William Wyler, "whose extremes are as often matched by subtleties, has more nearly bridged the centuries between Christ's and ours than any other moviemaker. 'You are there,' " The Times' Philip K. Scheuer says.
Hey, Keith! Is this the “Home Run Derby” with Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays?
Nov. 24, 1959: KMPC’s Dick Whittinghill turned down $25, but says “I can’t sit in front of the chimney on Christmas Eve with a shotgun.”
Bachelor Johnny Grant says he was offered “favorable attention from a young woman.”
Robert Lee Ramsey – Born to Lose.
Two officers from the Van Nuys Division save the life of traffic accident victim Phyllis Burrows.
“Angry Red Planet” “Jarringly amateurish!” “Cheap, clearly unreal backdrops!” “Unbelievably stilted.” “Many in the audience finished the final 10 minutes of gripping drama in near-hysterics!” IMDB gives it nearly 5 stars!
Cinemagic!
Don Meredith of SMU is drafted by Dallas, Billy Cannon of Louisiana State is drafted by Houston. and Bob Jeter of Iowa is drafted by the Chargers. Jeter turned down the Chargers to play Canadian football for two seasons, then joined the Packers.
Skin diver Harold B. Gavenman dies after a tragic series of accidents in which he was struck by a boat propeller and fell 100 feet while being lifted to a rescue helicopter.
Nov. 23, 1959: Jack Smith profiles Debbie Reynolds, 27, who is returning to the screen after an absence for the birth of her daughter, Carrie, and the breakup of her marriage to singer Eddie Fisher. "With tomboy energy, Debbie has bounced back into stardom -- and with astounding success. Today she is possibly the busiest star in Hollywood," Smith says.
Debbie Reynolds is “too busy for bitterness,” Smith says.
This was a very small story that turned into a big deal.
The Dodgers were moving on the radio from KMPC to KFI for the 1960 season. The significance? Gene Autry's company owned KMPC and when the Dodgers left, he looked for something to fill in the large gaps (and hopefully big ratings).
When the American League decided to expand beginning in 1961, KMPC wanted the rights to broadcast the new team that would play in Los Angeles.
Of course, Autry got a lot more than that, becoming the owner of the Los Angeles Angels.
So would the Angels not have been born had the Dodgers stayed on KMPC?
Nov. 18, 1959: Shirlee Garner Witty seeks a divorce, saying that her husband was always making snide remarks. Witty competed for the title of Miss Universe in 1956 even though she was a wife and mother, because at that time married women weren't banned from the beauty contest.
“The Sound of Music” opens with more than $2 million in advance ticket sales.
“You Know I Can’t Get Better.”
Hey, Keith, will the Bruins smite USC in their tilt?
Nov. 17, 1959: Investigators speculate on whether a bomb exploded on a National Airlines DC-7B that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 42 people. Ultimately, no cause was ever determined. ... And Gene Sherman reports on border drug traffic.
Jack Smith writes: "It is easy enough to find statistics suggesting that we are soft -- mentally, physically and morally. More people are in hospitals. More people are swallowing pills. More people are in jails. More people have tics and syndromes. The New York Yankees are falling apart and the heavyweight champion of the world is a Swede."
Robert R. Kirsch says John Gosling’s “Ghost Squad” is “a must for every true crime buff.”
”Mother, May I Go Steady?”
Nov. 17, 1959
Jeane Hoffman had a typically interesting story about all the wannabe teams hovering around Los Angeles.
The Chargers—yes, they started in L.A.—were the closest to reality. Then there were the Stars (baseball) and Jets (basketball), teams that had to overcome several factors to become real franchises.
The Chargers looked like the real deal, heading to the Coliseum in 1960. "We get fourth choice in Coliseum dates but that's enough for seven home games," said Tom Eddy, assistant to Barron Hilton.
The Stars were lined up with names like Branch Rickey as president of the Continental League and Mark Scott, host of TV's "Home Run Derby," as team vice president. But where to play if they really got going?
Hoffman said the Stars were talking to Walter O'Malley about playing in the Dodgers' yet to be built ballpark "but if he doesn't let them in they'll have to go to Orange County—or to court."
As for the Jets, who apparently had Bing Crosby involved, they were confident that an L.A. franchise would come their way. Said Len Corbosiero, "If we can't get a new franchise, we hope to move out an established team."
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?
"The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call 'out there.' Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West. The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heeled boots with pointed toes. The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them."
--Truman Capote, “In Cold Blood.”
Nov. 16, 1959: Intentionally avoiding a direct endorsement until the Republican National Convention, Republican leaders show their support for Vice President Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential race.
Monte Montana! Ty Hardin! Jerry Mathers!
Ferd’nand invents the Man Cave.
Back when stock cars were really stock. Elmer Musgrave wins a 100-lap race at Ascot Stadium in a 1958 Pontiac. Rodger Ward is second in a 1958 Ford.
