Gentle reader,

We now have a flier for the 1907 Centennial on March 22, if you'd care to print one or more copies to post or share. Any help in spreading the word would be very much appreciated, and you can download the PDF here.

The proposals for the 1907 Centennial Celebration are in, and what wonderful performances they'll be! We are so very pleased to host some of our favorite folks in a night dedicated to remembering the Los Angeles of one hundred years past.

When you join us at Bedlam on Thursday night, March 22, this is what you'll being thrilling to, in order of appearance:

The invocation of Zuckerman the Potato King (Kim Cooper and Kelly Kuvo)
The strange tale of  A. Victor Segno, Mentalist with Beautiful Hair (Larry Harnisch)
A description of life in 1907 L.A. (George Garrigues)
The song stylings of Miss Figueroa Daguerre
Witty period readings from George Ade's "Fables In Slang" (Brooke Alberts)
J. Stuart Blackton's comic short film "The Starving Artist, or: Realism in Art" (American Vitagraph Company, 1907, live accompaniment by Laura Steenberge, presented by Ross Lipman)
Fortunes told in Madame Pamita's Parlor of Wonders
And the lovely Miss Janet Klein accompanied by Tom Marion revealing the next secret year to be blogged at 1947project, in song and patter.
 
The fun starts at 9pm sharp, and we anticipate about one hour for the show, with a potluck party to follow. Please bring an old fashioned recipe to share, dress in period duds if you've got 'em, and join us as we bid a centennial adieu to this great and endlessly surprising year of 1907 and welcome in the next year which we're certain will prove every bit as worthy of obsession. Will it be 1967? 1887? Shhhh... you just have to come to Bedlam to find out!

Where: Bedlam Arts, 1275 E. Sixth Street, downtown L.A. 90021
When: Thursday, March 22, show starts at 9pm sharp
Cost: Free, but it would be neat if you brought an old timey potluck dish to share (recipe links are here)

See you then!
Kim & the 1947project gang 

Reminder, you have until February 5 to submit your proposals for the 1907 Centennial celebration. We've already received some fascinating submissions--including one for the first public appearance in more than a decade of a legendary L.A. postpunk band, presenting a live score to a Melies Brothers short -- and would love to have you be a part of it. So send over your ideas, half-baked or cooked straight through, and join us on March 22 at Bedlam.

1907 Centennial - open call for performers

For the past year, the bloggers at 1947project.com have been immersed in the weird old L.A. of 1907, a city of open sewers and Mexican revolutionaries, 15mph hot rodders and prankster firemen, holy rollers and hollow earthers. As the calendar strikes March and the conclusion of twelve months of 1907 research, we're hosting a special centennial celebration, and we'd like YOU to be a part of it.

Writers, musicians, actors, artists, comics, storytellers, vaudevillians, curators, filmmakers, historians, poets and others are invited to propose a 3-10 minute presentation on a theme inspired by 1907-era Los Angeles (or the wider world). Your piece can be original or an adaptation of something you've read on 1947project.com or elsewhere. All media are welcome (we can provide amplification and video projection). The only requirements are that it be entertaining and respectful to any crime victims involved.

Prospective presenters should provide the following:
1) A one paragraph creative bio, 200 words or less, suitable for publication
2) A description of what you propose to do at the 1907 Centennial event, noting any source material that you have been inspired by
3) Length of proposed performance
4) Contact info
5) Your website or other helpful links

Event curators Kim Cooper, Larry Harnisch, Lucinda Michele Knapp and Nathan Marsak will be collecting proposals through February 5 and announcing the line up shortly afterwards. The '07 celebration will be held on Thursday, March 22 at Bedlam Art downtown, and will culminate in the festive revelation by a very special musical guest of which historic year will next get the archival treatment from 1947project. The event will be free, with refreshments and libations on hand. Vintage recipes will be provided for those who enjoy cooking to contribute pot luck offerings to share.

Need more info to stoke the fires of your creativity? Visit www.1947project.com/1907 for some helpful historic resources.

Please submit your proposal for The 1907 Centennial by February 5 to Kim by email or mail to PO Box 31227, Los Angeles CA 90031.

Helpful hints for those wishing to attend the 1907 Centennial celebration, March 22, 2007  

WHEN: March 22, 2007, 9pm+
WHERE: Bedlam Arts, 1275 E. 6th Street off Alameda, downtown LA
COST: Free 

Coming in period costume is encouraged, circa 1907 or whatever delightful obsolete garb you can pull together.

Food makes every gathering especially sociable, and the organizers will be providing a small selection of historic dishes to sample. We invite anyone coming to the show to make something old fashioned to share (again, circa 1907 or from some other past time), and direct you to the following websites for recipe ideas:

Sweets and savories from the pages of Food Heritage Press reproduction cookbooks.... things Jane Austen might have eaten... treats of Roman and Medieval Britain... an array of edible riches from the archives of The Old Foodie.

If bringing something to share, please contact us before cooking so we can catch any duplicate dishes, and help answer any of your questions. Please note that the evening is dedicated to Maurice Zuckerman, the Potato King, and so dishes featuring the noble spud are especially welcome.  

For more background on 1907 in Los Angeles and elsewhere, the following sources are helpful. 

• Google News archival search for "Los Angeles, 1907" (you can search within these results by adding keywords)

• If you have a Los Angeles Public Library card, use it to log in to their database archive and search "Los Angeles Times, Historical Archives (ProQuest)" for day by day local coverage from 1907.

• UCSB has a digital collection of Edison cylinder recordings, including this nifty little ditty from 1907. 

• George Garrigues maintains a delightful website about Los Angeles in the '00s. Here's his material on 1907. 

• Wikipedia's year 1907 in review. 

Stay tuned to this page for new resources as they occur to us, and please add your favorites in the comments below.

Preparations are nearly complete for the Shriners Convention, which begins May 7, 1907 with the city's Al Malaikah Temple hosting the gathering. Among the events planned is a parade of Imperial Potentate Alvah P. Clayton from the Alexandria Hotel to the Scottish Rite Cathedral on Hill Street near 5th Street. The hosts also plan automobile rides to Glendale, where convention-goers will receive boxes of Tropico strawberries, and a table a quarter-mile long at the new development on Redondo Beach that promises to be "the biggest clam chowder party on record." The Times reported that Illustrious Potentate Matt Flint of Al Malaikah received the first installment of special lanterns to be carried by members of the temple and those to be carried by the Nobles of Islam Temple from San Francisco. There were 1,500 lanterns, one for each man in Al Malaikah and 500 for the visiting Nobles of Islam from San Francisco. The Islam Temple will be staying at the King Edward Hotel on 5th Street near Main. The Algeria Temple of Montana will be staying at the Lankershim Hotel while the Nevada Shriners will be staying at the Van Nuys Hotel.

* * *

On the witness stand, accused "Barefoot Burglar" James G. Fleenor complains that police tried to get him drunk to gain a confession. Fleenor, who was black, had been part of an attempted jailbreak several weeks earlier. "They took me down to Capt. Flammer's office," Fleenor said, "and asked me for a description of the two men I had got the box of jewelry from. Then they took me to my office in a hack. Before we started, the captain said to [Detective] Jones, 'Here is $5 for the expenses of your trip with Fleenor.' We stopped on the way and had two or three drinks. In one of the saloons they charged 50 cents ($10.26 USD 2005) for my drink because I am a colored man. When we got to the office I tried to find the telephone number of the men I had got the jewelry from. I thought I found it and gave it to them. The next day [Detective] Boyd came to my cell and said we were going to the office again. He gave me a sample bottle of whiskey. We went to the office and hunted among my papers. I found another telephone number which I thought might be the one the men had given me. On the way back we stopped at Winston and Main streets and got a drink. I had a glass of whiskey and a glass of beer. On the fourth day of my arrest they came together and brought me a bottle of whiskey. They said they found the house where that telephone number was and they were going out there. Next morning they came to see me again. They didn't bring any whiskey. Jones said: 'Old man, it looks dark for you. They'll stick you for this. We believe what you told us but you couldn't make a jury believe that. You've got to find these people or stand for it yourself.' They took me down in the office again and said to me: 'You stand for this like we tell you and you won't get near so long.' Jones was laughing and I asked him what he was laughing at. He said: 'I'm laughing at the way you strung us. There's no white man and colored man lives in that house. There's a woman lives there, that we know." Boyd said he was darned tired of it and that I had to [come] clean on it or take it on myself. 'If you take it on yourself, there'll be only one or two charges put against you, but if you don't they'll keep sticking them on you. That jewelry you had came from 15 or 20 jobs. Plead guilty and you'll get a light sentence.' After I came up here and pleaded not guilty, they told me I'd done the thing wrong and that if I'd plead guilty like they told me I'd have got only four or five years. They said they would have gone to the county attorney and very little would have been done to me. But I wanted to have a chance to tell how it was." The Times reported: "Detectives Boyd and Jones admitted that they had bought Fleenor drinks on two or three occasions but denied that they had taken any to his cell."

April 15, 1907
Pasadena

As criminality reaches epidemic proportions in sleepy Pasadena, the citizenry grumbles about Chief Pinkham's skills as police head, and makes noises about replacing him.

The latest outrage was visited upon George Syer, a public carriage driver who was called out to 876 Lincoln Avenue this evening, ostensibly to take some women to a train. The address should have been found north of Mountain, in an unlit area. He did not find the house, but while looking was acosted by a man with a thick Irish brogue who demanded his money. Syer parted with a dollar in change, but kept the contents of his other pocket. No mention was made of a weapon being brandished, but it is well known that one can't be too careful with Irishmen! 

March 30, 1907
Los Angeles 

Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Paul Solf, a couple from Denver who have been honeymooning at the Estelle at 312 1/2 West First Street, paid a visit to the police this evening at the insistence of the lady.

Paul Solf told the desk sergeant that he had returned to their room earlier, to find his wife reading a letter from a former admirer. As he snatched it away, a photograph fell out, and the pair commenced to arguing. After a time, Mrs. Solf said that if he did not accompany her to the police station, she would call for them herself. Thinking she was bluffing, he joined her in a perambulation towards Central Station.

Upon entering, Mrs. Solf declared that Paul Solf had threatened her with a revolver. He denied this, but a quick search revealed a heavy revolver on his person. Solf was locked up, while officers determined that he had a letter for $5000 credit from a Denver bank, and nearly as much in cash. On reflection, Mrs. Solf decided she didn't wish to prosecute, but officers still plan to charge him for carrying a concealed weapon.

Solf is a race horse man, and his bride a bit of a gambler. 

March 27, 1907
Los Angeles 

After visiting her Chinese husband in the County Jail, Mrs. Yee Lung (also called Mrs. Frank Chew) spoke of her intention to join her beloved as he was deported, and to travel with him in the train car packed with forty other Chinese deportees for the trip up to San Francisco.

Special permission has been granted by the U.S. Marshall for her to ride with her husband. They will immediately board a boat to Hong Kong, and the woman may never again see her white friends relatives in this country.

Mrs. Lung's friends have pleaded with her to reconsider, but she insists "I trust my husband implicitly... he wouldn't go without me, and I wouldn't be so cruel as to ask him to."

March 22, 1907
Pasadena 

A special correspondent follows up on the distressing report of a cow gravely injured when struck by an electric car near Lamanda Park. Bossy was found happily chewing her cud with no sign of injury. As near as can be figured, the trolley ran over the cow's tether, pulling it taut and forcing the reluctant acrobat to turn a dramatic aerial flip. She seems to have landed safely and forgotten all about her wild adventure, until the cries of do-gooders to the Humane Society roused an interest in her case.

March 18, 1907
Los Angeles 

Carlos Perez, an unarmed man shot by an Olvera Street nightwatchman as he walked towards his home on Macy Street last evening, lies tonight in County Hospital, gravely wounded with a bullet puncuring his lung. A gruesome side effect of his injury is that air is seeping beneath his skin, inflating his body like a fleshy balloon. Doctors can press gently on the man's hands, eyelids and ribcage, causing him to briefly deflate, though he quickly swells up again. 

Dr. Barber, the hospital superintendent, says that he has seen victims who suffer minor inflation around their injuries, but never someone whose entire body becomes so like a balloon. Doctors hesitate to puncture Perez' skin for fear of introducing an infection, and so the poor man suffers the strange sensation of constant pressure from within. His outlook is uncertain.

Richard D. Birch, nightwatchman for the Merchant's Fire Dispatch, has given conflicting statements regarding the shooting, and will surely face manslaughter charges should his victim perish.

Below, Olvera Street circa 1890