Plans for Aviation Meet

Glenn Curtiss takes to the air over Los Angeles, 1910.   Plans are underway for an aviation week in early 1910. Glenn Curtiss has already signed a contract to appear. The “woman in black” may be involved in white slavery.

Nov. 15, 1909: "There are more aeroplanes building and in design in Southern California than in any other like section of the world. All these are local products and at least a half dozen new machines are ready to be tried out or about to be tested, while a half score of others are nearing completion and may be ready for aviation week."

Council OKs Raises for Police, Firefighters; Union Effort Collapses

Successful businessmen use the Dictaphone. Great lettering, no?

Nov. 5, 1919: The City Council gives police officers and firefighters a raise and the attempts to unionize the Police Department collapse.

Dark Side of the Moon!

Oct. 27, 1959: In another setback for America in the space race, the Soviets release a photo of the hidden side of the moon, while two U.S. satellites plunge from orbit.

Coming Attractions – Edwards Air Force Base Open House

Dec. 16, 1929: An artist’s concept of John K. Northrop’s Flying Wing.

Alas, the 1929 version of Northrop’s Flying Wing will not be on display during the open house at Edwards Air Force Base on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. But other interesting aircraft will be there, including a B-17, a B-52, a P-51 Mustang, an SR-71 Blackbird and a C-5 Galaxy. Chuck Yeager and Joe Engle are scheduled to break the sound barrier in two F-16s. A Doolittle Raid demonstration will be staged with a B-25, B-17, P-51 and a P-38 (Steve Hinton’s Joltin’ Josie, one of about two dozen airworthy P-38s in existence), and a B-1, B-2 and B-52 will do a flyby in formation.    Further information is here>>>

Reds Beating U.S. in Moon Race!

Sept. 14, 1959: An anxious time for Americans.

Paul Weeks, one of the Mirror's top writers, profiles Nikita Khrushchev.

Can a woman stay happily married to a man who has hit her? I say yes! Like all married people, my husband and I have had our battles. Sometimes he loses his temper and socks me. But he has never hit me in the face or any place where the bruises will show. Also he has never hit me in front of the kids. I think this is very nice of him. I really can't complain because I know when he takes a poke at me I usually have it coming.

An investigator is looking for people who knew Mata Hari's daughter while she was in Los Angeles in 1948, Matt Weinstock says.

Rocket on Moon; Russia Jubilant

Mr. Khrushchev is not coming to the United States to offer significant concessions or recant his lifelong enmity toward us and our values. He is coming prepared to score a propaganda victory, with confidence in his ability to arouse false hopes, weaken our resolves and cause us to make substantial concessions. He must not succeed in such a mission. Vice President Richard Nixon urges Americans not to get overly "excited or hysterical" about the Soviet moon shot. ... and dress designer Gilbert Adrian dies.     At left and above, people from all walks of life voice their dismay over Khrushchev's visit. A University of Michigan astrophysicist doubts the Soviets actually hit the moon.

"Little Do These Simple, Unsophisticated Folks..." The pennant race was on at the Coliseum. The Dodgers fell two games out of first place after a 4-3 loss to the Pirates. Wally Moon homered over the screen in left, but Johnny Podres gave up three home runs. The Times' Frank Finch referred to the Pittsburgh shots as rodent raps or gopher balls. Learn something new every day. There were only 12 games left for the Dodgers. --Keith Thursby

Mystery Observatory Photo -- Update

Los Angeles Times file photo

Cary Schneider and Robin Mayper of The Times library were going through our photos of observatories yesterday looking for pictures of Mt. Wilson and came across this unlabeled item. It appears to have been taken in the early 1930s. Any ideas? Update: As Dale Trader points out, this is the Astrophysics Laboratory at Caltech. Here's a photo from 1939 at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Deputies Raid Spahn Movie Ranch; Booed by Fans, Wills Hits Grand Slam

Aug. 17, 1969: I suppose we at the Daily Mirror HQ should be talking about "Amerika" and how the military-industrial complex sucks the blood of the Woodstock Nation. But we're not. The only thing up against the wall here are the filing cabinets. Coming up in October: The Moratorium peace march! South African golfer Gary Player is pelted with ice by civil rights protesters at the PGA championship ... and the Fire Department has fewer blacks than it did in 1956.

"Frykowski [fixing the original error] and Miss Folger were involved with strange people. She was interested in witchcraft, Black Masses, that sort of thing, and she and Frykowsky would go to weird, kinky places." At left, an odd juxtaposition: Dial Torgerson's "tick tock" story on the Manson killings next to the arrests of a group of people "living like animals" at George Spahn's Movie Ranch.

Nancy becomes a stalker.

"Somehow the business details were worked out and the Ash Grove not only survived but became the biggest and busiest showplace for folk music in America." "...the artist does not have to stand up on the stage and look at the audience, as in a nightclub, and ask himself how he can please those people out there. He can reach deep within his soul to find his deepest values and, hopefully, bring the audience along with him."

Maury Wills returned to Canada for the first time since leaving the Expos so he could return to the Dodgers. There were plenty of boos to go around, almost all of them directed toward Wills, who in the long run didn't let it bother him. ""It's as if the fans here thought I played poorly because I wanted to be traded and now I'm playing good because I was traded," Wills told The Times' Ross Newhan. "Unfortunately I'm not that good of a player to do one thing one day and another thing the next. I also have too much pride." There was plenty to be proud about against the Expos. Wills singled twice, scored two runs and stole a base in the Dodgers' 9-2 victory in the first game of the series. Then he hit the first grand slam of his career in a 9-3 victory. Gene Mauch, the Montreal manager and future Angel manager, had an interesting perspective on Wills' short stay with the Expos: "When Maury first came to us from Pittsburgh the fans expected him to be perfect. They booed him when he wasn't and he became tense. Then he tried to meet it with indifference and that certainly isn't Maury Wills." --Keith Thursby

L.A. Welcomes Astronauts; Plane Buzzes Dodger Stadium

Aug. 13, 1969: Linda Mathews on college students' problems in getting loans, Ken Reich on a salute to the Apollo 11 astronauts, Dial Torgerson on the Tate killings and Lee Dye on the slaying of William Lennon, father of the Lennon Sisters singing group.

Meet Vin Scully, police reporter. The Times tried to solve the mystery of a plane that buzzed Dodger Stadium during a game. Who better to ask than Scully, with his view of the stadium and its surroundings? Scully told The Times the plane followed "exactly the same pattern" as a craft the buzzed the ballpark during a game a month earlier. And he thought it was the same plane both times, although he couldn't be sure. Hard to imagine a more credible witness. -- Keith Thursby

U.S. to Accept Division of South Vietnam; Airport Proposed at Anaheim Stadium

NASA says a manned trip to Mars could be possible by 1981 ... Dist. Atty. Edmund Dinis wants an inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, who drowned when Sen. Edward Kennedy's car went off a narrow bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass. Other authorities have said the case was closed ... and the Nixon administration is ready to accept the division of South Vietnam as part of the price for settling the Vietnam war.

The Angels hoped a plan to build a runway in the Anaheim Stadium parking lot never got off the ground. The proposal surfaced at a meeting between Angels officials and city administrators. According to a story in The Times, the project would include a passenger terminal and possible facilities for air freight. Needless to say, the Angels didn't like the idea of flights coming and going while they were trying to play baseball. The Angels were the primary tenants of the ballpark but weren't exactly making millions in 1969. The air plan certainly would bring in more revenue to the city. Who cares if you couldn't watch the game because you were too busy worrying about the traffic patterns above your seat. Safety was one worry but parking was another. City officials estimated about 2,000 spaces would be lost if the runway was built. The Angels were guaranteed 12,000 spaces on game days --Keith Thursby