Within an hour, I had gathered things up in my briefcase, told my secretary, Well, we can shine those afternoon meetings off, and headed for Dana Point.., In a speech to a hunting conference in 1980, he described some of his other outdoor pursuits: I am primarily a gun hunter, both rifle and shotgun. He was also consumed by another passion: buying classic cars for his museum. Three years after that, he began construction on a 5,500-square-foot home in Ojai, about 30 minutes from his museum. Later he would briefly attend the Cate School boarding school in Carpinteria before his parents elected to send him east to attend Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. I loved being a reporter. Given the principal players on both sides, the deal, or one very much like it, was probably inevitable, with or without Otis and without or without Staples. Were going to spend as much money as it takes to be the best newspaper in the country and I mean, specifically, [better than] the New York Times, Chandler said in remarks to the papers Washington Bureau in the mid-1960s. Then, on April 11, 1960, Norman Chandler invited more than 700 people to a luncheon at the Biltmore Bowl ballroom in downtown Los Angeles, where he promised a special announcement.. The change that ignited the biggest debate was Willes announced intention to blow up, with a bazooka, if necessary, the wall that had traditionally separated and insulated the newsroom of the paper from the business department to avoid conflicts of interest. (1924 - 1972) Jump to: Bio graphy Family Photos Comments Obit uary. I never had him second-guess me, ever, said William F. Thomas, The Times editor from 1971 to 1989. If he hadnt divorced Missy, Im not sure he wouldve left the paper. When he was a little older, he set up his own backyard basketball backboard and high-jump pit, and practiced both sports, by himself, hour after hour. Periodically, Chandler rented the now-defunct Riverside Raceway for a day so he, Thomas and their friends could race their cars. He wrote a statement, dictated it to Bill Boyarsky, then city editor, and asked that it be read aloud to the newsroom staff. Word that Chandler was breaking his silence ricocheted through the newsroom. After a year or so in editorial, when I told my dad that Id just like to be a reporter, he said, no, I had to go on to other departments, Chandler said. Would I have wanted to stay, given what was happening at The Times and Times Mirror? Chandler asked a year after stepping down. Was the daughter of General Harrison Gray Otis and Secretary of the Times-Mirror Company (formerly the publishing company of the Los Angeles Times ). In one of their biggest coups, they brought in Robert J. Donovan, the Washington Bureau chief of the New York Herald-Tribune and one of the most respected journalists in the country, to be chief of the expanded Times bureau in the capital. For several years, the pair had enjoyed a Saturday ritual. The Hearst paper was subsequently hit by a devastating strike and ceased publication in 1989. Norman Chandler 1899-1973. [1] Later, Chandler said his motivation to invest in The Times' quality could be attributed, at least in part, to his desire to combat the East Coast opinion that, "The Times was regarded as a bad newspaper from a hick town". But he also worried about his legacy, and he increasingly spoke critically, if only in private at first, about his unhappiness with the direction of Times Mirror and the paper under Mark Willes, a former executive at General Mills who had been hired to succeed Erburu as chairman and chief executive in 1995 and also assumed the title of Times publisher when Richard T. Schlosberg III retired unexpectedly in 1997. But as one of the arena's 10 "founding partners", the paper had agreed to share the issue's ad revenue with the Staples Center without telling its reporters or readers about the fiscal arrangement. I started work right away, on the graveyard shift, midnight to 8 in the morning. He was a pressroom apprentice, at $48 a week, the equivalent of $356 in todays dollars. At the same time, he shifted the papers editorial page philosophy from the extreme right to slightly left of center. Like his father, who had also been kept on tight purse strings by his father, Otis often split the bill with his fiancee or let her pick up the tab when they dated. 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 But he didnt disclose to other investors that he received $109,000 in finders fees and $373,000 in promotional shares of GeoTek stock for his efforts. I was a B student.). And in January 1964, they hired a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist away from the Denver Post. 1 child. Arthur O. Sulzberger, who was then publisher of the New York Times, said that although he initially shared his colleagues surprise and disappointment when Chandler left, I later realized that I shouldnt have been so surprised. Otis shoveled fertilizer for the family fruit trees at an early age and was kept on such a modest allowance that even when he went to college, he later recalled, the most lavish transportation I could afford was half-interest in a secondhand motorcycle.. [1], Chandler enrolled at his parents' alma mater, Stanford University, in 1946. Doctors said his right arm, yanked from its socket by the impact, would be virtually useless for the rest of his life. The Birchers argued that presidents Eisenhower, Truman and Franklin Roosevelt were either Communists or Communist dupes. Chandler later insisted that he hadnt meant to demean blacks and Latinos, but the remark haunted him and the paper for many years. On March 5, 1980, Chandler announced that Johnson would become the fifth publisher of The Times and the first since the papers infancy who was not a member of the Otis or Chandler families. Chandler had always had an active life outside the newspaper business, and in his final years as publisher, close friends and associates knew that the lure of those interests combined with fatigue, restlessness, health problems and major changes in his personal life were inexorably leading him away from The Times. He also complained that the papers editor and publisher never try to come up with new ways to cut the deficit. Chandlers wife, Bettina, was with him. When I asked what he did, he just said, I work at The Times,. Thomas recalled. Chandler was diagnosed seven months ago, although doctors had determined about a year earlier that he was suffering from some form of dementia, his wife said. The decision stunned the staff and outside observers, many of whom expected him to serve much longer. By all accounts, the family enjoyed their outdoor experiences together, for Chandler focused on his children as intensely as he did on everything else that mattered in his life. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. [1], Chandler visited The Times frequently as a child, sliding down chutes that were used to drop papers to delivery trucks. I was just told to be at the Biltmore an hour early for a civic luncheon.. That perception embarrassed Chandler, and when he took over as publisher a few years later, it became the driving force behind his commitment to remake The Times. [1], On a 1964 safari in Mozambique, an elephant charged his party. He saw them both as restraints on his freedom. He worked out daily, lifting weights in a gym he had built at The Times and improvising when he was traveling. He said it was good for his back.. From the start, he wrote periodic first-person columns, prominently displayed in the front section of the paper, musing about the life of an athlete or the quirks of an outboard motor. George Cotliar, who joined the paper three years before Chandler became publisher and served as an editor for almost 40 years, said The Times had been widely regarded as a crappy newspaper and a politically biased newspaper, and the Birch series and the editorial were a statement to the staff too. Well into his 70s, he maintained a long-distance bicycling regimen that few people half his age could attempt. I was 50, and I didnt want to be unhappy for the rest of my life.. Thats when I decided this was the business for me.. Who can help student-athletes cash in? Ultimately, there was little that Chandler could or would do to influence the fate of The Times beyond this brief but dramatic entry into the fray. Chandler welcomed Tribune in part because he admired its management and strategy and in part because he thought its diverse holdings four newspapers, 22 television stations and an aggressive Internet presence would help stabilize The Times financial position in the new century. Otis said he wanted a more assertive, more liberal editorial page, Day said. That was far from the only example of Chandlers reversal of long-held dogma at The Times. Chandler had his own ways of blowing off such stress like getting behind the wheel of a turbocharged Porsche. Almost 20 years after their divorce, the happily remarried Marilyn Brant DeYoung said she didnt think shed been competitive with Chandler, except on the tennis court, where I did get upset when he beat me. She said they had a wonderful marriage, and he was an involved father, especially when he was younger, before he was publisher.. He wrote offbeat feature stories, such as one about the people who feed sharks at the aquarium. Despite his family's wealth, Chandler's father insisted that he perform field labor and did not spoil him with gifts. He was convinced that he had taken The Times about as far as he could, and he wanted more challenges and more freedom. He built a newspaper that was as great as the city it covers. He broke the freshman school record with a toss of 48 feet (15m), 761/47inches. When he strides out of a meeting to shake hands, it is like looking up at a California redwood., Anthony Day, The Times editorial page editor from 1971 until 1989, once said: After I had been working for Otis for a few years, it occurred to me that I was working for a prince, a man who had been raised to be a prince.. [2] In 1945, her husband became publisher of the Times, a position he held until he was succeeded by their son, Otis, in 1960. For the first time in five years, I felt like I wasnt a leper. But he was never specific, and the word publisher was never mentioned.. Otis Chandler, whose vision and determination as publisher of the Los Angeles Times from 1960 to 1980 catapulted the paper from mediocrity into the front ranks of American journalism, died today of a degenerative illness called Lewy body disease. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. At the same time, it doubled its circulation to more than 1 million daily and for many years during and after his tenure published more news and more advertising than any other newspaper in the United States. Norman, the eldest, went through an executive training program and rose to be composing superintendent a position overseeing much of the physical production of the paper before leaving in 1989, when he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Born in Los Angeles on Nov. 23, 1927, Chandler was the only son of Norman Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler. [1], In 1990, Chandler was trampled by a musk ox in the Northwest Territories of Canada. About the same time, McKinsey & Co., a management consulting firm, was conducting another of its periodic studies for The Times, and it too recommended dividing the responsibilities of publisher and chairman. By his strength and by his judgment of good journalists, he was of unique importance in the history of the Los Angeles Times.. Chandler was elated; many who knew him well and saw him after that race said they had rarely seen him happier. The collection also included dozens of vintage motorcycles, some of which were loaned to the Guggenheim Museum for its Art of the Motorcycle exhibit, which opened in 1998. Nothing but my kids is more important to me than the Los Angeles Times, he said in 1999. It was a sign that you now have a boss who believes in good, tough journalism, who wants to produce the best paper in the country and wholl support you in your efforts and make it possible to achieve that, he said. The youngest son, Michael, also worked in the papers production departments, ultimately taking early retirement in a companywide buyout. Surprising though it may have been, that behavior the initial reluctance to question his successors; the cheerful acquiescence to the sale was very much in keeping with a lifelong pattern. He and Thomas finished sixth in a field of 72 cars third in their class of 22 a remarkable performance for a 50-year-old rookie driver. The stories described the Birchers extremist tactics and positions and, largely through their own words, depicted them as a threat to, rather than a defender of, the American way of life. Of all the political figures to benefit from The Times partisanship over the years, none had been more favored, or more successful, than Nixon. I think building houses is a replacement for the satisfaction he got from The Times, his wife, Bettina, said just before construction began on the Ojai house. Regardless, Chandler welcomed the outcome, largely because of his dissatisfaction with the existing management of Times-Mirror. The conservative movement that would lead to Barry Goldwaters presidential candidacy in 1964 and to Ronald Reagans subsequent rise was in its nascence. His goal, he once quipped, was to make it a militant middle-of-the-road paper.. On arrival, she encountered a doctor she knew, and he revived the boy with a shot of adrenaline in the heart. Chandler later praised his editor for frequently reminding a young publisher that you cant change a whole paper overnight.. His efforts led him directly into confrontation with a powerful force for the status quo: his own family. Otis enthusiastically supported Michael's racing career until a near-fatal crash while qualifying at Indianapolis in 1984. Chandler said the move would help allay the concerns of readers who, mindful of the papers partisan history, find it hard to believe that this newspapers editorial page endorsements really dont affect the news columns.. Nevertheless, the increasingly liberal stand on most major issues angered many in the Chandler family. Buff Chandler was the daughter of a prominent Long Beach family, owners of the successful Buffums department store. It was at Watkins Glen that Chandler got to know Bettina Whitaker, who was an executive at Shakeys International, a sponsor of his Watkins Glen car. He told me several times, and other people, that no Chandler would again be publisher of The Times, he added, and I thought that was a curious thing to say, especially since some of the Chandler children seemed perfectly suited to be publisher, at least as suited as Otis.. [1], In 1998, at age 71, Chandler suffered minor head injuries when he spun out a Ferrari automobile on the road in Oxnard. Other key members of the Chandler family wanted Philip to succeed Norman, wrote Marshall Berges in his 1984 book, The Life and Times of Los Angeles. But Norman regarded Philip as something of a lightweight, not entirely competent to take an aggressive leadership role at The Times.. His Stanford roommate, Norman Nourse, suggested that he try the shotput throwing a 16-pound iron ball. It may sound strange for a Chandler to say this, he said in one such conversation, but I dont think my family and the other people running the company are looking ahead enough to the Internet and other new media. But he persisted and in 1978 at age 50, after years of what he called Walter Mitty fantasies about becoming a race car driver finally got a chance to race professionally. How could I have been so stupid? One of the first examples came in 1961, when The Times hired Jim Murray as a sports columnist. Goodwin J. Knight. Not only did it not, as a rule, endorse Democrats for elective office; it didnt cover their campaigns. Chandler was just then becoming interested in big game hunting, and his approach to hiring was much the same: only go after the biggest and the best. Chandlers reign as publisher was not an uninterrupted, 20-year victory lap. Chandler cared deeply about how The Times was regarded by East Coast opinion-makers, and more than 40 years after his father first took him to a national convention of newspaper publishers, he could still recall, with an edge in his voice, how clear it was that The Times was regarded as a bad newspaper from a hick town.. Chandler was the great-grandson of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, the blustery Civil War veteran who bought part-ownership of The Times in 1882, a year after it began publication, and was its publisher for 35 years. Among them: the mate of the musk ox that nearly killed him in 1990. But as the children grew up and she had more time available, she embarked on a career of her own she got womens lib is how Chandler put it and that exacerbated tensions between them. Bulked up to 6 feet 3, 220 pounds as a senior in 1950, when he was captain of the track team, he put the shot 57 feet, 63/47 of an inch, to win the Pacific Coast Conference championship. Like his father, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Sigma Rho chapter). Some critics felt that his zeal for national recognition led The Times to underemphasize local news, particularly about minority communities. But Thomas said it really didnt take much persuasion, because he really did want to go., Chandler himself said: I think some of the family members and some of the corporate people were hoping I would step aside although I dont recall that there was strong pressure.. As a student he competed in basketball, soccer, the high jump, running and weightlifting. Although Chandler had previously been insistent that his criticisms of the business strategies pursued by Times management remain private, this undermining of the papers editorial integrity stirred him to action. Away, on a 5,500-square-foot home in Ojai, about 30 minutes from his museum was not an uninterrupted 20-year! 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