July 2, 1941: Sam Coslow announces a deal with Mills Novelty Co. to produce 208 "soundies"  and plans to make 20 of them in the next month, directed by Josef Berne. The acts include Gale Page, Martha Tilton, Cliff Nazarro, Buddy Rogers and his orchestra, Mary Healy, the King's Men, Benny Rubin, Johnny Downs and the Duncan Sisters, The Times says.

Oct. 21, 1941: Sen. Burton K. Wheeler (D-Mont.) denounces soundies, saying that some of the films are "lewd and lascivious."

"I hope these pictures are not going to be shown in the camps to the soldier boys," Wheeler said. "Many of these young boys are now being subject to enough temptations in some of these camps as it is."

June 1, 1941: LONDON, May 31. (AP)-- German airmen who went belatedly to Iraq to bolster the Axis-inspired war against Britain were reported fleeing the country tonight as Iraqi resistance collapsed. British imperial advance forces entered the disorderly capital of Bagdad.

April 5, 1961: In a switch from its usual policy of keeping lurid killings off the front page, The Times puts the Spade Cooley story on Page 1 (below the fold).  
 
John, his son from a previous marriage, said: "Dad and mother had not been getting along for weeks. I don't think there was, but Dad had a fixation there was someone else. Dad has a violent temper. But he never beat me. He wouldn't try to take me on. And, as far as I know, he never harmed Melody or Donny.

"He can't be sane to have done a thing like this, can he? Do you know how she died? It was terrible, wasn't it? He just doesn't stand a ghost of a chance."

April 4, 1961: Western music star Donnell “Spade” Cooley is accused of killing his estranged wife, Ella Mae,  in a jealous rage after listening to tape recordings of her phone conversations about what the defense would call “a free love cult.”

I have not had much exposure to the Cooley case, which occurred in Kern County, except that James Ellroy used to talk about it all the time and it is certainly one of the notorious killings of the early 1960s.

The details of the killing are particularly gruesome and part of it was witnessed by the Cooley’s teenage daughter, Melody, so I’m a little reluctant to dredge up all the gory details. A purported affair with Roy Rogers (yes, that Roy Rogers) — which he and others denied -- was also dragged into the courtroom.

It is a nasty, lurid case. 
 

“Vamonos Con Pancho Villa!” (“Let’s Go With Pancho Villa!”) is the surprisingly dark, roughly hewn story of six friends who call themselves “the lions of San Pablo” and join the Mexican Revolution as much for the adventure as the idealism. “Vamonos” is a study in the progression from loyalty to blind obedience and from courage to being tragically foolhardy.

The 1936 Mexican film was directed by Fernando de Fuentes from a novel by Rafael F. Muñoz and portrays Villa as a ruthless, cold-blooded killer who nonetheless is adored by his thousands of rag-tag troops. “Vamonos” is a bleak film of increasingly senseless violence and the alternative ending included on the DVD raises the bloodshed to the impossibly surreal.

(At right, writer Rafael F. Muñoz plays Martín Espinosa, who is shot to death while lighting bombs and throwing them at a fort.) 

Feb. 24-March 4, 1941: British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham comes to town to conduct two programs by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and my doesn’t he get people furious with his comments about classical music in the U.S. generally and especially in Los Angeles.

The women’s committee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic had never been so insulted! The “ladies” actually hissed Sir Thomas’ comments on politics, such as the proposed Lend-Lease program, which he said wouldn't make "tuppence of difference." 

The Times barely covered his luncheon speech at the Biltmore but wrote to great length on the furor it caused when he noted that Los Angeles rarely performed choral music and had no opera company, no opera house or symphony hall. (Recall that in his era, the orchestra performed at Philharmonic Auditorium and visiting companies performed operas at Shrine Auditorium).

Unfortunately for the music historian, it is difficult to discern the actual caliber of the performance from Isabel Morse Jones’ review.

This is what passed for music criticism at The Times in the pre-Martin Bernheimer era: "His conducting is photogenic to a degree that it should be called to the attention of Walt Disney. His back may not be as effective as Stokowski's but his heel and toe work and especially his arm gyrations tell a music story that is fascinating to watch." But she duly recorded when the audience applauded and was otherwise moved – the music critic as applause meter. 
 
The Philharmonic performed Beecham's suite from Handel's "The Faithful Shepherd," Frederick Delius' "Summer Night on the River," Mozart's Symphony No. 36 and Sibelius' Symphony No. 1.

Feb. 22, 1981: “The nominees this year represent a new low in Grammy conservatism,” Robert Hilburn says. "The gap in attitude between NARAS members -- the people who are in the business of making music -- and critics, who spend their time thinking about and responding to music, is conveniently underscored in the Village Voice's annual poll of the nation's leading pop and rock critics.

The results of the Village Voice best album poll:

1. The Clash, "London Calling"
2. Bruce Springsteen's "The River"
3. Talking Heads "Remain in Light"
4. "Pretenders"
5. Public Image, Ltd's "Second Edition"
6. Captain Beefheart's "Doc at the Radar Station"
7. Elvis Costello's "Get Happy!!"
8. Stevie Wonder's "Hotter Than July"
9. Prince's "Dirty Mind"
10. Gang of Four's "Entertainment"

ALSO

Rock Shuts Out Disco at Grammys

Feb. 11, 1911: Among the items at the Southwest Museum is a flute, made of a human bone, that was discovered while excavating Native American graves on Santa Catalina Island.  The flute was something of a rarity, The Times said, because it had six finger holes rather than three.

The museum asked various musicians to try playing the flute, but none was successful. Museum curator Hector Alliot (d. 1919) decided that "as the flute had been played by a people whose minds were as children's compared with the minds of the modern man, he would find the person to make the flute speak among the children."

Clifford Elliott Martindale was able to make a sound on the flute. “Suddenly a long, weird sound like a wail arose throughout the museum. It hung and quavered and then died away as Martindale gasped for more breath," The Times said. 

Jan. 27, 1961: Matt Weinstock has an item about folk music featuring singer Joyce James and guitarist Bill Fernandez. One of their songs is David Arkin’s “The Klan,” about a cross burning in East L.A.

Oct. 19, 1980: Some people refuse to believe that Teena Marie is white, Dennis Hunt writes. "I tell them I'm white but they think I'm black and I'm trying to pass for white.... This is white skin. I'm not trying to fool anybody."

She also said: "I'm a different kind of person. Blacks and whites don't really react in any special way to me. I don't get anything negative from blacks and not really anything negative from whites now. But I will say it was different before I started getting some popularity. I don't think it was prejudice from whites as much as ignorance of something they didn't know much about. You know, I wish I was colorless sometimes."