The Daily News (originally the Illustrated Daily News) was a newspaper published in Los Angeles from 1923 to 1954. It was founded in 1923 by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV and bought by Manchester Boddy who operated it through most of its existence.

The Daily News was founded in 1923 by Vanderbilt as the first of several newspapers he wanted to manage. After quickly going into receivership, it was sold to Boddy, a businessman with no newspaper experience. Boddy was able to make the newspaper succeed, and it remained profitable through the 1930s and 1940s, taking a Democratic perspective at a time when most Los Angeles newspapers supported the Republican Party. (Full article...)

 • ... that the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, located in Claremont, California, is the only nationally accredited museum of paleontology on a secondary school campus in the United States?
 • ... that the May Company Building in the Miracle Mile in the Wilshire district, Los Angeles, is a celebrated example of Streamline Moderne architecture?
 • ... that the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad was started in 1899 by General M.H. Sherman and E.P. Clark?
 • ... that Cuban-American actress, writer and director Migdia Chinea Varela (pictured, left) had an essay on minority quotas published in Newsweek in 1988?
 • ... that the Huysman Gallery of Los Angeles closed after less than a year due to a controversial poster for its War Babies exhibition?
 • ... that Lili Bosse, the mayor of Beverly Hills, California, was sworn in by actor Sidney Poitier?
 • ... that the Nessah Synagogue in Beverly Hills, California was established for Persian Jews in 1980 by the son of former Chief Rabbi of Iran Yedidia Shofet?

June 2014

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Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold-medal winner and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, and alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film and future five-time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronised swimming and diving.

Every year from 1945 to 1949, Williams had at least one film among the 20 highest-grossing films of the year. In 1952, Williams appeared in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid, which went on to become her nickname while she was at MGM. Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in a handful of unsuccessful feature films, followed by several extremely popular water-themed network television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida. (Full article...)