So Cal Hotels

Left: 1939 brochure from author’s collection. Right: from scans via New York Public Library*

The All-Year Club of Southern California published a variety of guides for visitors and also operated a free information bureau at 505 W. Sixth St. in Los Angeles. Their hotel guide had 30 pages of lodgings but there was no overlap with the listings in The Negro Motorist Green Book.

• Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. “The Negro Motorist Green Book: 1939” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1939. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/911d3420-83da-0132-687a-58d385a7b928

Mickey and pals celebrate the Fourth

“Dad” Bailey’s newstand

Image: via great nephew Bodie Bailey posted at http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=170279&page=239 .

“Charles ‘Dad’ Bailey opened his newsstand after his previous business (Luggage Store) was destroyed in a fire and his bookkeeper had neglected to pay the insurance premiums. His stand was very popular and he made a good living from it. He lived until he was 90 and kept the stand until just a very few years before he died.

His great nephew Bodie Bailey has a cool flickr site with all sorts of photos and family stories. As far as the location of the stand, Bodie is unsure but he thinks it was on or near Florence in South Los Angeles close to USC.

~Jon Paul”

Excerpt from image link above.

The magazine at the center bottom position is the October 1939 issue of Daring Detective.

Image: http://pofoz.com/magazines/true-crime/titles/daring-detective/html/1939-10.html .

 

 

 

 

Call for Philip Morris!

Images: from Outwitting Handicaps magazine. Per the inside cover, it was founded “as a non-profit publication dedicated to the best interest of the physically handicapped. It is the offical organ of Chair Warmers, Inc., an incorporated association without capital stock, chartered under the laws of Michigan.”

So, while it is not a southern California story, the Philip Morris cigarette brand was the CBS radio sponsor of the 9 p.m. time slot on Fridays in 1939-1940 featuring the Russ Morgan Orchestra. So, we can presume that local listeners heard Johnny Roventini make that famous “Call for Philip Morris!” yell many times.