and a member of Al Malaikah Shrine Temple.

As for the story of the purported Wilshire/Western Drive-In, presumably it's serving burgers and malts in L.A. history heaven. If you have any more information, let me know.

Bonus fact: Harry Carpenter killed himself with a shotgun blast to the chest, July 24, 1954, while sitting on the steps to his basement at 625 Cumberland Road, Glendale. He was 67.

Bonus fact: According to the 1928 traffic survey, 1,388 trucks went through Western on Wilshire in 24 hours, even though trucks were supposedly banned on Wilshire.

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Below, The Times rants about Los Angeles' traffic problems in 1928. As I keep saying, Los Angeles' traffic problems go back at least a century and defy simple answers.

Matt Weinstock

July 31, 1957

The whole thing started many months ago when Sparks Stringer poured out his chagrin here at being unable to find any farkleberries in L.A. He had in mind whipping up a farkleberry pie like his mother used to make down South.

Clearly there's something unlikely and contagious about the word farkleberry. Publicist Joe Weston was so enchanted by it he named his frisky Siamese cat Farkleberry. Others thought it was a gag. It isn't. A farkleberry, I'm told, is somewhere between a huckleberry and a gooseberry.

Comes now a letter from Capt. M.R. Flehinger, who used to sell the Daily News at Beverly Boulevard and Normandie and is now with the Air Force in Japan.

"After asking in vain for farkleberry pie in Hong Kong, Bangkok and most of the larger cities in Japan," he writes, "I though I'd scored in a Tokyo restaurant. But it was only the accommodating manager and the language barrier working against me. What I got was a plain berry pie, I think. Of course, it might have been farkleberry but how can you be sure?"

The search goes on.

ALTHOUGH Mrs. Alex Mayer of North Hollywood has been making regular purchases on her charge account at a department store, she has received no bill for three months. The other day, she phoned the store and inquired about it.

A girl looked up the account and reported, "The reason you haven't received a bill is that you moved and the mail we sent to your new address has been coming back."

Mrs. Mayer, puzzled, said they hadn't moved, they still lived on Bonfield Street.

"Well," said the girl, "on the last payment we had from you your address was a post office box--PO 50042--and our statements have been returned from there."

So Mrs. Mayer explained that PO 5-0042 is her telephone number--PO as in POplar. And now, lucky girl, she will be able to pay her bill.*

Oh, I can tell you, life can be complicated.

AROUND TOWN--As an added fillip to its lavish party for the movie "Omar Khayyam," Paramount operatives scoured the city's tobacconists for Omar cigarettes. Mostly the tobacco boys said they hadn't seen any in 25 years. But guess where the Paramounters found an unlimited supply--Rexall's.

* In the dark ages, phone numbers had a two-letter prefix. Common ones in Los Angeles were AT lantic, AX minster, CI trus, HO llywood, MA dison, OX ford, RI chmond, etc.--lrh

Matt Weinstock

July 22, 1957

This is to report that a distressing situation has arisen in MacWestlake Park.

Certain pigeons--just a few of the hundreds in the park, mind you--have adopted a decidedly unmilitary attitude toward the recently dedicated statue of the General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. Apparently they believe he's just another Beethoven. (Note: This is a reference to the statue of Beethoven in Pershing Square across from what used to be Philharmonic Auditorium and is now a vacant lot at Olive and 5th thanks to a hurried developer with big plans--lrh).

There stands the general, erect, imperious, fastidious, hands to sides, as was intended.

But these uncouth, subversive pigeons have taken to bathing themselves in the stagnant water in the enclosed forecourt surrounding the statue and one of them sits by the hour on the peak of the general's cap, preening itself. Others flutter about him with careless disregard of his welfare. They're smart, they realize he can't fight back or censor their criticism.

Clearly this is a moment for a command decision. Fortunately there's a man in our midst with the know-how to cope with this crisis--Fred Beck.

Beck has proposed that funds be raised or appropriated for a statue of a pigeon 15 feet high. The idea is that any generals passing through L.A. would be given carte blanche to perch on the statue of the pigeon--in reprisal.

I know just the place for this overgrown pigeon. Alongside.

AS BACKYARD barbecue addicts know, the big switch lately has been to the small, compact hibachi.

Paul Drus went looking for one but the stores in his neighborhood in South Los Angeles were sold out. So he went to Little Tokyo and found one in a store near 1st and San Pedro streets.

As the store owner wrapped it, he said: "Used to sell three, four hibachis in one year. Now all buy and hard to keep in stock. Japanese cook on hibachi three thousand years. Whatsamatter? Los Angeles just learning to cook?"

Architectural Ramblings

 

Photograph by Larry Harnisch Los Angeles Times

Here's something fun to do on a Saturday morning: Meet friends for breakfast at a restaurant where a drunk movie actress plowed her new convertible through the front window in 1957.

The friends in question were Brady Potts and Mary McCoy and the restaurant was Jan's, 8424 Beverly Blvd., where Gail Russell trapped the janitor under her car when she jumped the curb and crashed into the building.

When I read the story I assumed Russell was in the parking lot and simply hit the gas pedal instead of the brakes. But no. After looking at the height of the curb and width of the sidewalk, I decided she must have been flying. And as there's no side street directly across Beverly Boulevard from where she struck the restaurant, I can't imagine how she managed to hit it so squarely perpendicular. But she did.


Here's the counter, 1957:


Los Angeles Times

And the counter today:


Photograph by Larry Harnisch Los Angeles Times

Since you asked, Jan's is a pretty nice breakfast place. It was a bit of a brain-teaser that early in the morning to ponder why a half-order of French toast costs more than the jumbo French toast, but the three of us put our heads together and figured it out. Definitely worth another visit.

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A knight on the town

       

April 29, 1957
Los Angeles

When I saw this ad, my first reaction was: "You have GOT to be kidding me."

My next reaction was: "Maybe it's still there!"

Alas, no. The Queens Arms at 16325 Ventura Blvd. has been replaced by a Ralphs grocery store. And not even a Medieval-themed grocery store. What fun is that?

The Queens Arms was built by John and Chris Skoby, who also operated the Kings Arms in Toluca Lake. The restaurant was designed by Martin Obzina, the art director on "House of Dracula" and "House of Frankenstein." (OK, to be fair, he received Oscar nominations for "The Flame of New Orleans" and "First Love.")

Here's restaurant columnist Ken Tichenor's description from the Mirror: "Obzina built them a castle with turrets and spirals and huge doors and towering flaming torches outside. Also plenty of parking space.

"Inside, he placed heavy wooden beams overhead and stained wood pickets separating the three dining rooms and a wine cellar behind the bar and fireplaces scattered about."

Chris Skoby died in 1998 at the age of 75. As far as I can tell, the Skoby family's last restaurant in Los Angeles, at 20419 Devonshire in Chatsworth, is now a Denny's.

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