Month: March 2019

Hollywood, a district northwest of downtown Los Angeles, was the first American city shaped by the automobile. The word “motel” was coined by a local architect in 1925, and the word “supermarket,” where people now drove to shop, was coined there in 1927. Nevertheless, a great deal of transportation to and from Hollywood was via the red cars of the Pacific Electric Railway, southern California’s mass transit system. Read more about the culture of Hollywood and Los Angeles in the last century in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

During the making of the 1939 movie classic The Wizard of Oz, Margaret Hamilton suffered burns while filming the Wicked Witch flying off on her broomstick. She recuperated at home for six weeks. Here are the popular home remedies for burns recommended during the Depression (some still used today, with scientific backing): (1) To prevent infection: honey, nail varnish; (2) To reduce pain: aloe vera, soybean paste, Colgate toothpaste (founded 1873), towels soaked in strong tea; (3) To prevent blistering: yellow mustard; (4) To reduce itching: oatmeal bath; (5) To remove dead skin: papaya; (6) To prevent scarring: Vitamin E, egg white, raw potato; (7) To promote healing: all the above. Read more about the making of the movie and cultural lore from 1930 to 1980 in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

The tragic Triangle Waist Company fire was on March 25, 1911 — 108 years ago. During the fire, the factory owners, both Russian immigrants, fled to safety on the roof of the ten-floor building. They were charged with first and second degree manslaughter, but were acquitted when the defense attorney cast doubt on the testimony of survivors and witnesses. The owners were later convicted in a 1913 civil suit and paid $75 per victim to the families. By contrast, insurance paid the owners $400 for each of the 146 victims, most of them Jewish and Italian immigrants. Read more about the fire and one immigrant survivor in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Frank Detra, an Italian-born gambling entrepreneur, arrived in Las Vegas in 1927. He was sent there by Al Capone, who, anticipating the repeal of Prohibition, urged Detra to head west. Detra operated the Pair-O-Dice roadhouse on Highway 91 — really a speakeasy — which did not open to the public until Prohibition was repealed in 1933, when it was granted a license to sell beer. The club served excellent Italian food and wine, and diners could play roulette, craps, and blackjack. Despite its illegal activities, the club was never raided. By then, the Mafia was well entrenched in the city. The club was later bought by Guy McAfee, the former Police Captain and Vice Squad Commander of Los Angeles. Read more about how the Mafia first infiltrated Las Vegas 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

During the 1930s, Hitler delivered bombastic patriotic speeches to bolster the buildup to WWII. Examples “Behind every murder … stands the hate-filled power of our Jewish foe, a foe to whom we had done no harm, but who none the less sought to subjugate our German people and make of it its slave.” // “Our fundamental economic principles are, first, to unite all the forces existing, and secondly, to educate our people better in their use. This Labor Front is the greatest element in such education.” // “Bolshevism turns flourishing country sides into sinister wastes of ruins; National Socialism transforms a Reich of destruction and misery into a healthy State and a flourishing economic life.” Read more about Germany in the lead-up to WWII in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Of the 13 black parents who were plaintiffs in the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education desegregation case, 12 were mothers and one was a father. The case is named for the one father (Oliver Brown) because the NAACP legal team felt that having a man at the head of the roster would be better received by the all-male U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Read more about race relations in Topeka 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

London’s gentlemen’s clubs were established for the English upper class in the 18th century. Members had generally attended college, served in the military, and/or were professionals. Entertainment was not a feature. Rather, the clubs were second homes for the men to eat, drink, and play parlor games such as cards and billiards. The fanciest ones, boasting posh interiors, were designed by the same prominent architects who built country houses for the wealthy. Some provided for overnight stays, and young men who had recently graduated and moved to London might live at their clubs for two or three years before renting a house or flat. Some clubs centered on shared interests, such as the arts, literature, or politics. The exclusive — and exclusionary — membership of Boodles, one of the oldest (founded in 1762) was aristocratic Tories. Read more about old London in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

The life of San Diego’s tuna canners in the 1920s and 1930s was grueling. Primarily Italian and Portuguese immigrants, they worked long days with one short break at rates as low as 33 cents an hour. Each cannery had a wharf jutting out into the sea where boats would unload their haul. Because there was no telling when a fresh load would arrive, workers had to be “on call” 24 hours a day. Read more about how the tuna industry exploited its workers in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).