Kim Cooper – Page 21 – 1947 Project

LA Event: Brown Derby Tribute, August 19

The Southern California Restaurant Historical Society is holding a "Brown Derby Tribute", with speakers Jack Lane, Master caricaturist from the Hollywood Brown Derby, Mark Willems, author, "The Brown Derby: A Hollywood Legend" and Rebecca Goodman, of Save the Derby Coalition. It will be held at the former Brown Derby Drive In Building, now "The Derby" and Louise’s Trattoria, at 4500 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles on August 19 10am-Noon. Official flyer below

and in more preservation news (we hope!), see Michael Linder’s brave attempts to unravel the haps at Columbia Square. Will the Old Spaghetti Factory survive? Sommmmmebody knows…

Pasadena Weekly Puts Crimebo and Pals on its Cover

All the world loves a clown… especially a Crime clown! And when the editor of Pasadena Weekly heard about Crimebo, he upgraded Carl Kozlowski’s planned feature on the Pasadena Confidential tour from the arts section to the cover! Sneak a peek, online or in person, and don’t miss Matt Craig’s evocative photos.

Crimebo on The Don & Mike Show – today!

Newsflash: I have just learned that our popular Crime Clown Crimebo will be interviewed on The Don & Mike Show at 2:30pm Pacific Time today. Tune in online to hear Crimebo share a special tale from August 2, 2002, involving a teenage vampire and his 90-year-old neighbor. You just know with a cast of characters like that, it’s either going to be a love story or… well, let’s just say it is not a love story.

Click LISTEN LIVE on the upper left of their webpage for your daily dose of Crimebo.

Menaced by Crimebo

Yes, kids, that’s Crimebo the Crime Clown looming horribly behind 1947project Crime Bus Tour hosts Kim and Nathan (and Nathan’s collection of embalming fluid bottles), in an outtake from today’s photo shoot for the cover of Pasadena Weekly!

You can hear Crimebo tonight on Peter Anthony Holder’s show at 10:35pm Pacific Time, over the web from the website of CJAD 800 AM, Montreal, Canada. And next Friday, he’s the guest of the Molson & Lee Show on WMAY, Springfield, IL, live at 11am Pacific Time. Click and enjoy.

Photo above by Richard Schave. Stay tuned for more grisly images soon.

Beer & Lemons

July 31, 1907
Whittier

Despite the pleadings of well-situated friends, Eugene Parks, Junior is bound to face a Superior Court judge and answer to the charge of attempted theft of nearly a whole wagonload of lemons from the Whittier Citrus Association’s railway siding. Parks and his pal Kirchner were caught in the act by Superintendent Greeley of the State School, and all the lemons were saved.

In court today, the youngsters begged the judge to accept as an extenuating circumstance the fact that they were looped to the gills on strong beer, half a dozen bottles a piece, and to recognize that they were at heart honest boys from good homes. But he would have none of it. For if a little beer would make thieves of them, then thieves they were, and only a higher court could determine an appropriate punishment.

Catalina Landings Complicated

July 30, 1907
Avalon, Catalina Island

Who owns the sea, the islands and their calm coves? Is it god, or man who lays claim upon places of value in the world?

On Santa Catalina Island, a consortium run by the Banning family has seized control of most of the landable sections of the Avalon cove, and demands a 12 1/2% cut of all ship’s profits for the privilege of using the wharves. Most of the island’s boatmen agreed to pony up for the Santa Catalina Island Company surcharge, but a few rebelious sorts sniffed they’d find their own landings, thankyouverymuch.

Pity the unfortunate passengers who go out fishing with these rebels, quite unaware that permission to land on dry wood does not come with the price of passage! At Avalon today, an independent boatman named "Chappie" returned with a party of four and sought to land at the wharf, as a lady was aboard. He got into a physical altercation with an officer of the SCIC, and clouted the man with his gaff hook, then was swatted with a billyclub and knocked unconscious for ten minutes.

The lady was allowed to disembark onto the wharf, where is was discovered she had suffered a nasty wound straight through the web of her hand, from someone’s swinging blade unseen. The punchy "Chappie" meanwhile put his male passengers ashore along the beach, a most ignoble end to a day’s sport fishing.

Crimebo on the Radio

Seems like everyone wants to talk with our Crime Clown Crimebo!

Tune in online this Monday to hear his first two interviews, both on international radio stations. In the morning, Crimebo shares some brekkie with Jack and Ali on Spin Talk 103.8 in Dublin, Ireland at 6:30am Los Angeles time. And then at 10:35pm Los Angeles time, he’s on air with Peter Anthony Holder on CJAD 800 AM, Montreal, Canada. On both shows, he’ll share some of the more grisly things that happened in the Los Angeles area on July 31s over the decades, and offer a little insight on what it’s like to be the world’s only Crime Clown.

Crimebo will talk with you, too… for a price. Contact the editrix to book an in-person or telephone consultation from Crimebo’s Big Book of Terrible Crimes for the date of your choosing.

Introducing Crimebo, the 1947project Crime Clown

Press release

July 26, 2006

Crimebo the 1947project Crime Clown Brings Morbid Fun To Special Events in L.A.

LOS ANGELES- Afterwards, the guests had to admit the party had been dragging a little, when Crimebo the Crime Clown pulled up in his windowless murder van (with the passenger side doors disabled) and emerged clutching his Big Book of Terrible Crimes. With a hearty "Hiya Mr. Birthday Boy, wanna learn something bad about your special day?," Crimebo launched into a hilariously disturbing litany of murders, kidnapping, arsons and high weirdness, winding up with the declaration that only someone pretty twisted would have the foresight to be born on a day like that, handing out some Crimebo Fan Club Cards and racing off into the night "to do bad stuff."

Crimebo the Crime Clown is not your ordinary party entertainer. Armed with his Big Book of Terrible Crimes, this witty and sinister fellow brings to every birthday party, wedding shower or office bash a window into an alternate, ultra-creepy history.

Was someone kidnapped, murdered or tarred and feathered on your special day? Do you share a birthday with a serial killer? Is your wedding day also the anniversary of a notable execution? Crimebo the Crime Clown has the skinny, and he’ll share it with his unique brand of morbid glee.

If you’re truly twisted, or love someone who is, then Crimebo is the perfect addition to your next celebration. With research provided by the acclaimed true crime bloggers of the 1947project, Crimebo knows when all the famous bodies were buried, but also about the utterly strange, forgotten happenings that are calibrated to blow minds.

Crimebo will be making a special public appearance on the next 1947project Pasadena Confidential Crime Bus Tour on August 6, and is available with one week’s notice to appear at events throughout the Los Angeles area. A personal visit from Crimebo costs $150. Telephone greetings are also available.

Crimebo is currently portrayed by Michael Perrick, host and creator of the popular Jew Night celebrations at Mr. T’s Bowl and otherwise known as Fucko the Clown.

To schedule an interview with Crimebo or 1947project blogger Kim Cooper, contact Kim at amscray@gmail.com, 323-223-2767

For more info on the 1947project blog or Pasadena Confidential Crime Bus tour, visit

Landlord Beware

July 11, 1907
San Pedro

When poolhall manager G.M. Woodward’s rented house on 17th Street burned on June 29, landlord Mrs. M. Sweetman was grateful no one was killed. But after discovering the fire was intentionally set by Woodward, who had hopes of claiming $1100 insurance on his furnishings, she is fuming herself. Woodward is in County Jail, unable to make his bail.

Meanwhile, passengers on the North German Lloyd liner Kronprinz Wilhelm arrived in Hoboken with a terrifying tale of their ship having struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on July 8. Authoress Gertrude Atherton and statesman Baron Speck Von Sternberg were among the shaken travellers.

Kim and Nathan on the Radio on Friday

In the early 1990s, 1947project bloggers Kim Cooper and Nathan Marsak collaborated on a demented college radio program in Santa Barbara called The Manny Chavez Show. Nathan played Manny, a washed-up Catskills comic with a soft spot for bizarre thrift store records, while Kim manned the boards and giggled at Manny’s unfunny gags in the character of daffy twins Mandy and Candy Dubois. A lowlight of their broadcast career was the night Nathan got arrested on his way to the studio, and the County Sheriff agreed to let him phone the show if he’d deliver an anti-drunk driving message.

These days, their collaboration is somewhat more scholarly, though still demented: they blog historic Los Angeles crimes of 1947 and 1907 at the 1947project website, and lead Crime Bus Tours to scenes of forgotten mayhem.

This Friday night, July 14 (and into the morning of the 15th), from midnight to three, Kim and Nathan return to the airwaves as special guests of Stella, whose KXLU (88.9 FM) program Stray Pop has been providing an eclectic disarray of music with in studio guests since 1980.

They’ll be sharing favorite local true crime cases from their upcoming Pasadena Confidential Crime Bus Tour, spinning incredibly odd thrift store vinyl, plus talking about Kim’s projects like the Bubblegum Achievement Awards, Lost in the Grooves, the long-lived journal of unpopular culture Scram and her recent 33 1/3 book on Neutral Milk Hotel and the Elephant 6 collective. Listen for a special visit from Manny Chavez and his moldy joke book, and call in with questions or comments.

What: Manny Chavez Show Reunion
When: Friday July 14/Saturday July 15 from midnight-3am
Where: KXLU 88.9 FM in L.A., streaming at https://www.kxlu.com
Request line: (310) 338-KXLU

More info:
1947project
Scram Magazine
Bubblegum Achievement Awards
Lost in the Grooves
Stray Pop