Los Angeles Daily News (historic)
Encyclopedia
The Los Angeles Daily News (originally the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News), often referred to simply as the Daily News, was a newspaper
published from 1923 to 1954. It was operated through most of its existence by Manchester Boddy. The publication has no connection with the current newspaper
of the same name.
The Daily News was founded in 1923 by the young Cornelius Vanderbilt IV
as the first of several newspapers he wanted to manage. After quickly going bankrupt, it was sold to Boddy, a businessman with no newspaper experience. Boddy was able to make the newspaper succeed, and it remained profitable through the 1930s and 1940s, after it took a mainstream Democratic perspective
. The newspaper began a steep decline in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1950
, Boddy ran in both the
Democratic and Republican
primaries for the United States Senate
. Boddy finished a distant second in both primaries, and lost interest in the newspaper. He sold his interest in the paper in 1952, and publication ceased in December 1954, when the business was sold to the Chandler family, who merged it with their publication, the Los Angeles Mirror.
, "The public be damned," Vanderbilt announced that the paper's philosophy would be "The public be served." Vanderbilt ignored attempts by the newspaper moguls who dominated Los Angeles journalism, William Randolph Hearst
and Harry Chandler
, to warn him off. Denied advertising in other newspapers, Vanderbilt attempted to gain publicity for his paper by having trucks drive through the streets bearing the paper's banner, and hiring boys to chalk the paper's name on sidewalks, much to the annoyance of landowners who had to clean it up.
The paper began publication on September 3, 1923. The tabloid-format newspaper was to be devoted to the ideal of clean journalism, and was prudish to an extreme: women's skirts were retouched in photos so that they would appear to cover the wearer's knees, while photos of wrestlers were altered so that they would appear to be wearing gym shirts. Vanderbilt's rivals did not take well to the new competition—a graphic sex story was planted by saboteurs in the first edition, forcing Vanderbilt to stop the presses and redo page 2 before it was published. Up to a hundred Illustrated Daily News newsboys were treated at local hospitals each week after being assaulted.
Unusually for the time, the newspaper covered its staff's transportation. Reporters were expected to carry rolls of nickels, so they could board streetcars and reach their assignments. However, if they had sufficient money with them, a taxicab was permitted, and Vanderbilt—"Neil" to the staff—let the staff use his two Packard
s to reach stories. Too often, however, the least experienced newsman on staff, Vanderbilt himself, would cover major stories. According to Rob Wagner in his history of Los Angeles newspapers of the time, Vanderbilt's "news stories reeked of naiveté and his editorials were sophomoric."
By 1924, the newspaper had a good circulation but was losing money because of low advertising revenues. Vanderbilt sought help from his parents, and they agreed to help if most authority went to their hand-picked manager, Harvey Johnson. His father poured over a million dollars into the newspaper in 1924–1925, but Johnson's involvement led to a rightward shift in the newspaper, which alienated many readers. In April 1926, Johnson concluded that the Illustrated Daily News and the two other newspapers that Vanderbilt had founded in other cities could survive if $300,000 more were invested in them; however, the elder Vanderbilt refused to provide any more money. A petition for receivership was filed on May 3, 1926.
The new publisher scrapped Vanderbilt's editorial policy, and began a campaign against vice. The Los Angeles police
chief, James E. Davis
, had a hands-off policy when it came to vice and organized crime. Most local reporters valued the perks given to them by the police, and did nothing to push the issue. After Boddy began a crusade against crime and corruption, he weathered harassment by police and politicians, circulation rose, and the paper was soon showing a profit. Boddy also streamlined operations and stabilized the paper's management. During the first six years of Boddy's ownership, the Daily News maintained a conservative editorial policy. By 1932, Boddy had dropped the word "Illustrated" from the name of the paper. He was a personal supporter of Herbert Hoover
's bid for reelection. Los Angeles newspaper owners met and decided that, with all newspaper owners supporting Hoover, one paper had to support Democratic candidate and New York governor Franklin Roosevelt, and Boddy and the Daily News volunteered for the job. The day after the election, which saw Roosevelt elected, Boddy turned to his city editor and said of the voters: "They have made a terrible mistake. I helped them do it. But damn it, I had to make a living."
After Roosevelt's election, the nation waited with anticipation for the specifics of the "New Deal
" plan on which he had campaigned. Boddy had no more information than anyone else, but had been impressed by a program called "Technocracy
," which proposed replacing politicians with scientists and engineers possessing the technical expertise to coordinate the economy, a scheme that Roosevelt did not advocate. On November 30, 1932, the Daily News printed a huge headline "New Deal Details Bared". The article contained no inside information, and actually did not even mention Roosevelt, but instead outlined Technocracy. He continued to discuss Technocracy for weeks, as the people of Los Angeles, desperate for plausible information from any source, bought copies of the Daily News, even invading the paper's loading dock to get them as quickly as possible. Even after Roosevelt took office, the Daily News trumpeted proposals to give money to the nation's citizens, such as Francis Townsend
's plan that the federal government give $200 a month to every citizen over age 60. The Daily News also gave space to the "Ham 'n' Eggs" plan whereby the elderly would get checks for $30 every Thursday. Boddy hit the lecture circuit to advocate social credit
, another plan for the government to return taxes to the citizenry.
When the New Deal finally was revealed, Boddy became an avid supporter of it, and so did his newspaper, making it the only Democratic daily in Los Angeles.. In 1934, writer Upton Sinclair
ran for the Democratic nomination for governor, advocating the End Poverty in California
(EPIC) program. When Sinclair scored a stunning upset victory in the Democratic primary against George Creel
, most newspapers closed ranks against him and supported the Republican candidate, Frank Merriam
. The Daily News, on the other hand, opened its front page to Sinclair's program and called him "a great man." Though the Daily News eventually endorsed Merriam, its objection was not that the program was too radical, but that it was not consistent with the New Deal. This did not stop Sinclair from being embittered at what he saw as a betrayal by the Daily News, accusing Boddy of "leading liberal movements up blind alleys and bludgeoning them."
. Its readership peaked in 1947, when an average 300,000 copies per day were sold. In both absolute and relative terms, however, it was falling further and further behind the other Los Angeles dailies. In addition, Boddy, who was now past sixty, was losing interest in the management of the paper. In 1950, feeling that he was repeating himself in print, Boddy sought the Democratic nomination for United States Senate. Boddy was tapped to enter the race when incumbent Sheridan Downey
dropped out during the primary. Democratic establishment figures distrusted the remaining major Democratic candidate, liberal Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, and feared that a Douglas victory would hand the election to the likely Republican candidate, Representative Richard M. Nixon. Daily News staffers believed that Boddy was abandoning his journalistic integrity in running. Boddy ran in both major party primaries, a practice known as "cross filing." His campaign was ineffective, and he finished a distant second in each primary. During the campaign, he dubbed the leftist Douglas as "the pink lady" in the Daily News, a nickname which was reused by the Nixon campaign in the general election
. Just before the primary, when Nixon, who along with Douglas had also cross-filed, sent out election materials which did not mention that he was a Republican, an ad appeared in the Daily News from the hitherto-unknown "Veterans Democratic Committee". The advertisement accused Nixon of masquerading as a Democrat, and dubbed him "Tricky Dick"—the first appearance of that Nixon moniker. Nixon went on to win the general election in a landslide
.
After the primary defeat, Boddy went into semi-retirement, and profits from sales of the Daily News began to decrease. In early 1951, he made his assistant, Robert Smith, editor of the paper. In mid-1952, Boddy sold out to a consortium. In August 1952, Boddy announced his retirement as publisher in Smith's favor. Smith instituted changes, scrapping the money-losing Saturday edition and started a Sunday News. He called in WIlliam Townes as editor, who was well known for restoring ailing newspapers. However, Smith fired Townes after twelve weeks on the job. Smith attempted to sell the paper, and reached an agreement with a small-time Oregon newspaper owner, Sheldon Sackett. After signing, Smith backed out of the deal, apparently out of seller's remorse. By the time Smith finally sold the paper, in December 1952 to Congressman Clinton D. McKinnon
, who was leaving office after losing a Senate primary bid, the Daily News was losing over $100,000 a month. McKinnon had no better luck than anyone else in reviving the paper, and in December 1954, the paper was sold to the Chandler family, owners of the Los Angeles Mirror. Under the sale agreement, the Mirror became the Mirror & Daily News (before again being renamed the Mirror-News) and all Daily News employees lost their jobs. On December 18, 1954, publication of the Daily News ceased.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
published from 1923 to 1954. It was operated through most of its existence by Manchester Boddy. The publication has no connection with the current newspaper
Los Angeles Daily News
The Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest circulating daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, a branch of Colorado-based MediaNews Group....
of the same name.
The Daily News was founded in 1923 by the young Cornelius Vanderbilt IV
Cornelius Vanderbilt IV
-Biography:He was born on April 30, 1898 in Staten Island to Cornelius Vanderbilt III and Grace Graham Wilson.He attended Harstrom's Tutoring School and St. Paul's as a young man, then served in the Ambulance Service during the First World War where he became a driver when a general asked the...
as the first of several newspapers he wanted to manage. After quickly going bankrupt, it was sold to Boddy, a businessman with no newspaper experience. Boddy was able to make the newspaper succeed, and it remained profitable through the 1930s and 1940s, after it took a mainstream Democratic perspective
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. The newspaper began a steep decline in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1950
United States Senate election in California, 1950
The 1950 United States Senate election in California followed a campaign characterized by accusations and name-calling. Republican Richard Nixon defeated Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas, after Democratic incumbent Sheridan Downey withdrew during the primary election campaign...
, Boddy ran in both the
Cross-filing
In American politics, cross-filing occurs when a candidate runs in the primary election of not only his own party, but also that of one or more other parties, generally in the hope of reducing or eliminating his competition at the general election...
Democratic and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
primaries for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. Boddy finished a distant second in both primaries, and lost interest in the newspaper. He sold his interest in the paper in 1952, and publication ceased in December 1954, when the business was sold to the Chandler family, who merged it with their publication, the Los Angeles Mirror.
Founding and initial bankruptcy
The Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News was founded in 1923 by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV, who wished to start his own newspaper chain. The young Vanderbilt had served as a news reporter in New York for four years, but had no experience running a paper. Believing the best newspaper was a democratic one, he offered voting rights to those who would pay $5 for a year's subscription to his newspaper. Repudiating the legendary adage of William Henry VanderbiltWilliam Henry Vanderbilt
William Henry Vanderbilt I was an American businessman and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family.-Childhood:William Vanderbilt was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1821...
, "The public be damned," Vanderbilt announced that the paper's philosophy would be "The public be served." Vanderbilt ignored attempts by the newspaper moguls who dominated Los Angeles journalism, William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
and Harry Chandler
Harry Chandler
Harry Chandler was an American newspaper publisher and investor who became owner of the largest real estate empire in the U.S.-Biography:...
, to warn him off. Denied advertising in other newspapers, Vanderbilt attempted to gain publicity for his paper by having trucks drive through the streets bearing the paper's banner, and hiring boys to chalk the paper's name on sidewalks, much to the annoyance of landowners who had to clean it up.
The paper began publication on September 3, 1923. The tabloid-format newspaper was to be devoted to the ideal of clean journalism, and was prudish to an extreme: women's skirts were retouched in photos so that they would appear to cover the wearer's knees, while photos of wrestlers were altered so that they would appear to be wearing gym shirts. Vanderbilt's rivals did not take well to the new competition—a graphic sex story was planted by saboteurs in the first edition, forcing Vanderbilt to stop the presses and redo page 2 before it was published. Up to a hundred Illustrated Daily News newsboys were treated at local hospitals each week after being assaulted.
Unusually for the time, the newspaper covered its staff's transportation. Reporters were expected to carry rolls of nickels, so they could board streetcars and reach their assignments. However, if they had sufficient money with them, a taxicab was permitted, and Vanderbilt—"Neil" to the staff—let the staff use his two Packard
Packard
Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...
s to reach stories. Too often, however, the least experienced newsman on staff, Vanderbilt himself, would cover major stories. According to Rob Wagner in his history of Los Angeles newspapers of the time, Vanderbilt's "news stories reeked of naiveté and his editorials were sophomoric."
By 1924, the newspaper had a good circulation but was losing money because of low advertising revenues. Vanderbilt sought help from his parents, and they agreed to help if most authority went to their hand-picked manager, Harvey Johnson. His father poured over a million dollars into the newspaper in 1924–1925, but Johnson's involvement led to a rightward shift in the newspaper, which alienated many readers. In April 1926, Johnson concluded that the Illustrated Daily News and the two other newspapers that Vanderbilt had founded in other cities could survive if $300,000 more were invested in them; however, the elder Vanderbilt refused to provide any more money. A petition for receivership was filed on May 3, 1926.
Boddy takes over
A consortium of the publishers of the rivals of the Illustrated Daily News offered $150,000 to buy the paper, intending to shut it down. Los Angeles businessman Willis Lewis had invested heavily in the paper, and he put together a rival bid backed by the paper's outside shareholders, backing book publishing executive Manchester Boddy to take over the paper and keep it as a going concern. The stockholder's committee got the Vanderbilt family to sign over a $1 million note so that they could top the rival bid, and raised $30,000 for a month's payroll. Boddy and Lewis both served on the Commercial Board, a group of young businessmen; the new publisher got Board members to lend him $116,000 to buy a controlling interest in the paper, but if the paper did not show a profit within six months, ownership would go to the lenders. Boddy once commented, "The Daily News was conceived in iniquity, born in bankruptcy, reared in panic, and refinanced every six months."The new publisher scrapped Vanderbilt's editorial policy, and began a campaign against vice. The Los Angeles police
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
chief, James E. Davis
James E. Davis (police)
James Edgar Davis was Chief of Police of the City of Los Angeles Police Department from 1926–1931 and from 1933-1939. During his first term as Police Chief, Davis emphasized firearms training. Under Davis, the L.A.P.D. developed its lasting reputation as an organization that relied on brute force...
, had a hands-off policy when it came to vice and organized crime. Most local reporters valued the perks given to them by the police, and did nothing to push the issue. After Boddy began a crusade against crime and corruption, he weathered harassment by police and politicians, circulation rose, and the paper was soon showing a profit. Boddy also streamlined operations and stabilized the paper's management. During the first six years of Boddy's ownership, the Daily News maintained a conservative editorial policy. By 1932, Boddy had dropped the word "Illustrated" from the name of the paper. He was a personal supporter of Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
's bid for reelection. Los Angeles newspaper owners met and decided that, with all newspaper owners supporting Hoover, one paper had to support Democratic candidate and New York governor Franklin Roosevelt, and Boddy and the Daily News volunteered for the job. The day after the election, which saw Roosevelt elected, Boddy turned to his city editor and said of the voters: "They have made a terrible mistake. I helped them do it. But damn it, I had to make a living."
After Roosevelt's election, the nation waited with anticipation for the specifics of the "New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
" plan on which he had campaigned. Boddy had no more information than anyone else, but had been impressed by a program called "Technocracy
Technocracy movement
The technocracy movement is a social movement which arose in the early 20th century. It put forth a plan for operating the North American continent as a non-monetary society. Technocracy was highly popular in the USA for a brief period in the early 1930s, when it overshadowed many other proposals...
," which proposed replacing politicians with scientists and engineers possessing the technical expertise to coordinate the economy, a scheme that Roosevelt did not advocate. On November 30, 1932, the Daily News printed a huge headline "New Deal Details Bared". The article contained no inside information, and actually did not even mention Roosevelt, but instead outlined Technocracy. He continued to discuss Technocracy for weeks, as the people of Los Angeles, desperate for plausible information from any source, bought copies of the Daily News, even invading the paper's loading dock to get them as quickly as possible. Even after Roosevelt took office, the Daily News trumpeted proposals to give money to the nation's citizens, such as Francis Townsend
Francis Townsend
Dr. Francis Everett Townsend was an American physician who was best known for his revolving old-age pension proposal during the Great Depression. Known as the "Townsend Plan," this proposal influenced the establishment of the Roosevelt administration's Social Security system...
's plan that the federal government give $200 a month to every citizen over age 60. The Daily News also gave space to the "Ham 'n' Eggs" plan whereby the elderly would get checks for $30 every Thursday. Boddy hit the lecture circuit to advocate social credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
, another plan for the government to return taxes to the citizenry.
When the New Deal finally was revealed, Boddy became an avid supporter of it, and so did his newspaper, making it the only Democratic daily in Los Angeles.. In 1934, writer Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
ran for the Democratic nomination for governor, advocating the End Poverty in California
End Poverty in California movement
Standing for End Poverty in California, EPIC was an effort for well-known muckraking writer and former Socialist Upton Sinclair to implement socialist reforms through California's Democratic Party during the Great Depression by recruiting supporters into the party and then securing that party's...
(EPIC) program. When Sinclair scored a stunning upset victory in the Democratic primary against George Creel
George Creel
George Creel was an investigative journalist, a politician, and, most famously, the head of the United States Committee on Public Information, a propaganda organization created by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. He said of himself that "an open mind is not part of my inheritance...
, most newspapers closed ranks against him and supported the Republican candidate, Frank Merriam
Frank Merriam
Frank Finley Merriam was an American politician who served as the 28th governor of California from June 2, 1934 until January 2, 1939...
. The Daily News, on the other hand, opened its front page to Sinclair's program and called him "a great man." Though the Daily News eventually endorsed Merriam, its objection was not that the program was too radical, but that it was not consistent with the New Deal. This did not stop Sinclair from being embittered at what he saw as a betrayal by the Daily News, accusing Boddy of "leading liberal movements up blind alleys and bludgeoning them."
Decline and fall
Like most newspapers, the Daily News prospered during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Its readership peaked in 1947, when an average 300,000 copies per day were sold. In both absolute and relative terms, however, it was falling further and further behind the other Los Angeles dailies. In addition, Boddy, who was now past sixty, was losing interest in the management of the paper. In 1950, feeling that he was repeating himself in print, Boddy sought the Democratic nomination for United States Senate. Boddy was tapped to enter the race when incumbent Sheridan Downey
Sheridan Downey
Sheridan Downey was a lawyer and a Democratic U.S. Senator from California from 1939 to 1950.-Early life:...
dropped out during the primary. Democratic establishment figures distrusted the remaining major Democratic candidate, liberal Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, and feared that a Douglas victory would hand the election to the likely Republican candidate, Representative Richard M. Nixon. Daily News staffers believed that Boddy was abandoning his journalistic integrity in running. Boddy ran in both major party primaries, a practice known as "cross filing." His campaign was ineffective, and he finished a distant second in each primary. During the campaign, he dubbed the leftist Douglas as "the pink lady" in the Daily News, a nickname which was reused by the Nixon campaign in the general election
United States Senate election in California, 1950
The 1950 United States Senate election in California followed a campaign characterized by accusations and name-calling. Republican Richard Nixon defeated Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas, after Democratic incumbent Sheridan Downey withdrew during the primary election campaign...
. Just before the primary, when Nixon, who along with Douglas had also cross-filed, sent out election materials which did not mention that he was a Republican, an ad appeared in the Daily News from the hitherto-unknown "Veterans Democratic Committee". The advertisement accused Nixon of masquerading as a Democrat, and dubbed him "Tricky Dick"—the first appearance of that Nixon moniker. Nixon went on to win the general election in a landslide
Landslide victory
In politics, a landslide victory is the victory of a candidate or political party by an overwhelming margin in an election...
.
After the primary defeat, Boddy went into semi-retirement, and profits from sales of the Daily News began to decrease. In early 1951, he made his assistant, Robert Smith, editor of the paper. In mid-1952, Boddy sold out to a consortium. In August 1952, Boddy announced his retirement as publisher in Smith's favor. Smith instituted changes, scrapping the money-losing Saturday edition and started a Sunday News. He called in WIlliam Townes as editor, who was well known for restoring ailing newspapers. However, Smith fired Townes after twelve weeks on the job. Smith attempted to sell the paper, and reached an agreement with a small-time Oregon newspaper owner, Sheldon Sackett. After signing, Smith backed out of the deal, apparently out of seller's remorse. By the time Smith finally sold the paper, in December 1952 to Congressman Clinton D. McKinnon
Clinton D. McKinnon
Clinton Dotson McKinnon was a former American Democratic politician and journalist from San Diego.McKinnon was born 1906 in Dallas, Texas to Dr. John and Tennie McKinnon. He was 12 and the only child when his father died and his mother, a nurse, raised him. He graduated from Palo Alto High School,...
, who was leaving office after losing a Senate primary bid, the Daily News was losing over $100,000 a month. McKinnon had no better luck than anyone else in reviving the paper, and in December 1954, the paper was sold to the Chandler family, owners of the Los Angeles Mirror. Under the sale agreement, the Mirror became the Mirror & Daily News (before again being renamed the Mirror-News) and all Daily News employees lost their jobs. On December 18, 1954, publication of the Daily News ceased.
Notable writers
- E.V. DurlingE.V. DurlingE.V. Durling was one of the first journalists to cover the Hollywood motion picture industry and later became a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist in the United States, with his column "On the Side."...
, columnist - C.H. Garrigues, investigative reporter
- Matt WeinstockMatt WeinstockMatt Weinstock was a managing editor of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News and a columnist for three Los Angeles, California, newspapers for 33 years....
, columnist