A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Motorcar

July 25, 1947: The Tucker.

L.A. Prepares for Olympic-Size Traffic Nightmare

July 1, 1984: Will subways work in Los Angeles? "But others say Metro Rail will not be heavily used by poor people because it will not take them where they want to go--to jobs scattered throughout the Los Angeles area," The Times' William Trombley wrote. "The traffic patterns of low-income blacks and Hispanics are diffused," said George W. Hilton, professor of economics at UCLA. "They are highly auto-dependent and are likely to remain so in the foreseeable future." Hilton also said: "We aren't going to run out of fossil fuels. There's no economic point in finding more than a 20-year supply at one one time. As prices rise, other sources will be found." Mr. Modular was working on these pages. They look like bento boxes. Well, of course, the subways work in Los Angeles, but nobody knew it in 1984. Tunneling beneath the city was not without problems, as anyone who recalls the partial collapse of Hollywood Boulevard during construction of the Red Line will remember. And people with long memories will recall that traffic congestion during the 1984 Olympics was much less than expected.

The 1984 Olympics united Southern California residents over a familiar topic--traffic. Bob Pool's story focused on concerns in the San Fernando Valley with the Games starting in less than a month. "We're going to have problems if 70% of the people going to the Olympics don't take the bus. If 50% of them go by car, we're going to have total gridlock," David C. Royer, senior Los Angeles city transportation engineer for the Valley, West Los Angeles and LAX, told a group of Encino homeowners. The worries weren't limited to the Valley, of course. Events were scheduled across the Southland so if you lived somewhere in Southern California, you were planning for the worst-case scenario.  Royer said residents should ask their employers for flexible working hours during the Olympics and people with tickets should start reserving seats on RTD buses. --Keith Thursby

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept: Your Transportation

June 16, 1956: Pontiacs retain their value when you trade them in after a year or two.

Found on EBay -- Old Map of Los Angeles

A 1954 Thomas Bros. Guide for Los Angeles has been listed on EBay. These old maps come in handy around the Daily Mirror HQ. Bidding starts at $9.95.

Police Kill Man Mistaken for Freeway Sniper! A Dodger Returns

"What Are We Going to Do With the Pair of You?"

Bishop Timothy Manning of Fresno is coming to Los Angeles. After his death in 1989, he will be repeatedly cited in allegations that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles covered up priests' sexual abuse cases. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said Manning had no written guidelines for handling reports of molestation. A witness says police searching for a freeway sniper killed Donald Lee Oughton without giving him a chance. During the incident, Kennedy apparently shot O'Malley in the hand, The Times said. Oughton had a speech impediment and was believed to have been reaching for a card explaining his disability when he was killed. The coroner's jury split on the verdict, with two members saying the death was the result of criminal action. The district attorney declined to charge Officers Norman O'Malley and Henry Kennedy, calling the death "tragic and regrettable." His mother brought a $1-million suit against the city of Los Angeles, but The Times never reported the outcome.

Photograph by Larry Sharkey / Los Angeles Times June 12, 1964: Willie Davis jumps out of the way as Maury Wills tries to steal home in the 7th inning. Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver makes the tag. The umpre is Ed Vargo. Times file photo Nov. 1, 1965: Abbe Lane and Maury Wills -- with banjo. Maury Wills was back with the Dodgers. "I can't describe this feeling. It is the Dodger blue, this No. 30," said Wills, acquired from the Montreal Expos along with Manny Mota for Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich. The deal had been rumored for some time as Wills struggled in Montreal. He got into a scuffle with a reporter, then decided to retire and then un-retired. "My greatest regret in leaving Montreal is that I never did show them how I could play the game. I'm sorry about that ... but I will not let Los Angeles down, you can be sure of it," he said. Wills had become a star in the Dodgers' early years in Los Angeles, a six-time all star and the National League's most valuable player in 1962 largely because of his then-record 104 stolen bases. He even played the banjo and made appearances on TV and in clubs. But he was traded after the 1966 season when he left the team without permission during a trip to Japan. He played two seasons in Pittsburgh and then was taken by Montreal in the expansion draft. He had a solid season back in L.A., hitting .297 with 25 stolen bases in 104 games. --Keith Thursby

Seattle Woman Commemorates Historic Cross-Country Trip

The Times, June 10, 1909: Alice Ramsey sets off on her cross-country tour to promote the Maxwell Model 30 DA. April 14, 1909: Maxwell also promoted the 1909 Model DA with a nonstop drive through New England. Like many autos of this era, the Maxwell was not a fuel-efficient vehicle and got 14.8 miles per gallon on this run, according to The Times, May 9, 1909.

The 1909 Maxwell Model DA at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Adjusted for inflation, the car cost $44,982,22. Emily Anderson of Seattle is setting out from New York on June 9 to re-create the cross-country trip made by Alice Ramsey in 1909 to promote the Maxwell Model DA touring car. Anderson is making the trip in a car that her father, Rich, assembled from pieces of other Maxwells in a project that began in 2005. According to Anderson's website, they only found one existing Model DA. The owner was unwilling to sell, but he provided a frame so they could build one from scavenged parts, with machinists fabricating the missing pieces. (Ever try to find an exhaust manifold for a 1909 Maxwell?)    June 6, 1909: Women drivers were inevitably "pretty" according to The Times. Mrs. Col. Robert Northam learned to drive a Baker electric car in an hour and in three weeks became as skillful as the best chauffeurs. Anderson's trip highlights the subject of women drivers. There were enough of them to be listed in an Aug 8, 1909, Times article, which noted that Adele Smith "has distinguished herself by making the run from Lordsburg into the city in one hour and twenty minutes." "Women are usually cautious drivers, are watchful of the speed limitations and have few accidents and almost no casualties. They enjoy the sport to the fullest," The Times said.

Photo courtesy of Aliceramsey.org Aug. 8, 1909: Alice Ramsey arrives in San Francisco. At left, Emily Anderson and the Maxwell.   Feb. 19, 1961: Ramsey is featured in The Times. (Modular layouts were obviously not a concern in 1961). "Iowa was the worst experience on the trip as far as weather and lack of roads. We broke a rear axle there and one afternoon made only 13 miles," she said. "The cross-country trip already had been made by men. I'm not pioneer enough to have attempted it if it hadn't been done," she said.

Above, Ramsey's obituary, Sept. 13, 1983. She was 96. At left, March 5, 1971, The Times interviews Ramsey about her trip.  "My husband never rode if he could walk," she said. "It wasn't that he was afraid. It was just that he was of another generation. He was much older than I and died in 1933. John just never cared much for the automobile or wanted to learn to drive one, the same as I don't want to go to the moon." Ramsey made many cross-country trips after her historic trek and in the late 1960s, traveled 11,000 miles touring the U.S. She said: "Good driving has nothing to do with sex. It's all above the collar."

Alice's Drive from Bengt Anderson on Vimeo. Unlike Ramsey, the Anderson group will be posting live updates on its website and Twittering. Read more here>>>

Monorail Planned for Downtown Los Angeles!

"She Was Gone ... Real Gone!"

Voters reject higher taxes. View this page Beatnik robbers tell victim to "play it cool." Woof, Daddy-o. Above, another mass-transit plan that never got off the drawing board. All right, you kids, no more chopped and channeled five-window coupes, understand? And no more lowered front ends on your T-buckets! Next, we're going after your Glass Packs. Nice headline -- does that mean some women aren't upset?

Above, FBI agents give the governor of Mississippi the names of about 10 men involved in the lynching of African American truck driver Mack Charles Parker. Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike addresses a Planned Parenthood meeting and calls California's laws against birth control unconstitutional.

Pop Fligh helps Dondi get out of a jam. View this page Isn't that awfully close to "Miss Procreation?" The Dodgers lose to the Giants and Milwaukee beats Pittsburgh in the 13th inning. View this page

Highway Patrol Rounds Up Missing Legislators, May 21, 1939

"Teach me to dance, Dragon Lady."

View this page At left, my kind of story. The Assembly sends the Highway Patrol to track down legislators who skipped their session on the last day they got paid. Among the missing is Assemblyman Sam Yorty, who reported later in the day. There's a follow-up on anti-Semitic groups in the U.S. and purported plots to take over the government. In Italy, mobs shout "On to Paris!" and crowds at the Tall Corn Exposition in Marshalltown, Iowa, are terrified when an ape escapes from a carnival and runs through the streets before being captured in a hardware store. The Yankee Clipper, which can carry 35 passengers, begins service to Europe.

Ed Ainsworth takes a look at back at six years of columns. At right, Los Angeles is reading "The Grapes of Wrath," "All This, and Heaven, Too" and "Reaching for the Stars."   Jews and Arabs fight with the British in the Holy Land. View this page There's a mile-long table for Ontario's All States Picnic. View this page "Only Angels Have Wings" is opening. Hollywood is ruled by fear of criticism, failure, public opinion and whispering campaigns, Hedda Hopper says. View this page

Here's some interesting background on the interchange where Glendale Boulevard turns into 2nd Street west of downtown. Evidently much of the bridge was buried but the caption is a bit unclear as to the reasons. Note that the artist is Charles Owens of Nuestro Pueblo. Still another attempt to ease traffic in Los Angeles: A bridge is built to help turn Olympic Boulevard into a thoroughfare across the city.

The Era of Fear and Prophesies of Doom, May 17, 1959

Gaaah! What were they thinking? No wonder these were on sale!

This Sunday paper is an alarming time capsule with fear and anxiety on every page, plus a little sex here and there. At left, "What We Must Know About Communism" is No. 3 on the nonfiction bestseller list. Then there's "Doctor Zhivago," "The Ugly American," "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and "Lolita."   Below, a typical theme of the era. Rudolf Flesch responds to an article in the Saturday Evening Post (a relic that was once found in most middle-class homes)  about the likelihood of World War III, which usually broke down as the "free world" versus the "communist empire."

Vice President Richard Nixon leads New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in a Gallup poll of likely GOP presidential candidates. Conspiracies in America's past! Iraq -- and all that oil -- may go to the communists!   America forgets its veterans! Traffic is terrible! Landlords are jerks! We're cutting at home and sending money to foreigners! ... cars are NOT all about sex ...

... and smut is corrupting young America!

The Times runs articles on two local religious figures in the Sunday paper. But what figures! Aimee Semple McPherson and Manly Palmer Hall!  I should mention a book by my friend and colleague, Louis Sahagun, on Hall. Check it out. And check here for Lately Thomas' "Vanishing Evangelist."    The state of women's history in the 1950s: a feature on Ma Barker.

Gloria Vanderbilt vs. Leopold Stokowski! What if "Gorgo" was set in Paris instead of London?  Herb "Hy" Gardner's "The Nebbishes," a foreshadowing of the dismal state of comics' artwork yet to come. Fortunately, the strip was soon canceled and he put his time to better use writing "A Thousand Clowns." Even the Dodgers lost, 6-0. Thank heavens for Gordo!

Cars Drive Themselves on Miracle Freeways of the Future!