The Los Angeles History Project: Trouble in Angel City

<v Announcer>Major funding for the Los Angeles History Project was provided by the Durfee Foundation, <v Announcer>which is pleased to be supporting excellence in television programing on KCET. <v Announcer>Additional funding provided by the California Community Foundation dedicated to improving <v Announcer>the quality of life in Southern California since 1915 <v Announcer>and by the Fletcher Jones Foundation. <v Host>As Los Angeles hurtles into the future, we imagine its past <v Host>to have been free of big city heartbreak and crime. <v Host>Far from it. <v Host>50 years ago, a mystery writer, Raymond Chandler, portrayed a city with <v Host>more than its share of misery and murder. <v Host>The streets of Los Angeles, he wrote, were mean streets. <v Host>Out there in the night of a thousand crimes, people were dying, <v Host>being maimed, cut by flying glass.

<v Host>People were hungry, sick, bored, desperate, with <v Host>loneliness or remorse or fear. <v Host>Angry, cruel, feverish, shaken by sobs. <v Host>A city no worse than others. <v Host>A city rich and vigorous and full of pride. <v Host>A city lost and beat and full of emptiness. <v Host>Writing in the 30s and 40s, Raymond Chandler created a vision <v Host>of Los Angeles as a promised city stained by crime <v Host>and corruption. <v Host>And the crooks weren't just in the streets, they had the police department on the take. <v Host>They called the shots in city hall. <v Host>Attorney Grant Cooper was there.

<v Grant Cooper>Raymond Chandler was right. <v Grant Cooper>The city of Los Angeles was <v Grant Cooper>at that time, was as corrupt as any <v Grant Cooper>city in the United States, and that includes Chicago. <v Host>Heaven on earth, soft ocean breezes. <v Host>An uncomplicated corner of paradise.

<v Host>In 1930, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the nation's first, <v Host>proclaimed the city's delights. <v Host>The air of prosperity is deceptive for the stock market had crashed <v Host>and the city was hard hit. <v Host>Even the booming oil business was affected, though for a time there was <v Host>money to be made here in Long Beach. <v Host>The staff of the Dabney Oil Syndicate. <v Host>In the back row, far left, an urbane English educated executive in his <v Host>early 40s. <v Host>Though an excellent administrator, he was a hard drinker. <v Host>Raymond Chandler. <v Host>He wrote, it was a good job, so good I couldn't hold <v Host>it. They tossed me out during the Depression.

<v Host>In the city directory, Chandler and his wife listed a new address in Hollywood. <v Host>Jobless and at loose ends. <v Host>He listed what he hoped would be a new occupation. <v Host>Writer. He <v Host>weathered the worst of the depression at the El Pueblo apartments. <v Host>He later wrote, I went 5 days without anything to eat but soup <v Host>once. It didn't kill me, but neither did it increase my love of <v Host>humanity. <v Host>Chandler distracted himself reading Hard-Boiled detective magazines. <v Host>He found them forceful and honest. <v Host>And he decided to try his own hand at evoking what he called the smell <v Host>of fear. <v Host>For inspiration, he only needed to walk out the door.

<v Host>To Chandler, Los Angeles in the '30s was society gone wrong. <v Host>In his words, the city was a paradise of fakers. <v Host>Behind its placid facade, he saw the place to be populated by <v Host>dope fiends, smut peddlers, schemers in low places <v Host>and high, crooked cops, and crooked politicians. <v Host>Though the sun might shine and the warm breezes blow, Los <v Host>Angeles was haunted by corruption and not infrequently death. <v Non-Dialog Audio>[Radio transmissions] <v Host>Death be it accidental or by design.

<v Host>To Chandler, it was The Big Sleep. <v Host>In his first full length novel, Chandler introduced the detective hero intent <v Host>on doing battle with the vices of Los Angeles. <v Detective Actor>[Start clip from "The Big Sleep"] All right, boys, I'm just proving something. <v Host>In the film version, he's played by Humphrey Bogart, who Chandler felt was <v Host>the genuine article. <v Detective Actor>Pardon me? <v Unnamed actor>Who is he? <v Unnamed actor 2>Philip Marlowe over at Arms, Franklin Street. <v Unnamed actor 2>Special license, deputy Birgeneau. <v Host>Marlowe could take it and he could dish it out. <v Detective Actor>Maybe you need this. <v Unnamed actress>I don't like your manners. <v Detective Actor>I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. <v Detective Actor>I grieve over them long winter evenings. <v Unnamed actress>People don't talk to me like that. <v Detective Actor>Oh. <v Unnamed actor 3>Say mister, would you please? <v Host>But why Philip Marlowe?

<v Host>Wasn't it the role of the police to chase criminals and solve crimes? <v Host>Where were they? <v Unnamed actor 3>This is just our way of saying lay off. <v Host>Chandler wrote the law is where you buy it in this town. <v Host>[End clip of "The Big Sleep"] This <v Host>old Los Angeles stationhouse was witness to the state of affairs in the police <v Host>department in the depths of the Depression. <v Host>Money was scarce. Morales got pushed. <v Host>For a 50 dollar bribe, you could buy a job as a sergeant. <v Host>You could be a detective for 125. <v Host>A captain for 250. <v Host>The force was under the command of Chief James Davis. <v Host>Two Gun Davis. <v Host>In some respects, his men were good, reasonably honest cops.

<v Host>They effectively tracked down major criminals. <v Host>Vice was another matter. <v Host>Quite a show was made of raiding brothels and collaring bookies, roundups <v Host>made the newsreels. <v Man on newsreel>George Howe ?inaudible? <v Host>Yet they were soon back on the street. <v Host>Even in the shadow of city hall, vice flourished. <v Host>Ace crime reporter for the City News Service, Jake Jacoby worked the <v Host>downtown beat. <v Jake Jacoby>There was about 50 bordellos. Probably more. <v Jake Jacoby>I wasn't too familiar with them because I didn't inhabit them. <v Jake Jacoby>But, you know, as a newsman, you'd get word there's one here, there's one there. <v Jake Jacoby>How come they don't take take action?

<v Jake Jacoby>This kind of thing? <v Police Chief James Davis>I have issued orders to all members of the police department of this city to bring in <v Police Chief James Davis>every reckless driver, drunken driver. <v Host>Police Chief Davis. <v Host>He took a hard line on traffic violations, but he looked the other way <v Host>when it came to the payoffs made to the police by madams and hundreds <v Host>of bookies. <v Jake Jacoby>I would say they were on the take a bit. <v Jake Jacoby>And there was a bookmaking establishment, a large one. <v Jake Jacoby>Right kitty corner from the Hall of Justice. <v Jake Jacoby>Most of the complaints came from distraught housewives, wives <v Jake Jacoby>of officials and sheriffs and policemen <v Jake Jacoby>who were spending their money at the bookies' joints. <v Host>There were more serious complaints. <v Host>Raymond Chandler, for one, took a dim view of the proliferation of <v Host>guns toted by L.A.'s low life. <v Host>As recorded in a '30s newsreel. <v Host>All manner of firearms were openly for sale.

<v Customer on newsreel>Any strings attached to this? <v Cashier on newsreel>No. <v Cashier on newsreel>It's 38 dollars and no questions asked. <v Customer on newsreel>Well, good. I'll take it. <v Host>Finally pressured to quell the latest gun craze, Chief Davis seized <v Host>an opportunity to improve his image. <v Host>He confiscated hardware by the boatload. <v Host>If there was a symbol of wide open L.A. <v Host>in the '30s, it was the score of gambling ships anchored off Long <v Host>Beach and Santa Monica. <v Host>The Rex was the most famous. <v Host>Water taxis took customers on a fast ride just beyond the 3 mile limit,

<v Host>beyond the reach of the law. <v Host>After an occasional pat down to make sure they weren't packing heat, <v Host>they were free to give Dame Fortune a whirl. <v Host>There was Roullete, Tango, Craps, Pharaoh, and Blackjack. <v Host>3,000 people could gamble at a time. <v Host>The action continued around the clock. <v Unnamed gambler in newsreel>Give me 500 dollars on the next please. <v Unnamed dealer in newsreel>All right. <v Host>Former rum runner Tony carnero was the unofficial <v Host>admiral of the gambling fleet. <v Host>He was not a man to be crossed. <v Host>Yet he confessed a soft spot for his customers. <v Host>Tony didn't care for the word sucker. <v Host>He preferred to call his clientele squirrels. <v Host>Drab but cheerful little creatures looking for a little entertainment,

<v Host>a little excitement, a little wickedness. <v Newsreel>[Gamblers chattering and cheering] <v Host>And Tony's squirrels, the gambling ship <v Host>Rex, and the admiral himself. <v Host>Tough, cocky and not without charm. <v Host>In fictionalized form, they achieved immortality in the final chapters <v Host>of Farewell, My Lovely. <v Host>Perhaps Raymond Chandler's finest novel. <v Host>In the first of many film versions, Dick Powell played Detective Philip Marlowe. <v Detective Actor 2>[Start clip of "Murder, My Sweet"] I didn't see anything, I felt it. <v Detective Actor 2>I was toad on a wet rock, and a snake was looking at the back of my neck. <v Host>He's brave, moral, incorruptible. <v Host>He never quits.

<v Host>Trouble is his business. <v Detective Actor 2>I caught the Black Jack right behind my ear, a black pool opened up at my feet. <v Detective Actor 2>I dived in. It had no bottom. <v Host>Marlowe's nightmare. <v Host>Pursued by an evil force, he's caught in a maze of crime <v Host>and deceit. <v Host>A mirror of Chandler's perception of Los Angeles. <v Host>[End clip of "Murder, My Sweet"] Regrettably, there was no listing for Philip Marlowe <v Host>among L.A.'s Real life gumshoes. <v Host>In Raymond Chandler's words, the typical L.A. <v Host>detective was a sleazy little drudge, a strongarm guy <v Host>with no more personality than a blackjack. <v Host>There was an exception.

<v Host>Private investigator Harry Raymond. <v Host>Newspaperman Jake Jacoby recalls,. <v Jake Jacoby>Harry Raymond was very resourceful and I would say an excellent investigator <v Jake Jacoby>and a good cop. He was a very flamboyant character. <v Jake Jacoby>He certainly wasn't a shrinking violet. <v Jake Jacoby>By the way, that was an expression from the old days. <v Jake Jacoby>You don't hear it anymore. <v Jake Jacoby>But that means, in effect, that he wasn't too much withdrawn. <v Jake Jacoby>While his investigation techniques were not only thorough but somewhat <v Jake Jacoby>abrupt, I don't know if he'd fit it in modern society. <v Jake Jacoby>But hew was sure right for his time. He didn't like crooks. <v Host>In late 1937, Harry Raymond was about to get involved <v Host>in the case of his career. <v Host>He got a new client. Clifford Clinton, the owner of an exotically <v Host>decorated downtown cafeteria. <v Host>Clinton was good-hearted, so good-hearted that he let his customers pay

<v Host>what they could. Or not at all. <v Host>Clifford Clinton was also an active reformer. <v Host>He didn't have to go far from his cafeteria to see that Los Angeles could use his help. <v Host>But he needed facts. Hard evidence of the city's corruption. <v Host>He needed Harry Raymond. <v Host>Back when he was a teenager, Clifford Clinton's son, Ed, helped out. <v Ed Clinton>Harry Raymond was asked by dad to investigate many of these things and check them out, <v Ed Clinton>check out the sources, because here we were every night going on the radio. <v Ed Clinton>We would come on the air at 7 o'clock. <v Ed Clinton>I believe it was. And I would say, this is the people's <v Ed Clinton>voice. The cause is right, I know. <v Ed Clinton>And then I would begin to say now, father, we have a question here from a listener, <v Ed Clinton>how do you know that such and such was going on? <v Clifford Clinton on radio transmission>Who wants to stand firm in the cause against years and years of the avalanche of abuse,

<v Clifford Clinton on radio transmission>ridicule, defamation and physical harm that ensues from evil forces? <v Ed Clinton>And he mentioned names and he mentioned addresses and he mentioned incidents. <v Clifford Clinton on radio transmission>I can only say at this time- <v Ed Clinton>As a result of checking out of facts that Harry Raymond and others did, he was in a <v Ed Clinton>position to give highly specific information no matter how high corruption <v Ed Clinton>led. <v Clifford Clinton on radio transmission>We can stay united behind that cause, which is simply honest, efficient government. <v Clifford Clinton on radio transmission>We can't lose. <v Host>This wasn't exactly what certain highly placed people wanted to hear. <v Host>And now our story becomes as complex as seemy as <v Host>intense as a Raymond Chandler thriller. <v Host>The newly reelected mayor of Los Angeles, Frank L. <v Host>Shaw. <v Frank Shaw on newsreel>Fellow citizens, the confidence expressed in my public <v Frank Shaw on newsreel>service by the people at the polls, it was extremely <v Frank Shaw on newsreel>gratifying.

<v Grant Cooper>To my mind, at least in my opinion, he was a pompous ass. <v Host>A man who knew city hall all too well, reform attorney <v Host>Grant Cooper. <v Grant Cooper>One could say that. <v Grant Cooper>Frank Shaw, the mayor, was the figurehead. <v Grant Cooper>And his brother, Joe did all the <v Grant Cooper>dirty work behind the scenes. <v Grant Cooper>At least that's the way it appeared to me. <v Host>Joe Shaw was his brother's trusted executive secretary and the man <v Host>who doled out the city contracts, the jobs, the favors. <v Grant Cooper>In the city hall in Los Angeles. <v Grant Cooper>You could buy a job. <v Grant Cooper>Bribes were every day affairs. <v Grant Cooper>It was a, it was a different city then than it is today. <v Host>In late 1937, aware that Detective Harry Raymond was sniffing

<v Host>around City Hall, Joe Shaw got nervous. <v Host>He was in touch with less than perfect police chief James Davis. <v Host>In turn, Davis had under his command the final player in our real life <v Host>drama. Earl Kynette of the shadowy head of the L.A. <v Host>Police Intelligence Unit. <v Host>On behalf of the Shaw administration, Kynette took it upon himself to cool <v Host>down Clifford Clinton and his overly inquisitive detective, Harry <v Host>Raymond, even if it meant playing rough. <v Host>October 27th, 1937. <v Host>The Clinton children were tucked in for the night. <v Ed Clinton>And at 12:00 midnight we heard a tremendous crash. <v Ed Clinton>So we all 3 ran downstairs and we saw coming up in the basement. <v Ed Clinton>All this black smoke. <v Ed Clinton>So we ran to the corner, as kids always have wanted to do, to the firebox on the corner,

<v Ed Clinton>broke the glass, and pulled the switch. <v Ed Clinton>And before you know it, the firemen were there. But we we saw that the whole basement <v Ed Clinton>and part of the kitchen, part of the main floor were destroyed. <v Ed Clinton>And they found that there had been a bomb planted in the basement of the house. <v Ed Clinton>Well, just a few minutes after the bombing occurred, dad received a phone call <v Ed Clinton>and the person on the other end of the phone said, well, how did you like <v Ed Clinton>the little puff puff you just had? <v Ed Clinton>If you think that was something, just keep your nose in this business where you don't <v Ed Clinton>have any place and see what happens next. <v Host>A quiet neighborhood in Boyle Heights, the home of Detective Harry Raymond. <v Host>As his investigations for reformer Clifford Clinton continued. <v Host>He was put under surveillance by the Los Angeles Police Intelligence Unit. <v Host>Across the street and up an alley, they rented a spy house. <v Host>Looking out this very window, Earl Kynette, the head of the unit, could

<v Host>keep tabs on Raymond. <v Host>And with a phone tap listen in on his calls probing City Hall. <v Host>January 14th, 1938. Harry <v Host>Raymond's wife was fresh out of eggs. <v Host>Shaved and dressed for the day, Harry volunteered to run by the market. <v Host>He grabbed the keys and headed for the car. <v Host>Got in, stepped on the starter. <v Host>The explosion was heard for miles around. <v Host>For blocks in all directions, windows were smashed. <v Host>Authorities raced to the scene, as did reformer Clifford Clinton. <v Host>Harry Reymond proved as tough as fictional Philip Marlowe. <v Host>A mass of broken bones and more than 100 bloody wounds, he was heard <v Host>to mumble, this is a rotten way to try and get a man.

<v Host>For weeks, doctors dug shrapnel out of him and still didn't <v Host>get all of it. <v Host>Harry couldn't believe what had happened to him. <v Host>And at first was mum as to who he thought tried to kill him. <v Host>But then one of his doctors received a threatening phone call. <v Host>That did it. <v Host>Kynette, Earl Kynette, he blurted. And with those words, <v Host>he blew the lid off Los Angeles. <v Host>The trial was sensational. <v Host>Taken to the Hall of Justice in the wheelchair, Harry Raymond was cheered <v Host>on by crowds shouting, stay in there, Harry, <v Host>tell them all of it, Harry. <v Host>Good luck, Harry.

<v Host>The courtroom is abandoned now. <v Host>But in 1938, it was packed and hushed as Harry Raymond <v Host>testified about city hall payoffs, bribes, bagmen <v Host>and a near fatal attempt to cool him off. <v Host>It didn't look good for Earl Kynette.In desperation, he <v Host>attempted to impress the jury by improving his appearance with glasses <v Host>and a mustache. <v Host>It didn't work. <v Host>The evidence mounted, he was even identified as the buyer of the bomb's <v Host>detonating wire. <v Host>In the final days of the trial Police Chief James Davis took the stand, <v Host>couldn't get his story straight, and dug Kynette in even further. <v Judge on radio transmisison>People against Earl E. Kynette and others are the defendants ready for sentence at this <v Judge on radio transmisison>time?

<v Defendants on radio transmission>The defendants are ready, your honor. <v Host>The verdict went out over the airwaves. <v Judge on radio transmisison>Would the defendants arise please? <v Judge on radio transmisison>You Earl E. Kynette have been duly found guilty by a jury in this court of the crime of <v Judge on radio transmisison>attempted murder. It is therefore ordered a judge then decreed that you'll be punished by <v Judge on radio transmisison>imprisonment in the state prison at San Quentin. <v Host>He got 10 years to life. <v Host>And the trial exposed a city hall rife with corruption. <v Host>Reformers in newspapers clamored for a special election to recall the Mayor <v Host>Shaw administration. <v Grant Cooper>It had become too blatant, and <v Grant Cooper>newspapers don't like the reputation of the City of <v Grant Cooper>Angels to be dragged in the dirt in the mire. <v Grant Cooper>So Fletcher Bowron was elected on the recall, <v Grant Cooper>and from that the wall came tumbling down gradually. <v Host>Grant Cooper now and then as <v Host>campaign manager for L.A.'s reform mayor Fletcher Bowron.

<v Grant Cooper>He threw the rascals out. <v Grant Cooper>Because by God, he threw them out like a bouncer <v Grant Cooper>does, you see them in the movies. <v Host>Bowron's takeover was truly remarkable. <v Host>For the first time in American history, the mayor of a major city <v Host>and all his cronies were run out of office. <v Host>3 <v Host>miles off the Santa Monica Pier, the curtain rang down in <v Host>L.A.'s his brush with iniquity in the '30s. <v Host>In a decade, The Rex and other gambling ships had cashed <v Host>in on over 12 million visitors. <v Host>But now the time had come for Admiral of the Fleet, Tony carnero, <v Host>to pack it in.

<v Host>These visitors were from the state attorney general's office, and they, too, <v Host>couldn't wait to get to the slot machines and the gaming tables. <v Host>As 1938 drew to a close, it was all over for <v Host>a thousand brothels, bookie joints, and gambling debts. <v Host>There had been trouble enough in Angel City. <v Host>Which all goes to show that when writer, Raymond Chandler, pitted his detective <v Host>hero against the corrupt and criminal world, he didn't have <v Host>to dream it up. <v Announcer>Major funding for the Los Angeles History Project was provided by the Durfee Foundation,

<v Announcer>which is pleased to be supporting excellence in television programing on Kasit. <v Announcer>Additional funding provided by the California Community Foundation dedicated to improving <v Announcer>the quality of life in Southern California since 1915 <v Announcer>and by the Fletcher Jones Foundation. <v Announcer>For information on purchasing a copy of this program for educational purposes, write <v Announcer>to KCET Video 4401, Sunset Boulevard, <v Announcer>Los Angeles, California. <v Announcer>90027. Or call <v Announcer>213-668-9541. This offer is made by KCET Los Angeles. <v Announcer>If you do not receive KCET magazine and wish to get a free 8 page viewer's <v Announcer>guide to the Los Angeles History Project, write L.A.H.P. <v Announcer>in care of KCET 4401 Sunset Boulevard, Los <v Announcer>Angeles, California 90027.