Month: December 2005

Rowdy Roddy McDowall?

December 9, 1947
Los Angeles

Two laborers came to Superior Court today to sue actor Roddy McDowall, 19, for damages caused when the parties were involved in a head-on collision on September 7. In the accident, which happened on Roosevelt Highway near Latigo Canyon, Rosalio C.Padilla, 30, lost his left eye and suffered a broken knee, while Max Alverado, 42, received minor injuries. Through their attorney George Cohn, Padilla and Alverado sought $52,000 and $5200 respectively, from McDowall and actor Richard Long, 19, owner of the vehicle.

A message from the future: You know Roosevelt Highway as PCH, and Richard Long as Prof. Harold Everett from Nanny & the Professor.

Not an Eye for an Eye

Flickaphile McDowall was a Brit-in-LA at the same time Waugh’s 1947 Brit-in-LA novel The Loved One is published; McDowall goes on to star in the 1965 film version (featuring Lionel Stander, another member of our 47p community [cf. October 23]).

A couple of snaps not of the actual incident, but from the greater 47 collection, and which, we feel, get the spirit of the event across.

You Can’t Be Noirish 24/7

Psst, that crime bus has filled up… so if enough folks keep asking to be on the tour, we’re gonna add a second bus on Saturday January 14. Waaaaah, I hear you cry, but that’s not the anniversary of the discovery of the Black Dahlia’s body! True, dearest, it’s the anniversary of her last day of captivity. Much creepier, don’t you agree?

But I didn’t stop by to talk mutilation murder, not this time, but rather to alert you that when your humble editrix (moi) isn’t blogging weird crime, I’m publishing Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. We’re having a holiday sale, where you can get three gift subscriptions for the price of two, or a flat rate envelope stuffed with mags at a bargain rate. If you like neglected genius, oddball pop, true tales of lives lived distinctly and “the best cover art since the old Esquire” (sez Gene Sculatti), then you might want to check this link out.

Oh, did the wee policeman get an owee?

December 8, 1947
Los Angeles

Man, it took some guts for Elmer E. Kunkle to file his battery suit today. Not many LAPD officers would want it widely known that, when sent by his superiors to quell the noise at a party at 206 N. Avenue 51, he not only failed to intimidate with his mere presence, but was, he claims, set upon by the rowdy guests, beaten and bum-rushed off the property. Kunkle’s suit names Graham E. Thompson and his wife Esther, William St. Charles, Jerry M. Garner, Leonard W. Likes and Angus D. Bell, and seeks $50,000 damages.

206 North Ave. 51, To-day

Sure, you’re thinking “a cop named Elmer Kunkle gets beat up by a lady named Esther and a guy named Angus-this is a gag, right?” Wrong. This is a town of degeneracy and vice, depravity and vicious reprobate gangs reeling in cops like Elmer and throwing them back like fish too small for Satan’s game warden.

To you, the uninitiated, “Se Rentan Mesas y Sillas” might mean these reg’lar folk rent tables and chairs. In actuality, it’s really a depraved shorthand for “We Throw Cops Off Porches.” Word to the wise.

Bonus Gift for Crime Bus Passengers

Each brave rider who joins us on the Crime Bus for Dahlia Day 2006 will receive a very special gift, a free CD of “Somebody Knows!” an ultra-rare 1950 CBS radio show that re-created key incidents in the Black Dahlia case and offered a $5,000 reward for tips in an attempt to solve the murder.

Stay tuned to this blog for more announcements about the one-day-only trip into the dark side of historic Los Angeles. The pre-sale list is filling up quickly, so be sure to reserve if you want dibs on a seat once they go on sale.

Date: 1/15/06
time: 11am-4pm
starting: in Hollywood
cost: $25 max, probably less
reserve: by email to editrix Kim, amscray @ gmail . com

Manchester & Crenshaw, Morningside Heights

What could be more un-American than strongarming businesses to pony up cash for a collection of plastic manger scenes? After all, not everybody believes in that sort of thing. Why, here’s a congregation that aren’t son worshippers, they’re sun worshippers!

Yes, apparently the folk who’ve inhabited the Academy Theater (S. Charles Lee, 1939) are sun worshippers. Whether they believe Sol will be devoured by Skoll at Ragnarock, or that Ra must defeat Apep every morning, they’re part of the community, just like you and me.

So, friends, fight the power-the electrical power, that is!

Update: Please DON’T vote for 1947project as Best Los Angeles Blog

UPDATED UPDATE: Since clearing ones cache and cookies results in a clean slate where some unscrupulous soul can vote as many times as they like, and since legit voters are being locked out of the contest, we ask that you not bother voting for 1947project in Gridskipper’s Urb contest. I am truly sorry to have wasted your time–and my own–on this unprofessional foolishness.

UPDATE: We’ve received several reports of people receiving a “page not there” error when attempting to vote. If this happens to you, will you please contact me at amscray at gmail dot com

? Thanks -Kim

Gentle Readers:

Thanks in large part to the kind readers who nominated us last week, we are officially in the running for a Gridskipper Urb award as one of the Best Los Angeles Blogs. Yea! Only we are up against our pal Rodger at 8763 Wonderland. Boo!

In any case, we’d really appreciate it if you could click over and, if you like what we’re doing at 1947project, cast a vote before December 26.

Our catagory, Best Los Angeles Blog, is near the bottom of the page, under Best New York Blog, here.

thanking you in advance for your vote, I am,
yr pal,
Kim
Editrix

Come Ride the Crime Bus

Our more observant readers may have noticed the countdown in the upper right hand corner of this site, bringing us ever closer to January 15th, the anniversary of the date Elizabeth Short’s mutilated body was discovered in scrubland in South Central Los Angeles. The Black Dahlia Case has become one of the most notorious and iconic unsolved crimes in a city rife with vice, subject of books, films, paintings and tasteless t-shirts.

On the morning that counter hits zero, you, lucky reader, will have an opportunity to be on a bus with a group of your fellow true crime and LA history aficionados, visiting a hand-picked selection of obscure and celebrated noirish crime scenes, from the Hollywood iHop where SLA revolutionary turned Minnesota soccer mom Kathleen Soliah tried to bomb two LAPD patrol cars to the Black Dahlia site on South Norton Avenue and many fascinating spots between.

This isn’t your typical Hollywood Babylon tour, but rather a voyage into untraveled lands and the incredible, forgotten crimes of the sort we run every day on 1947project.

More info will be forthcoming, but for now we’re looking for a projected headcount. If you’d like to be on the reserved list for the Crime Bus tour (ticket prices tba, but it will be no more than $25, and quite probably less), email editrix Kim at amscray @ gmail dot com. People on the reserved list will get first dibs at scoring one of the limited seats on the bus once the tour is formally announced.

We hope to see a lot of you on Dahlia Day 2006!