The8 written in the sky

October 17, 1957: Matt Weinstock interviews George B. Murphy, an aircraft inspector for whom Murphy's Law was named.

October 17, 1957: Paul Coates talks to a man who fled because he was suspected in the still-unsolved killing of Marguerite Keota in 1954.

October 17, 1907: A Black player from Whittier State tackles a player for USC's all-white team, setting off a fight between the teams.

October 16, 1957: Matt Weinstock writes about a man who claimed he saw Saturn from his backyard -- without a telescope. Which was impossible. Was it spacemen?

October 16, 1957: Paul Coates has a moving tribute to a dead man and a son who loved to play the piano.

October 16, 1947: The LAPD changes the uniform for policewomen and issues them guns -- to be fashionably carried in a shoulder-slung black purse, also convenient for carrying handcuffs.

Every time there's an influx of new users, people post their starter packs from 2 yrs ago, always called "The Most Perfect People in the World and Also Literal Angels," then I check them out and see I've muted tons for saying things like "let's kill this person's pet" or "poor people are irritating"

October 16, 1907: George S. Best is a great believer in marriage and strongly opposes divorce, which is why he has three of one and none of the other.

October 15, 1959: Matt Weinstock takes a look at Caryl Chessman's case and his grounds for appeal. Chessman remains the only person executed in California who never killed anyone.

Reminder: Do not dress up like the Black Dahlia for Halloween. Don't. Do. It.

October 15, 1944: Marian Anderson performs with the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

October 15, 1907: Fire breaks out in the four-story building housing the Orpheum Theater and the Elks Hall. Entertainer Minnie Seligman made the smoke and sound of fire engines part of her act.

October 14, 1957: The Dodgers are coming, but there's a reason to believe the Battle of Chavez Ravine is not quite over. Twelve families are sitting tight, some of them on land their grandfathers bought and built homes on and they don't think the city has done right by them, Matt Weinstock says.

October 14, 1957: Paul Coates has the story of Rosalee Cartwright, 14, who ran away five weeks ago and hasn't been seen since.

October 14, 1947: Capt. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager breaks the sound barrier. But the Los Angeles Times holds the story until June 1948 "in the interest of national security."

October 14, 1944: Danton Walker says: David Sarnoff, RCA president, predicts a television gadget that will be worn on the wrist but contains a practical television screen.

October 14, 1907: There was Oscar E. Otto, a young chauffeur with a hot temper and a gun. There was his 19-year-old wife, the former Irene E. Jester, “a silly little creature with futile tears and French heels.” And there was J.C. Henderson, another chauffeur with a gun and better aim or more luck.

October 14, 1897: Puccini's "La Boheme" receives its American premiere in Los Angeles, performed by the Del Conte Italian Grand Opera Company of Peru.

October 13, 1959: The report that a mother was keeping her children out of school because they had no shoes or adequate clothing came into a child welfare and attendance office and Monty Minock, a worker, was assigned to investigate, Matt Weinstock says.

In the silent era, art director Elsa Lopez provided creative elements to industry superstars at a time when few women of color offered important input, becoming one of the first Latino women to gain status in Hollywood.

Monday @ 4pm PT: I'll have a livestream focused on significant early-season storm that will be moving across CA Mon into Tue. Widespread rain, Sierra snow, & even some severe SoCal t-storms? And what are the links to a West Pacific typhoon? #CAwx

For Monday, we have a mysterious fellow.

October 13, 1907: Gunmen imported from out of town by the Hop Sing Tong entered the tailor shop of Lem Sing at 806 Juan St. in Chinatown and under the pretense of having some clothing made, wounded him and killed Wong Goon Kor.

October 12, 1957: Matt Weinstock profiles Burl Ives as he makes the transition from folk singing to acting.

October 12, 1947: Sheppard W. King III is jailed on charges of child abuse after hitting his 2-year-old son in the lobby of the Pantages because the boy talked during the show.

October 12, 1938: Reporter Joe Seewerker and artist Charles Owens visit a house on wheels in this installment of Nuestro Pueblo. Drawing of a broken-down truck with a house for a body.

The discovery 19 years later of Michelle Vanek, lost while attempting to summit Mt. of the Holy Cross. By Ted Katauskas, Outside magazine. www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adve...

October 12, 1907: After repeated complaints to police because half a dozen dead dogs had laid in the streets for two weeks, the health department tries to charge contractor C.T. Hanson. But the city attorney says Hanson was only guilty of not abiding by his contract and nothing more.

October 11, 1957: Imagine if a few thousand people around L.A. decided that they wanted out of the rat race. And suppose they went down to the beach in a body and meditated upon the beautiful sunset or the elusive grunion and decided they just weren't going to pay attention to anything.

October 11, 1957: Paul Coates profiles Bert Whitson, a clown who used to perform at Pershing Square before it was uprooted for a parking structure and taken over at night by "hoodlums."

October 11, 1907: John Bryson, self-made millionaire and developer of the Bryson Block, dies. He had separated from his wife and was almost constantly in the company of his longtime nurse, Gladys Lamberton. He was hurriedly buried in a secret ceremony at Rosedale Cemetery.

October 11, 1947: Pat and Gunner, 6-year-old Irish setters who were left a $30,000 estate by their late master, Carleton R. Bainbridge, retired attorney, yesterday were disinherited by a jury of eight men and four women.

October 11, 1944: Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge from the U.S. Naval Air Station at Alameda.

October 10, 1959: Matt Weinstock is less than thrilled over the Dodgers' World Series victory. "Furthermore, I don't think the Dodgers are the greatest thing that ever happened to Los Angeles," he says.

October 9, 1947: (U.P.)—The Lebanese and Syrian governments have ordered various units of their armies to mass along the Palestine borders for a possible invasion of the Holy Land, and the first units already have started marching, it was announced tonight.

October 10, 1944: Now it is Carole Landis wealthy Al Vanderbilt is beauing to the nightspots. Apparently he and K.T. Stevens are no longer romancing, for he is seeing the ex-Mrs. Wallace every eve, Louella Parsons says.

October 10, 1907: George Sumi's Japanese Employment Agency. Most reliable in the city.

WE HAVE LIFTOFF www.kickstarter.com/projects/tom...

October 9, 1994: A Q&A with photographer Julius Shulman, about to turn 84.

October 9, 1959: A reader sends Matt Weinstock clippings from her hometown paper, the Tri-City Herald of Kennewick, Wash.

about to put a printer's deposit on my own credit card (so that we are set up and ready to go as soon as the KS ends), so shit's getting real www.kickstarter.com/projects/tom...

October 9, 1947: The Sentinel reports on segregation in the Fire Department. Publisher Leon H. Washington Jr. said "There are a number of qualified Negro firemen on the list who must wait until one of the present firemen dies or retires before they will be appointed to jobs.”

October 9, 1944: Wendell Willkie* didn't know the real reason for his hospitalization. Intimates persuaded news and air reporters to "play it down." ... When the flash of his passing reached midtown spots at 2:30 Sunday ayem -- it sent many people home depressed, Walter Winchell says.

October 9, 1907: She was known as Trellis C. Harris or Trellis Blessing—or Edna Hall. But her method was always the same. She would commit some theft, then fake an epileptic fit, spitting up blood from a capsule hidden in her mouth.

October 8, 1959: Matt Weinstock profiles Eugene Vale, author of 'The Thirteenth Apostle.'

October 8, 1944: The first official visit Effie Klinker, Edgar Bergen’s new wooden spinster, made was to Louella Parsons.

Thunderstorms are potentially possible w/both SoCal remnant moisture & NorCal low (lower odds). These will probably be "wet" storms in all cases, w/little fire risk. Offshore waters remain anomalously warm, which will "juice things up" a bit as well. [3/3] #CAwx #CAfire

I'll host a livestream on Wed, Oct 8 @ 3pm PT to discuss the likely impacts of weakening #HurricanePriscilla on U.S. Southwest (including southern CA), including who may see some thunderstorms. I'll also a new weather & climate-related federal update...