Matt Weinstock, Nov. 21, 1959

Car Troubles     Two years ago, Bob Joseph bought a two-cylinder French Panhard, which has positively no area in front for a license plate.  He has been driving it with only the rear plate.     On consecutive days recently he received two citations.  A new law went into effect in October requiring cars to have both plates, and it is being enforced.  He explained ineffectively to the officers that the dealer sold him the car with only one plate.     He went to the Traffic Fines Bureau at 810 Wall St., where a courteous marshal showed him the nice new law and advised him to go to the Motor Vehicle Department at 35th and Hope Sts. and get new plates.     He did, then asked where he could put the one in front.  The man there saw no possibility and directed him to the Highway Patrol at 4th and Vermont.     There he retold his sad tale.  An officer circled the car, looking for a spot to put the front plate.  When he came up with nothing Bob asked, "What do you suggest?"      "Sell it," the officer said. ::     UNDERGRADUATE ENTHUSIASM for today's game is about even.  First SC students swiped a UCLA air horn, which was returned.  Then UCLA students put a blue paint coating on Tommy Trojan, the SC statue.  Then four SC students put a red paint job on UCLA's Founder's Rock but were caught swiping two banners.  An SC student policing group has curtailed their privileges. ::     THIN MARGIN When getting on a bus that     is packed The avoirdupois I long     have lacked Is then a  joy, a thing     of merit, As past the fatter forms     I ferret.     --DELLA SKELLETT ::     IT IS traditional and inevitable that reporters, who write the news stories, and copy readers, who edit and put heads on them, should quibble.  Reporters contend copy readers destroy their lilting prose.  Copy readers accuse reporters of slaughtering the language.  They went at it again the other day.     A rewrite man turned in a  story about a W 8th St. liquor store holdup in which a case of Scotch was stolen.  The reporter, obviously a naive fellow, identified it as "Hague and Hague" instead of Haig and Haig.     A surly copy reader asked him, "Are you sure it wasn't a case of Holland gin?" ::     IN HIS latest Desert Rat Scrap Book, all about good Injuns, Harry Oliver tells of a party of tourists visiting some Indian ruins in a desolate section of Arizona.  To get to them they had to leave their cars and walk.     En route, a woman exclaimed, "Gracious, I forgot to lock the car!"     "Don't worry," the Indian guide said, "there isn't a white man within 50 miles." ::     IT MAY BE comforting to know that the Health Department is watching over you, even if you don't care.     Bob Martin received a notice the other day that his dog Concho had been quarantined for 14 days as a rabies suspect.  Puzzled, he phoned County health and asked why.  "Because he bit you," he was told.     Then Bob remembered.  Six weeks ago the dog playfully bit or scratched him on the leg.  About a week ago the sore looked infected and Bob stopped at Hollywood Receiving Hospital, where a doc put a bandage on it.  He also turned in a dog-bite report which went to Central, then to County health, then to Burbank, where Bob lives, and boom -- quarantine for Concho.     Meanwhile, the wound was healed. ::     FOOTNOTES -- It was a big week for bird watching.  In addition to the usual sparrows, towhees, blue-jays, juncoes and flickers, four stately quail, a long absent thrush, the first robin of fall and a yellow-breasted number tentatively identified as a MacGillivray's warbler visited the back yard.  That's what it states in Ernest Sheldon Booth's "Birds of the West" -- MacGillivray's warbler . . . Councilman Ransom Callicott, chatting with a friend about car mileage, remarked, "Five gallons of gas is just a light lunch for my car."

Man Beaten With Ukulele

“Safe Trip Ends in Death” – OK, but it made you look.

April 29, 1930: I was researching a story from Nov. 21, 1959, and came across a much more interesting account of a man beaten into unconsciousness with a ukulele.

Once Around the Radio Dial – 1969

Nov. 16, 1969 One of the true pleasures of contributing to The Daily Mirror is reading old columns by Don Page, The Times' longtime radio critic. I regularly check his work, these days for 1959 and '69. Some things change—by 1969 he no longer wondered whether rock stations will survive or be the end of radio. But there are some constants, such as complaining about too many commercials, too many boring stations and too many stations that sound too similar. Seems to me Page complained a lot and I like that. A reader knew how he felt. No matter the subject, it's fun to read names and stations that I remember. From Vin Scully to KMET, radio was a big part of growing up in Southern California. This column was a collection of notes as Page bounced around the dial. Some of my favorites: --Most disc jockeys have nothing to say. --KHJ's disc jockeys are the best hard-rock voices in captivity but KRLA's staff has more talent. --KPFK-FM is becoming the Free Press of the airwaves. --XERB sounds like a SigAlert with the blues section. --Some of KFWB's newsmen continue to mangle the names of California cities, although the all-news outlet is a quality operation. For me, radio in 1969 was Scully and the Dodgers, Dick Enberg and the Angels and KRLA (I'd switch to KMET in a couple of years). How about you? --Keith Thursby

Orchestras Ban Women Musicians

Nov. 2, 1919: Orchestra managers want to ban women musicians because an ensemble consisting entirely of men in tuxedos is more pleasing to the eye, The Times says. No, I'm not kidding. Nov. 16, 1919: Alma Whitaker writes about the attempted ban on women musicians.

Nov. 16, 1919: The Ridge Route opens and the Times publishes a terrific illustration by artist Charles Owens – nearly 20 years before he worked on “Nuestro Pueblo” … And the Auto Club writes a proposed law to make Hill Street, Broadway, Spring Street, Main one-way and to ban delivery trucks from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in designated congested areas such as downtown.

Mexico, U.S. Blame Each Other After Border Crackdown Fails

Lerdo’s Typical Grand Mexican Orchestra and “Eyes of Youth” at Tally’s Kinema at Grand and 7th and “Her Game” at Tally’s Broadway, 833 S. Broadway.

Nov. 10, 1919: A plan by American and Mexican authorities to deport 100 to 200 “undesirables” to the U.S. was repeatedly postponed because the "hopheads, thieves, gamblers and those who live from the earnings of others" could not be found. Finally, the Mexican police turned over 13 men who worked at the Owl, a gambling house closed by government edict. The men were freed through the efforts of “Booze” Byers, one of the Owl’s proprietors, and allowed to return to Mexico ... And although Wagner's operas provoke riots by World War I veterans in New York, patrons of a Parisian theater vote in favor of performing the German composer's music.

Shostakovich Visits L.A.!

Shostakovich meets the press at the Ambassador Hotel. Wouldn’t it be great to go see it? Oh, wait, we let L..A. Unified tear it down. Oct. 20, 1959: Dmitri Shostakovich leads a group of Soviet composers on a tour of the U.S.  After Mayor Norris Poulson’s headline-grabbing stunt with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviets are justifiably worried about what sort of greeting they will get  in Los Angeles. American envoy Ken Kertz, who is escorting the Soviets, angrily squelches any comments upon their arrival at Union Station. In a news conference at the Ambassador Hotel, Kertz turned off the TV lights, but composer Dmitri Kabalevsky encouraged reporters to stay. An unidentified reporter asked about Soviet reaction to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 and Tikhon Khrennikov replied that orchestras  “"vied for the opportunity to lead their programs with the 11th.” Khrennikov isn’t an immediately recognized name these days, but he was head of the Soviet Composers Union and caused misery for Shostakovich, Serge Prokofiev and Alfred Schnittke.

The old saying that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes certainly seems true. Here we have high winds sweeping Los Angeles and burglars who targeted a movie star, in this case Joan Fontaine.  The Times also carried a Charles Hillinger story about the system of dams used to catch ash and debris in the anticipated flooding of areas burned in the recent wildfire, the same problem we're facing after the Station fire.

Yes, there was a time when the Defense Department was working on nuclear-powered aircraft. A key component of nuclear reactors – lots of lead – posed unusual problems for the designers. And if it crashed, that could be messy.

The Ebony Showcase Theatre, at 4366 W. Adams Blvd. stages a new musical comedy. John L. Mitchell interviews Horace "Nick" Stewart of the Ebony Showcase Theater. In the profile, Stewart takes stock of his career (he played Lightnin' on the "Amos 'n' Andy Show." "Almost every important black performer, at one time or another, has come through Nick's operation," says C. Bernard Jackson of the Inner City Cultural Center.

Jeane Hoffman visits UCLA football coach Billy Barnes and his wife, Frances. Six Centered blah blah

The March King Comes to L.A.

The hall, later known as Philharmonic Auditorium, at 5th and Olive.   Oct. 26, 1909, a Times review.

Oct. 25, 1909: John Philip Sousa and his band arrive for a weeklong engagement in Los Angeles. The Sousa band was composed of first-rate players and their skill comes through even on early, primitive recordings. Notice the variety of the selections. Of course, there are Sousa’s marches, but he has also  programmed Rachmaninoff, Goldmark, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Smetana, Bizet and Chabrier. Sousa is also preparing for production of his new opera, “The Glassblowers.” And he's brought his family along.

Jealousy Leads to Murder and Suicide

“Somebody Is Always Taking the Joy Out of Life” by Clare Briggs. Oct. 22, 1919: Mrs. Zola Schmidt was  killed as she slept … while holding a letter from another man. View Larger Map 916 W. 9th, the scene of the crime.

“I am anxious to be married with as little delay as possible…” George S. Crosman, a one-armed man wearing nothing but a Japanese kimono, kills Mrs. Zola Schmidt, who has been estranged from her husband for about a year. Numerous love letters and rose petals are strewn around the apartment, where a canary sang joyously in its cage.  On the Victrola, “Mammy O’ Mine.”

Riot in Times Square Over Wagner Opera!

Oct. 21, 1919: Servicemen and civilians riot in Times Square over a production of Richard Wagner's "Die Meistersinger" staged at the Lexington Theater despite Mayor John Francis Hylan’s ban on German opera!

Tent Revival in El Monte

A.A. Allen stages a tent revival in El Monte, with faith healing.

Oct. 17, 1959: Dear True Love, wait until the Shangri Las release “The Leader of the Pack.”