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Charles Harris Garrigues (1902–1974) was an American writer and journalist who wrote as C.H. Garrigues. He was a general-assignment reporter in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the worl ...
, in the 1920s, a
grand jury
A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a p ...
investigator and
political activist
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...
in the 1930s, a newspaper
copy editor
Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material ( copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual o ...
in the 1940s and a jazz critic in the 1950s. His nickname was Brick, for his red hair.
Biography
Kansas and the Imperial Valley
The fourth child of Charles Louis and Emily Young Garrigues, Charles Harris was born on July 7, 1902, in Utica, Kansas.Draft registration card, National Archives and Records Administration /ref> The family later moved to Imperial, California, near the Mexican border.
While attending Imperial High School, the 15-year-old Garrigues wrote a letter to the local newspaper, the '' Imperial Enterprise,'' calling a previous letter-writer "ignorant" because of the views the latter had expressed in attacking a resigned Imperial High principal. As a result, the lad was expelled by the school board in May 1918. The expulsion resulted in what the ''Enterprise'' called a "Walkout of High School Students," who "paraded the streets to demonstrate their dissatisfaction at the refusal of the faculty to reinstate C. H. Garrigues of the senior class." It was said that all the students walked out, "with the exception of two girls." Garrigues was befriended by the editor of the newspaper, who taught him the craft of journalism, and in 1919 he was allowed to graduate.
Southern California
Garrigues attended the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $ ...
for a year but dropped out to become a reporter with the ''
Hemet News
The ''Hemet News'' was a newspaper in Hemet, California, published from about 1894 until 1999.
Ownership
Independent
Joseph P. Kerr was editor and publisher from 1894 to 1897. He died of consumption on November 9, 1897, at the age of 32.
Fran ...
'' in Riverside County. He then worked for the '' Venice Vanguard'' in Venice, a suburb of Los Angeles, and by mid-decade was with the ''
Arizona Daily Star
The ''Arizona Daily Star'' is the major morning daily newspaper that serves Tucson and surrounding districts of southern Arizona in the United States.
History
L. C. Hughes was the Arizona Territory governor and founder of the ''Arizona Star'' ...
'' in
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
. In 1926, he returned to Los Angeles, where he joined the '' Los Angeles Express'' as a copy editor. The next year he had become a reporter with the Los Angeles ''
Illustrated Daily News
The ''Daily News'' (originally the ''Illustrated Daily News'') was a newspaper published in Los Angeles from 1923 to 1954. It was founded in 1923 by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV and bought by Manchester Boddy who operated it through most of its exis ...
,'' published by
Manchester Boddy
Elias Manchester Boddy (; "Boady") (November 1, 1891– May 12, 1967) was an American newspaper publisher. He rose from poverty to become the publisher of a major California newspaper and a candidate for Congress. His estate, Descanso Gardens ...
, where he specialized in reporting on civic affairs, particularly the county government.
In the early 1930s, Garrigues was not only covering civic news, but he had also volunteered to become the ''Daily News'' opera and classical-music critic. He had a regular political column called "The Spotlight." He also did investigative work into graft and corruption in county government, as a consequence of which by January 1931 he was granted a leave by Boddy to take a temporary job as an investigator for District Attorney Buron Fitts. His work led to the indictment and conviction of, and a prison term for, county supervisor Sidney T. Graves for accepting a bribe from builders of a flood-control dam on the San Gabriel River.
In 1934, he was working for a county
grand jury
A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a p ...
impaneled by Superior Judge (and later Mayor) Fletcher Bowron; his investigation led to Fitts himself, whom the jury indicted that year on charges of bribery and perjury. In this work Garrigues became an enemy of Fitts, and the reporter was assaulted in a Hall of Justice stairway and beaten in a vacant courtroom by what he described as "a gang of the district attorney's plug-uglies."Guy W. Finney, ''Angel City in Turmoil: A Story of the Minute Men in Los Angeles in Their War on Civic Corruption Graft and Privilege,'' Amer Press, 1945
By 1936, Garrigues was free-lancing as a political consultant, and the next year worked briefly for the '' San Diego Sun'' but soon left to become the editor of the ''Labor Leader,'' a newspaper published by the San Diego Federated Trades and Labor Council. In 1937 he was an organizer in Los Angeles for the
American Newspaper Guild
The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practices ...
. He joined the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Enge ...
in 1937 but left it the next year.
San Francisco Bay Area
At the age of 34, Garrigues was named in 1936 as an investigator for a defense committee in the case of three
labor union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, California, San Jose, and Oakland, Ca ...
, and three years later, in 1939, he moved to the
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gove ...
.
He found work as a
copy editor
Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material ( copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual o ...
on the ''
San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
,'' where he stayed until his retirement in 1967. In 1943, his name was listed in a report of the anti-Communist Tenney Committee of the California state legislature in connection with testimony by writer Rena Vale about her experience as a Communist Party member from 1936 to 1938. In March
1953
Events
January
* January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.
* January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo.
* January 14
** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugosl ...
Garrigues testified under subpoena in Los Angeles before Congressman Harold H. Velde of the
House Committee on Un-American Activities
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disl ...
about his interest in the
labor movement
The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other.
* The trade union movement ...
and his membership in the Communist Party.
Between 1956 and 1961, Garrigues was the ''Examiner's'' staff jazz reviewer, "with a weekly column and a recognized name." He retired in 1967 and moved to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood in 1968. He died on March 8, 1974, in Pacific Palisades.
Marriages
Garrigues was married on April 30, 1926, to Beulah May Dickey. They had two sons and were divorced in 1937. He was married in 1938 to Naomi Silver, and they had one daughter. Naomi died in 1968. His third wife, whom he married in 1968, was Marguerite (Peggy) Walker.
Published works
Besides numerous newspaper articles, music reviews, and phonograph album
liner notes
Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes.
Origin
Liner notes are descen ...
, Garrigues wrote:
* ''You're Paying for It!: A guide to graft,'' Funk and Wagnalls, August 1936 ''Open Library'' description of ''You're Paying for It!'' /ref>
* ''So They Indicted Fitts'' (self-published pamphlet)
* ''Why Didn't Somebody Tell Somebody'' (self-published pamphlet), May 1938 and January 1939
* "Most Polite Man," ''Nation's Business'' magazine, February 1953 (article on San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll collectors)
* "Target Therapy: New hope for lost minds," ''Brief'' magazine, August 1953
* "How to Live Within Your Income," '' This Week'' magazine, February 18, 1959
See also
*
John Bell Clayton and Martha Clayton
John Bell Clayton II (October 28, 1906 – February 10, 1955) was a "prolific writer of short stories" who won an O. Henry Short Story Award in 1947. His wife, Martha Carmichael Clayton (c. 1915–1961), oversaw the posthumous publication of her ...
Toni Strassman Toni Strassman (1895–1984) was an authors' representative based in New York City. Her clients included Charles Harris (Brick) Garrigues,List of newspaper columnists