Out of the Past
I took a break from fiction and read American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum. It’s the story of the 1910 bombing of the L.A. Times Building, which killed 21. It is divided into four parts and an epilogue. In the first the author sets the scene, describing the often violent rancor between labor and capital, stating that the country was on the brink of another civil war. The second and most fascinating covers the investigation by Billy Burns, described as America’s Sherlock Holmes. The third recounts the trial, the underhanded measures that went on behind the scenes. The fourth is about the aftermath. There are two other main players: renowned attorney Clarence Darrow and legendary filmmaker D.W. Griffith, each viewed as a champion of labor. Well-researched, the book is a surprisingly fast read, the 321 pages of the hardcover edition reading like considerably less, many blanks between chapters and parts. Since the story was completely unknown to me, I found a lot of it fascinating, even the details about Griffith that don’t fit the narrative well. My main quibble is the occasional odd use of vocabulary, although that may reflect my own ignorance and/or minimalist tendency. One of my favorite moments is when the trail leads to a community of anarchists who are currently feuding, the sides dubbed “the nudes and the prudes.” The revelations at the trial put the kibosh on socialist candidates running for office at the time. It took them more than a hundred years, but they now in effect have control of America. 144 readers have rated American Lightning at Amazon, forging to a consensus of 4.1 on a scale of five. I’ll go with 3.25. To add further balance to the rating, the book received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime Book. One reviewer at Amazon suggested the author was writing for a broad audience rather than scholars, which makes a lot of sense. Born in 1948, Blum graduated from Stanford and has written for The Village Voice, the NY Times and Vanity Fair, earning two Pulitzer Prize nominations. He has 13 other books in print. One, Family of Spies, has been adapted into a two-part mini-series. Burns passed away at 70 in 1932, Darrow at 80 in 1938, Griffith at 73 in 1948. Here’s the master sleuth:
It’d been awhile since Movies!, channel 5–2 on ota in NYC, had run a noir flick I’d never seen. Walk the Dark Street (1956) stars Chuck Connors as a psychopath out to kill the veteran he holds responsible for his brother’s combat death. The latter is played by Don Ross, billed as “Introducing,” although he’d had five credits by then. He was unfamiliar to me although he had a nice Hollywood run, mostly in TV, career spanning 1949–2002. There are 92 titles under his name at IMDb, including multiple appearances on several popular prime time shows, 34 alone on Dragnet 1967. He passed away at 90 in 2011. The other principal player in the film is Regina Gleason, who has 50 titles under her name from 1953-’76. Although I did not remember her, I must have seen her work as Paladin’s love interest on Have Gun — Will Travel, one of my favorites back in the day. Born in 1929, she is still living, a mom of two and grandma. As for the director, it’s also someone unfamiliar to me — Wyott Ordung, born in Shanghai, China in 1923. I wonder if he was the first Chinese to direct an American film. His career spanned 1951-’76, and features sparse credits, only one other as Director (Monster from the Ocean Floor {1954}), one as a Technical Advisor, having served as a warrant officer during WWII (Combat Squad {1953}, which he wrote) three as an AD, five as a Writer, eight as an Actor, including a two episode guest appearance in 1951 on Dick Tracy as “BB-Eyes,” a moniker that no doubt would be taboo these days. I wonder if he worked behind the scenes the rest of the time. I was unable to find much info about him. He passed away at 83 in 2005. As for the movie in question, it’s very faulty, although the L.A. location shooting is cool. Despite the title, I don’t recall any shots at night. Perhaps its metaphorical. Here’s the director:
And Ross:
And the lovely Gleason:
Another ideal day for selling wares curbside. My thanks to the woman who bought two paperbacks in Russian, and to Ira, who purchased The World’s Greatest Magic Tricks by Charles Barry Townsend; and to Movie Buff, who chose Angels Flight by Michael Connelly; and to the lovely young woman who took home eight kids books; and to Alice, who donated a thriller.
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