A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Nov. 23, 1960:  “Had a few days in New York while homebound from Europe so took in Lucille Ball's show 'Wildcat' in Philadelphia. It makes you laugh and cry and when it reaches Broadway it'll take this old town like she took the nation with 'I Love Lucy.' “

Injured Diver Dies After Falling From Rescue Helicopter

“Mary and Pete Are Reunited.”

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.

Is it possible that Hal Holbrook has been doing Mark Twain for 50 years? Yes it is.  Here he is in 1967. Dec. 2, 1959: Philip K. Scheuer reviews “Mark Twain Tonight.”

Jeane Hoffman profiles Rams general manager Pete Rozelle. “It’s hard to get Pete’s mind off football,” his wife, Jane, says.

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Nov. 19, 1956: "Jose Quintero, bright young director of the "Long Day's Journey Into Night," is a rage overnight. He's a Hollywood boy who couldn't make good in his hometown -- tried as an actor there and came to a little theater project in Greenwich Village. Mrs. Eugene O'Neill saw his direction for "The Iceman Cometh" and insisted he direct the O'Neill autobiography."

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Nov. 18, 1955: While on tour in Chicago with “The King and I,” Yul Brynner worked on a doctorate in philosophy at Northwestern and gave drama lessons to the rest of the cast, Hedda Hopper says.

Voices – Jules Feiffer

Sept. 12, 1969, “Little Murders” runs for more than six months in Los Angeles.

After writing a post about “Little Murders” and the monologues in the play, especially the one by homicide Detective Lt. Miles Practice, I e-mailed playwright and artist Jules Feiffer to ask how he wrote them. My question: One of the more distinctive elements of "Little Murders" is the extended monologues given to the major characters, like "To the Guy Who Reads My Mail" or "Every Crime Has a Pattern." These are long, thoughtful pieces and I was curious as to when you did them in the process of writing the play. The beginning? Middle? End? I'm also wondering how long it took you to distill your thoughts for these pieces. He writes: What an interesting question, and one that has never come up before. The wedding speech and the Judge's speech are lifted virtually without change from the novel that LM was meant to be before I gave up on it. Two years later they went into the play. Alfred's monologue, as well as Lt. Practice's, were written for the play, Alfred's in the first draft, Practice's after several revisions that didn't work in the Boston tryout. The Practice speech and its setup prior to the speech were  the last writings I did on the play. Film Forum in NY is screening a new print of the movie in Oct. JF

Nude Man Prances on Bunker Hill

Nov. 14, 1909: The problem with identifying the man gamboling about the top of Angel Flight* without clothing is that none of the women who complain to police have taken a good look at him. And Eddie Foy offers advice to aspiring actors: “When you next visit a theater, note how few real actors there are in the company. With some, every word spoken is distinct, every action suits the word and the audience clearly understands, not only what the actor is doing and saying, but why he is doing and saying it. On the other hand, note the indistinctness and the mealy-mouthedness of the majority.” *At least that’s how it appears in this story.

Policewomen Experiment a Success

Clare Briggs takes another look at golf in “Conceding Yourself a Putt.”

Nov. 7, 1919: London retains 100 of the women police officers who were put into service during World War I. Part of the force was disbanded after the war, but 100 policewomen were retained to keep order out of fears of "an orgy of dissipation" among ex-soldiers in the "night life sections." The policewomen  are particularly on the lookout for young women who might be attracted to such places and get in trouble.

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Movie Columnist

Nov. 6, 1943: “Rene Clair, before deciding as to whether Lily Pons will sing for Nellie Melba in ‘It Happened Tomorrow,’ takes two days off to listen to more would-be Melbas. I'm amazed that Lily Pons would even consider doing it.” Notice that Lily Pons isn’t in the cast for “It Happened Tomorrow” … And the Pasadena Playhouse stages “Rebecca.”

Shostakovich Visits L.A.!

Shostakovich meets the press at the Ambassador Hotel. Wouldn’t it be great to go see it? Oh, wait, we let L..A. Unified tear it down. Oct. 20, 1959: Dmitri Shostakovich leads a group of Soviet composers on a tour of the U.S.  After Mayor Norris Poulson’s headline-grabbing stunt with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviets are justifiably worried about what sort of greeting they will get  in Los Angeles. American envoy Ken Kertz, who is escorting the Soviets, angrily squelches any comments upon their arrival at Union Station. In a news conference at the Ambassador Hotel, Kertz turned off the TV lights, but composer Dmitri Kabalevsky encouraged reporters to stay. An unidentified reporter asked about Soviet reaction to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 and Tikhon Khrennikov replied that orchestras  “"vied for the opportunity to lead their programs with the 11th.” Khrennikov isn’t an immediately recognized name these days, but he was head of the Soviet Composers Union and caused misery for Shostakovich, Serge Prokofiev and Alfred Schnittke.

The old saying that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes certainly seems true. Here we have high winds sweeping Los Angeles and burglars who targeted a movie star, in this case Joan Fontaine.  The Times also carried a Charles Hillinger story about the system of dams used to catch ash and debris in the anticipated flooding of areas burned in the recent wildfire, the same problem we're facing after the Station fire.

Yes, there was a time when the Defense Department was working on nuclear-powered aircraft. A key component of nuclear reactors – lots of lead – posed unusual problems for the designers. And if it crashed, that could be messy.

The Ebony Showcase Theatre, at 4366 W. Adams Blvd. stages a new musical comedy. John L. Mitchell interviews Horace "Nick" Stewart of the Ebony Showcase Theater. In the profile, Stewart takes stock of his career (he played Lightnin' on the "Amos 'n' Andy Show." "Almost every important black performer, at one time or another, has come through Nick's operation," says C. Bernard Jackson of the Inner City Cultural Center.

Jeane Hoffman visits UCLA football coach Billy Barnes and his wife, Frances. Six Centered blah blah

A Kinder, Simpler Time Dept.: Your Roller Derby

Oct. 26, 1953: It’s ladies night at the roller derby! And a group of teenagers attacks a former boxer after the girl sitting next to him at a theater claims he molested her.