Former Los Angeles councilwoman in the news

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Ronald Reagan and City Councilwoman Rosalind Wyman, June 3, 1958.

Former L.A. Councilwoman still making news The New Yorker's Talk of the Town profiles Rosalind Wyman in the Sept. 8, 2008, issue.  Dorothy Wickenden writes: New Yorker Illustration by Tom Bachtell "Rosalind Wyman—seventy-seven years old; doughty feminist; political fund-raiser and philanthropist; hostess to J.F.K., Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, and Hollywood types too numerous to count; youngest elected member of the Los Angeles City Council (at the age of twenty-two); first woman to run a national political convention (the Democrats in San Francisco, 1984)—may well be the most indomitable member of Hillary Clinton’s Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants Suits." And yes, she was an early supporter of bringing the Dodgers to Los Angeles and building a stadium in Chavez Ravine.

Accident kills children of ex-football star, Dodgers beat Cardinals, 7-5, September 8, 1958

Tragedy strikes at Big Bear Lake Lightning bolt kills two children as father and brother watch from a distance, unable to help. The family's two-week summer vacation at the cabin in Big Bear was nearly over. Soon they would be heading back home to La Crescenta, where Bob was a manager at Los Angeles Automotive Works and his wife, Betty, was a homemaker. On that morning, Bob took their four children down to the lake while Betty stayed behind at the cabin about three miles away. While Bob and his son, Bob Jr., went out fishing in a boat, the other three children played along the shore: Mark, 7; Trudy, 13; and Diana, 14. In a moment, there was a cloudburst and the three children ran into a shed to get out of the rain. Before Bob and his son could get to shore, a bolt of lightning hit the shed. Mark and Trudy were unconscious and Diana was injured. Bob put the three children into the family station wagon and on the way to Santa Anita Hospital at Lake Arrowhead, he and Harvey Pedersen, a teenager from nearby Fawnskin, gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to two of the youngsters. At the hospital, emergency crews from the Big Bear and Fawnskin fire departments gave the children oxygen. Mark and Trudy were pronounced dead. Although the first day's story said Diana was burned, blinded and partially paralyzed, doctors found her injuries to be far less serious. According to The Times, she suffered only a slight eye injury that would not affect her sight. Her hand, which had been paralyzed, returned to normal, and she hadn't been burned. At the funeral, the Rev. Bernard Traveille of First Baptist Church of La Crescenta urged mourners "not to let our memory enshrine despair." Instead, he said "to have faith, to harbor hope that Mark and Trudy have found a better life and to have confidence in the love of God." Mark Lawrence Reinhard, 7, and his sister Trudy Lee Reinhard, 13, were cremated and their remains were entombed at Grand View Memorial Park. Bob Reinhard, who was named All-American in 1940 and 1941, was captain of the Los Angeles Dons. He was the No. 1 draft choice of the Chicago Cardinals in 1950 but was traded to the Rams in exchange for Bob Shaw, Tom Keane and Gerry Cowhig. He retired in 1951 to pursue a career in engineering. Bob Reinhard Jr. went on to play football for Stanford, where he was a punter, and he was drafted by the Packers in 1970.  More information about the problems at Grand View Memorial Park is here.

In sports, Gil Hodges hits two home runs (Nos. 21 and 22 of the season) as the Dodgers win against the Cardinals, 7-5. Charlie Neal also hit his 22nd run of the season. Jockey Johnny Longden suffers a broken leg when Gallant Royal collapses from a heart attack at Del Mar and plunges into the rail ... Calvin Griffith, president of the Washington Senators, denies rumors that he plans to ask the American League to move the franchise to Minneapolis ... Althea Gibson scores a comeback victory over Darlene Hard in the U.S. finals at Forest Hills, N.Y. "I may never play tournament tennis again," Gibson says. Instead, she plans to focus on a singing career, she says.

1920s movie star Anita Page gets her first three roles, July 8, 1928

Anita Page, who died early Saturday at the age of 98, is interviewed by The Times' Alma Whitaker in 1928, after Page started her career with three pictures in three months. "In 'Telling the World,' I am rather sweet and modest, even if I am a poor little cabaret dancer," Page said. "In 'Dancing Daughters' I am a sophisticated flapper and with Lon Chaney [in 'While the City Sleeps'] I am a little underworld roughneck. Such wonderful chances to show what I could do." She gets 20 or 30 fan letters a day!

City attorney expects court battle to delay Dodger Stadium, September 7, 1958

City attorney sees long battle for Chavez Ravine Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley expects legal challenges to be resolved quickly and predicts stadium construction will begin in February 1959. By Keith Thursby Times staff writer Jeane Hoffman's interview with Los Angeles City Atty. Roger Arnebergh would leave most Dodger fans planning to return to the Coliseum for more than just 1959. Just to review, the Dodgers signed a deal with the city to move to Los Angeles and get a stadium in Chavez Ravine. Voters in June, 1958 passed Prop. B, approving the stadium plan. But about a month later, a Superior Court judge, acting on a taxpayer's lawsuit, declared the contract invalid and placed the Chavez Ravine plans in limbo. Arnebergh said the city had filed a petition with the state Supreme Court to reverse the Superior Court decision. Unless the writ of prohibition was granted, "I don't think there's a chance we can get this thing cleared through the courts until 1960 and even with that break, I estimate it will take another year and a half to grade and build the location," Arnebergh said. So Dodger fans should be pessimistic, right? Not so, according to Walter O'Malley. "I have been told that in six months the legal issue will be resolved and I am an optimist enough to believe that it will be decided in our favor," O'Malley said in an Aug. 16 story on his appearance at a Rotary Club luncheon. According to the story, O'Malley selected February 1959 as starting date for construction of the new stadium. The Times' Hoffman also interviewed O'Malley for a story that ran Sept. 2. The topic was attendance, as in could the Dodgers someday attract up to 3 million fans a year? "I'm delighted that we've done this well," O'Malley said. "I think we'll beat our all-time Ebbets Field record of 1,800,000 in a season in which we had to operate under difficulties to say the least--going without such traditional baseball features as beer, hot dogs in the stands, a roof on the park, etc." As for the 1959 season, O'Malley planned to bring in the right-field fence and schedule more night games at the Coliseum. "Unlike Chicago, this is just not an afternoon town," he said. "And when we eventually get our own park, the next item will be to put more attention on auto parking, probably introducing valet parking for box seat holders." keith.thursby@latimes.com

Death stalks Spanish nobleman, Angels win, September 7, 1938

Roy Rogers and Smiley Burnette: happy trails!

Death stalks Spanish nobleman In Miami, the the former heir to the Spanish throne dies from injuries in a car crash because he carries the hereditary disease of hemophilia. His companion, a nightclub singer, is charged with manslaughter ... Emil Hansen is convicted of killing two lawyers in the Hall of Records because he was a "sore loser" in a civil suit. On the jump, taxpayers ask the state Supreme Court to help halt to the recall election against Mayor Frank Shaw. In sports, the Angels sell Rip Russell and Ed Carnett to the Cubs.

Singer charged in death USC to meet Alabama

LA history--Nuestro Pueblo, September 7, 1938

Above, an unusual house in the 6500 block of Monterey Road. Below, Monterey Road as shown in Google maps' street view. California death records list a Stanton D. Fraser (1903-1974), but it's unclear if this is the man in the story.

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