Blond, blue-eyed, with craggy good looks and an athletes bearing, Otis was a pure vision of Southern California heroism. Despite the presence onscreen of key Times figures such as former publisher Tom Johnson, editor Bill Thomas and Times Mirror exec Peter Fernald (as well as former Times reporter, author and Times chronicler Dennis McDougal), nobody can get to the bottom of what led Otis Chandler to his inexplicable retreat and surrender of control of the paper in the 1980s. "All he wants to do is help. Reporters, already disenchanted by the Willes regime, demanded an investigation and a public apology from Downing, which she gave. He also developed real estate and erected the famous Hollywood sign (which originally read "Hollywoodland") for one of his projects. Perhaps no major newspaper in American history has experienced such dramatic swings in reputation and quality, all due to the whims of the rather bizarre clan that owned it. The possibilities for innovation when we all have location-aware smart-phones in our pockets are endless. I suspect that she internalized some of the disdain that so many Chandlers felt towards the Buffums. The suspension drew outrage from conservatives like Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont. While some major papers, most notably the New York Herald Tribune,decided to compete with the increasingly popular newsmagazines and television by adding lifestyle features and interpretive reporting, the Timesran reams of dull wire-service copy. Under his watch, the L.A. Times opened international bureaus and hired on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, at the same time buying several television station and the Newsday newspaper. For almost 80 years, this would be the model for the paper. But they never met. The paper and the company, of course, were never the same. ', The True Story Behind 'Cocaine Bear': A 175-Pound Beast, a Dead Drug Smuggler in Gucci Loafers and More, Super Mario Bros. 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The scion of the wealthy Chandler family who took over the Los Angeles Times and transformed it into a nationally respected publication. Please comment on the subject of the blog post itself. Otis Chandler was born in 1920s. In five withering pages, he blasted Willes's and Downing's "unbelievably stupid and unprofessional handling of the Staples special section," calling the scandal "the most serious single threat to the survival and growth of this great newspaper during my more than 50 years of being associated with the Times. Otis Chandlers mothers name is unknown at this time and his fathers name is under review. He plans to attend his 50th Stanford reunion in the fall, where his son Harry, '75, and Harry's wife, Denise, '75, will be celebrating their 25th reunion. Whats missing is how a rich Southern California jock, who showed no passion for the family business as a young man, suddenly fell in love with his own newspaper and understood at some elemental level that journalism is more than a business; its also a public trust. Unionists explode dynamite at the Times Headquarters during Harrison Gray Otis' reign as publisher. But he leaves little doubt about his opinion of Chandler's accomplishments in the profession that consumed his passion and energy for 50 years. When Harrison Gray Otis arrived in Los Angeles to edit the Los Angeles Daily Times in 1882, he was a failure, an itinerant newspaperman and printer whose proudest achievement was service in the Union Army. In 1992, he resigned as chairman of the Times Mirror executive committee. When the New York Times started a West Coast edition on his watch, he beat it back. . Otis read the note, threw it away, and hurriedly excused himself. Brant). Kit Rachlis, a former senior projects editor at The Times, is editor-in-chief of Los Angeles magazine, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, Review: A reimagined Secret Garden fails to flower anew at the Ahmanson Theatre, High school basketball: Southern California and Northern California Regional results and updated pairings, Im visiting all 600 L.A. spots on the National Register. People born under this sign are popular because they're sincere and avoid conflict. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. After some back-and-forth polishing, Chandler asked Boyarsky to read the memo out loud in the newsroom. Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis . By the time she married Norman Chandler, her father (Charlie Buffum) and her uncle (E.E. But Norman and Dorothy had other plans. Husband of Private and Private The key to growth was water. Although not much is known about John Otis, his son, John Otis (generally referred to as "Judge Otis") was the first of the family to rise to provincial eminence. In 1945, her husband became publisher of the Times, a position he held until he was succeeded by their son, Otis, in 1960. Four years after giving birth to her second child, she suffered a nervous breakdown and, at the urging of her husband, she went to see a psychiatrist, a courageous decision for anyone in 1932 but especially for a woman of her status. "This trust is dearer than life itself." After 20 years as publisher, in the rough-and-tumble of putting out a newspaper every day, was he just temperamentally ill-suited to be chairman of Times Mirror? Contact profile manager; View family tree; Problem with this page? As an Angelino I have an affinity to the Los Angeles Times. As Otis poured money into The Times, the paper became the most profitable in the country. After 58 years of being a Chandler, of carrying the mantle and the burden, he had had enough. Check out Interviews with David Tennant, Patti Smith and many others from PBS Presstour. See change in peoples lives that use our product. "He had no interest in the past" is perhaps Chandler's biggest criticism of Willes. Contact Information The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, CA 91108, Phone: (626) 405-2191; Email: reference@huntington.org, www.huntington.org Access-restricted-item true Addeddate The Otis family is a Boston Brahmin family from Massachusetts best known for its involvement in early American politics. We did wild things, although it's all kid stuff by today's standards. Interview segments and archival selections are absolutely aces, as is Liev Schreibers narration. By the end of his tenure, only The New York Times would have more domestic and foreign bureaus or a bigger Washington staff than the Los Angeles Times. I, like you, felt the odd combination of pride, curiosity and shame for peeking into the family photos of Los Angeles' most prominent family. "Agatha Christie's Miss Marple", MASTERPIECE CLASSIC "The Diary of Anne Frank". . The bridegroom is a grandson of the late Otis Chandler, who was the fourth generation of the Chandler family to be publisher of The Los Angeles Times; he held the position from 1960 to. There is something mythic about Otis story. Next time I wont worry about how I will pay the the rent a good idea needs focus and 100% of your execution. While immersed in the story of a family whose drama rivals any Shakespearean tragedy, I found myself pointing and saying to my husband, "That's how Robbie got into car racing!" Norman Chandler died in 1973. Known as the General, Harrison Otis was a bully and a buffoon. The hole at the center of Privileged Son is Otis himself. Otis and Tom Johnson had understood this in a way that eluded their successors. Sac Coaching Clinic, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, California Audiovisual Preservation Project, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). Chargers general manager Tom Telesco stressed once again at the NFL Combine that removing the veteran Allen from the roster isnt an option as L.A. tries to squeeze under the salary cap. Right-wing and boosterish, The Times remained what it had always been: the personal tool of the Chandlers. Yes, Otis Chandler is slowing down. But he came close. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. When the girls came around to sing Christmas carols, we would launch a water balloon bombardment from the top floor of DKE, right in the middle of their song. He also developed real estate and erected the famous Hollywood sign (which. Ruthless and strait-laced, he assured the Chandlers family wealth for generations to come. Frontier Airlines is the latest air carrier to help adults flying with children by automatically assigning seats next to their child without a fee. After a stint in the Air Force, he and Missy returned to his parents' house in 1953 with their two young sons. Like Adolph Ochs, the founder of the New York Times, he was the publisher one of the major newspapers of the United States. On the day of my visit, Chandler was prepping the space for a large charity bash, which meant getting several dozen gazelle and impala heads off the floor and onto the walls, and ridding the men's bathroom of the girlie posters that invariably festoon the work areas of car and motorcycle aficionados. He has a tendency to recount conversations verbatim without identifying his sources. Otis Chandler was born in California. Otis enthusiastically supported Michael's racing career until a near-fatal crash while qualifying at Indianapolis in 1984. "Why continue to pile on?" Securities charges against Chandler were eventually dismissed, but he suffered a very public black eye. John has written many books about the history and mountain trails of southern California; he probably knows those mountains as well as anyone alive. So far, the Tribune Co. has made all the right noises about preserving the Times's autonomy, and most people believe them. He relinquished the title of editor in chief in 1985 and left the board of directors two years ago. But reaching that goal required drastic structural changes, Willes said. He still surfs off the Ventura County coast; in fact, he took his long board on the plane with him for his 20th wedding anniversary in Tahiti in May. The internet has completely changed the way we find and consume information in just 15 years, and I believe its just getting started. I wish I would have had the guts to go at it 100% from the start. He is the prince who walks among his people and vows to reform his kingdom. Amos was born and died in 1785 and is buried in Norfolk. So rich, complex and contentious is the Times saga that Jones and Catalena could have devoted an hour alone to the papers titanic political battle in 1934 against left-wing gubernatorial candidate and great American novelist Upton Sinclair. When the water arrived in 1912, the land--once considered barren and useless--was worth millions. He also developed real estate and erected the famous Hollywood sign (which originally read "Hollywoodland") for one of his projects. Burke was accused of using Chandler's influence to promote an oil company stock and paying him a finder's fee for moneys raised. In a supreme irony, once Otis Chandler took charge in 1960 and directed the paper to drop its jingoistic, frankly dreadful writing in favor of classically mainstream American journalism, the Times . The Los Angeles Times rise as, first, the engine of Southern Californias profound economic boom and, second, a world-class newspaper, is recounted by filmmaker Peter Jones as an unfolding tragedy in Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers & Their Times. Jones has made this definitive look at the paper and the Chandler family with the encyclopedic gravitas of Ken Burns docs, directing slow-boiling anger at the notoriously private Chandler family, whose decisions drove a great newspaper into the ground. When he died in 1944, he had accumulated more than 1.5 million acres, and The Times was one of the most profitable newspapers in the country. At 6-foot-2, he claims to have shrunk an inch, but he still towers over most visitors. Chandler glances down at my comparatively undeveloped 6-foot frame and grunts, "Yeah. My city has Chandlers with their legacies and their fortunes, but we no longer have Their Times. For more than 30 years, Harry Chandler would hold more power than anyone else in Los Angeles, more power, its fair to say, than anyone else has ever held in the citys history. First standards were set, then huge journalistic milestones were hit, and in the blink of an eye there was fiscal ruin, and a loss of ownership.What will we be left with? He laid the framework for Times Mirrors becoming a modern media conglomerate. Who are the richest people in the world? The Chandlers, who controlled 24% of Times Mirror and majority voting rights, ended up with about 20% of Tribune Co.'s stock. Over the years, some name-calling ensued. Yes we are all nostalgic for the feel of print books, but I think we will come around when we see that ideas can be better conveyed through digital, interactive ebooks. The economic boom and the Jazz Age were over, and America began the period called the Great Depression. Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times, Posted on September 30, 2009 9:07 AM | 1 Comments | Permalink. "He is not," she snapped, and they drove to another hospital. Russias War On Ukraine: Daily News And Information From Ukraine, The Real Players Of Formula One: Drive To Survive Season 5, Scott Adams Undoing: A Timeline Of The Dilbert Cartoonists Fall From Grace. Chandler clearly blames Willes for weakening the company to the point where it became takeover prey. [1] Legacy edit] The community of Reseda, California, was originally named Marian, after Mrs. Chandler. The effect is a book that seems at once too crowded and too short. At the height of Otis tenure, Times Mirror was the second largest media company in the country. The scion of the wealthy Chandler family who took over the Los Angeles Times and transformed it into a nationally respected publication. From what I'm told, however, Long Beach was seen as a backwater community by the Pasadena elite to which the Chandlers belonged. ), whose suspension weeks ago prompted Elon Musk to change Twitters rules. Within four years, though, he had borrowed enough money to convert his one-fifth interest in the paper into majority ownership. Otis, he says at one point, was wrestling with feelings that caught him on his lantern jaw like a sucker punch. The book is filled with such howlers. Factual errors creep in (his chronology, for instance, of the 1999 Staples Center scandal is off). She left seven children Mrs. Roger Goodan (Alice May), Mrs. Earle E. Crowe (Constance), Mrs. John J. Garland (Helen), Mrs. James G. Boswell (Ruth), Norman Chandler. Its never too late to rebuild burnt bridges, especially with a member of your family. Judge Otis held a variety of judicial and military appointments and represented Barnstable County for 20 successive years in the general court of Massachusetts Bay. 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