The Boulevard Blog

Watch This Or Get Off My Blog, Hockey Puck

2009-02-16T09:17:00.000-08:00

Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project

Jack Benny Sends Up Beverly Hills Police Department

2009-01-26T23:07:00.000-08:00

Since I can't seem to embed the player, watch the episode by clicking here.

People often say of the police, "Haven't They Got Anything Better To Do?" In Beverly Hills, the answer is "NO!" Ask George Michael.

This episode is priceless funny. And it was YEARS before Georgie in the park, Axel F., the Slap Happy Hungarian, or even her colorful husband Prince Von Anhalt! The biggest thing thing they had to deal with then was 16 year olds showing up at Charlie Chaplin's house demanding money!

Hollywood Boulevard Has ALWAYS Been Trash! As It Should Be!

2009-01-19T13:21:00.000-08:00

These poor delusionals who think that Downtown Hollywood was ever "high end" are too funny. It was never EVER what it is now, all West Sidey, full of trendys paying all that rent to be in a fancy "loft" that was just created out of the SRO Fleabag it had been since the 1920's. It went from Mrs. Janes' Girls School and Paul De Longpre's Flower Salon to girls walkin' Yucca and pansys in the shrubs of De Longpre Park in about a week! In the TEENS! As evidence, I offer this recording...an AMAZING little phonograph record from 1930, by which time Hollywood Boulevard was already known for attracting the two things it always has, Whores and Queers.

Enjoy "Hollywood Night Court" by clicking on the BRIGHT PINK play button, silly!

Demolish That Historic Old Thing So We Can Build...A Cheap Replica!

2009-01-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

Everything Old Is New Again!

The Absolutely Worthless, Unhistoric, Ugly, "Architecturally Undistinguished," Building That HAD To Be Torn Down AT ALL COSTS! FOR THE CHILDREN!

The Absolutely Most Important, Historic, Beautiful, Architecturally Bold, "Homage" to the Building That Had To Be Torn Down At All Costs...FOR THE CHILDREN!

God love those fog brained, double dealing, lying criminals at LAUSD. Can you imagine the stress of keeping track of all of your "stories" then putting them over to the public with a straight face? Must be terribly taxing.

The "Absolutely Unsavable, Even Though It Has Been Saved, Has To Be Demolished" Cocoanut Grove, where most of the 20'th Century happened

And The Brand New Replica Of "The Absolutely Unsavable" Cocoanut Grove High School Auditorium, where absolutely nothing has happened (nor is anything of note likely to for decades to come, with these buffoons "teaching" the children of Los Angeles)

But the kicker? The LAUSD is going to "Honor" Bobby Kennedy (after demolishing the site of his death) and "Gift" the people of Los Angeles, by giving us what they call "The RFK Memorial Pocket Park"...Meaning, they are going to set back the prison yard fence a few feet from the sidewalk and allow us commoners to "enjoy" six feet of grass and bus benches, slap a plaque that says "RFK Was Killed Near Here" on a wall, and call it a day. The fact that there NEVER WAS a FENCE until LAUSD stole the land, and for 70 years everyone could enjoy the ENTIRE grounds, rather than a "pocket"...without having to worry about getting rolled by thug "High School Students." After living next to Hollywood High for a decade, I can assure you, the last place on EARTH anyone would find enjoyable, unless they were compiling a dictionary of foul language or into underage girls dressed in less than Sunset Boulevard street walkers, is a park bench next to a Los Angeles High School.

To Quote Jack Benny "Gee, THANKS!"

MGM And The Personal Touch...

2009-01-16T22:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a letter a friend of mine gave me, that he recieved from the publicity department of Metro, in the '40's, when he was splitting his time between the Palladium, The Cocoanut Grove, and Ciro's. Normally I wouldn't include the envelope, but the bright red stamp was just too much...

Pee Puddle Parsons And Marion Of The Movies On A Pinko Purge

2009-01-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

I just couldn't imagine a more...perfect, with a great big P, episode of The Louella Parson's Show. It warms up with sentences such as "I'm sure 27 Million Americans will AGREE with Cardinal Spellman..." And settles in with hot pants Morrison giving us a lecture on Capitalism while Lolly wets herself with patriotism.

Upcoming: Best Lolly Ever Contest T.C. Jones or Jennifer Tilly (I was lucky enough to see Nancy Cartwright play her in the stage version of The Cat's Meow, and that's MY sentimental favorite...but probably not widely seen, or rather heard, enough to be in competition with the others).

And Marion NEEEVVVERRRRR Looked Lovlier.

Best Book Ever

2009-01-16T22:12:00.000-08:00

The Hillview Apartments

2009-01-10T04:30:00.000-08:00

Before it was infested with pests, capable of eating away an entire neighborhood....

And, Today....

1943 Academy Awards Broadcast

2009-01-10T03:40:00.000-08:00

KFWB Presents a LIVE Broadcast From Grauman's Chinese Theatre, via Short Wave for overseas audiences. How QUAINT! The show starts at 8pm, without a hint of Hollywood worrying a whit about New York. The pre-show AND the ceremony are only 53 minutes! KFWB sticks on one subject for a whole 53 minutes! The ceremony STARTS by announcing the winner of Best Picture, then moves on to the rest. And the movies nominated are GOOD. It's like an alternate universe called Opposite Hollywood!

Georgie Jessel does the pre-show from the forecourt, and Jack Benny emcees the Ceremony. The closest poor Oscar gets to Grauman's Chinese these days is chucked off a truck in the parking lot...not even THAT. The parking lot is GONE!

To download an MP3 of The Broadcast click HERE

This Week In Lies And Wonton Destruction

2009-01-09T14:29:00.000-08:00

In the 60's when "Old Hollywood" was still pretty new, they just bulldozed. By the 1980's when preservationists began to protest, the Hollywood Developer of Every Valuable Inch of Land, lets call him D.E.V.I.L. for short, got crafty to get around the annoying "neighborhood" types with their whining about "history" and "architecture," bossy judges with their "court orders," and that STUPID Federal Government with its "National Register Of Historic Places." For example, the if the owner of the Garden Court Apartments couldn't get permission to demolish it he COULD get a permit to do roof work. The work he did was remove the roof. After the winters rains, the birdies of spring and the flocks of bats that used to be around the Boulevard, some nice person came from downtown and put a shiny red tag on his building. That technique was being used by the LAUSD as recently as a decade ago. I witnessed it myself on my first time inside the Ambassador, on a rainy day. Those weren't leaks, they were HOLES. More on The Ambassador in a moment.

The next technique, also learned at the Garden Court, was the usefulness of allowing runaways and junkies into your building by making sure the gate was always unlocked or one window in back was always unboarded. It was just a matter of time before it went up in a pretty orange blaze, and the owner would be the VICTIM! I talked to a former street kid, years ago, who had lived in The Vine Street Brown Derby for months. He said it was the best place he ever lived. They smashed up the inside, humped in the banquettes, shot up at the bar, and lit parts of the structure on fire. While that's a typical Friday Night club behavior in "New Hollywood," the old girl couldn't take it and HAD to be demolished. Squatters also got The Pan Pacific, and almost The Hillview.

I've already discussed in previous posts, and a youtube video, the recent spate of Spontaneous Hollywood Combustion (like Spontaneous Human Combustion, only WAY more frequent, and way less mysterious), so we won't go into detail on that one here. Suffice it to say, it's sweeping the town. In fact it's swept an entire corner of Hollywood and Vine entirely clear, just waiting for a high rise full of condos.

But the NEW fad, the one that is actually the smartest on the part of the D.E.V.I.L. (should have thought of it YEARS ago) is to make a deal with the preservationist by agreeing to preserve a something, then when you have a work permits and a crew, demolish it anyway and laugh at the preservationists, the courts, and The National Register.

The first time I remember this little gag, (Pia-Fair not withstanding) was when Trizec Hahn wanted to cut a giant hole in the side of Grauman's Chinese Theatre to allow "easy access" to their ugly mall. We certainly couldn't have anyone walking around the historic Landmark, and out three feet on to, EGADS! Hollywood BOULEVARD! No, must have Forecourtotomy, rip out a fountain, a pond, and a set of handprints from the 1940's (which has gone unaccounted for...my hunch is it was jackhammered out).

But if we let the Las Vegas Casino Developers (who could be trusted MORE with preservation?) chop up our single most important landmark, oh the riches we would receive in return! The interior of theatre would be refurbished top to bottom, all the missing metal pieces on the outside (of which there are many) would be recreated and replaced, the feather palms would be replanted at the sidewalk, and the hanging garden's restored to the roof. They cut the hole first. That other stuff...well, they painted it and replaced the smelly seats from 1974!

The most egregious example of course is the LAUSD finding that they just COULDN'T save the Cocoanut Grove (which made a brick shit house look unsturdy). I hope they are teaching your kids to lie as good as them, because they're certainly not teaching them any other skills useful in today's world. Well, taking a walk the other day, just from Sunset and Western to Hollywood And Vine, I saw several more things being "preserved!"

While you might think it was just a Spaghetti joint, the building was actually the first location of KNX, making it very important. The building itself is just a box, but the part of note is the columns and steps out front. The developer has said that these will be "preserved." And by "preserved" they mean smashed to shit. I assume they got their preservation instructions from Chris Breed who claims to have "restored" the interior of the Pig n' Whistle, when in actuality, he had four day laborers SLEDGEHAMMER OUT the original ceiling, and throw it in a dumpster in the back. They then quickly replaced it with NEW paper thin, prefab molded sheets and tacks. If you don't believe me, I can show you the huge chunks of the "restored" ceiling of the Pig n Whistle I dragged out of the dumpster. "It" is not "restored" if "it" is "thrown in the garbage" and something brand new that "looks like it" is put in its place.

Which brings us to our last fraud of this post (but stay tuned for the next...LAUSD Renderings!), the Bernard Luggage Building. Unconstitutionally condemned by the city through imminent domain, using a "blighted neighborhood" law used for crack houses, it was handed directly to W Hotels. Utterly baffling is why, if the neighborhood was "blighted," W Hotels would want to build a highrise hotel/condos there? It was an excuse, of course, to STEAL the land from a family that had owned and worked it for decades. What was the D.E.V.I.L. going to do with this newly acquired building, "rescued" from the "blight?" Why demolish it of course! The problem is, it is on that DAMN Hollywood Boulevard Historic Monument thingamajig, therefore it is ILLEGAL to tear it down, even if you DID steal the land. Well...people complained on this one...usually developers wreck buildings on their OWN land, but stealing it from a family was a step too far. And the Department of The Interior tends to take their list a little more seriously than grafty fascist LA Council Members (I say fascist, because that stunt was the exact dictionary definition of fascism, look it up). So W announced that the Bernard Luggage Building would be SAVED (because it would be a Federal Crime to demolish it) and "incorporated into the new project."

Look carefully at the above picture. Do you see The Bernard Luggage Building? Do you see ANY building? Do you see anything old? Historic? I see a giant open space where a now demolished historic building WAS, being filled in with brand new W Hotel. "Incorporated into," huh? A paper thin fig leaf of stucco, leaning against a new non-historic everything. The D.E.V.I.L. wins this time, but someday we'll beat them.

And if you believe that I have an entire corner of Hollywood And Vine available for you to put anything you want on! No, honestly!

Grand Hotel Premiere, Grauman's Chinese 1932

2009-01-03T22:51:00.001-08:00

Doesn't get better than this. Except maybe removing the obnoxious Spanish subtitles obliterating half the footage. Then it wouldn't get any better...

We Had Faces!

2009-01-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

A welcoming bunch of mugs, ain't they? Most of these have gone unnoticed for decades, mainly because they are very hard to see from the street. I've tried to see them, and never got a good look until I got a digital camera. What is interesting to me, is that almost all buildings featuring faces in sculpture or relief, are festooned with blood sucking demons, serpents, and humans in agony, with Ram Horned Baphomet lording over the front door. The Chinese, El Capitan, Egyptian, and Warner Theatres ALL have Baphomet and a Serpent over the entrance...but the Evilest of all, the Damien of Hollywood Theatres is the Hollywood Palace. It gives me the willies in the first place because I passed every day for 9 years before I noticed ANY faces in the plaster. Then one day it suddenly came alive like that thing in Pacino's Penthouse in "Devil's Advocate" It's the "Where's Waldo" of Occult Architecture. While I hardly believe Sid Grauman was attending Black Mass between poker with Zukor, and driving home to the hotel room he shared with his mommy, I certainly do know that it would have to be an impossible coincidence to have all the Boulevard theatres have the exact same symbols and themes hidden in them, randomly, for no reason. Someone along the way, followed Mephistopheles' column. I'm guessing Architect G. Albert Lansburgh might have something to do with it. He was from San Francisco and (...home to The Bohemian Club, The Church Of Satan, and all SORTS of Occult Fun...) and swirling in society circles at a time when Hell was Hot Hot Hot....He would have had the power to put these elements in his buildings, and also the influence on architects from other firms to do the same. I can imagine his office similar to the last scene of Rosemary's Baby. I mean look at that mustache? How could this guy possibly be wholesome with the corners so twisted and waxed? A topic I shall pursue at a later date...Until then, enjoy the pictures I took, and look UP at the buildings you pass instead of DOWN at the sidewalk...I promise you will find something more interesting than a hunk of pink terrazo that someone bought for themselves like a vanity plate from the DMV...)

The El Capitan Theatre

The Equitable Building, Hollywood And Vine

Hollywood Bowl Entrance

The Hollywood Pantages

El Capitan Theatre

Hollywood Pantages Theatre

Grauman's Egyptian Theatre

El Capitan Theatre

Louis B. Mayer Building

El Capitan Theatre

The Rape Of Europa, Sunset and Vine

Warner Pacific Theatre

El Capitan Theatre

Hollywood Palace

The Baine Building

Hollywood Palace

Warner Pacific Theatre

Louis B. Mayer Building

The Hollywood Palace (Orig. Playhouse)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

Whether or not you live on "Lysol Alley" in a little place above Franklin and Ivar, rent three months in the rears...or in a classless tacky pile of ostentation, just off Sunset Boulevard (like the one that can be seen at 1019 Roxbury)....all chromium and spit...

Whether you spent last night surrounded by swell kids from the hock shop set at a shindig on Las Palmas...or all alone, in bed, on "wrist watch..."
Whether you are going to spend the day cruising The Strip...or just relaxing in the pool...

From Superstar, to Butler, to Rent Boy, and everyone in between (and that's quite a crowd)...Here's wishing you a Hollywood New Year (...we KNOW it isn't going to be happy, but it can be BIG!).

May your current address not be refered to as "The Murder House" in the papers in 2009...or ever!

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

2008-12-29T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hollywood Hoodlum Headlines!

2008-12-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-29T14:53:00.000-08:00

A Picture To Show All Republicans

2008-12-21T22:25:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-12-21T21:32:00.000-08:00

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

I Finally Visit Mt. Hollywood

2008-12-19T13:06:00.001-08:00

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....

2008-12-17T09:29:00.001-08:00

The Ghosts Of Hollywood

2008-12-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Hollywood Stomp (Rare Footage)

2008-12-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T18:39:00.000-08:00

Jaimie Kennedy And A Bus Load Of Tourists In Beverly Hills

2008-12-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

"Malice In Wonderland" Is Up On Youtube!

2008-12-13T03:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-13T00:14:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-10T22:42:00.000-08:00

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

For The Obituary Click Here

Doin' It Up Right! LA Style!

2008-12-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

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?!

2008-12-09T00:21:00.001-08:00

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

Dickie Does It.....

2008-05-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

Say Goodnight Dick....

2008-05-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Dick Martin

Last updated: 11:00 PM BST 25/05/2008

Wisecracking co-star of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In whose humour caught the zeitgeist of the late 1960s.
Dick Martin, who died on Saturday aged 86, was the zany half of the American comedy duo Rowan and Martin and co-star of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, which became a cult comedy fixture on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Screened in Britain on BBC2, the show made stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and created such catchphrases as "Sock it to me!", "Here come de judge" and (Martin's own gnomic rejoinder) "You bet your sweet bippy".
After splitting with his partner Dan Rowan in the late 1970s, Martin went on to become one of American television's busiest directors.
Laugh-In, which was launched in January 1968, was unlike any comedy-variety show before it: rather than relying on tightly scripted song-and-dance segments, it offered a kaleidoscopic, almost stream-of-consciousness series of non sequitur jokes, political satire and wacky antics from a cast of talented young actors and comedians that included Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley, the British-born Judy Carne and the ear-cupping announcer Gary Owens.
Presiding over it all were Rowan and Martin, two veteran nightclub comics who put their own distinctive spin on the show. Their stand-up banter satirising the contemporary scene seemed to catch the liberated mood of the times.
Martin played the clown to Dan Rowan who, like all straight men, provided the voice of reason, striving to correct his partner's absurdities. Martin, meanwhile, was full of bogus, often risqué theories about life, to which he appeared to cling with unwavering certainty.
Around the sober-suited Rowan and Martin whirled a madhouse of stock characters, whose pop-up appearances and much-quoted catchphrases were redolent of the ITMA radio routines of wartime Britain.
The weekly galère included Lily Tomlin's nasal-toned switchboard girl; Arte Johnson's German soldier peering over a pot plant to observe: "Verrry interrrestink"; Goldie Hawn's giggling blonde; and Ruth Buzzi's umbrella-wielding old woman.
"We designed it so that we are two relatively normal guys wandering through a sea of madness," Martin explained. Each week Rowan and Martin would award their Flying Fickle Finger of Fate, host a gag-laden cocktail party and close each show with the programme's joke wall.
Richard Martin was born into a middle-class family on January 30 1922 at Battle Creek, Michigan. After leaving high school he elected to work at a Ford car assembly plant before making his way to Hollywood in 1943. While attempting to break into showbusiness, he earned his living as a bartender.
He was working in a cocktail lounge at Studio City, California, in 1952 when a mutual friend introduced him to Dan Rowan, a 30-year-old car salesman who was also trying to break into comedy. Within a fortnight they were appearing without pay at a supper club in Los Angeles with Rowan as straight man and Martin as his flippant partner.
In their first routine – which they kept in their act for years – Martin (the drunk) heckled Rowan (the Shakespearean actor) as he declaimed from Hamlet.
Once established on the American nightclub circuit, the pair signed a seven-year contract with NBC Television in 1957, only to cancel it by mutual agreement three years later after appearing regularly as hosts on the Colgate Comedy Hour.
In 1958 they starred in a feature film, Once Upon A Horse, but it flopped; and in 1962 Martin worked solo, appearing as Lucille Ball's boyfriend in her comeback situation comedy series The Lucy Show.
After Martin had rejoined Rowan on the nightclub circuit, in late 1967 NBC cautiously allowed the pair to film a "total comedy" pilot for Laugh-In, contracting them for a weekly series the following January. By the eighth show it was top of the ratings.
Much of the programme's success was down to the team of scriptwriters, whose jokes about gays, drugs and death were considered daring for 1968, especially by strait-laced Americans.
Martin remained unabashed at the show's frequent references to sex, explaining that his on-air persona – that of "a kind of inept lech" – made it possible for audiences to laugh at him rather than at what he said.
When Laugh-In was cancelled in 1973, Dick Martin pursued a new career as a director of television comedy, starting with The Bob Newhart Show in 1976. Later he was chief director of the 1980s sitcom Newhart.
At the height of his fame Martin (who was by then divorced from his first wife, Peggy Connelly) pursued a sybaritic lifestyle, throwing wild parties at his apartment in the hills above Sunset Strip. This existence was quite unlike that of Rowan, a quiet family man who died in 1987.
After his failed first marriage, Dick Martin married, in 1971, Dolly Read, a former bunny girl at the Playboy Club in London. They divorced in 1975 but remarried in 1978. She survives him with two sons of his first marriage.
Story from Telegraph News:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2027643/Dick-Martin.html

LA Weekly Abandons "The Hollywood Reporter" Building On Sunset

2008-05-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

LA Weekly goes Westside (From LA Observed)

Kevin Roderick • Bio • Email

Talk about culture shock. The LA Weekly is leaving its longtime physical and spiritual home on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood for a sad stretch of Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City, hard against the Venice Boulevard on-ramp to the northbound 405 Freeway. Nobody else wanted the building, apparently, but the Weekly grabbed it for ten years. Move-in is scheduled for next May, says the L.A. Business Journal.
Beth Sestanovich, publisher of LA Weekly, said that the new offices, which will feature prominent LA Weekly signage, are a significant upgrade from the newspaper’s current digs at 6715 Sunset Blvd.
“It is dated and old and it is a very difficult layout and as a result there is a lot of unusable space,” said Sestanovich. The newspaper has been at the Hollywood offices for about 15 years.
The new building is located in Culver City, just south of Venice Boulevard. The property backs up to the freeway, affording the newspaper signage that faces the freeway.
“It is a highly identifiable building on the 405 and it is an excellent opportunity,” said Blake Mirkin of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., who represented the landlord. Mirkin said the building was on the market “for some time” because of its challenging location on the edge of two office submarkets.
Considering how many commutes will drastically change, not to mention after-work hangout habits — is this the end of LA Weekly bashes at Boardner's? — you have to wonder if it's Mike Lacey's revenge on the Weekly's pre-New Times staff. Lacey is known to prefer the Westside when he visits the L.A. outpost of his Village Voice Media empire

Columbia Square Developements (From The LA Weekly)

2008-05-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

Molasky Pacific Leaves Columbia Square

by Patrick Range McDonald
April 30, 2008 8:09 AM

Molasky Pacific, a real estate development firm based in Las Vegas, will no longer take part in the effort to build a 40-story skyscraper on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Instead, the company asked its New York City-based partner, Apollo Real Estate Advisors, to buy them out for an undisclosed sum of money. "It was a timing thing," says Mark Cassidy, president of Molasky Pacific. Dean Pentikis, a partner at Apollo, says the developer will move ahead with the humongous project, which will dramatically alter the Los Angeles skyline and obscure views of the Hollywood sign and Hollywood Hills.

While many Angelenos know little about the big plans to build a 40-story skyscraper and a 14-story office tower on the site of the old CBS TV-and-radio complex at Sunset and Gower--it is currently being showcased on MTV as the fancy digs for the cast of the "Real World"--Molasky Pacific, the acknowledged day-to-day operator of the development project still working its way through City Hall, has been quietly seeking a major height limit change, among other things, for the studio lot since it delivered its approval application to the city's Planning Department in March, 2007. The firm and Apollo Real Estate Advisors bought the property in 2006 for a reported $66 million, and they have yet to release an "environmental impact report," which details traffic and environmental impacts on the surrounding neighborhood and what the developer wants from the city.

City Council President Eric Garcetti, who represents the 13th District, where the project has been proposed, was informed last week on April 22. Staffers received a phone call from Molasky Pacific in the late morning, while Garcetti was presiding over a City Council meeting. He later released this statement to the LA Weekly: "No matter who is the owner or developer of this project, I have the same concern: how is this going to impact the community, the environment, and traffic?"

Sounds good, but this Thursday the Weekly will publish an investigative story on how the reportedly $850-million project, the largest and most expensive in Hollywood to date, has moved through City Hall in a stealth-like way, with Garcetti and his staffers working closely with the developers and offering little information to the public he claims to care so much about.

The Burning Of Los Angeles: Magical Mystery Fire Destroys Another Protected Landmark Which Recently Changed Hands!

2008-05-02T05:05:00.000-07:00

For The LA Times Article on the fire, click HERE.

WHAT A COINCIDENCE!

The lesson is...If you are a legally protected building with Historical Significance, and a developer with stars in their eyes buys you, you could soon be hearing the words of the Wicked Witch Of The West ringing from your storied walls at 4:30 in the morning...."Have a little FIRE, Scarecrow!"

This week the 1933 Carl Laemmle Building, the only building on Hollywood Boulevard designed by Richard Neutra, and with interiors by S. Charles Lee, became the latest in the long list of neighborhood Historical Treasures to vanish in a holocaust of 40 foot flames, begun somewhere between midnight and 6 am, and "already FULLY involved before firefighters arrived on the scene," even though the fire station is but three blocks away. The old Cahuenga station had a look out tower 50 feet above Selma Avenue, so the firemen of yore could spot smoke anytime of the day or night, from Mount Lee to the Ambassador Hotel. Perhaps they should have moved it down the street when they built the new station.

So, we can add the Laemmle Building and the landmark business Dan-Dee Shoe Repair with its historic neon sign, to the ABC Radio Studios, The Little Country Church Of Hollywood, The Vine Street Brown Derby, the Hillview Apartments (lucky da 'hood was in the mood for condos when that got torched!), The Pan Pacific Auditorium, and portions of The Garden Court Apartments. All places that developers had been in some sort of snit about before spontaneously combusting. While I certainly can't SAY FOR SURE what happened in the case of the Laemmle building, it did just change hands, and you will note, it is the only corner of the four at Hollywood and Vine, that is not a Condo Ready High Rise. Nope. It was one story and it was going to have to stay that way. Unlessssss......

One of our brave Councilmen, See No Evil Hear No Evil Never Call The D.A. Over Gangster Developers La Bonge, arrived on the scene to assess the loss of this landmark. When reporters asked him about how important the famed building was, he immediately replied...."The LAND alone is worth MILLIONS!" Thanks Tom.

We ALL knew that. But they asked you about the building. I believe it was Jesus who said "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh!" (Luke 6:45) Wonder if he'd met Tom?

(To learn a great deal more about how things work in the neighborhood these days, I encourage you to follow the link below and read the article from The Hollywood Heritage Newsletter on Page 5 and learn how this....

........Turns into THIS......

.....And NO ONE gets held accountable for it!
May 2007, Volume 26. No. 1 (special color double issue) )

While most media reports have stated that the only thing of note that happened in the building since 1933 was that a scene was shot for a remake of Oceans 11, a production as overblown as La Bonge's sense of self awareness, the building did, in fact, house many important restaurants over the years, and for anyone who grew up or lived in the neighborhood prior to the "old days" death throes in of the early 1990's, it was full of cherished memories.

As I said in the beginning, it was designed by Richard Neutra, and what was REALLY fantastic was that the building one door over, Sardi's (now the porn shop) was designed by R.M Schindler. Not TOO many places in town where the two had buildings 20 paces apart. When the Pig n' Whistle at Las Palmas outgrew it's tiny space next to the Egyptian, in the late 30's, it expanded into the Laemmle building, and later changed its name to "Melody Lane" while remaining in the "Pig N' Whistle" Chain. With the name change, the big guns were called in and S. Charles Lee was hired to give the entire building a Moderne look.

In the late 1950's and 60's it was transformed into a family oriented coffee shop named "Hody's" which was legendary for it's gigantic "clown head" sign trellis. Frankly, it scares the hell out of me, I can't IMAGINE how it didn't frighten children and hippies. None the less, it was there for years.

This is where the irony gets REALLY thick. After they let squatters in to burn The Vine Street Brown Derby (that's an old developer trick...leave holes in the fences and back doors unlocked in an unwanted building, so when it goes up, you can blame punk squatters and junkies before the cameras, then collect your insurance money), and Grant had it bulldozed against court order (I mean, Grant REALLY REALLY needed another parking lot!), the Hollywood Brown Derby, relocated into the Laemmle Building, and went discount, hoping to attract the Lucy Ricardo Tourists, looking for their long de-camped Bill Holdens. It closed in 1993, leaving Musso's the last man standing.

It was closed for several years, then became an ENORMOUS tattoo parlor. Finally, around the turn of the century, things were looking up for the neighborhood, and the tattoo joint was shunted to one side, making room for a ridiculous club full of poseurs and wannabees, the sort who think OTHER poseurs and wannabees with clipboards and lists should be what gets you into a club, rather than a decent suit of cloths, proper shoe leather, and a generous tip to the maitre 'd, like it should be (and still is in NY).

I mean, the Bush girls partied there to celebrate turning 21 so they could get shitfaced "legal." Need I say more?

Then they shot part of a crappy remake there, then it burned, while the learned Councilmen stood on the corner fancying himself a real estate appraiser. I will admit, he did better as an apraiser evaluating the corner of Hollywood and Vine than he did as an Historian, once claiming before assembled news media that the land beneath the Hollywood Sign had been left in perpetuity to the City Of Los Angeles by Griffith J. Griffith in 1911. It was in fact, privately owned and DONATED to the City in 1949, as anyone with even a cursory knowledge of neighborhood history knows...oh hell...THATS even in $2 tourist pamphlets sold to Iowans at World Book And News, on every Grey Line Tour, on The Chamber of Commerce website....tourists, and junkies walking out of the methadone clinic know that, if they've been in town more than two weeks! Tom had to shut up. I desperately with that THAT lesson had taken. (The Councilman is Pictured Here Announcing To A Shocked Local Press That His Name Is Jor-El As He Welcomes Them To His Newly Remodled Mansion On Mount Krypton)

Can't wait to see what goes up next in an early morning conflagration. Because the word is out. Fires "intentional" or "accidental" (in which case landlords should be held accountable for not having proper alarms and sprinkler systems!) and "accidental bulldozing without proper permits" (I'm certain they would have torched The Cocoanut Grove, if Boston hadn't already beat them to it) will go unpunished, by the Council, DA Cooley, Wilcox Station, the Fire Department (who is responsible for enforcing the fire code and inspecting the buildings, and doing arson investigations) and any other LA good old boy group that has visions of high rises dancing in their heads. Forget it Jake, it's Hollywood.

I'm actually glad our Dear Sainted Mayor of Hollywood is in a better place, and didn't have to look at smoke rising outside his window at the Roosevelt, yet again. And I hope where ever he is, he's as pissed as I am, and starts haunting some people who are hell bent on smashing up whats left of the neighborhood for those DREADFUL yuppies and their condos.

2008-05-02T04:56:00.000-07:00

Capitol says recording quality at its Hollywood building is at risk

Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times
The developer who wants to put up a 16-story building next to the Capitol Records building has denied that the project would harm Capitol's reverberation equipment.
The music firm says a proposed high-rise next door would damage its unique underground echo chambers.

By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

April 23, 2008

No! No-o-o-o! No-o-o-o-o-o! That plea from Hollywood is reverberating through Los Angeles City Hall as officials try to decide whether a 16-story tower should be built next to the landmark Capitol Records building.

A Marina del Rey developer hopes to construct 93 condominiums, 13,442 square feet of commercial and office space and a 242-space underground parking lot next to the landmark, 13-floor, record-shaped building.

But Capitol executives are trying to stop the multimillion-dollar project because of fears that pile-driving and excavation for the three-level underground garage will damage one-of-a-kind, below-ground echo chambers that are used for high-end recordings.

The developer has denied that the project would harm the reverberation equipment and has pledged to try to limit noise and vibration during construction.

The famed echo chambers were designed by guitarist Les Paul and have been used by recording artists ranging from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin to Chris Botti, Natalie Cole -- who just finished an album there -- and Brian Wilson, who used them last week.

EMI Music North America, which operates Capitol Records, has appealed the city's preliminary approval of the high-rise, which is proposed for the southwest corner of Yucca Street and Argyle Avenue. Until 2005 that was the site of the KFWB-AM (980) radio station.

"As a major employer in the Hollywood area, Capitol Records is extremely concerned about the viability of us being able to continue to run Capitol Studios in the face of the admittedly significant adverse impacts that will be caused by construction," said Maureen B. Schultz, a senior vice president at the recording company.

In a letter to City Council members, Schultz explained that the echo chambers are on the east side of the record company headquarters at the corner of Vine and Yucca streets. They are buried 18 feet from the proposed excavation site.

"We are not anti-development, and understand and support that Hollywood is changing and new development is part of that change," she said in the letter.

But "the sound in the studios is one that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world. The echo chambers are as much a part of the Hollywood history as the Capitol Tower and the Hollywood sign."

The eight concrete chambers, built 30 feet underground, vary in shape to give different sounds. A speaker pipes music into one end of each chamber and a microphone picks up the reverberation at the other end.

Capitol employees say their three recording studios are booked by artists who know the Vine Street echo effect is something that cannot be duplicated electronically or at any other studio.

Although it is not part of EMI's appeal, record company workers and others in Hollywood also oppose the 16-floor tower because it would overshadow Capitol's iconic building by three stories and block views of the landmark from the nearby Hollywood Freeway.

The Capitol tower was designed by architect Welton Becket and finished in 1956. It was the world's first circular office building. Music fans immediately embraced its look, which resembled a stack of vinyl 45s on a record turntable. Its spire is said to blink out the name "Hollywood" in Morse code at night.

EMI's appeal of the project is one of two that have been filed. A separate objection has been lodged by Hollywood resident Jim McQuiston, who has lived for 48 years across the street from the tower site. He objects to it on seismic grounds.

"It would affect me when it falls over on me," McQuiston, a Caltech-trained engineer, said Tuesday. In papers filed with the city, he asserted that "the so-called Yucca strand of the Hollywood Fault poses an extreme hazard" to the condominium tower.

Developer David Jordan could not be reached for comment Tuesday. However, a lawyer representing the project dismissed McQuiston's concerns.

"That seems, quite frankly, like an implausible scenario," Dale Goldsmith said of the tower toppling in an earthquake. "His apartment building would collapse before this one would. It would be built in accordance of latest earthquake standards."

As far as Capitol Records' echo chambers are concerned, Goldsmith pledged that they will be safe during construction.

"We're confident there won't be any long-term damage," he said. "We're prepared to indemnify them. They have a right to be concerned, but their concerns are exaggerated."

Steps will be taken to limit vibration and noise, he said. "There are a series of mitigation measures to be taken during construction. Muffling devices, dewatering techniques, taking noise-generating equipment as far away as possible from Capitol," Goldsmith said.

An acoustical study done for Jordan by an Oakland firm acknowledged that "without the mitigation . . . ground-borne noise from construction activities may temporarily impact operation of the echo chambers."

But it suggested that "digital signal processing and other digital audio recording techniques can simulate almost every echo chamber effect."

Capitol officials plan to refute that when the City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee reviews their appeal May 13. The entire council is expected to take up the issue May 27, committee Chairman Ed Reyes said Tuesday.

Digital reverberation can't compare with a real echo chamber, Capitol recording experts say. That's a claim they've shot down over and over and over again.

Otis M Grove!

2008-04-03T22:20:00.001-07:00

It wasn't Boggs. It was Grove.

At LAST...The Boulevard Gets Proper Signage!

2008-02-29T00:54:00.000-08:00

In Honor Of Sunday, Sister Aimee

2008-02-03T11:12:00.001-08:00

Sister Aimee Always Did Her Best Work In Bed

Just Ask Ken Ormiston!

"Saving Sinners On Broadway" Film Clip

"The Power Of Faith" Sermon From The Angeles Temple

"Devine Healing Sermons" pdf to Book

A Refresher For Those Who Don't Know Why Sister Aimee Is Funny....We'll just START with her self proclaimed "kidnapping" by white slavers ("You got enough of our girls, now we're gettin' you, SEE!") while she actually fornicated with the Churches radio operator from a room at the Ambassador Hotel to a bungalow in Carmel-By-The-Sea, and all points in between. It gets better from there....

For a HOOT of a book, read "The Vanishing Evangelist" by Lately Thomas. You'll laugh all the way to El Segundo!

What Is The OBSESSION With Dirty Alleys?

2008-02-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

Crowds Outside The Cafe Monmartre, on Hollywood Boulevard, 1931

Crowds Outside The Cafe Monmartre, The Piss Smelling Alley, 2007

I simply do not understand why club promoters feel it "cool" to make their patrons wait in alleys that have been used as hobo urinals all day long. As if any of the posuers who are waiting on line for their clubs, are "too important" to be seen on Hollywood Boulevard. PUH-LEEZE. One of the saddest days of my life was the day I saw Billy Wilder. A premier had just finished at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the audience was being escorted to the after premier party. The Blossom Room? A Club On The Sunset Strip? Nope....A tent in the alley behind the Masonic Temple. They put the man who had Marilyn stand over the grate so her dress would blow up, the man who wrote Sunset Blvd....In a tent in an alley. Ohhhh...It pained me FOR him. To have watched it all slide so far in one lifetime! And in that alley, the too cool for brains, danced the night away their shoe leather scraping asphalt, the glamorous surroundings identical to the interior of a house being fumigated, smug in utter satisfaction that Hollywood had never been better.

Well it has been. And in New York, you get to go in the FRONT door, no matter who you are!

Hunter's Cocktails Gets Its First Newspaper Write Up...

2008-01-29T05:41:00.000-08:00

July 1922

CAPT. BILLY'S WHIZ BANG

One of Whiz Bang's investigators just "stumbled" upon an innocent little dope party one Sunday afternoon not so long ago. In a modest little bungalow on Santa Monica Boulevard, not so far from the big studios, a San Francisco man has recently become domiciled. One can go there and take a party offriends for afternoon "tea." Several men and women who play in pictures were there on the day in question, including Gloria Swanson, who perhaps didn'tknow just what sort of a party she was attending. One young man had completely "passed out." The coterie calling at this cottage is not large,and you must be very properly introduced to gain admittance. It's there, all the same!

The Wickedest Man In The World "Fingered" In The Taylor Murder I Think Kenneth Anger Did It!

2008-01-29T05:31:00.000-08:00

February 10, 1922

DETROIT NEWS

A clue that may mean much in the mystery of the slaying of William Desmond Taylor was uncovered in Detroit today when it was discovered that several well known motion picture people, including one named in the investigation, had secured copies of The Equinox, the official organ of the O. T. O. from the Universal Book Stores in this city. The O. T. O. is said to be a "love cult" believed similar to the one mentioned in dispatches from Los Angeles, whose weird faiths and rituals areset forth in the book, all known copies of which have been seized by the prosecutor following the opening of an investigation into its activities. Frank Murphy, assistant U. S. district attorney, today admitted that orders for the book were among the effects seized in the Federal investigation, and that among these orders was one from a famous motion picture actress, whose name has been mentioned in the Taylor investigation. Murphy said he would forward this information to Los Angeles immediately. Descriptions of the meetings of the love cult in Los Angeles fit in soclosely with instructions given in the Equinox for the O. T. O. gatherings that there is reason to believe the Los Angeles crowd is a branch of the organization. That members of the O. T. O. would not hesitate at anything is indicated both by the governing rule of the order, "Do whatsoever thou wilt," and by a page in which the cult sent greetings and praise to Arthur Waite, the Grand Rapids dentist, executed for murder in New York, following his conviction inconnection with the deaths of his father-in-law and mother-in-law by poison,and his attempts to work a similar death on his wife. This page is in the back of the book and is so worded as to indicate theauthors of the book not only held the slayer in high esteem, but were insympathy with his acts. Photographs of cult members show men in kimonos such as described in the Los Angeles investigation of the California cult, and paragraphs in the bookdeclare it is the duty of members to go to any length to guard the secrets of the organization. The O. T. O. came into public notice when the Universal Book Stores wentinto the hands of a receiver and, at the bankruptcy trial, it was shown thousands of dollars had gone into the publication of The Equinox.

I Have NEVER Known Drugs To Be At Wilcox And Hollywood....That Was A Hooker Corner!

2008-01-29T05:08:00.000-08:00

September 19, 1920

LOS ANGELES EXAMINER

It was so soothing--that first whiff--that Mildred Lee Moore, young and pretty actress, soon found herself taking deadly dope every day until yesterday, when she was arrested and placed in jail for violating the State narcotic law. Heroin was found in her possession. With her was arrested R. Jay Belasco, an actor in whose apartment at Wilcox and Hollywood Boulevardshe was found. The amazing story told to an Examiner reporter last night by Mildred Moore reads more like a sensational novel than that of a girl scarcely out ofher teens, pretty and well educated. It starts with her desire to be one ofthe merriest in the merry set in which she found herself in New York nightlife. Where it will end she herself confessed no one can tell. "I had gone to New York City to make a name for myself in the world,"she said. "I obtained a small part in a play on the Amsterdam roof garden.For a while I thought I was going ahead, and I was, too, in my work. But off the stage I went with a merry crowd of young people. We had wonderful parties, but I noticed that I was not as vivacious and confident of myself asthe rest of the girls and therefore not so popular. Everybody drank or took dope. I disliked drinking. The taste was unbearable. I felt that I had to do something to make myself other than what I was fast slipping into--a wallflower. "So, one night when a young man offered me a whiff I took it. I was amazed at the result. My nerves relaxed, I became less self-conscious and was soon one of the sprightliest in the crowd. It seemed such a simple thing to do--place a little powder on your finger and inhale it--that I wondered why I hadn't started sooner. The powder gave me wonderful powers. Instead of being a wall-flower, I was soon one of the leaders in all our parties. I was petted and spoiled until I became intoxicated with the adulations of others. I could not resist such a position, although I knew that dope would get me some time. "I feared dope. I was afraid of it before I took that first whiff and Ihave never lost that fear. I said after I took my first one that I wouldnever take another--that if I did it would soon make me look old and sap mystrength. But the pleasure it gave me and the fun I had at our parties mademe take it. Do not think that I fell into the habit of taking it every dayright at the start. One doesn't get the habit that way. I went for several days, maybe several weeks, before I took my second powder. I remember well why I took it. We were to have a party and I wanted to dazzle the rest with my personality--the false personality that dope gives. "But it was not long before I got to taking it fairly regularly. Then fear gripped me in earnest. I decided that the only way to get away from dope was to get away from New York. I came to Los Angeles, where I got a position with a film company, last year. "I was amazed after I had been here but a day or two when I learned that dope users are as common in Los Angeles as in New York. You may be sure that with my environment, the same here as it was in New York, that it was not long before I was using dope again. It got to be a daily dose, and it was not until I began to feel the dreadful reactions that fear again drove me into another attempt to stop using dope. I went to the mountains and tried to cure myself of the habit. I came back feeling fine and thought I had overcome the desire. I was mistaken. Dope came back insidiously and gripped me once again. I couldn't help myself. Everybody uses it and I simply had to go along. "Why, some girls spend as much as $100 a week for dope. I couldn't afford that much, but my weekly dope bill has always been around $20. "I feel the disgrace of my arrest keenly, but if it results in curing me of the use of dope, the price will be cheap. I am only one of hundreds of girls who are slaves of dope in Los Angeles. I know many girls with whom I associate, who feel that they are little better than slaves of the habit." Belasco is also an employee of a film company. Police who arrested them said they found a bottle of opium in liquid form in Belasco's possession. Fred L. Boden, inspector for the State Board of Pharmacy, who is co-operating with Detective Sergeants O'Brien and Yarrow in suppressing the useand sale of dope in Los Angeles, said that it is becoming more common daily here. He said that scores of young girls are using deadly narcotics. Charles McCurtle, who resides at the same address Miss Moore does, 5636 Delongpre Avenue, was found guilty yesterday of violating the State Narcotic Act. He was convicted on two counts by Judge Chambers--one for possessing cocaine, and the other for having heroin. He may receive a maximum of six months in the city jail for each count, or a total of one year.

Pukefair! Pia Pretending To "Restore" Pickfair Before Life Magazine Cameras...

2008-01-20T06:28:00.000-08:00

"She's In The Attic!"

Pickfair

Piafair

Pickfair

Piafair

....Then, after she got her spread in Life...Just DAYS later, she had the Mansion razed in the middle of the night and replaced it with surplus gaudieness from one of Saddam's Palaces and finshed up with the the "didn't sells" from Liberaces spring Garage Sale (Fuck Watkins is more like it!)...But she still calls it Pickfair, so that makes it Pickfair...right?!

The Lesson Here...The RITZ Is CURSED! Olive Thomas Obit (Click To Enlarge)

2008-01-20T06:24:00.000-08:00

I Didn't Know They Had A TRAIN To Catalina?! Tom Ince Obit (Click To Enlarge)

2008-01-20T06:21:00.001-08:00

The Truth About Hollywood (New York Herald 1922)

2008-01-19T04:47:00.000-08:00

March 19-April 2, 1922

Thoreau Cronyn

NEW YORK HERALD

"The Truth About Hollywood", [Drugs, Alcohol and Sexual Morality]

It ought to be possible to write sanely about the morals of Hollywood. Itwill be well to keep in mind the purpose of the slightly bewildered butresolute statesman who said "I will go to the end of the road, let the chipsfall where they may." Recollection of the well known limerick may also beuseful: "Said the Reverend Jabez McCotton, 'The waltz of the Devil's begotten.' Said Jones to Miss Blye, 'Don't you mind the old guy; To the pure almost everything's rotten.' " I went to Hollywood, to find out the truth, good and band. I talked withactors, directors, producers, screen writers, extras, merchants, doctors,ministers, bankers, detectives, performers, extollers, denouncers, newspapermen and women, publicity men, housewives, onlookers, lenders, spenders andothers of high and low degree and varying standards of veracity. I sat withthe heads of official agencies investigating the Taylor murder, the traffic innarcotics and bootleggers. I watched movie people at their work and theirfrolics. I went without instructions except to get the facts and without otherattitude except that of reporter. In the minds of many persons who have read of the "Arbuckle party" in SanFrancisco and the Taylor murder in Los Angeles there has been created thispicture: Hollywood, the motion picture capital; a community of dissolute actorsand actresses and others of the movie industry; the worst of them unspeakablyvile, the best suspicionable; a colony of unregenerates and narcotic addicts;given to wild night parties commonly known as 'orgies'; heroes of the screenby day and vicious roisterers by night; a section of civilization gonerottenly to smash. For comparison to the profligacy of Hollywood the critics go back to Tyreand Sidon and Rome; to Alexandria, Herculaneum and Pompeii, to the laterCaesars, to Nero and Caligula; to the Herodian courts of Judea; to Belshazzarand Alexander. The sorriest historical procession is conjured. Hollywood, which had never thought of itself in quite that light, laughsmerrily at first, as the accusation is echoed back from the East. Then,compelled to believe that a considerable part of the public is taking theindictment seriously, it soberly sets about preparing its defense. What is the evidence as to "orgies," narcotics, alcohol, vice,extravagant living? I shall tell in sequence whatever I was able to find out.But just before the plunge the heartening fact comes to mind that a littlewhile ago the residents of Beverly Hills assembled to discuss the laying outof a polo field. Beverly Hills is part of the "Hollywood district," an"exclusive" part, where Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Charles Ray, WillRogers and many other stars live in sequestered comfort. When it was Rogers'turn to speak he said: "Folks, I've sort o' been looking over this corner of the world, and itdoes look as if there are some mighty pretty places for a polo outfit. But Ialso noticed another thing, and that is there is no church in Beverly Hills.Now, it probably would do my kids and me a lot of good to dress up and get outand play polo, but I figure it would be just as well if we attended to thischurch business first. I move you, Mr. Chairman, that we go ahead and raisethe money, but spend it on a church instead of a polo field. I can chip in$500, if that's agreeable to you all." And those motion picture people gave awhoop at the brilliancy of Will Rogers' suggestion, and as soon as thearchitect gets his plans drawn that church will begin to materialize. There is some truth in the stories of wild "parties" in and aboutHollywood. Those who have attended them contend that they have been no worsethan similar things indulged in by persons of the same moral stripe in otherparts of the country, notably New York. But of such stupidly disgustingconduct I never have heard. These "parties" virtually ceased after theArbuckle affair in San Francisco. Their participants were a relatively smallnumber of men and women, members of overlapping circles of movie parasites andoccasionally a real star. The leading figure in several of them was acomedian, not now active, who mentally and morally never has risen above hislow beginnings. His popularity with the public enabled him to earn a greatdeal of money. He spent it as such a man might be expected to spend it. He wasgenerous and acquired a reputation in his set as a prince of hosts. A flock offlatterers gathered around to help him get rid of his salary. He gave partyafter party of the same general type, some of them reaching their climax ineverybody getting drunk, some going indescribably further. An investigator whose word I have no reason to doubt told me he haddefinite evidence of four of the more extreme parties. Three of them werestaged in Los Angeles hotels, the fourth in a private residence in Hollywood.The first one brought together ten men and ten women. Some of them were drugaddicts. Liquor was provided by the host for everybody, and morphine andcocaine, with hypodermic syringes, for those who craved them. The second "party" of this type was held, the investigator told me, inthe Hollywood home of an actor. It lacked one bad feature, but included allthe others, and in addition some of the more intoxicated revelers disrobed ansthey danced. This was a large gathering--more than 100 persons. Nearly allwere disreputable and so regarded by the others of the Hollywood community.The third and fourth entertainments were not essentially different from theothers. The same investigator told me there had been bathing parties on thebeaches at which some of the "ladies and gentlemen" who had forgotten to bringtheir bathing suits were not prevented from going into the water comfortably.I have heard of a similar exhibition not twenty miles from New York. Scandalous stories may be heard in Hollywood and Los Angeles by any onewho cares to listen. On this trip it was my duty to listen, but I do notpresent on this page as a fact anything which is merely hearsay. One of thestories I had read pictured a handsome and popular film actor as puncturinghimself in the stomach with a hypodermic needle at the peak of an excitingdinner attended by "stars" and crying "This is the life." Most of the personsI met had never heard of this incident, although some of them believed theactor in question was a morphine user. [1] The only person I found who professed to know the truth of this tale wasa newspaper man. He said he had attended the party and had seen the incident.But a veteran of Hollywood who has watched the stars blaze up and die down andhas kept pretty close watch on them and their habits said to me: "I wish you'dtell me who this newspaper man is and I'll find him and tell him that he's notonly a liar but a blank-blank one." It may be mentioned here that I met in Hollywood several friends whom Ihad known for years. They are in the best position to know what is going on.They are the sort of men who, despite their connection with the pictureindustry--or art--might be expected to tell me confidentially whatever secretsof public interest they knew, just as I would tell them if they came to NewYork. But the fact is that these learned and agreeable gossips did not believeone-thousandth part of the stories in circulation and were ready to fight atthe drop of the bat to demonstrate the falsity of these tales. Theirsolicitude lest I should prove gullible was touching. And some of the darkmysteries of Hollywood that I had occasion to ask them about they had neverheard of at all. They told me so, and I believe them. Now as to drugs, are they in common use in Hollywood? No. I looked intothis question with special care and learned: The larger cities of California are cursed with an extraordinary numberof peddlers of opium, heroin, morphine and cocaine. The Chinese brought thefirst opium to the West coast, and many Californians acquired the habit fromthem before the East heard of it and before alkaloids were used at all. Drugsare smuggled into San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles, by Japanese, Chinese,British and other vessels. They also come over the border form Mexico anddown from British Columbia and the northwestern ports of the United States.Much of it also is manufactured in Philadelphia and St. Louis, exported toMexico in ostensibly legitimate traffic and smuggled back to the UnitedStates. The Government and State anti-narcotic agents are absurdly inadequate innumbers. The Government did not have any agents in Los Angeles speciallyassigned to this work until two months ago, when two were sent from the East.Their investigations included an order to look into reports that drugs werebeing sold at motion picture studios. These agents have been trying to getevidence of "snow parties" as the gatherings of drug addicts are called, inHollywood and Los Angeles, but have not yet succeeded. "Snow" is the modernunderworld name for cocaine. Addicts speak of taking a "sleigh ride." Theonly actress to whose door the Federal men have traced forbidden drugs is notin the pictures but in vaudeville. They thought they had a good clew whentold of a railroad conductor who had been invited to attend a "snow party" atthe home of the director of a low grade movie company in Hollywood. Theconductor went to the party in his ordinary Sunday clothes. He found theother guests and the host in pajamas. They tore off his collar and coat, butwhen he said that was enough they let him alone. There were plenty of opium and pipes in the house, and a Chinese was"cooking" for the smokers. None of them was a movie headliner. The conductorwas not interested in things. He went upstairs and won $600 in a poker game. "There really are a good many drug addicts in the motion picture crowd,"an agent of the Department of Justice told me, "but most of them are among thelow class, roustabout actors, and the extra people who are not workingsteadily but call themselves actors. However, the stories have been wildlyexaggerated. And don't forget, young man, that New York has its dope fiends,too." A good many "extras" have been arrested as addicts at the instance of theCalifornia State Board of Pharmacy. A few years ago an officer of theDepartment of Internal Revenue having said there were 8,000 addicts in LosAngeles a narcotic clinic was established and maintained for a year, but thelargest number of patients registered at one time was 300. A peddler arrestedby the State board said he had sold cocaine to one of the fairest and mostprosperous of screen actresses. No one else has accused her. The Los Angeles police have two detectives on the narcotic detail. Oneof them, who appeared to me both honest and intelligent, told me that not onein fifty of the city's addicts lived or worked in Hollywood. He also told meof a high salaried, dashing movie star who reported to the police that apeddler was stealing the stuff that dreams are made of into one of the finestHollywood studios. The star and his valet helped the police set a trap forthe peddler and catch him. This recital was hugely interesting to me for onthe preceding day I had been assured that this same star was himself an addictand his abdomen pitted with needle marks. Some of the studio managements have paid no attention to rumors thatdrugs were being sold on or about their premises. Others are alive to thisdanger. One studio gave the police the address and telephone number of awoman listed as an "extra." She was sent to jail as a peddler of cocaine.She had been a cabaret entertainer and had done "bits" in pictures from timeto time. "She claimed to be an important actress, but was a bum," was mydetective's appraisal. A tip from the wife of a scenario writer enabled the police to round up acoterie of peddlers in a Los Angeles poolroom. A year and a half ago theUniversal studio caused the arrest of a dispenser of morphine. He had hungaround the studio, caught on as an "extra" and the moment he got past the gatebegan looking for customers among his fellows of the small fry. He went tojail and his wife divorced him. Cocaine is sold in Los Angeles in "bindles." A "bindle" is done up inwaxed tissue, just like a drug store powder, weighs from two to two and a halfgrains and sells for $2 or $2.50. Some of the peddlers work on commission--50cents a bindle--others buy their stock outright from the wholesaler. In theirunwritten code "eight pieces of iron" or of candy means eight ounces ofcocaine or morphine, and "harmonica" is heroin. "Stories of 'snow parties' in Hollywood are vague. People call us up butdon't give names or addresses. Personally I think all the 'dope' about 'dope'is exaggerated. It's the Mexicans and negroes who bother us, not the moviefolk. A while ago we thought we had a good one when we heard of 'snowparties' in an old country house in Hollywood which had been rented to a countand sublet to others. The stars were supposed to gather there every night andhave a 'sniff' or two. We spent three or four nights around the house. Therewere parties there, but it was only a mess of bootleggers." In certain published accounts of high jinks in Hollywood marijuana ismentioned as one of the drugs consumed by the insatiate performers. Marijuanais Indian hemp, sometimes called Mexican weed. It grows wild over much of theSouthwest as ragweed, which it resembles, does in the East. Its seed is soldfor birdseed. If the Californian has no back yard he can buy a quarter of anounce of birdseed and raise enough marijuana in a window box to inspire athousand bandits. The Mexicans mix the dried leaves with tobacco and smokethem in cigarettes. The effect is inflammatory stimulation. The marijuana excites the nerves, deadens fear, turns a coward into aswashbuckler, accentuates evil propensities. It does not soothe or producepleasant dreams, and is scorned by the whites. Some cowboys have picked upthe habit from the Mexicans, and whatever use is made of marijuana inHollywood is restricted to punchers and peons. Before leaving the subject of drugs it should be pointed out that noprominent motion picture actor or actress has ever been arrested as an addictso far as I know. This merely is worth passing mention. The ready, ofcourse, knows that addicts who are well up in the social or professional scaleare seldom arrested anywhere. Does any one recall such an arrest in New York?Of much greater significance is the fact that even in the "inside" gossip ofthe California movie zone the number of well known players suspected ofaddiction is very small. Wherever I went I asked, "Who are these dope fiendswe've been reading about?" Of the names given me by more than two persons thepublic would recognize only five. One of these was that of the handsomematinee idol heretofore mentioned. The others were women. There are in theHollywood district when the studios are booming, which is not the case now,about 3,000 professional actors more or less regularly engaged, in addition toa swarm of extras. About 100 of these are stars or featured performers whosenames sparkle in electric lights everywhere. Only five of the 100 wereseriously mentioned as addicts even by lovers of scandal, and the only oneconcerning whom first hand testimony was offered was that of the screen herosaid to have been seen jabbing himself with a needle. I admit that I was an outsider in Hollywood but I do not believe that any"dope cult" exists among the well known players, and am sure that the greatmajority of them have the same horror of narcotic drugs as other normalbeings. And, by the way, it seems to be pretty well established that WilliamDesmond Taylor, the director who was murdered, was not only trying to get afamous actress to give up morphine but was fighting a group of peddlers whowere smuggling drugs into one of the Hollywood studio inclosures. He hadcaused one of the peddlers to be beaten almost to death at this studio. Mostof the drug users are among the low grade extras, certain small comedycompanies and a gunman type of hired hand. There has been until recently noconcerted effort of the producing managements to stamp out the traffic. I was told by the Los Angeles police that such an effort now is underway. I might add here that a Hollywood physician who gave me a closeup viewof the community as he saw it said that within the past year he hadencountered only three addicts. Two were girls, both "extras." The other wasa man, a relative of an actor. The Rev. Neal Dodd, an Episcopalian pastor,who is a sort of movie chaplain and is to have charge of a Little ChurchAround the Corner to be built in Hollywood, said he personally knew of onlyone "dope case" involving an actor. So much for narcotic drugs. Next alcohol. This topic can be dismissedwith a few words. California under prohibition is one of the wettest States.Liquor easily is procurable in every large community, including Hollywood. Inparts of Los Angeles it is sold openly, notably at soft drink counters. Itcannot be bought openly anywhere in Hollywood, which always has been asaloonless town and is now. An old timer said to me, "My daughter, 15 years oldhas never seen a drunken person." The homes of Hollywood are stocked with liquor in about the sameproportion as elsewhere. Every thirsty burgher has his list of bootleggers'telephone numbers. He swaps telephone lists with his neighbor, just as he usedto trade home brew recipes. He phones his order to the bootlegger and thestuff is delivered at the back door. The prevailing poison is synthetic gin at$8 a quart. There also is California wine to be had in any quantity,prohibition having at least doubled the price of the grape growers' product.Grapes may be bought in season by the pound or the ton. Unfermented grapejuice is sold by the three gallon jar for $5 the jar, I believe. A friend toldme that three parts of water added to the juice produced, after an intervaland without any attention whatever, the rarest burgundy. How this excitingmutation is accomplished I don't know, but that is what he said. There is muchdrinking in Hollywood. Most of it is in the homes of movie and non-movieresidents. Many homes are abstemious. Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford areamong the abstainers. They serve no liquor in their home except at formaldinners. An alcoholic cross section of Hollywood presents no phenomena not to befound nowadays in other communities East and West, with this exception: Myimpression is that movie people, taken collectively, have in the past givenand attended more "booze parties" than most other communities of the samesize, and that reckless indulgence has been more frequent. Hollywood probablywill dispute this. Anyway, we can agree that since the Arbuckle explosionthere has been a slowing up all around. Another count made against Hollywood is that girls who try to enter themovies or to advance in their profession are subject to the moods ofunscrupulous directors and even of "magnates." I asked one of the bestinformed and frankest of men what truth there was in this. "I'll tell you," he said, "how the motion pictures got a bad name. Theyhave come up, you know, rather chaotically, from nothing in a few years. A fewyears ago the stock company was dominant. It put on cheap pictures costingfrom $5,000 to $25,000, and ground out a picture in two or three weeks. Eachstudio had a large number of employees earning from $5 to $150 a week.Sometimes there were as many as twenty-five directors in one studio. Theprofession of director was a new one. Some of these were men of bad characterbut with a knack for this game. They got into the habit of telling actressesthat in order to become better actresses they needed emotional experience. Thenext suggestion was, of course, that the director could help supply thisexperience. "I know of girls who were tricked by this sort of fraud, and the truth isthat some of them really did become stars. But as the new type of picturedeveloped the stock company passed. The director no longer is all powerful. Inthe next phase the little tin king was the star. He picked his own company. Ifhe were a rotter, as some stars have been, he selected his women according totheir complaisance, and it is only fair to say that some of them wereexceedingly complaisant and evidently came to Hollywood with the intention ofthrowing themselves at the first man they met who could give them rank in thestudios. "Now that phase is passing or has passed. A new functionary, the castingdirector, has appeared. In the selection of the cast he is supreme. He hasnothing to do with the players before the camera. He merely selects them. Hestays in his office. In most of the studios he is a fine type of man. Thedirector on the lot must use a woman in the role to which the casting directorassigns her. In the course of a year an actress may work under a number ofdifferent directors. No one of them has dictatorial power over her. "And the caliber of the directors is improving all the time. My judgmentis that at the present time if a girl at the studios is led astray it islikely to be her own fault. You will hear the opposite view expressed, but donot ignore the fact that many a girl who went to Hollywood to make her fortuneas a star and has had to go home because she has no talent has, to save herface in her home town, told the neighbors that she fled that awful Hollywoodrather than submit to a wicked director. "There is no question that some of the well known stage people who werebrought here a few years ago 'raised the deuce.' They could not get over theidea that Hollywood either was a one night stand or a pleasure resort with thesky as the limit. The natives, watching their carrying on, exclaimed: 'Sothese are actors! God save the mark!' The 'joy rider,' the profligate fool,always is under observation, while the silent, decorous majority is ignored.Well, the irresponsible director and the small minded actor were what gave themotion pictures a bad name in southern California. But I have watchedHollywood a long time, and am convinced that it is steadily improving, despitethese occasional wild splurges we read about. Most of the bad ones were badwhen they came here. "The bad ones flock together as affinities do everywhere. Everyexperienced observer knows the source of the trouble that recently has comeupon Hollywood. One of the comedy concerns is rotten and ought to be blottedoff the face of the map. But the estimate that not 200 members of the 'fastcrowd' are actors, actresses, or directors is accurate. No census has beentaken, but I should say there are about 3,000 actors in the studio district. Imean stars, leads and those who play small parts. The extras are as the sandsof the sea and many of them just as shifty. In boom times they gather around,in slack times they go back to the foundry or wherever they came from. Thebody from which the working extras are drawn numbers from 8,000 to 15,000persons. About 150 of them are ex-pugilists. When the studios are busy theywork as rubbers and extras; otherwise they are absorbed in the mass. Living issomehow easy for their kind. "Among the extras are many decent and thrifty souls as well as many weakand shiftless. They are just such humanity as you might think would beattracted to the pictures. For a period of twenty months I carefully checkedall the newspaper stories of 'movie actresses' arrested for misdemeanors.Often they were headlined as 'movie stars.' The fact was that not one of themwas even a player of small parts. They were comedy girls and extra girls. Whenarrested, all said they were actresses." While in Hollywood I also looked into the matter of divorce and informalalliances. A long list of conspicuous players who have not been divorced andwho have no intention of being so was recited. A very able man who in the pasthad been a police reporter in New York and other cities as well as smallertowns testified that there was the least open immorality in Hollywood of anyplace he had known. Another observer thought there was a greater percentage ofcouples living together without being married than he had found to be the caseelsewhere, except, possibly, in New York. But as apparently everybody in thepicture fraternity knows who these couples are, this situation would seem tobe exceptional in Hollywood, as elsewhere. A certain director who has had a succession of women friends devoted tohim is notorious because of that fact and is avoided by some of his formerfriends. In the better circles of moviedom he does not show his face. On theother hand, an actor and an actress who make no secret of being more thanfriends are received socially because they are rated as "on the level." Theyare introduced at parties by their individual names, and no questions areasked. Liberal as may seem the social code of a community which regards theother fellow's private affairs as strictly his own business, it does notcountenance disloyalty in the common law relations. A woman succeeded in driving out of Hollywood a man who had cast aside afriend of hers. A baby came to another pair, who were married after one ofthem had secured a necessary divorce. The mother, who had not been a Puritan,not only gave up drinking and profanity, but began giving humorous curtainlectures to her friends who came to the house. She told them she was not goingto have her baby associating with "wild women." With the help of the baby, shebettered the standards of propriety throughout her social circle. Even those who accuse Hollywood of being a "Roaring Camp" must admit thatit has its little "Lucks" as well as its "Sals," and when the recording angelgets around to the movie town will he not remember them. The divorce register of Hollywood is formidably long, but the divorcecenter of the United States, as a certain author pointed out, is in the MiddleWest, not California. At the risk of offending stage people it must be saidthat they seem to be more generally tolerant of divorce than others. That isthe case among the motion picture people. The average view is that divorce isan evil but not necessarily a stigma. If two persons can't get along together they are not criticized for theact of separation. All depends on the circumstances. Divorce rarely isquestioned in Hollywood except when one or the other of the persons involvedis believed to have been badly treated. The most notably example of playerswho have been divorced and remarried are Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.In Hollywood one hears no breath of scandal concerning them. They had theirreasons for doing what they did; they are deeply in love with each other, theybehave themselves and that ends it. This is the Hollywood view. One wonders to what extent Hollywood realizes how strange its notionsseem to the "good church people," or to small town people generally, whoconstitute most of the audiences in motion picture theaters. I heard of asmall town, old fashioned, old lace and lavender mother who visited a relativein Hollywood. The relative asked her what she'd like to see. "I do not want tosee Mary Pickford," she said emphatically. "There's been so much in the papersabout her divorce!" And yet many good people of Hollywood look up to Mary notonly as a leader of their profession, but all that a woman should be. In theface of such conflict of views, you see, it is not the easiest thing in theworld to judge "the motion picture capital." The whole roster of ten players under salary as Goldwyn stars was shownme and I was told that not one of them had been divorced. I have no reason toquestion this, and believe the news should be spread, broadcast to counteractan impression that nobody in Hollywood knows today who his wife will betomorrow. I was not much interested in the divorce problem of Hollywood, for thereand everywhere it is too deep for me, but for the information of any readerswho may want to know just who's who, the following list is submitted: Divorced and not married again: Jean Acker, Mary Allen, Agnes Ayres,Gladys Brockwell, Carlyle Blackwell, Genevieve Blinn, Sylvia Breamer, HerbertBrenon, Lawson Butte, Mae Busch, Barbara Castleton, Charlie Chaplin,Marguerite Clayton, Lew Cody (three times), Jack Conway, Donald Crisp, KathlynClifford, Dorothy Dalton, Allan Dwan, Elliott Dexter, Marie Doro, JuneElvidge, Bessie Eyton, Adele Farrington, Casson Ferguson, Maude Fealy, FredFishbeck, Marguerita Fisher, Ann Forrest, Louise Glaum, Edna Goodrich,Winifred Greenwood, Kenneth Harlan, Mildred Harris, Helen Holmes, E. MasonHopper, Jacques Jaccard, Dick Jones, Anna Lehr, Elmo Lincoln, Ann Little,Katherine MacDonald, Marguerite Marsh, Christine Mayo, Harry Hillard, JackMower, Anna Q. Nilsson, Marshall Neilan, Jane Novak, Doris Pawn, Irene Rich,Ruth Roland, Alma Rubens, William Russell, Ford Sterling, Nell Shipman, RuthStonehouse, Gloria Swanson, Myrtle Stedman, Hugh Thompson, Mary Thurman,Lawrence Trimble, Rodolph Valentino, Lillian Walker, Pearl White, MarjorieWilson, Clara Kimball Young, James Young (three times). Divorced and married again: May Allison, Leah Baird, Reginald Barker,Frank Beal, Lawson Butt, George Beban, Noah Beery, Wallace Beery, RichardBennett, Francelia Billington, Hobart Bosworth, Bert Bracken, Hazel Daly,Hampton Del Ruth, Ruby De Remer, Jack Dillon, William Edson Duncan, J. GordonEdwards, Robert Ellison, John Emerson (now married to Anita Loos), DouglasFairbanks, Franklyn Farnum, Eugene Ford, Allan Forrest (now married to LottiePickford), Pauline Frederick (now married to a schooldays sweetheart), FredGranvill, Bert Grasby, Jack Gilbert, Hale Hamilton, James W. Horne, LouiseHuff, Irene Hunt, Paul G. Hurst, Peggy Hyland, Rex Ingram (now married toAlice Terry), Thomas Jefferson, Emery Johnson, Leatrice Joy, Alice Joyce,James Kirkwood, George Larkin, Edward Le Saint, Wilfred Lucas, John M.McGowan, J. Farrell McDonald, Frank Mayo, Harry Millarde, Tom Mix, Owen Moore,Tom Moore, Mae Murray, Marie Manon, Fred Niblo, Wheeler Oakman, Mary Pickford,Lottie Pickford, Theodore Roberts, Wesley H. Ruggles, Paul Scandon, RolinSturgeon, Conway Tearle, Mabel Van Buren, Eric von Stroheim, Henry Walthall,Crane Wilbur, Kathryn Williams (married four times, now wife of CharlesEyton). Divorce suits now pending are omitted. No doubt almost as long a list ofundivorced persons could be prepared. This article has come to the end of its allotted space without havingmore than touched on the brighter and more wholesome phases of Hollywood life,which do exist abundantly. Making of pictures is called an "industry" in Hollywood, and it is so.The cost of many feature productions is from $3,000 to $5,000 a camera day. Ittakes at least five camera weeks to complete the picture, making the totalcost sometimes more than $100,000. The camera cannot be fooled--very much. Ifan actor has been out all night rioting, drinking or gambling, the camera seesit. He cannot go on. Unless scenes can be "shot" not requiring that actor'spresence, the whole production is held up. Result, loss of between $3,000 and$5,000. If the picture has progressed so far that to call everything off wouldbe ruinous, the offending actor is retained, but unless he reforms that is hislast picture for this producer. He acquires a reputation for unreliability,and nobody wants him. In a girl of the pictures, youth, vivacity, freshness--they must be real,not counterfeit--are everything. If they are all she has to give, if she doesnot develop dramatically, the length of her screen life is only about fiveyears. They are precious years. Each day is a thing to be treasured andguarded. To the camera she must look the same every day of the weeks and evenmonths that pass before a picture is finished. She cannot appear "on the lot"with a haggard face, with circles under the eyes, with crow foot wrinklesscarring the smoothness of her skin. All this is intolerable. The actors andactresses know it as well as the producers and directors. It follows then--and is a fact--that the typical actor and actress, evenif predisposed toward giddiness, is, during the long hard days when a pictureis being made, a model of behavior. The letdown, if it comes, is in theinterval between pictures. But, even in those vacations the players have toremember that when the next engagement begins they must look their best. So,to a degree, good conduct is self-enforced in Hollywood. This is especially true of actors of "straight parts." The characteractors, whose faces are often changed by makeup, do not have to be so careful.

I Just Had A Thought?!

2008-01-15T03:24:00.000-08:00

HOW FORTUITOUS That The Little Country Church of Hollywood burned to the ground on Christmas Eve!

...What, with The New Yorkers' "reviving" poor Alexander Pantages' Pre-Depression Plans and "New Yorky-fian" "out West" (and incidentally rendering one of Hollywood's five, 70 year old-plus Landmark Movie Palaces utterly unrecognizable-or is it "Uter-McKinley-cognizable?")...

Now neither the Nederlanders NOR the Grant Parking gangs will have to argue over where to park the bulldozers during the months long pre-defilement (I don't count the offical moment of defilement's begining until the people that would gaze upon me with a mixture of paternal pity and PROFOUND elitist disgust, 8 years ago if I told them where I lived, but now disgusted with NOTHING but the thought that peasants like me and our Rent Control is interfering with their new "enlightened" "discovery" of the "quaint" old "historic" neighborhood...start moving into their Million Dollar condo's 7 stories atop the tallest Art Deco Indian Statue...Well, Cyrus Had His Pig in the Old City...)

So, from the Times Square Tower Lair to the Las Palmas Avenue Bunker...peace on earth will reign!

And isn't that the REAL spirit of Christmas?

I can almost see lil' Alex P, sittin' in his cell downtown, sayin' to me "Hey....It's Christmas!"

(P.S.....Judging from this lovely "Artists Rendering" of the fulfilling of Alexander Pantages' Dying Wish...I must ask, if it be not TOO bold, what exactly they are planning on doing with the Equitable Building? I suppose someone "just moving in" wouldn't notice, but I can hardly recognize the neighborhood supposedly depicted in the "rendering," what with large and noticable Chunks just "sketched out...")

Check Your Husbands! (In Two Strip Technicolor!)

2008-01-15T03:00:00.000-08:00

You Gotta Wonder About A Place That Torches Its Most Famous Church On Christmas Eve

2008-01-14T13:32:00.001-08:00

The Little Country Church Of Hollywood Quartette Performs

Rock My Soul

To Help You Cope With Yet Another Squater Conflagration

(And For The Record: Even If It Was A Developer Who Torched It, I Consider Them A Squatter Nonetheless)

Edgar And Clyde Buy ALL Of Their Garters At Michael's!

2008-01-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

Click To Enlarge

Adela Rogers St. Johns Quotes

2008-01-14T03:05:00.000-08:00

"There is so little difference between husbands you might as well keep the first.”

"Roscoe was a very FAT man."

"The modern woman is the curse of the universe. A disaster, that's what. She thinks that before her arrival on the scene no woman ever did anything worthwhile before, no woman was ever liberated until her time, no woman really ever amounted to anything.”

"I think every woman's entitled to a middle husband she can forget.”

"I wish women would stand together and shackle the men who want to move us backwards."

"I can see Mr. Hearst shooting an Enemy-maybe even in cold blood. Everybody could shoot someone at sometime for something. But poison a guest at his own birthday table in a toast-NO" (Note: This defense of her boss Hearst is rather odd, as NO ONE ever accused him, nor did he ever defend himself, of poisoning Tom Ince...what the hell did SHE know?)

Johnny Grant, From Driving Sid Grauman To Filling His Shoes...Hollywood's Only Mayor

2008-01-13T11:27:00.000-08:00

The Hays Code

2008-01-13T11:05:00.000-08:00

The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code)If motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind A Code to Govern the Making of Talking, Synchronized and Silent Motion Pictures. Formulated and formally adopted by The Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc. and The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc. in March 1930.
Motion picture producers recognize the high trust and confidence which have been placed in them by the people of the world and which have made motion pictures a universal form of entertainment.
They recognize their responsibility to the public because of this trust and because entertainment and art are important influences in the life of a nation.
Hence, though regarding motion pictures primarily as entertainment without any explicit purpose of teaching or propaganda, they know that the motion picture within its own field of entertainment may be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking.
During the rapid transition from silent to talking pictures they have realized the necessity and the opportunity of subscribing to a Code to govern the production of talking pictures and of re-acknowledging this responsibility.
On their part, they ask from the public and from public leaders a sympathetic understanding of their purposes and problems and a spirit of cooperation that will allow them the freedom and opportunity necessary to bring the motion picture to a still higher level of wholesome entertainment for all the people.
General Principles
1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
Particular Applications
I. Crimes Against the LawThese shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation.
1. Murder
a. The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation.
b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in detail.
c. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified.
2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly presented.
a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method.
b. Arson must subject to the same safeguards.
c. The use of firearms should be restricted to the essentials.
d. Methods of smuggling should not be presented.
3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented.
4. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization, will not be shown.
II. SexThe sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing.
1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.
2. Scenes of Passion
a. They should not be introduced when not essential to the plot.
b. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown.
c. In general passion should so be treated that these scenes do not stimulate the lower and baser element.
3. Seduction or Rape
a. They should never be more than suggested, and only when essential for the plot, and even then never shown by explicit method.
b. They are never the proper subject for comedy.
4. Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.
5. White slavery shall not be treated.
6. Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races) is forbidden.
7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases are not subjects for motion pictures.
8. Scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette, are never to be presented.
9. Children's sex organs are never to be exposed.
III. VulgarityThe treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects should always be subject to the dictates of good taste and a regard for the sensibilities of the audience.
IV. ObscenityObscenity in word, gesture, reference, song, joke, or by suggestion (even when likely to be understood only by part of the audience) is forbidden.
V. ProfanityPointed profanity (this includes the words, God, Lord, Jesus, Christ - unless used reverently - Hell, S.O.B., damn, Gawd), or every other profane or vulgar expression however used, is forbidden.
VI. Costume1. Complete nudity is never permitted. This includes nudity in fact or in silhouette, or any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture.
2. Undressing scenes should be avoided, and never used save where essential to the plot.
3. Indecent or undue exposure is forbidden.
4. Dancing or costumes intended to permit undue exposure or indecent movements in the dance are forbidden.
VII. Dances1. Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions or indecent passions are forbidden.
2. Dances which emphasize indecent movements are to be regarded as obscene.
VIII. Religion1. No film or episode may throw ridicule on any religious faith.
2. Ministers of religion in their character as ministers of religion should not be used as comic characters or as villains.
3. Ceremonies of any definite religion should be carefully and respectfully handled.
IX. LocationsThe treatment of bedrooms must be governed by good taste and delicacy.
X. National Feelings1. The use of the Flag shall be consistently respectful.
2. The history, institutions, prominent people and citizenry of other nations shall be represented fairly.
XI. TitlesSalacious, indecent, or obscene titles shall not be used.
XII. Repellent SubjectsThe following subjects must be treated within the careful limits of good taste:1. Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal punishments for crime.2. Third degree methods.3. Brutality and possible gruesomeness.4. Branding of people or animals.5. Apparent cruelty to children or animals.6. The sale of women, or a woman selling her virtue.7. Surgical operations.
Reasons Supporting the Preamble of the Code
I. Theatrical motion pictures, that is, pictures intended for the theatre as distinct from pictures intended for churches, schools, lecture halls, educational movements, social reform movements, etc., are primarily to be regarded as ENTERTAINMENT.
Mankind has always recognized the importance of entertainment and its value in rebuilding the bodies and souls of human beings.
But it has always recognized that entertainment can be a character either HELPFUL or HARMFUL to the human race, and in consequence has clearly distinguished between:
a. Entertainment which tends to improve the race, or at least to re-create and rebuild human beings exhausted with the realities of life; and
b. Entertainment which tends to degrade human beings, or to lower their standards of life and living.
Hence the MORAL IMPORTANCE of entertainment is something which has been universally recognized. It enters intimately into the lives of men and women and affects them closely; it occupies their minds and affections during leisure hours; and ultimately touches the whole of their lives. A man may be judged by his standard of entertainment as easily as by the standard of his work.
So correct entertainment raises the whole standard of a nation.
Wrong entertainment lowers the whole living conditions and moral ideals of a race.
Note, for example, the healthy reactions to healthful sports, like baseball, golf; the unhealthy reactions to sports like cockfighting, bullfighting, bear baiting, etc.
Note, too, the effect on ancient nations of gladiatorial combats, the obscene plays of Roman times, etc.
II. Motion pictures are very important as ART.
Though a new art, possibly a combination art, it has the same object as the other arts, the presentation of human thought, emotion, and experience, in terms of an appeal to the soul through the senses.
Here, as in entertainment,
Art enters intimately into the lives of human beings.
Art can be morally good, lifting men to higher levels. This has been done through good music, great painting, authentic fiction, poetry, drama.
Art can be morally evil it its effects. This is the case clearly enough with unclean art, indecent books, suggestive drama. The effect on the lives of men and women are obvious.
Note: It has often been argued that art itself is unmoral, neither good nor bad. This is true of the THING which is music, painting, poetry, etc. But the THING is the PRODUCT of some person's mind, and the intention of that mind was either good or bad morally when it produced the thing. Besides, the thing has its EFFECT upon those who come into contact with it. In both these ways, that is, as a product of a mind and as the cause of definite effects, it has a deep moral significance and unmistakable moral quality.
Hence: The motion pictures, which are the most popular of modern arts for the masses, have their moral quality from the intention of the minds which produce them and from their effects on the moral lives and reactions of their audiences. This gives them a most important morality.
1. They reproduce the morality of the men who use the pictures as a medium for the expression of their ideas and ideals.
2. They affect the moral standards of those who, through the screen, take in these ideas and ideals.
In the case of motion pictures, the effect may be particularly emphasized because no art has so quick and so widespread an appeal to the masses. It has become in an incredibly short period the art of the multitudes.
III. The motion picture, because of its importance as entertainment and because of the trust placed in it by the peoples of the world, has special MORAL OBLIGATIONS:
A. Most arts appeal to the mature. This art appeals at once to every class, mature, immature, developed, undeveloped, law abiding, criminal. Music has its grades for different classes; so has literature and drama. This art of the motion picture, combining as it does the two fundamental appeals of looking at a picture and listening to a story, at once reaches every class of society.
B. By reason of the mobility of film and the ease of picture distribution, and because the possibility of duplicating positives in large quantities, this art reaches places unpenetrated by other forms of art.
C. Because of these two facts, it is difficult to produce films intended for only certain classes of people. The exhibitors' theatres are built for the masses, for the cultivated and the rude, the mature and the immature, the self-respecting and the criminal. Films, unlike books and music, can with difficulty be confined to certain selected groups.
D. The latitude given to film material cannot, in consequence, be as wide as the latitude given to book material. In addition:
a. A book describes; a film vividly presents. One presents on a cold page; the other by apparently living people.
b. A book reaches the mind through words merely; a film reaches the eyes and ears through the reproduction of actual events.
c. The reaction of a reader to a book depends largely on the keenness of the reader's imagination; the reaction to a film depends on the vividness of presentation.
Hence many things which might be described or suggested in a book could not possibly be presented in a film.
E. This is also true when comparing the film with the newspaper.
a. Newspapers present by description, films by actual presentation.
b. Newspapers are after the fact and present things as having taken place; the film gives the events in the process of enactment and with apparent reality of life.
F. Everything possible in a play is not possible in a film:
a. Because of the larger audience of the film, and its consequential mixed character. Psychologically, the larger the audience, the lower the moral mass resistance to suggestion.
b. Because through light, enlargement of character, presentation, scenic emphasis, etc., the screen story is brought closer to the audience than the play.
c. The enthusiasm for and interest in the film actors and actresses, developed beyond anything of the sort in history, makes the audience largely sympathetic toward the characters they portray and the stories in which they figure. Hence the audience is more ready to confuse actor and actress and the characters they portray, and it is most receptive of the emotions and ideals presented by the favorite stars.
G. Small communities, remote from sophistication and from the hardening process which often takes place in the ethical and moral standards of larger cities, are easily and readily reached by any sort of film.
H. The grandeur of mass settings, large action, spectacular features, etc., affects and arouses more intensely the emotional side of the audience.
In general, the mobility, popularity, accessibility, emotional appeal, vividness, straightforward presentation of fact in the film make for more intimate contact with a larger audience and for greater emotional appeal.
Hence the larger moral responsibilities of the motion pictures.
Reasons Underlying the General Principles
I. No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil or sin.
This is done:
1. When evil is made to appear attractive and alluring, and good is made to appear unattractive.
2. When the sympathy of the audience is thrown on the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, sin. The same is true of a film that would thrown sympathy against goodness, honor, innocence, purity or honesty.
Note: Sympathy with a person who sins is not the same as sympathy with the sin or crime of which he is guilty. We may feel sorry for the plight of the murderer or even understand the circumstances which led him to his crime: we may not feel sympathy with the wrong which he has done. The presentation of evil is often essential for art or fiction or drama. This in itself is not wrong provided:
a. That evil is not presented alluringly. Even if later in the film the evil is condemned or punished, it must not be allowed to appear so attractive that the audience's emotions are drawn to desire or approve so strongly that later the condemnation is forgotten and only the apparent joy of sin is remembered.
b. That throughout, the audience feels sure that evil is wrong and good is right.
II. Correct standards of life shall, as far as possible, be presented.
A wide knowledge of life and of living is made possible through the film. When right standards are consistently presented, the motion picture exercises the most powerful influences. It builds character, develops right ideals, inculcates correct principles, and all this in attractive story form.
If motion pictures consistently hold up for admiration high types of characters and present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind.
III. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
By natural law is understood the law which is written in the hearts of all mankind, the greater underlying principles of right and justice dictated by conscience.
By human law is understood the law written by civilized nations.
1. The presentation of crimes against the law is often necessary for the carrying out of the plot. But the presentation must not throw sympathy with the crime as against the law nor with the criminal as against those who punish him.
2. The courts of the land should not be presented as unjust. This does not mean that a single court may not be presented as unjust, much less that a single court official must not be presented this way. But the court system of the country must not suffer as a result of this presentation.
Reasons Underlying the Particular Applications
I. Sin and evil enter into the story of human beings and hence in themselves are valid dramatic material.
II. In the use of this material, it must be distinguished between sin which repels by it very nature, and sins which often attract.
a. In the first class come murder, most theft, many legal crimes, lying, hypocrisy, cruelty, etc.
b. In the second class come sex sins, sins and crimes of apparent heroism, such as banditry, daring thefts, leadership in evil, organized crime, revenge, etc.
The first class needs less care in treatment, as sins and crimes of this class are naturally unattractive. The audience instinctively condemns all such and is repelled.
Hence the important objective must be to avoid the hardening of the audience, especially of those who are young and impressionable, to the thought and fact of crime. People can become accustomed even to murder, cruelty, brutality, and repellent crimes, if these are too frequently repeated.
The second class needs great care in handling, as the response of human nature to their appeal is obvious. This is treated more fully below.
III. A careful distinction can be made between films intended for general distribution, and films intended for use in theatres restricted to a limited audience. Themes and plots quite appropriate for the latter would be altogether out of place and dangerous in the former.
Note: The practice of using a general theatre and limiting its patronage to "Adults Only" is not completely satisfactory and is only partially effective.
However, maturer minds may easily understand and accept without harm subject matter in plots which do younger people positive harm.
Hence: If there should be created a special type of theatre, catering exclusively to an adult audience, for plays of this character (plays with problem themes, difficult discussions and maturer treatment) it would seem to afford an outlet, which does not now exist, for pictures unsuitable for general distribution but permissible for exhibitions to a restricted audience.
I. Crimes Against the LawThe treatment of crimes against the law must not:
1. Teach methods of crime.2. Inspire potential criminals with a desire for imitation.3. Make criminals seem heroic and justified.
Revenge in modern times shall not be justified. In lands and ages of less developed civilization and moral principles, revenge may sometimes be presented. This would be the case especially in places where no law exists to cover the crime because of which revenge is committed.
Because of its evil consequences, the drug traffic should not be presented in any form. The existence of the trade should not be brought to the attention of audiences.
The use of liquor should never be excessively presented. In scenes from American life, the necessities of plot and proper characterization alone justify its use. And in this case, it should be shown with moderation.
II. SexOut of a regard for the sanctity of marriage and the home, the triangle, that is, the love of a third party for one already married, needs careful handling. The treatment should not throw sympathy against marriage as an institution.
Scenes of passion must be treated with an honest acknowledgement of human nature and its normal reactions. Many scenes cannot be presented without arousing dangerous emotions on the part of the immature, the young or the criminal classes.
Even within the limits of pure love, certain facts have been universally regarded by lawmakers as outside the limits of safe presentation.
In the case of impure love, the love which society has always regarded as wrong and which has been banned by divine law, the following are important:
1. Impure love must not be presented as attractive and beautiful.
2. It must not be the subject of comedy or farce, or treated as material for laughter.
3. It must not be presented in such a way to arouse passion or morbid curiosity on the part of the audience.
4. It must not be made to seem right and permissible.
5. It general, it must not be detailed in method and manner.
III. Vulgarity; IV. Obscenity; V. Profanity; hardly need further explanation than is contained in the Code.
VI. CostumeGeneral Principles:
1. The effect of nudity or semi-nudity upon the normal man or woman, and much more upon the young and upon immature persons, has been honestly recognized by all lawmakers and moralists.
2. Hence the fact that the nude or semi-nude body may be beautiful does not make its use in the films moral. For, in addition to its beauty, the effect of the nude or semi-nude body on the normal individual must be taken into consideration.
3. Nudity or semi-nudity used simply to put a "punch" into a picture comes under the head of immoral actions. It is immoral in its effect on the average audience.
4. Nudity can never be permitted as being necessary for the plot. Semi-nudity must not result in undue or indecent exposures.
5. Transparent or translucent materials and silhouette are frequently more suggestive than actual exposure.
VII. DancesDancing in general is recognized as an art and as a beautiful form of expressing human emotions.
But dances which suggest or represent sexual actions, whether performed solo or with two or more; dances intended to excite the emotional reaction of an audience; dances with movement of the breasts, excessive body movements while the feet are stationary, violate decency and are wrong.
VIII. ReligionThe reason why ministers of religion may not be comic characters or villains is simply because the attitude taken toward them may easily become the attitude taken toward religion in general. Religion is lowered in the minds of the audience because of the lowering of the audience's respect for a minister.
IX. LocationsCertain places are so closely and thoroughly associated with sexual life or with sexual sin that their use must be carefully limited.
X. National FeelingsThe just rights, history, and feelings of any nation are entitled to most careful consideration and respectful treatment.
XI. TitlesAs the title of a picture is the brand on that particular type of goods, it must conform to the ethical practices of all such honest business.
XII. Repellent SubjectsSuch subjects are occasionally necessary for the plot. Their treatment must never offend good taste nor injure the sensibilities of an audience.

My Neighborhood Through My Eyes...

2008-01-13T01:58:00.000-08:00

...one could say "the eyes of a mother," but I'd sock'em in the lip!

Having been away from my home for a few months, and trying to decide whether or not to return, I am realizing more and more, the place I dreamed about when I was a kid was gone by the time I got there, and worse, the place that I fell in love with when I got there, is now as far away as Orange Groves south of Fountain, and large crowds showing up for a premier.

When I first left I was so utterly full of homesickness that I couldn't even think about the place without getting upset...but that's changed. Now I can think about it, talk about it, and keep up with the latest demolition or death, cheezeball scandal or or what passes for "chic" on the Boulevard these days.

So, this blog will be bitter sweet....my love, my dreams, and my horror, all rolled into one.

Me and Hollywood, a relationship like Clara Bow and her friend Duke (the Great Dane). Can get me off, but on the whole, an unholy obscene union!