The Daily Mirror Is Moving

I’m moving to LADailyMirror.com

Henry Fuhrmann, one of the assistant managing editors at The Times, likes to say: “Always take the high road. The view is nicer up there.” Henry is my friend, as well as my supervisor, and he and Mark McGonigle, my boss, have been strong supporters of the Daily Mirror, even when the decision was made at a higher level to shut it down. (And don’t worry; I’m still working as a copy editor on the Metro desk.)

Movieland Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

You may recognize this photo because I ran it a few years ago. But it’s one of my favorites. This fellow was branded with a very certain stereotype that he played in countless films, so I like to see him out of character. As some of you know, the Daily Mirror is being killed by The Times in a pruning of blogs with low traffic. I’ll post a longer farewell next week, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for participating in the mystery photos. They were my most popular feature. Through the mystery photos, I got to know “the brain trust,” a corps of readers with a humbling knowledge of film. My first criteria in selecting mystery guests was that I didn’t know who they were, so in almost every case (aside from my two-week binge on Lucille Ball and a few other exceptions) I couldn’t identify any of them. And they proved to be a wonderful history lesson for me: Trixie Friganza … Jack Mulhall … Julian Eltinge … Pier Angeli.  I had an agenda with these pictures, though I don’t think anyone ever realized what I was up to. Most people saw the pictures as a daily movie quiz that was (at least ideally) fairly challenging. And that was fine. But the mystery pictures were actually a years-long photo essay on fame and forgetfulness. Nearly every image I posted was of someone who was once a prominent performer – and yet look at  how dimly most of them are remembered.  In some ways,  the indignant responses were the most perversely rewarding:  “Am I supposed to know who that is?” No, you’re not. That’s the point: The stars of today are the obscure nobodies of tomorrow. Alas, that’s a lesson that some of Hollywood’s current problem children haven’t learned. Thanks for reading.... Keep checking next week for a final farewell post that ties up all the loose ends from the last four years.

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Los Angeles Times file photo

[Update: Elisabeth Bergner: The German star, seen previously here as "Catherine the Great," displays her versatile genius in "Escape Me Never," at the Four Star, her art being hailed as more exquisite on the screen, even, than in the stage play, in which she appeared recently in New York, in a photo stamped June 16, 1935. [Update: Please congratulate Dewey Webb, Eve Golden, Steve Stoliar, Steven Bibb, Anne Papineau, Mike Hawks, Gregory Moore, Jenny M and Mary Mallory for identifying our mystery guest!] Here’s our mystery gal! There’s a new photo on the jump!

Army Clears Strikers at North American Aviation

June 10, 1941: Bill Henry files a color story on soldiers using rifles with bayonets to herd strikers away from the North American Aviation plant. Unfortunately, my new optical character recognition software can’t handle these old clips, so I have to post the images of the stories. Henry’s story is worth reading. Also on the jump, Ethel Waters stars in “Cabin in the Sky.”   Jimmie Fidler says: On the newsstands this month is a magazine which features an astrological analysis of Cary Grant's present status and future prospects... The birthday used in preparing Grant's chart was 1909, a date given out in a studio publicity department biography. Cary's real birth year was 1904!

Coming Attractions – 'Hollywoodland'

Mary Mallory, a key member of the Daily Mirror’s “brain trust,”  will be signing copies of her new book “Hollywoodland” from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, at Chevalier's Books, 126 N. Larchmont Blvd. More information is available here.

'Hunchback Killer' Arrested, June 8, 1941

June 8, 1941: For some time, I have been coming across stories about Alfred Horace Wells in going through the 1941 clips -- “hunchback killer” is not a nickname that’s easy to forget. But I haven’t done anything on him until now because the story is strange and complicated. Here’s a hint: It was so lurid that during Wells’ trial, the courtroom was cleared of minors because it involved what The Times demurely described as “an unnatural relationship.” It’s not quite in Ma Duncan territory, but what is? Jimmie Fidler says: If you are posted on Hollywood doings, you know that every studio is now staging an intense, high-pressure production drive.... Why all this rush? ... It looks to me as if the studios are concentrating production now with the intention of shutting down for three or four months next fall.

Tip Poff, July 17, 1932

July 17, 1932: I’ve been meaning to post some of the Tip Poff  gossip columns that The Times used to run in the movie/drama pages of the 1930s. The Times experimented with the column and by 1939 was calling it Tip-Off! Isn’t this March 19, 1939, logo great? Of course it was too bold for The Times, which dumped it immediately. I’ll try putting Tip Poff in the afternoon slot as a substitute for Paul Coates and Matt Weinstock. They will return for January 1962, when The Times absorbed their columns after Otis Chandler killed the Mirror-News.   Notice the fine quality of Hal Foster’s version of “Tarzan.” He doesn’t seem to have any problems with perspective, unlike Rex Maxon, who was drawing the strip in the 1940s.

North American Aviation Strike

 

June 7, 1941: The strike at the North American Aviation plant, in which Army troops dispersed union activists and took over an essential American defense facility,  is one of the landmark events in Los Angeles history. Because of its importance – and because the details are sometimes mangled –  I’m going to devote several posts to the events that unfolded in the first half of 1941 at  North American Aviation, which was making the NA-73 (P-51) Mustang, the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber and the  AT-6A trainer at a sprawling facility at 5701 Imperial Highway.  Notice that North American is usually described as being in Inglewood, but the plant was actually at Mines Field in Los Angeles. Although the United States would not enter the war until December, it was clear by the middle of 1941 that America would almost certainly be involved, making aircraft production a vital defense industry not only for the U.S., but for Britain, which was receiving some of North American’s planes. Aircraft workers were deferred from the draft because of the nature of their jobs.

 

Police Chief on His Way Out

June 6, 1941: Police Chief Arthur Hohmann and Deputy Chief C.B. “Jack” Horrall are about to trade jobs.  Horrall will remain chief through World War II and into the postwar period, finally retiring during the Brenda Allen scandal – as did Assistant Chief Joe Reed. It should be emphasized that Horrall was chief during an especially difficult time in Los Angeles history. The LAPD lost hundreds of men to the armed forces and had to relax its hiring standards to get enough replacements. Afterward, the “war emergency” officers had to make way when the LAPD’s regular police returned to duty. Some WE officers (their serial numbers included the letters WE to indicate their special status) remained with the LAPD but many others lost their jobs. At the same time, remember that under Chief James Davis, Horrall headed the Police Department’s “bum blockade” of 1936, in which LAPD officers were sworn into local departments to prevent Okies and other transients from coming into California during the Depression.  Horrall later headed the vice squad. After all these years, 9 out of 10 Hollywoodites still pass Harold Lloyd without recognizing him, Jimmie Fidler says.

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Los Angeles Times file photo

[Update:  Dorothy Ford, one of Earl Carroll's most beautiful girls, swims and rides horseback for relaxation between nightly appearances at the Hollywood Carroll theater, in a photo published Oct. 11, 1941.] Here’s our mystery woman for the week!   There’s a new photo on the jump!

Senator Demands Probe of Lewd 'Soundies'

July 2, 1941: Sam Coslow announces a deal with Mills Novelty Co. to produce 208 "soundies"  and plans to make 20 of them in the next month, directed by Josef Berne. The acts include Gale Page, Martha Tilton, Cliff Nazarro, Buddy Rogers and his orchestra, Mary Healy, the King's Men, Benny Rubin, Johnny Downs and the Duncan Sisters, The Times says. Oct. 21, 1941: Sen. Burton K. Wheeler (D-Mont.) denounces soundies, saying that some of the films are "lewd and lascivious." "I hope these pictures are not going to be shown in the camps to the soldier boys," Wheeler said. "Many of these young boys are now being subject to enough temptations in some of these camps as it is."

Burbank Man Invents Death Ray!

June 4, 1941: I’ll admit I’m a sucker for stories about death rays. Evidently The Times’ editors were too since they put this item on Page 1. Promoter Kurt Van Zuyle credited L.E. Riley of Burbank as the inventor. It was a fake (surprise!) but before being caught, Van Zuyle got $10,000 from a government agent who was investigating the scheme. There’s a picture of the infernal device on the jump!  Jimmie Fidler says: Wotziz about Patti McCarty being very foolish because of frustrated love for Glenn Ford?