1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 15 - Los Angeles (c)

(for part 1, click here)

Los Angeles - Forest Lawn Cemetery

The Johnsons are still near Los Angeles, this time at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. With over a quarter-million people buried there and a million visitors a year (though I would presume not nearly that many in 1937) Forest Lawn is a sprawling place. It's got multiple chapels, works of art, fountains, and is the resting place of many celebrities. There's quite a list of the famous who are buried there on its Wikipedia page.

Included in the Johnson scrapbook is an informational booklet called Sacred Services in Sacred Ground, which includes a insert about the replica of the Last Supper painting located in their Memorial Court of Honor (pictured above).

And what cemetery would be complete without a 17" x 23" fold-out map? (above)

Our scrapbooker writes above, about the Wee Kirk o' the Heathers pictured in the postcard, "Replica of Glencairn - Annie Laurie's Church. The romantic story of Annie Laurie is recalled by the tiny church. A faithful reproduction of the one she attended throughout her life - 1682-1764. The original church was erected in 1310 and destroyed in 1885."

I'd never heard of Annie Laurie before. There's a poem about her written by William Douglas:

"Maxwelton braes are bonnie, where early fa's the dew

Where me and Annie Laurie made up the promise true

Made up the promise true, and ne'er forget will I

And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay doun my head and die

She's backit like the peacock, she's breistit like the swan

She's jimp aboot the middle, her waist ye weel may span

Her waist ye weel may span, and she has a rolling eye

And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay doun my head and die."

The poem was later turned into a song (there are many versions, but here is Deanna Durbin's, recorded in 1936, so very possibly heard by the Johnsons. By the way, she was only 14 years old when she recorded this song):

Below, we find the great Ripley again with a few more facts about Forest Lawn Cemetery:

According to the latest info I found, there have now been over 30,000 weddings held there!

Next stop, Catalina Island!

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1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 14 - Los Angeles (b)

(for part 1, click here)

Los Angeles - Grauman's Chinese Theatre

While in Los Angeles,  the Johnson family made a pilgrimage - as many still do today - to Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The movies playing at the theater that day (after the Fox Movietone News, with Lowell Thomas announcing) were Married Before Breakfast, with Robert Young and Florence Rice, and Slave Ship, starring Elizabeth Allan, Mickey Rooney and Wallace Beery. (I linked the movies to their IMDB pages, in case you're interested.)

How do I know this? There's a program from Grauman's inside the scrapbook called The Playgoer! It's a 8-1/2" by 5-1/2" saddle stapled, 22-page program. 

In the scrapbook, there are a lot of newspaper clippings dedicated to Slave Ship. Our industrious scrapbooker pasted many clippings from the movie not only inside the scrapbook, but also in the theater program. Maybe the Johnsons only saw one movie that day, or perhaps Slave Ship made the biggest impression on our scrapbooker. Hard to say.

In the above scrapbook page, (dedicated to Slave Ship and, for some reason, Sonja Henie) you can see that racism was alive and kicking. In the clipping just below Ms. Henie, the caption reads "Black cargo is stowed aboard the Albatross." And by black cargo, they mean slaves. People.

My favorite things about the theater's The Playgoer booklet are the advertisements. There are ads for dress shops, French restaurants, the Sunset Club, flowers, candy, golf, wedding shoes, Nutburgers ("Hollywood's Most Famous Sandwich") Ron Rey Rum, fur storage vaults, the Tropics (to which "your host 'Sugie' invites you to") Holly Ho Chop Suey, Schwabs, Clarence's Cafe (whose specialty is chicken liver saute) and other fine establishments.

Above is the back of The Playgoer, with more newspaper clippings of Slave Ship glued on.

Grauman's is now known as the TCL Chinese Theatre. It was also once known as Mann's Chinese Theatre.

Above is another page in the scrapbook. There's a clipping of Ginger Rogers. Up top are a couple of what I believe to be fortune cards from a J.C. Penney store. They are both dated July 1, 1937. The top one says, "You are well balanced and reasonable and not easily swayed by passing fancies." The one below that says, "When you have a duty to perform, you are never happy until you have accomplished it." So sayeth the Great J.C. Pennies!

The black and silver postcard at top is from the Hollywood Hotel, a famous spot for celebrities and royalty. It was located near Grauman's, and torn down in 1956. The site of the Hollywood Hotel is now occupied by the Hollywood and Highland Center, where the Academy Awards are currently held.

I'll end this post with a Youtube video of the Fox Movietone News from 1937. Not sure the date on this one, just the year, so it might have been the one playing at Grauman's when the Johnsons were there. Aw, heck, let's just pretend it was!

Next up, the Johnsons visit Forest Lawn Cemetery!

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1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 13 - Los Angeles (a)

(for part 1, click here)

Los Angeles - Evangelists and Movie Stars, Oh My!

The Johnsons have seen quite a lot on their road trip so far; Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Pike's Peak, Cave of the Winds...but they still have a long way to go!

From Zion National Park, Alden, Velma, Joan and Marilyn drove their LaSalle 427 miles, taking Hwy 91 through Utah, Vegas and part of California. At San Bernadino, they turned onto good 'ol Route 66 for a short jaunt that took them to Los Angeles. By the number of scrapbook pages dedicated to the area, it appears they did quite a lot there, so I'm breaking up their LA area visit into three parts (a,b,c).

It looks like they stayed at the Fletcher Auto Court, 204 Fletcher Drive, Los Angeles. I Googled the auto court, and found scant mention of it, so I'm quite sure it no longer exists. I did find this interesting tidbit, however, dated April 28th, 1942:

Don't know for sure if it's the Fletcher of Fletcher Auto Court, but it sounds like it could be. It's interesting how they skirt around the whole 'affair' aspect of the situation.

The Merry-Go Round Cafe no longer exists. It was a unique concept for a restaurant, with conveyor belts moving past customers who would grab their food off of them. One conveyor belt took away their dirty dishes. The land it was on eventually became Angel's Knoll Park, which was closed recently. I found an image online of the Merry-Go Round Cafe's menu from 1937:

The postcard at the top of this page is of the Glendale Hyperion Viaduct.

On that same scrapbook page we have two more postcards. The one on the left is titled Looking West on 7th St, Near Hill, Los Angeles, Calif. The postcard next to is is Angelus Temple, Church of the Four Square Gospel, Los Angeles, California.

The Angelus Temple is still there, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992. It was built in 1923, the "largest construction of its time in North America" according to Wikipedia. Its construction was overseen by Aimee Semple McPherson, who was still preaching there in 1937 when the Johnsons visited. Here's an autographed picture of her inside the scrapbook, though whether or not they received it in person, or purchased it from a gift shop is hard to say. Due to her inclusion in the scrapbook, I'm guessing they attended one of her services.

The temple still holds religious services, in fact.

Aimee Semple McPherson was quite a character. Her Wikipedia page is long and makes for interesting reading. She was considered a faith healer, was purported to have affairs, suspected of faking her own kidnapping at one point, and died of a drug overdose in 1944. There have been novels written about her, movies made about her, musicals, plays...I recently read Sinclair Lewis's Elmer Gantry (highly recommended, by the way!) and just learned that one of the characters in the novel was based on McPherson.

Back to the scrapbook!

Though it's hard to see in the picture below, the date stamped on the Johnsons' DMV's Facts for Tourists is June 27, 1937.

Despite some of the maudlin information I shared above, I'm guessing the Johnsons were having a grand old time. Mr. Fletcher was still alive and kicking, and Aimee Semple McPherson was still a giant media personality.

When mid-westerners head to Los Angeles, a big thing on their minds is often movie stars, and I don't think the Johnsons were any different. Here's a sheet in the scrapbook, double sided, with points of interest on one side (hand numbered and checked off by the Johnsons) and directions to celebrity homes on the other side:

Hard to see here, but some of the celebrities include Will Rogers, Lionel Barrymore, Buster Keaton, Tom Mix, Chas. S. Chaplin (!) and Harold Lloyd.

I wonder if they spotted any movie stars walking up and down a sidewalk on Rodeo Drive?

Next up is Los Angeles' Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the movies the Johnsons saw there!

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Grandpa Walt - Air Raid Warden

My Grandpa Walter J. Arnold was an air raid warden in East Los Angeles during WWII. He passed away in 1976 when I was only eight, so I didn't know him very well, other than that he had a hearty laugh and was really tall (6'4"). He also liked his fried chicken from a place called Chickenowski's, which was across the Mississippi somewhere in Wisconsin. (He lived in Wabasha, MN, when I knew him.) He was a nice man, and when we visited, he always gave me a quarter to run down to the Ben Franklins for candy.

He worked in the milling industry most of his life - at places like Big Joe Flour in Wabasha, and Mother Hubbard in Mankato. He worked at a mill in L.A. too, but my folks can't remember which company it was. I remember he had an inhaler he'd use every so often, and I wonder if it was from all the flour dust he must've inhaled over the years. He'd also been a two-pack-a-day smoker from an early age (elementary school) until his early 50s, when he quit cold turkey. I'm sure the inhaler could've come from that, as well.

Walter ran away from home at the age of fourteen, and had no love for his father. Apparently his dad would take all the money Walt earned on a paper route and not let him have any of it. But so, he ran away from home, and drove a taxi in Faribault at the age of sixteen. At some point, he met the love of his life, Laura, and they eloped. They adopted my dad when he was 19-months old from the Owatonna orphanage.

Anyway, a number of years ago, I found a leather folder of Walt's at my parents' house that contained a bunch of his air raid warden materials. It's pretty cool to read through; from information about victory gardens, to different types of incendiaries and how to treat wounds from various chemical weapons, etc. Also info on the proper air raid warden attire and what his duties were. There were also some ration coupon books of my dads', who was between 4 and 7 when they lived in California.

Here's a picture of Walt (in his early 40's here) and my dad looking mighty dapper in East L.A.

Here's one of my dad's war ration books. I love all the info on it - his age, their address at the time...I wonder if that same house still exists.

Here's what Walt would've handed out to civilians in his assigned area, which typically consisted of a few square blocks. My dad says a nickname for the air raid wardens was 'blockhead':

Here's a sheet that lists some of the air raid warden's duties:

In case there had been an actual raid, or incident, here's the form he would've filled out:

Also included in Grandpa Walt's air raid warden folder were news bulletins from the East Los Angeles War Council like the one below. They really bring the humanity into the picture. They talk about upcoming dances, and folks who are moving away or coming back from the war, etc. They are typically positive and upbeat, with a bit of humor thrown in here and there.

There are a lot of other items in his air raid warden folder - too many to include in this post. But looking through them certainly inspires the writer in me to use them to concoct a story at some point that takes place during that time, with an air raid warden as the main character. Perhaps a mystery, since it was the warden's job to know everyone in his neighborhood, and to walk his beat, making sure everyone was in compliance with the black-out rules. Surely he'd come across something out of place...

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