Frank L. Shaw
Encyclopedia
Frank L. Shaw was the first mayor of a major American city to be recalled from office, in 1938. He was also a member of the Los Angeles City Council and then the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. His administration was seen as one of the most corrupt in Los Angeles history, although he had some defenders and was never charged officially with any crime.
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Shaw, the son of John D. Shaw and Katherine Roche, was born February 1, 1877, in or near Warwick, Ontario
. He had a brother, Joseph. The family moved to Detroit, Michigan
, then Colorado in the late 1880s and Kansas, before settling in Missouri. He went to public schools in Denver and in Joplin, Missouri
. He studied business and then began clerking in a country store in Joplin and soon became a salesman with the Campbell-Redell Wholesale Grocery Company. He remained in the grocery business for thirty years, except when he was briefly with the Ozark Coal and Railroad Company at Fort Smith, Arkansas
. As a representative of the Cudahy Packing Company
, Shaw moved to Los Angeles in 1909. In 1919 he joined the Haas-Baruch Company in Los Angeles and left it when he was elected to the City Council.
Shaw's childhood affliction with polio left him with a noticeable limp for the rest of his life.
He was married to Cora H. Shires on February 5, 1905, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and in 1909 the couple moved to Los Angeles. They had no children. She died in 1951 at the age of 68. At age 76, Frank Shaw was secretly married in Tijuana, Mexico to Dortha Sheehan, age 22, and revealed the fact three years later, in January 1956.
Shaw was a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
, the United Commercial Travelers of America, the Los Angeles Athletic
and Jonathan
clubs, the Presbyterian Church, Masonic Temple 320
, the Shriners
and the Elks
, Moose
, Eagles
and Maccabee
lodges.
He died of cancer on January 24, 1958. His residence then with Dortha was 101 or 108 West 71st Street, in the Florence district. Burial took place in Inglewood Park Cemetery
.
After Shaw's death, a will leaving all of his estate to Dortha Shaw was contested in court by a group of the former mayor's relatives, led by Shaw's niece, Frances S. Lawrence, and his brother, Joseph. A jury sided with the Lawrence claim that Shaw had been unduly influenced by his new wife, but the verdict was not put into effect because all of the parties later agreed to a settlement.
Shaw was a large property owner who was active in the United Commercial Travelers' Association when he filed for the 1925 election in the 8th Councilmanic District
. He was then living at 110 West 59th Place in the Florence District. He won reelection to two-year terms in 1925 and 1927.
District 8 in 1925 included the area south of Washington Street
, north of Jefferson on the western side and north of Slauson Avenue
on the eastern side, bounded on the east by Alameda Street and the Vernon
city line. In 1926 it was described as bounded by 47th Street, Vermont Avenue
, Florence Avenue
and Alameda Street.
Both Shaw and Council Member R.S. Sparks raised criticism in advance of the May 1927 primary election when they each sent letters on city stationery to people who were on a tentative list for appointment as election workers asking them to call on the two councilmen to discuss, in the words of Shaw's letter, "several matters which I believe will prove advantageous to you." Shaw denied that he was attempting to influence the prospective workers to influence his candidacy.
On the board he proposed the establishment of a county psychopathic clinic
, which he said would be to "keep people out of asylums and prisons, not put them in." He was named chairman of a countywide committee on employment formed to help fight the "present crisis in the unemployment situation,"
and he proposed that employees in "all governmental departments as well as private business and industry" should be given a five-day week, "or a shorter work day," to meet the situation.
In March 1933, Shaw abandoned his previous temperance stand in the battle over Prohibition repeal when he joined a 3-2 majority in deciding to repeal a county ordinance that was even more drastic than the national Volstead Act
, which controlled the production and sale of liquor throughout the United States.
While still a supervisor, Shaw ran for the mayoralty of Los Angeles in 1933 against the incumbent, John C. Porter, and was elected in the final vote, 187,053 to 155,513.
During his term, the Los Angeles International Airport
and the Slauson Avenue
storm drain projects were developed by the Works Progress Administration
, the Los Angeles Harbor became home base for the Pacific Fleet
and the city employees' retirement system was begun. Union Station
and the downtown Federal Building
were constructed.
Meanwhile, though, the corruption in City Hall led to a recall movement against him and his close associates. "Police misconduct and the mayor’s mishandling of public funds forced Shaw from office and led to the election of reform mayor Fletcher Bowron in 1938." He was the first mayor of a major American city to be recalled from office. Previously Mayors Arthur C. Harper
and Porter had faced recalls; Harper resigned before the date of the scheduled election, and Porter was sustained in office.
A major controversy erupted after Shaw's election as mayor when Charles A. Butler, former secretary of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, filed suit, alleging that Shaw was not a citizen and therefore could not be sworn into office. It developed that Shaw's Canadian-born father had taken out his first U.S. citizenship
papers in Hays City, Kansas, in 1887, but no record could be found of a final disposition. The matter was finally settled on July 24, 1933, when Shaw took the oath of allegiance to the United States, and Butler withdrew his suit.
Warner Brothers
Shaw sued Warner Brothers in October 1939 for $1 million in damages, alleging he was defamed in The Man Who Dared, a motion picture supposedly based on the January 14, 1938, bombing of private investigator
Harry Raymond while he was sitting in his automobile in the garage of his Los Angeles home. Shaw said the plot "contains a chain of circumstances which leaves the unmistakeable impression" that it was a "fictionalized version of the Raymond bombing." He said the film depicts him, Shaw, as having ordered his police aides to plant the bomb that severely injured a private investigator named Harry. The studio replied that the events were fictional and could have happened in any American city. The suit was settled out of court
in February 1941, with both sides agreeing there would be no statement as to the terms.
Bombing
Raymond, the real victim of the bombing, sued Shaw and 14 other former civic leaders and police officials in June 1940. Raymond said Shaw owed him $500 from a $30,000 out-of-court settlement that had previously been reached over the incident. Shaw issued an "indignant denial" that he had ever "negotiated or paid any portion" of Raymond's suit against him.
Libel
Two 1942 lawsuits by Shaw charging Macfadden Publications
and others with libel in the publication of articles in 1939 about his administration in Liberty
magazine were settled out of court after the trial of one of them resulted in a hung jury
. The first article, "The Lid Off Los Angeles," ran in installments beginning November 11, 1939, and included the statement:
The second article was said to have been based on material furnished by the wife of anti-vice crusader Clifford Clinton
under the title "My Husband's Death Struggle With the Vice Czars of Los Angeles."
At the same time the Shaw suits were settled, a claim by Clifford Clinton against Shaw was also laid to rest. Clinton had sued Shaw for libel in having claimed that he, Clinton, had taken "large sums of money from questionable sources for use in the 1938 recall campaign against Shaw." The exact terms of the settlements were not disclosed.
Oil lease
In 1951, Shaw lost a suit for damages he filed against Paul R. Ritter, a former business partner, concerning an oil lease in the Cuyama Valley
in Kern County. Ritter had been Shaw's manager in the 1933 campaign for mayor and was later appointed by Shaw as president of the city's Board of Public Works.
Biography
Shaw, the son of John D. Shaw and Katherine Roche, was born February 1, 1877, in or near Warwick, Ontario
Warwick, Ontario
Warwick is a rural township in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, with a population of 4,025.Bisected by the Egremont Road that was surveyed to link London with the Lake Huron shoreline in 1832, the township began to attract settlers including those helped by charitable organizations, such as Lord...
. He had a brother, Joseph. The family moved to Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, then Colorado in the late 1880s and Kansas, before settling in Missouri. He went to public schools in Denver and in Joplin, Missouri
Joplin, Missouri
Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of the US state of Missouri. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County, though it is not the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 50,150...
. He studied business and then began clerking in a country store in Joplin and soon became a salesman with the Campbell-Redell Wholesale Grocery Company. He remained in the grocery business for thirty years, except when he was briefly with the Ozark Coal and Railroad Company at Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...
. As a representative of the Cudahy Packing Company
Cudahy Packing Company
Cudahy Packing Company was a U.S. meat packing company established in 1887 as the Armour-Cudahy Packing Company and incorporated in Maine in 1915. It was founded by Patrick Cudahy and his brother John Cudahy, Irish immigrants from County Kilkenny who came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to avoid the Great...
, Shaw moved to Los Angeles in 1909. In 1919 he joined the Haas-Baruch Company in Los Angeles and left it when he was elected to the City Council.
Shaw's childhood affliction with polio left him with a noticeable limp for the rest of his life.
He was married to Cora H. Shires on February 5, 1905, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and in 1909 the couple moved to Los Angeles. They had no children. She died in 1951 at the age of 68. At age 76, Frank Shaw was secretly married in Tijuana, Mexico to Dortha Sheehan, age 22, and revealed the fact three years later, in January 1956.
Shaw was a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing the interests of more than 235,000 businesses in L.A...
, the United Commercial Travelers of America, the Los Angeles Athletic
Los Angeles Athletic Club
Los Angeles Athletic Club is an athletic club and private social club in Los Angeles, California, USA. It awards the John R. Wooden Award to the outstanding men's and women's college basketball player of each year....
and Jonathan
Jonathan Club
The Jonathan Club is a private social club in Los Angeles, California, U.S. It maintains two clubhouses, one in downtown Los Angeles at 545 South Figueroa Street and one on the beach in Santa Monica. The Los Angeles headquarters has dining and residential facilities, ballrooms, a health club, a...
clubs, the Presbyterian Church, Masonic Temple 320
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
, the Shriners
Shriners
The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also commonly known as Shriners and abbreviated A.A.O.N.M.S., established in 1870, is an appendant body to Freemasonry, based in the United States...
and the Elks
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is an American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868...
, Moose
Moose International
Moose International is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888, consisting of the Loyal Order of Moose, with nearly 1 million men in roughly 2,400 Lodges, in all 50 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces, plus Great Britain and Bermuda; and the Women of the Moose with more than...
, Eagles
Fraternal Order of Eagles
Fraternal Order of Eagles International is a fraternal organization that was founded on February 6, 1898, in Seattle, Washington by a group of six theater owners including John Cort , brothers John W. and Tim J. Considine, Harry Leavitt , Mose Goldsmith and Arthur Williams...
and Maccabee
Knights of the Maccabees
Knights of the Maccabees was a fraternal organization formed in 1878 in London, Ontario, Canada. A related but separate organization, "Maccabees of the World", was also established, the two merging under the title "The Knights of the Maccabees of the World" , later shortened to the Maccabees in...
lodges.
He died of cancer on January 24, 1958. His residence then with Dortha was 101 or 108 West 71st Street, in the Florence district. Burial took place in Inglewood Park Cemetery
Inglewood Park Cemetery
Inglewood Park Cemetery was founded in 1905 in Inglewood, California. A number of notable people, including entertainment and sports personalities, have been interred or entombed here.-List of notable and celebrity interments at Inglewood Park:...
.
After Shaw's death, a will leaving all of his estate to Dortha Shaw was contested in court by a group of the former mayor's relatives, led by Shaw's niece, Frances S. Lawrence, and his brother, Joseph. A jury sided with the Lawrence claim that Shaw had been unduly influenced by his new wife, but the verdict was not put into effect because all of the parties later agreed to a settlement.
City Council
See also: List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1925Shaw was a large property owner who was active in the United Commercial Travelers' Association when he filed for the 1925 election in the 8th Councilmanic District
Los Angeles City Council District 8
Los Angeles City Council District 8 is one of the 15 districts of the Los Angeles City Council, covering much of South Los Angeles. The current council member is Bernard C. Parks....
. He was then living at 110 West 59th Place in the Florence District. He won reelection to two-year terms in 1925 and 1927.
District 8 in 1925 included the area south of Washington Street
Washington Boulevard (Los Angeles)
Washington Boulevard is the longest continuous east-west arterial road in Los Angeles, California. It starts by the Pacific Ocean just west of Pacific Avenue in Marina del Rey, and ends far to the east in the city of Whittier, on Whittier Boulevard. It is south of Venice Boulevard for most of its...
, north of Jefferson on the western side and north of Slauson Avenue
Slauson Avenue
Slauson Avenue is a major east-west thoroughfare for southern Los Angeles County, California, named for the land developer and Los Angeles Board of Education member J. S. Slauson. It passes through Culver City, Ladera Heights, View Park-Windsor Hills, Baldwin Hills, Inglewood, South Los Angeles,...
on the eastern side, bounded on the east by Alameda Street and the Vernon
Vernon, California
Vernon is a city five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, California. The population was 112 at the 2010 United States Census, the smallest of any incorporated city in the state....
city line. In 1926 it was described as bounded by 47th Street, Vermont Avenue
Vermont Avenue
Vermont Avenue is one of the longest running north/south streets in Los Angeles, California with a length of about . Located just west of the Harbor Freeway for the major portion south of Downtown Los Angeles, it starts in Griffith Park at the Greek Theatre in the Los Feliz neighborhood as a...
, Florence Avenue
Florence Avenue
Florence Avenue is a west-east street in Los Angeles County that starts off as Mills Road at Janine Drive in Whittier. At Telegraph Road, it changes to Florence...
and Alameda Street.
Both Shaw and Council Member R.S. Sparks raised criticism in advance of the May 1927 primary election when they each sent letters on city stationery to people who were on a tentative list for appointment as election workers asking them to call on the two councilmen to discuss, in the words of Shaw's letter, "several matters which I believe will prove advantageous to you." Shaw denied that he was attempting to influence the prospective workers to influence his candidacy.
Board of Supervisors
Shaw ran for the Board of Supervisors in 1928 and easily ousted Supervisor Jack Bean, who had attempted to mock Shaw as "the grocery boy who made good." He was reelected in 1930 and 1932 and was named chairman of the board by his fellow supervisors in 1932 and 1933.On the board he proposed the establishment of a county psychopathic clinic
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
, which he said would be to "keep people out of asylums and prisons, not put them in." He was named chairman of a countywide committee on employment formed to help fight the "present crisis in the unemployment situation,"
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement...
and he proposed that employees in "all governmental departments as well as private business and industry" should be given a five-day week, "or a shorter work day," to meet the situation.
In March 1933, Shaw abandoned his previous temperance stand in the battle over Prohibition repeal when he joined a 3-2 majority in deciding to repeal a county ordinance that was even more drastic than the national Volstead Act
Volstead Act
The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States...
, which controlled the production and sale of liquor throughout the United States.
Mayor
See also: List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1933During his term, the Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
and the Slauson Avenue
Slauson Avenue
Slauson Avenue is a major east-west thoroughfare for southern Los Angeles County, California, named for the land developer and Los Angeles Board of Education member J. S. Slauson. It passes through Culver City, Ladera Heights, View Park-Windsor Hills, Baldwin Hills, Inglewood, South Los Angeles,...
storm drain projects were developed by the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
, the Los Angeles Harbor became home base for the Pacific Fleet
Pacific Fleet
A number of countries currently have or previously had an Pacific Fleet in their navies.*United States Pacific Fleet*Pacific Fleet *Pacific Naval Force *British Pacific Fleet...
and the city employees' retirement system was begun. Union Station
Union Station (Los Angeles)
Los Angeles Union Station is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California. The station has rail services by Amtrak and Amtrak California and Metrolink; light rail/subways are the Metro Rail Red Line, Purple Line, Gold Line. Bus rapid transport runs on the Silver Line...
and the downtown Federal Building
Federal Building
A federal building refers to government building built to host the regional offices of various government departments and agencies in countries with a federal system, especially when the central government is referred to as the "federal government".- Canada :...
were constructed.
Meanwhile, though, the corruption in City Hall led to a recall movement against him and his close associates. "Police misconduct and the mayor’s mishandling of public funds forced Shaw from office and led to the election of reform mayor Fletcher Bowron in 1938." He was the first mayor of a major American city to be recalled from office. Previously Mayors Arthur C. Harper
Arthur C. Harper
Arthur Cyprian Harper was the 26th Mayor of Los Angeles, California from December 13, 1906 to March 11, 1909. He was forced to resign in the wake of a recall drive due to dishonesty that marked his administration...
and Porter had faced recalls; Harper resigned before the date of the scheduled election, and Porter was sustained in office.
Lawsuits
CitizenshipA major controversy erupted after Shaw's election as mayor when Charles A. Butler, former secretary of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, filed suit, alleging that Shaw was not a citizen and therefore could not be sworn into office. It developed that Shaw's Canadian-born father had taken out his first U.S. citizenship
United States nationality law
Article I, section 8, clause 4 of the United States Constitution expressly gives the United States Congress the power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. The Immigration and Naturalization Act sets forth the legal requirements for the acquisition of, and divestiture from, citizenship of...
papers in Hays City, Kansas, in 1887, but no record could be found of a final disposition. The matter was finally settled on July 24, 1933, when Shaw took the oath of allegiance to the United States, and Butler withdrew his suit.
Warner Brothers
Shaw sued Warner Brothers in October 1939 for $1 million in damages, alleging he was defamed in The Man Who Dared, a motion picture supposedly based on the January 14, 1938, bombing of private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
Harry Raymond while he was sitting in his automobile in the garage of his Los Angeles home. Shaw said the plot "contains a chain of circumstances which leaves the unmistakeable impression" that it was a "fictionalized version of the Raymond bombing." He said the film depicts him, Shaw, as having ordered his police aides to plant the bomb that severely injured a private investigator named Harry. The studio replied that the events were fictional and could have happened in any American city. The suit was settled out of court
Settled Out of Court
Settled Out of Court is a 1925 British silent drama film directed by George A. Cooper and starring Fay Compton, Jack Buchanan and Jeanne De Casalis...
in February 1941, with both sides agreeing there would be no statement as to the terms.
Bombing
Raymond, the real victim of the bombing, sued Shaw and 14 other former civic leaders and police officials in June 1940. Raymond said Shaw owed him $500 from a $30,000 out-of-court settlement that had previously been reached over the incident. Shaw issued an "indignant denial" that he had ever "negotiated or paid any portion" of Raymond's suit against him.
Libel
Two 1942 lawsuits by Shaw charging Macfadden Publications
Macfadden Publications
Macfadden Communications Group is a publisher of business magazines. It has a historical link with a company started in 1898 by Bernarr Macfadden that was one of the largest magazine publishers of the twentieth century.-Macfadden Publications:...
and others with libel in the publication of articles in 1939 about his administration in Liberty
Liberty (magazine)
Liberty magazine may refer to:* Liberty , a political magazine published from 1881 to 1908 by Benjamin Tucker* Liberty , a general-interest magazine published from 1924 to 1950...
magazine were settled out of court after the trial of one of them resulted in a hung jury
Hung jury
A hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...
. The first article, "The Lid Off Los Angeles," ran in installments beginning November 11, 1939, and included the statement:
Until the boodling Shaw machine was handed its hat and a decent and unfettered man was elected Mayor in September, 1938, the city of Los Angeles for 20 years had been, almost uninterruptedly, run by an underworld government invisible to the average citizen.
The second article was said to have been based on material furnished by the wife of anti-vice crusader Clifford Clinton
Clifford Clinton
Clifford E. Clinton was a Californian restaurateur who founded Meals for Millions, one of two parent organizations of Freedom from Hunger, in 1946....
under the title "My Husband's Death Struggle With the Vice Czars of Los Angeles."
At the same time the Shaw suits were settled, a claim by Clifford Clinton against Shaw was also laid to rest. Clinton had sued Shaw for libel in having claimed that he, Clinton, had taken "large sums of money from questionable sources for use in the 1938 recall campaign against Shaw." The exact terms of the settlements were not disclosed.
Oil lease
In 1951, Shaw lost a suit for damages he filed against Paul R. Ritter, a former business partner, concerning an oil lease in the Cuyama Valley
Cuyama Valley
The Cuyama Valley is a valley along the Cuyama River in central California, in northern Santa Barbara, southern San Luis Obispo, southwestern Kern, and northwestern Ventura counties. It is a sparsely inhabited area containing two significant towns – Cuyama and New Cuyama – and is largely used for...
in Kern County. Ritter had been Shaw's manager in the 1933 campaign for mayor and was later appointed by Shaw as president of the city's Board of Public Works.