‘Wonder Woman’ Routs 2 Intruders’ by Mark Gerrard LOS ANGELES TIMES June 3, 1981 — The two strange men looked plenty suspicious to Wanda Capek, 70-year-old teacher at a parochial school in Hollywood, when she returned home Tuesday and found them in her backyard. “There was a big guy carrying a big TV and a […]
How Gloria Goodwin busted male ‘vamps’ on the streets of Los Angeles in 1922. For this article, I merged excerpts from The Star Press (December 15, 1922) and The Morning Call (February 18, 1923) to make one article. I am not the author of the article, but I felt that it was important, from an […]
Bizarre Tales: The Armless Aviatrix DEATH VICTOR OVER AVIATRIX Girl Born Without Arms Loses Life in Plane Crash ABILENE, Tex., September 28, 1929 (UP) – Death wrote the last entry in the aerial log book of Miss Josephine Callaghan, who distinguished herself as an aviatrix despite the fact she was born with clumsy stumps instead […]
Newsflash from the Past: No Trace Found of ‘Witch-Woman’ LOS ANGELES, November 15, 1929 — (UP) — Police said today that had no trace of the so-called “witch woman,” hunted for beating 4-year-old Tommy Hetherington last Wednesday after luring the boy from his mother’s parked automobile. Several suspects have been taken into custody, it was […]
“Solutions are not the answer.” — Richard M. Nixon, 37th President of the United States. “John F. Schaff Jr., Sun Valley chairman of the Nixon For Governor Committee, prepares the Sun Valley office for an open house from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at 8101 1/4 San Fernando Rd., Sun Valley. Aiding Shaff […]
The lives of few entertainers have ever matched that of actress/dancer/vaudevillian Valdeo Lord Parker and her mother, Maude. Both performed under many aliases throughout their lives, which requires a lot of reading between the lines to understand who they were and what happened to them. According to U.S. Census records, Valdeo was born in Lincoln, […]
Photos of a teenager named Betty Bradley and her pet deer “Bennie” (sometimes spelled “Benny”) in 1927. Bennie was said to be the former pet of Mexican bandit Pancho Villa, and was given to Bradley as a gift when she visited Mexico with her parents. Villa had died in 1923. In 1926-27, Bennie and Betty appeared together on local radio station KHJ. […]
On the evening of February 5, 1962, Morton “Bud” Harold Thompson Jr., 27, fatally stabbed his mother, Helen Sincere Scheuer, 53, with an ice pick at their small apartment at 11734 1/2 La Maida Ave., North Hollywood. Scheuer, who worked for a Lockheed Martin factory in Burbank, was trying to solve a crossword puzzle at her kitchen table […]
In August of 1934, vaudeville performer Don Dixon was arrested by LAPD after officers found him sleeping in his car. The police suspected him of being intoxicated. Later, Dixon successfully argued in front of a judge that he had fallen asleep inside his car after playing an accordion at a wedding. “I was not drunk, your honor,” Dixon told Judge […]
In the 1950s, Los Angeles was the country music capital of the world. One of its local favorites was Joe Maphis (1921-1986), “The King of the Strings” and star of the TV show “Town Hall Party.” If you’ve never heard Maphis and his band, you’re in for a treat. He was incredible…