Author: Kim Cooper

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including The Real Black Dahlia. She is the author of The Kept Girl, the acclaimed historical mystery starring the young Raymond Chandler and the real-life Philip Marlowe, and of The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel.

Beware the Peril of Lunchtime

So let’s talk about the sandwich for a moment, that legacy of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, famously corrupt and inept Lord of the Royal Navy, and inveterate gambler who needed something quick to eat at the card table. The-you know. There’s just something wrong with this guy. There’s still a godforsaken island chain named after him that neither the Brits nor Argentines wanted in the Falkland War and kept insisting belonged to the other fellow.

And his namesake, well, it’s just evil. Consider our manwich post of 3 October. A battalion commander-guy who probably knows his way around a sword and stuff-guts himself in one of those sandwich-making-gone-horribly-wrong accidents. To recap:

The inside of Cmdr. George A. Tucker:

That pink thing, that’s his stomach. The little purple doodad to its right, that’s a spleen. I could see how one could stab both while making a ham sandwich. Common enough. But to get up under the sternum and get to the heart? That’s Montagu’s hand stabbing from the heart of hell, it is.

And now, some witch, using sandwitchery, has bedeviled poor Raymond Adame. The likely final destination of his abduction of the pernicious Celina was to her coven at Wilson Sandwich…

-by “modern equipment” they mean hi-tech new streamlined cauldrons-for only there could they release the spell. Or maybe he was off to stone her, as per Leviticus 20:27.

He attempted to abduct her from here:

The sandwich is a wicked and cursed thing (the words “Ahriman” and “Sandwich” are interchangeable in ancient Persian, btw), and must be banished beyond the walls of the City.


You are in my power.

Nickels for Knuckels

November 5, 1947
Los Angeles

While thieves are known for their light fingers, one of them is sporting especially heavy pockets after cleaning out a safe containing $666.25, $453.25 of it in 5 cent pieces, from the Automatic Beverage Corp. at 8739 Melrose Ave. In case you’re keeping count, that’s 9065 nickels–and there must be some sweet Buffalos in the bunch!

Typically it’s the bride who provides the trousseau

November 4, 1947
Burbank

Newlyweds Beverly Lou, 19, and Alvin Ray Turnmire, 21, were in custody today after Alvin got popped leaving a cafe at Screenland and Magnolia. Alvin said he was out looking for his lost dog, but officers found Beverly Lou napping a few blocks away in the family car, with Mike the dog keeping watch. In the glovebox, a .45.

A search of Beverly Lou’s parents’ house at 4232 Goodland Ave., Studio City, where the youngsters had been living since their marriage two months ago, revealed the spoils of half a dozen burglaries stashed in the garage: pretty much everything a couple of kids would need to start life in their own apartment.

Alvin, a plasterer and ex-Marine, confessed that he had stolen household goods from furniture stores, cafes and a model home, but insisted Beverly Lou believed he’d bought the items. Most of the loot was brought home by car, but for the fridge, enterprising Alvin used a trailer.

Further reading:

Tragedy on Elm Avenue

November 3, 1947
Long Beach

Fred and Mattie Friel were out at dinner in Long Beach on Sunday night when Mattie had a heart attack. She was rushed home to 319 Elm Ave., where her doctor, F.W. Kuhlmann prescribed bed rest. He left Fred watching over his wife.

When Dr. Kuhlmann went to check in on Mattie yesterday, there was no answer at the house. Concerned, he walked in and found Fred dead from a heart attack in the living room. Mattie was unconscious in bed. Taken to Community Hospital, her condition is listed as critical.

Mattie Friel is 58, her husband was 62.

Visit historic Long Beach in vintage postcards:

Is your telephone box burning…?

November 1, 1947
Pico Rivera

A freak accident left telephone boxes flaming inside nine homes and one service station after a truck that was being towed broke loose and hit a high tension tower, which fell, breaking a telephone cable. The fires, all in the vicinity of Rosemead and Washington Blvds., were quickly extinguished by two county fire engine companies.

Further reading:

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!

Further reading:

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.