DON JUAN BAUTISTA BANDINI
APRIL 21
1945
Spent a weird evening on Aline Hill conferring with [heiress] Aline Barnsdall, about her twenty cocker spaniel dogs and her endless feud with the city of Los Angeles….Then to dinner at Tam o’ Shanter.
CAREY MCWILLIAMS
1950
The urgency is so great that I have worked all day and night to get this finished, and have sent a man into town with it, so that no time will be lost….
I am now, like a fiendish machine, starting on another one.
DALTON TRUMBO, to his agent
APRIL 22
1920
Once home (588 N. Larchmont) write various letters & finally work on Newspaper Days. At 4 Helen comes. In a kind of wild desperation over not having all the money she wants she has pawned her ring & bought two hats, 1 dress, shoes & some stockings. Her frenzy of delight over her purchases. Wildly describes their beauty. Drunkenness in men & clothes buying in women are kindred passions. It is a kind of debauch. The gleam in her eyes. I cannot complain for the ring is her own. Her beauty in one of the new hats staggers me. We fool around & finally indulge in a fierce round after which I return to work. Am working on the porch this day in the sun.
THEODORE DREISER
1944
I have a considerable talent, perhaps as good as any coeval. But I am 46 now. So what I will mean soon by “have” is “had.”
WILLIAM FAULKNER, to his agent
1971
At that time in Watts there was an Italian man, named Simon Rodia—though some people said his name was Sabatino Rodella, and his neighbors called him Sam. He had a regular job as a tile setter, but on weekends and at nighttime, under lights he strung up, he was building something strange and mysterious and he’d been working on it since before my boy was born. Nobody knew what it was or what it was for. Around his small frame house he had made a low wall shaped like a ship and inside it he was constructing what looked like three masts, all different heights, shaped like upside-down ice cream cones.
First he would set up skeletons of metal and chicken wire, and plaster them over with concrete, then he’d cover that with fancy designs made of pieces of seashells and mirrors and things. He was always changing his ideas while he worked and tearing down what he wasn’t satisfied with and starting over again, so pinnacles tall as a two-story building would rise up and disappear and rise again….
Mr. Rodia was usually cheerful and friendly while he worked, and sometimes, drinking that good red wine from a bottle, he rattled off about Amerigo Vespucci, Julius Caesar, Buffalo Bill and all kinds of things he read about in the old encyclopedia he had in his house….the local rowdies came around and taunted him and threw rocks and called him crazy, though Mr. Rodia didn’t seem to pay them much mind.
CHARLES MINGUS
APRIL 23
1847
I went today to visit an old Spaniard from Spain who had some American papers, also some books from whom I learned a little more of the Spanish language.
HENRY STANDAGE
1867
At half an hour after supper while we were all around the fire joking & making merry Jim came down the road, his horse covered with sweat & reported that he had lost every single head of the horses. He had no sooner relieved Sam than they gave a snort, turned quickly & stampeded, nearly ran over him. Tried to follow them in the darkness & fog, but soon lost them and himself too. Struck the ravine above camp and followed it down until he found us. Concluded that there was not a particle of use to try & follow them that night for we should only lose ourselves in the fog, & with but small probabilities of finding anything, so we all bunked in to prosecute the search in the a.m.
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON
1925
Today Ronald Colman and Constance Talmadge started on a new picture. I believe it will be called “The Twins.” I was on the stage watching them “shoot” a scene and was quite thrilled watching them both act. Ronald is certainly good looking and he’s so modest about it that one can’t help but like him. Ronald doesn’t like Constance at all and I’m wondering if he’ll be able to make love to her sincerely. There is no doubt that at some time or other he’ll be called upon to do it, as movies are never made without (as they call it here) “heart interest.”
…Mr. Goldwyn has married Miss Frances Howard. In a way I’m glad because it might make him just a little more gentle and considerate of his secretary….
Last Saturday I was driving through the mountains near Los Angeles and through orange groves. The groves are now in blossom and the odor is almost sickening it is so strong. You can usually smell a grove about a mile before you get to it.
VALERIA BELLETTI
APRIL 24
1942
I asked my sister to tell me the situation in detail as soon as possible if she goes to Santa Anita. Are we going to be confined in a horse track? Until today, we had gone there as a family on a number of occasions to entertain visitors from Japan….
There may be many among the white people who say, “So what? Even horses, there are Arabian horses worth a hundred and fifty thousand dollars which is a lot more than you worthless Japanese….” But we are human beings. Humans are the lord of all primates. Just because we became enemy nationals, we didn’t drop in rank to an animal. We have the pride of possessing mystical blood and spiritual depth of the East. Who would have thought that war, war between Japan and America, a war that was planned in a world we had no knowledge of even in our dreams, would get us involved this deeply and cause us to suffer? Crime? Where should we look in ourselves to find our offense for which we must be treated like this?
…Evening, I heard Santa Anita stinks with the odor of dead horses, and Owens Valley is a place troubled by terrible whirlwinds of dust clouds.
AOKI HISA
1953
We saw Mary and Richard the other night at the showing of Charlie Brackett’s film about the Titanic—Richard [Quine] so Olympianly the great director that he could hardly make himself aware of the existence of ordinary insects like ourselves….
Do you ever plan to come out here? It isn’t so bad, after all; so perhaps you’ll bring yourself to take the westward plunge. In the meantime this brings you all our love.
P.S. Your picture hangs in my room. It is a constant reminder of you.
ALDOUS HUXLEY, to Anita Loos
APRIL 25
1949
Yesterday we went for a long drive through the blossoms. Last Friday I started teaching a course for the psychoanalytic candidates to great success.
THEODOR ADORNO
1974
April 25. The friction that’s been building with the studio for some time came to a head today. I never approved the original ending where my character survived the earthquake. They agreed to a change to accommodate my death in a futile, doomed effort to save my bitchy wife, which seems to me to lend some credibility to a basically implausible story. (An earthquake destroys the whole city, this guy with the mean wife and the neat girl friend escapes scot-free, wife killed, neat girl left alive for him while he rebuilds Los Angeles?) Anyway, they kept edging up on me about shooting an alternate ending. I’ve been at this trade too long not to know better than that. Script approval doesn’t help you if you’ve shot it.
CHARLTON HESTON
APRIL 26
1847
Last night we were called up and ordered to load and fix bayonets, as the Col. had sent word that an attack might be expected from Col. Fremont’s men before day. They have been all using all possible means to prejudice the Spaniards and Indians against us by telling them we would take their wives &c. thereby rousing an excitement through the country. The Col hearing that they were intending to come sent us word. They did not come.
HENRY STANDAGE
1928
&nb
sp; Since the fleet with its 25,000 gobs has left for Hawaii I have had a chance to recognize the full inconsequence of this Pollyanna greasepaint pinkpoodle paradise.
HART CRANE
1954
I don’t like it here. I don’t like people here. I like it home (N.Y.)….Must I always be miserable? I try so hard to make people reject me. Why?…I WANT TO DIE….Wow! Am I fucked up. I got no motorcycle I got no girl….Kazan sent me out here to get a tan. Haven’t seen the sun yet. (fog & smog) Wanted me healthy looking. I look like a prune….
Jim {Brando Clift} Dean
JAMES DEAN
APRIL 27
1863
Mr. Banning himself was on board of the vessel at the time of the explosion and was thought to have been dangerously wounded. He sent me word by express to come to his aid at once, whereupon I obtained leave of absence from my superior officer County Clerk Shore and hastened to the spot. O, horrors of horrors!…
Of the about fifty persons who happened to be on board but three or four escaped injury, among them the engineer, Clark, and the fireman. The wreck sank immediately.
On my arrival at San Pedro I found my beloved friend and employer unable to concentrate his mind, and I at once realized that I had to take matters into my own hands, which task I did not underrate….In addition to this, the many able hands that lay helpless in death, and the sight of the many noble men whose hearts beat no more actually dazed me.
When I entered the large warehouse, so well known to me, I found it partly turned into a morgue, as more than twelve bodies had already been brought in and stretched out on primitive frames. In some cases it was impossible to recognize them, as even the very features were distorted or torn to pieces….whenever a new body was brought in from the shore and we recognized the well known figure of some honest co-worker, our hearts grew weak and work went on slowly. Then came calls from mourning friends, whose piercing cries would melt the coldest hearts. One by one they finally were laid to rest—and may they rest in peace!
FRANK LECOUVREUR
1982
Everyday I’ve been taking the bus. The 93 to the 212 to any bus on Wilshire. And I look for the little details in the landscape that provide some solace. They are discontinuous, tiny at times, insignificant features, but my mind ties them together and I see elements of how this city could have some sense of urban continuity and please us aesthetically also.
One thing I’ve noticed is the two old canary palms that diagonally cut across a corner lot marking the entrance to Universal City. They were well placed. They marked out “gateway.” The large billboard “Welcome to Universal City” in black and white was placed directly in front of them. It was very stupid. Considering how marvelously the two palm trees already said the same thing.
It was disturbing this morning to see a crane and crew of workers pulling one of the palm trees out of the ground.
And the other?…
It happens so quickly in L.A.
AARON PALEY
APRIL 28
1774
At seven we continued our journey along the little range mentioned, going east-northeast for more than a league, when we descended and finished the range. Then crossing the plain to the east, which lasted for about four leagues, we went three more over broken country in the same direction, making a total of more than eight leagues, arriving after ten hours of travel at five in the afternoon at Porciúncula River, where we camped for the night. As soon as we halted I sent three soldiers to the nearby mission of San Gabriel, in order that the commander of these establishments might be notified of my arrival there in the near future.
JUAN BAUTISTA DE ANZA
1919
I never loved any place in my life as I do this and if anything happens that I don’t make a go of it I believe that it would about break my heart.
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
APRIL 29
1855
I preached this morning upon the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and had I wanted material for supposed scenes in those cities I could have found them in the very scenes now transpiring around me.
THE REV. JAMES WOODS
1992
The intricate framework of the neighborhood collapsed for a few hours. Drawn out onto the streets by a particularly nasty bit of apartment-house arson—not by any means a rarity around here—a crowd coalesced, moved to the supermarkets and, barred from there, into the strip malls that line Vermont Avenue. From the stoop of my building, it seemed like a giant block party, a looters’ bacchanalia of new tennis rackets and boom boxes, then of liberated rental tapes from the video store, plastic-wrapped clothes from the dry cleaner and fake palm trees from the furniture store. On Vermont itself, I saw thousands of people out on an illegal shopping spree, cheerfully helping one another maneuver a sofa or a heavy Barcalounger across the busy street. One tired-looking cop drank a cup of coffee and tried not to look anyone directly in the eye….[M]en stood rooftop sentry with Uzis, outlined against the orange sky. It was the first time I can remember being comforted by the sight of armed drug dealers.
JONATHAN GOLD
APRIL 30
1944
I think I have found an apartment, a little cubbyhole but in a quiet, convenient, not Hollywood neighborhood, with no yard, etc. But after several years of Rowan Oak and trees and grounds, maybe Big and Little Miss will enjoy living in a city apartment, with nothing to break the silence but the shriek of brakes and the crash of colliding automobiles, and police car and fire wagon sirens, and the sounds of other tenants in the building who are not quite ready to lay down and hush at 1 or 2 a.m.
WILLIAM FAULKNER, to his sister
MAY 1
1852
We entered upon a mountainous region of wonderful beauty, and finally descended to La Ciudad de los Angeles (The city of the angels). About a mile north of the city we stopped with the family of Hernando’s uncle named Jimnes. Here we remained two days to let our horses rest, and I was glad of the opportunity, being almost tired out with the long ride. Owing to fatigue some objects of interest were not visited; but at the Jimnes home the orchards, vineyards, and flowers, with the delightful climate, impressed one with the idea that here was the veritable Garden of Eden.
THE REV. JOHN STEELE
1926
Our publicity man has just left—he’s been offered a better job with the Hal Roach studios and I’m going to miss him terribly. We were such good friends. He used to listen so patiently to all my little troubles and love affairs. He is a confirmed bachelor and seemed to get an awful kick hearing of my escapades with my bohemian artist friends….the other art director—Anton Grot—is behaving himself but I have to keep my distance. Every time I pass his studio he beckons for me to come in and have a chat, but I pass by and tell him I’m too busy to talk….
Saturday night Jones had a dinner party at his studio and I was invited with Muschi. Much to my embarrassment, my ex-boyfriend John was there. I didn’t recognize him and treated him like a complete stranger. Most of the evening I stayed in the back room with Muschi and two other men and we were talking on socialism and art and music, etc. One of the men had read all the German philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, as well as August Strindberg and Shaw, so we were talking for about 3 hours….
About 2:30 in the morning we were all still sitting there in that back room arguing when we heard a knock at the front door. Muschi looked out and saw it was a policeman, so he made me put on my hat and coat and we left the house through the back door. I was terribly frightened. I thought surely the house was being raided and I’d land in jail and there’d be a lot of nasty publicity….
…If one is proper at all times, one does miss so much. Sometimes you do get into interesting situations by acting on the impulse. Of course, on the other hand, sometimes you become involved in an unpleasant situation, however you hav
e to take a chance at all things—otherwise one’s existence becomes somewhat humdrum.
VALERIA BELLETTI
MAY 2
1847
For the last two days I have been more or less through the City of Angels or as it is in Spanish Ciudad de los Angeles, and must say they are the most degraded set of beings I ever was among, professing to be civilized and taught in the Roman Catholic religion. There are almost as many grog shops and gambling houses in this city as there are private houses….
…The Spaniards in general own large farms in the country and keep from one to 20,000 head of cattle. Horses in abundance, mules, sheep, goats &c. Also the Indians do all the labor and the Mexicans are generally on horse back from morning till night. They are perhaps the greatest horsemen in the known world, and very expert with the lance and lasso. They are in general a very idle, profligate, drunken, swearing set of wretches, with but very few exceptions. The Spaniards conduct in the Grog shops with the squaws is really filthy and disgusting even in the day time. Gambling is carried to the highest pitch, men often losing 500 dollars in cash in one night, or a 1000 head of cattle.
Dear Los Angeles Page 13
