The Times published the obituary of photographer Jack Gaunt, who won a Pulitzer for his 1955 picture of a couple whose young child had been swept out to sea.
Joe Jares writes of Gaunt:
I had the privilege of working with him -- a riot on SC's Fraternity Row and,
of course, conflagrations. It was a kick making the night news rounds with a
Pulitzer Prize winner who had chauffeured Otis Chandler around when the latter
was doing his stint as a reporter.
Jack said Otis could consume three
double-chili-cheeseburgers a sitting (actually a standing) at Tommy's at Beverly
& Rampart.
The obit said Jack loved to cover fires and that was true. TV news
adores covering fires, but nobody loved being on fire scenes more than Gaunt.
I'm surprised this good-natured guy made it to 83. In the Times
cafeteria, he would shock me and others when he would unscrew the top of the
pepper shaker and pour a thick layer of the spice over everything on this plate.
Eric Malnic writes:
During my first three years as a reporter -- '62,'63 & '64 -- I spent
most of my evenings chasing police and fire calls with Jack in his huge,
overpowered converted Highway Patrol Chrysler sedan. There were many long, uneventful periods,
and Jack told many stories.
My
favorites were about how he was the only American pilot to lose three planes
during World War II without ever serving overseas.
Jack, a
P-38 pilot, lost the first one while towing a target during gunnery practice
near Las Vegas. Someone shot him down
instead of the target. Up to then,
Jack said, he had vowed never to make a parachute jump. "But somehow, when your plane's on fire,
jumping seems like a pretty good idea."
He lost the
second while preparing to land at night at an airfield in Arizona. Someone took
off underneath him, and the planes collided. That time, he jumped at an altitude of only about 400 feet, and his chute
didn't open all the way. Jack lay in
the brush with two broken legs all night before they found him.
He said he
lost the third plane while flying from Bakersfield to Los Angeles for a hot date
with a girl he'd met in Hollywood. At a couple of thousand feet over Castaic,
both engines quit. Once again, Jack bailed out, and as he floated gently
earthward, he realized he'd forgotten to switch fuel tanks. If Army inspectors found out, he'd be in a
lot of trouble. So he hightailed it a couple of miles back to the wreckage,
reached into the cockpit and switched
the fuel feed lever over to the proper position. Only then, Jack said, did he summon help.
Here are a few of Gaunt's pictures that I found at the Daily Mirror HQ:
Photograph by Jack Gaunt / Los Angeles Times
Capt. Arthur G. Hertel, left, and J. Miller Leavy at the L. Ewing Scott trial.
Photograph by Jack Gaunt / Los Angeles Times
Caryl Chessman and attorney Rosalie Asher. Note the heavy retouching in which the entire background was painted over.
Photograph by Jack Gaunt / Los Angeles Times
The home of L. Ewing and Evelyn Scott at 217 N. Bentley.
