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April 16, 1958
Above, a review of a concert at the Million Dollar Theater (coming up May 11: Mariachi Vargas!) Below, Mickey Cohen touches off a sensation by releasing Lana Turner's love letters to Johnny Stompanato. Quote of the Day: "In all my years on the force, I have never seen a more open and shut case of a child defending its mother." --Beverly Hills Police Capt. Ray Borders, on allegations of a cover-up in the Johnny Stompanato killing.
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Above, the Mirror brings out an extra on the Johnny Stompanato killing.
Photograph by Gary Smith / Los Angeles Times
Coroner's attendants remove the body of Johnny Stompanato from the home of Lana Turner, 730 N. Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills. Published in The Times on April 5, 1958.
Photograph by the Los Angeles Times
Johnny Stompanato's watch, ID bracelet, ring and good luck charms. Note that the photo was so big I had to scan in two sections and paste it together.
Los Angeles Times file photo
Johnny Stompanato and Lana Turner in an undated snapshot.
Los Angeles Times file photo
Johnny Stompanato in an undated copy shot of a picture obtained by The Times after he was killed.
Photograph by Paul Calvert / Los Angeles Times
Johnny Stompanato testifies Aug. 3, 1949, at a coroner's inquest in the shotgun slaying of Mickey Cohen associate Edward "Neddy" Herbert. Note that the background has been painted out and that the picture has been cropped in red grease pencil. Most of The Times photos from the 1940s look like this.
Photograph by Gordon Wallace / Los Angeles Times
Johnny Stompanato in a photo published Aug. 6, 1949, when he was charged with vagrancy.
Photograph by the Los Angeles Times
Attorney Joseph Scott, left, and Johnny Stompanato, Oct. 4, 1949, after Stompanato was charged with vagrancy. Note the crop marks and the retouching to paint out the background so that the photograph could be used as a one-column mug shot.
A check for $3 from Lana Turner to "John Stompanato Smith."
Photograph by Gary Smith / Los Angeles Times
Johnny Stompanato's T-Bird, parked outside Lana Turner's home on the night of the killing.
Photograph by Loren Patty / Los Angeles Times
Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Russell Peterson with the knife that killed Johnny Stompanato.
Photograph by Delmar Watson / Los Angeles Times
Beverly Hills Police Officer Joe Head examines the knife that killed Johnny Stompanato. Note that the knife handle has been retouched in white to make it stand out against the background. It's not visible in the scan, but yes, that is Cheryl Crane's fingerprint card.
Los Angeles Times file photo
Johnny Stompanato's funeral in Woodstock, Ill., April 9, 1958, as an American Legion official presents the flag from the casket to Stompanato's brother Carmine. The woman seated second from the right is Stompanato's stepmother, Verena.
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Above, the popularity of TV westerns spreads to "Ozzie and Harriet." Below, Holy Week is presented in a daily news feature based on the Gospels. It is difficult to imagine that even in the 1950s anybody thought this was a good idea--but then again, the Mirror ran page toppers in something like 48-point Gothic telling readers to go to church for Easter Sunday ... Mickey Cohen has a black eye and is in court--how unusual ... Republic abandons theatrical releases ... And a pilot describes bailing out at 650 mph.
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Above, Mickey Cohen is in trouble again. Shocking, I know. This time he has a black eye courtesy of U.S. drug agent Howard W. Chappell. Cohen was eventually fined $200 for disturbing the peace. Below, the death of W.C. Handy, composer of "The St. Louis Blues," makes the front page.
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 Photograph by Jack Gaunt / Los Angeles Times OK, who's the blond with Mickey Cohen? (No, it's not Walter O'Malley).
- Candy Barr? (Two people). Nope, Candy Barr looks like this. The Daily Mirror doesn't do reruns!
- LaVonne Cohen? Sorry, no.
- Virginia Hill? Sorry, no.
- Sandy Hashagen? (Nathan Marsak). Absolutely. This is Claretta Hashagen, a.k.a. Sandra or Sandy Hagen. Where is she now? I cannot find a trace of her in The Times after the Mickey Cohen saga.
Photograph by Nelson Tiffany / Los Angeles Times
Mickey Cohen, Sandra Hagen and attorney A.L. Wirin, in a photograph dated Dec. 2, 1960. 
Photograph by Hugh Arnott / Los Angeles Times
Sandra Hagen and Mickey Cohen leave federal court after bail for Cohen was denied, in a photo dated Feb. 5, 1962.  Photograph by Larry Sharkey / Los Angeles Times
Sandra Hagen kisses Mickey Cohen on the cheek as he leaves County Jail in a photo dated Feb. 17, 1962. Email me
Photograph by Fred Tschantre / Los Angeles Times
OK, who's the blond with Mickey Cohen? (Hint: No, it's not Walter O'Malley).
- Lili St. Cyr? Good guess, but Lili would be a bit older than this woman.
- Candy Barr? (R.J. Smith, Los Angeles Magazine, who was 30 minutes ahead of Chris Morales).
Absolutely right! At the Hall of Justice, Sgt. Eugene Gabriel listens as Mickey Cohen expresses outrage over the April 30, 1959, arrest of Candy Barr at the Largo Club on the Sunset Strip. Cohen, who had a ringside seat for Barr's act, was incensed when deputies arrested her after a Texas bail bondsman canceled her bond in a narcotics case. Cohen later told newsmen that he hoped to marry Barr after his divorce to LaVonne Cohen was final, The Times said.
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Photograph by the Los Angeles Times
Who are these gentlemen and what are they doing? Bonus question: Who was the former owner of this Cadillac?
- Is it Johnny Stompanato? (Howard Decker--first by 10 minutes over the next correct response). Absolutely. A photo published June 7, 1949, shows John Stompanato and L.R. Shoemaker of the sheriff's Gangster Squad looking for bullet holes in a 1948 Cadillac Stompanato bought from Mickey Cohen. Authorities were investigating charges that a Beverly Hills auto body shop fixed bullet holes in Cohen's and Stompanato's cars without reporting the repairs to police, as required by law. In a few months, Mr. Stompanato is going to have an unfortunate encounter with a knife.
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Note: Three Border Patrol agents crawling through brush found Roberta Elizabeth Donovan the next day, asleep in a clump of mesquite. Also note ABC's settlement with Police Chief William Parker over remarks by Mickey Cohen in an interview with Mike Wallace. That's $317,976.76 USD 2006.
Thanks to a reader, I have located Mickey Cohen's bulletproof Cadillac. It's in the Southward Car Museum in New Zealand! (Note to my friends at the Petersen: Wouldn't it be cool to borrow this car and put it on display?).
Would you like to see another picture of Mickey Cohen with one of his Cadillacs? Of course you would! This one is a bit mysterious. This is the Cadillac that took a few shots in 1949 outside Sherry's on the Sunset Strip, but the picture is dated Oct. 30, 1950, which is after The Times took photos of his new bulletproof Cadillac.
Photograph by Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times
Here's another mystery: What's the deal with Cohen campaigning for Fletcher Bowron? It would seem to me that if you're running in a recall election (as Mayor Bowron was), you wouldn't want to be endorsed by the city's most prominent mobster. There's no telling what role Cohen's support might have had, but Bowron defeated the recall.
And why is Cohen driving his old, ventilated car when there's a nice, shiny bulletproof Cadillac in the garage? It seems Mickey neglected to get a permit from the California Highway Patrol to drive an armored conveyance. Oops! He ended up selling his $17,000 ($137,564. 58 USD 2006) bulletproof car at a $5,000 loss to the Texas Stock Car Racing Assn., which put it on tour.
While I'm at it, here's an undated photo of Mickey Cohen, compulsive hand washer, at his favorite pastime.
Los Angeles Times photo
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Here's another little nugget of information I found going through the archives.
Guess what kind of car Mickey Cohen had after he gave up bulletproof Cadillacs?
Go ahead, guess.
Read on »
Michael "Mickey" Cohen needed a new bulletproof Cadillac for several reasons: His home was bombed in February 1950 and his previous Cadillac acquired some bullet holes outside Sherry's Restaurant, 9039 Sunset Blvd., on July 20, 1949.
Photograph by Clay Willcockson / Los Angeles Times
Read on »
 Sept. 26, 1957
Los Angeles
 Alas, the old Redwood at 234 W. 1st St. was demolished before my arrival at The Times, although it lives on in newsroom lore. One incident I'd never heard about was the arrest of Mickey Cohen at 2:30 p.m. as he was having breakfast -- that will give you an idea of what the Redwood was like.
Cohen, accompanied by bail bondsman Abe Phillips, was having his ham and eggs when an officer arrested him on charges of failing to register in Beverly Hills as an ex-convict.
Cohen was, as always, the model of decorum and diplomacy while in custody. Actually, "the fiery-tempered little ex-mobster [was] screaming protests and hurling epithets at arresting officers and Chief Clinton H. Anderson to such an extent that the chief angrily ordered him re-booked on charges of disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct," The Times said.
After being arrested at the Redwood, Cohen was booked at the Beverly Hills jail and bailed out, then became so profane and disruptive that Anderson arrested him again. (Among other things, Cohen yelled at Anderson: "I'll have you out of this town in 24 hours!") This time, Phillips didn't have the money to bail Cohen out of jail, so they borrowed money from a Beverly Hills clothier.
Earlier that day, Cohen had filed a reply to a $1.5-million
defamation suit brought by Police Chief William H. Parker and Capt.
James E. Hamilton over comments on "The Mike Wallace Interview."
Cohen maintained that his comments were true and that his largely
unprintable remarks were "fair comment and criticism of public
officials."
He also noted that his real name was Michael, not "Mickey," as used in the police officials' lawsuit.
The old Redwood, which was featured in the Billy Wilder version of "The Front Page," lives on at 316 W. 2nd St. I'm told by people who should know that the layout is much the same as the old watering hole. In its latest reincarnation, it has a pirate theme. Here's an ad from the Redwood's grand reopening in 1960:
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Aug. 4, 1957
Oceanside
Box 7, Folders 216-229 of the Ben Hecht
archives at the Newberry Library in Chicago appear to contain whatever
was produced during the time Hecht worked with gangster Mickey Cohen on the
story of the mobster's life.
"It might be the basis for a top book," Hecht said. "It's exciting, unusual, frank and startling."
The
men began work in 1956 on a film to be produced by United Artists under
the title "The Mickey Cohen Story" or "The Poison Has Left Me,"
according to The Times, which noted that Hecht was working on "A Farewell to Arms" and had obligations to write two pictures for British film companies.
By the summer of 1957, Cohen had produced a 150-page manuscript that he showed to Hecht, who was staying in Oceanside.
Noting that Cohen had apparently dictated the manuscript, Hecht said: "He must
have done it himself. No one but Mickey uses words that way. It's a
goldmine of facts--I haven't seen so many facts since I was a newspaper
reporter. It has Mickey's indelible stamp."
Hecht dismissed any
speculation on the project, saying: "Mickey brought it to me and asked
me to read it and tell him what I thought of it. I don't know of any
plans he may have for it."
In truth, Hecht and Cohen worked on
the manuscript with some diligence. "I spent four days in Oceanside
with him and we got a lot done," Cohen said. There were so many
interruptions that Hecht suggested the two of them retreat to his villa
in Rome, but the federal government took a dim view of the former
mobster going to Italy, home of Lucky Luciano, Joe Adonis and other
deported gangsters.
"They seem to think maybe I'm going over there for something other than the reason I'm really going," Cohen said.
In
January 1958, Cohen went to Chicago to work with Hecht on the book.
Earlier that day, Cohen allegedly roughed up a waiter who spilled coffee
on him during an early morning gathering at the Villa Capri, 6735 Yucca St.,
as Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and several others were celebrating
Sammy Davis Jr.'s opening appearance at the Moulin Rouge.
The
next month, Cohen said he had given up his flower shop to spend all of
his time with Hecht writing the movie version of his life.
The book was nearly finished by March and was
due out in the fall of 1958, at least according to Cohen. "It'll knock
the blocks off people," Cohen said as he left Los Angeles for Los Cocos
Hotel in La Paz, Mexico, to spend a week with Hecht on the project.
George
Bieber, Cohen's attorney, said a studio had offered $200,000
($1,433,056.75 USD 2006) and 80% of the profits but that Cohen wanted
$200,000 and 20% of the gross. Bieber also said the book would bring
Cohen about $500,000 to $750,000 and that 50,000 copies had already
been ordered.
And then everything went off the rails, as happens so often in Hollywood.
In
September 1958, the Saturday Evening Post began a four-part series
titled "Mickey Cohen: The Private Life of a Hood" by freelance writer
Dean Jennings. In October 1958, Cohen sued Curtis Publishing, the
parent company of the Saturday Evening Post, saying that the series
ruined any possibility of publishing his book, but he dropped the suit
in December 1958.
It's clear from testimony in Cohen's 1961
tax evasion trial that he was selling interest in the book. Nightclub
owner Bernard "Happy" Koomer said he gave Cohen $15,000 in May 1957 for
a 10% share. Koomer testified that he stopped payment on several checks
and that when he met Cohen, the gangster tore up the checks, threw the
pieces in Koomer's face and seized a diamond ring given to Koomer as
security. It is interesting to speculate that the book may have been far more
profitable if it remained unpublished--rather like "The Producers."
Apparently whatever remains of the Cohen project is in the 94 cubic feet of
material in the Hecht archives in Chicago. There's a good dissertation
in there for some historian, I guarantee you.
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July 10, 1957
Los Angeles
Let's suppose you are a famous comedian with a hit TV show. Fame and
wealth are yours--more than you could have ever imagined. You are
recognized wherever you go.
Now
let's suppose that the doctors at UCLA say your 9-year-old son,
Richard, has less than a year to live because of incurable leukemia.
Maybe only five months. All that wealth and fame can't bring him even
one more day.
You don't know how to explain such things to a
9-year-old, so you haven't told him. Right now, the leukemia is in
remission. He has no idea he has such a brief time to live.
But
when he sees "The Last Days of Pompeii" on TV and thinks it looks
interesting, that's all you need to book a trip for you, your wife,
your son and your 10-year-old daughter to Pompeii. There's no way to
pack a lifetime's worth of experiences into a year, but you can try, so
you add stops in Copenhagen, Switzerland, Rome, Barcelona, Paris,
London and Dublin, Ireland.
Although you're not Catholic, you
meet Pope Pius XII, who read about your trip in the newspapers and
granted a request for a private audience. Pius tells your son: "Life is
eternal because of God. So if life is taken away from one person in a
family they are never separated because the family will always live
together in eternal life with God."
Of course, the reporters follow you everywhere. In Paris, they ask
your son what he wants to see first. The Eiffel Tower, he says.
And what next? "What else is there?" he asks.
At the Louvre, where your family upstages the artwork, Richard asks
why the "Mona Lisa" was smiling. "Because everybody is looking at her,"
is the answer.
But in London, you are not received so
favorably. Some of the British papers see the trip as nothing more than
a ghastly publicity stunt by a gauche Hollywood TV star exploiting his son's illness. One paper lectures you to go back to America. Another
calls a session with reporters: "a nauseating jamboree." Columnist
Simon Ward of the Daily Sketch says: "I was horrified and revolted at
the spectacle of this poor little boy being put under the spotlight."
According
to the Daily Sketch's description of a news conference, your son: "sat
there white-faced and near to tears while the crowd milled around him
in the smoke-filled room"
It was only then that your son, Richard, finds out he is dying. He
remarks: "Everybody says I'm going to die but that means everybody but
me."
You attack the local press and defend yourself on British TV: "I do
not believe my son is going to die. I believe in God. I believe in the
medical profession. I believe that an answer will be found."
Back
in Los Angeles, a British envoy does his best to defend the British
press, saying: "I don't think there's a person in Britain who doesn't
wish only the best for Mr. Skelton and his son."
In August 1957,
you visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, saying: "God
alone can save my boy's life as science has done all it can."
Around
New Year's 1958, you are hospitalized for what the papers call an
asthma attack. A few months later, Brentwood Country Club honors you
as the Man of the Year at the United Jewish Welfare Fund banquet.
And
then of all the prayers for your son, there was a final one for Richard
Freeman Skelton, who died May 10, 1958, a little more than a week
before his 10th birthday. You asked him if he wanted a big birthday
party and he said no, just a few friends. So you brought a Sears
catalogue to the hospital so Richard could pick whatever he wanted. He selected a
tent and camping equipment--and a surprise gift for Mother's Day.
As he lay there dying, with an IV in his leg because all the other veins
were collapsed from transfusions, he asked: "Daddy, will you get Mama
that red blanket for Mother's Day? I don't suppose they'd let me out of
here with this cut on my leg."
An hour later, Richard said: "I can't see. Everything is fuzzy." And he
was gone. You and your wife, Georgia, sat with him for half an hour,
weeping. "I had to sit there and cry," Georgia said. "Richard wouldn't
let me cry before. He always chided me if I came into see him with my
eyes red."
Then you and your wife came home to tell the news to your daughter,
Valentina. You went into Richard's bedroom, decorated with his toys,
his favorite camera and the stuffed dog he slept with at night.
Next to Richard's bed was a small suitcase he had packed with
underwear, socks and a toothbrush in case the family went on another
trip. "He said, 'Mama, you never know when we'll be leaving on a trip.
It's best to be ready.' "
Georgia started to turn off the lights and stopped. "No, I can't turn
off that light. I don't want it dark in here, not tonight."
Richard was laid in his casket with a cross he'd requested from the
pope, his other last wish, in a lavish funeral at Church of the
Recessional at Forest Lawn.
Before a crowd of mourners that included Vincent Price, David Rose, Johnny Weismuller and even mobster Mickey Cohen, actor William Lundigan read a eulogy by Gene Fowler, whom Richard nicknamed "Grandpa Wrinklepants."
"We
now stand at the gate of mystery and great sorrow, a place beyond which
we of the living world cannot go with little Richard.
"This is the end of his brief journey
on earth. This is the end of the glad hours we have spent with this
bright and shining child.
"We shall say but a few words of
farewell to the red-haired boy whose golden years touched so many of us
like some heaven-sent miracle.
"What words of ours, grown up though
we may be, or wise as we mistakenly think we are, can define the
miracle? What praise can awake the sleeping child? Or explain the
meaning of God's will?
"Through the cruel months of his
illness he did not complain.... Always a most courageous little
gentleman. A president and a pope were his friends.... and hundreds of
thousands of men, women and children" who had never known him.
"Now he belongs to God. Farewell then, little fellow, and thanks for your short visit with us here on Earth."
A Red Skelton clip from 1952.
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Page 1, Los Angeles Times
Page 6
ABC agrees to make a formal apology for Mickey Cohen's comments on the "Mike Wallace Interview."
The Mirror, May 25, 1957
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Page 2
The Mirror, May 23, 1957, Page 1
Page 18
 May 22, 1957
A group of newspapermen yesterday were discussing the angry outbursts
which have filled the air following a certain telecast--and the irony
thereof.
Over the years, sensitive public officials and law enforcement officers
have been wary of newspapermen because they occasionally touched on
sore subjects in print.
More mature public servants, of course, accepted, ignored or laughed off such typographical embarrassment.
But the sensitive gentlemen turned in relief to the big eye in the
living room for consolation and what appeared a more favorable display
of their deeds.
In recent months, however, some TV personalities, anxious to extend
their audiences, have thrown off all restraint in presenting scandalous
material.
Now those public officials realize they never had it so good as when
they dealt fairly with the press. Newspapermen omitted turning over
many rocks under which lurked ugly facts on the grounds of libel,
responsibility and good taste.
With the irresponsible TV boys, however, and there are only a few, the sky's apparently the limit.
The Los Angeles Police Commission protests the Mickey Cohen broadcast, May 22, 1957
From the City of Los Angeles Archives
Mirror critic Hal Humphrey's take on the Mickey Cohen-Mike Wallace affair.
The Mirror scores a jailhouse interview with L. Ewing Scott, plus one of Confidential magazine's main informants, Francesca De Scaffa attempts suicide again. According to news reports, De Scaffa was so eager to be a Confidential source that she was willing to have affairs just to get information.
And in Mickey Cohen news, fallout from his televised blast at the LAPD and civic officials.
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"I killed nobody that
didn't deserve killing. In all of these here killings there was no
alternative. You couldn't call them cold-blooded killings.... It was
either my life or theirs."
May 19, 1957
Los Angeles
I suppose in hindsight it's easy to see why
interviewing Mickey Cohen on live television was a bad idea. But at the
time, as Mike Wallace admits, it seemed like a wonderful coup against
the competition.
If you don't know anything about Cohen, you might not understand what
an outspoken and profane man he was. But Wallace certainly knew. And
those viewers who skipped Dr. Joyce Brothers on the "$64,000 Challenge"
experienced an obscene tirade from the little mobster.
Unfortunately, the original newspaper accounts give very little of
Cohen's remarks except to say they were unprintable. "Cohen was
interviewed over a national ABC network show last night and admitted he
has killed at least one man in self-defense," The Mirror said. "He
hurled a series of unprintable charges against [Los Angeles Police
Chief William H.] Parker.
" 'Gestapo tactics' was the kindest phrase he used. The laws governing
libel and slander prohibit repetition of the charges in a newspaper,"
The Mirror said.
But some information can be gleaned from news accounts. In addition to
claiming that he had killed a man, Cohen said his gambling operations
once handled $600,000 in bets and that politicians needed him at
election time and allowed him to operate with impunity.
He also said: "My sources of power were higher than former Mayor Bowron's and former Police Chief Horrall's."
Former Mayor Fletcher Bowron, who had returned to the Superior Court
bench after being elected mayor in the 1938 recall of Frank Shaw, said
it was beneath his dignity to respond to Cohen's allegations. Former
Chief Clemence B. "Jack" Horrall, who headed the LAPD during World War
II, said Cohen operated in the county rather than the city. "He tried
to operate in the city and we ran him out," Horrall said. "Cohen's a
liar."
But ABC-TV made a critical error. Recall that this was before the days
of videotape. Instead, shows were preserved on kinescopes in which a
movie camera filmed images on a TV picture tube, and these were shown
on the West Coast three hours later. Although ABC executives had no
idea what Cohen was going to say on the live show, they were well aware
of Cohen's comments and decided to proceed with the West Coast broadcast three hours
later.
Former Mirror reporter Cliff Dektar, who was handling publicity for ABC in Los Angeles, recalls watching the show with The Times TV critic at the network's studios:
"I hosted Cecil Smith, Times TV critic
at the ABC TV Center executive viewing room, Prospect and
Talmadge.
"Outrageous, and the phone rang. It was lawyer in NY. l say
nothing (there is a reporter sitting next to me).
"Parker and
[Police Capt. James] Hamilton (the intelligence squad captain) gave ABC and WC head Earl Hudson
opportunity to cancel WC repeat (kinescope) and get out trouble...Mr. Hudson
declined and Hamilton won a major slander suit against ABC.
"It was a most
interesting event...oh yes...took Cecil and his wife to dinner following."
Parker was furious, and turned down a network offer to respond on
Wallace's show the next week. "That sort of thing is more insidious
than Confidential," Parker said. "You have to go down to the newsstand
to buy a magazine and you get this in your living room."
"As a police officer, I am used to being shot at. But how can a person
like Cohen be allowed to assassinate my character?" Parker said.
ABC issued an apology the next week, but the controversy continued.
Watch Mike Wallace's interview about the Cohen incident.
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Cliff Dektar was a copy boy for The Times in 1943. He worked for the Mirror from 1950 to 1956, when he left for ABC-TV.
On Jan. 2, 1951, Photographer Bud Gray and I were working the overnight Mirror radio car 91... after 2:30 a.m. the streets really are quiet until around 5 a.m. We had stopped at Hollywood Receiving Hospital and were headed north on Wilcox...I was driving.
The police radio came alive...69 meet 66 at Hollywood and Vine. Well, 69 was a sergeant and 66 was a district radio car and this was a most unusual call at 4:30 a.m. ... so I decided to drive by since it was only a few blocks away.
Amazing... standing on the corner by the Broadway Hollywood was Mickey Cohen... wearing his hat as usual... and waving his hands with an LAPD Officer Tommy Hutton. He was agitated.
I nudged Bud, made a U-turn on Vine and parked across the street in front of the Owl drugstore.
I turned off the ignition and strolled across Vine and listened... no note taking.
"If you'll take off your badge and come into the alley and fight me fair and square, I'll give you my wife and my car," growled Mickey.
(The blue Cadillac and his wife were parked a few feet away).
Officer Hutton had written Mickey a traffic citation for not proceeding on a green light--he had stopped to purchase a newspaper.
 Mickey refused to sign the ticket.
The sergeant arrived and explained to Mickey that by signing, he did not admit guilt, only to appear.
"If you don't sign, Mickey, we will take you to jail," the sergeant explained.
Finally, Mickey signed, walked and entered his car, and drove south on Vine.
Meanwhile Bud Gray had set his Speed Graphic so he could shoot from the hip without focusing.
Bud shot four photos... all were excellent.
We jumped back into the radio car, called the office and sped to 2nd and Spring with the photos.
By the time reporters in the police press room heard about the incident, everyone was gone, Mickey, the police and the few spectators.
We had a real beat... four good photos and details... all Page 1.
I thought of how wild Aggie Underwood, city editor of the Herald-Express, would be, as the Mirror guys had beat her team, again.
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In 1957, saxophonist Dave Pell was the leader of the Dave Pell Octet, the house band at the Crescendo on the Sunset Strip. He recently reminisced about performing there with comedian Lenny Bruce. Pell performs once a week with Johnny Vana's Big Band Alumni at Los Hatos in the San Fernando Valley. Lenny Bruce died Aug. 3, 1966, at 8825 Hollywood Blvd. at the age of 40.
Well I was lucky, very lucky. I was there for five years and Lenny was there for almost the same amount of time. It was one of greatest moments of my life. He was quite a man. Incredibly funny, loving, kind, sweet... all the things that nobody ever knew about him. Nobody took the time to know about him. He was really a lovely guy, a lovely man, a funny man. We had a guy named Jack Sheldon in the band. Sheldon was the phenom of our time. A very funny cat. He and Lenny were dear friends. They used to do crazy things together.
We were a Be-Bop band that played for everybody.
Gene Norman (the nightclub owner) ... says: "You have a home here... Stay as long as you wish." It was the time where Mickey Cohen used to hang out at the club. He used to have his boys there. They were dear men. As big as gangsters as there ever were. He loved Lenny. He was their favorite of all.
We played for all the acts. Johnny Mathis and we played for the Mills Brothers and, you know, people of that nature. People played the club with us.... Lenny was in and out of jail every other day. He was there.
Then the narcotics people were hanging out. They were dear friends. They were after the guys selling to the band and Mickey was there every night. With Lenny there; he was changing the show every night and the band was absolutely loving it. Most comedians worked to the bands because they gotta hear the same material night after night. If they could make the band laugh then they knew they were funny... Lenny played to us. He and Jack Sheldon would do dialog together.
 Lenny would say: "Did you see Mickey's here tonight?" We'd be on the floor. A very hip band: Marty Paich on piano, Mel Lewis on drums, Buddy Clark on bass. It was the best band in town by far. We'd play the dumb Mills Brothers. We're playing "You Want a Paper Doll." Playing almost back to Dixieland and playing it straight. And Bobby Darin. Just an incredible thing.
The funniest thing. Lenny Bruce and Jack Sheldon decided to go on the amateur hour.... Do an Al Jolson song. Something was all set up and they'd play it and wear black makeup. They did the show... it was a car dealer that had the show ... I wish I could remember. On Sunday morning... Jack and Lenny were going to be on and we were all set up to watch it. (This was apparently Compton car dealer H.J. Caruso, who was indicted on charges of forgery and grand theft in June 1957).
They got on. They didn't do the show they auditioned with. It got a little dirty and funnier and funnier and Lenny is yelling "Caruso is a thief!" "He doesn't give good deals on cars!" They couldn't get him off soon enough. They said, "This isn't the way they auditioned." They finally figured out it was Lenny Bruce.
I never got over that one. Funniest thing that ever happened with the band.
Every night, Lenny was a magnificent mind. If he took off, we had Mort Sahl. He would do a half-hour on Lenny Bruce. And they put him in jail and he'd try to behave. He got put in jail 50 times because they were trying to clean up the nightclub circuit.
Just the greatest time of our lives. Lili St. Cyr, a beautiful lady. Harry Betts was a trombone player with Kenton. He said, "Well you know she has this one little piece that needs a violin." So we made him bring a violin. He played a solo behind her (Pell hums something from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker"). Lenny would come up just to see the guys laughing... He didn't play the violin well. She was dancing with all these lights. She was never naked, she wore a skin thing. We weren't going to see nothing. Lenny Bruce made so much of it. God he was funny.
Between sets, they turned over people so fast, we'd go downstairs and play poker for an hour.
Johnny Mathis was doing seven or eight shows a night. People were around the block. Gene Norman had signed Johnny Mathis 10 months before he had a hit. He comes up with all his hits in one short time.... He was working for $350 a week... around the block crowds are waiting to get in. We would do a fast 20-minute or 30-minute show and the next one would start. They'd empty the house and do another one.
And of course Lenny ... He'd say: "I can't be very funny tonight I'm down to 10 minutes." So hip and so sharp... and I look back. Damn that was fun. Lenny was a marvelous cat and got in trouble and couldn't handle it and died very young. His wife a very nice gal and a homemaker and tried to make him straight.
Jack Sheldon and Lenny Bruce. Jack almost started his career with Merv Griffin... doing comedy. All the timing he got from Lenny....
Five years. We had a ball... a lot was happening then.
When Lenny Bruce was downstairs, Mort Sahl was upstairs. When Lenny had to go to jail we got Mort Sahl... He'd read tabloids, and then do a show.
It was sensational. Edie Gorme, all the good singers. Everybody who was hot at the time was there with us. Marty Paich, in 1957 he couldn't have been over 21 years old. Marty turned out to be one of the most successful jazz and big band arrangers of that time. We had him and Shorty Rogers and we never had the same band two nights in a row. The deal was you could take off any time as long as I approved the sub. We had record dates so there was a different band every night....
Bobby Darin says, "The band is sensational. It's the best band I ever had." He comes in the next night, it's totally different. "The band is sensational." Half the band was back the third night... He says "Dave I can't handle it. I can't kid with the band, it's never the same guys twice." They're playing for scale, so I say, "They can take off anything they want as long as they are the top guys." The best band I've ever had....
Those things were so much fun... That whole club situation....
The club was on Sunset in the Playboy Building.... and then we were right at the middle of the strip. Across the street was Ciro's, right across the street. Little nightclub on the West Coast. Ben Polack (?) had a Dixieland club that ran strippers. He had a good Dixieland band. Great players. We'd play the opener or closer. "Mountain Greenery."
He booked smart in those days, three or four shows a night....
It was a great home for me. I was working at a record company during the day. It would be the Dave Pell band and I'd be at a record date. Gene Norman and I went to high school together (so that wasn't a problem).
It was a record company. I'd record in the afternoon and rush over to play the first gig at the club. I'd be tired but had a such a good time... such an incredible time. Not a dumb gig at a nightclub, it was the hit nightclub and Lenny being there with us killed us.
It was the funniest thing going day by day. Mickey Cohen.... Lenny would come and play to them. Call them the stars of the government.... highest government officials in town and Mickey Cohen... everything was so cool.  I used to be in the record business. Sold them in the supermarkets for 99 cents. I'd record "Dave Pell Plays Benny Goodman," "Dave Pell Plays whatever." I must have made 50 albums, "The Best Songs of Italy." I'd go to England for a couple weeks and record 20 albums. Put them in Kresge, Woolworth, the same albums but change the songs on each one.... It was the beginning of the compilation disc.
I'd have 75 string players over in England. The albums were gorgeous... The label was TOPS records... I put out 20 other labels for everybody else. Everybody had their labels. You'd go into Sears and there'd be a rack near the door. I sold millions. People never had to go to the record store.
I'd work at night.. Edie Gorme would come to sit in. People didn't realize it was her. Didn't recognize her... They'd wonder who is singing with the band? 
It's marvelous, at 10:30 every Tuesday morning... at Los Hatos at Balboa and Nordhoff... They can't get in the joint. Oversold every Tuesday morning. We play till 12:30. The band is excellent... Johnny Vana's Big Band Alumni... Everybody played with the big bands, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich.... producing a new album we did live a couple of weeks ago...
Lots of bands out there... They say we're the Glenn Miller Band, or the Harry James band. All picked up for the night. They sound fair. This band plays all the bands... We have a great band... One of the guys got sick, so they asked "Pell, would you like to play?" Love to. I don't have to set up, don't have to bring mikes. Just sit in the band. I love it.
The other day they gave me a red tie that I can keep so when I play around town I don't have to borrow a tie... It's a good band.
A guy came in and recorded it... We only get a one-hour set and then a 20-minute set. He figured he could do an album in two days... The album was almost really done the first morning it was so good. It was fun and we go out and do the shows and the band is very happy. We call it a rehearsal, so the guys can keep their chops up.
Lots of clubs tried to do that but they don't seem to get the crowds that this thing does. People still really want to dance, do the jitterbug. It's not rock 'n' roll.
Sound clips courtesy of Davepell.com
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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.