Stanley Holroyd "Stan" Chambers (August 11, 1923 – February 13, 2015) was an American television reporter who worked for KTLA in Los Angeles from 1947 to 2010. Chambers was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. His career began shortly after KTLA became the first commercially licensed TV station in the western

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. His April 1949 on-scene 27½-hour report of the unsuccessful attempt to rescue

Kathy Fiscus Kathryn Anne Fiscus (August 21, 1945 – April 8, 1949) was a three-year-old girl who died after falling into a well in San Marino, California. The attempted rescue, broadcast live on KTLA, was a landmark event in American television history. Bi ...

from an abandoned well in

San Marino, California San Marino is a residential city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. At the 2010 census the population was 13,147. The city is one of the wealthiest places in the nation in terms of househo ...

, prompted the sale of hundreds of TV sets in the Los Angeles area. His report has been recognized as the first live coverage of a breaking news story. In 1952, Chambers was involved in the first live telecast of an atomic bomb test at the

Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the ...

. Among other stories he covered were the 1961 Bel Air fires, the 1963

Baldwin Hills Reservoir Baldwin is a Germanic name, composed of the elements ''bald'' "bold" and ''win'' "friend". People * Baldwin (name) Places Canada * Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario * Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District * Baldwin's Mills, Q ...

dam break, the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes, the 1963 kidnapping of

Frank Sinatra Jr. Francis Wayne Sinatra Group note. (; January 10, 1944 – March 16, 2016), professionally known as Frank Sinatra Jr., was an American singer, songwriter, and conductor. He was the son of singer and actor Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy ...

, the 1965 Watts Riots, the assassination of

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...

, the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

- LaBianca murders by the Manson family, and the

Hillside Strangler The Hillside Strangler, later the Hillside Stranglers, is the media epithet for one, later discovered to be two, American serial killers who terrorized Los Angeles, California, between October 1977 and February 1978, with the nicknames originating ...

. Chambers broke the story on the beating of

Rodney King Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965June 17, 2012) was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving whi ...

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

officers. Chambers earned several Emmy Awards, Golden Mike Awards, LA City and County Proclamations, an LA Press Club Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His grandson, Jaime Chambers, became a reporter at KTLA in 2003, and now works at

KSWB-TV KSWB-TV (channel 69) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Engineer Road in the city's Kearny Mesa section, and its tran ...

(Fox-5) in San Diego.

Retirement years and death

Chambers retired on August 11, 2010, on his 87th birthday, marking 63 years as a reporter at KTLA.Greg Braxton
KTLA's Stan Chambers to announce retirement
''Los Angeles Times'', August 11, 2010 He died on February 13, 2015, at his home in the

Holmby Hills Holmby Hills is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. The neighborhood was developed in the early twentieth century by the Janss Investment Company, which developed the rest of Westwood as well as other Los Ang ...

neighborhood of

at the age of 91. Chambers was predeceased by his first wife Beverly, who died of cancer in 1989. He was survived by his second wife GiGi, 11 children, 38 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Stan Chambers is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, beside his beloved wife Beverly.

References

External links

*
Stan Chambers
''KTLA.com'', accessed 2013-10-13 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers, Stan 1923 births 2015 deaths American television journalists American reporters and correspondents Journalists from California Emmy Award winners University of Southern California alumni Television anchors from Los Angeles People from Los Angeles American male journalists People from Holmby Hills, Los Angeles