Edward Lee Thrasher (June 5, 1892 – March 5, 1971) was a builder, contractor and decorator who served on the Los Angeles, California, City Council between 1931 and 1942.
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Biography
Thrasher was born June 5, 1892, in Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of and is the principal city of the Great Falls, M ...
, the son of Schuyler E. Thrasher and Lena Reiman, both of Michigan. He had two brothers, Sydney J. and William R. After graduating from Loup City High School in Nebraska,[ he engaged in painting, decorating and ]contracting
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...
until 1917, when he went to Europe with the American Expeditionary Forces
The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...
, where he was a signal electrician and was gassed in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel
The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a major World War I battle fought from 12–15 September 1918, involving the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and 110,000 French troops under the command of General John J. Pershing of the United States against ...
, France. After the war, he was in the railroad business for two years, then studied civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
at the University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...
and design and decorating at the Southern Branch of the University of California
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
(UCLA) in 1921. He completed this study at the Otis Art Institute
Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...
in 1923-24. Afterward, he spent a short time in real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
and insurance, then went into building and contracting. In 1935 he told an interviewer his hobby was football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
.[Los Angeles Public Library reference file]
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He was married to Anna Louise Edwards on January 21, 1920 in Trinidad, Colorado
Trinidad is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 8,329 as of the 2020 census. Trinidad lies north of Raton, New Mexico, and s ...
. They had three children, Phyllis Elaine (later Wammack), Marilyn Louise (later Hall) and Edward Lee Jr.[ He was a ]Mason
Mason may refer to:
Occupations
* Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces
* Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...
, Odd Fellow
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Order of Odd ...
and an active member of the American Legion
The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...
.["War Changed Thrasher," ''Los Angeles Times,'' April 29, 1935, page A-8]
/ref> He died in March 5, 1971 and was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.[Death notice, ''Los Angeles Times,'' March 8, 1971, page A-4]
/ref>
City Council
Elections
Thrasher's "entry into politics was brought about when he was called in to assist in revising the city's building code."[ Thrasher, who was living at 3150 Weldon Avenue, ]Glassell Park
Glassell Park is a neighborhood of Northeast Los Angeles, California, in the San Rafael Hills.
Population
The 2000 U.S. Census counted 23,469 residents in the 2.75-square-mile Glassell Park neighborhood—or 8,524 people per square mile, an averag ...
, ran for the 14th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council
The Los Angeles City Council is the legislative body of the Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles in California.
The council is composed of 15 members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The President of the Los Angeles City Counc ...
in 1929 but lost in the primary. He was successful in the 1931 election, however, in beating the incumbent, Charles A. Holland
Charles Alfred Holland (1872–1940) was a University of Southern California football captain, a businessman and a Los Angeles, California, City Council member between 1929 and 1931.
Biography
Holland was born in 1872 in Girard, Kansas, the son ...
, as part of an anti-Mayor John C. Porter movement, and was reelected five times, through 1941; he lost in the 1943 election to John C. Holland
John C. Holland (July 6, 1893 – March 10, 1970) was one of the longest-serving Los Angeles City Council members, for 24 years from 1943 to 1967, and was known for his losing fight against bringing the Los Angeles Dodgers to Chavez Ravine and for ...
. In the 1935 election he was known as the anti-End Poverty in California
End Poverty in California (EPIC) was a political campaign started in 1934 by socialist writer Upton Sinclair (best known as author of ''The Jungle''). The movement formed the basis for Sinclair's campaign for Governor of California in 1934. The p ...
candidate.["Thrasher on 'Purge' List of Mayor Bowron," ''Los Angeles Times,'' March 24, 1939, page 12]
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Controversies
1931 Thrasher visited Myron Penn, the asserted victim of a beating in the city jail, in Penn's hospital room and then demanded an immediate investigation by the Police Commission into the situation. Both the commission and a grand jury later looked into the case.
1931 Thrasher was one of the six council members who in July 1931 lost a vote to appeal a judge's decision ordering an end to racial restrictions in city-operated swimming pools. The pools had previously been restricted by race to certain days or hours. An appeal would have delayed or ended desegregation.
1932 Mayor John C. Porter vetoed a City Council ordinance that granted a 10-foot strip of city property to the owner of a home that Thrasher was renting — "a gift promoted by Councilman Thrasher without disclosing his own interest in the matter," according to a ''Los Angeles Times'' opinion piece.
1936 Though he said he "held very little hope for any action," Thrasher submitted to the council lengthy lists of names and addresses of asserted " houses of ill repute" and "gambling joints" he had received from "persons who apparently did not want to sign their names." The previous week, "Thrasher and others in the Council created an uproar with their charges that gambling is going on in the city and that vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
is rampant." The list was forwarded to the Police Commission.
1939 Thrasher was said to be on a "purge
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...
list" of Mayor Fletcher Bowron
Fletcher Bowron (August 13, 1887 – September 11, 1968) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. He was the 35th mayor of Los Angeles, California, from September 26, 1938, until June 30, 1953. He was at the time the city's longest-serving ...
after the mayor said in a radio address that Thrasher must be defeated in the next election because he was "a part of the old machine."[ A ''Los Angeles Times'' columnist, writing under the name of "The Watchman," responded:
]Thrasher is somewhat obstinate, and too much of an individualist to incorporate himself into any political machine, which explains why he is usually at outs with the "corner pocket." He feels very strongly that there are too many commissions and departments crowding each other in City Hall. He frequently starts a movement to thin out these weeds in the city garden, which explains why Mayors do not like him.
1940 Concerned that questions being asked on civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
examinations were "too technical" and not "practical in character," Thrasher submitted a motion asking the Civil Service Commission
A civil service commission is a government agency that is constituted by legislature to regulate the employment and working conditions of civil servants, oversee hiring and promotions, and promote the values of the public service. Its role is rou ...
for a copy of the questions posed in recent tests. When Council President Robert L. Burns
Robert Louis Burns (January 12, 1876 – March 17, 1955) was an American politician, attorney, and businessman who served as a member of the Los Angeles school board from 1923 to 1929 and the Los Angeles City Council from 1929 to 1945. At the tim ...
ruled the motion out of order, an uproar ensued, and Councilman Arthur E. Briggs
Arthur Elbert Briggs (April 26, 1881 – July 25, 1969) was a teacher and law school dean who was a Los Angeles City Council member from 1939 to 1941 and the leader of the Ethical Society of Los Angeles in 1953.
Biography
Briggs was born on Ap ...
's appeal from the ruling of the chair was upheld by the Council, but only by a narrow 8–7 vote.
1940 Thrasher proposed a 1-cent-per-package retail license tax on cigarettes to help replenish a depleted reserve fund. Troy Chenoweth, head of the city's license division, estimated the tax would bring in $400,00 a year, "proportionally higher than in other cities because of the large number of women smokers" in Los Angeles.
1940–41 In October 1940, the councilman attempted to control the content of radio broadcasts over station KRKD
KRKD (105.7 FM) was an American radio station licensed to serve Dermott, Arkansas. It was assigned the KRKD call letters by the Federal Communications Commission on November 23, 1999. The station was most recently owned by Community Broadcast G ...
from the City Hall when he submitted a motion "to make the talks strictly noncontroversial and if a speaker strays from that path, to shut him off the air." Six months later, in April 1941, the Council unanimously adopted his motion to set the council on record "as being opposed to any radio broadcast, publication or spoken word, which in any way may be interpreted as being subversive in character or lending itself to anti-American or undemocratic principles of government." Copies of the resolution were ordered sent to all Los Angeles radio stations and to the Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
."Council Hits at Broadcasts," ''Los Angeles Times,'' April 18, 1941, page 4
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References
Access to the ''Los Angeles Times'' links requires the use of a library card.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thrasher, Edward L.
Los Angeles City Council members
1892 births
1971 deaths
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century American politicians
Politicians from Great Falls, Montana
People from Loup City, Nebraska