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July 15, 1958
By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer
Los Angeles and the Dodgers lost a round in court in their efforts to build a baseball stadium in Chavez Ravine.
Superior Court Judge Arnold
Praeger ruled that the contract between the city and the Dodgers was
invalid. The deal had been struck when the team moved to Los Angeles,
then voters narrowly approved it in a June 1958 election. Two local
taxpayers then filed lawsuits trying to stop the deal.
The Times' main story led with
a couple of painful sports metaphors, reporting that Judge Praeger
"struck out the Dodgers' Chavez Ravine deal," which according to the
paper was "a 32-page doubleheader decision."
The paper was a strong
proponent of the ballpark and there were often clues in stories if you
weren't sure where the paper stood. Deep in the main story on Praeger's
ruling was this passage: "As for the voters who decided last June 3
that they were in favor of the Chavez Ravine recreational park--that
doesn't count!" Interesting how the project was described.
In a story about city
officials' reactions, Councilman John Holland was referred to as
"perhaps the bitterest foe" of the stadium plans. The ruling seemed
certain to be appealed, but Holland instead hoped "that plans may be
speedily revived to have the major league baseball stadium constructed
near the Coliseum in or adjacent to Exposition Park."
Dodger owner Walter O'Malley remained confident that the ballpark would be built in Chavez Ravine.
"We came to California in the
first place because we felt it was a fine country and because we wanted
to build a new modern stadium," O'Malley said in a story by The Times'
Al Wolf. "Chavez fits in perfectly with that plan--and we are not
abandoning the program."
keith.thursby@latimes.com
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From The Times' editorial page, July 16, 1938. Note the Bible passage.
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e can add this to The Times' editorials against a federal anti-lynching law (not necessary) and offering refuge to people fleeing Nazi persecution (they would just go on welfare and take jobs away from Americans): What's all the fuss with a recall election? One thing that's evident about The Times' editorial pages in this era is that they were staunchly in favor of the status quo.
Meanwhile, we seem to be in favor of a ballot initiative on working women that I don't entirely understand. Looks like some digging is in order.
At left, petitions are filed seeking to recall Mayor Frank Shaw. He says his opponents are a "disgruntled, discredited, hypocritical handful of politicians, racketeers and misguided zealots...." Los Angeles? Why it's the "white spot" of the nation!
And we'd be willing to host the 1940 summer Olympics after Tokio was forced to withdraw because of the war between Japan and China.
Also ... Katharine Hepburn and Howard Hughes? Let me say that again: Katharine Hepburn and Howard Hughes?
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Note to Jaded: It's not such a bargain. Adjusted for inflation, $13.33 is $190.61 USD 2007.
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July 12, 1958
 By Keith Thursby
Times staff writer
Los Angeles officially threw its hat into the Olympic rings for the 1964 Summer Games.
Mayor Norris Poulson announced the bid after a meeting with the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games.
"We in Southern California, Los Angeles in particular, already have unparalleled facilities for the successful staging of the Games," Poulson said in Braven Dyer's story in The Times. The 1932 Olympics had been a success in Los Angeles.
Money was already an issue in picking future Olympic cities.
Dyer wrote that "many European countries claim, after having made the long trip to Australia for the 1956 Olympics, that they will seek to keep the big international program in Europe for years to come, travel expenses being so heavy for many nations which lack the financial standing of the United States."
Unlike many of the paper's stories leading up to the Dodgers' move, Dyer's piece kept the Olympic bid in perspective. He pointed out that Tokyo was expected to make a bid in 1964 since the city was awarded the 1940 Games, a competition that didn't take place.
Tokyo was named the host city in 1964, with Detroit finishing a distant second in the International Olympic Committee voting. Detroit was viewed as a better Olympic city than Los Angeles? California did get another Olympics in 1960, with the Winter Games coming to Squaw Valley.
L.A. had to wait until 1984. Detroit is still waiting.
keith.thursby@latimes.com |
 By Keith Thursby
Times Staff Writer
The Times published detailed results of the Chavez Ravine ballot initiative that showed just how close the vote was.
The June 3 measure to approve a baseball stadium for the Dodgers passed by nearly 26,000 votes and was favored in nine of the 15 City Council districts. Four of the six districts that voted against the stadium contract were in the San Fernando Valley where, according to The Times' story, "sectional opposition to downtown attractions is fostered by some interests."
That sure seemed like a line better suited for an editorial. But anyone reading the coverage had to realize by now that The Times was clearly on one side of the debate.
Councilmen John Holland and Patrick McGee, two frequently quoted opponents of the stadium deal, served districts with the biggest margins against the Dodger contract.
Holland's 1970 obit by Times staff writer Doug Shuit included a quote that summed up his view of the contract. "It was the biggest steal of public lands and money since the trade for Manhattan Island with the Indians for a basket of beads," Holland said.
keith.thursby@latimes.com |
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ometimes one can only sigh. At his sentencing in the Harry Raymond bombing, former Police Capt. Earle Kynette speaks for half an hour in defense of his conduct.
Unfortunately, The Times didn't quote a single line of his remarks. Instead, we summarized them in one paragraph:
"The onetime head of the police intelligence squad immediately launched into a recital of his accomplishments, including his education, military experience and record as a police officer. He accused most of the state's witnesses as perjurers and wound up with the statement that he presumed that because of the political background to the case Judge Ambrose was loath to grant him a new trial."
Also on the jump, Mayor Frank Shaw says a group of Methodists acted in an un-Christian, un-American manner by endorsing his recall and in criticizing his brother Joe and Police Chief James Davis.
And two city analysts begin an audit of the Police Department. "Results of the survey, expected to require one to two months, may presage a complete or partial reorganization of the department," The Times says.
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n this Sunday, June 28, 1908, The Times is full of politics, past and present.
At left, the editorial page praises Frances Folsom Cleveland, the widow of President Grover Cleveland, as the ideal of the American woman. Even making allowances for Victorian hyperbole, this piece is rather remarkable:
"In the shadow of her great grief she stands out even more luminously than she did in her lovely youth when, bright-eyed and light-stepping as the fawn, she entered the doors of the White House to become the first lady of the land.
"Now that the passing years have made the college girl a wife, mother and widow, her life may be said to be fairly rounded out, and she may be regarded as a character formed and builded to completion...."
Mind you, we are talking about a woman in her mid-40s who was far younger than her husband; they married when she was 21 and he was 49. In fact, she remarried in 1913 and lived until 1947.
Meanwhile, the paper hasn't wasted any effort trying to hide its support for
Republican presidential nominee William Taft, above, and has done nothing to
conceal its disdain for Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan in its editorial
cartoons (at top) or in its coverage by Harry Carr, at left.
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 ong ago, I lost track of how many highway maps The Times has run over the years. Here is yet another one, giving us a trifecta with the map from Ed Ainsworth's traffic series of 1938 and the one that appeared with Ray Hebert's 1958 update.
Even a casual glance shows the beginnings of what we know a century later as the freeway system: It's easy to pick out what will become the Santa Monica and Foothill Freeways, the Golden State and the Pasadena.
At left, The Times' Harry Carr files a story on Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.
This will give you an idea of the style of political coverage 100 years ago--and these are just samples of Carr's critical, dismissive piece:
"There is something peculiarly shifty and, to me, untrustworthy, in his face. His personality is agreeable but I don't feel that compelling quality of charm manifested by so many big men....
"As you interview him, you can't screw your imagination up to seeing the man as president of the United States. You can't see him negotiating treaties with great nations, compelling peace conferences and naming Cabinet officers."
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A panel from "Buck Rogers," Sunday, June 26, 1938. |
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arry Raymond finally goes home after 163 days in the hospital, The Times says. He promises a $1-million lawsuit against Mayor Frank Shaw, Joe Shaw, Police Chief James Davis, several subordinates and members of the police intelligence squad.
"It's swell to be home," Raymond says.
Also, 140 Civil War veterans leave Los Angeles by train for a reunion marking the 75th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. More than 1,600 Union and Confederate veterans are expected to attend the event. The travel expenses are being paid by the U.S. government, The Times says.
On the cover of Part 2, a group of Methodist ministers supports the recall of Mayor Shaw, criticizes Joe Shaw and Chief Davis, and censures the governor and attorney general for failing to help expose corruption in government.
And federal narcotics agents confiscate 50 pounds of marijuana seeds from Japan marked as "prepared food."
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Above, Normandie and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, "Home of the Garbage Burrito."
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 he Times' Harry Carr, fresh from the Republican National Convention in Chicago, heads to Lincoln, Neb., to interview William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic presidential candidate.
"When he is on the stump, Bryan is the simple child of the people who helps baggage smashers handle his trunks. Today, in fact, he brought out a humble request that plain alpaca coats be worn at a banquet to be given him here in place of dress suits.
"Bryan, you good, old faker, if you can get away with that and also pose as the influential, rich country squire, you are a wonder, and I guess you can."
Glen Curtiss flies his Curtiss No. 2 airplane 41 seconds at an altitude of 40 feet for a distance of 2,175 feet. A record ... President Grover Cleveland is laid to rest ... And turmoil in Tehran ...
On the jump, an armed mob hunts a man who robbed and beat a woman at Normandie and Santa Barbara (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) and attacked another woman during his escape.
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 e have more fallout from Earle Kynette's conviction in the Harry Raymond bombing. On the jump, The Times reports that seven officers will face a police board of rights on charges of obstructing the Raymond investigation.
Mayor Frank Shaw sends a letter to members of the county grand jury noting the achievements of the Police Department ... but more important, he also tries to remove Police Commission Vice President Charles W. Ostrom. An attorney, Ostrom has clients who include Milton "Farmer" Page, a leading underworld figure. Shaw says Ostrom should either quit the commission or stop representing Page. Ostrom, however, says he will "go out fighting."
Shaw was unable to remove Ostrom, who remained in office. But the victory was temporary... (Bonus fact: Ostrom died in 1959 at the age of 77).
Milton "Farmer" Page, above, was a major underworld figure in early Los Angeles and was among the defendants in the case against Tony Cornero's gambling ship, the Rex. I'm going to have to dig up more about him; he sounds like quite a character.
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rue confession: I mixed up June 26, 1908 and June 25, 1908. I suppose that happens more often that one might suspect--or not. Readers either politely didn't bring it to my attention or didn't notice. Thank you for your diplomacy.
To get to the point: The Times notes that the death of Grover Cleveland leaves the United States without a living ex-president. That will change when Theodore Roosevelt is succeeded by William Taft, but I'm trying to think of the next time the U.S. was in a similar situation. Certainly not in my lifetime.
In the second section, eight people are injured in the head-on crash of two streetcars at the Arroyo Seco bridge. Passengers on the outbound streetcar blame the crash on inattention by the motorman, who was "working with his motor" before the streetcar collided with the inbound car from Pasadena. Note that one of the injured was taken home instead of going to a hospital.
Also notice a meeting of Zionists for a fundraiser at the synagogue at Olive and Temple. Those who contribute to the cause can have their names inscribed in an elaborate "book of gold," The Times says.
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 ermany begins the systematic roundup of Jews on the pretext of putting them in "protective custody" or claiming that they are foreigners "without proper papers."
"At Buchenwald Concentration Camp, near Weimar, it was reported that 65 army buses were arriving nightly from Berlin, filled with Jews," The Times says. "Other centers sent smaller contingents."
... In the case of two youngsters who are Jehovah's Witnesses, a federal judge rules that it is unconstitutional to force students to salute the American flag if that violates their religious beliefs.
On the jump, a brief follow on the conviction of Earle Kynette in the Harry Raymond bombing ... The American Medical Assn. is divided over a campaign to treat the needy. Dr. Hugh Cabot is calling for the government to pay for preventive medicine, healthcare for the poor and scientific research for the good of the people as a whole, The Times says. The AMA concedes the need to treat the poor, but balks at anything that resembles socialized medicine, The Times says ... A woman says she left her 10-week-old baby in a cafe because she wanted to go to a dance. She says she has three other children, two of whom have been adopted while the other is being cared for by a friend.
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Photograph by the Los Angeles Times
Police Capt. Earle Kynette, after initially refusing to be interviewed after his conviction in
the Harry Raymond bombing, meets with the press. (Howard Decker writes of the flashbulbs the photographers are using: "Methinks them suckers put out a whole lot of light. Stop down
your apertures, guys!")
Photograph by the Los Angeles Times
Bombing victim Harry Raymond in a photo published June 17, 1938
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Above left, Auto Club Chief Engineer Ernest East, sometimes called the father of the freeway, and Assistant Engineer Harold Holley.
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os Angeles Police Capt. Earle Kynette is convicted in the Harry Raymond bombing. No surprise, except perhaps to Kynette, who spent the next 10 years in custody.
Officer Fred A. Browne, who was cleared in the case, died of a heart attack the next year in a Vermont Avenue bowling alley. Former Officer Roy J. Allen died of heart problems in San Quentin in 1942.
Kynette was paroled in 1948 despite Raymond's protests. His wife had divorced him while he was in prison. He was sent back to San Quentin in 1951 for violating his parole after he was convicted of being drunk. He was freed again in 1952. His pharmacist's license was restored and he was working in a drugstore in Twain Harte, Calif., when he was charged with drunk driving in a car accident that killed two people. He was later cleared.
In 1963, Kynette was stabbed in the abdomen and left arm during a drunken fight in a skid row hotel in Oakland. The Times failed to note his death in June 1970 in West Hollywood.
Raymond died in 1957.
For me, the most surprising discovery in the Raymond case is The Times editorial, below. As far as the unsigned editorial is concerned, Kynette was a rogue officer in charge of a rogue department. The rest of the Police Department--and City Hall, presumably--was free of corruption.
Below left, the next installment of Ed Ainsworth's series on traffic in Los Angeles.
Listen to some of the predictions if the "motorway" system is built:
Los Angeles to Santa Monica in 15 minutes. Pasadena to Inglewood in 19 1/2 minutes. Los Angeles to Long Beach in 21 minutes.
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 ou might well wonder whether the designers actually expected to run "motorways" right through buildings in downtown Los Angeles -- the answer is yes, they did.
There's quite a bit of data in this installment of Ed Ainsworth's series on traffic in Los Angeles. If I had the time, I would track down population growth figures to see how successfully the Southern California Auto Club predicted the future. Alas, there are so many stories, and only one Larry Harnisch. I'll leave it to my interested readers to see how the Auto Club did.
But here's the interesting material that should resonate 70 years later:
"... Los Angeles, above all other cities, depends upon the automobile for its actual everyday traffic needs.
"This is what Automobile Club engineers say: That if the streetcars were to stop, life would go on about as usual. San Antonio --a city of a quarter of a million -- has led the way by being the first major American city to abolish the streetcar in favor of buses.
"If the buses were to stop, there would be hardly a flurry.
"But if automobiles were to suddenly to cease to function, the whole economic and social structure would be disrupted."
And the jury is out in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette in the Harry Raymond bombing ... Stay tuned.
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