The City Of West Hollywood, Summed Up Entirely, Pole to Pole

Hollywood Hoodlum Headlines!

Item:

Nick "The Wop's" Prices Listed

Los Angeles Times 10.2.31

Nick The Wop, specialist in "revenge" [had] his price list...made public yesterday by detectives.

For $25 Nick administers a sound beating to any named person; knifing jobs range from $35 to $50, and "a ride" costs just $100 in cash. Nick made his...appearance at the new Warner Brothers Western Theatre (Wiltern) at Western Ave. and Wilshire Blvd. There he encountered ...the foreman in charge of employment. The asserted racketeer asked the forman for a "job" amd gave him the price list that yesterday was turned over to Detective Lts. Filkas and Baggott of the central Homocide Detail.

Nick The Wop was described as "Tough Looking" as was his pal, a tin-eared individual whose countenance was somewhat obscured by a nose shaped like an interrogation mark, the forman said.

Item:

Mickey Cohen, Beverly Hills Youth, Changes Name

Los Angeles Times, 1.25.52

Michael "Mickey" Cohen of Beverly Hills today got rid of an unpopular name. From now on he will be legally know as Michael Crane. Mickey, 11 year old schoolboy of 1718 Angelo Drive, Beverly Hills has been "considerably ridiculed, embarrassed and humiliated" by the kidding he has recieved from schoolmates and others about his name...Judge Swain granted the petition to change the family name to Crane remarking to Mickey: "Yes I suppose the name of Mickey Cohen has become unpopular."

Item:

Cohen Says He'll Quit LA For Good

Los Angeles Times 4.3.51

Mickey Cohen yesterday sold his fabled armored limousine that California won't let him drive. He got $12,000 for it and announced he is getting out of Los Angeles for good. The dapper gambler said his deal to buy a partnership in two Tucson drugstores has been completed at midnight Sunday and that he's "...all set for the drug business - the legitimate drug business!'

He'll run the drugstores himself, he told reporters and they may be renamed "The Mickey Cohen Drug Stores."

(Note: Alas Arizona spat the Mickster right back to Los Angeles, like Jonah hurled from the Belly of the Great Fish, and he was never allowed to enter "the legitimate drug business.")

Tribute To Tino...

A Picture To Show All Republicans

Now we all know, Mr. Right dressed left.

And everyone ought to show this little chestnut to Republican friends, who need to face the depth of the unreality in which much of their world view exists. HOPEFULY they might begin to understand that their hero and role model (who they bring up CONSTANTLY,) was a character who never existed, like Superman or Mickey Mouse, played by a drunken, spoiled, sissified, Gone Hollywood named Marion.

Marion got pedicures, massages, had his hair styled, and wore shorty shorts around. He only hung out in Beverly Hills with other multi-millionairs, many of them druggies and queers. He would never dream of riding across the desert, on a horse, at anything less than $2000 an hour, with a Rolls Royce to take him to and from the horse, and a valet to help him on and off the horse. If he ever did get in a fist fight, it was because he had drunk an entire bottle of tequila and had gotten fresh with another man's wife, or more often, underage daughter. For fun he threw billiard balls out of a 12 story building to see if he could hit the windsheilds of people driving to or from work. He kept a cow as a "pet" and slept with her, in hotel rooms across the country.

Wonder what the LDS would say about THAT?!

Tell us, dear Republican, one more time about how "Hollywood" just isn't "America." You need to go look at a current map. It has been since 1848. I think Marion made a movie about it.

Reality! It's what's for dinner.

(Discalaimer: As this is a blog about Hollywood, it must be noted here that neither reality, nor any of its affiliates, are endorsed by Hollywood, or it's citizens. State law requires minimum un-reality standards for all applicants wishing to become a valid resident.)

Why?

Because no one ever had to be told when they were leaving Beverly Hills.

I Finally Visit Mt. Hollywood

I'd just bet money that my picture of this guy taking a picture is a better picture than his picture...I can't be certain, but hunchin' on that one.

It was interesting being back up there after such a long absence..It was supposed to close for a year...instead they hauled dirt out for five, didn't let anyone see what they were doing, and told you they added a little theatre in the basement. It was like it was kidnapped.

I'll bet it's like NORAD in the side of that mountain now (Google: Greenbriar Hotel), where Arnie and Tony can rule us from be-bunkered splendor, in case of an "emergency." And we will have one. Anyone who's ever been to the movies knows that Los Angeles will have an emergency, and get trashed at best, wiped off the map at at regular pace.

I'm definately a conspiracy theorist on this one because there is no fact to prove what they DID do for all that time, 5 times longer than it took to build the observatory in the first place, or where all those truckloads of dirt came from, but I am certain it wasn't just building that little theatre. I have been to the movies, and I've seen The Count Of Monte Cristo. And the idea that they dug under the old Observatory because the City is obsessed with preserving it's historic buildings at any cost, just...just....hold on, I'm laghing so hard I can't type. The City definately hung it's shingle out...right on the front door! As I climbed the steps and I saw this and my heart was at ease.... "Yup, The City is still in charge here!"

But the old place did look nice without the paint blistering off as it had been. The greasy brown band about waist high in the interior where all those grubby little children had pawed everthing for decades was gone. And being immersed in such a scientific atmosphere I decided to experiment. I played around with the long exposure on my new Brownie and got some neato results so I decided to have a Late Night Kodak Digital Jamboree. The pics of that journey into madness to appear shortly, but I got to see much of the city. It was very nice to see that the LAUSD loved the Historic Ambassador Hotel and Cocoanut Grove so much, that they had the foresight to tear down the Ambassador Hotel and Cocoanut Grove, and replace them with what appear to be replicas of The Ambassador Hotel and The Cocoanut Grove.

THAT was an "Entrance, Not An Entrance" if I ever saw one. Stay tuned......

A Message To The LAFD....

The Ghosts Of Hollywood

The Hollywood Stomp (Rare Footage)

Bette Davis Sings "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" On The Andy Williams Show

Jaimie Kennedy And A Bus Load Of Tourists In Beverly Hills

"Malice In Wonderland" Is Up On Youtube!

The RARELY Seen TV Movie About Hollywood's Resident Two Old Battle Axes...Hedda is played by Jane Alexander, while Louella is Liz TAYLOR, and Romanoff's is played by Perino's! It's mindbending. Listening to Liz to that voice! Must watch, before it gets pulled, like the good stuff always does.

Malice In Wonderland (Part 1 of 10)

The Most Historic Hollywood Landmark Not In Hollywood

While driving betwixt the Frozen North, and Home in Hollywood, I decided to stop for lunch at my favorite restaurant in Chinatown, in SF. While there, I simpy HAD to check out the scene of the non-crime, the very room where Roscoe Arbuckle DID NOT RAPE ANYONE. Ste 1221-1223 of the St. Francis Hotel.

To my thrill, that part of the h0tel has never been remodled. I could tell the big heavy doors could have been no newer than 1920. It's had paint and carpet and that's all. Nice to see a city preserve their Hollywood Landmarks apropriately. I wish Hollywood would!

(And gutting an Historic building to turn it into some gauche club is not preservation, its vandalism. Just because you bought an indulgance from the council, doesn't make it anything but what it is).

Louella Parsons

August 7, 1921

NEW YORK TELEGRAPH

Roscoe Arbuckle has lost eight pounds. The hot weather in Chicago did it, assisted by the row he had with the waiter at the Congress Hotel.

Fatty Philosophizes on Taylor Case

Feb 17th, 1921

Jack Jungmeyer

LOS ANGELES RECORD

"The American public is ardent in its hero worship and quite asruthless in destroying its idols in any walk of life. "It elevates a man more quickly than any nation in the world, and castshim down more quickly--quite often on surmise or a mere hunch. "This latter disposition so curiously at variance with the American tradition and ideal of justice is just now being driven home particularly tothe motion picture people of Los Angeles on the heels of Billy Taylor'smysterious murder." Such was the comment today by "Fatty" Arbuckle on one aftermath angleof the noted picture director's assassination in his home here on the nightof February 1. He was decrying certain innuendos cast against WilliamDesmond Taylor, his life and his relationship with women screen stars whosenames have featured the investigations. Arbuckle is back in his West Adams mansion after his second courtordeal in connection with the death of Virginia Rappe in San Francisco. "It is the general inclination, when trouble happens to strike in filmcircles, for the thoughtless to whisper, malign and gossip and to speak withthat mock sagacity of the times of 'the inside dope' and 'the low down,'"continued Arbuckle. "This was brought out quite forcibly in my own case and has beenaccentuated in the case of William Taylor. That I will acquit myself I amquite sure, but poor Billy is not here to defend himself from speculationswhich have no basis in proven fact. "Taylor lived as he died--a square shooter, absolutely on the levelwith his fellow beings, charitable and kind. His death removed from themotion picture industry one of its outstanding characters. To this hundredswho knew him best testify. "And yet, because of that curious and pervading psychology of suspicionto which I have referred, Billy Taylor's name is in many quarters beingsmirched with utter disregard for the facts of his personal and professionallife. "That is far from the dominant trait of our forefathers, who held a maninnocent until proven guilty. And I know the full weight of thisvilification and innuendo because I was a victim of the same campaign. "Never in history, perhaps, have men and women been so quickly elevatedto prominence as have the successful folk in pictures. That is because ofthe millions before whom they appear via the screen almost nightly. Theirnames become household words. Their features widely familiar. They arevirtually next door neighbor to everyone in the land. "The man and woman who thus accepts as worthy of esteem this filmlandneighbor should do himself or herself the moral honor of refusing to accepttattle and shouldershrugs in place of fact--as he undoubtedly would in thecase of his respected physical neighbor."

"The Land Alone Is Worth MILLIONS!" -Tom LaBonge Upon Being Asked About The BUILDING Ablaze

R.I.P Laemmle Building 1931-2008
We Knew Ye, But Hardly Cared

For The Obituary Click Here

Doin' It Up Right! LA Style!

I was one of those sappy sentamentalists who was rather pleased that the Christmas (or X-mas, or Santa, or whatever they are calling it this year) Parade was wrested away from the "frugal" clutches of KTLA and would once again go down "Santa Claus Lane" as it was supposed to and always had (celebrated in popular song, in fact), rather than the sleazy part of Sunset, just so the station didn't have to spring for a remote. That small pleasure lasted until Johnny died.

So I dug up this old Postcard from Christmas, 1938 out of my collection.....

....and the picture here is from the Chamber of Commerce website, taken just a couple of years ago...

....and compared them to this last one I took myself a couple weeks ago at "Hollywood's Satan Parade" (SP?)...or "whatever they're calling it this year..."

I guess if it isn't a cheezeball, coke spun nightclub, raking in millions from posuers with more money than class or brains, The City really doesn't see where some establishments fit in on "The New" Hollywood Boulevard.

Or maybe they know EXACTLY where.

If La Bonge can figure out that an empty corner of Hollywood and Vine, freed from all preservation requirements is valuable (see May 2nd Post), he can certainly figure out that some places don't bring in that much money, for themselves or the city, and should be treated accordingly.

Treated like...Well, like someone who's not cool enough to get passed the vacuous velvet rope controlers in front of The Roosevelt Hotel (?!) It can just stand out on Hollywood Boulevard in the cold, surrounded by crappy tourists and stench.

That makes The Baby Santa cry.

Paladium Restored And Reopen...Isn't That Jus Wunnerful?!

I took this picture of it myself, last week...Hope it looks that good on the inside...