Voices--Boris Yaro

By Boris Yaro Times staff writer June 6, 1998 I went to the Ambassador Hotel 30 years ago to make a victory-party picture of Sen. Robert Kennedy as he won the California presidential primary. I was a Times reporter, but on that evening I went on my own time, despite an upset stomach from too many tacos and onion rings, toting my personal camera. To me, Bobby represented what was left of the Camelot era of American politics, and I wanted him to win. I wanted a picture of him for my wall -- something that said a new era was aborning. And as the night grew long, it looked as if he was going to win. Los Angeles Times photo At the Ambassador Hotel, crowds of supporters flash a "V" sign to celebrate Kennedy's victory in the California primary. I entered the hotel pantry area early June 5, shortly after midnight, just as Bobby walked by and into the main ballroom to make his victory speech. I hadn't brought a flash unit into the hotel, opting to use "natural light," which was in vogue in 1968. I followed him and stood near the podium. As he finished I shouted, "Bobby, give us a V!" He did. I made a photo and then ran back to the pantry to get a closer photo as he passed by. I got more than I wanted. It was crowded, so I sat on one of the freezers, next to Pasadena Star News photographer Dick Drew. As a rush of people came from the ballroom I aimed my camera, but I didn't see Kennedy. "Hey, Boris," Drew said, "you missed him." I hopped down from the freezer and moved off to my right, spying Bobby shaking hands with some people. I aimed the camera, but there wasn't enough light. Then there were a couple of explosions that seemed to light up the entire room. As debris hit my face, the smell and the stinging bits reminded me of the firecrackers I'd played with as a child in Iowa. Then the crowd around Bobby parted and there was a man with a contorted face and a revolver, and shots were still being fired. Bobby put both arms up and began to bob and weave like a boxer. At one point he put his head down almost to his knees, but the man with the gun kept lunging and firing, wounding five other people. I froze. "No," I said to myself. "Not again. Not another Kennedy." As soon as the firing stopped, several men in suits jumped the shooter and pinned him to the metal counter top. They tried to force the revolver out of his hand, but he was still grabbing for it. During my professional career I have been instructed to not touch things, especially at a crime scene. But as I watched the shooter go for his revolver, I broke the rule, crouched under the swinging arms and grabbed the gun. I was shocked to feel that the grip of the gun was smooth and very warm. Then someone took the weapon from me. I turned to see who, but all I saw were business suits and tuxedos. I figured it was probably a cop and turned back to Bobby, who in the darkness was sinking to the floor. Suddenly the area was lighted by a TV film camera and I started to make photos of Kennedy sprawled on the floor, a busboy near him. My mind was shrieking, "No . . . no, this can't be. I'm here to make a photo for my wall." Someone grabs my arm. It is a woman, and all I see is her face. Her mouth is making funny sounds. "Don't take pictures," she says. "I'm a photographer, and I'm not taking pictures!" She is pulling on my arm, trying to move the camera from my eye. I am shooting at a very slow shutter speed, and she has stopped me. I pull my arm from her grasp and growl, "Goddamn it, lady. This is history!" I made several other frames until the crowd blocked Bobby from my view. Then I remembered Times photographer Steve Fontanini's words earlier in the evening: "They're holding deadline for a victory picture." I ran around the hotel lobby until I found a pay phone. I called City Editor Bill Thomas and told him Bobby Kennedy had been shot. He said, "Yeah, we heard he was hit in the leg." "Sir," I replied, "I saw blood dripping from his ear." Thomas didn't hesitate: "Get the film back quickly." In the newsroom, as my film was being processed, I was being debriefed for the story. I was a lousy witness; the rewrite man was trying to talk me out of my shock. Photographer William S. Murphy, who painstakingly developed the underexposed film, came by and told me there were good images. I saw them. They hurt. Photograph by Boris Yaro       Los Angeles Times              It was more than six months before I could physically handle the negatives; I couldn't stand looking at the images in the darkroom. That picture I wanted for my wall? It would be 10 years before I could put one frame up in my home, and then I buried it in the far corner of the den. I had trouble being in crowded places and more than once became edgy and upset and had to leave a theater or a restaurant because there were too many people. As the early morning hours of June 5 wore on, those problems had not yet manifested themselves. But after all the questions were over in the newsroom, I walked back to my cubbyhole darkroom in the photo department and, out of sight of everybody, I cried hot tears of anger. I cried for me and you and all the world. Bobby would cling to life for another day, but the truth was already there: Camelot was lost.

Note: Boris Yaro retired from The Times in 2001.

Sirhan

Sirhan was a "taciturn individual who didn't say very much; friendly, really pleasant  but hard to get to know. He was brilliant. He was studying Russian when everyone else was barely getting by in Spanish and English."  --William Spaniard, high school classmate	June 3, 1968: Andy Warhol is wounded by Valeria Solanas, who explains: "I am a flower child. He had too much control over my life."  At left, a terrific profile of gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan by Times staff writers Robert C. Toth and Dave Smith.
"In their homeland, they had been an upright Christian family, among the best educated of their class, once accustomed to financial security but uncomplaining and industrious in hard times." Email me	"I saw him walking barefoot. He said it was because his father had beat him ... and that he took a piece of iron, heated it on the stove and put it on the boy's heel..."

June 4, 1908

Above, horses drinking from a trough at the Plaza, 1906.

At left, the Humane Society expands its program to built drinking fountains for horses with an elaborate installation at Hoover and Benton, which would be about here: View Larger Map One of the more popular watering troughs was at 9th Street and Main, The Times said. When Humane Society installed a new fountain there in 1910 (with an attendant) more than 300 horses were served on the first day. The fountain could accommodate six horses at a time. Email me

Paul Coates

June 3, 1958

Matt Weinstock

June 3, 1958

June 3, 1968

Above, the cover of The Times, June 3, 1968: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) is leading in the State Poll, over Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.) Perhaps the most interesting projection  is 67% turnout in the June 4 primary.	Now playing: "Planet of the Apes" and "2001."
	An ominous contrast: A Kennedy campaign ad and a story about the somber mood of the Arab world as the first anniversary of the Six-Day War between Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Israel approaches. It was essential to a young Christian Palestinian refugee from Jerusalem living in Pasadena, a slight young man who failed in his attempt to become a jockey at Santa Anita, that he take action against the U.S. before the June 5, 1968, anniversary.
	His name: Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. His target: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. His gun: A .22-caliber Iver Johnson, above, bought for protection during the 1965 Watts riots. At left, Kennedy and McCarthy campaign in Southern California. The televised debate led the Arbitron ratings, ahead of "Petticoat Junction" and "Mannix." Republican California Gov. Ronald Reagan calls it "much ado about nothing."
	The fashions of 1968. Yes, people really did wear Nehru jackets. At left, Kennedy supporters take out an ad accusing the McCarthy campaign of distorting his statements.
67% Primary Turnout	67% Primary Turnout; State Poll
Kennedy vs. Humphrey in South Dakota, Part I	Kennedy vs. Humphrey in South Dakota, Part II
Above and at right, my old pal, the late Marty Rossman, takes a look at political advertising in the days before a primary. Email me

Dodgers vote

June 3, 1958 By Keith Thursby Times staff writer As voters decide the fate of a baseball stadium for the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine, here's a sampling of stories in The Times: Walter O'Malley appeared on television to make a final push to support the stadium contract. Channel 13 aired a two-hour program that, according to a story in The Times, split time between supporters and opponents of Prop. B. That sounds downright fair after the five-hour program on Channel 11 boosting the stadium deal. The City Council had another explosive meeting over the stadium issue. Here's a paragraph from the story, which did not carry a byline: "Blood pressures began to hit the ceiling as a majority faction in the council, which favors the Dodger contract to build a new stadium in Chavez Ravine, balked an opposition minority move to launch another propaganda barrage against the Dodgers by simply forcing an adjournment of the council." That's propaganda? What about five hours on local television?  Weird timing for this story in sports. Al Wolf reported that home runs are down in the National League so far in the 1958 season, so fears that the Coliseum's short left field would give right-handed hitters an unfair advantage seem unfounded.  keith.thursby@latimes.com

June 3, 1968

Just remember: The Times editorialized against suspending U.S. immigration quotas for European Jews and other refugees, March 30, 1938: "They would ... reach havens as paupers either to be added to the relief rolls or compete for jobs with Americans for whom there is already a dearth." Email me

Babe Ruth

Nov. 1, 1924

Bo Diddley--RIP

July 16, 1967

June 2, 1968

	In The Times: A Gallup Poll finds Sen. Robert F. Kennedy a distant second among the Democratic Party's county leaders, with 16% support compared with 70% for Vice President Hubert Humphrey and 6% for Sen. Eugene McCarthy. In San Francisco, Kennedy and McCarthy meet for a debate on ABC-TV. While Kennedy is modest and reserved, McCarthy criticizes Secretary of State Dean Rusk and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, saying he would remove them. Afterward, McCarthy calls it "a no-decision bout with three referees and 16-ounce gloves."

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Mystery photo

Los Angeles Times file photo

Well? Lily Pons? (Layne Nielson) Absolutely right. The other individual has nothing to do with the music world and should be a bit of a challenge. Email me