UC May Have to Charge Tuition – Someday

 

April 27, 1961: The Senate Education Committee turns down a proposed tuition fee for University of California students but says one may have to be imposed -- eventually.

Matt Weinstock, April 10, 1961

April 10, 1961: Lawrence Clark Powell, head of UCLA’s library school, surveys students’ attitudes on reading and touches off an interesting exploration of their reading habits. Many say they don’t have time to read for pleasure or that they opt for magazine condensations or book reviews. Some say that J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” is “teenage stuff” and a passing fad – like existentialism.  Someone else says that college students are mostly buying paperbacks: "Kon-Tiki," "Caine Mutiny," "1984," "The Old Man and the Sea," "Anne Frank's Diary" "Giant," F. Scott Fitzgerald's books and James Hilton's "Lost Horizon."  More on the upcoming Adolf Eichmann trial on the jump.   CONFIDENTIAL TO SALLY: A young lady should not accept gifts of intimate apparel from a young man. And the article you mention IS intimate.

What's Troubling Today's Young Women, Part 2

March 27, 1961: Parts of this series on young women are patronizing and naive, and perhaps reflect the first tremors of what was called the Generation Gap. Some of the attitudes about college being a marriage factory for young women are fairly musty – although certainly true in the 1940s and ’50s. "She wants to go to college because it will make her a more interesting person and enable her to keep up with her husband -- a college-educated husband, of course." Still I wonder if the daughters of some of these women have any better idea of where they are headed: One mother, whose daughter begins college next year, said: "They look and act so grown up in so many ways and yet they don't really know what they want to do. And you know, it's sometimes very difficult to help and advise them. You look and think, now what did mother do in similar circumstances? And then you realize those problems never existed in mother's time.” And a young woman says: "I hate being called a teenager. It's a horrible, nasty, talking down to you word. If only my mother would listen to me sometimes when I want to talk about something instead of saying 'yes dear, no dear.' "

What's Troubling Today's Young Women?

March 26, 1961: The Times begins a series on the views and expectations of high school and college women. Is it enough to go to college, nab a husband and start a family? Are they really considering going into the workforce and competing with … men? I especially like the teaser for Part 2: What these rather angry young women believe.

Matt Weinstock, March 3, 1961

March 3, 1961: Some 13-year-old English students turn to Matt Weinstock for help with an assignment to find “osculate” and 119 other words in print.  DEAR ABBY: My husband doesn't respect me because I gave in to him before marriage. He said at the time it would prove I loved him, but now he calls me a tramp and says he will never trust me. I have never been unfaithful to him and never will be. I am saving your columns for my daughter, Abby. Mothers can tell daughters things, but coming from you it means more. I want more than anything else in the world to see my daughter walk down the aisle in white.

Paul Coates, Feb. 14, 1961

 

Feb. 14, 1961: Officials of Birmingham College of Advanced Technology in England approved a fund-raiser for women's athletic programs in which male students could win a female student for the night. But the male students rejected the idea. And the whole affair serves as a point of departure for Paul Coates.  Evidently the women were undeterred and said "We'll fine other males interested in winning a girl for the night," according to a UPI story. And it should be noted that college officials approved the idea after being assured that no impropriety would be involved.   ALSO The Boys Object to a Coed Raffle

Doyce Nunis Jr., 1924 -- 2011

Doyce Nunis Jr. USC historian, Southern California Quarterly editor Doyce Nunis Jr., 86, an educator, author and historian who edited the Historical Society of Southern California's respected journal Southern California Quarterly for 43 years, died Jan. 22 at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center from complications after abdominal surgery, the society announced. Nunis started working with the society in 1962 while building his academic career. A professor emeritus at USC, he was a longtime and honored member of the university's history department and wrote or edited more than 40 books. Nunis retired as editor of the historical society's journal in 2005. The rest of the obituary is here

Black Politics in L.A.

Charles H. Matthews, African American member of the Police Commission, at a 1946 meeting.

I was intrigued by the remark on L.A. Observed, quoting the Root, “According to historian Raphael J. Sonenshein, ‘No African-American, Latino or Jewish person held elected office in the city of Los Angeles between 1900 and 1949, when a Latino, Edward Roybal, was elected to the City Council.’ ” Not quite. Without looking too far into the historic record for this era, we find Fay E. Allen, an African American music teacher at Jefferson High who after an unsuccessful attempt in 1937, was  elected to the Board of Education in 1939. In 1943, Allen was opposed by The Times, which alleged that she had communist support (although she was a registered Democrat), and she was defeated by Marie M. Adams. She ran for Board of Education in 1945 but was defeated again. That year, she became a labor organizer to unionize nonteaching employees in Los Angeles. As might be expected, The Times wrote very little about Allen and I can’t find an obituary for her, so further digging is required.  And although he was appointed rather than elected, one of the most notable African American figures in Los Angeles city government in this era is Charles H. Matthews (d. 1985), a deputy district attorney from 1931 to 1945, who was appointed to the Police Commission in 1946.  As far as I can determine, Matthews was the first African American on the commission and was followed by  John Somerville, Herbert Greenwood and Everette M. Porter. According to Matthews' obituary, he was the only African American in his law class at UC Berkeley, the only black in the district attorney's office and the first African American on the California State Law Review Commission. He was twice denied membership in the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. because he was black and refused to join when it became desegregated, although he accepted an honorary membership. ALSO Edward R. Roybal on the Daily Mirror

USC Fraternity Pledges Stealing Hotel Spittoons!

Jan. 13, 1911: The population of Los Angeles is 319,198, The Times says. In our bustling city, USC fraternity pledges are caught stealing spittoons from hotels …  a post office official is accused of taking items from the mail to give to women …. some Mission Indians come to Los Angeles to search record books for information on their tribal lands… and The Times reports on an ailing city employee hidden away in a small room in the tower of City Hall. The Times’ slogan is: The Best Paper, Read by the Best People.   ALSO USC fraternity pledge dies during hazing, 1959

Never Seen Again -- Update

I recently heard from relatives of Dr. George Ripley Fuller, who was the subject of a Paul Coates column in July 2007 and a follow-up post a few days later. Fuller’s story was one of several baffling accounts published in the late 1950s about brilliant men, usually scientists, who mysteriously vanished. One of the more unusual cases was that of Albert Clark Reed, a scientist who disappeared on his way to Caltech and turned up six years later as a groom at Santa Anita.  One thing I noted in my 2007 post was the apparent disinterest of Fuller’s relatives in his disappearance. I received this e-mail from one of Fuller’s nephews and I’m sharing it as an update. My name is Walter Atherton Fuller III.  My grandmother and grandfather were Marjorie and Walter A. Fuller Sr.  (parents of George Ripley Fuller) My father was W. Atherton Fuller Jr. (brother of George Ripley Fuller) Today the oldest of my three sisters told me of this LA Times blog article about the disappearance of my uncle George.  Our father didn't talk much about his brother. We only met him once in New York while we were visiting our grandparents during Thanksgiving. I have a pastel portrait of my uncle George when he was a young boy. It was in our house when we were growing up in Maine. We brought it to California when my dad passed away. The portrait resembled our son and until recently hung over our mantle. George's other brother , Leroy, lived with his family in Virginia. We saw Leroy and his family often when they came to visit us in Maine. What concerned me in the blog article was the next to the last paragraph. "Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Fuller's disappearance is that his family took absolutely no interest in it. Neither of his brothers, one living in Maine and the other in Florida, nor his parents set foot in Los Angeles as far as I can tell and apparently they had little interest in solving what became of him." We were all very young when our uncle disappeared.  His disappearance devastated my grandmother. True, they did not travel to California to follow-up on the investigation of his disappearance, but to say they apparently had little interest in finding out what became of him seems a stretch. My grandparents kept in constant touch with investigators. Every year at Christmas she and my grandfather would set a light outside and leave it on for 24 hours. As far as the mystery being solved, we were told that they found his remains years later when doing road construction, near the spot where the car was originally located. My dad didn't talk much about him, just that he had some emotional problems. ALSO Paul Coates on Dr. George Ripley Fuller Never Seen Again

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 28, 1960

Nov. 28, 1960: Are American children lagging behind their Soviet counterparts? Matt Weinstock (who admits he was lousy in geometry) doesn’t think it’s so important.  “I thought it was a ridiculous waste of time, effort and money to try to teach algebra and geometry to students who have no affinity for it and will never use it,” he says. DEAR ABBY: I've been wanting to write you for over a year but just couldn't get up the nerve. I am in love with my best girlfriend's husband. I am married, 23, and have two small children. I know he loves me for I see the love in his eyes when he looks at me. Call me silly if you want to, but I love him even though I have never kissed him. I have nothing against my husband but I know I am in love with this man. What should I do?

Kennedy Visits L.A.!

Photograph by Jack Gaunt / Los Angeles Times     Photograph by Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times

Nov. 1, 1960: Chris Morales, a regular Daily Mirror reader, asked if I could find any photos of John F. Kennedy’s visit to East L.A. Community College. Here you go, Chris. The top photo shows office workers at 8th Street and Broadway waving to Kennedy’s motorcade. The bottom photo shows Kennedy at East L.A. Community College’s stadium, accompanied by his sister Patricia, Adlai Stevenson and Sen. Clair Engle (D-Calif.). And if any Daily Mirror reader has personal recollections of meeting Kennedy or Vice President Richard Nixon  during the 1960 presidential race, please send them in!