A 10-foot-tall Kodiak bear ("October 1985; Record Size; Alaskan Peninsula"), paws and claws extended, looms behind Chandler's head. Eventually, Chandler used the proceeds to snap up quality papers in other markets: the Dallas Times Herald (later sold), the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courantand Long Island's Newsday. Otis was not told about the sale until the deal was complete. Harvey was born in 1788; John in 1790. It's sad, but it's the only thing to do.". The exciting thing is how fast that is changing. This uniquely American saga should stir the interest of specialized distribs and worldwide fests prior to Stateside PBS tube dates. As young adults during the McCarthy Era, many members of this generation felt it was dangerous to speak out. After that, the only appearance Dorothy makes is an indirect one: a picture of my grandmother proudly holding the issue of Time magazine that featured Dorothy on the cover. Certainly, there's no arguing with Buff Chandler's legacy; they didn't name that downtown pavilion in her honor for nothing. Brant). He grew up indulging his hobbies from weightlifting to big game hunting, and narrowly missing the 1952 Helsinki Olympics due to a wrist injury. When I finally launched, a well-funded competitor launched the same week. 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. It goes all the way back to Harrison Otis and covers the dynasty through 2000. After years of cold-shoulder treatment from Willes, Chandler was flattered to be back in the loop. When the time came to fold the family's money-losing afternoon tabloid, the Mirror, the Chandlers cut a sweet deal: in return for closing the Mirror, which competed with the Hearst Corp.'s afternoon paper, the Chandlers got Hearst to shutter the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, the Times's morning rival. After 58 years of being a Chandler, of carrying the mantle and the burden, he had had enough. But it was honest, blunt, plainspoken and filled with passion and conviction, and after several years of listening to the bromides of corporate-speak, the newsroom embraced the style as well as the substance of Chandler's remarks. The company's stock rose, and the Chandlers prospered. Geni requires JavaScript! The city and the newspaper are so intertwined, Dennis McDougal points out in Privileged Son, his sprawling history of The Times, that its impossible to separate the two. But he came close. Hiring great people who can do all the above is crucial. The psychiatrist, she later recalled, told her to stop being a passive victim and start getting involved.. Willes's deputy, publisher Kathryn Downing, was a lawyer "who had never seen a newspaper, practically, never delivered a newspaper, never worked at a paper," according to Chandler. Times columnist Patt Morrison wrote: "It felt like I woke up and heard that the Pacific Ocean had been sold." ideamensch is an interview platform for entrepreneurs, makers, and doers. From what I'm told, however, Long Beach was seen as a backwater community by the Pasadena elite to which the Chandlers belonged. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Chandler. What he discovered was a newspaper that was corrupt and provincial to its core. 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? I'd slide down a chute from the mail room with the bundles into the trucks. His parents,Norman Chandler and Dorothy Chandler, were both major financiers for Los Angeles cultural institutions. Bernheimer described Chandler's reaction in an interview with Vanity Fair: "He told them in effect to go f -- -- themselves.". He is Henry V, the good-time frat boy who achieves greatness when he ascends to the throne. And. I feel fortunate to be the steward of such a thing, and the people who use it are what truly inspires us. The newspaper he inherited was very like the California of its time -- fat, parochial and happy. ", The Otis Chandler era at the L.A. Times began on April 11, 1960, when his father introduced him as the new publisher. Some 200 heirs with at least 20 different surnames are benefiting from clerk Harry Chandler's fortuitous marriage more than a century ago. Trusted information source for millions of people worldwide. In my grandmother's old scrapbooks is a picture of Dorothy from 1918; on it, she wrote, "With so much love, to Loreen, from Dorothy". Before Fame Chandler's crew published a scathing assessment of the hate-mongering John Birch Society, a popular and influential force in Southern California and among his Chandler cousins. Buffum, my great-grandfather) were respected members of Long Beach society. In 1944, he handed the reins of the publishing empire to son Norman, who in turn passed it on to his son Otis in 1960. Behind me -- dead, thank heavens -- stands an equally gigantic polar bear ("Kotzebue, Alaska; Record Book Size; February 1964") that Chandler shot, then gutted on an arctic ice floe before he and his guide dragged the 300-pound carcass back to their tiny plane, 5 miles away. It's ironic that she didn't seem to have the same high expectations of her daughter; you would think that if anyone would have been aware of how much a woman could accomplish (even in that sexist era), it would have been Buffie. See change in peoples lives that use our product. He grew up indulging his hobbies from weightlifting to big game hunting, and narrowly missing the 1952 Helsinki Olympics due to a wrist injury. He looks like he could take me. Theres no reason why it cant be all three, but in Privileged Son, each element keeps elbowing the other out of the way. 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. I agree! The strengths of this sign are being generous, idealistic, sense of humor, while weaknesses can be to promise more than can deliver, impatient and say anything no matter how undiplomatic. Explore historical records and family tree profiles about Chandler Otis on MyHeritage, the world's family history network. He led a privileged, isolated life for most of his childhood. Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love. Otis Chandler's Geni Profile. Trusted by millions of genealogists since 2003. One day, he was in a meeting with L.A. Times editors and staffers when a messenger came in bearing a note. This is DAY TO DAY. In 1894, he wed the daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Harrison Gray Otis and proceeded to build a media empire. If you see something that doesnt look right, contact us. Their strategy was aimed almost entirely at the short term, to prop up Times Mirror stock price and to increase the familys dividends. The new editor, John Carroll, hails from the Times Mirror empire (he ran the Baltimore Sun). The family then moved west to Herkimer County, New York, where William was born in 1801 . But when I checked in with him a few weeks later, his mood had improved. 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. Willes vowed to tear down that wall. [citation needed] But Norman and Dorothy had other plans. Some 200 heirs with at least 20 different surnames are benefiting from clerk Harry Chandler's fortuitous marriage more than a century ago. I wanted, he later said, to make them eat their bloody words. Working with two editors--Nick Williams and then William Thomas--he expanded the staff, created new sections and opened bureaus. The scandal also shook Otis Chandler, prompting his first public comment on Times management in almost a decade. He was best known for being a Family Member. They backed selling the company to real estate investor Sam Zell, who took it private via a leveraged buyout in 2007, ending more than 100 years of the Chandler clan's involvement with the business. But some explanation of the familys poor business decisions such as overthrowing management that had turned Times Mirror Corp. into a money machine and made the paper among the countrys best, and finally selling Times Mirror to Tribune Corp. would have buttressed the films themes. "Wealthy Acquaintances of California Publisher Evidently Lost Bundle," read the page-one headline of the Wall Street Journal on August 11, 1972, followed by the subhead "Chandler 'Opened Doors' For College Pal Who Ran Oil Fund, SEC Now Probes." "All he wants to do is help. He started a successful wire service with the Washington Postthat competed with the renowned New York Times Syndicate. In 1992, he resigned as chairman of the Times Mirror executive committee. I alternate between fiction books and non-fiction. The family did force him out, but he was also ready to quit. Perelman wrote of being on a cross-country train ride and stopping in Albuquerque, N.M.: "I asked the porter to get me a newspaper and unfortunately the poor man, hard of hearing, brought me the Los Angeles Times.". I mention the arm-wrestling idea while we are touring his museum and confide that I'm having second thoughts about it, musk ox or no. His relatives complained about the Times's liberal bent -- and he has occasionally suggested that they in turn were knuckle-draggers, out of touch with modern times. Time magazine once called it one of the nation's 10 worst newspapers. 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. Goodreads raised a Series A round of funding from True Ventures in the summer of 2009. JUMP TO: Otis Chandlers biography, facts, family, personal life, zodiac, videos and related celebs. Its a great story, and its a shame that McDougal doesnt tell it well. 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? Otis Chandler, the family's last great newspaperman, is sitting across the table from me inside his Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife in Oxnard. Bookmark this page and come back often for updates. By the time he finished Stanford, Chandler was hooked on motorcycles, surfing, bodybuilding and hunting. on the Internet. A mini-board of directors, dominated by younger Chandlers, will have some say in how the Los Angeles paper is run. . By 1983 the paper was on Time's 10-best list. Ruling Planet: Otis Chandler had a ruling planet of Jupiter and has a ruling planet of Jupiter and by astrological associations Thursday is ruled by Jupiter. His own mother, and the business allies who contributed to her beloved Music Center, pressured him to fire the Times music critic, Martin Bernheimer. Otis Chandler and His Family A recorded phone conversation reveals former President Nixon's plan to investigate the Chandlers. On the face of it, co-publishing a special magazine about L.A.'s new Staples Center sports arena with the arena itself doesn't seem so heinous. His descriptions become increasingly personal; you get the impression that hes getting back at colleagues and editors who once crossed him (for example, he describes former editor Shelby Coffey III as Nixonian without an explanation). What can we learn? 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. It was there that John Otis built a homestead that served many members of the family for generations. Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Was it a midlife crisis? Otis read the note, threw it away, and hurriedly excused himself. I don't know that she was the most pleasant person to be around during that fund-raising drive, though; from what McDougal writes, her efforts were relentless, and her wealthy friends considered lunch with Buffie to be the most expensive lunch in town. ", Otis Chandler, now 72, remains a larger-than-life figure. Husband of Private and Private 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. Information. "No Easterner can understand what it has meant in Californiato be a Chandler,"David Halberstam wrote in a famous run-on sentence from his media history, The Powers That Be, "for no single family dominates any major region of the country as the Chandlers have dominated California, it would take in the East a combination of the Rockefellers and the Sulzbergers to match their power and influence.". . McDougal's book gives the indication that Buff actually undermined, to a degree, her daughter's fundraising efforts. University of Georgia star defensive lineman Jalen Carter projected as a top pick in the upcoming NFL draft faces charges of reckless driving and racing in connection with a crash that . In the succeeding years, he and his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, bought most of Southern California -- at least the parts worth having. James Otis Chandler Obituary With heavy hearts, we announce the death of James Otis Chandler (Huntsville, Alabama), born in Auburn, Alabama, who passed away on February 7, 2023 at the age of 82. He finished in the top ten twice, with his best finish in 4th position in 1981 at Riverside. 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. Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center Mobile. So I asked. Former L.A. Weekly writer and longtime Los Angeles watcher Ruben Martinez is one of the films several smart talking heads, tracing the Times history of openly racist commentaries and its editorial policies of ignoring minority groups. "This trust is dearer than life itself." Chandler's teammate and Delta Kappa Epsilon frat brother Merritt Van Sant, '51, sketched me a cameo portrait of their campus life: "Oh, no, we were not sober! He is the great-great grandson of newspaper publisher, Harrison Gray Otis. I had toyed with the idea of asking him to arm-wrestle, because I knew that an angry Canadian musk ox had torn his right shoulder from its socket and impaired his upper-arm mobility. His creation, the modern Los Angeles Times, was seated right up there with the nation's great newspapers -- the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal -- pecking away. We spent the last 4 years building tools for readers to find new books, build their virtual libraries, and connect with friends and other readers. McDougal hints that Otis grew to resent his mother for using him in her wars with her in-laws, but he never examines how this might have shaped his behavior. When the New York Times started a West Coast edition on his watch, he beat it back. New Yorker wit S.J. 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. Michael is the son of Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler and Marilyn "Missy" Chandler. In my childhood it was the newspaper that my parents counted on for their daily news. He raced in the 1980-1984 seasons, with 9 career starts, and started in the Indianapolis 500 in 1981-1983. As Otis poured money into The Times, the paper became the most profitable in the country. 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