Found on EBay – Florentine Gardens

This postcard from the Florentine Gardens in Hollywood – rather graphic for the 1940s – has been listed on EBay. These postcards turn up somewhat often, but I have never seen one that was actually mailed. I wonder why! Bidding starts at $4.99.

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, March 20, 1941

March 20, 1941: A girl who works in the Main Street Follies celebrated her day off by going to a high-priced Hollywood nightspot, but the show was so vulgar she couldn't stay through it, Lee Shippey says.   "Having spent a brief and astonishing period a year ago as society and women's page editor of The Times," Tom Treanor says, "if there is any phase of legal human activity which is more annoying, useless, exhausting, artificial and unavailing than Society with a capital S it escapes me for the moment." Jimmie Fidler says: What a pity passe stars can't know when it's time to make a graceful exit ... Imagine the amazement of that big star's creditors when they read (in a movie magazine) his sage advice on money matters!

Location Sleuth

I was watching the 1975 version of “Farewell, My Lovely” for the first time in a long while and began wondering how they got the neon sign from the Earl Carroll Theatre for the opening titles. The top photo is a frame grab from the film and the bottom photo is a frame grab from a 1940s training film for firefighters. The actual sign was animated so that the letters in THEATRE in the upper right spelled out “Eat at” Earl Carroll Theatre.    ALSO Earl Carroll on the Daily Mirror

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Dec. 29, 1941

Dec. 29, 1941: Funny that Carole Landis should just now be dating Cary Grant; he was her "silent crush" for years, Jimmie Fidler says.

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Dec. 18, 1940

Every lady attending the New Year’s party at the Cocoanut Grove gets a baby panda! Wouldn’t it be great if we could visit the Ambassador? Oh, wait. We let L.A. Unified tear it down.

Dec. 18, 1940: Movie producers should study closely the pictures of 1940's leading box office stars and note that sex and risque scenes or dialogue are nonexistent in those films, Jimmie Fidler says. [Corrected at 1:23 p.m. A previous version of this post and headline gave the date Dec. 18, 1960. We're in 1940 ... for the moment at least!]

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Dec. 17, 1940

Dec. 17. 1940: Watching Mae West stroll down the avenue, I always catch myself musing on the sway of all flesh, Jimmie Fidler says.

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Nov. 27, 1940

Nov. 27, 1940 – Jimmie Fidler says:  Wot's this about Samuel Goldwyn mulling plans to produce in South America, figuring films can be made as well AND MUCH CHEAPER down there?

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 17, 1960

Nov. 17, 1960: Matt Weinstock discovers “2,000 Years With Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.” “A wildly creative ad-libber who wrote for Sid Caesar for 10 years, Brooks could well become the hottest satirist in town,” Weinstock says. DEAR ABBY: The company psychologist told my husband that he has an IQ bordering on "genius." Consequently, no one can live with him anymore. Everyone else, in his opinion, is now "stupid," "infantile" or "lame-brained." (I am included). He belittles me in front of the children. Ninety percent of the time he is a wonderful husband and loving father. He has a brilliant future with a well-known company and we have all the material things I could hope for, but his mental "superiority" is causing me heartaches. And more on Clark Gable….

Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Nov. 5, 1940

Nov. 5, 1940: CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNIQUE to Carole Lombard: Don't you think publicity about your farm life is being overdone? Your fans would much rather picture you in sables at Ciro's than in gingham milking a cow, Jimmie Fidler says.

Found on EBay – Earl Carroll’s

A postcard showing Earl Carroll’s nightclub after it was renamed the Moulin Rouge has been listed on EBay. Notice that the famous neon sign and the celebrities’ signatures in concrete are intact. Bidding starts at $9.99.

Found on EBay: Psychedelic Neckties

Yes, people really did wear ties like this – with bell bottom pants. If you’re lucky, you’re too young to remember it.

What’s the best use of these ties? A quilt? Halloween? ‘60s night at the Cicada Club? Sending poor old Grandpa into a flashback about seeing Janis Joplin at the Hollywood Bowl? Bidding starts at $2.99.

A Beat Fourth of July

June 26, 1960: For the Fourth of July, the Beats of Venice plan to protest an ordinance against being on the beach between midnight and 6 a.m. by spending the night on the beach. Except there is no such city ordinance, police say. The beats also plan a Gilbert and Sullivan production, one-act plays by Tennessee Williams and other “hip writers,” poetry readings and an art auction.