Forward Into The Past with Randy Brian over KSPC-FM Claremont, California featuring "I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and Ten Cent Store", 1931, Bing Crosby...A series of Hobo Songs: "Hallelujah, I`m a Bum" (1928) by Haywire Mac..."Hallelujah, I`m a Bum" (1932) by Al Jolsyn..."I Don`t Work for a Living" (1930) by Frank Crummet..."Lazy Bones" (1933) by Ted Lewis..."Hey Pop, I Don`t Want To Go To Work" (1940) by Kay Kyser`s Orchestra...Three very early Fanny Brice songs including "Second Hand Rose"
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Holt Avenue and Palomares in 1927 Pomona, California
Holt Avenue and Palomares in 1927 Pomona, California 
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Looking south from the west side of Holt and Garey Avenues, Pomona..1910-1911
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An 1875 photo looking from 3rd and Main in Pomona, California with the historical oak tree in the distance where the first Christian service was held in the area in 1837 and is now located on Kenoak Place
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This is Parker Center, the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles, California (downtown), near the interstate 10 freeway...This was where the most recent of the "Dragnet" TV shows were supposed to take place, with Jack Webb, the most recent of them being in 1970, 1969 and 1968...In my opinion, however, the best ones were the ones he did in the 50`s and were in black and white...Jack Webb died in 1982...He was married to the singer and actress, Julie London....
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click photo for full imageLooking south from the west side of Holt and Garey Avenues, Pomona..1910-1911
click photo for full image An 1875 photo looking from 3rd and Main in Pomona, California with the historical oak tree in the distance where the first Christian service was held in the area in 1837 and is now located on Kenoak Place
click photo for full imageThis is Parker Center, the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles, California (downtown), near the interstate 10 freeway...This was where the most recent of the "Dragnet" TV shows were supposed to take place, with Jack Webb, the most recent of them being in 1970, 1969 and 1968...In my opinion, however, the best ones were the ones he did in the 50`s and were in black and white...Jack Webb died in 1982...He was married to the singer and actress, Julie London....
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Monday, May 09, 2005
Brunswick Building, downtown Los Angeles (1888)...click this link for blog #2...
The Brunswick Building, downtown Los Angeles, California...Built in 1888..further up the street, you can see the United States Courthouse and behind it, the City Hall building...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Oakland Bay Bridge (1933)...
Oakland Bay Bridge, Oakland, California...Construction began in 1933 and the bridge opened in 1936....Construction was simultaneous with the Golden Gate Bridge construction...The length of the bridge is over eight miles, a double-deck structure...Please click on photo for larger image....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
Newport Beach (1954)..My brother, myself and my brother-in-law...(click this link for blog #3)...
The year 1954, August, our family vacation for two weeks at Newport Beach, California where we had rented a cabin near the beach...Pictured from left to right is: My brother, John Robert...at age 16 here, myself, at age eleven, and my brother-in-law, Kenneth Hadley, at age 21...Kenneth had a job as a meter reader for the Edison Company, then he went into the Air Force, and when he got out, he still went back to work for the Edison Company, and later he became a special agent for the company...He had to go to a sheriff`s academy in order to get the position...This was in 1961...He later divorced my sister, Dorothy Lee, in 1964...In 1954, when this photo was taken, this was at a time in my life when I was not very well accepted by my brother-in-law, nor my brother, especially...I was picked on a lot by my brother and also by some neighborhood kids, such as "Marshal Turpin", who was the neighborhood bully, who moved next door to us on Kenoak Drive, in Pomona, in 1953...We were living on Alvarado street, in Pomona, having moved from our Kenoak Drive address a few months earlier, at the time of this photo, but Marshal Turpin would still come around to pay his respects from his house, still, on Kenoak Drive, at the time...My brother sort of always resented me as his brother until I was at around the age of fifteen...And, at that time, he sort of began accepting me, more and more, as time went on...Every August, and for two weeks, my mother would get her vacation from the Pomona First Federal, and we would spend it at Newport Beach...This went on until 1959, when I dropped out of the picture, altogether, about a year later, in 1960, but my mother and grandmother would continue to spend my mother`s vacation time at Newport Beach, California, until the year 1978 when my grandmother passed away...And my mother retired in 1976...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Scenic Coastal Highway One, "Cabrillo Highway", California`s Pacific Coast Line...
Scenic Route One "Cabrillo Highway" along California`s Pacific Coast Line, A beautiful drive where the highway just curves and curves, forever...It goes on like this until you reach Monterrey in Northern California...Would very much like to find someone to travel this route with me on the internet..No fun alone..And also, travel to other places of interest....
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Amityville Horror...
There seems to be little doubt that one of the most famous American hauntings to ever be documented occurred in the quiet town of Amityville, New York, a peaceful enclave on Long Island’s south shore. There stands no other case from the latter part of the 20th Century that so captured the imagination of the general public... and no other case that filled us with such fear.
he horrific carnage that prefaced the story of the “Amityville Horror” began one dark fall night in 1974. The DeFeos, Ronald Sr. and Louise, their two young sons, Mark and John, and two daughters, Dawn and Allison, were sleeping peacefully in their comfortable, three-story, Dutch Colonial home in Amityville. The silence of the house was shattered when Ronald DeFeo murdered his parents and his siblings with a high-powered rifle. One by one, he killed each of them as they slept, although strangely, the sound of the gunshots never awakened the other family members.
Regardless, the jury ignored DeFeo’s claims and found him guilty of six counts of first-degree murder. State Supreme Court Justice Thomas M. Stark sentenced him to 150 years in prison.
The tragedy in Amityville made grim local news but few outside of New York ever heard about the house until some time later. The horrendous events that followed began on December 18, 1975, when a young couple named George and Kathy Lutz bought the house on Ocean Avenue for $80,000. Just a week before Christmas, they moved into their new “dream home” with Kathy’s three children from a previous marriage. They would later claim that the “dream home” soon became a nightmare!
Almost from the moment that they moved into the house, the Lutz family would insist they noticed an unearthly presence in the place. They began to hear mysterious noises that they could not account for. Locked windows and doors would inexplicably open and close, as if by invisible hands. George Lutz, a sturdy former Marine, claimed to be plagued by the sound of a phantom brass band that would march back and forth through the house. When a Catholic priest entered the house, after agreeing to exorcize it, an eerie, disembodied voice told him to “get out”.
After the aborted exorcism, the events began to intensify. The thumping and scratching sounds grew worse, a devilish creature was seen outside the windows at night, George Lutz was seemingly “possessed” by an evil spirit and green slime even oozed from the walls and ceiling. The family was further terrified by ghostly apparitions of hooded figures, clouds of flies that appeared from nowhere, cold chills, personality changes, sickly odors, objects moving about on their own, the repeated disconnection of their telephone service and communication between the youngest Lutz child and a devilish pig that she called “Jodie”. Kathy Lutz reported that she was often beaten and scratched by unseen hands and that one night, she was literally levitated up off the bed.
The family managed to hold out for 28 days before they gathered up their possessions and fled from the house. According to their story, they left so quickly that they didn’t take their furniture or many of their other possessions with them. The demonic spirits, they said, had driven them from their home!
And then, things started to get really scary....
In February 1976, not long after the Lutz family left the house, local residents were stunned to see New York Channel 5’s news team doing a life news feed from the house on Ocean Avenue. The news crew filmed a seance that was being conducted and a dramatic investigation of the place conducted by Ed and Lorraine Warren, two of America’ most famous “demonologists”. The Amityville house would soon become the center of a three-ring circus!
For those not familiar with the Warrens, Lorraine claims to be a clairvoyant and a trance medium who is said to have the uncanny ability to contact the spirit world. On the other hand, her husband Ed, purports to be an expert on hauntings and exorcism. From the 1950’s through the 1980’s, the Warrens, who are based in Connecticut, were recognized as authorities when it came to ghosts and demons. While they are still active today, their methods have been replaced by more scientific standards of investigation. Regardless, in 1976, their stamp of approval on the events reported at Amityville caught the attention of a nation.
The Warrens went to the house for the first time in February and while supposedly George Lutz refused to accompany them, he did loan them a key. The Warrens stated that they found old newspapers around the house and that the refrigerator was still stocked with food. It was obvious to them, they said, that the Lutz family had left in a hurry. The Warrens brought two other psychics with them to the house to conduct their seance. They later reported that they “sensed” an “unearthly presence” in the house and Ed Warren also claimed to experience heart palpitations that he blamed on the occult forces. The house was haunted, they said, by the angry spirits of Indians who had once inhabited the area and by “inhuman spirits”. The story was that the Shinnecock Indians had used that very parcel of land as a place where sick and insane members of the tribe were isolated until they died. They did not bury the dead there however because they supposedly believed the land was “infested with demons”.
...I copied the proceeding from an Amityville Horror website...A 1979 movie which did not quite follow the true story, fully, was an interesting movie, anyway, and one that everyone should see...But the truth of the matter is that the house, which stands on Ocean Avenue, in Amityville, Long Island, New York, was built in 1928, however, the land which it was built on is what is haunted and not the house, itself...The land was where former indian inhabitants of the area buried their insane and sick and has been haunted since the late 1700`s...Another house once stood on the same ground before the present house did, but it was moved to another location because it, too, was experiencing hauntings and strange occurrances, however, after having been moved to another location the former house experienced no more strange occurrances, and which proves that it is the land which is haunted and not the houses...
Please click on photo for larger image...
he horrific carnage that prefaced the story of the “Amityville Horror” began one dark fall night in 1974. The DeFeos, Ronald Sr. and Louise, their two young sons, Mark and John, and two daughters, Dawn and Allison, were sleeping peacefully in their comfortable, three-story, Dutch Colonial home in Amityville. The silence of the house was shattered when Ronald DeFeo murdered his parents and his siblings with a high-powered rifle. One by one, he killed each of them as they slept, although strangely, the sound of the gunshots never awakened the other family members.
Regardless, the jury ignored DeFeo’s claims and found him guilty of six counts of first-degree murder. State Supreme Court Justice Thomas M. Stark sentenced him to 150 years in prison.
The tragedy in Amityville made grim local news but few outside of New York ever heard about the house until some time later. The horrendous events that followed began on December 18, 1975, when a young couple named George and Kathy Lutz bought the house on Ocean Avenue for $80,000. Just a week before Christmas, they moved into their new “dream home” with Kathy’s three children from a previous marriage. They would later claim that the “dream home” soon became a nightmare!
Almost from the moment that they moved into the house, the Lutz family would insist they noticed an unearthly presence in the place. They began to hear mysterious noises that they could not account for. Locked windows and doors would inexplicably open and close, as if by invisible hands. George Lutz, a sturdy former Marine, claimed to be plagued by the sound of a phantom brass band that would march back and forth through the house. When a Catholic priest entered the house, after agreeing to exorcize it, an eerie, disembodied voice told him to “get out”.
After the aborted exorcism, the events began to intensify. The thumping and scratching sounds grew worse, a devilish creature was seen outside the windows at night, George Lutz was seemingly “possessed” by an evil spirit and green slime even oozed from the walls and ceiling. The family was further terrified by ghostly apparitions of hooded figures, clouds of flies that appeared from nowhere, cold chills, personality changes, sickly odors, objects moving about on their own, the repeated disconnection of their telephone service and communication between the youngest Lutz child and a devilish pig that she called “Jodie”. Kathy Lutz reported that she was often beaten and scratched by unseen hands and that one night, she was literally levitated up off the bed.
The family managed to hold out for 28 days before they gathered up their possessions and fled from the house. According to their story, they left so quickly that they didn’t take their furniture or many of their other possessions with them. The demonic spirits, they said, had driven them from their home!
And then, things started to get really scary....
In February 1976, not long after the Lutz family left the house, local residents were stunned to see New York Channel 5’s news team doing a life news feed from the house on Ocean Avenue. The news crew filmed a seance that was being conducted and a dramatic investigation of the place conducted by Ed and Lorraine Warren, two of America’ most famous “demonologists”. The Amityville house would soon become the center of a three-ring circus!
For those not familiar with the Warrens, Lorraine claims to be a clairvoyant and a trance medium who is said to have the uncanny ability to contact the spirit world. On the other hand, her husband Ed, purports to be an expert on hauntings and exorcism. From the 1950’s through the 1980’s, the Warrens, who are based in Connecticut, were recognized as authorities when it came to ghosts and demons. While they are still active today, their methods have been replaced by more scientific standards of investigation. Regardless, in 1976, their stamp of approval on the events reported at Amityville caught the attention of a nation.
The Warrens went to the house for the first time in February and while supposedly George Lutz refused to accompany them, he did loan them a key. The Warrens stated that they found old newspapers around the house and that the refrigerator was still stocked with food. It was obvious to them, they said, that the Lutz family had left in a hurry. The Warrens brought two other psychics with them to the house to conduct their seance. They later reported that they “sensed” an “unearthly presence” in the house and Ed Warren also claimed to experience heart palpitations that he blamed on the occult forces. The house was haunted, they said, by the angry spirits of Indians who had once inhabited the area and by “inhuman spirits”. The story was that the Shinnecock Indians had used that very parcel of land as a place where sick and insane members of the tribe were isolated until they died. They did not bury the dead there however because they supposedly believed the land was “infested with demons”.
...I copied the proceeding from an Amityville Horror website...A 1979 movie which did not quite follow the true story, fully, was an interesting movie, anyway, and one that everyone should see...But the truth of the matter is that the house, which stands on Ocean Avenue, in Amityville, Long Island, New York, was built in 1928, however, the land which it was built on is what is haunted and not the house, itself...The land was where former indian inhabitants of the area buried their insane and sick and has been haunted since the late 1700`s...Another house once stood on the same ground before the present house did, but it was moved to another location because it, too, was experiencing hauntings and strange occurrances, however, after having been moved to another location the former house experienced no more strange occurrances, and which proves that it is the land which is haunted and not the houses...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Terminal Annex, US Post Office, downtown Los Angeles (1938)...click this link for blog #4...
The Terminal Annex, United States Post Office in downtown Los Angeles...Built in 1938...famous landmark...
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Please click on photo for larger image...
My Kindergarten Class Photo, Dodge Elementary School, Council Bluffs, Iowa (1948)...
My Kindergarten class photo...Council Bluffs, Iowa, Dodge Elementary School...I am pictured on the top row, fourth student from the left...I am at the age of five years here...The year is 1948 and two years later, the family moved from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Pomona, California...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Saturday, May 07, 2005
"Going Hollywood" (1933)...click this link for blog #5
"Going Hollywood" (1933) with Bing Crosby and Marion Davies...Excellent Musical...The last movie Crosby did for M-G-M until the year 1956 when he did "High Society" with Grace Kelly...He worked for Paramount in the meantime...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
"They Drive By Night" (1940)...
"They Drive By Night" (1940)...starring Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan and George Raft, also with Alan Hale and Ida Lupino...Warner Brothers...Truck Driving Movie...Excellent Motion Picture...Just like Frank Sinatra was rumored to have mob connections, so was George Raft rumored to also have mob connections and also to have personally met Al Capone (Scarface), who complimented Raft on his gangster movie portrayals...When Raft was in trouble with the IRS and owed them money, Frank Sinatra sent him a blank check for him to fill in whatever amount he needed to get him out of trouble...Humphrey Bogart and Sinatra were also close friends and ate at the same restaurant in Beverly Hills, California....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
"D. O. A." (1949)...click this link for blog #6
The Film Noir Classic "D.O.A." (1949) with Edmund O`Brien and Pamela Britton...Excellent "B" movie...I first saw this movie on television in 1954 when we had just moved from Kenoak Drive to Alvarado street in Pomona, I was just a kid in sixth grade...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Mendocino State Hospital, very early post card...
Mendocino State Hospital, built at the beginning of the last century, has also shut down and closed it`s doors...Located north of San Francisco, near Ukiah, California and most likely has just as many infamous horror stories told about it as does Camarillo State Hospital...This hospital was really located in a remote area making escape very difficult for the patients...This photo was taken anywhere from around 1900 to 1910, thereabouts, and it was originally a post card from the hospital, itself...As you can read on the card, it says: "State hospital for insane, Ukiah, California"...They have long since changed the name of mental institutions to just "State Hospitals"...Also, in the photo is shown the original buildings of the hospital when it was built...They have added a lot to it since the time of this photo, however, the hospital has been shut down some yeats ago...
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Please click on photo for larger image...
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
click here for blog 7
An overhead view of The Wiltern Theater, built in 1929, located on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, in Los Angleles, California... I went here with a friend, in 1969, to see "Ben-Hur" (1959) with Charlton Heston...When I was seventeen years old, in 1960, April, I cleaned my sister and brother-in-law`s (Kenneth Hadley) house, which, at the time, was located on Raylene street, only 3 or 4 blocks from our house on Elaine street, in Pomona...I cleaned it from top to bottom to earn the money to buy tickets for everyone so we could go to Hollywood and to the Egyptian Theater to see "Ben Hur", at the time, and just after it won eleven Academy Awards at the Award Ceremony of April, 1960...All of our family who went were: myself, my brother-in-law, my sister, my grandmother and my mother....
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
If you ever get a chance, listen to Frank Sontag on KLOS-FM, 95.5 FM in Los Angeles, he is on all night on Sunday nights and he knows this Craig Hulet guy who is "right-on" about Bush and everyhting else and about politics and where we, the United States, is at today...Also check out Craig Hulet`s website where this photo came from and you will be well informed....
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click on photo for larger image...
click for blog 8
My sister, Dorothy Lee`s Pomona High School senior class photo. 1952...It was later on, either in 1952 or 1953 when she married Kenneth Hadley, who also attended Pomona High School and graduated in 1951...Kenneth lived over on the other side of town on Currier Street in Pomona...His father was a truck driver and they originally came from Canada...Kenneth was a real macho type guy and that was always where his head was at when you tried to communicate with him...After marrying my sister, Kenneth sort of just moved right in and took over...H e also wanted to take over me and my brother and become our father, who we didn`t have, since the death of our grandfather, "Papa Joe", in 1951...Kenneth was a domineering type of guy, also...He, right away, began criticizing me and berating me and making feel very insignificant as a human being...And especially after I was tricked into going down to Florida with my sister when he stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa...After that, he really felt he had complete authourity over me, since my mother just turned me over to him and my sister in order that she wouldn`t have to deal with me any longer...From that point on, this guy acted as my father because it was approved, not officially in writing, or anything, but everyone knew she was completely okay with Kenneth acting as my father, therefore, relieving her of the responsibility...My mother never wanted me...She, I suspect, was actually a lesbian and wanted all girls and no boys...My mother would never interfere when this Kenneth would humiliate me in front of other family relatives who were visiting, and berate me and make me look foolish in front of people...This was all quite alright with her and my grandmother...Because in the end, it was just my mother and grandmother who only wanted each other and no one else, so they methodically eliminated the rest of the family, especially my brother and myself, they got rid of their house on Elaine street in Pomona, so there would not be room for any other family members, except for her and my grandmother, and maybe a dog and a cat, and then they moved into a two bedroom apartment in Claremont, Calif., right nest to Pomona in 1966, which was the last residence my mother had before she disappeared forever, and this was where my grandmother also was living when she died in 1978, in this apartment in Claremont on Towne Avenue...I came from a disfunctional family... Very, very much so....
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
The Penguins, of "Earth Angel" fame, 1954, all attended Fremont high School together in Los Angeles...Cleve Duncan was lead singer and still has the group called "The Penguins" today although with completely new members...Two of the original members have since passed away, Bruce Tate, shown in the photo on the far right and not shown, the singer who replaced Tate after Tate got involved with a hit and run auto accident in 1954 where a woman was killed...Later on, Tate wound up in Camarillo State Hospital and he died in 1973 in Los Angeles...Earth Angel remains as one of the most important of all the rythmn and blues records and it was recorded in a garage, originally, in South Los Angeles, and became number one on the charts of 1954...The original Penguins, in the photo, appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1954....
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Camarillo State Hospital, Camarillo, California, located in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles...Closed it`s doors in 1997 due to President Reagan`s policy of de-institutionalization and has since been converted into a state university...The hospital first opened in 1936 and has a very infamous history of abuse and patient neglect and torture...Several movie stars have been committed here, including Francis Gifford, Bela Lugosi (self-commitment), Lauren Chapin, of "Father`s Knows Best" 1950`s TV series (for only a year, or so, however), Charlie Parker, the jazz musician, Tony Curtis` brother, Bruce Tate, who was one of the members of "The Penguins" of Earth Angel fame...The Eagles song, "Hotel California" is about Camarillo State Hospital, "You can check in, but you can never leave"..How true that was...Once committed, the state of California is your guardian until they say otherwise...you can try to run away but you will be hounded, and be a fugitive just the same as though you escaped from prison, only you will no longer be a citizen of the United States with all your citizenship rights having been stripped away from you when you were committed and you made a ward of the state..And you were declared incompetent and insane and no longer responsible for your actions...This is what it means to be committed to a state institution... And back in the 1950`s and 60`s this could very easily be done...All it takes is a few signatures on a petiton for mental illness and a psychiatrist`s signature and you are on your way to Camarillo and your stay is indefinate and an undetermined sentence...If you had committed murder, at least you would get a definate sentence and a chance of parole, but not if you are declared incompetent...forget that!...Back, say like in 1960 or thereabouts, if your next door neighbor didn`t like your looks, or something of that nature, well, he could simply get rid of you by having you committed, but a lot has changed since those days..It`s not as easy now-a-days...But back then, it was a booming business...Want someone out of the way....Have them committed...Safe and simple...."Out of sight...Out of mind".....And once you are committed, then you are subjected to all sorts of barbaric tortures, such as electro-shock therapy, forced drugging, beatings, cruel and unusual punishment, forced incarceration, neglect, rape and the list goes on and on...This former state hospital is also said to haunted, and very much so, with numerous sightings, which would be expected from all the torture and inhumane treatment that went on there, and also murders that were never reported, or covered-up by the staff...You would not be sent to Camarillo in order to get help of any kind, but rather to get you out of one of your relative`s way, or something of that nature...The only treatment you can expect to receive is "a kick in the ass" or some other form of cruelty, or just get "the shit kicked out of you", but don`t expect any form of help of any kind because, after all, that was not the reason you were sent there in the first place, but only to get rid of you because you were in somebody`s way....
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Monday, May 02, 2005
Tom Neal and Ann Savage in the Film Noir Classic "Detour" (1946)...An excellent "B" movie...I highly recommend it...It really captures your imagination and puts you right there with this guy and experience what he is going through,,,"Everything that can go Wrong, Does go wrong" to this guy in this movie...
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click on photo for larger image...
This is San Quentin Prison, located in Northern California overlooking San Francisco Bay..This is the oldest Prison in California...Construction began in the year 1852..This is also where death row is located and you have either a choice of lethal injection or the gas chamber...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Bob Seagren at 13 years of age...
This is what Bob Seagren looked like as a junior high school student in the late 50`s and this is how I remember him best and not as a famous celebrity...However, I got along great with Bob and we used to race each other around the block and have long talks together..We also would sit together with my older brother at their house on San Bernardino Rd. and listen to my 45 RPM single "rock and roll" records of the day, (No Stereo in those days, only Hi-Fi Monaural) and then we would all go out into his backyard and play some Ping Pong, and so on, and so on... 
Arthur Seagren, Bob Seagren`s Older Brother...Senior Class in High School Photo...
This is Arthur Seagren...A real nice guy and willing to always help a friend in need...In case the name Seagren may sound familiar to you, his younger brother is Bob Seagren, the Olympic Gold Medalist in the Pole Vault in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and also the Silver Medalist in the 1972 Pole Vault event in the Summer Olympics in Munich....But, of course, when I first met his younger brother, Bob, he wasn`t a champion in anything, except a sixth grader in school and only eleven years old...This was in 1957...However, it was Art who was actually my age and my friend who I knew from school and from the seventh grade on up...He was always a lot more interested in sports than I was...In fact, sports does nothing for me at all...It was Art who first was an achiever in the Pole Vault and was breaking records in events at Pomona high School where we both attended school...We had to go to class in make shift portable classrooms because the main section of the high school had burnt down in 1956...
my older brother was attending Pomona High School on May 15, 1956, when the fire destroyed the original building, and I was down in San Diego attending Brown Military Academy...
Today there is a shopping Center where the old Pomona High once stood and they have built a new high school further north of the old location...But, anyway, Bob Seagren followed his older brother`s example and is the reason he also got into Pole Vaulting...And Art sort dropped out of Pole Vaulting all together and went into the Army...However, Art still remained active in sports...And Art had a friend, who I also disliked a lot, "Mike Flanagan", who also was into competition Pole Vaulting at Ganesha High School on the other side of town...Art and I used to go to movies together while in high school and he occasionally would stay all night at my house...I lived just up the street from where his house was located...My family`s home was at 671 Elaine Street in Pomona, at this particular time which was our third and final move while living in Pomona..And Art`s house was on San Bernardino Avenue, at the time...But now, the last time I checked, anyway, they are still living in the high class district of Claremont, which is a College town just next to Pomona, in Los Angeles County...My friend, who I had known for only five years from our first residence on Kenoak Drive, Terry Densley, well, I had lost track of him because, believe it, or not, his parents sent him to a Catholic Military School in 1956...Probably copying what my parents did to me....In downtown Pomona, in those days, Pomona was not at all like the Pomona of today where you fear for your life just walking down the street...On the contrary, Pomona then was a nice, decent city to live in...And Vic Tanny`s gym was downtown, also, where I had a "lifetime" membership and I would regularly go there to workout...
Art Seagren would sometimes go there with me...I used to also assist Bob, his younger brother, in working out, at his home on San Bernardino Road, which was walking distance just a few blocks from our house...My older brother, John, began going with me, also, when I would go to Art`s house to visit ...Art Seagren, also, had a real nice mother, and father, too, for that matter...She was always so friendly and cheerful and never an unkind word from her...Art and I would pull a lot of teenage pranks, together, on people, but his parents always seemed to just "go with the flow", so to speak, and never get all "bent out of shape" over something ..Something, of which, I cannot say the same for my folks, at the time, meaning my dear grandmother, and my dear mother...Anyway...so now you know about my friend, Art Seagren, who I have not seen since the year 1966...And I have not seen Bob either since the year 1970 when I drove to their house in Claremont and had a short visit, but Art was not there and that was the reason I had gone to their house...Bob was there, however, with his girlfriend, and by this time, he was a celebrity because of winning in the Olympics and it was no longer the same and I felt very uncomfortable just being there ...so that was that And so much for this bit of trivia of my past history...
Arthur Seagren, Jr., 1960 Pomona High School graduation photo
my older brother was attending Pomona High School on May 15, 1956, when the fire destroyed the original building, and I was down in San Diego attending Brown Military Academy...
Today there is a shopping Center where the old Pomona High once stood and they have built a new high school further north of the old location...But, anyway, Bob Seagren followed his older brother`s example and is the reason he also got into Pole Vaulting...And Art sort dropped out of Pole Vaulting all together and went into the Army...However, Art still remained active in sports...And Art had a friend, who I also disliked a lot, "Mike Flanagan", who also was into competition Pole Vaulting at Ganesha High School on the other side of town...Art and I used to go to movies together while in high school and he occasionally would stay all night at my house...I lived just up the street from where his house was located...My family`s home was at 671 Elaine Street in Pomona, at this particular time which was our third and final move while living in Pomona..And Art`s house was on San Bernardino Avenue, at the time...But now, the last time I checked, anyway, they are still living in the high class district of Claremont, which is a College town just next to Pomona, in Los Angeles County...My friend, who I had known for only five years from our first residence on Kenoak Drive, Terry Densley, well, I had lost track of him because, believe it, or not, his parents sent him to a Catholic Military School in 1956...Probably copying what my parents did to me....In downtown Pomona, in those days, Pomona was not at all like the Pomona of today where you fear for your life just walking down the street...On the contrary, Pomona then was a nice, decent city to live in...And Vic Tanny`s gym was downtown, also, where I had a "lifetime" membership and I would regularly go there to workout...
Art Seagren would sometimes go there with me...I used to also assist Bob, his younger brother, in working out, at his home on San Bernardino Road, which was walking distance just a few blocks from our house...My older brother, John, began going with me, also, when I would go to Art`s house to visit ...Art Seagren, also, had a real nice mother, and father, too, for that matter...She was always so friendly and cheerful and never an unkind word from her...Art and I would pull a lot of teenage pranks, together, on people, but his parents always seemed to just "go with the flow", so to speak, and never get all "bent out of shape" over something ..Something, of which, I cannot say the same for my folks, at the time, meaning my dear grandmother, and my dear mother...Anyway...so now you know about my friend, Art Seagren, who I have not seen since the year 1966...And I have not seen Bob either since the year 1970 when I drove to their house in Claremont and had a short visit, but Art was not there and that was the reason I had gone to their house...Bob was there, however, with his girlfriend, and by this time, he was a celebrity because of winning in the Olympics and it was no longer the same and I felt very uncomfortable just being there ...so that was that And so much for this bit of trivia of my past history...
Arthur Seagren, Jr., 1960 Pomona High School graduation photo
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Knott`s Berry Farm in the 1950`s...This attraction was some old guy in jail and you would give the information to someone in a front booth and it would come from the mouth of the guy in jail when your friend looks into the jail bars at the guy in jail...I hope I said all that right, probably not....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
The Twin Towers, Los Angeles County Jail
The Twin Towers, Los Angeles County Jail addition, was completed in 1995...located just south of downtown Los Angeles, California....
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The Music Box Steps..
The steps, as they appear today, which were used in the making of The Academy Award Winning Laurel and Hardy Film Comedy Classic Short Subject "The Music Box" (1932)..They were only recently discovered as the location was not known until 2002...They have not been kept up or preserved and no one knew how historically significant they were..That is, the people who lived in the deteriorated area surrounding the "Music Box Steps", which are actually off of Sunset Boulevard, between downtown Los angeles and Hollywood, California...
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click photo for full image
Bela Lugosi, Hungarian born actor, 1882-1956, famous for his portrayal of "Dracula" in 1931, which really put him on the map, but not until until he was almost 50 years old...His rival, Boris Karloff, succeeded where Lugosi failed in that he got lead roles in movies where Lugosi only got second best parts, due to the fact that he reused the part of Frankenstein, whereas Karloff accepted the role and it took him to great heights in his career as an actor, while Lugosi was on the way down and to the poor house...He even got addicted to drugs and committed himself to Camarillo State Hospital in 1956, not long before his death at age 74..This was at the time in his career when he was involved with making horrible movies with Edward Wood, Jr..He had become that desparate for work..while, on the other hand, Karloff was living quite comfortably, although he felt pity for his old rival from Hollywood....Frank Sinatra, annomynously, contributed money to Lugosi so he wouldn`t lose his house in Los Angeles...I always enjoyed "The Black Cat" (1934) where Lugosi has the chance to get even with Karloff, in the end, and begins skinning him alive.....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
Sunday, May 01, 2005
My grandmother, Berenice Fiske, photo taken at the same time as the one of my grandfather, Joe Fiske, at the beginning of the last century and most likely after the two had just gotten married...this is the best photo that I have of my grandmother and also the one of my grandfather, both photos having been taken at the same time, after their marriage...My grandmother was a student of the "Old School" and, of course, women were not equal with men during her younger days and which led her to completely depend on men for most everything and I always had the impression that her attitude was that all men were good for were simply as work horses for their woman and if they were not that, then they simply were not "men", and this was all my grandfather had meant to her..not a tear did she shed after my grandfather died in 1951 and I was there as a witness the whole time..My greatgrandmother was in hesterics, however, after his death, and she keep saying over and over, "what are we going to do without Papa Joe", because that is all he meant to them, just someone to provide them with their security, and that`s all he was to them....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
My grandfather, Joseph M. Fiske, at the beginning of the last century, and probably photo was taken shortly after he and my grandmother had gotten married (and this, of course, is on my mother`s side of the family)...I don`t have any history photos of my father`s side of the family, except of those taken of my father and my uncles (his brothers)...My grandmother never really liked my father and probably was glad when my mother left him and came back to live with her and my grandfather and she became a slave to my grandmother for years to come after that event and never re-married, until after my grandmother`s death in 1978, and only after leaving town for good, and after leaving me for good, also...Yes, I know, it sounds very confusing, but, it is a complicated story, anyway...Just more family trivia....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
James Cagney and Mae Clark in the 1931 film "The Public Enemy" with the famous "grapefruit in the face" scene...One of the first of the Warner Brothers` long line of gangster flicks, and which also put James Cagney on the map...Cagney was born in 1899, the same year as Bogart was born...In real life, he really did have experience as a street fighter and his father was a bartender, as well as a boxer,,,Cagney was raised in New York City and he actually started out as a song and dance man in vaudeville...A few of his buddies he hung around with during his youth actually wound up going to the electric chair for murder...Cagney died in April, 1986 at his home in upper state New York...
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Please click on photo for larger image...
This should be a larger photo of the "fun zone" area of the Los Angeles County Fair, as it appeared in 1951...Of course, today, that sign, which you see, no longer exists, however, the carnival area is still in the same location where it has been for many, many years.....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
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A long shot of downtown Pomona as it looks today...You are looking towards the East here from Garey avenue, which runs north and south...This used to to be the main attraction part of Pomona when the family first moved out here from the mid-west in 1950...It was then known as second street and all the buildings that you see on the right side of the photo and also on the left side were actually stores that you will find in any mall, which is today in operation, where people congregate to do their shopping, such as Woolworth`s and J. C. Penny`s, etc, which are all gone from this location now, and now, all you will find is antique shops...What a Shame!....And in 1961 they cemented everything over and called this the downtown mall, instead of second street, and people say it destroyed everything when they did that, including downtown businesses...I can remember, as a kid, when I used to go shopping down here because this is where you would go, to go shopping...I can remember, even Pep Boys was down here...and Thrifty Drug Store was about the last hold out, until they finally went under....Well, sorry, somemore trivia for you, I guess.....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Me and my sister, Dorothy Lee, in Tampa, Florida...This photo was taken at Clearwater Beach on the Gulf of Mexico, where we would go all the time when the weather warmed up...I was twelve years of age here and my sister was 20 years old and married to my first brother-in-law, Kenneth, who was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base at the time....I only spent one school semester living with my sister and her husband in Florida...Everyone seemed to think this would be a good change for me and I went along with it, being very naive, at the time, and thinking my guardians must know what they are doing and if they say this will be good for me, then they must know what they are talking about...However, I did notfeel at home. at all, living with my sister and her husband, and that they were not all that much older than myself at the time and not all that qualified to be my parents, or to take the place of my parents...So, the only explanation one can come up with as to why my mother saw fir to dump me off onto my older sister and her husband, 3,000 miles away, was that she had enough of me, and I was getting a little older now and not quite as cute and easy to handle as I was when i was littler, so she simply didf not want to deal with me, or any of my problems, and just let someone else handle me..."Out of sight, Out of Mind"....The same explanation can account for why she also, the next year, sent me to military school in San Diego, CA...And while I was attending school in Tampa, I felt very strange there, indeed, and everyone would call me a "Yankee"...I felt like a "Fish out of Water".....Please click on photo for larger image....
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
The United States Courthouse, Downtown Los Angeles
United States Court House, downtown Los Angeles and behind it, a good view of City Hall....The courthouse was built in 1939...To the right of the courthouse building you can see, I think it is called either the Hall of Justice, or The Hall of Recoreds, but i know that the top floors are the old "County Jail", (I was never inside it, myself)...Los Angeles has a new County Jail now, and has had for some years now, located on Bauchett Street, further south of where this photo location is....
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click on photo for larger image...
Edward G. Robinson, 1893-1973, One of the very first to portray a gangster for Warner Brothers,which started out as just "First National Pictures"...The first of Edward G. Robison`s films was "Little Ceasar" (1931), a Vitaphone release with First National Pictures, which was their process during the transition from "silent" to "talking pictures" using the sound on a phonograph record to be syncronized with the moving picture, itself....For better viewing of photo, please click on it for larger picture....
Please click on photo for larger image...
Please click on photo for larger image...
Los Angeles City Hall
Los Angeles City Hall, built in 1927, World Famous Landmark and scene of many movies... One, for example, "The War of the Worlds" (1953), showing the Martians destroying the building, and of course, the "Dragnet" TV series with Jack Webb in the 1950`s.....
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click on photo for larger image...
John Garfield, born in 1913...Died in 1952...Movie tough guy for Warner Brothers during the 30`s and 40`s..H e was targeted by the McCarthy "Witch-Hunt" Hearings, seeking out communist sympathizers in the movie industry during the early 50`s, which, people say, contributed to his untimely death, he never "ratted" on his fellow colleages in the industry and stuck to his higher moral principals....He made some damn good movies too during his shortened career.....
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Please click on photo for larger image...
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby in earlier years...Always enjoyed his singing..He was the one who singer, Frank Sinatra modeled himself after...
Fairmount Park, Council Bluffs, Iowa....Our house in Council Bluffs was on a street which was also a steep hill and at the top of this hill was this park where the family would go for picnics, etc...We lived in Council Bluffs before moving to Pomona, California...I attended Kindergarten, first and second grade at Dodge Elementary School in Council Bluffs and while I was at mid-term in the second grade is when we moved to Pomona....I was at the age of seven at the time....Please click on photo for larger image..... 
Sunday, April 10, 2005
The Los Angeles County Fair at around 1951
Los Angeles County Fair at around the year 1951...My Grandfather died during which time he was working, helping a friend at a eating snack booth at this fair in Pomona, California...Our first house in Pomona, located on Kenoak Drive, was a very short distance from the fair grounds and I used to walk to the fair as a kid, alone, by myself....This area which was called the "Fun Zone"..Well, now that sign is no longer there and all the fun activities sort of syncronize along with everything else as you enter the area...
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