The corporate air was a little too rarified for him, said Swayze, his secretary. When he arrived at his parents' home with his wife and first child, his father presented him with credentials for a seven-year executive training program at The Times. Thats not in my nature, he said. His father, publisher of The Times from 1944 to 1960, had worked in the fields of the familys Tejon Ranch when he was a boy, so he saw no reason to spare his son from physical labor or spoil him with money. He was also so disenchanted with the management of Times Mirror by then that, to the dismay of many, he not only didnt fight or even criticize the sale but instead embraced it as a very positive move a perfect fit a win-win situation.. 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.. The GeoTek debacle helped greatly exacerbate the colon problem. The annual news department budget at The Times was $3.7.million when Chandler took over. At a time when newspapers were becoming increasingly vulnerable to competition from the Internet, television, direct mail and other sources for information and advertising, Willes said it was imperative that they market themselves more aggressively and improve journalistically to make themselves more relevant to readers and more valuable to advertisers. They owned vast landholdings and used their influence with elected officials and the business elite to shape the regions development. He eventually recovered from serious head injuries. But most of his friends and associates said he didnt really have his heart in his new jobs. He wanted the paper to take what he called more balls out positions, and he wanted us to change our position and editorialize against the war in Vietnam.. Otis Chandler was born on July 4, 1919. They said I might be able to lift my hand to my mouth, but just barely and only after two years and only if I exercised it properly, he recalled. And in January 1964, they hired a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist away from the Denver Post. Otis Chandler (November 23, 1927 February 27, 2006) was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions. Son of Norman Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler On arrival, she encountered a doctor she knew, and he revived the boy with a shot of adrenaline in the heart. Wall Street responded favorably. 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. Otis himself offered contradictory explanations of his mothers role in his promotion, befitting a mother-son relationship that had its share of paradox. As much as any other change at the paper, the arrival of Paul Conrad brilliant, sharp-penned and liberal served notice that an entirely new breed of Chandler was in charge. Chandler was never a meddler or an intruder. FOR THE RECORD:In an earlier version of this article, the date of the Helsinki Olympic Games was incorrectly given as 1948. During Willes brief tenure as publisher he relinquished the job to Kathryn Downing in 1999 so he could concentrate his energies on Times Mirror he did initiate a number of controversial strategies designed to increase Times circulation and advertising revenue. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Atonio Mafi draft diary: Mental health should be a priority, even in football culture, Roundtable: Our March Madness projections for UCLA, USC and others, Elliott: Kings trade Jonathan Quick, a legendary goaltender who couldnt make time stand still, Left-handed pitchers offer gold-like value for high school teams, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures. Norman Chandler was delighted by this practical evidence that Otis had absorbed his childhood lessons of prudence and thrift. His most serious accident came in 1990, when a musk ox trampled him in the Northwest Territories of Canada and he had to be airlifted to a hospital. Reporter Gene Blake produced a five-part expose, written in calm, matter-of-fact language. Its true that in 1958 Norman Chandler had promoted Williams, a 27-year Times veteran, to the top editors job and had given him instructions to initiate a more aggressive and evenhanded approach to the news. Not once did the article refer to Brown by name. 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. Theyll have to carry me out of here feet first, he said. Emma Marian Otis 1866-1952. In some ways, he was typical of the macho male of his era. 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. After his divorce, Chandler had begun to move his primary residence so often two places in Malibu, then Hancock Park, back to Malibu, Ojai, Rancho Matilija, Oregon, Ojai again that his children began teasing him about it. Otis Chandler will go down as one of the most important figures in newspaper history, said Dean Baquet, editor of the Los Angeles Times. He withdrew from Dartmouth and moved to Los Angeles for his health. He used the same tone of voice with the president of the United States and the guy who came to change the lightbulbs in his office, said Donna Swayze, his executive secretary from 1962 to 1988. The explosion was blamed on union militants, and, Otis once said, I was raised to hate the unions. (He later mellowed on that topic, although he always opposed unionization at The Times.). In a cover story on Chandler in 1967, Newsweek said, In the six years since his father made him publisher of The Times, Chandler has staged one of the most remarkable palace revolutions in U.S. journalism. Missy and I had had a good marriage, but we just werent getting along anymore in the last 10 years. The truth probably falls in the middle. Chandler later praised his editor for frequently reminding a young publisher that you cant change a whole paper overnight.. One cannot successfully run a great newspaper like the Los Angeles Times with executives in the top two positions, both of whom have no newspaper experience at any level, Chandler said. Chandler said there was no simple answer: The region was changing, the demographic was changing, the type of paper was changing, he said. In Los Angeles, while working in the fruit fields, he started a small delivery company that . [1][2], After graduation, Chandler tried to enroll in an Air Force training program, but was turned down because he was too large to fit in the cockpit of a jet. He set his sights on a goal making The Times one of the two or three great American papers and he pulled it off.. Mrs. Chandler later achieved fame on her own by raising almost $20 million to finance the creation of the Music Center, a step that went a long way toward erasing the hick town image that Otis had long resented, and she was always keenly interested in the papers coverage of culture and society. Chandler's family owned a stake in the newspaper since his great-grandfather Harrison Gray Otis joined the company in 1882, the year after the Los Angeles Daily Times began publication. They wanted to impeach Earl Warren, chief justice of the United States. I wasnt satisfied Im that way whether Im out riding my bike or racing a car.. Several prominent members of the family cousins of Otis who reflect the more conservative side of the family declined requests to be interviewed for this article. Though Chandler said he was naturally saddened that Times Mirror will cease to exist and saddened by the end of local ownership, he had wondered aloud for at least five years whether Times Mirror could continue to thrive on its own in the turn-of-the-century mega-media merger environment. Chandler continued to meet regularly with Puerner and John Carroll, who became editor of The Times shortly after the Tribune purchased the paper and remained in that position until last summer. In an extreme example of the papers penchant for treating Democrats like nonentities, one lengthy article featured Knowlands attack on my opponent, the Democratic candidate for governor, who was described as a tool of union bosses and socialists. My style was to do the job and push the boundaries, and once Otis realized I knew what I was doing, he let me do it, Thomas said. Toward that end, he initiated a more aggressive marketing program, expanded the papers geographic reach and started the Orange County edition to serve the burgeoning population there the first such satellite plant for any metropolitan daily in the country. His father made sure that Chandler experienced work in all sections of the organization, assigning him to jobs in the industrial production of the paper, business management, clerical administration, and the news-gathering operation.[1]. Elisha Graves Otis Print Family Tree Born 3 August 1811 - Halifax, Windham Co., VT Deceased 8 April 1861 - Yonkers, Westchester Co., NY,aged 49 years old Founder of the Otis Elevator Co. 1 file available Parents Stephen Otis 1773-1859 Phoebe Glynn 1778-1867 Spouses, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren Chandler was both more willing than most publishers to reinvest the papers rising profits in editorial improvements and more visionary in his approach to newspapering. Willes made several major cutbacks and refocused the companys efforts on newspapers, saying Times Mirror should concentrate on the business it knew best. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. In August 1972, the Wall Street Journal broke the story, which dragged on for several years before a federal court sentenced Burke to 30 months in prison. Chandler was no typical rookie. Its too big, its too stuffy. 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.. While he was hunting in Mozambique in 1964, an elephant charged him, his wife and their guide. They never thought she was good enough to marry Norman, and she was out to prove them wrong, her son said several years after her death. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Chandler was honored with a Lifetime of Achievement award. A go-anywhere, ride-any-wave surfer for more than 60 years, Chandler also hunted big game on safaris, raced high-speed cars and motorcycles on official tracks and urban freeways and was always looking for new challenges, preferably those with some measure of risk. Going with newspapers only is a flawed strategy, a dangerous philosophy that puts The Times at risk. He also made it more profitable than ever. In 1986, Chandler surrendered the titles of chairman and editor in chief, although he remained on the board and took on the largely ceremonial role of chairman of the companys executive committee. Well into his 70s, he maintained a long-distance bicycling regimen that few people half his age could attempt. Even Chandler said some of those long stories made the paper seem gray, somewhat dull at times. He had married his college sweetheart, Marilyn Brant having proposed to her on his 23rd birthday on the seventh hole of the Pebble Beach golf course and they had a baby boy (Norman, after Otis father) but no plans and no substantial income. I thought Otis was committed in the same way, she said. [1] He was the son of Norman Chandler, his predecessor as publisher, and Dorothy Buffum Chandler, a patron of the arts and a Regent of the University of California. I must confess, he said, I am getting darn tired of defending myself as a hunting person.. "I was raised to hate the unions," Chandler said. Constance Chandler 1896-1962. This coincided with the shift of the paper's editorial stance from overtly conservative to independent. At 6-foot 3-inches (190cm) tall, after bulking-up to and 220 pounds he won the Pacific Coast Conference title and finished second in the nation during his senior year with a toss of 57 feet (17m), 63/47 of an inch while serving as his team's captain. Former Times publisher Tom Johnson, left, greets Otis Chandler at a USC Annenberg Distinguished Achievement Awards dinner in January 2000. Their first child was a boy named Norman after Chandler's father. In 1995, at age 68, he crashed his motorcycle into a tractor while in New Zealand. According to official documents, he wrote and telephoned a number of such people, including Evelle Younger, the former state attorney general and Los Angeles County district attorney. Some close to the family and the paper suggest that it might have been Mrs. Chandler who asked the board members to pressure her husband to step aside as publisher so he could devote his full attention to his chairmanship of the parent Times Mirror company, which was about to embark on a major diversification program. Ex-husband of Marilyn "Missy" Chandler Stewart They saw the sinister hand of communism behind such government initiatives as fluoridation of the water supply and integration of the schools. Chandler tried to make amends, claiming he had been misquoted, but the damage had been done. And he wrote an exhaustive, if somewhat ponderous, seven-part series about the treatment of mentally ill children. (Little) Chandler. Nothing but my kids is more important to me than the Los Angeles Times, he said in 1999. Ever concerned with the papers image and visibility nationally, he teamed with Philip Graham, then publisher of the Washington Post, to create the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service to distribute the papers stories to client papers. Their son Harry concurred, although he also agreed with his mother that most of the familys leisure activities revolved around what Dad wanted to do camping, water skiing, cliff-jumping, surfing. The next evening, a Friday, his father grinning like a Cheshire cat, Chandler would always remember handed him a sheet of paper. . While in college, he sometimes worked summers at the paper, most often moving printing plates and other heavy equipment. You transformed the entire staff, he said, and the whole place had a totally different attitude.. I said he was a great man who made this paper what it was, Boyarsky would say later. In 1960, he became publisher of the Los Angeles Times. Direct, decisive and at times startlingly frank in both his personal and professional lives, Chandler told people what he expected of them, and he didnt have much patience with failure. Chandler, who had retired 19 years prior, sent his message directly to reporters, to the dismay of the newspaper's management. 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. MyHeritage Family Trees; FamilySearch Family Tree; WikiTree; Geni World Family Tree; California Deaths, 1940 - 1997; U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) U.S . 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. Surely, Chandler was the only publisher of his or any generation to have been profiled not only in Time, Newsweek and Editor & Publisher but in such magazines as Road & Track, Strength and Health, and Safari Club and to be depicted on the cover of the Atlantic Monthly in his bathing suit, riding a surfboard made of newspapers through the curl of a massive whitecap of dollar bills. Many invested with Burke, who raised more than $30 million among 2,200 individuals over eight years. 2443 E Peach Tree Drive, Chandler, AZ 85249 (MLS# 6525796) is a Single Family property with 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. Otis has gone surfing, and hes not coming back, Noel Greenwood, then senior editor of The Times, said in 1991, almost four years before Willes took over and eight years before Staples erupted. [1], Chandler enrolled at his parents' alma mater, Stanford University, in 1946. His Stanford roommate, Norman Nourse, suggested that he try the shotput throwing a 16-pound iron ball. Not only did it not, as a rule, endorse Democrats for elective office; it didnt cover their campaigns. More than merely a newspaper with a conservative editorial policy, it was an openly partisan mouthpiece for the conservative wing of the Republican Party. They resented my position at the L.A. Times and felt there were a lot of things I could have done differently.. Such special issues were financial windfalls for the Times, generating a record $2 million in ad revenue. He had family money, but he had looked on GeoTek as another chance to prove he could succeed on his own, and he wound up embarrassed and forced by the exposure to return his stock and finders fees. Who can help student-athletes cash in? He always has to have a project. At the age of 8, Chandler was thrown to the ground during a horseback riding lesson. In 1998, Chandler dissolved his last official ties with The Times. For him a project is a process, a growth. Asked in a 1997 television interview whether he was satisfied with his legacy, he replied: I wanted to be No. "No publisher in America improved a paper so quickly on so grand a scale, took a paper that was marginal in qualities and brought it to excellence as Otis Chandler did," journalist David Halberstam wrote in his history of the company.[1]. And that apparently gave Mrs. Chandler the opening she needed. He was featured on the cover of sporting magazines like Road & Track, Strength and Health, and Safari Club. Nobody had ever heard of the Chandlers, he said later. He thought they had committed transgressions that jeopardized the reputation and credibility he had worked so diligently to establish. By the time he enrolled at Stanford University in 1946, he weighed about 200 pounds. People who knew the Chandlers well say Otis first wife was enormously competitive. I never had him second-guess me, ever, said William F. Thomas, The Times editor from 1971 to 1989. Laventhol, Johnson and Thomas, among others, agreed that Chandler was just about the only member of his family who was interested in the social issues he mentioned in Vanity Fair, and they shared his anxiety about the threat he said the familys indifference posed to his legacy and to The Times. His sudden elevation and his record as an athlete, not a scholar, at Stanford, led some members of the family (and their friends) to openly wonder if he had the intellectual capacity to run The Times. When I asked what he did, he just said, I work at The Times,. Thomas recalled. Chandlers wife, Bettina, was with him. Within a few years, The Times had a 2-1 lead over the Herald Examiner in advertising revenue, which provides about 80% of the income for most newspapers. Willes, he said in 1999, was basically undoing what I and my father and Franklin Murphy all did, dating back to 1958. Of all the political figures to benefit from The Times partisanship over the years, none had been more favored, or more successful, than Nixon. Column: 15 minutes of fame flies by. 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. [1] Instead, he spent 1951 to 1953 in the Air Force's ground service, as a co-captain of the track team and supervisor of athletics and drama at Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, California. He was initially miserable; the other students all seemed richer, better-educated and more sophisticated. They also gave me quiet time so I could really think. But after about 18 months, I accepted an invitation to his house for dinner, and when I drove up to this huge mansion in San Marino, I thought, Holy cow! When I got inside, I said, Well, just what do you do at The Times?.. 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