July 17, 1938

Jack Benny gives a party for his daughter Joan and invites some little friends: Jack Haley Jr., Gary and Dennis Crosby, Dion Fay (son of Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay), Melinda Markey (daughter of Joan Bennett and Gene Markey), Al Jolson Jr. and Freddie Astaire Jr. Email me

President visits L.A.

 

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times President Roosevelt at Broadway and 7th Street, July 16, 1938.

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Protesters along the parade route.

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times A crowd greets the president, who arrives in his personal railroad car. Photograph by the Los Angeles Times A detail from the image above.

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times President Roosevelt delivers a speech, ignoring Los Angeles Mayor Frank Shaw, left. The president began his address without being introduced by the mayor, The Times said.

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July 15, 1938

From The Times' editorial page, July 16, 1938. Note the Bible passage.

e can add this to The Times' editorials against a federal anti-lynching law (not necessary) and offering refuge to people fleeing Nazi persecution (they would just go on welfare and take jobs away from Americans): What's all the fuss with a recall election? One thing that's evident about The Times' editorial pages in this era is that they were staunchly in favor of the status quo. Meanwhile, we seem to be in favor of a ballot initiative on working women that I don't entirely understand. Looks like some digging is in order.   At left, petitions are filed seeking to recall Mayor Frank Shaw. He says his opponents are a "disgruntled, discredited, hypocritical handful of politicians, racketeers and misguided zealots...." Los Angeles? Why it's the "white spot" of the nation! And we'd be willing to host the 1940 summer Olympics after Tokio was forced to withdraw because of the war between Japan and China.  Also ... Katharine Hepburn and Howard Hughes? Let me say that again: Katharine Hepburn and Howard Hughes? Email me Note to Jaded: It's not such a bargain. Adjusted for inflation, $13.33 is $190.61 USD 2007.

July 15, 1908

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ere's an update on the story of Joseph H.N. Longy, who was arrested on charges of sending threatening letters to local businessmen. The Times gives an elaborate description of his "oil gun" and a primitive hand grenade that was found in his room. At left, Frank Leroyxez is badly injured during a Bastille Day celebration when his parachute becomes snarled after he jumps from a gas balloon at Chutes Park. Leroyxez landed on a building at 16th Street and Main (at left, the intersection), and was rescued by firefighters.  In November, Leroyxez will be part of a balloon race with hopes of setting a distance record. Also ... Chinatown gamblers target police officers for blockading their businesses ... Painters are trapped in a stockade being built to house the homeless ... Wilmington deals a setback to plans for laying streetcar tracks ... And the South Main Street and South Side improvement associations oppose bonds for improved roads. Email me

El Segundo revisited

orman Frederick Gagnon looks like an excellent suspect in the unsolved killing of two El Segundo police officers last year. In an incident quite similar to the El Segundo case, Charles H. May and a female companion (The Times, fortunately, did not identify her) were kidnapped as they left a Lawndale restaurant at 2 a.m. on a Saturday. Gagnon drove them to Crystal Lake, where he pistol-whipped May and raped the woman while bragging that he had killed El Segundo Officers Richard Phillips and Milton Curtis. (Today, we know Gerald F. Mason was the killer). Gagnon was convicted under the Little Lindbergh law and in 1959 was sentenced to prison without the possibility of parole. The Social Security Death Index lists a Norman F. Gagnon, born in 1927, dying March 25, 1997, in Sacramento. Email me

July 14, 1938

he Times lists 25 prospective candidates to run against Mayor Frank Shaw in a recall election. Leading the list is Judge Fletcher Bowron, the eventual winner. The list also includes Judge Fricke, county Supervisor John Anson Ford, former Mayor Porter and Clifford Clinton. And... Hazel Drain and Ray Stanford file an assault complaint against fan dancer Sally Rand. They say the entertainer attacked them at a downtown theater because they were photographing her act. She is accused of biting Drain's arm, scratching Stanford's neck and ruining their film. Email me

July 14, 1908

Adjusted for inflation, the $15 refrigerator sold for $329.81 USD 2007, the $26 refrigerator was $571.66 USD 2007.

abid socialist Joseph H.N. Longy writes threatening letters to Los Angeles businessmen, saying that he'll burn down their homes unless they send him $5. Of course, if he had been psychic Victor Segno, and promised to send a daily "success wave" for $1, he would have been successful.  Longy, who was released in 1909, above, used the return address of Howell Hall, 814 S. Main St. View Larger Map Also note the story on early Los Angeles residents asking the City Council to preserve the Protestant cemetery on Fort Hill, which "has become unsightly through neglect," The Times says. Email me

July 13 1938

North Main Street, below, via Google maps' street view. Where would you rather go for a walk, Main Street 1938 or Main Street 2008? View Larger Map

he upcoming election on whether to recall Mayor Frank Shaw is one of the key moments in Los Angeles history. So where does The Times play the story? Page 8 of the second section. Granted, this is only a prelude (Roy Smith announces that he will file the recall petitions tomorrow),  but one still has to wonder about the editors' news judgment. And although the filing of recall petitions will land on Page 1, it's not the lead story. That will be Howard Hughes' record flight around the world: 3 days, 19 hours, 14 minutes, 10 seconds. Email me

Topanga Canyon blaze

spark from an electrical short in the pump house at Hertz Ranch was blamed for a fire that burned 125 acres before it was contained, The Times says. Six other fires were also burning in Southern California, The Times says. In one of the most dramatic moments, a helicopter dropped firefighters on Mt. San Gorgonio ahead of the advancing flames in the San Bernardino Mountains. Hertz Ranch was owned by John D. Hertz, the founder of Hertz Rent-a-Car and owner of Yellow Cab Co., who died in 1961. Hertz built an elaborate fallout shelter on the Shoup Avenue site before selling it in 1959 for the Pinecrest School. Bonus fact: Harry James once boarded his horses there, but I can't find any information about it being a movie ranch. View Larger Map Email me

July 11, 1938

"I'm afraid you didn't get my name. I'm a personal friend of the mayor," one caller said.

erhaps someone in LAPD communications will enjoy discovering that crackpots haven't changed much in 70 years. Above, Howard C. Nutt takes the calls. At left, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gates wants to return to the whipping post for a husband who spent most of his earnings from a WPA job on drinking and gambling. And the Park Commission will plant 20 Cape Chestnut trees along 65th Street between Vermont and Kansas. View Larger Map 65th Street via Google maps' street view. Email me

July 11, 1908

Above, a mangled mystery -- a wrecked car on San Fernando Road, stripped of anything that might identify the owner. But to no avail, for the truth will out.

ive people riding in an auto are badly hurt when the driver tries to pass a wagon on San Fernando Road and hits a utility pole. "Although the victims were all seriously injured, not one was taken to a hospital for treatment through fear that names would become known," The Times said. It was soon learned that chauffeur C.L. French went off on a joy ride in the car of his employer, insurance executive George Ira Cochran, after taking the Cochran family to the theater, and he was racing back when the accident occurred. Vaudeville actress Minnie Grace was pinned beneath the car in the crash; D.H. Christie suffered a fractured pelvis and his sister, Alma, was badly bruised on the head. Frank Dolan and another couple in the car were also injured, The Times said. Cochran fired French and was weighing whether to take legal action, The Times said. Apparently the Armour car repair shops, where the crash occurred, were so well known that The Times didn't need to say where they were. Today, unfortunately, the location is a bit more obscure. Bonus fact: George Ira Cochran died in 1949 at the age of 86. He was a University of California regent from 1919 to 1946. Email me

July 10. 1938

Now I'll have to start checking the crowd scenes in D.W. Griffith's films. Former Keystone Kop Edward Cline, director of "My Little Chickadee," "The Bank Dick" and "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" says that Mack Sennett used to get in costume as a police officer and sneak into the background when Griffith was filming.

July 10, 1908

A meeting of ranchers from the Los Nietos and La Habra valleys. Although the image is murky, it's possible to make out one wagon and one automobile.

arning: Some readers aren't going to like this post because it contradicts today's popular wisdom that the wealthy led the campaign for better roads to accommodate their fancy new automobiles. Don't blame me; blame John Scott, a rancher from La Habra. Scott addresses a meeting of ranchers from the La Habra and Los Nietos valleys urging support for a bond measure for a massive road-building project throughout Los Angeles County.  Selections from his speech: "The question of good roads is one the importance of which cannot be overestimated. To no class of people are they of greater moment than to the rancher. We will profit by the system of highways to a greater extent than any other class of people and it is but right that we should bear a good share of the brunt of the campaign." "Roads with us are public utilities and not ornaments. The pleasure carriage and the automobile are not the chief vehicles that pass over our highways. I venture to say that, many as they are, they are greatly outnumbered by the fruit and grain wagons. "A six-horse wagon, loaded with sacks of grain, makes no light load, and it is a heavy tax on any road's surface. We all of us know what it is to be delayed by mud in winter and smothered by dust in summer." ""If there were nothing to be considered but the comfort and the welfare of the ranchers, the highways would certainly be worth all they will cost. They will mean that we can transport our crops to the railroads with the greatest speed and convenience, thereby saving time and energy." "To be sure, there are careless auto drivers, but the average man is not in the business of maiming and killing, and the man who is careless of the safety of his fellow man will be just as dangerous on a poor road as on a good one." Email me

July 9, 1938

Above, President Roosevelt, who will be arriving at Union Station in Los Angeles on July 16, 1938. I hope I can find some Times photos of his visit.

r. Roy L. Smith, chairman of the Federation for Civic Betterment and pastor of First Methodist Episcopal Church, announces that he plans to file petitions seeking the recall of Mayor Frank Shaw (see story at left). Smith made the announcement in a memo to the City Council asking it to defer action on the mayor's appointments to boards and commissions. The council refused to speculate whether the mayor would be recalled and did not second a motion by Councilman James M. Hyde to defer voting on the mayor's nominees. You may remember that Hyde had already called on the mayor, Police Chief James Davis and the Police Commission to resign over the Harry Raymond bombing. Email me

July 9, 1908

Above, 3rd and Hill in 1908 and via Google maps' street view, below. View Larger Map age 1 is quite a curio of another era in political coverage. "Women Vie With Men in Maniacal Howls" is not a headline one sees terribly often these days.  The Times' Harry Carr wrote of the Democratic National Convention in Denver: "David Belasco could not have arranged a  more wonderful stage picture than today's demonstration at its height. No one who saw it can ever forget. "Picture a vast hall, seething and boiling with the abandoned splendor of a mob. Men are standing in chairs, whirling their coats about their heads, madly swinging their arms and yelling like hell broken loose. The noise seems to sweep back and forth like the mighty gusts of a tornado." Email me

July 8, 1908

arion Jones died with a secret--and a lot of medical bills ($2,308.64 for doctors' visits in 2007 dollars). She died owing $29.45 ($647.52 USD 2007), so she was turned over to the medical school at USC to be dissected by the students. Her former employer said she was a well-educated and refined woman who concealed her identity so her family wouldn't discover she was working as a housekeeper. When he learned that she had died, he recovered her body from the dissection lab, paid her hospital bill and had her buried at Grand View Cemetery in Glendale. Those who have the inclination and a strong stomach should look into Abraham Flexner's "Medical Education in the United States and Canada," done for the Carnegie Foundation. Flexner visited all 10 medical schools in California in 1909 in a scathing survey of current practices that led to significant reforms. Although Flexner was somewhat critical of USC's medical college, he was far more severe on other schools. He wrote of California Medical College: "The school occupies a few neglected rooms on the second floor of a fifty-foot frame building. Its so-called quipment is dirty and disorderly beyond description. Its outfit in anatomy consists of a small box of bones and the dried-up filthy fragments of a single cadaver. A few bottles of reagents constitute the chemical laboratory. A cold and rusty incubator, a single microscope and a few unlabeled wet speciments, etc., form the so-called "equipment" for pathology and bacteriology." "This school is a disgrace to the state whose laws permit its existence." Another good resource on medical history in Los Angeles is the Jan. 31, 1946, edition of the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. Bulletin, which covers the group's first 75 years. Email me

Mando Ramos--RIP

Circus fire kills 168

Five Ringing Bros. officials and an employee were sentenced to prison in the Hartford, Conn., fire. Circus Vice President James A. Haley, who served eight months in prison, was eventually elected as a Democratic congressman from Florida. The James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa is named in his honor.

Above, Detective Lt. Thomas C. Barber visits the grave of Little Miss 1565, a curly-haired girl of about 6 who died in the 1944 fire. Barber said he sometimes found flowers left on the grave. After Barber died, a local florists' association took over decorating her grave, according to a 1980 Times story. The Connecticut State Library archives on the fire is located here. Note that the library gives the death toll as 167. Email me

July 7, 1938

View Larger Map Above, 6th and Hill streets via Google maps' street view feature.  "Prison Farm" ... now there's a title that leaves nothing to the imagination. According to imdb, Horace McCoy was an uncredited writer on the picture. Not on Netflix!

olling Fork, Miss., reports the most unusual story of African Americans joining a lynch mob. The violence inflicted on the victim was especially gruesome. Local Sheriff M.C. Ewing denied knowing anything whatsoever about the matter. John N. Crane, 43, an oil well driller, kills his wife, Edith, and tries to commit suicide after leaving the offices of an attorney where they discussed a divorce ... And an American company announces a deal to buy oil from Mexico, which nationalized U.S. and British oil production March 18, 1938. Email me

July 7, 1908

e have a bounty of news today. Above, Mexican troops put down an insurrection in the state of Coahuila. And turmoil in the Mideast. At left, Mayor Harper urges Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan to accept Capt. Eugene Merrick of Los Angeles as his running mate. Merrick says he is a war veteran, having fought with the Union Army at the age of 12. He is also a temperance supporter. An inquest is scheduled in the crash of a wagon and a streetcar that killed six people ... C.M. Pierre hopes to extend his Balloon Route trips ... View Larger Map Mrs. Marie Heider returns to her home at 1623 Court St. and bumps into the body of her husband, Herman, who had driven a spike into the casing above a door and hanged himself. His box factory had been failing and he had been drinking heavily, The Times says.  His suicide note is in German. And perhaps the most interesting little item: a one-inch ad for the newly published book "The Bridal Night of Ronald and Thusnelda," by Hulda von Liebetraut.  I might need a copy of that. Above left, safety tips on the streetcar system's electric cables, which carry 500 or 1,000 volts.  Email me

July 2, 1938

ayor Frank Shaw congratulates hundreds of city employees on their retirement, notably 90-year-old Robert Carr, above. The Times says that Carr worked in the street maintenance division for more than 20 years, meaning that he would have started with the city in his late 60s. Unfortunately, The Times doesn't say exactly what he did. Also, Earle Kynette tells the grand jury he can solve the Harry Raymond bombing. He doesn't offer any new details, just a new theory, which The Times doesn't describe.  Email me

July 2, 1908

er name was Fanny (or Fannie) and she had everything a young wife could want, at least according to her husband, Walter F.W. Stock, a grading contractor from Long Beach. The Stocks enjoyed a happy home and had two children. At least that was Walter's story. All was content and "prosperity was smiling on them" until Fanny went for a ride in a motorcar with one of Walter's employees, Edward Abril, a "prepossessing young Mexican," according to The Times.  "This one little taste of life seemed to sow seeds of discontent in the mind of the little wife and mother," The Times says. The day after the story was published, The Times heard a very different version from Fanny, who had fled to Santa Barbara: "My life has been a living hell," she told The Times. "I was married in 1901 when I was 16," she said. "I have had seven children in seven years. Two of them are living. Walter is a good fellow, with no bad habits, but I never loved him. I was not allowed by my father to marry the man I loved and I practically had to marry Walter to prevent me from marrying the other. "My husband is a contractor but has no business head. He knew I didn't love him when we were married. I frequently told him I would leave him as soon as his business affairs were straightened out. I figured on his building jobs, big ones, too, as any Los Angeles contractor will tell you. I went with him to his grading camp in Lancaster and cooked for his men, got up at 4 o'clock every morning and fed horses and did other menial work. But I was not happy -- I could not be happy. Walter was good in his way, but he made himself repulsive to me in a way that made me shrink from him." At left, The Times reports that she returned to Walter twice before leaving again in 1910 with their two surviving children, Emily and Dora. Email me

Kenneth Reich, RIP

Above, Ken Reich interviews Watergate figure Donald Segretti. Ken had terrific stories about covering Watergate. In fact, one of my favorite recollections was an occasion when I got to listen to him and the late Anthony Day, former editorial page editor, discussing their experiences with various Watergate figures.
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June 30, 1938

Rodney "Gipsy" (or "Gypsy") Smith, famous evangelist, takes a wife. He died in 1947 while sailing from England to New York on the Queen Mary. He was 87.

APD "squadmen" (now there's an interesting coinage) are questioned before a police board of rights on allegations that they obstructed the investigation of the Harry Raymond bombing. The first three officers to testify say that they refused to answer questions because they considered themselves under technical arrest and acted upon the advice of their attorneys. Also, the tale of an oft-married woodcarver charged with bigamy, a progress report on fundraising for Jewish relief and an oil painting of Mayor Frank Shaw is to be presented at City Hall. I wonder where it is now.  Email me

June 30, 1908

Above, early coverage of the the Times Cup, a race that dates to 1903. The Los Angeles Times Trophy is still awarded by the Los Angeles Yacht Club.

t left, trouble in Whittier at the state school for juvenile delinquents. Supt. G.P. Greeley is accused of failing to enforce discipline, creating "a shocking, immoral state of affairs" at the school. Evidence includes "obscene letters, indecent postals and notes," The Times says. Several young female inmates report overtures and "mistreatment" from school officers while male inmates tell of vicious beatings, the story says. View Larger Map And the Bethlehem Institution, with its El Club Belen branch at 618 New High St., reports success in teaching English to immigrants, notably Italians, Poles and Slavonians, The Times says. Email me

June 28, 1938

ometimes one can only sigh. At his sentencing in the Harry Raymond bombing, former Police Capt. Earle Kynette speaks for half an hour in defense of his conduct. Unfortunately, The Times didn't quote a single line of his remarks. Instead, we summarized them in one paragraph: "The onetime head of the police intelligence squad immediately launched into a recital of his accomplishments, including his education, military experience and record as a police officer. He accused most of the state's witnesses as perjurers and wound up with the statement that he presumed that because of the political background to the case Judge Ambrose was loath to grant him a new trial." Also on the jump, Mayor Frank Shaw says a group of Methodists acted in an un-Christian, un-American manner by endorsing his recall and in criticizing his brother Joe and Police Chief James Davis.  And two city analysts begin an audit of the Police Department. "Results of the survey, expected to require one to two months, may presage a complete or partial reorganization of the department," The Times says. Email me

June 28, 1908