From the Reference Desk
My childhood heroes: The Lookies! They don’t guess, they look it up in their new World Book Encyclopedia! Dr. Michele K. Troy of Hillyer College writes: Rob Wagner (Red Ink, White Lies) recommended I...
View Article‘Zoot Suit’ and History – Part 3
In March 1943, Disney studios released “The Spirit of ’43,” a cartoon in which Donald Duck is forced to choose between saving his money for “taxes to bury the Axis” (aided by a thrifty proto-Scrooge...
View ArticleDay in Hollywood: July 8, 1941
July 8, 1941: I thought it would be fun to check in with our old pals, Lee Shippey, Tom Treanor and Jimmie Fidler. Lee writes about visiting researchers spending their summers at the Huntington....
View ArticleAttorney Storms Office, Seizes D.A.’s Bugging Equipment
July 15, 1941: Defense attorney Samuel Rummel (shot to death Dec. 11, 1950) breaks a door and seizes a dictograph wired to a microphone in his office in the William Fox Building, 608 S. Hill. Rummel...
View ArticleVan Nuys Plane Crash Kills 2 – Aug. 11, 1941
Aug. 11, 1941: Walter P. Palmer and William S. Raney are killed when their plane goes into a spin during a flying lesson and crashes into a bean field at Woodley Avenue and Oxnard Street in Van Nuys,...
View ArticleLocation Sleuth: Lasky Mesa
Photo: “Charge of the Light Brigade,” filmed at Lasky Mesa. James Curtis’ interview with Dick Lane touched on a filming location known as Lasky Mesa. Films shot there include “Rose of the Rancho”...
View ArticleJimmie Fidler in Hollywood, Sept. 1, 1941
Sept. 1, 1941: I thought it would be interesting to check in with our friends in 1941, since Pearl Harbor is only three months away. Times editorial cartoonist Bruce Russell’s Labor Day drawing says...
View ArticleWidow Accused of Killing Ft. MacArthur Officer, Sept. 3, 1941
Sept. 3, 1941: OK, Maj. Tucker, let me get this straight. You and your wife, Marie, got home from a party, where both of you had been drinking. She was in the bedroom and you were in the kitchen...
View ArticleJudge Urges U.S. to Deport Union Leader Harry Bridges
Sept. 30, 1941: A judge recommends the deportation of Harry Bridges, head of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, a decision that was cheered by The Times. Of course, Bridges...
View ArticleWoman Jailed for Driving Too Slowly
Oct. 7, 1941: You’re probably wondering how fast Blanche Roberts was driving. The story doesn’t say anything more specific than “an exceedingly low rate of speed” on the Calabasas Grade. Apparently no...
View ArticleL.A.’s Traffic Nightmare Threatens Downtown’s Future! Oct. 28, 1941
Oct. 28, 1941: Lee Shippey writes about Los Angeles’ congested streets (no, traffic is not a new problem – it’s a very old one that we are still trying to solve). Notice that Shippey says streetcars...
View ArticleN.Y. Bans Night Baseball!
May 19, 1942: It’s officially straw hat season in Los Angeles, so men, dump that felt chapeau and get yourself a nice Panama. Lee Shippey writes that the evacuation of the Japanese has forced many...
View ArticleUnion Pleads With Streetcar Workers Not to Strike
Sept. 5, 1943: Explaining that “war strategies between President Roosevelt and Britain’s Prime Minister Churchill come first,” William P. Nutter of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen pleads with...
View ArticleJimmie Fidler in Hollywood, May 31, 1941
May 31, 1941 – Arthur Hohmann, the LAPD’s reform police chief, will step down in June, citing the deaths of his son and his mother. He was replaced by Clemence C.B. “Jack” Horrall, who served...
View ArticleJimmie Fidler in Hollywood, June 1, 1941
June 1, 1941: LONDON, May 31. (AP)– German airmen who went belatedly to Iraq to bolster the Axis-inspired war against Britain were reported fleeing the country tonight as Iraqi...
View ArticleJimmie Fidler in Hollywood, June 2, 1941
June 2, 1941: The pajama-clad body of Hungarian-born danseuse Jenny Dolly, who with her sister Rosie was the toast of two continents two decades ago, was found dangling from a wrought-iron...
View ArticleBurbank Man Invents Death Ray!
June 4, 1941: I’ll admit I’m a sucker for stories about death rays. Evidently The Times’ editors were too since they put this item on Page 1. Promoter Kurt Van Zuyle credited L.E. Riley of...
View ArticlePolice Chief on His Way Out
June 6, 1941: Police Chief Arthur Hohmann and Deputy Chief C.B. “Jack” Horrall are about to trade jobs. Horrall will remain chief through World War II and into the postwar period, finally...
View ArticleNorth American Aviation Strike
June 7, 1941: The strike at the North American Aviation plant, in which Army troops dispersed union activists and took over an essential American defense facility, is one of the landmark...
View Article‘Hunchback Killer’ Arrested, June 8, 1941
June 8, 1941: For some time, I have been coming across stories about Alfred Horace Wells in going through the 1941 clips — “hunchback killer” is not a nickname that’s easy to forget....
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