The ''Daily News'' (originally the ''Illustrated Daily News'') was a
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
published in
Los Angeles
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 world' ...
from 1923 to 1954. It was founded in 1923 by
Cornelius Vanderbilt IV
Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (April 30, 1898July 7, 1974) was a newspaper publisher, journalist, author, and military officer. He was an outcast of High society (social class), high society, and was disinherited by his parents when he became a newspa ...
and bought 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 ...
who operated it through most of its existence.
The ''Daily News'' was founded in 1923 by Vanderbilt as the first of several newspapers he wanted to manage. After quickly going into receivership, it was sold to Boddy, a businessman with no newspaper experience. Boddy was able to make the newspaper succeed, and it remained profitable through the 1930s and 1940s, taking a
Democratic perspective at a time when most Los Angeles newspapers supported the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
.
The newspaper began a steep decline in the late 1940s, continuing into the early 1950s. In 1950, Boddy
ran in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
. He finished a distant second in each, and lost interest in the newspaper. He sold his stake in the paper in 1952 and, after changes in ownership, ceased publication in December 1954; the business was sold to the Chandler family, who merged it with their publication, the ''
Los Angeles Mirror
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', firing all ''Daily News'' employees without severance pay.
Founding and initial insolvency
![Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00023, Cornelius Vanderbilt jr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00023%2C_Cornelius_Vanderbilt_jr..jpg)
The ''Illustrated Daily News'' was founded in 1923 in Los Angeles by
Cornelius Vanderbilt IV, who wished to start his own newspaper chain. The young Vanderbilt had served as a news reporter in New York for four years, but had no experience running a paper. Believing the best newspaper was a democratic one, he offered stock to those who would pay $5 for a year's subscription to his newspaper, with the right to elect two of the five directors. Repudiating the legendary adage of his great-grandfather
William Henry Vanderbilt
William Henry Vanderbilt (May 8, 1821 – December 8, 1885) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the eldest son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, an heir to his fortune and a prominent member of the Vanderbilt family. Vanderbi ...
, "The public be damned," Cornelius Vanderbilt announced that the paper's philosophy would be "The public be served." Vanderbilt refused to lead the lifestyle of the idle rich—he had enlisted as a private during World WarI—and believed the West Coast, with its increasing population, would become as important to the United States as the East Coast had been. A family friend,
Lord Northcliffe
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...
, founder of Britain's ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'', encouraged Vanderbilt to start a chain of serious-minded
tabloids in the West, a contrast to Northcliffe's own racy newspapers. Vanderbilt loved the "swift, jazzy" tabloid format, but did not care for the sensationalism often paired with tabloid newspapers: he wanted to start one that would cost a cent and could, as he put it, "safely enter any home".
Vanderbilt ignored attempts by the newspaper moguls who dominated Los Angeles journalism,
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
and
Harry Chandler
Harry Chandler (May 17, 1864 – September 23, 1944) was an American newspaper publisher and investor who became owner of the largest real estate empire in the U.S.
Early life
Harry Chandler was born in Landaff, New Hampshire, the eldest of four ...
, to discourage him. Chandler warned him not to start another paper; Hearst tried to hire him to run a tabloid he planned to start in New York City. Vanderbilt ignored them, but found that billboard companies would not give him space. Denied advertising in other newspapers, Vanderbilt attempted to gain publicity for his paper by having trucks drive through the streets bearing the paper's banner and hiring boys to chalk the paper's name on sidewalks, much to the annoyance of landowners who had to clean it up. He bought a former automobile showroom at the corner of
Pico Boulevard
Pico may refer to:
Places The Moon
* Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin
Portugal
* Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde
* Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribei ...
and Los Angeles Street and furnished it with the latest printing equipment, including two presses (a third was soon added when circulation exceeded expectations). Although
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
, this was further south than the other papers. As Vanderbilt prepared for an August 1923 opening (pushed back to the following month), potential investors toured the building, attracted by high-pressure sales tactics and the promise of a free lunch.
![DailyNewsSeptember031923loveraid](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/DailyNewsSeptember031923loveraid.jpg)
Unusually for Los Angeles at the time, the paper's plant was a
union shop
In labor law, a union shop, also known as a post-entry closed shop, is a form of a union security clause. Under this, the employer agrees to either only hire labor union members or to require that any new employees who are not already union memb ...
, something Vanderbilt insisted on. The paper began publication on September 3, 1923, and was helped in its launch by the fact that the
Great Tokyo Earthquake
Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements
* Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size
* Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent
People
* List of people known as "the Great"
*Artel Great (born ...
had just happened; it was able to provide full coverage, though using stock photographs of Japan. The initial price was one cent a copy. The tabloid format newspaper was to be devoted to the ideal of clean journalism and was prudish to an extreme: women's skirts were retouched in photos to cover the knees, while photos of wrestlers were altered so they appeared to be wearing shirts. Vanderbilt's rivals did not take well to the new competition—saboteurs planted a graphic sex story about
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
in the first edition, forcing Vanderbilt, at considerable expense, to stop the presses and redo Page Two before it was published. Up to a hundred ''Illustrated Daily News'' newsboys were treated at local hospitals each week after being assaulted.
Nevertheless, in December 1923 Vanderbilt expanded to San Francisco with the ''Illustrated Daily Herald'' and in February 1925 to Miami—the ''Illustrated Daily Tab'' was intended to cash in on the
Florida land boom
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble. This pioneering era of Florida land speculation lasted from 1924 to 1926 and attracted investors from all over the nation. The land boom left behind entirely new, planned ...
.
The newspaper paid for its staff's transportation, something rare at the time. Reporters were expected to carry rolls of nickels, so they could board
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s and reach their assignments; if they had sufficient money with them, a taxicab was permitted, and Vanderbilt—"Neil" to the staff—let them use his two
Packard
Packard or Packard Motor Car Company was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958.
One of the "Thr ...
s to reach stories. Too often the least experienced newsman, Vanderbilt himself, would cover major stories. According to Rob Wagner in his history of Los Angeles newspapers of the time, Vanderbilt's "news stories reeked of naiveté and his editorials were sophomoric." Vanderbilt instructed his reporters to look for human interest stories other papers might overlook; one headline read, "FOUR HUNDRED CHICKENS DISAPPEAR". Among Vanderbilt's editorial targets was the
Pacific Electric Railway
The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...
—the paper deemed its streetcars a danger to pedestrians and termed them "red reapers".
By 1924, the newspaper had a good circulation but was losing money because of low advertising revenues. Vanderbilt sought help from his parents, and they agreed to help if most authority went to their hand-picked manager, Harvey Johnson. His father poured over a million dollars into the newspaper in 1924–1925, but Johnson's involvement led to a rightward shift in the newspaper, which alienated many readers. In April 1926, Johnson concluded that the ''Illustrated Daily News'' and the two other newspapers could survive with fresh investment of $300,000, but Vanderbilt's father refused to provide any more money. A petition for
receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
was filed on May 3, 1926. Of the chain's three newspapers, the ''Daily News'' was deemed the most salvageable—the other two closed within weeks.
Boddy takes over
Following the filing of the petition for receivership in 1926, a consortium of the publishers of the other Los Angeles newspapers offered $150,000 for the ''Illustrated Daily News'', intending to shut it down. Los Angeles businessman Willis Lewis had invested heavily in the paper, and he put together a rival bid backed by the paper's outside shareholders, supporting book publishing executive
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 ...
to take over the paper and keep it as a going concern. The Vanderbilt family was willing to sign over a $1 million note to the Boddy consortium to keep the paper going, and the stockholders' committee raised $30,000 for a month's payroll.
Boddy and Lewis both served on the Commercial Board, a group of young businessmen. The new publisher got Board members to lend him $116,000 to buy a controlling interest in the paper, but if the paper did not show a profit within six months, the lenders could repossess. Boddy, who used other people's money to purchase the newspaper,
once commented, "The ''Daily News'' was conceived in iniquity, born in bankruptcy, reared in panic, and refinanced every six months."
The new publisher scrapped Vanderbilt's prudish policies and began a campaign against vice, spearheaded by reporter Gene Coughlin and directed against local gang boss
Albert Marco Marco Albori, better known by his alias Albert Marco, was an Italian bootlegger who was active in Los Angeles during the Prohibition Era in the 1920s. He is said to be the first to transport Canadian whiskey to Los Angeles. Marco worked closely wi ...
. The
Los Angeles police {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot)
Law enforcement in Los Angeles County is conducted by a variety of law enforcement agencies.
State agencies
*California Highway Patrol
*University of California Police Department
* California ...
had a hands-off policy when it came to vice and organized crime. Most local reporters valued the perks given to them by the police and did nothing to push the issue. After Boddy began a crusade against crime and corruption, he weathered harassment by police and politicians, but circulation rose. In the pages of the ''Daily News'', Boddy fought against the "L.A. System", entrenched graft in the city's government, to the profit of many policemen, politicians, and organized crime figures, under the leadership of
Charles H. Crawford
Charles H. Crawford (April 22, 1879 – May 20, 1931) was an American political figure. In the 1920s, his loosely organized crime syndicate in Los Angeles, California, was known as the "City Hall Gang." Crawford was reportedly a model for some o ...
. Police chief
James E. Davis wanted to have Boddy prosecuted for promoting illegal gambling by publishing horse race entries and results, as betting on horse races was then illegal in California. The district attorney's office chose to take no action, and Boddy later successfully advocated for a repeal of the ban, leading to the establishments of California tracks such as
Santa Anita and
Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California
* Hollywood Park, Chicago, a neighborhood in North Park, Chicago, Illinois
* Hollywood Park, Inglewood, an entertainment complex and m ...
.
Boddy also streamlined operations and stabilized the paper's management.
Boddy, each day, wrote a front-page editorial espousing his views.
His newspaper gave its reader a steady diet of coverage of celebrities, sports, and gossip, with illustrations of pro wrestlers and women in bathing suits.
Boddy mocked Hearst and Chandler in his pages, and often embarrassed the powerful, once displaying a photograph of a city official picking his nose.
By 1929, the ''Daily News'' was showing a profit, and three years later, amid
the Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion ...
, began publishing a
broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
edition, raising its price from two to three cents. Boddy said that with a circulation of 150,000, the paper was profitable even without advertising. By 1932, Boddy had dropped the word "Illustrated" from the name of the paper.
Prewar years
During the first six years of Boddy's ownership, the ''Daily News'' maintained a conservative editorial policy. He was a personal supporter of President
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
's bid for reelection in 1932. Los Angeles newspaper owners met and decided that, as all newspaper owners were supporting Hoover, one paper had to support the Democratic candidate, New York Governor
Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, and Boddy and the ''Daily News'' volunteered for the job. The day after
the presidential election, which saw Roosevelt elected in a landslide, Boddy turned to his city editor and said of the voters: "They have made a terrible mistake. I helped them do it. But damn it, I had to make a living."
After Roosevelt's election, the nation waited with anticipation for the specifics of the "
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
" plan on which he had campaigned. Boddy had no more information than anyone else, but had been impressed by a program called "
technocracy
Technocracy is a form of government in which the decision-maker or makers are selected based on their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. This system explicitly contrasts wi ...
", which proposed replacing politicians with scientists and engineers possessing the technical expertise to coordinate the economy, a scheme Roosevelt did not advocate. On November 30, 1932, the ''Daily News'' printed a huge headline "New Deal Details Bared". The article contained no inside information, and actually did not even mention Roosevelt, but instead outlined technocracy. He continued to discuss technocracy for weeks, as the people of Los Angeles, desperate for plausible information from any source, bought copies of the ''Daily News'', even invading the paper's loading dock to get them as quickly as possible. Even after Roosevelt took office, the ''Daily News'' trumpeted proposals to give money to the nation's citizens, such as
Francis Townsend
Francis Everett Townsend (; January 13, 1867 – September 1, 1960) was an American physician and political activist in California, In 1933 he devised an old-age pension scheme to help alleviate the Great Depression. Known as the "Townsend Plan ...
's plan that the federal government give $200 a month to every citizen over age 60. The ''Daily News'' also gave space to the "
Ham 'n' Eggs" plan whereby the elderly would get checks for $30 every Thursday. Boddy hit the lecture circuit to advocate
social credit
Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...
, another plan for the government to return taxes to the citizenry.
When the New Deal finally was brought forth, Boddy became an avid supporter of it, and so did his newspaper, making it the only Democratic daily in Los Angeles. In 1934, writer
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in seve ...
ran for the Democratic nomination for governor, advocating the
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 ...
(EPIC) program. When Sinclair scored a surprise upset victory in the Democratic primary against
George Creel
George Edward Creel (December 1, 1876 – October 2, 1953) was an American investigative journalist and writer, a politician and government official. He served as the head of the United States Committee on Public Information, a propaganda organi ...
, most newspapers closed ranks against him and supported the Republican candidate,
Frank Merriam
Frank Finley Merriam (December 22, 1865 – April 25, 1955) was an American Republican politician who served as the 28th governor of California from June 2, 1934 until January 2, 1939. Assuming the governorship at the height of the Great Depress ...
. The ''Daily News'', on the other hand, opened its front page to Sinclair's program and called him "a great man". Though the ''Daily News'' eventually endorsed Merriam, who was elected, its objection was not that the program was too radical, but that it was not consistent with the New Deal. This did not stop Sinclair from being embittered at what he saw as a betrayal by the ''Daily News'', accusing Boddy of "leading liberal movements up blind alleys and bludgeoning them".
Boddy acquired the ''Los Angeles Record'' in 1935, changing its name to the ''Evening News''. The two papers were subsequently merged under the ''Daily News'' name.
Boddy's columns were so popular he secured a radio show on
KFWB
KFWB (980 AM) is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. It airs a classic Regional Mexican music format. KFWB is owned by Lotus Communications. The station has a colorful history, being the radio voice of Warner Bros. Studios i ...
to read them over the air.
In 1937, managing editor
Matt Weinstock __NOTOC__
Matt Weinstock (1903–1970) was a managing editor of the ''Illustrated Daily News, Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News'' and a columnist for three Los Angeles, California, newspapers for 33 years.
Weinstock, the son of Frank Weinstock ...
, who had been with the ''Daily News'' since being hired as a sports reporter in 1924, was faced with a vacancy when columnist
E.V. Durling
Edgar Vincent Durling (1893–1957), usually known as E. V. Durling, was one of the first journalists to cover the Hollywood motion picture industry and later became a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist in the United States, with his colum ...
left for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''. He took the job as columnist himself, soon giving up his managerial position, and wrote for the ''Daily News'' until it ceased publication in 1954.
Decline and fall
![Boddy for Senate](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Boddy_for_Senate.jpg)
Boddy had predicted World War II several years in advance. When war came, his desire to be a crusading journalist diminished, and he devoted more time to the
camellia
''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controversy ...
s on his estate,
Descanso Descanso may refer to:
* Descanso (roadside memorial)
* ''Descanso'' (spider), a genus of jumping spider
* Descanso, California, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Descanso, Santa Catarina, a town and municipality in Brazil
* Des ...
.
Like most newspapers, the ''Daily News'' prospered during the war. Pioneering photojournalist
Helen Brush Jenkins
Helen Marie Brush Jenkins (April 1919 – June 12, 2013) was one of the first women News Photographers in the world. Brush Jenkins, based in Los Angeles California where she got her start working for the now-defunct Los Angeles '' Daily News'', be ...
got her start replacing her husband at the ''Daily News'' when he went to war. She did so well there was no vacancy for him when he returned, and she kept her job there for 12 years, in 1951 capturing the light of a nuclear test in Nevada from the roof of the ''Daily News'' building, a picture dubbed, "Atomic Dawn".
While there were woman journalists at other Los Angeles dailies during the war, they followed a path already broken by women at the ''Daily News'', which also employed minorities such as Latino night editor Sparky Saldana and his brother, sportswriter Lupe Saldana.
Until the war, the ''Daily News'' had been published on peach-colored paper; when it changed back from white afterwards, the paper held a parade through downtown entitled "The Peach is Back!" and tossed peaches to onlookers.
''Daily News'' readership peaked in 1947, when an average 300,000 copies per day were sold. In both absolute and relative terms, though, it was falling further and further behind the other Los Angeles dailies, such as the ''Times'' and ''
Los Angeles Examiner
The ''Los Angeles Examiner'' was a newspaper founded in 1903 by William Randolph Hearst in Los Angeles, California. The afternoon ''Los Angeles Herald-Express'' and the morning ''Los Angeles Examiner'', both of which had been publishing in the ...
''. In addition, Boddy, who was now past sixty, was losing interest in managing the paper. Fierce competition from the new Chandler family tabloid, the ''
Los Angeles Mirror
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', also hurt circulation and profits.
Nevertheless, Boddy advanced money to keep the paper in business, lending nearly $2 million to fund its operations between 1948 and 1952, funds for which he did not seek repayment in the paper's subsequent bankruptcy.
The ''Daily News'' was the only Democratic newspaper in Los Angeles in the postwar years, featuring columns by
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
and
Drew Pearson, with cartoons by
Herb Block
Herbert Lawrence Block, commonly known as Herblock (October13, 1909October7, 2001), was an American editorial cartoonist and author best known for his commentaries on national domestic and foreign policy.
During the course of a career stretchi ...
.
In 1950, feeling he was repeating himself in print, Boddy sought another way to involve himself in public affairs by running for the Democratic nomination for United States Senate. Boddy was tapped to enter the race when incumbent
Sheridan Downey
Sheridan Downey (March 11, 1884 – October 25, 1961) was an American lawyer and a Democratic U.S. Senator from California from 1939 to 1950.
Early life
He was born in Laramie, the seat of Albany County in western Wyoming, the son of the ...
dropped out during the primary. Democratic establishment figures distrusted the remaining major Democratic candidate, liberal Representative
Helen Gahagan Douglas
Helen Gahagan Douglas (born Helen Mary Gahagan; November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was an American actress and politician. Her career included success on Broadway, as a touring opera singer, and in Hollywood films. Her portrayal of the villain ...
, and feared that a Douglas victory would hand the election to the likely Republican candidate, Congressman
Richard M. Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...
. ''Daily News'' staffers believed Boddy was abandoning his journalistic integrity in running. Boddy ran in both major party primaries, a practice known as "
cross filing
In United States, American politics, cross-filing (similar to the concept of electoral fusion) occurs when a candidate runs in the primary election of not only their own party, but also that of one or more other parties, generally in the hope of re ...
", but his campaign was ineffective, and he finished a distant second in each primary. During the campaign, he mocked Douglas's liberal views by dubbing her "the
pink lady" in the ''Daily News'', a nickname reused by the Nixon campaign in
the general election. Just before the primary, when Nixon (who along with Douglas had also cross-filed) sent out election materials that did not mention he was a Republican, an ad appeared in the ''Daily News'' from the hitherto-unknown "Veterans Democratic Committee". The advertisement accused Nixon of masquerading as a Democrat, and dubbed him "Tricky Dick"—the first appearance of that Nixon moniker. Nixon went on to win the general election over Douglas in a
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
.
After the primary defeat, Boddy went into semi-retirement, and profits from sales of the ''Daily News'' began to decrease. In early 1951, he made his assistant, Robert Smith, editor of the paper, and in mid-1952, sold out to a consortium led by Smith. In August 1952, Boddy announced his retirement as publisher in Smith's favor. Smith instituted changes, substituting a ''Sunday News'' for the money-losing Saturday edition. He called in William Townes as editor, who was well known for restoring ailing newspapers, but Smith fired Townes after twelve weeks on the job. Smith attempted to sell the paper, and reached an agreement with a small-time Oregon newspaper owner,
Sheldon F. Sackett
Sheldon F. Sackett (August 2, 1902 – September 5, 1968) was an American businessman, journalist and newspaper publisher. Sackett owned several media properties in Oregon and California, including ''The World'' in Coos Bay, KVAN in Portland, ...
. After signing, Smith backed out of the deal. By the time Smith finally sold the paper, in December 1952 to Congressman
Clinton D. McKinnon
Clinton Dotson McKinnon (February 5, 1906 – December 29, 2001) was an American Democratic politician and journalist from San Diego. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1953.
Biography
McKinnon wa ...
, who was leaving office after losing a Senate primary bid, the ''Daily News'' was losing over $100,000 a month.
In May 1953, the ''Daily News'' dropped the Sunday edition, changed from being an afternoon paper to morning, and cut its price from ten cents to seven.
McKinnon related that he had been approached by labor leaders who wanted to keep the ''Daily News'' in business, but after the paper was purchased, much of their support failed to materialize. He went to "every wealthy liberal person I ever heard of", seeking money to keep the paper in business.
He was able to increase circulation by 20,000 and halve the annual million dollar loss. Nevertheless, creditors pressed for repayment of debt,
and in December 1954, the paper was sold to the Chandler family, owners of the ''Mirror''. Under the sale agreement, the ''Mirror'' became the ''Mirror & Daily News'' (before again being renamed the ''Mirror-News''). On December 18, 1954, publication of the ''Daily News'' ceased and all employees lost their jobs without severance pay.
The unionized workforce lost their jobs just before Christmas.
At its end, the ''Daily News'' was a six-column large tabloid and had a circulation of 195,000, published every day but Sunday.
Subsequent bankruptcy proceedings revealed that Boddy, Smith, and McKinnon each took large losses in the paper's final years.
Legacy
Cecilia Rasmussen of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote in 2004, how "For nearly three decades, the ''Illustrated Daily News''—later just the ''Daily News''—used its peach-colored tabloid pages to champion the downtrodden and castigate political graft and vice."
Jack Smith, who wrote for the ''Daily News'' and was later a columnist for the ''Times'', remembered, "it may be that few of us were perfectly sober when we put the ''Daily News'' to bed, but it was a wonderful paper, full of humor, youthful energy, good writing and irreverence."
An article in the later publication of the same name, the ''
Los Angeles Daily News
The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado-based Digital First Media.
The offices of the ''Dai ...
'', stated of its predecessor, "While the ''Daily News'' circulation never rivaled the ''Times'' or ''Examiner'', its breezy approach to the news definitely had an impact on L.A. journalism."
''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
''s West Coast correspondent, Richard Dyer MacCann, stated when the ''Daily News'' folded,
See also
*
*
Explanatory notes
References
Citations
General bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{featured article
Daily newspapers published in Greater Los Angeles
Newspapers established in 1923
Publications disestablished in 1954
Defunct newspapers published in California
1923 establishments in California
1954 disestablishments in California