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Los Angeles in the 1900s
A collection of contemporary articles, advertisements and illustrations about the City of the Angels at the turn of the last century. |
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AN OVERVIEW
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To make corrections or comments, please e-mail the site owner.
The wording in Roman type is that of the original source, but the presentation is optimized for the Web. Original headlines are in Roman; my own headlines and comments are in sans-serif type. Minor typographical errors are corrected, or in some cases, made. Omissions in content are indicated by ellipses (three dots). |
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Click to jump to He Usually Lived With a Female: The Life of a California Newspaperman (A separate Web site with articles on Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s) |
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Los Angeles in the 1900s |
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| 3 die in collapse of Third Street Tunnel; safety petition goes to City Council; “coon show” raises funds for orphans. | • | Workmen dig out victims of tunnel collapse; Ellen Beach Yaw (Lark Ellen). | |
| Laborer injured in mishap at Broadway Tunnel; city attorney rejects responsibility for worker safety; industrial exposition planned. | Continental Oil Co. of Los Angeles. | Eight badly drawn oil wells; a plinth with a badly drawn oil barrel on top. | |
| Los Angeles Herald supports Board of Education policy forbidding married teachers. | Papita, Paderewski, ‘Parisian Romance’ are choices for L.A. theatergoers. | Papinta the Flame Dancer, and her and her husband’s tomb. | |
| William Jennings Bryan cheered; tips to women about safety on streetcars. | • | A woman shows the right and wrong way to get on and off a streetcar. | |
| Holdup of a streetcar; Times publisher charged with wielding a machete; other crime stories; kids eating garbage. | H. Jevne bakery department. | Drawings: Woman carrying cake, Jevne grocery (exterior). Photo: Harrison Gray Otis in uniform. Orange crate label. | |
| June | Store managers think about closing Saturday afternoons during the heat of summer. | Mullen & Bluett Clothing Co.; Herald Publishing Co. | Two boys in suits; carrier on bicycle delivering paper to camper. |
| July | Bastille Ball; nugget-bearing Klondike prospector gets married; ice truck hits cyclist. | Do Your Ants Bother You? | • |
| August | Coins taken from a corpse cause a stink in the county offices; water problems. | The Up-to-Date Department Store. | Vandergrift rotary washer; coins; cartoons of people cussing. |
| September | Lawyers, judges, doctors, merchants and some funny guys gather to fete the Conservative Life Insurance Co., to eat and to smoke cigars. | • | Van Nuys Hotel; Chinese reading wall posters; Dr. Walter Lindley and his private hospital. |
| October | Los Angeles population hits 102,479; city celebrates Halloween. | Ringling Brothers Circus. | The five Ringling Brothers; house of former Mayor W.H. Workman. |
| November | Storm cuts off L.A. from the rest of the world; streetcar and trains stranded by floods; African-American social events listed. | Morosco’s Burbank Theater; Orpheum; Los Angeles Theater; Blanchard Hall; trained animal shows; Velodrome races; USC-L.A. High football game. | Stevens A.M.E. Church; District Attorney James C. Rives; a zebu. |
| December | Meredith P. Snyder is elected mayor. | London Clothing Company (Harris & Frank) | Commotion on the street as a well-dressed man drives up in a new automobile. |
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| Angelinos tell what resolutions should be made in Los Angeles for the first year of the 20th Century. | • | City Librarian Mary L. Jones; Hotel Coronado Del Mar; the Braly Block at Fourth and Spring Streets | |
| White folks form a committee to help Negroes found a church; Presbyterians plan a convention. | Southern California Wine Company; Marshutz the Optician | Man in knickerbockers offers glass of wine to seated woman; spectacles. | |
| Shriners are feted; policemen gain glory by stopping runaway horses. | • | ”Fair Angelina Welcomes the Shriners and Gives Them the Freedom of the City.“ | |
| The 600 teachers of Los Angeles make heavy use of the city library. | Men’s styles at the Mullen & Bluett Clothing Co. | Man in striped suit, hat, with cane. | |
| Judge Widney sells the San Fernando water system; Chinese immigrants arraigned. | • | Politician gives newspaper reporter a mechanical drubbing. | |
| June | Pressure mounts to complete Sunset Boulevard between Los Angeles and Hollywood and to pave Seventh Street. | Burlington Northern Excursions; Brent’s Furniture credit store. | Man and woman read magazine on train. |
| July | Fourth of July: Westlake Park is a dream of beauty under gorgeous lights. Some carouse too much. | • | Westlake Park, the lake, a boat and boathouse, trees. |
| August | L.A. baseball team reorganized, wins two games. | London Clothing Company (Harris & Frank) | Man in a suit; two boys in suits, both short and long pants. |
| September | Los Angeles Times scoffs at unions’ Labor Day parade and festivities; a sailor is beaten at President McKinley memorial rally. | • | Anti-union political cartoon. |
| October | Judge turns down free-speech complaint against L.A. mayor; Ladies’ day at the races; C.F. Lummis to lead group to New Mexico; WCTU letter. | Getz Fine Tailoring, American Dye Works. | Men in fine suits, elegant woman in horseless carriage; screaming eagle on American shield. |
| November | Minstrel show planned. | • | Three white people in blackface. |
| December | A Hawaii sugar baron complains about the work ethic of newly arrived Puerto Rican laborers. | HJK Old Bourbon Whisky, Cuticura Soap, Barker’s furniture, Puritas Root Beer and others. | • |
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| Old Calvary Cemetery (now the site of Cathedral High School) is rundown and decrepit; Chinese interpreter wins fee in court; banquet for Col. Griffith | • | Old Calvary Cemetery; Col. Griffith J. Griffith | |
| A woman claims title to almost all of Garvanza; city water board organizes; African-American social events. | Mammoth Shoe House. | Trojan warrior bearing shield of ‘Mammoth Shoe House’ steps on prostrate ’competitors.’ | |
| Mormon elder invites self to a Methodist meeting to defend his faith; a socialist speaks at another place. | • | Methodist minister Thomas C. Iliff. | |
| Temple Beth Israel is dedicated; rural mail delivery begins in bucolic Eagle Rock. | • | Temple Beth Israel on Olive Street; typical Eagle Rock home; local school; the Rock. | |
| Angelinos of many nationalities celebrate annual L.A. Festival. | • | Caricatures of civic leaders in minstrel blackface; a “horse fiddle” noisemaker. | |
| June | The Times accuses Herald reporters of boozing in a bar and carousing with low women in their rooms. | The Hamburger Store (bathing suits). | Cartoon of the Police Commission white-washing the Vienna Buffet; two women in bathing suits playing leapfrog. |
| July | A mechanical computer is unveiled in L.A.; cop nabs bicyclists; Hollywood wants Sunset Boulevard finished. | Dr. O.C. Joslen, specialist in “Men’s Diseases Only.“ | Tate’s Arithmometer; handsome Cr. Joslen, with trimmed beard and handlebar mustache. |
| August | Mexican laborers chase train crew that caused death of child; wireless is working; Mrs. Bradbury ill; “coon sketch” on the bill at Chutes Park. | Electricity, magnetism and music will cure many diseases. | Chutes Park slide and theater. |
| September | Times employment policy; non-union carpenters in San Pedro. | Owl Drug Company. | Owls on pedestals; fully dressed woman with a home steam bath; cartoon plugging a bug-killer. |
| October | Youth gets two years for stealing seven cents; black held for trial on white man’s testimony. | Ville de Paris women’s store. | Fancy woman in a fancy dress. |
| November | Music, vaudeville, theater and other amusements. | Los Angeles Theater, Orpheum, Morosco’s Burbank Theater, Blanchard Hall, baseball, Chutes Theater, Santa Monica Plunge. | Tenor Andreas Dippel, Chutes Park and Theater, Santa Monica Plunge. |
| December | Huge Bimini Baths indoor plunge to open on western outskirts of city. | • | Aerial photo of Bimini in the 1920s; modern street sign. |
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| Singers turn Third Street tunnel into an auditorium; Booker T. Washington speaks; poem by publisher’s wife. | • | Third Street tunnel; Booker T. Washington; well-dressed woman at train station. | |
| Unsanitary conditions in Chinatown; Carrie Nation’s sister; boxing match. | • | Cartoon of rat carrying cheese in bandana; Hazard’s Pavilion. | |
| Runaway train, stage review, fire in brothel and other news snippets. | Ocean Park Improvement Company shills for ”This Gay Resort.” | Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley; sheet music; fully dressed people on beach; Ocean Park scene; the Chutes. | |
| Cleaner drinking water; cops told to quit politics; rich toffs feed selves in downtown hotel; George F. Bovard chosen USC president. | “Richly trimmed Easter hats” (Marvel Millinery). | Women in hats, flowers, Van Nuys Hotel dining room. | |
| Theodore Roosevelt comes to town for the Los Angeles Fiesta; history of the Fiesta. | Christopher‘s Delicacy Parlors. | Cartoon of TR and parade participants; TR and baby; Westminster Hotel; young man and woman simpering at each other over ice cream. | |
| June | Luxurious Mason Opera House opens; mayor finds a 10-year-old elevator boy | F.B. Silverwood, L.A. Ice & Cold Storage (Puritas Water). | Mason Opera House; startled Uncle Sam confronts a question mark with arms. Scientist and a huge microscope. |
| July | Temple Baptist Church is founded; Good Samaritan Hospital plans new building; Coast League prepares to join national minor leagues association | Cook’s Mineral Water; Blair’s Shoe Store; Cadillac and Duryea automobiles. | Two photos of Robert J. Burdette; a high-top shoe with a man’s picture on it; a Caddy and a Duryea. |
| August | City-county merger will be studied. | Charles W. Ennis clothiers. | A really snotty looking dude in a double-breasted suit. |
| September | Police keep order at back-to-school sales; beautiful South Park is lauded. | Hamburger’s school supplies. | Cartoon: children in classroom; new house in Hollywood; South Park. |
| October | Free-speech enthusiasts are arrested by police. | • | Dr. A.J. Stevens; cartoon on ‘Prosperity in Los Angeles.‘ |
| November | Remarkable no-hitter pitched by Angels’ Newton; Griffith pleads innocent; real Indians whip USC team. | • | E.J. (Doc) Newton; Griffith J. Griffith; football cartoon. |
| December | The Los Angeles Examiner prints its first edition; the Times scoffs. | • | The Examiner‘s building on Broadway, between 5th and 6th. |
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| USC in uproar over paying a football player; Negroes sue theater for discrimination; fire kills fireman‘s son; Immaculate Heart sisters plan an academy; El Camino Real will be revived; Hollywood voters reject saloons; ‘Colored Citizens’ column. | • | LAFD Lieut. George W. Bright; entertainer Ernest Hogan; A.M.E. Bishop B.F. Lee; caricatures of C.D. Willard, Charles F. Lummis, A.P. Fleming, O.W. Longdon, H.R. McNoble, Methodist Bishop J.H. Johnson. | |
| Police arrest prostitutes; ‘radium’ mines; Lark Ellen to return home. | • | Carpenters in “crib” district; women being booked; Ellen Beach Yaw. | |
| Card sharks, hookers lie waiting in Sawtelle for soft-headed veterans. | Southern Pacific’s California Limited. | Cigarette-smoking veterans playing cards; train travelers. | |
| Woodmen of the World hold mass initiation atop Mt. Lowe. | Kakiuchi Bros. Japanese curios. | Woodmen, Mt. Lowe railway, Alpine Tavern, Japanese arch. | |
| Sunset Blvd. opened; long-distance telephone concert; L.A. High girls’ basketball team beats Glendale. | Cecilian, the Perfect Piano Player. | Autos, streetcar on Sunset Blvd.; Hollywood Hotel; girls’ team; player piano. | |
| June | Normal School head fired; dispute over church bell; Chinatown gamblers nabbed. | L.A. Times subscription promotion. | Graphophone talking machine. |
| July | Department store takes workers to the beach; two debutantes profiled. | Woodbury Business College. | Pacific Electric car; Madge Nave and Amy Morrow. |
| August | Valley farmers sue L.A. over water; Examiner ridicules Harrison Gray Otis, Times, Herald. | • | San Fernando Valley map; cartoon about Otis. |
| September | ‘Kid McCoy’; smoking room in theater; burned horse. | • | Norman Selby, or ’Kid McCoy’; cartoon of Charles F. Eyton. |
| October | Moving the Public Library; pickpockets. | Unique Cloak & Suit House | Good-looking woman in a spiffy dress. |
| November | Eliza A. Otis dies; the Griffiths are divorced. | • | Eliza A. Otis; Mrs. Griffith J. Griffith; Vandel Griffith. |
| December | Barney Oldfield. | Coulter Dry Goods Co. | Rag doll in cute dress. |
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| L.A. man elected U.S. Senator; prohibition billboard defaced; Buena Vista renaming protest. | Broadway Department Store. | Five women in hats and winter dresses; Frank J. Flint; prohibition bar and jail cartoon. | |
| Bright future seen for suburban residential community of Hollywood; streetcar signals being repaired downtown. | Auto Vehicle Co. (successor to Parrott Carriage Mfg. Co.) | Orchard, PE car, tree-shrouded Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood Hotel, Bevill-Stern residence, Letts Gardens, Hollywood High School, First & Spring Sts., drawings of buggies. | |
| Violent storm wrecks ships, tears apart Venice shorefront. | • | • | |
| Baseball fans in near-riot; L.A.’s first playground; ruined post office to be razed. | • | Baseball cartoon. | |
| Girls’ basketball; Japanese jiujitsu. | New Westgate (Brentwood) tract. | Old Soldiers’ Home (three views). | |
| June | Bad roads; theater sprinklers; Spanish comedy. | Auto Vehicle Co.; Broadway Department Store. | Department store exterior; Japanese woman; Model K Tourist Runabout. |
| July | Venice-of-America opens; women’s tennis; fireworks injuries. | • | Crowded Venice; Eleanor Peralta with racket. |
| August | Owens River project; Death Valley Scotty; coroner on trial. | Watts subdivision; Broadway Department Store. | Fred Eaton; Scotty; courtroom sketch of judge Henry C. Austin, defendant L.G. Holland, witness Eliza Flick; three men in suits at train station. |
| September | Women‘s suffrage; Lummis and the library staff; bike messengers needed. | • | Charles F. Lummis. |
| October | Mob attacks Negro officer; millionaires want to sell booze; ground broken for Hamburger department store; float decorator named; wealthy gamblers nabbed; man in airship escapes irate cop. | • | Fawcett Robinson; M.A. Hamburger; street scene at Fifth and Broadway. |
| November | Fire destroys Bimini Baths; Capt. Auble named police chief | Walter Harris Co.; classified ads. | Bimini; Walter F. Auble; Negro stereotypes (cartoon); man and boys in new duds. |
| December | Fire at Coronado Hotel; The Prince of Pilsen | Southern Calif. Music Co. | Fire Chief Walter Lips; horse and carriage; firemen; chorus girls; little girl and music-maker. |
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| Express campaign against the evils of Ascot Park. | McWhorter Bros.; Phonograph Agency | County supervisors in action; gas stove; Edison phonograph | |
| Hotel Alexandria will open; Owens River project begins; ex-chief Elton in jail. | • | Hotel Alexandria; Owens River; crowded public schools (cartoon); ex-Chief Elton. | |
| Chinese shoot at the flag; floods shut down L.A.; cop accused by Negroes; new school superintendent; a cow with two udders. | • | Shredded flags; Ernest Carroll Moore. | |
| San Francisco earthquake. | • | Devastation in San Francisco; Thaddeus S.C. Lowe. | |
| Sarah Bernhardt; Santa Fe freight depot; roller skating; Chinese laundries; bank clerks and Saturday nights. | • | Sarah Bernhardt; Santa Fe depot; SoCal Institute of Architecture, Shriner’ fez, 2 women blowing horns. | |
| June | Calif.–Hawaii yacht race; half-holidays; automobiles; labor news. | Dolson Motor Car Co. | Margery Sinclair; Dolson auto; Pismo Beach. |
| July | Pentecostal movement; Elks Lodge; woman police officer; fire chief’s horse | Broadway Department Store (boys’ wear) | Angels Flight and Crocker Mansion; Officer Jessie McDonald; Chinese queues used for clothesline. |
| August | Plan unveiled to consolidate city and county. | • | Boundaries for proposed city-county boroughs. |
| September | Construction half-holidays; armed man threatens Watts; 2 engines crash; streetcar hit milk wagon; ‘Owl’ service. | Consolidated Bank of Los Angeles; radium-and-milk cancer treatments. | Workman going to bank; Dr. H. Russell Burner waggling his finger. |
| October | Smallpox vaccination; Prohibitionists nominate Negro; canned Mexican food; women in nighties. | Bartlett Music Co. | Workers in cannery; dog listening to Victrola. |
| November | Edward Kern named police chief; crowd watches ‘th’ illiction returns’; annexation vote slated; Griffith Park roads; Venice population. | • | Edward Kern; election-night crowd in front of Times building. |
| December | Harbor cannon; councilman subpoenaed; ghouls rob Calvary Cemetery; wife dies of overdose; suitor loses girlfriend in court; 38 mph speeders; hot suppers for saleswomen; city death rate; radium doctor sued. | Hamburger’s Department Store. | Deadman’s Island at San Pedro; man in tight collar and peculiar bathrobe tries to look insouciant. |
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| Bryan visits L.A. again; New Year celebration; No Smoking in City Council; L.A.’s first adult school; The Palms. | Jesse Moore whisky at Lagomarsino Co. | Man throwing something weird at two howling cats; Polytechnic High School. | |
| Explosion kills 4; San Pedro City Hall to be built; gorilla mauls teen; annexation loses in a rain-soaked vote; Palms Depot. | Cawston Ostrich Farm; various theaters. | Explosion victims; San Pedro City Hall; ostriches; Chutes amusement park. | |
| Bullock‘s, Central department store; irate pedestrian pinched. | Fiske Talking Machine Co. | Bullock’s; downtown map; Edison cylinder record. | |
| Mexicans suffer from housing cleanup; Lillian Russell late for her show. | • | Slums being destroyed; Lillian Russell; overhead map of Ohio Street. | |
| Mother’s Congress; women’s news; flophouse bedbugs; Charlie’s Butte. | • | Mmes. F.W. Force, C.W. Rogers and J.F. Kanst; Charlie’s Butte. | |
| June | Owens River bonds approved; benefit show for theater workers; retail clerks fear loss of Saturday evenings; editorial praises women’s virtue. | Los Angeles Green Trading Stamp Co. | Yet another Harrison Gray Otis cartoon; Broadway and City Hall; a pouter pigeon; strongman Al Treloar; actress Faye Bainter; green stamps. |
| July | Elevated railroad to Pasadena; Women’s Parliament; tetatus anti-toxin; Anti-Faker Society; filthy bakeries; streetcar conductors; judge rules against police. | • | Pacific Electric building. |
| August | City-county consolidation; soda water quenches thirst; construction in The Palms; woman attorney argues for chiropractor. | • | Mustachioed members of consolidation committeee; Fosgate’s Mission Soda Fountain, “the largest in the world.”. |
| September | Labor Day at Chutes Park; SPCA animal shelter. | • | The Chutes. |
| October | Big German party; Agricultural Park to become the city’s; municipal workers get paid; boy breaks arm; aged Odd fellow dies; horse owner fined. | • | Dr. Henry Herbert; gold coins. |
| November | Jail for auto speeders? Diatribe against Japanese. | • | • |
| Special Report: Death of Police Officer Patrick H. Lyons, November 30, 1907, | |||
| December | Architect presents “City Beautiful” plan for L.A.; Poly ends rugby season. | • | Proposed widening of Fifth Street; street lamps. |
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| Police brutality; Times & labor; autos explore Big Tujunga; telegraphers being trained. | • | Autos fording stream; ‘1908’ jumping into air (cartoon); telegraphers; Elysian Park; Fernando Nelson. | |
| Bekins heiress fined for speeding at 23 mph; pauper seeks citizenship. | • | Ruth Bekins; Andrew Sackey; L.A. Basin at night from Mt. Wilson. | |
| ‘Krazy Kat’ artist illustrates Britt-Nelson prize fight; tour of Aqueduct route. | • | • | |
| President Roosevelt’s ‘Great White Fleet’ steams through Santa Monica Bay. | Gaumont Chronophone Theater. | Eight battleships, with their smoke fouling the air; same ships in San Pedro Harbor. | |
| Police march; Aqueduct complaints; oil gusher; 8th & Broadway building; Negro pastor; public comfort station. | ‘Peter Thompson’ – style sailor suits at Hamburger’s department store. | Little girl in a flouncy dress; a corset cover; police march; oil fields; 8th & Broadway area (map); the Rev. R.W. Hollman. | |
| June | Gun registration planned; airplane vs.dirigible race eyed; Japanese berry growers suffer losses. | Maxim silencers. | Maxim gun silencer; berry farmer; L.A. produce mart. |
| July | Newspaper artist; motorized fire engines; actor McKee Rankin; wireless talks to Arctic; stage reviews. | • | Baseball fans in streetcar; McKee Rankin; Merced Theater. |
| August | New Hamburger’s Department Store opens; city officials visit red-light district; dog catcher arraigned. | • | Exterior and interior of Hamburger’s Department Store at 8th and Broadway. |
| September | Motorcyclist dies at Agricultural Park races; 8-year-old boy runs 8 miles in marathon. | • | John F. Derkum, Howard Shafer. |
| October | Salvation Army arrests; Negroes protest The Clansman. | $12 men’s suits at the Broadway; Herald want ads. | Central Park; cartoon: Salvation Army, a cop, the Devil; young men in spiffy suits; puzzled couple looking for a house to rent. |
| November | Fire on Broadway; unusual aircraft; danger in bread and jam. | • | Broadway fire; aircraft; J.S. Zerbe; J.H. Klassen; Edgar B. Smith. |
| December | Aeronaut drops fake bomb on City Hall; auditor refuses to pay bill for coroner; Times attacks Express (again). | • | Dirigible airship; Roy Knabenshue; City Hall from the air. |
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| School bonds approved; one lawyer slugs another; Santa Claus steals. | • | H.J. Harrell, M.M. Marshall, Lillian Johnson, high school students; Fred H. Killick, voter; Isidore B. Dockweiler and Thomas Lee Woolwine, attorneys. |
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| Christian Science church; Laurel Canyon. | • | Second Church of Christ, Scientist, on West Adams; trackless trolleys; Laurel Canyon road; fire in canyon; cartoon character Mutt. | |
| Mayor Harper resigns; George Alexander elected. | • | Mayor Harper, Mrs. Harper and all the little Harpers; Fred C. Wheeler; George Alexander. | |
| Damming and beautifying the L.A. River; suffrage meeting; Lankershim son gets a traffic ticket | • | Drawing of L.A. River plan; map of area. | |
| Men plan to oust women from Animal League; Mothers Day catches on; Pasadena-L.A. train. | • | Newell E. Vinson; Horace N. Dobbins; map; proposed building and subway. | |
| June | YMCA summer program. | Pig ‘n’ Whistle. | Pig playing a fife; Roy Porter, J.T. Lillard, W.F. Hughes and Theodore Fulton, almost all with handsome moustaches. |
| July | • | • | • |
| August | • | • | • |
| September | • | • | • |
| October | • | • | • |
| November | • | • | • |
| December | Jonathan Club high jinks; 2 women cross desert in a Buick; Times slams departing school chief. | • | Amos Yeager and Billy Clark, dressed as women, Henry Krohn; Buick White Streak car; Ernest Carroll Moore. |