Sometimes I worry that my love of history is a sign of dysfunction, of wanting to live in the past to avoid the here and now. I’m sure there’s some truth to that. I’d much rather read a book about Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels than an article about Bush’s propagandameister Karl Rove. I am far more interested in Dust Bowl politics and the New Deal than I am in the Dot Com Bust or the latest warnings from Alan Greenspan. And I’d sure as hell rather watch a movie starring Jennifer Jones than one with Jennifer Lopez.
When I travel around this city my eyes tend to gravitate towards the historical artifacts that managed to survive decades of neglect and wanton demolition. It was only in the 1990s that a strong preservation ethos began to re-emerge in Los Angeles. The one-of-a-kind buildings that somehow escaped the wrecking ball were suddenly being appreciated again and conservancy groups sprang up all over town. Last week Kendall and I went on a tour of some of the more glamorous remnants of Wilshire Boulevard aka the Miracle Mile. I finally got to wander through the art deco palace that was once Bullock’s Wilshire. We toured the beautifully restored rooms where Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, and Katharine Hepburn regularly shopped. The department store was shut down by the dreaded Macy’s corporation years ago and faced demolition until the Southwestern Law School bought the building and turned it into their Law Library. (For the first time in my life, I considered fulfilling my father’s dream and going to law school just so I could study in the former lingerie section and have lunch in the old Bullock’s Tea Room.)
Another place I’ve always wanted to visit was the Wilshire Boulevard Temple and it surpassed my expectations. I felt like I was like stepping back into 1930, it hasn’t changed a BIT since MGM wunderkind Irving Thalberg married Queen of the Lot Norma Shearer there. All of the major studio heads belonged to this synagogue and their names are everywhere: Louis B. Mayer, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, Sid Graumann. The Warner Brothers commissioned the fabulous Warner Murals painted by studio artist Hugo Ballin and depicting 3,000 years of Jewish history in such glory and splendor you might suspect the models were directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The spiritual leader of the synagogue was Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin (grandson of department store owner I. Magnin) who led the temple from its opening in 1929 until his death in 1984. It was Magnin who married Thalberg and Shearer and, a few years later when Thalberg dropped dead at the age of 37, officiated at his funeral in the temple. As I sat in the front row last week I felt like I could feel the spirit of Norma Shearer in her widow’s weeds, no doubt created for her by MGM designer Adrian, sitting in that very chair and pitching a hysterical fit. (Did convert Norma ever step foot in a temple after her husband’s death?) I’ve read a lot about Rabbi Magnin’s daughter Mae Brussell, who in the 1960s became one of the leading proponents of conspiracy theories surrounding JFK’s assassination. Brussell eventually hosted her own radio show, “Dialogue: Conspiracy,” and received a handful of death threats including some by the Manson family. I can only imagine what her father, the Rabbi to the Stars, thought of his daughter’s left-wing politics.
Living in our 1909 home has transformed my love of L.A. history into a daily obsession. My dossier on Henry C. Jensen, the man who built our house and lived there with his family until his death in 1944, is growing by the minute. Tomorrow night HGTV will air our episode of the show “If Walls Could Talk” in which Kendall and I walk through our house talking about its history. We haven’t seen the final cut of this segment yet and we’re terrified about how we’re going to come across. We obeyed the producers’ every request, including walking down our street hand-in-hand for the “lifestyle segment.” Yeah, like that’s something we do nightly. Apparently we make good subjects for reality TV since they called us a few weeks ago and told us how easy it was to edit our part of the show. “You two talk in sound bites!” they exclaimed. Um, is that a compliment? I will have to watch with the sound off since I’m sure hearing my voice will make me take a vow of silence and I can only imagine what I’ll look like next to the male model host. Doesn’t the TV camera automatically add about 40 lbs.? Yeah, that’s it. And it also makes you look much balder than you really are. Oy, why didn’t I get Dweezil Zappa to play me as I had originally planned?
I feel lucky that my job as social studies editor at Heinemann allows me to seek out new ways to get students to appreciate history as much as I do. I wish I could say my love of history was influenced by the exciting curriculum at the Chicago public schools but that was not the case. In truth, it came largely from my addiction to TV shows like “Masterpiece Theatre.” Those PBS dramas sent me racing to the library to read up on the different time periods they portrayed. Because the series were mostly produced in Britain, my earliest obsessions were decidedly Anglo-based. I became fascinated by the familial wranglings of Ancient Rome (“I, Claudius”), the accomplishments and violence of Tudor England (“The Six Wives of Henry VIII” and “Elizabeth R”), the ups and downs of the Victorian period (“The Forsyte Saga” and “The Pallisers”), Edwardian England and the class system (“Upstairs Downstairs” and “The Duchess of Duke Street”), the horrors of World War I (“Testament of Youth” and “The Unknown Soldier”), the early suffragettes (“Shoulder to Shoulder”), and the end of the British Empire (“The Jewel in the Crown”).
Not that my overall TV tastes were so high-brow, as anyone who has read my blog knows. For every episode of “Upstairs Downstairs” I watched, I warped my brain with an equal number of visits to “The Brady Bunch” or “The Partridge Family.” Occasionally American television provided some learning opportunities. Norman Lear’s roster of hits delved into topical issues that, like the “Masterpiece Theatre” productions, educated without numbing the brain. I don’t usually let my ten-year-old daughter read my blog (although I should give her a complete print-out to save time in her future therapy sessions) but occasionally she’ll glance at the photos or text in a post I am writing. She read the lyrics to the theme song of “Maude” from my last post and even though she never saw a single episode of the series, is now singing the song at full gusto about 50 times a day. The words of this particular song sparked lots of historical discussion and Internet research.
Lady Godiva was a freedom rider
She didn’t care if the whole world looked.
Try explaining that one to a ten-year-old. While it turns out that Lady Godiva was a real person, an 11th century patron of the arts, her nude ride through the streets to protest taxes is almost surely a myth. It didn’t start appearing until about a hundred years after her death. This is also the myth that gave us the concept of the Peeping Tom, a boy named Tom who couldn’t stop gazing at the beautiful lady on her horse. This anecdote was added to the story in the 17th century as a bit of Puritan propaganda.
Joan of Arc with the Lord to guide her
She was a sister who really cooked.
While Hollywood has glamorized the true story of the young French visionary (with Ingrid Bergman, Jean Seberg, Milla Jovovich, and Leelee Sobieski in the title role), Leah was horrified to learn that the second glib line refers to an actual 19-year-old girl being burned at the stake. "That's not funny," she pronounced solemnly. And she's right. Would we make light of Helen Keller or Mother Teresa in a TV sitcom theme? Well, maybe.
Isadora was the first bra burner,
Ain’t you glad she showed up.
Vanessa Redgrave was superb in the 1968 Karel Reisz film about Isadora Duncan. She didn’t burn any bras but the actress did duplicate a real-life incident from Duncan’s life by ripping off the top of her dress during a big production number and dancing bare-breasted. The extras were not told that she would do this, thus providing the desired audience-aghast reaction shots that the director wanted.
But Leah wanted to know more about this bra-burning business. I tried to explain that as the women’s movement was taking off (again) in the 1960s certain feminists came to see their brassieres as a sign of male oppression. I told her that at some demonstrations women ripped off their bras and burned them in a bonfire. Leah simply could not understand the connection between going braless and women’s equality so we looked it up to get more background. I was shocked to discover that according to historians the bra-burning escapades of the 1960s and 70s is pure urban myth. Who knew? While some women in the late 60s and 70s did, indeed, stop wearing bras and other accoutrements of the beauty regime they found oppressive, there were no mass burnings of undergarments. Historians believe that the notion took root at the protests outside of the 1968 Miss American pageant when a group of women symbolically tossed a bunch of bras in a garbage can. The press jumped on this image and combined it with the draft card-burning that was rampant at the time to create their own entertaining version of radical feminism. I’m embarrassed that I never thought to question this story. So many myths became part of the American consciousness during this time such as the libelous fantasy of anti-war protestors spitting on returning soldiers from Vietnam. I’ve read study after study that gives strong evidence that this never happened. Okay, I’m not saying that it’s impossible that some lunatic spit on a serviceman at an airport at some point in time, but I believe that the spread of this story was a very deliberate propaganda device designed to discredit the left. The precursors to Karl Rove’s hideous bag of tricks.
And when the country was falling apart
Betsy Ross got it all sewed up.
Sorry. Myth. Sure, Betsy Ross was widowed by the Revolutionary War and did start an upholstery and flag-making business to support her young son. But she had nothing to do with the first flag. The story was told for the first time by her grandson long after her death but even he would have been surprised to see the legend included in history textbooks as fact starting in the 1880s.
Hey, I see a new Heinemann book coming: history through the lyrics of TV theme songs. Which ones would you use?
What a fabulous post Danny!!! Truly wonderful. I MUST see you and Kendall walking through your house and holding hands, too...what time is that on??? (I hope you are going to Tivo, or Tape it!! PLEASE!)
I think it's a very wonderful thing that you are such a Historian; we need more people in this world like you...besides giving all of us so much terrific information, the education you are giving Leah is truly truly special....!
More, More, More, dear Danny!
Posted by: OldLady Of The Hills | October 15, 2005 at 06:13 PM
This is the 2nd time I've seen a photo of your home; it is magnificent.
It has so much character and appeal...just like its homeowner!
Posted by: Pearl | October 15, 2005 at 08:00 PM
Danny,
Another superb post!
I understand too well the antiquarian aesthetic and attitude. One of the great pleasures of moving to the Bay Area, for me, has been living in a city where history is respected and celebrated, and where people actually restore 19th and early-20th century buildings, rather than demolish them so that some boxy PoMo monstrosity can blight the landscape.
As for actually learning about history, my influences were literary rather than electronic. As your wife can attest, growing up with a writer/editor as a mom guarantees you'll read like a Chicago voter casts ballots: early, and often. My attraction to certain times and cultures was fed by books as well as other influences; here are the biggies in my personal Way-Back Machine:
* Ancient Greece and Rome [Time/Life tomes on the Classical world, along with my paternal Mediterranean heritage]
* The pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic tribes [Fantasy lit, coupled with my maternal genes]
* The Byzantine Empire [Various feeds; it always seemed to be to me a good balance of Christian/Jewish/Pagan influences that contributed to a remnant of Roman cultural survival]
* Late Victorian/Edwardian England [the ghost stories of M.R. James and others. What a wonderfully civilized and genteel world -- interrupted, of course, by ghastly spectres -- their heroes inhabited!]
* Noir L.A. [Raymond Chandler got me at an early age, and I followed him up with Ross MacDonald and -- more recently -- James Ellroy.]
The special show about your house and its inhabitants sounds intriguing. Unfortunately, living as I do without the benefit of cable, I'm going to have to miss it. Perhaps I can talk one of my vidiot pals into TIVOing the segment; I'd love to see you & Kendall discussing the glories of the L.A. bungalow style.
Hope you and the family had joyous High Holy Days!
Posted by: Mikal | October 16, 2005 at 12:22 AM
Great post, thanks.
Posted by: Melinama | October 16, 2005 at 11:01 AM
That must be so amazing to live in a house that ties you to the city's past. It's probably the thing I like least about Los Angeles is that there aren't daily reminders of the citizens who walked the same steps as you years ago. So many city leaders were short-sighted in not thinking about the importance of continuity from one generation to another. Luckily, there are still some neighborhoods and buildings that have the ghosts of years gone by, so an Angeleno can feel rooted in a place with some sort of history.
Posted by: Neil | October 17, 2005 at 01:30 AM
-Did you also explain to her the concept of a "freedom rider?" I've always thought that was a pretty sly lyrical twist.
-"Maude" is addictingly singable. Once, at the end of a several-week tour, I sang it to myself non-stop for probably a couple of hours. I was very tired.
-I've spent the last year trying to breathe life back into an 1892 Victorian in Minneapolis, and it's been enormously rewarding. I've done a lot of historical research and knowing about the people who lived here before me is priceless.
Posted by: Marlee MacLeod | October 17, 2005 at 05:31 AM
Saw the show last night. Oh, that house! The pics on your blog don't seem to do it justice. How do I get a house like that?
Posted by: nappy40 | October 17, 2005 at 09:15 AM
Just move to L.A., Nappy, and find a house in our inner city neighborhood. We'd love to have you! That goes for you too, Neil. In fact, I'd love to start a blogging commune with all of you. Don't worry, we won't have to get together very often, we'll just sit in our historic houses talking to each other through our computers.
I thought I looked like Jabba the Hutt on the show last night but that our house looked great! (But why did they keep showing the same shot of the filthy tile floor in our basement?) I loved the focus on Henry Jensen and his movie theatre past and I thought Kendall was very fun. Did you see her comment about the brothel during the closing credits?
Posted by: Danny | October 17, 2005 at 11:03 AM
ellen and I missed this, will it air again?
Posted by: greg | October 17, 2005 at 11:21 AM
Danny, I have it on TiVo and didn't watch it all--just the segment about your house. I'll watch it again for the credits. I didn't notice any filthy tile door either. I love the porch and large windows. That's it, I'm moving to L.A.!
Posted by: nappy40 | October 17, 2005 at 12:46 PM
This was a great show! Thanks for sharing your home with all of us. What a wonderful house!
Question: Why was Kendall trying to destroy the front steps at the beginning of the show?
Posted by: denise | October 21, 2005 at 09:12 PM
Dear Mr. Kendell
I saw your segment on HGV about your mural. I'm writing to you because my grandma's house has a mural in her house EXTREMELY similar to your's. Her house was originally from Temple City, which borders Pasadena, but was moved to El Monte where it lies now. I am interested to learn the name of the man you might or might not have painted this mural also. What was that man's name: ______ Jensen? I would be very happy if you could send me a picture of your mural so I can compare, I promise to do the same. Email me at: [email protected]
Posted by: Cassandra Ortiz | October 04, 2006 at 08:03 PM
Thanks for your information. Most of the posts in the blog is really valuable. Regards..
Posted by: Lingerie | June 06, 2009 at 01:31 AM