My Photo

  • I'm a writer, journalist, and the editor of The Gambit, the alt-weekly newspaper in New Orleans.

    Journalism: My work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Globe & Mail (Canada), The Times- Picayune (New Orleans), The Oregonian, and Willamette Week, as well as in magazines including Details, Vogue, Publishers Weekly, and Portland Monthly.

    Publishing: Tight Shot, my first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Its sequel, Hot Shot, was roundly ignored by everyone, but was a far better book. I'm also a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

    Stage: I was a member of the Groundlings and Circle Repertory West in Los Angeles, and am a playwright (see "Stage" in the right-hand rail).

CONTACT

  • View Kevin Allman's profile on LinkedIn

« CNN: Not Even Pretending to Be Your Most Trusted Name in News-Flavored Programming | Main | "Bush resigns" »

May 10, 2007

Newspaper confidential

Badge_white_background What a great idea for a newspaper blog -- The Daily Mirror, a look back at the Los Angeles Times of 50 years ago by Larry Harnisch, a copyeditor at the paper and one of the leading experts on the Black Dahlia case. The postwar, L.A. Confidential years in Los Angeles are fascinating to me, and Harnisch has gone through the morgue and the microfiche to come up with some irresistible, pungent stories and headlines:

"'Twas Best, Says Fired Negro Co-Ed": In 1957, a black college soprano in Texas is dropped from her college production of Dido and Aeneas, sparking protests from both the Young Democrats and Young Republicans. (She had the last word...in a career that included the Met.)

Lee to Sue Scandal Mag for $20 Mil: Stung by an article titled "Mad About the Boy!," Liberace swears to sue Confidential for suggesting he's anything less than an all-American he-man. (Scans of the original article are included.)

1957_0506_bust_2 Five Seized in Hollywood Marijuana Party Raid: A "Beverly Hills model" and former child prodigy violinist is nabbed in a reefer bust.

There is so much wonderful and strange history moldering in newspaper morgues; I hope some other papers pick up the Times' lead and start unearthing it on the Web. Every major city in America has its own Chicago Confidential, Tupelo Confidential, Portland Confidential. And all it would take to get it out of the morgue and into the public eye would be a researcher with the talent and imagination of Larry Harnisch. Well done.

12:48 AM in Journalism |

|

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.

RECENT ARTICLES

BOOKS


  • Booklist:
    "A worthy successor to Tight Shot, Allman's insider view of the seamier side of Hollywood is not only hip and entertaining but also has something serious to say about our insatiable hunger for tabloid thrills."

    Washington Post:
    "Barbed, breezy and often pretty funny...sharp and entertaining. Allman can be very funny, and Hot Shot complements nicely the less forgiving takes on Los Angeles as the future of us all. "

    ----------


  • EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE
    BEST FIRST NOVEL
    MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA

    Booklist:
    "Allman turns a very sardonic pen loose on Hollywood's glitz-and-glamour crowd in this entertaining first novel... An impressive debut and an almost sure thing for a sequel."

    New Orleans Times-Picayune:
    "Allman clearly knows those of whom he writes. He's got L.A. nailed."

    Publishers Weekly:
    "Snappy debut... Readers will look for a sequel."

STAGE

  • BOO AND THE SHREVEPORT BABY
    A French Quarter convenience-store clerk has a hilariously traumatic encounter with a pair of Shreveport tourists. Part of Native Tongues 3 (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2001; Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago; 2006).
  • BACKBONES
    An upper-class black caterer finds comeuppance and redemption. Part of Native Tongues 4 (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2005).
  • MY-O-MY
    A recreation of an evening at the notorious New Orleans 1950s female-impersonator nightclub My-O-My (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2005).
  • THE LOVE GIFT
    A lonely man discovers purpose when he intercepts a televangelist's letters from his neighbor's mailbox. Part of the Dramarama New Plays Festival (Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; 2004).
  • BABYDADDY
    A black father discovers that no good deed goes unpunished when he helps his white neighbor bail her son out of Orleans Parish Prison. (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2004; Walker Percy Southern Playwrights Festival, Covington; 2007).
  • TWO IN THE BUSH
    An evening of comedies. In The Stud Mule, the world's richest woman arranges to be impregnated by a doltish escort; in Snatching Victory, an earnest college student runs afoul of her lecherous professor and the dour head of a women's-studies department (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2003).

NEW ORLEANS READING

  • Patty Friedmann: <i>A Little Bit Ruined</i>

    Patty Friedmann: A Little Bit Ruined
    One of the first post-Katrina novels, and probably destined to be one of the best. Friedmann's sequel to Eleanor Rushing finds her crazy heroine still holding everything together after the storm (after a fashion), until she has to leave New Orleans and she falls apart physically as well as mentally. Mordantly, morbidly funny.

  • Tom Piazza: <i>Why New Orleans Matters</i>

    Tom Piazza: Why New Orleans Matters
    The best post-Katrina book I've read. In 150 small pages, Piazza explicates the New Orleans experience simply and beautifully. I'll be passing this one on to anyone who wonders "But why would anyone want to live there?".

Archives

More...

Categories

SUBSCRIBE

  • Add to Technorati Favorites
  • Add to Google
  • BlogBurst.com
  • View Kevin Allman's profile on LinkedIn
Blog powered by Typepad