Found on EBay – 1909 Mayor's Race

A campaign button for George A. Smith has been listed on EBay. The vendor mistakenly identifies the individual as Mayor George Alexander. Actually, this is onetime Councilman George A. Smith, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in  1909 against Alexander. The button is listed as Buy It Now for $7.39.

Voices: James Arness, 1923 – 2011

James Arness, from “Them!” to “Gunsmoke” and "How the West Was Won." Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg interviewed Arness (or tried to) in 1981 as he began working on “McClain’s Law.” Arness was thrifty with his comments – except when it came to the environment.

Yankee Legend Lou Gehrig Dies at 37

une 3, 1941: Until he lapsed into a coma, New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse” of baseball, was sure he would win against the rare disease that was slowly killing him. The Yankees announced that his locker and his number – 4 – would never be used again. In 14 years, he had played in 2,130 regularly scheduled games without a miss. Then he took himself out of the lineup May 1, 1939.  He remained with the Yankees the rest of the season, but sat in the far corner of the dugout and occasionally limped to home plate to give the umpire the lineup. He never played again. In the years that followed, Gehrig took treatments and worked for the New York City Parole Commission until a month before his death, when he decided to remain at home to conserve his strength. He spent his final days sitting in a chair by a window in his room, looking out at the street. "I never knew a fellow who lived a cleaner life. He was a clean-living boy, a good baseball player, a great hustler. I think the boy hustled too much for his own good. He just wanted to win all the time. His death was a great loss to baseball." -- Babe Ruth

Audie Murphy Dies in Plane Crash, June 1, 1971

June 1, 1971: World War II hero Audie Murphy, whose record as the Army's most decorated soldier launched a movie career, dies in a plane crash with five other people. Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor, two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Legion of Merit, The Times said.  Bonus fact: He was married for former Movieland Mystery Photo guest Wanda Hendrix! DEAR ABBY: What do you do with a nagging husband? We've been married for 15 years and have five children ranging from 6 to 13. This man nags me from the minute he gets home from work until I go to bed at night.

Vice President Predicts 'Long, Costly' Struggle in Southeast Asia

May 24, 1961: Radio and TV comedy star Joan Davis dies of a heart attack and gets a Page 1 obituary with a jump. Raymond Chandler got an six-paragraph obituary on Page 4.  Davis was 48 when she died.

Gary Cooper Dies of Cancer at 60

May 14, 1961: Gary Cooper dies of cancer at his home, 200 Baroda Drive, Holmby Hills. He was 60. “Cooper, Hollywood's homespun hero, was another product of its big star era -- the same era in which names like Clark Gable, John Wayne, Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power became household words to millions. It was an era which Hollywood itself believes is gone forever,” The Times said.

U.S. Launches Astronaut Alan Shepard: 'Boy What a Ride!'

May 6, 1961: Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. was rocketed 115 miles above the Earth in a flawless suborbital flight and recovered safely 302 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range to become America's first man in space, Times space-aviation editor Marvin Miles writes.  Also on the jump: --Shepard’s 1998 obituary --W.C. Jones spends $4,500 trying to convert Mickey Cohen to Christianity.

Voices: Jackie Cooper, 1922 - 2011

June 14, 1931: "Naw, I ain't gonna be no actor when I grow up," Jackie Cooper tells The Times. "Ya know, last season I thought I'd like to be a football player, but baseball players are pretty swell."

Movieland Mystery Photo [Updated]

Los Angeles Times file photo

[Update 2: This is indeed Eddie Quillan (d. 1990) in an undated photo from his Mack Sennett days, stamped March 5, 1984, by The Times library.] [Update: Please congratulate Mary Mallory, Eve Golden (who gets bonus points for interviewing our mystery fellow), Bob Levinson, Herb Nichols, Rance Ryan, Nick Santa Maria, Floyd, Rick Scott, Randy Skretvedt, Claire Lockhart and Don Danard (via email) for identifying this week's guest! ] Here’s our mystery guest! There’s a new photo on the jump!

Paul Coates and Matt Weinstock, April 1, 1961

April 1, 1961: Barbara Mills, a dancer who performed as April Adams and Chondelli, dies after being found in a coma at the Coronet Motel, 5410 Hollywood Blvd. We don’t know much more about her than what appears in this obituary. Somebody thought she was worth Page 1,  though. With a picture.   Matt Weinstock hears from surfers and ho-dads. DEAR ABBY: My husband has been a milkman for over 30 years. All he has ever been able to talk about are the women on his route. He says he knows more about some of them than their husbands do. He's the kind of person women like to sit down with and tell their troubles to. When other milkmen have been home for hours,  my husband is still out listening to these mixed-up women. He says it is all in a day's work and I should be more understanding. I'd like your views.

Geraldine A. Ferraro, 1935 -- 2011; 'Housewife From Queens' Made Political History

July 13, 1984-- The Times’ Karen Tumulty profiles the Democratic vice presidential candidate: “Geraldine A. Ferraro likes to refer to herself as ‘a housewife from Queens,’ the conservative, blue-collar borough of New York where the television show "All in the Family was set." But if it's Archie Bunker's district that she represents in Congress, her supporters say, it was the big-hearted Edith Bunkers of her district who elected her."

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

An undated photo of Triangle Shirtwaist Co. employees courtesy of HBO.

March 26, 1911: “A 13-year-old girl hung for three minutes by her fingertips to the sill of a 10th-floor window. A tongue of flame licked at her fingers and she dropped into a life net held by firemen. Two women fell into the net at almost the same moment. The strands parted and the two were added to the death list. “A girl threw her pocketbook, then her hat, then her furs from a 10th-floor window. A moment later her body came whirling after them to death." ALSO Last Survivor of 1911 Sweatshop Fire Dies