Me-OW!

October 31, 1947
Venice

Mrs. Kenny Platt, 820 Millwood Ave., was at her wit's end. Her beloved black pussycat Midnight had been up a 35' palm tree for the past week, and she just had to get him back before the witching hour.

Calling together three tree trimmers armed with ladders and some kindly neighbors to hold out a taut blanket to catch the kitty's fall, Mrs. Platt made a concerted assault on the feline's stronghold.

Alarmed by all the activity, Midnight made a mightly lunge, scaring the blanket holders, who ducked. Midnight landed safely on the street, was scooped up by his mistress, and enjoyed a big bowl of milk.

Happy Hallowe'en!

 

You're a good man, Richard Nixon

October 30, 1947
Pomona

Still catching up on his jet lag following a Congressional fact-finding tour of post war Europe, Representative Richard M. Nixon is beaming after receiving a Good Government Award from the Junior Chamber of Commerce at a dinner in his honor last week.

At a luncheon meeting in Whittier earlier that day, Nixon quipped, "If we lose the battle for democracy in Europe, we can consider it lost at home."

Further reading:

Bleccccch!

October 28, 1947
Los Angeles

It's ant season, which means it's that time of year when little kids find and gobble up big gooey handfuls of honey-like ant poison and end up in hospitals getting their little tummies pumped.

Two terrified families raced their babies into Georgia Street Receiving Hospital within an hour of each other, each complaining of ant paste ingestion. 19-month-old Janet Aiken of 1511 W. 99th Street and 10-month-old Cheryl Mayo of 3028 W. 36th are both doing fine after treatment.

Parents: lock up that ant paste!

Ships That Pass

October 27, 1947
New York / Los Angeles

On Sunday, when the Army transport ship Joseph V. Connolly eased into New York Harbor bearing its sad cargo of more than 6000 U.S. war dead, a car veered off the road in Los Angeles and struck a tree, leaving three people dead.

Among the accident victims: Andrea M. Hernandez, 22, of 1217 West 257th Street, Harbor City. On the transport ship: the remains of her husband, Private Pete A. Hernandez, previously intered in Belgium.

When a man owes you money, get an elephant gun

October 26, 1947
Los Angeles

Some months back, retired aircraft worker Pietro Bresciani, 60, made a large loan to Jack Elmer States, laundry operator of 955 Luder Ave., El Monte. The money was not forthcoming. So Bresciani purchased a big-game rifle and asked States over to his house at 132 E. Ann Street. As States approached, Bresciani shot through the screen door, and his debtor fell dead on the steps.

Premediatated enough for you? Bresciani even had some $50 bills on hand to give out to passersby as he waited for police... unless he took them from States' wallet. Did the dead man finally pay that debt? In any case, after reenacting the shooting for the cops, Bresciani was taken to jail.

When A Californian Vacations

October 25, 1947
Elkhart, Indiana

The first reports of strange behavior by Howard Burbank, 57-year-old San Fernando Valley real estate man, came when he was pulled off a Chicago-bound bus after trying to choke a fellow passenger, William Ross of Cleveland. Following a police investigation, Burbank was freed.

Later today he stashed his clothing in a parked car, and ran naked down the street. Perhaps that's considered normal behavior in the San Fernando Valley, but not in Elkhart in October! So a passing driver knocked him down, and cops took him to the jail at Goshen, where it took four strong men to get a pair of pants onto him.

Further reading:

Possible Repercussions for Bear Hunters

October 24, 1947
Los Angeles

The State Fish and Game Commission wants to talk with Glendale bow and arrow hunters Howard G. Mathison (910 Pelaconi Ave.) and James R. Stevenson (342 W. Elk Ave.) about the bear they killed near Lester Henry's San Fernando Valley apiary earlier this month.

Assistant City Attorney Donald M. Redwine questioned the bear hunters and the honey-keeper, and implied Henry had a right to protect his investment. The case is being held under advisement.

When they got evicted, it was moider!

October 23, 1947
Los Angeles

Actor Lionel Stander and wife Jehanne blew the whistle on landlords Howard and Bertha Kline in the court of Superior Judge Robert H. Scott, refuting the Kline's claims of default in the purchase of the home at 605 S. Plymouth Blvd. and seeking to remain in residence.

The Standers assert that while they signed a $65,000 purchase agreement for the property, this was part of a hustle allowing the Klines to avoid registering the residence with the Office of Price Administration. They claim the two couples had a private, oral agreement that the Standers would pay $600 per month in rent, although the cap should have been set at $200. The hearing will continue tomorrow.

Further viewing: Hart To Hart: The Complete First Season DVD

The Poisoner's Nephew

October 22, 1947
Los Angeles

After being examined by three alienists, Louis William Rains was ruled insane and committed to Mendocino State Hospital by Superior Judge Charles W. Fricke. Rains, a house painter, aged 40, suffered hallucinations which caused him to believe his elderly aunt, Lucy Nolan, sought to poison him. On August 5, he beat the woman so badly that she died at Maywood Hospital.

Rains, a veteran who saw no wartime service and was seeing a psychiatrist at the time of the crime, lived with his aunt at 6217 Pala Ave., Bell.

One tough old bird

October 20, 1947
Newhall

After being forced off the road around 3 am, 64-year-old rancher Heinie Rodemacher spent twelve hours pinned beneath his pick-up truck in a dry wash off Highway 99 until his cries were heard. Gasoline and battery acid dripped onto him during his ordeal.

The fatalistic fellow told attending CHP officer Joe Green and Dep. Sheriffs W.C. Collin and L.C. Smith "you'll never get me out of here," but two hours of hacksaw and acetylene torch work did the trick.

Rodemacher is at Newhall Community Hospital for treatment of his chemical burns and leg injuries.

Who the hell are you, lady?

October 19, 1947
Los Angeles

Emboldened by the attentions of fellow bus riders and the media, Chuck Harader (see yesterday's post) displayed a photograph which he said depicted the mysterious Susan, object of his affections.

But the photo was soon identified as being that of Lynn Allen, radio actress (and ex-Marine) of 802 S. Norton Ave. She expressed bewilderment at how Harader got her photo, but wished the romantic fool luck in his quest.

When taken off the bus to be introduced to Miss Allen by journalists, Harader broke down and cried "That's not Susan!" Well, she never claimed she was.

Harader, who is giving up his quest after six days riding the Vermont Avenue bus, says Susan knows where he lives should she wish to see him.

I love Susan Simpson, and I'm going to ride this bus until...

October 18, 1947
Los Angeles

For the past five days, ten hours at a stretch, Chuck Harader, 28, pianist/composer of 2208 Cahuenga Street, has been riding a Vermont Avenue bus, trying to match female riders to his ideal, a gal called Susan Simpson who, he says, he "dated" last summer on numerous evening bus trips into Griffith Park. She never told him where she lived or let him escort her off the conveyance, but he adores her all the same.

She's even sent him letters, asking him to meet her at their usual place (that would be the Monroe St. bus stop just south of City College), and later asking why he had failed to make the date, and suggesting a mysterious "Steve" would be incensed by her actions. He must have missed her when he got off the bus to grab a bite. He won't make that mistake again. And so Chuck rides, with his weekly pass, sandwiches and coffee thermos by his side, ready to protect his lady... if he can just find her again.

Some dark stuff from Subcrawl

Another soul goes free, cont.
A piece of a Delaney & Bonnie & Friends song would not stop playing in my head. It was the soundtrack to various tapes of painful and shameful moments from my life.

The Return of Manny Chavez
Manny is often homeless, and yet owns 25,000 records.

Luv is...
Sure he's a bit forward for the first date; straight shooters like Tom often have rough edges.

The architecture of chance
Of course, when planes crash into churches called Pillar of Fire and then wheel into local funeral homes, one wonders if some higher preservationist is pulling the strings.

beautiful paranoia
If you grew up with nightmares of mushroom clouds like I did, even though it was the seventies, you could get behind this article threading the abstract expressionists to cold war propaganda.

Where's the girl?

October 17, 1947
Los Angeles

Sitting in Edward R. Brand's Superior Courtroom, movie actor/ boilermaker Gerald D. O'Neill, 50, heard his sentence of 10 to 20 years read.

There was no wife there to comfort him--not Mrs. Stella Frank O'Neill (720 S. Bonnie Brae, wedding date 2/7/42), nor any of his subsequent bigamous brides: Mrs. Margaret Beeler Williams (156 Coolidge Ave.), Mrs. Julia Twitchell (826 W. 49th St), Mrs. Anna Gwendolyn Ashley (221. Columbia Street).

Even his special lady friend and financier of his legal expenses, Mrs. Myrtle Riley (4532 Willowbrook Ave., "the sweetest girl in all the world"), sat out the special day.

Attorney Richard Erwin intends to appeal. As for O'Neill, let's hope he stays out of the dance halls, which it seems he can't visit without proposing marriage.

Are you going to eat that?

October 16, 1947
Compton

Mayo Elementary School nutrition supervisor Helen Peal of 1316 N. Edgemont Street and butcher J. Berman, whose shop is at 1006 Monroe Street, Hymes, are facing misdemeanor charges after school cook Ruth Mills blew the whistle on them.

Seems Berman delivered 25 pounds of foul-smelling hamburger to the school cafeteria, and when Mills told Peal that she thought it was spoiled, Peal advised she spice it up good and serve it to the children.

The city health department seized the meat before anyone ate it.

Death of an old timer

October 14, 1947
San Fernando Valley

Lester Henry has been losing beehives and honey during the night, so he called in two Glendale hunters, Jim Stevenson and H.A. Mathieson, along with six of their hounds. The dogs swiftly treed a six-foot bear about 100 yards from the intersection of Balboa Blvd. and Rinaldi Street. The men used bows and arrows to drop their quarry.

The bear, estimated to have been 14 years old, is the first seen in the area in several years, and is believed to have come into the valley from the Wilson Ranch.

Amour fou, for four

October 13, 1947
Salt Lake City

The three boys from Altadena just planned to see their lady friend off at the Pasadena bus terminal for a trip to Philly. But as the bus pulled out of the station, they jumped back into their coupe and sped after it, waving (one assumes less frantically as the hours passed). When the bus alit in Las Vegas, they called home asking that cash be wired to Salt Lake.

But instead of money, it was the Man who awaited the romantic fools. The cops held the youths until their parents could collect them, while the lady's bus, freed of its gallant shadow, sped off for the East.

A lovely spot for a beating

October 12, 1947
Hollywood

Mrs. and Mrs. Leonard Wood of 416 N. Avenue 57 were shocked last night by the violent chiding given by Sheppard W. King III, 22, to his 2-year-old son and namesake.

The male Kings, of 1811 N. Whitley Ave., had sat separately from the boy's mother inside the lobby of the Pantages Theater because of crowding. When the baby talked during the show, the Woods allege, his father took him into the lobby and hit him multiple times in the face, causing blood to spurt from the child's nose. The Woods then followed the young family home, and called police to report the abuse.

Sheppard Senior was booked into Hollywood Jail, where he denies striking the child with undue force. Sheppard Junior, meanwhile, was treated at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital for two black eyes, facial and cranial bruises, and a cut lip, before being returned to his mother's care.

(I will leave it to our staff detective, Larry Harnisch, to tell us if this is the same Shep King III who--under the monicker Abdullah and described as a Texas playboy--was divorced by world renowned belly dancer Samia Gamal in 1953 under mysterious charges of ill-treatment.)

Second Time's the Charm

October 11. 1947
Los Angeles

For the second time in two weeks, pint-sized miscreant Thomas George Redhead, 14, has busted out of Juvenile Hall. This time the boy, whose initial offense was stealing a Pacific Electric bus, which he drove to San Diego, shimmied up to the second story of the detention center and dropped more than 16 feet to make a fresh escape. I guess it's true what they say about Redheads...

Well I'll Be A Monkey in a Corset!

October 9, 1947
Jacksonville, IL

Dr. Andrew C. Ivy. Vice-Prexy of the U. of Ill., needs just $5000 to fund his next study, with which he hopes prove that the decline over the past two decades in peptic ulcers among the distaff sex is directly tied to the Flapper-inspired loosening of their stays. To demonstrate his thesis, he intends to lock 40 monkeys in corsets of the sort being promoted by French coutouriers like Christian Dior.

Monkeys wearing the New Look? That's daffier than anything the French have tried to sell us!

P.U.!

October 9, 1947
Huntington Park

Soon after the employees of the cooperatively-owned women's fashion workshop Glamour Gauge Manufacturing Co, 2514 E. Gage Ave., voted not to join the A.F.L. International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, the threats began. Ventura Fashions of California, for which Glamour Gauge makes clothing, complained to Superior Court last week that a union agent had threatened to destroy their business, possibly with bloodshed.

But it was by stink-]shed that the attack came, by way of a half-brick tied to a fruit jar packed with noxious acids, hurled through Glamour Gauge's transom last night. The smell was so foul that the adjacent market, novelty shop and typewriter shop were rendered unfit for use, and passersby on the sidewalk also held their noses and ran. Police and the D.A.'s office are investigating.

They asked her to bring water for the dog

October 8, 1947
East Los Angeles

7-year-old Paul Esparza Jr. is in Juvenile Hall today, but that's an improvement on his home life. Discovered locked in a five-foot square windowless closet at 1341 S. McBride Street after his cries were heard by a woman who'd come to fill the family dog's water dish, Paul was freed from his tiny prison after deputies broke down the door.

The senior Paul Esparza, a cement worker, and the boy's stepmother reportedly locked him up for the past six days before they left for work. Paul was imprisoned while his 6-year-old brother Robert was in school and baby Richard cared for by relatives, due to Paul Junior's contagious skin condition.

Paul senior was arrested on his return to the house and booked on suspicion of child neglect. Neglect? The kid had water and sandwiches!

From noir to pink: Editrix Kim presents the Gummys Friday night

La Vida: Hoopla (LA Weekly)
The Best Hoopla Ever!
Featuring Lancelot Link, the Archies, Zack de la Rocha and Pamela Des Barres!
by LIBBY MOLYNEAUX

Abram the Safety Ape will salute
the great simians of Hollywood
at the Bubblegum Awards.
See Friday.

FRIDAY, October 7
October is International Bubblegum Month. Let us now bow before all things sugary, joyful, underappreciated and one-hit-wonderful with the Bubblegum Achievement Awards, brought to us by the fun-pushers from Scram magazine. The awards go to Steve Barri (Grass Roots string puller, producer of the all-chimp band Lancelot Link & the Evolution Revolution), Ron Dante (the Archies), Joey Levine (Ohio Express) and Dr. Demento, who needs no parenthetical. Besides sweet acceptance speeches, there will be a screening of the new documentary Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth, live performances by Dante, the Bubblegum Queen and Canned Hamm, a special puppet spectacular created by marionette master Bob Baker, and a visit from Abram the Safety Ape, plus cake, ice cream, Bazooka bubblegum, raffle prizes, oddly hip and hiply odd people. My candidate for next year: the Buoys, the Rupert Holmes�led band who recorded �Timothy,� the peppiest song about eating your friend ever recorded. Bob Baker Marionette Theater, 1345 W. First St.; Fri., Oct. 7, 7 p.m.; $52. (323) 223-2767.

Maniac Hunted in Two Santa Monica Stabbings

October 5, 1947
Santa Monica

Girls of Santa Monica, beware! If a dark-skinned man in his late 20s, dressed in frayed workman's clothing, should approach you, run away, lest you suffer the terrible fate of Lillian Dominguez, 15, or the slightly less terrible fate of Barbara Jean Morse, 14.

Lillian of course is the schoolgirl victim of an unknown fiend, murdered Wednesday as she walked home from a school dance at Garfield Elementary with two classmates. A man approached the girls at 17th Street and Michigan Avenue, and did something to Lillian. She cried, "That man touched me! I can't see," and collapsed with a fatal wound to her heart muscle.

Now Barbara Jean Morse has come forward with a similar tale of being approached a month ago while walking through an alley one morning near her home at 343 Euclid and, she thought, struck by a strange man. She ran away, and only on arriving home covered in blood and in pain was it discovered she had been stabbed by a stiletto-type weapon.

Police remain baffled as to the motive or the perpetrator of these sadistic crimes.

tHE cRayON kILLeR

October 4, 1947
Long Beach

James Harry Hoxworth, 40, has a pretty good idea who's messing with his wife Violet--family friend Harold E. Ward, also 40. Why, they're out in a car together right now!

James and his shotgun waited at the Hoxworth home at 1143-B Junipero Ave., and when Harold and Violet pulled up, James jammed the barrel through the car window and blew a fatal hole in Harold's chest. Then he yanked Violet out the passenger door and beat her soundly.

When police arrived, they found a note inside the home, scrawled in crayon, in which James accused Violet of infidelity.

Gift suggestion for the prison bound artiste: Crayola Travel On Case

Lucky Lady!

October 3, 1947
Los Angeles

After waiting six years to begin her trial on charges of killing husband Major George A. Tucker, battilion commander at Ft. MacArthur, Mrs. Marie Tucker, now 45, is going home for good.

Accused of stabbing the Major in their home at 1423 13th Street, San Pedro on July 1, 1941, Mrs. Tucker's trial was to commence on December 8, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor intervened, and the many military witnesses to the case were scattered across the globe. Lawyers Jerry Giesler and Frank P. Doherty recently moved to dismiss the indictment, as witnesses remain at their distant posts. Assistant D.A. John Barnes didn't fight them, so Superior Judge Thomas L. Ambrose set Mrs. Tucker, who has been out on bail, permanently free.

When arrested, Mrs. Tucker said that her husband's wound, from which he died after 10 days, was an accident. It seems he'd been making a ham sandwich after a wild party, and somehow the butcher knife pierced his spleen, stomach and heart. The knife ended up in the back of a utility drawer. Although the stabbing happened on civilian property, no one called the police, and Major Tucker was flown by bomber up to San Francisco for two rounds of emergency surgery, while fellow officers hustled around collecting evidence from the scene.

These kinds of things happen when you cook drunk, so be careful out there!

Proof implied

October 2, 1947
Los Angeles

When Long Beach evangelist Dr. Charles E. Fuller was born, to Henry and Helen Day Fuller, 60 years ago at 255 S. Hill Street, birth certificates were not recorded. So when he sought to obtain a passport for a European revival tour, some clever proof was necessary to satify the pencil pushers. In Superior Judge Harold B. Jeffrey's court today, he fervently hoped that a photograph of the infant Fuller taken at a studio at 41 S. Main would be sufficient. (at left, Fuller's childhood home)

Final Visitation

October 1, 1947
El Monte

Charles Edward Thompson, 37, and wife Gladys separated recently, with Charles allowed a weekly visit with 6-month-old baby Barbara. Yesterday Charles, who has been living at 1105 W. 29th Street, drove to the female Thompsons' residence at 737 Brice Road, El Monte, and the family went to L.A. so Barbara could visit her doctor. Words were exchanged on the ride home, and Charles made to split with the kid. He failed in this, and the trio returned to El Monte, where Gladys walked the groceries into the house at Charles' directive. She'd not even reached the door when she heard two shots.

Charles expired at Temple City Emergency and Barbara followed her father in death at General Hospital soon after.