Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Nov. 20, 1959

Drama in Housewife's Life Is Fraught With     I've come to the labored conclusion that housewives lead more interesting lives than career girls.     This, I've done without benefit of polls or surveys.  In fact, I've even ignored those subtle inferences in the Kinsey report.     It's strictly my own, personal conclusion.  I reached it myself.     I'm probably dead wrong, but, the way I see it, it's better to come up with a wrong conclusion than to just sit around and come up with no conclusion at all.     You know the old saying, idle minds gather no moss.     But I digress.     My conclusion (which in case you got here late, is that housewives lead more interesting lives than career girls) is based on years of observation as a professional journalist.      We journalists come in frequent contact with both groups.  It's part of our job.  It's as much a detail of our routine as sharpening our pencils every night before closing our roll-top desks, or picking the brown crust off our paste pots every morning.     My conclusion is that, over the long run, housewives come up with more interesting stories than career girls.     A career girl, for example, has never called me up with an exclusive about a cat stuck in a tree.  Yet, some housewives witness this thrilling news event practically daily.     And take hoses that burrow themselves into the ground.  Tipsters on those stories are invariably housewives.     I could go on, but I'm tiered of the subject.      Instead, I'll tell you what's been happening, over a period of 10 years, to an Inglewood housewife who contacted me with her story the other day.     I'm not using her real name.  She requested that I omit it because it would be embarrassing to her.  Actually, it could ruin her reputation.  You know how neighbors gossip and build these things out of proportion.     To protect her identity, I'll call her Mrs. Small.  (Which is a good clue.  In fact, it's about as close  to her real name as I can get without blurting it out.)     On a brisk November morning 10 years ago, Mrs. Small stepped outside her front door to pick up the morning's mail and found, among the usual trash one finds in one's mailbox, a copy of Household magazine.      She had never subscribed to the magazine; yet it was addressed to her name.  She made no inquiry that month, but after receiving the December and January issues, she sat down and wrote the magazine a letter stating that she had never subscribed to it, and had no intention of paying for it.     No answer came.  Just the magazine, regularly, every month.     After a year, she wrote another letter.  Still no answer.     Two years passed.  The magazine kept coming.  She wrote a third letter.  Again, she received no reply.     She waited two more years after that for the magazine to stop, but it didn't.  So she dispatched Letter No. 4, reiterating that she never subscribed.     Still, no answer.     But Household came as regularly as the gas bill.  Five years, six, seven, eight, nine.  Long before, she had decided that it was pointless to write any more protests.     Then, on Jan. 21 of this year, she received a letter from Curtis Circulation Co., which handles the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal and other magazines. The Suspense Is Terrific     "Dear Reader," it began.  "As you probably know, Household magazine ceased publication with the November issue.  By special arrangement with the publisher and as a service to you, we have agreed to fill out the unexpired portion of your subscription with a Curtis magazine . . . "     Given the choice of four magazines, Mrs. Small didn't hesitate.  She selected the Ladies' Home Journal.     Just last month -- nine months after she sent in the card -- she received her first copy.  And she notes by the addressograph slip on the cover that her "subscription" will finally run out in July of 1960.     Find me a career girl with a story to top that one and I'll eat my battered felt hat.

The ‘Unwritten Law’ on Homicide

Halloween with R.F. Outcault’s Buster Brown.

Oct. 26, 1919: The “unwritten law,” that a husband was justified in killing any man who romanced his wife, appears frequently in The Times and was cited as a defense for decades – often successfully. In fact, the term appears as recently as  1981 in Al Martinez’s profile of legendary Los Angeles attorney Max Solomon, who defended Mickey Cohen, Brenda Allen and Bugsy Siegel.

Matt Weinstock, Oct. 2, 1959

Oct. 2, 1959: “Thelonious Monk, who’ll be among those present at the Hollywood Bowl jazz festival tonight, is the composer of “Round About Midnight, in my opinion one of the finest mood pieces of recent years.”

Paul V. Coates -- Confidential File, Oct. 1, 1959

Oct. 1, 1959: Mickey Cohen plans to marry Beverly Hills.

Paul Coates conducts a telephone survey on Caryl Chessman. The results reveal the common misconception that Chessman was a killer.

The Tax Man Comes for Mickey Cohen; Covering the Mets

Sept. 25, 1969: A typical screamer headline we put on the late final edition, which was for street sales. The front page of the home delivery edition didn't look like this. The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence says: "We daily permit our children during their formative years to enter a world of police interrogations, of gangsters beating enemies, of spies performing fatal brain surgery and of routine demonstrations of all kinds of killing and maiming." Jack Smith writes a nondupe on tax investigators ... and how they caught Mickey Cohen.

Al Capp had a long run with "Li'l Abner," but at the end of his career, he became extremely conservative, alienating many of his longtime readers. Above, Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything -- or SWINE. "A Night at the Opera" with an appearance by Groucho Marx. I wonder if the academy recorded this series. Readers protest Al Capp's portrayal of People's Park in Berkeley ... and an editorial on UCLA's attempt to fire Angela Davis.

The Times sent New York correspondent John J. Goldman to discover the New York Mets, once baseball's joke but now the champions of the National League East. Sending a correspondent to do a sports story can be as tricky as asking a sportswriter to cover the United Nations. "The hunger for victory in the nation's largest city perhaps was matched only by that of the old Romans who watched gladiators in the Colosseum," Goldman wrote. "Everyone expected the Chicago Cubs to  be lions. But in the end, they were pussycats, finishing second." Romans? What league did they play in? I preferred the view of Manhattan advertising executive and Mets fans Roger Yager, who told Goldman: "We had to get something to replace the Dodgers." --Keith Thursby

Coming Attractions -- John Buntin

John Buntin, author of "L.A. Noir," which has been getting good reviews (I'm still working my way through the book) will be making a personal appearance tonight at 7 at Vroman's in Pasadena. Buntin has spent quite a bit of time researching this book, which takes a long, hard look at Police Chief William H. Parker and mobster Mickey Cohen. One item used by Buntin interests me particularly: The unpublished biography of Cohen written with author Ben Hecht back in 1957 (you may recall I wrote a post about it here). Buntin tells me Cohen does far less bragging than in his later published memoirs, "In My Own Words."  In case you can't make it tonight, here's Buntin's entire schedule.

Paul V. Coates -- Confidential File, Sept. 8, 1959

Paul Coates profiles private detective Fred Otash, one of the more colorful figures of Los Angeles of the 1950s.

Fatal Farewell for Actress' Lover; L.A. and the Angels

Sept. 1, 1949:  At Cannes, France, Italian Count Giorgio Cini is killed when his private plane crashes while circling back so he could wave farewell to actress Merle Oberon. "My life is finished. There's no point in going on," says the actress, who fainted after seeing the crash ... And tourists don't like L.A. drivers! How about that front page: 19 stories plus the index and the weather forecast.

Victor Mature in "Easy Living." Above, Times' cartoonist Bruce Russell's take on Mickey Cohen's round trips to jail.

When did The Times start campaigning for a major league baseball team? An editorial blasting the Chicago Cubs for mismanaging the Los Angeles Angels could be seen as the first strike by a city and a newspaper wanting to reach the big time. "We are a proud city in the forefront of all things--except baseball." the editorial proclaimed.  "We are the tail-enders of a second-flight outfit." The Times said Los Angeles "is the only team in the league operating under foreign ownership" and compared dealing with the Cubs to "Russian diplomats at international sessions [who] must run to the Moscow phone to get the party line." Comparing the Cubs to commies was silly for a big-city editorial. Maybe L.A. wasn't ready for the big leagues yet. --Keith Thursby

Matt Weinstock, July 16, 1959

Tomato in a Hamburger? Again, the other day, I became embroiled in an old argument. I stood firmly on my contention that the slice of tomato does not belong in a hamburger sandwich. Most of the other people at the barbecue held that it does. Mustard, relish, lettuce and, if one is feeling brave, onions -- yes. Tomato, no. Furthermore, I'm not so sure about the dill pickle. Let's just let it lay on the plate, to be eaten or not to be eaten. A pickle is a matter of mood. Tomato, I argued, is a nothing flavor, which diffuses and distorts an already perfect hunk of eating. Not only that, it adds to the sandwich's thickness, making it difficult to eat. The opposition scoffed, repeating the ridiculous canard that a hamburger is not a hamburger without a slice of tomato. All right, so I am exposed as a tomato hater. All I can state is that it's about time those of us who feel deeply on this subject start a revolt against this vicious tyranny. :: WORD STUFF -- An announcer on a Lancaster radio station, Jimmie Warrell reports, told of two bicycle riders traveling from "Holiet, Illinois, to La Hoya, California." Those Spanish Js will getcha . . . There's an Ingomar St. in Canoga Park and Stan Wood, an admirer of Ingemar Johansson, says whoever named it may have been psychic but wasn't a very good speller . . . And Herb Schnebble wonders if Al Capone ever passed through El Cajon. :: DOWN THE MIDDLE Vacation pleasures I'd willingly share; "Wish you were here!" And I were there.        -- RALPH FREEMAN :: IN 1950 Paul Werth paid Harry Belafonte $50 for appearing in concert in Town Hall, New York. A few days ago Werth, now with KRHM-FM, taped a four-hour show with the noted singer for next Monday night and jokingly suggested that he would be glad to arrange another such concert and maybe up the ante to $75. Offer laughingly declined. :: A SOCIOLOGY student at SC made a telephone survey after 9 p.m. to learn how many parents knew of their children's whereabouts. Of 25 calls, he was surprised to discover, the phone was answered nine times by children who didn't know where their parents were. :: A MUNICIPAL employees cafeteria, which actually serves excellent food, is known among them as the Ulcer Room. Perverse, those fellows . . . And a Hill St. gentleman drinker named Chuck, explaining a brief absence from the bat caves, said he'd been attending "a bourbon seance." :: AROUND TOWN -- Baseball fever note: On coming out of the anesthetic after giving birth to their first child, Martha Dubell, wife of pianist Cy Dubell, asked her doctor, "How did the Dodgers make out?" They lost but she's doing fine . . . Six Bonita High Schoolers are grateful to Bill Bendix, who put out in his speedboat in Lido Isle channel and towed their stalled sailboat to safety. And not a press agent in sight. :: FOOTNOTES -- Ray Duncan nominates for the trite movie dialogue file the line, "Forgive? There's nothing to forgive!" The heck there isn't . . . When the temperature soared over the weekend, adman Joe Vodneck , Pasadena apartment dweller, took his wife, Adrienne, and daughter, Lisa, to a nearby motel where they enjoyed the pool and air conditioning. Next morning back to Hotsville . . . Because of conflicting warnings which have gone out lately over the wireless Hank Osborne thinks the world is ready for an album titled "Best of the SigAlerts " . . . Aside to a lady named Julia: Those gals on Hollywood Freeway islands and shoulders were only part-time picnickers. Between bites of lunch they were taking the annual state highway traffic count.

Paul V. Coates -- Confidential File, June 26, 1959

Confidential File Mickey to Hit Banquet Trail Mickey Cohen, reputed former czar of a million-dollar bookie empire, is preparing to hit the banquet trail to spread the word that "crime don't pay." Already a verbal-contract agreement has been reached between the ex-mobster and the head of a nationally known lecture agency, whose clients include U.S. senators, admirals and university presidents. The agency, with offices here and in the East, reportedly is set to finalize negotiations within a few days. The plan -- learned exclusively by the Mirror-News -- was confirmed to me today by Cohen and, in part, by the involved agency. A spokeswoman for the lecture booking outfit admitted that preliminary conferences had been held, and that at present the agency was "feeling out the reaction." "Whatever we do," she assured me excitedly, "we don't want to change Mr. Cohen's style of murdering the King's English. "In person," she added, "he's quite a different man than I expected. He's -- I suppose I shouldn't say it -- but he's adorable." Cohen, while not so lavish in praise of his own appearance and personality, pointed out in his conversation with me that he was fully qualified to speak on a variety of subjects. " 'Crime Don't Pay' will be the theme," he explained, "but I can handle anything. Like 'Crime in Politics,' 'Juvenile Delinquency' and 'The Mafia.' "The so-called Mafia," he corrected himself. "What I'll do is tell them the experiences I went through," he said. "I'll show them that all is not gold that glitters. A fast buck ain't all that it's set up to be. Things like that." Mickey explained that his decision to stump the fried chicken and mashed potato circuit was prompted by a conversation he had with Mirror-News columnist Drew Pearson on a recent trip east. "Pearson told me I should give lectures," he said. "But I done it before. Once I spoke in Oxnard to 300 people. And another time, I spoke to a juvenile delinquency home in Banning." "When you drive an expensive car and wear expensive clothes," I asked Mickey, "isn't it going to be hard to prove your point that crime doesn't pay?" "I don't dress expensive," he replied. "I'm just neat." I asked him what arguments he'd use to show that crime doesn't pay. "I'll use me as an example," he said. "I'll them it's no good when you're notorious and you've got people pointing at you all the time. "And," he added, "when you're harassed and bothered all the time by the police, it just don't pay." He explained to me that the tentative format for his tour would be a lecture, followed by a question-and-answer session. "Suppose somebody in the audience asks you how you can look so prosperous with no visible means of support, Mickey? How would you answer that?" He was thoughtful, but only for the briefest moment. "I'll tell them," he said, "that I got a big borrowing capacity. "Besides," he went on, "I'll be getting paid, remember? I used to do those lectures as favors. I didn't know there was dough in it." Mickey admitted that he had some qualms about facing women's clubs around the country, but what he liked best was "straight from the shoulder" talks to juvenile delinquents. Wants to Help a Little "Like that time in Banning, he said, "I told those kids that if I could get one of them to go straight, I'd feel I done something." I asked Mickey if he planned to make a specialty of lecturing to juveniles. He shrugged. "I don't know whether the agency will book me in them places. I don't think those institutions have that kind of dough." The lecture agency, which books speakers for the United States, Canada and Hawaii, has numbered among its clients Sen. Paul Douglas, Dr. Robert M. Hutchins, Drew Pearson, Sen. J. William Fulbright and Vice Admiral Munson. The agency's spokeswoman assured me that such company wouldn't be too fast for Mickey. "Our clients are all top men," she said, "but after all, Mr. Cohen, in a sense, was a captain of industry in his field. "I think he'll be a tremendous hit with the women," she added. "He's really quite captivating."  Then, with a sigh, she concluded: "But maybe I'm prejudiced. I've always been intrigued by cops and robbers."