Inventing L.A. - The Chandlers and Their Times

[onager]

Just caught this on the local PBS station here in Los Angeles - a two-hour documentary about the Otis/Chandler dynasty who founded the Los Angeles Times newspaper syndicate...and eventually ran it right into the ground.

Definitely worth a look, and this is NOT a puff piece. During the segment on development of the L.A. Aqueduct, it even slips in a clip from Chinatown.

:rofl:

For DU'ers, the fascinating part will probably be the post-1960 political tension, as Otis Chandler and his mother Dorothy tried to drag the L.A. TIMES into the 20th century.

The more...silent members of the family were outraged by a series on the John Birch Society...since many of them were high-ranking Birchers.

They were even more outraged in 1962, when the front page of the TIMES featured an actual Black person.

Anyway, well worth your time! I DVR'd the show, but it is still running in real time.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

1. Not on my PBS... sigh,

For reasons I am unclear on the only PBS affiliate I can get here is Detroit!

[pnorman]

2. I'm off the TV Grid, PERIOD!

But I was able to find that video on the web over here: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/inventing-la/watch_online.html

Thanks MUCHO to the OP for this find!

pnorman

[pnorman]

3. I'm almost halfway theough that video. Thanks for the lead!

Mike Davis is mentioned several times there. He's a "home boy" to that area, and his book, "City Of Quartz" is well worth reading.

pnorman

[Bluenorthwest]

4. City of Quartz is excellent

Had to second that.

[pnorman]

5. Here's an article that goes into some of that book;

"The Story of Los Angeles and Its Potential Ramifications for the Rest of the World, St. Louis in Particular"
http://joefrank.tripod.com/lafuture.html

In Mike Davis's book, I was particularly taken by the history of that socialist utopian community. "New Llanos"

pnorman

[Captain Hilts]

6. I really look forward to seeing that. nt

[david13]

7. But, oddly enough, the L A Times, I don't know when, obtained

the reputation around Los Angeles, and in other places, as being ... totally left wing, liberal, Democrat biased, etc.
How that happened, I don't know.
Or maybe it was just that it didn't stay super ultra conservative right biased.
dc