Five Killed, Three Injured as Trolley Hits Car

One of the victims is removed from a streetcar at the Pacific Electric Building.

Nov. 26, 1909: The Santa Ana Flyer hits a  car carrying 10 members of the Jacobs family on their way home from a Thanksgiving party. The crash kills the driver, Nicholas Jacobs, and four of his eight children and injures his wife, daughter and his son John’s fiance. Three of the sons, Peter, John and Franklin, jumped from the car before the collision. The streetcar carrying the victims to the Pacific Electric Building collided with a streetcar at Central Avenue and 7th Street, injuring seven people on the  Central car. I’m unable to determine the exact location of the Latin Station. The 1945 Thomas Bros. guide shows the Pacific Electric tracks on Garfield crossing Shorb Street in Alhambra.

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 23, 1959

Adrift in the City       A bellboy, 25, was in municipal court a few days ago charged with impersonating an officer.  His arrest grew out of an argument in a saloon when the bartender refused to sell him a drink.     When he went into an irrelevant outburst in which he threatened to "pull the switch on this whole town!"     "I've been sent down here from the moon to straighten things out," he went on, "but after looking around I'm not sure I can get the job done."     There was laughter, of course, and many persons reading this may also be amused.     But judges and court attaches no longer smile at such outbursts.  They know they have before them a disturbed person, one of many cast adrift in the city. They also know the inadequacy of the facilities to provide desperately needed psychiatric care for such persons.   ::       A WOMAN CAME to a well-known artist and asked if he would paint her portrait.  She wanted to give it to her husband for Christmas, she said.  Then she added, with studied gaiety. "I'll pay you a handsome fee if you'll make me look 10 years younger."     The artist, whose fees are high enough so that he can be independent, replied, "I'll tell you what we can do.  I'll paint you as you are today and you can give it to your husband 10 years from now."   ::       LIFE Steak and violins, crystal     chandeliers- Corned beef hash in tins,     followed by two beers.     --JOSEPH P. KRENGEL   ::       A WOMAN PHONED the Health Department the other day and said urgently, "I ate some cranberries yesterday -- what do I do now?"     The health officer patiently assured her she was in no danger.  When he hung up the receiver he shook his head sadly and remarked to a man visiting him, "I wish we could get through to people how ridiculous this cranberry scare is.  On the basis of the amount of poison required to induce cancer in rats, a person would have to eat 15,000 pounds of cranberries.  That's 100 pounds a year for 150 years.  I don't think anybody is going to make it."   ::       CONTINUING discussions, sometimes reaching the feud stage, are being held by northern and southern groups to settle on an agreement on water rights.  Unless surplus Northern California water can be delivered here, this area, with its exploding population, some distant day could virtually revert to desert.     After a frustrating session Assemblyman Tom Rees, who represents the Brentwood Section, remarked wryly, "Well, at least I've got the riparian rights to the water in 13,000 swimming pools!"   ::       ON HIS RETURN from his first Boy Scout camp out Mike Allison, 11, reported, "The food was terrible.  The steak was raw, the bacon was black and I never want to thing about scrambled eggs again."  Who, his father asked, did the cooking?     "I did, to earn points on my badge," the boy said, then added brightly, "but I sure had some good hamburgers on the way back!"   ::        ONLY IN L.A. -- So that there will be  a fair distribution of funerals of unidentified and unclaimed dead, who are buried at county expense, undertakers designate  a Coroner of the Month, who gets the business for that period.   ::       AT RANDOM -- The TV scene that bugs the boys in the City Council pressroom is the one in which the gal collapses when told a loved one is dead and the hero mushes up and says, "Can I get a glass of water,ma'm?"  Why water?  the pressroom boys ask.  At a time like that any doctor would prescribe wheesky . . . Did you hear about the householder, doing some weekend carpenter work in the garage, who called to his boy, "Son, get me a screwdriver, will you?"  The boy returned in a moment with a glass of orange juice and said, "Pop, I can't find the vodka!" . . . Several employees in a downtown office received credit cards they hadn't applied for.  They're angry, feeling someone was presuming.

Police Unable to Stop Rising Tide of Auto Thefts

As the country went dry, companies offered a way for people to brew their own alcohol.  Remember, beer is a health drink!

Nov. 23, 1919: “Motor car thefts are increasing and will continue to increase until some effective measure is taken to stop them. Any boy can steal an automobile these days and have nothing in particular to fear in the way of punishment if he is caught. The chances are pretty strong that he won't be caught at all.”

Smoking Restricted on Streetcars

Nov. 23, 1909: A law regulating smoking on streetcars goes into effect. From now on, smokers must take the rear seats of the cars.

Pioneer of Covered Wagon Days Seeks to Save Oregon Trail

Ezra Meeker, who first traveled the Oregon Trail in 1852. The city is overrun with loose dogs, The Times says. Dec. 4, 1928: Ezra Meeker dies at the age of 97.

Nov. 21, 1909: The Times profiles Ezra Meeker, who traveled the country in an ox cart to promote his campaign to preserve the Oregon Trail as a national highway. Meeker is the fellow with the ox cart in the photos of the 1910 Aviation Meet.

Amelia Earhart – Airplane Babe

Los Angeles Times file photos

After the release of “Amelia,” the film about Amelia Earhart, I thought it would be fun to get into The Times’ photo archives and see what we had. Here are two pictures dated March 25, 1937, in which an anonymous photographer evidently tried to get some glamour poses of her. In the left photo, she’s looking through the radio antenna from the aircraft. In the right photo, she’s sort of draped herself against the propeller of her airplane. Earhart was a good sport about these poses – but honestly.

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Nov. 19, 1959

Saga of a Guy Who Flipped From Poky     "I walk alone," the voice on the phone told me, more as an apology than as a boast.  "With me, it's habit.  I guess I never learned any other way."     The voice was a man's and a drawl.  It continued:  "Funny I should be calling somebody like you for help after all these years of going it alone."     The time was about 3:45, yesterday afternoon.     "What do you need?" I asked.     "I need-" he started, and stopped.  "Is this phone tapped?"     "No."     "You won't trace it, or call anybody, until I'm through talking?"     "No."     "I'll trust you," the man said.  Then, for a long minute, he said nothing.  Finally, he began again.  "I just flipped.  That's the only way to explain it."     "Explain what?"      "Why I broke out of jail.  It was about eight o'clock, after dinner, and I was just sitting there on my bunk and I started thinking about my kid.  I just flipped."     Now the conversation was coming easy.      "He's three, and I got this weird idea that he's run out in the street and be hit by a car.  Silly things.  Things like that were going through my mind."     "How did you escape?" I asked.     "Domestic troubles," he continued, ignoring the question.  "When my wife came to visit me, I told her to get a divorce.  It would be better for the kid -- and now we've got another one, a baby girl -- if he never remembered me.     "That's what I told her.  I told her I was no good.  That's what happens to me sometimes.  I get off on a negative kick."     "What were you doing time for?" I said.     There was a sigh.  "This'll get you.  Robbery, second degree.  They gave ma  a year.  With good time, I could have been out in March.  So I ran away.     "I ran straight home and saw the kid.  I was afraid he would have forgotten me, but he didn't.  I wasn't there thirty minutes when he turned to his mother and said, 'This is Daddy.' " The caller continued to unwind.  He was 33, he said.  He'd had one felony conviction for first degree robbery.  He got five-to-life for it.  He came out in April of '55, and not too long afterwards, he married.      "I got a good job.  I worked," he said.  "I thought everything was going to be all right.  Then I goofed.     "It was my fault.  It's been my fault all along.  Like this escape.  They trusted me, made me a trusty.  So I took off."     I asked him from where.     "Montrose substation.  My kid -- he talks real good now.  When I saw him the last time, he barely talked."     "What's your name?" I asked.     He answered without a hesitation.  "Elias Smith.  Elias like the Biblical Elias.  Elias Smith Jr."     "What are you going to do?"     This time, he paused.  "I wish I knew what they're going to do with me."     "You're ready to go back?" I pressed him slightly.     "It's one-to-ten years for escape," he sighed.  "When I left my wife last Monday, I told her I'd turn myself in.  I promised.  And she said she'd wait for me.  That was all I wanted to hear.     "I started to turn myself in, but I got confused.  Now it's Wednesday and I'm still confused.  You're not tracing this call, are you?" he asked again. He Got Confused         "No," I assured him.     "All right," he said doubtfully.  He told me where he was calling from.  "Now," he added, "two favors.  You call them for me, would you?  And give me 10 minutes for  a cup of coffee."     I waited 10 minutes, then called.     Half an hour later, a sheriff's deputy called me back to report that Elias Smith Jr. was a man of his word.

Orchestras Ban Women Musicians

Nov. 2, 1919: Orchestra managers want to ban women musicians because an ensemble consisting entirely of men in tuxedos is more pleasing to the eye, The Times says. No, I'm not kidding. Nov. 16, 1919: Alma Whitaker writes about the attempted ban on women musicians.

Nov. 16, 1919: The Ridge Route opens and the Times publishes a terrific illustration by artist Charles Owens – nearly 20 years before he worked on “Nuestro Pueblo” … And the Auto Club writes a proposed law to make Hill Street, Broadway, Spring Street, Main one-way and to ban delivery trucks from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in designated congested areas such as downtown.

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."

Few Killers Are Executed, Reports Show

Nov. 13, 1909: More than 100 murders were committed in the 30 years since the capital punishment law was passed, but only five killers from Los Angeles County have been executed, The Times says. A convicted killer has a 1-in-20 chance of being executed, statistics show. A severed thumb is the key evidence in the trial of Burt Thornburg on charges of trying to burglarize the store of Yee Sam, 515 N. Main St. … And a judge drops charges against a motorcyclist accused of going more than 30 mph. (He said his motorcycle wouldn’t do 20 mph).