The Daily Mirror
Los Angeles history
U.S. Calls for Release of POWs; Lakers' Coach Quits, May 20, 1969
Richard Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu agree to meet. View this page |
Butch Van Breda Kolff resigned, headed to Detroit after two seasons as coach of the Lakers. His decision "for the best interest of all concerned" came after the Lakers blew a 2-0 lead in the finals to the Boston Celtics, losing in seven games. The Times' Dan Hafner left no doubt why the coach was leaving: "Apparently Van Breda Kolff's days were numbered from the day the club acquired [Wilt] Chamberlain from Philadelphia." Player and coach didn't get along, and when that happens the coach almost always loses. Speaking of Wilt, he was called out by the Celtics' player-coach, Bill Russell, for leaving Game 7 with an injured knee. Van Breda Kolff wouldn't put him back in, saying later that the Lakers were "doing well without him." Russell said in a May 22 story, "Any injury short of a broken leg or back isn't good enough." Wilt's response, a day later: "He is a man and I suppose subject therefore to his own opinion. Why he has chosen to enlighten the world with it, only he knows." :: Tony Conigliaro was getting letters, not about baseball, but about his love life. "Here's one from a 75-year-old woman," he said to The Times' Ross Newhan. "She writes: 'How an innocent boy like you can get mixed up with somebody like her I don't know. I don't like the idea of you marrying her.' " Conigliaro, the dashing young right fielder of the Boston Red Sox, had fallen victim to a familiar Southern California curse. He was dating an actress. Mamie Van Doren's name and photo had been in sports stories before, as the girlfriend of boxer Art Aragon and pitcher Bo Belinsky. She had married and divorced a minor league pitcher, Lee Meyers. Newhan wrote: "Conigliaro shook his head and said, "Most of the letters are sad ... you know, from 16-year-old girls who just don't want me to get married." Conigliaro's life had enough subplots for a movie. He was one of baseball's brightest young stars when he was beaned by the Angels' Jack Hamilton in 1967. His injuries included a fractured cheekbone. He missed all of 1968 but fought his way back into Boston's lineup. He hit 20 home runs in 1969, then 36 in 1970. His reward was a trade to the Angels, of all teams. It was a disaster. He played only 74 games and hit only four home runs, retiring in a bizarre early-morning news conference in Oakland after a 20-inning, 1-0 loss. Newhan's story in 1969 included assurances from Conigliaro that his vision was OK, but he described things very differently in 1971. "When the pitcher holds the ball, I can't see his hand or the ball. I pick up the spin on the ball late by looking away, to the side, I don't know how I do it. I kept it away from the Red Sox," he said. There was one more comeback in 1975. But he hit only .123 in 21 games. Conigliaro suffered a massive heart attack in 1982 and died in 1990. Newhan's story ended with a discussion of romance and dating amid a batting slump. "I'm tired," said Conigliaro. "I'm under a strain. I'm not going to have another date for a long time." He was asked to define a long time. He smiled and said: "About a day." -- Keith Thursby |
State Athletic Commission Investigates Boxing, Cartoon Death Match, May 20, 1959
Isn't the Ambassador Hotel great? Oh wait, we let L.A. Unified tear it down. | ||
| ||
Herb Klein joins Richard Nixon's staff. | ||
Back in the day when police officers had nicknames like "Lefty" and "Roughhouse." Streetcars, you are doomed. Which cartoon strip is more bizarre, "Nancy" or "Ferd'nand?" | ||
The alternative universe occupied by "Nancy" is well-known and the spartan esthetics of artist Ernie Bushmiller are widely appreciated ... | ||
..but I think "Ferd'nand" lives in its own parallel world that's just as odd. For example, there's something seriously wrong with this car's windshield. |
Found on EBay -- J.W. Robinson's
This purse from J.W. Robinson's has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $5. |
Matt Weinstock -- May 19, 1959
Guardian of the Law![]() The husband put a robe around his wife, carried her to the car and headed for the West Valley Community Hospital, about three miles from their home in VanNuys. He drove fast, he admits, but stopped for all the signals against him. Incidentally, he drives between 35,000 and 40,000 miles a year on his job. About halfway there a motorcycle officer pulled him over. Wheeler said it was an emergency. He indicated his wife, lying on the front, seat, bleeding badly. When they reached the hospital the officer wanted to write the citation before Mrs. Wheeler was admitted. Then, Wheeler says, the officer followed him inside and prevented him briefly from seeing his wife. Finally a hospital attache made him wait outside. Perhaps the officer was not to blame. It seems to be rigid LAPD procedure that writing a traffic ticket must come ahead of everything. Wheeler, outraged, pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial. When the case came up in Van Nuys court last Thursday the officer said Wheeler had been traveling 65 m.p.h on Balboa Blvd. between Victory and Burbank Blvds. He admitted traffic normally went 45 although it was posted 35. Wheeler, armed with the hospital records, backed by his employer, had no opportunity to tell his side of the story to the jury, which included eight women. After the officer's testimony the prosecutor chatted briefly with the judge, who dismissed the case. The outcome was irrelevant anyway. Mrs. Wheeler lost her baby and is still recovering from the ordeal. :: ONLY IN L.A. -- Everyone who caters to the whims of blue jays
thinks he has the craziest one in town. Comes now a lady named Hilda
who reports the clown in her back yard buries bits of bread in a mound
of Red Star fertilizer, and when they're too hard to eat when he digs
them up he dunks them in a water dish. :: If egos weren't so strong, Meetings wouldn't be for as long. -GLADYS FOREMAN :: A MAN WHO
last week turned in his large, heavy, expensive Detroit made car on a
sleek little foreign job has already noticed a big psychological
difference. Twice in the last few days other drivers have asked for
help. One called out. "Hey, buddy, how far is Western Ave.?" Never
happened when he sat, a man apart, in the big car. :: A TROUBLED
young man threatened to leap off the 12-story Broadway Arcade Building
last week, you may remember, and when he didn't some of the nearly
3,000 persons assembled below taunted him by yelling "Jump!" and when
he didn't called him "Chicken!" It was morbid, all right, but Mario Corona defends the crowd. This is an impatient age. People, conditioned by the shoot-em-up guys on TV, want action. And here was this youth up there on the building, stalling. What was he trying to do, waste their time? :: MISCELLANY
-- Recommended reading: Peter Ustinov's short story, "The Aftertaste,"
in the May Atlantic. Which prompts the question: How can one man have
so much talent? ... Reporter Jimmy Wilson didn't know whether he should
be prepared for a boy or girl so hecross-filed -- got some of each. The
big event happened over the week end. "Anybody want to buy a box of
'It's a girl!' cigars?" he asks ... Suggested slogan for an
extermination firm: Is this thrip necessary? |
Paul V. Coates -- Confidential File, May 19, 1959
Cashing In on Murder Victims
Soldier Killed, Hundreds Hurt in Holy Land Riots, May 19, 1939
I can accept a talking cartoon pelican. I can even accept a talking cartoon pelican that has human hands. But I'm having a hard time with a talking cartoon pelican carrying a machine gun. Maybe it's just me. | ||
| ||
Petrol Pete and Agent Q13 capture enemy spies! | ||
| ||
View this page 24-hour gambling on the Rex! Rain or Shine, We Never Close. | ||
View this page The cropping of this photo is almost beyond belief. |
Nuestro Pueblo
Somehow, this reminds me of the unfinished house in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Love of the Last Tycoon." |