Lou Costello's service at Calvary Cemetery was attended by Danny Thomas, Red Skelton, George Jessel, Joe E. Brown, Jerry Colonna, Ronald Reagan, Leo Carrillo and Virginia Grey. Longtime partner Bud Abbott was a pallbearer.
Word in Hollywood is that "Some Like It Hot" is the funniest film in years -- or one joke stretched out to two hours. Jack Lemmon says of co-star Marilyn Monroe: "Something happens when she gets before a camera. It's something between her and the lens. Not something you can see. I couldn't see it and I was right next to her, watching right square in the eyeballs. But when I got in the projection room and saw the rushes, there it was ... a magnetism ... a magic."
Little Leaguers dreaming of becoming major league stars should not read this story.
Fresco Thompson, director of the Dodgers' minor league system, said
it's harder to find talented young players. "You would think that with
the great growth in the number of Little Leagues each year that there
would be more players," Thompson told The Times' Paul Zimmerman.
"Up to now we've seen nothing to indicate this. ... about the best
that Little Leagues have done is make for more fans--we hope."
Thompson said the scouts found players lacked desire and sounded
like he was meeting couch potatoes searching for long-term deals.
"Maybe this is the new age of living. For instance, we used to
interview baseball prospects. Now they interview us and so do their
parents, their agent and often their lawyer," he said. "And mind you,
this is in an era where baseball players make more, travel better, eat
better than ever before."
To simulate prejudice, brunet students eat at a table designed "No Blondes."
At left, Arab countries prepare for retaliation for a terrorist attack on an El Al airliner at Zurich.
Also... Take the time to read Robert Kistler's excellent nondupe on a police officer's view of the changing culture within the LAPD after the Watts Riots. We evidently didn't use his actual name, but called him "Paul Anderson." The article explores what Chief Tom Reddin called "the terrible tightrope."
"The tightrope stretches between the 'hard-nosed' policing of minorities of the pre-1965 era [the William Parker years--lrh] and efforts to open channels of communication between police and minorities today," Kistler says.
"The old ways aren't going to be continued, and as an officer you either 'get with it' or get off."
"Don't get the wrong impression. None of us is going to be namby- pamby out there."
Scientists study oil spill.
After he shot Robert F. Kennedy, Sirhan B. Sirhan was "enormously composed."
"Amid this hurricane of sound and feeling, he seemed like the eye of the hurricane.... He seemed purged," according to George Plimpton, testifying for the prosecution in Sirhan's trial.
Gov. Ronald Reagan reveals the source of his statement that a dean at San Francisco State was forced at knifepoint to admit a group of black students.
Players and owners were battling over how much money should be contributed to the pension fund. Most of the player representatives had rejected the owners' latest offer, but several current or future high-profile players were reporting for workouts.
"I expect there will be some resentment that I'm going to work out, but I need the work," Nolan Ryan told United Press International. Ryan was coming off a 6-9 season with the Mets and weighed 210 pounds, compared with 195 at the end of the season.
"I suppose the other players will be clipping my remarks and putting them on the wall and throwing darts at them, but I am ready to go and I might have eight practice fields all to myself," said the Braves' Pat Jarvis.
George Scott of the Red Sox hadn't reported yet but would be in camp next week. "Some of the players can afford to go without a salary, but the majority can't and I'm one of them," he said. "I'm supporting my wife and my mother, two households, really."
The Angels' player representative, second baseman Bobby Knoop, tried to put the potential labor dispute in perspective. Knoop told The Times' Ross Newhan on Feb. 2: "Perhaps some of this seems insignificant to the public. But we are not talking about a job that lasts for 20 or 30 years. The average player goes from day to day. At 32 or 33, he's looking for something else."
The 1907 Shriners Convention was a big event in Los Angeles that produced all sorts of memorabilia: glassware, pins, ribbons, postcards, etc. A program, above, has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $6.50. (At left, even local businesses got into the spirit. We at the Daily Mirror just can't run enough pictures of an ostrich wearing a fez).
At left, the general manager of the city's Civil Service Commis- sion is arrested on charges of tampering with the final results of employment tests. Police Chief James Davis calls a meeting to tell captains to focus on serious vice and gambling cases after 14 elderly men are arrested for playing rummy in Westlake (MacArthur) Park.
And the San Francisco Mint begins making Jefferson nickels.
In sports, former shortstop Leo Durocher is signed to manage the Brooklyn Dodgers, succeeding Burleigh Grimes. Durocher says that had it not been for the recent death of his father it would be the happiest moment of his life. On a somber note, Durocher adds that Babe Ruth had not "been available" for a coaching job.
"Dad always said he would like to see me a big league manager, but he didn't."
--Leo Durocher
And wrestler Bronko Nagurski defeats Sandor Szabo at the Olympic ...
Capt. Eugene Plummer is featured in a story about Plummer Park in West
Hollywood. According to the caption, the revolver he's holding belonged to Joaquin Murietta.
At left, Mayor Frank Shaw and actor Leo Carrillo help celebrate Los Angeles' 157th birthday. The activities include a 28-mile marathon around the perimeter of the original settlement as well as a national radio broadcast from the Avila Adobe.
Speaking of Frank Shaw, you would never know from The Times that he was facing a recall election. The only mention is on the editorial page: "The recall fight has to stoop to get under the subway."
Take a look at Joaquin Murietta's revolver. It appears to be a 12-shot.
In sports, Times columnist Bill Henry files a report from the 1938 Davis Cup in Philadelphia. Henry writes about the bad luck of Pomona's Joan Bigler, who injured her eye with a curling iron on the eve of her semifinal match with Helen Bernhard ... Ben Hogan and Vic Ghezzi take the Hershey tournament with Paul Runyan and Sam Snead finishing second. It's the first of Hogan's 64 career tournaments.
Aviator Douglas "Wrong Way" Corringan takes an at-bat from Charlie Root during a game between the Cubs and the Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, hits a foul ball--and runs to third base.
I've never made a scientific survey, but it wouldn't surprise me if Eugene Biscailuz were the most photographed sheriff in the history of Los Angeles County. The man certainly knew how to get his picture in the paper. The trophy is being held by USC low-hurdle star Earl Vickery, left, and pole valuter Kenny Dills.
At left, the U.S. is accepting Jewish refugees from Europe at the rate of 100 a day. The AP story notes that the refugees have no money but are being assisted by Jewish aid groups.
Also note: Germany's Catholic bishops denounce the Nazis, though not by name. The bishops say all Catholic books are censored, banned or confiscated.
Above, if you look hard enough you really can find African Americans in The Times.
In sports, the Angels beat the Stars in the final double-header of the "Civil War series" ... Hank Greenberg hits his 45th homer of the season as Detroit wins against Boston, 4-3 ... Greenberg's run in the Tigers' 118th/119th game puts him ahead of Babe Ruth's 1927 season, when Ruth had hit 39 runs in 118 games.
Hula Hoops and Dick Clark at the Hollywood Bowl (with Rod McKuen!) Jan and Arnie ("Jennie Lee," "The Beat That Can't Be Beat")? The Six Teens ("A Casual Look")? These are not names that are familiar to me. Hey Sheb Wooley! "Purple People Eater!"
Here's a story that's particularly curious. Police officers kill an ex-convict identified as Nathaniel Calvin Spates during a robbery. We run it on Page 1 with a big headline and the next day--nothing. In fact, not a word ever appears as a follow-up. Very suspicious. I would have to look at the other papers to be sure, but I wonder whether he was African American.
As usual, only the front page got into the microfilmed edition. The jump is missing so we don't have most of the story. It would be interesting to see what the California Eagle and the Los Angeles Sentinel did with this story.
The 10 Arab nations in the U.N. announce that they have a peace plan for the Middle East ... A 10-day-old Teamsters strike shuts down trucking throughout the West ... President Eisenhower announces that he will enforce desegregation orders.
In sports, the Dodgers beat the Braves ... The Cubs and the Pirates split a double-header. After losing, 4-2, the Cubs take the second half, 5-1, when the game is called in the fifth inning on account of rain and darkness.
Times Sports Editor Paul Zimmerman writes a tribute to the late columnist Ned Cronin, imitating his stuttering:
"III'm the orororatorical eeqquivalent ttto ttthe bbblocked pppunt."
Larry Harnisch. The leading Black Dahlia expert and a collaborator in the 1947project, Harnisch has been a copy editor at The Times since 1988. He has appeared on many TV shows discussing the Dahlia case, notably "James Ellroy's Feast of Death."
Join him for a spin through old Los Angeles in the Mirror's radio car. Keep your eyes open for Mickey Cohen and Tempest Storm. It's quite a ride.
The reporter's badge belonged to Sid Hughes (1908-1958), legendary reporter who worked at nearly every newspaper in Los Angeles.
Keith Thursby. Keith has been an editor at The Times in news, sports and design since 1986. The Rams moved to St. Louis on his first day as assistant sports editor of the paper's Orange County edition. He grew up in Norwalk and lives in Irvine.
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Larry Harnisch. The leading Black Dahlia expert and a collaborator in the 1947project, Harnisch has been a copy editor at The Times since 1988. He has appeared on many TV shows discussing the Dahlia case, notably "James Ellroy's Feast of Death."
Join him for a spin through old Los Angeles in the Mirror's radio car. Keep your eyes open for Mickey Cohen and Tempest Storm. It's quite a ride.
The reporter's badge belonged to Sid Hughes (1908-1958), legendary reporter who worked at nearly every newspaper in Los Angeles.
Keith Thursby. Keith has been an editor at The Times in news, sports and design since 1986. The Rams moved to St. Louis on his first day as assistant sports editor of the paper's Orange County edition. He grew up in Norwalk and lives in Irvine.