Paul Coates and Matt Weinstock, April 15, 1961

April 15, 1961: Matt Weinstock has two items on people who are crossing the country in walks for peace. One is a group that is walking from San Francisco to Moscow and the other is Miss Peace Pilgrim of Cologne, N.J., who began walking for peace in 1953. Paul Coates writes about Al Einfrank, a truck driver who won a fortune on game shows, but is unemployed and has been exploring skid row. "Every time you give a dime to one of those bums, you just prolong their misery. You encourage them to remain just the way they are," he tells Coates. DEAR ABBY: My husband had not been acting like himself for about six months. I finally got it out of him. He said it all started when he gave his bookkeeper a few kisses occasionally because he couldn't afford to give her a raise. He says now she isn't satisfied with kisses, and keeps pestering him to....

Paul Coates and Matt Weinstock, April 14, 1961

April 14, 1961: Like some huge, weird, robot-like monster in a dream, the steel and concrete pillars and bridges of the Santa Monica Freeway are advancing slowly westward from Figueroa Street to Venice Boulevard, laying waste all before them. In the monster's path at the moment and soon to be swallowed is the area between 21st and 22nd Streets and Mariposa and Normandie. The streets are deserted and still. The houses have been vacated and the windows, shattered by youngsters throwing rocks, are jagged and gaping. Some bear signs, "Danger. Keep Out." Here and there are discarded household articles -- a ripped old sofa or a bathroom fixture. An onlooker gets a bombed-out, end of the world feeling but it's only part of the changing face of Los Angeles, Matt Weinstock says.   CONFIDENTIAL TO TINA: Your friends are right. When a girl accepts an ankle bracelet from a boy, and wears it on her LEFT ankle, it means they are going steady.

Paul Coates, April 13, 1961

April 13, 1961: An Anaheim man found some gold-colored flecks in the backyard and tested them for gold by putting them in a half-teaspoon of mercury that he heated over the stove, poisoning his family, Paul Coates says.   “Spade Cooley Daughter Tells Night of Terror” pretty much sums it up.

Paul Coates, April 12, 1961

April 12, 1961: The Mirror publishes a long, sensational first-person account by Carole Tregoff, who was convicted with her lover, Dr. R. Bernard Finch, of killing Finch’s wife: We drove aimlessly from Beverly Hills, through Hollywood, up one of the canyons and into the Hollywood Hills. There we parked, looking over the city beneath us... and there Dr. Finch kissed me for the first time. It was a kiss such as I had never experienced before ... a kiss of tenderness, a kiss of respect ... a kiss of love. I got home at 4:15 a.m. My husband was furious...   Paul Coates writes about a piece of “jail mail” he recently received from a man who’s overdue for parole because he hasn’t found a job.

Paul Coates, April 11, 1961

April 11, 1961: Mayoral candidate Sam Yorty sues Mayor Norris Poulson for slander! Life is good (if you’re a newspaper)!   Al Capp interviews a stewardess for American Airlines – none of this flight attendant stuff in 1961, you know. Paul Coates writes about a young lad who received a series of those painful shots – 14 of them – to prevent rabies after being bitten by a dog. Only they didn’t all that much, the boy says.

Paul Coates, April 10, 1961

 

April 10, 1961: Notice the Spade Cooley story. It vanished from later editions, and I couldn’t find the jump, just the Page 1 portion. Paul Coates writes about two Beverly Hills police officers' problems with Police Chief Clinton Anderson. You might put Anderson’s “Beverly Hills Is My Beat” (1960) on your Zombie Reading List.  Anderson has chapters on the Johnny Stompanato and Bugsy Siegel cases.

Buses Replace Red Cars to Long Beach, April 8, 1961

 

April 8. 1961: Red Cars are being replaced by buses on service between Los Angeles and Long Beach, San Pedro and Compton. Transportation conspiracy buffs please note: The Metropolitan Transit Authority is making the switch because Pacific Electric won’t grant a long-term lease on its tracks. Most political observers were surprised at Sam Yorty's strength in Tuesday's election. They thought Mayor Poulson would be reelected easily in the primary, Matt Weinstock says. DEAR ABBY: You will probably think I am a monster but I am a girl of 14 and I hate my parents. Especially my mother. She is so old-fashioned it's pitiful....

Paul Coates, April 7, 1961

April 7, 1961: I came across a letter to the editor (on the jump) about Gov. Pat Brown’s grant of clemency for William Erwin “Machine Gun” Walker, which I overlooked (so many stories, only one Larry Harnisch). Walker was given the death sentence in the 1946 killing of California Highway Patrol Officer Loren Roosevelt. The incident was the basis for the film “He Walked by Night,” which was the genesis of “Dragnet.”  Paul Coates has an item about two local gangs named the Rebels, one in North Hollywood that causes trouble and another in East L.A. that takes part in sports and organizes community projects. And an Air National Guard F-100 shoots down a B-52 during practice maneuvers. "Something happened," an Air Force spokesman says.

Paul Coates, April 6, 1961

April 6, 1961: Paul Coates has an update on Synanon, which was praised for the way it treated drug addiction. Later on, as many may remember, Synanon developed into a notorious cult.

Paul Coates, April 5, 1961

April 5, 1961: The Army is looking for a cartoonist who can make the service look attractive – and not humorous (in other words, forget “Beetle Bailey” and “Sad Sack”), which is fodder for a Paul Coates column.

Paul Coates, April 4, 1961

April 4, 1961: Paul Coates has an update on the Watts Towers. On the jump, Al Capp writes about Jim Hagerty, President Eisenhower's former press secretary, who is heading ABC's news operations. One goal is to cut 90 seconds off the weather report!   ALSO The Watts Towers on the Daily Mirror

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.