Harold Harby
Encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Harold A. Henry
, Los Angeles City Council member 1945–66.
Harold Harby (1894–1978) was elected to the Los Angeles, California, City Council in 1939, but he had to leave office in 1942 when he was convicted of using a city car for a trip out of the state. He was reelected in 1943 and served until 1957. Harby was noted for casting a 1951 swing vote that killed a $100 million proposal to build a massive public-housing project in the city as well as for his opposition to modern art and music.
. They had two sons, Harold D. and Thornton L., and in the late 1930s he was living at 2642 Halm Avenue in the Mid-City area.
He moved to California in 1918 to work at West Coast shipyards and then became associated with the oil business, working at various times for Shell Oil, Richfield Oil and Pacific Western Oil
.
Harby died November 24, 1978, in Laguna Hills, California
, after a lengthy illness. Memorial services were in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress
.
Harby was a materials and supply executive for Richfield in 1939 when he defeated incumbent Robert S. MacAlister
in Los Angeles City Council District 11, which at that time included the West Adams and Venice areas. He was supported by political leader Clifford Clinton
and served through 1957 — with one exception:
The City Council appointed Dave Stannard
to take his place in May 1942, but the next year, 1943, Harby was reelected by a vote of 6,392 for himself and 5,988 for Stannard. Harby kept winning elections—in 1949 he had no opponent—until 1957, when he was defeated by Karl L. Rundberg
.
that had divided the city, with business and real-estate factions on one side and labor and progressive interests on the other. Harby explained his reason by saying:
Although he said his mail ran 10 to 1 in favor of his stand, he also displayed a letter containing a death threat, and his Halm Avenue home was "invaded" by protestors and picketed.
, sculpture and music. He objected to the City Art Department accepting a gift of a painting titled "Bird on the Moon," noting that "I never saw any birds on the moon. Is this picture as crazy as it sounds?" He said the whole idea was "nuts, much like most of the rest of this so-called modern art."
He also was the principal opponent to a statuary group by sculptor Bernard Rosenthal
that had been designed for the new Police Building across Main Street
from the City Hall
. He suggested that the "14-foot, 1000-pound brass-and-bronze statue be consigned to a smelter and its metal salvaged for a tablet memorializing policemen who have given their lives in service to the community." The statue in question represented "a father, young boy, mother and a babe in arms expressing the idea that the Police Department is dedicated to the protection of the family."
In a letter to the Los Angeles Times, Harby praised the artistry of singer Jeanette MacDonald
and attacked modern music, which he called "gibberish" that "to me and millions of others is nothing but the echo of the drums of darkest Africa. . . . Meaningless, purposeless and repulsive." He added: "savagery is no substitute for beauty."
to complain about "persistent and erroneous" remarks the mayor made about the council in his radio addresses.
FDR painting. In October 1945, Harby and Rollin McNitt, chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, physically interfered with the removal of a portrait of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt from the space behind the City Council president's rostrum, as previously ordered by the council. It was later removed and drapes hung in the empty space to provide better acoustics.
Tokyo Rose. In December 1947, Harby authored a successful resolution in the Council asking Congress to "keep the female World War II Jap propagandist Tokyo Rose
out of America." The resolution noted she was a one-time resident of Los Angeles.
Feud. He and Councilman Kenneth Hahn
engaged in what was called a "feud" over various subjects, including their differences concerning the subject of continuing wartime rent control
in Los Angeles, with Hahn favoring and Harby opposing. Harby also called a suggestion by Hahn for a pay raise for city employees "political prostitution in its lowest form." Harby used the same term, calling Hahn a "political prostitute" in a raucous debate over the fate of a $110-million-dollar public housing
proposal for the city (Hahn in favor and Harby opposed; see above). At one point, Harby "reached over" and shoved Hahn back into his seat.
Bomb shelters. In January 1951 he broached the idea of converting the city's major storm drains into atomic air-raid shelters. The City Council asked the city's Board of Public Works to study the matter.
Anti-Communism. In October 1952, Harby joined a group of people supporting a House Committee on Un-American Activities probe into Communist sympathies among Los Angeles attorneys. Harby repeatedly took photographs of one of the anti-committee picketers who were also on the scene, "then made shaming signs with his finger and chided, 'You ought to be ashamed of yourself.' "
Harold A. Henry
Not to be confused with Harold Harby, Los Angeles City Council member 1943–57.Harold A. Henry was a community newspaper publisher who was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1945 and was its president for four terms from 1947 to 1962....
, Los Angeles City Council member 1945–66.
Harold Harby (1894–1978) was elected to the Los Angeles, California, City Council in 1939, but he had to leave office in 1942 when he was convicted of using a city car for a trip out of the state. He was reelected in 1943 and served until 1957. Harby was noted for casting a 1951 swing vote that killed a $100 million proposal to build a massive public-housing project in the city as well as for his opposition to modern art and music.
Biography
Harby was born September 8, 1894, in Gjovik, Norway, the son of Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Harby. He attended high school in that country and came to the United States in 1910. He was married in 1917 to Emmalee Thompson of Great Falls, MontanaGreat Falls, Montana
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...
. They had two sons, Harold D. and Thornton L., and in the late 1930s he was living at 2642 Halm Avenue in the Mid-City area.
He moved to California in 1918 to work at West Coast shipyards and then became associated with the oil business, working at various times for Shell Oil, Richfield Oil and Pacific Western Oil
Getty Oil
Getty Oil is an oil company founded by J. Paul Getty. It was at its height during the 1960s. In 1971, the Getty Realty division was formed to manage the real estate needs of Getty stations. The division was later spun off, but now owns the rights to the Getty brand...
.
Harby died November 24, 1978, in Laguna Hills, California
Laguna Hills, California
Laguna Hills is a city located in southern Orange County, California, United States. Its name refers to its proximity to Laguna Canyon and the much older Laguna Beach. Other newer cities nearby—Laguna Niguel and Laguna Woods—are similarly named.-Geography:...
, after a lengthy illness. Memorial services were in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress
Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries
Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries is an American corporation that owns and operates a chain of cemeteries and mortuaries in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties in Southern California. The company was founded by a group of San Francisco businessmen in 1906. Dr...
.
Tenure
See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1939–57Harby was a materials and supply executive for Richfield in 1939 when he defeated incumbent Robert S. MacAlister
Robert S. MacAlister
Not to be confused with James G. McAllister, Los Angeles City Council member 1928–33Robert Stuart MacAlister , who went by Robert S. MacAlister, was an oil-well-supplies salesman and a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council between 1934 and 1939.-Biography:MacAlister was born on May...
in Los Angeles City Council District 11, which at that time included the West Adams and Venice areas. He was supported by political leader 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....
and served through 1957 — with one exception:
The single break came in 1942, when he fell out with Clinton, who seized on an incident (he discovered that Harby had used a city car for a trip out of state) to oust him from office. Harby said he had been given permission to use the vehicle and the City Council voted to confirm the use as official business. But the matter was taken to Superior Court, where Harby was removed from office.
The City Council appointed Dave Stannard
Dave Stannard
David Samuel Benjamin Stannard , who went by Dave Stannard, was a journalist and advertising representative named to the Los Angeles, California, City Council in 1942 to replace Harold Harby, who had been stripped of his seat because he used a city car to go on vacation in Montana.-Biography:David...
to take his place in May 1942, but the next year, 1943, Harby was reelected by a vote of 6,392 for himself and 5,988 for Stannard. Harby kept winning elections—in 1949 he had no opponent—until 1957, when he was defeated by Karl L. Rundberg
Karl L. Rundberg
Karl L. Rundberg was a Los Angeles City Council member between 1957 and 1965. He was convicted of accepting a bribe in 1967 when a member of the city's Harbor Commission and was placed on probation.-Biography:...
.
Public housing
Harby switched his position from "yes" to "no" in December 1951 to block a City Council vote of 8 to 7 a proposed $100 million public-housing planPublic housing in the United States
Public housing in the United States has been administered by federal, state and local agencies to provide subsidized assistance for low-income and people living in poverty. Now increasingly provided in a variety of settings and formats, originally public housing in the U.S...
that had divided the city, with business and real-estate factions on one side and labor and progressive interests on the other. Harby explained his reason by saying:
I find upon further investigation that much of this proposed housing . . . is not essentially a slum-clearance project and buildings will be built on heretofore unoccupied territory. When you remove the slum-clearance element from public housing, there is nothing much left but Socialism.
Although he said his mail ran 10 to 1 in favor of his stand, he also displayed a letter containing a death threat, and his Halm Avenue home was "invaded" by protestors and picketed.
Art and music
Harby was also known for his opposition to modern artModern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
, sculpture and music. He objected to the City Art Department accepting a gift of a painting titled "Bird on the Moon," noting that "I never saw any birds on the moon. Is this picture as crazy as it sounds?" He said the whole idea was "nuts, much like most of the rest of this so-called modern art."
He also was the principal opponent to a statuary group by sculptor Bernard Rosenthal
Bernard Rosenthal
Bernard J. Rosenthal , also known as Tony Rosenthal, was an American abstract sculptor. He was the creator of the outdoor cube, Alamo that: “established him as a master of monumental public sculpture, and something of a standard bearer of the contemporary structurist esthetic.” He stated: ...
that had been designed for the new Police Building across Main Street
Main Street (Los Angeles)
Main Street is a major north-south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, and is the east-west postal divider for that city. It begins as a continuation of Valley Boulevard west of Mission Road in Lincoln Heights and ends at the Port of Los Angeles. At 9th Street, it merges with Spring Street in...
from the City Hall
Los Angeles City Hall
Los Angeles City Hall, completed 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council...
. He suggested that the "14-foot, 1000-pound brass-and-bronze statue be consigned to a smelter and its metal salvaged for a tablet memorializing policemen who have given their lives in service to the community." The statue in question represented "a father, young boy, mother and a babe in arms expressing the idea that the Police Department is dedicated to the protection of the family."
After Harby's motion was referred to committee, members of the Council marched in a body to view the sculpture. Harby climbed atop a scaffold, pointed to the figure representing the babe in arms and asked, "This is a baby?"
In a letter to the Los Angeles Times, Harby praised the artistry of singer Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
and attacked modern music, which he called "gibberish" that "to me and millions of others is nothing but the echo of the drums of darkest Africa. . . . Meaningless, purposeless and repulsive." He added: "savagery is no substitute for beauty."
Other
Mayor. He was appointed to a committee of five council members in May 1940 to call on Mayor Fletcher BowronFletcher Bowron
Fletcher Bowron was the 35th Mayor of Los Angeles, California from September 26, 1938 until June 30, 1953. Until Thomas Bradley passed his length of service during the 1980s, Bowron held the distinction of having the longest tenure in that position in city history.Bowron was born in Poway,...
to complain about "persistent and erroneous" remarks the mayor made about the council in his radio addresses.
FDR painting. In October 1945, Harby and Rollin McNitt, chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, physically interfered with the removal of a portrait of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt from the space behind the City Council president's rostrum, as previously ordered by the council. It was later removed and drapes hung in the empty space to provide better acoustics.
Iva Toguri D'Aquino
Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino , was an American citizen who participated in English-language propaganda broadcast transmitted by Radio Tokyo to Allied soldiers in the South Pacific during World War II...
out of America." The resolution noted she was a one-time resident of Los Angeles.
Feud. He and Councilman Kenneth Hahn
Kenneth Hahn
Kenneth "Kenny" Hahn was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for forty years, from 1952 to 1992. Hahn was on the Los Angeles City Council from 1947 to 1952. He was an ardent supporter of civil rights throughout the 1960s, and met Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1961.-Biography:Hahn...
engaged in what was called a "feud" over various subjects, including their differences concerning the subject of continuing wartime rent control
Rent control
Rent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing. It functions as a price ceiling.Rent control exists in approximately 40 countries around the world...
in Los Angeles, with Hahn favoring and Harby opposing. Harby also called a suggestion by Hahn for a pay raise for city employees "political prostitution in its lowest form." Harby used the same term, calling Hahn a "political prostitute" in a raucous debate over the fate of a $110-million-dollar public housing
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
proposal for the city (Hahn in favor and Harby opposed; see above). At one point, Harby "reached over" and shoved Hahn back into his seat.
Bomb shelters. In January 1951 he broached the idea of converting the city's major storm drains into atomic air-raid shelters. The City Council asked the city's Board of Public Works to study the matter.
Anti-Communism. In October 1952, Harby joined a group of people supporting a House Committee on Un-American Activities probe into Communist sympathies among Los Angeles attorneys. Harby repeatedly took photographs of one of the anti-committee picketers who were also on the scene, "then made shaming signs with his finger and chided, 'You ought to be ashamed of yourself.' "