Chandler immediately excelled, breaking the school freshman record with a toss of 48 feet, 761/47 inches. About that time, Otis began telling Nick Williams, the editor of the paper, the kinds of improvements he envisioned making if and when he had the authority. During his tenure it would expand to 34 foreign and domestic bureaus. His first year, he increased it 45%. If he hadnt divorced Missy, Im not sure he wouldve left the paper. But in a letter to his mother 12 years later, Otis referred to her as that person who made it possible for me to provide leadership to The Times, adding: It was a tremendous gamble for you to take on any young man of 32. There was no mention of his father. Otis Chandler, whose vision and determination as publisher of the Los Angeles Times from 1960 to 1980 catapulted the paper from mediocrity into the front ranks of American journalism, died. Chandler attended Stanford, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Sigma Rho chapter). Not only did it not, as a rule, endorse Democrats for elective office; it didnt cover their campaigns. Were going to spend as much money as it takes to be the best newspaper in the country and I mean, specifically, [better than] the New York Times, Chandler said in remarks to the papers Washington Bureau in the mid-1960s. ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM. Overnight, copies of an old photo of Chandler were pinned and taped by the dozens to pillars and walls and bulletin boards throughout the newsroom, where some still remain. Ultimately, there was little that Chandler could or would do to influence the fate of The Times beyond this brief but dramatic entry into the fray. Chandlers grandfather and father followed Gen. Otis in the publishers chair. Unbeknown to the reporters and editors who worked on that project and to the entire editorial staff of The Times the paper had agreed to share the profits from the issue with Staples Center as part of a complicated arrangement by which The Times became a founding partner of the arena. He lost part of the big toe on his left foot, saw another toe severely damaged and the rest of the foot became largely numb. When I asked what he did, he just said, I work at The Times,. Thomas recalled. It could be said that the anti-Otis crowd beat up on him so much that he just gave up, said former editorial page editor Day. The most traumatic experience of Chandlers childhood one that assumed mythic proportions as he grew toward adulthood came when he was 8. Brian Lamb, right, founder and CEO of C-Span, interviews Otis Chandler in 2001. He continued to ride motorcycles. Who can help student-athletes cash in? Since mandatory retirement age for the publisher was then 65, that conveniently eliminated the 52-year-old Philip. Others argued that the negative attention that was focused on the paper, Willes and the rest of the Chandler family in the aftermath of Otis statement helped accelerate and crystallize the familys desire to sell The Times. In the next three years, The Times changed as perhaps no other American newspaper has ever done in such a short time. Elisha Graves Otis Print Family Tree Born 3 August 1811 - Halifax, Windham Co., VT Deceased 8 April 1861 - Yonkers, Westchester Co., NY,aged 49 years old Founder of the Otis Elevator Co. 1 file available Parents Stephen Otis 1773-1859 Phoebe Glynn 1778-1867 Spouses, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren Lucy Otis (born Chandler) in MyHeritage family trees (OBRIEN Web Site (FamilySearch)) view all 19 Immediate Family Stephen Otis husband Arunah Otis son Caroline Graves daughter Calvin Otis son Alice Otis daughter Chandler Otis son Lucy Randall daughter Stephen Otis son James Otis son Seth Otis son Nathaniel Otis son James Otis son view all 15 I thought Otis was committed in the same way, she said. Shaw, The Times longtime media critic, filed a draft of this obituary before his death Aug. 1. His efforts led him directly into confrontation with a powerful force for the status quo: his own family. Going with newspapers only is a flawed strategy, a dangerous philosophy that puts The Times at risk. The youngest son, Michael, also worked in the papers production departments, ultimately taking early retirement in a companywide buyout. I must confess, he said, I am getting darn tired of defending myself as a hunting person.. Even Chandler said some of those long stories made the paper seem gray, somewhat dull at times. He surfed. Chandler, he said, loved being publisher. Otis, meanwhile, still had no idea what his mother and father had in mind for him. Toward that end, he initiated a more aggressive marketing program, expanded the papers geographic reach and started the Orange County edition to serve the burgeoning population there the first such satellite plant for any metropolitan daily in the country. Chandler was elated; many who knew him well and saw him after that race said they had rarely seen him happier. This was the only big investment I ever made, and I didnt do any investigation of it beforehand. When he started buying vintage cars again several years later, he purchased another 1931 Duesenberg, this time for $1.2 million, en route to building another world-class collection. After graduating from Stanford, he tried to enroll in an Air Force training program. Those included an increase in the amount of news the paper printed, the adoption of a new statement of principles and ethical guidelines, and the publication of an investigation into how and why the Staples deal had occurred. 2443 E Peach Tree Drive is currently listed for rent at $1,995 and was received on February 28, 2023. Given the principal players on both sides, the deal, or one very much like it, was probably inevitable, with or without Otis and without or without Staples. But even though the paper and the company has been sold, it feels to me like Im home again.. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. Well before Chandler was named publisher, a poll of Washington correspondents conducted by writer Leo Rosten named The Times one of the three least fair and reliable newspapers in the country. Otis shoveled fertilizer for the family fruit trees at an early age and was kept on such a modest allowance that even when he went to college, he later recalled, the most lavish transportation I could afford was half-interest in a secondhand motorcycle.. Katharine Graham, who became publisher of the Washington Post three years after Chandler took over The Times, and who relied on him as a mentor in her first days on the job, said in a 1999 interview the day after her 82nd birthday, when she was still very much involved with the Post Im so committed to the company and so is Punch [former New York Times Publisher Sulzberger] that I cant imagine one of us actually leaving. The paper's Sunday magazine on October 10, 1999, was a special issue dedicated to the new Staples Center sports arena in downtown L.A., home to the Lakers, Clippers and Kings. We treated him as an insider and told him what was happening, Carroll said. Chandler and his editor, Williams, lured reporters away from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, the Washington Star, BusinessWeek and U.S. News & World Report. But most of his friends and associates said he didnt really have his heart in his new jobs. He quickly increased the budget of the paper, allowing it to expand its coverage. Although Chandler worried that the papers standing among opinion-makers would decline and that the new management was no longer committed to making The Times the best newspaper in the country, he said others in the Chandler family didnt share his concerns or his priorities. (Little) Chandler. . [1], In 1966 Chandler received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College. But the series also served notice that The Times was in the process of becoming a different and much better newspaper. With the Mirror still losing money, it had been Chandler who wanted it closed, and his father had reluctantly concurred. President-elect Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy Reagan, are honored at the Los Angeles Music Center in 1980 during an event hosted by Otis Chandler and his mother, Dorothy. That perception embarrassed Chandler, and when he took over as publisher a few years later, it became the driving force behind his commitment to remake The Times. Periodically, Chandler rented the now-defunct Riverside Raceway for a day so he, Thomas and their friends could race their cars. Ex-husband of Marilyn "Missy" Chandler Stewart One had only to visit the mens room in his car and wildlife museum its walls covered with posters of scantily clad women draped over shiny sports cars to realize that his ultra-masculinity wasnt limited to guns, barbells, fast cars and motorcycles. The corporate air was a little too rarified for him, said Swayze, his secretary. By the time he enrolled at Stanford University in 1946, he weighed about 200 pounds. His mother rushed him to a hospital, where doctors initially reported he was dead. You cannot overstate the importance of Otis Chandlers impact on the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper industry and all of Southern California, said current Times Publisher Jeff Johnson (no relation to Tom Johnson). Chandler had long felt that Willes hadnt shown enough respect for him and what he had accomplished. After the series was published, Otis asked for an editorial criticizing the Birchers. Also, the name of Otis Chandlers first wife was incorrectly given as Marilyn Brandt. Nixon, by all accounts, was stunned by the turnabout. It was the best down time I ever had, and I always kept a notebook with all the things I wanted to do when I got back.. When Burke asked Chandler if hed like to invest in his company and introduce Burke to other potential investors among the publishers wealthy friends Chandler was happy to comply. He entered a six-hour endurance race in Watkins Glen, N.Y., teamed with John Thomas, his motorcycle buddy and Porsche mechanic, who had long raced cars himself. [1], A sprained wrist kept him from competing as a shot putter for the United States in the 1952 Summer Olympics. [1] And sooner or later Im afraid well have to align ourselves with one of those companies to ensure the long-term survival of The Times., When Tribune turned out to be that company, Chandler said, Of all the people, of all the media companies that Times Mirror could join, this is the most logical and probably the best company.. He was also consumed by another passion: buying classic cars for his museum. 1. Also, because Thomas was more aggressive than Williams, more likely to take the initiative and less likely to urge caution, Chandler adopted a largely hands-off approach. He also showed his father skills that went beyond the reportorial. As a boy, he would stand alongside his father and grandfather at Hollywood Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever) in annual memorials to the victims of a bomb blast that wrecked the Times building in 1910, killing 20 workers. But by 1962, The Times had become a different institution. Expressions of condolence or remembrance can be sent to the Chandler family at chan@mfire.com. Of all the political figures to benefit from The Times partisanship over the years, none had been more favored, or more successful, than Nixon. Chandler was no typical rookie. He collected vintage cars and drove most of them to work at one time or another, alternating Porsches and Rolls-Royces with motorcycles, pickups and other vehicles in his growing inventory. Among them: the mate of the musk ox that nearly killed him in 1990. Connect to 5,000+ Chandler profiles on Geni, Norman Chandler, Dorothy Chandler (born Buffum), Cause of death: Motor neuron disease, Dementia with Lewy bodies - Feb 27 2006 - Ojai, 1930 - Los Angeles (Districts 0001-0250), Los Angeles, California, USA, 1940 - 800 West Orange Grove, Arcadia, Manrovia Township, Los Angeles, California, USA, June 18 1951 - Los Angeles, California, United States, Feb 27 2006 - Meiners Oaks, Ventura, California, United States, Nov 23 1927 - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, Norman Chandler, Dorothy Chandler (geb. Bulked up to 6 feet 3, 220 pounds as a senior in 1950, when he was captain of the track team, he put the shot 57 feet, 63/47 of an inch, to win the Pacific Coast Conference championship. Would I have wanted to stay, given what was happening at The Times and Times Mirror? Chandler asked a year after stepping down. Sure, like any business executive, there were times when I would like to have been away from it all, free of responsibilities. Chandler was raised to share his family's distaste for labor unions, a tradition that favored the family's financial interests. His most serious accident came in 1990, when a musk ox trampled him in the Northwest Territories of Canada and he had to be airlifted to a hospital. Find records of Otis Chandler Birth records Marriage records Divorce records . While in college, he sometimes worked summers at the paper, most often moving printing plates and other heavy equipment. Norman Chandler 1899-1973. Asked in a 1997 television interview whether he was satisfied with his legacy, he replied: I wanted to be No. But he said he wished people realized that if hed been left totally on his own, he might have done something different, so why did they question it when he finally decided he would do something different., Although Chandler often likened himself to the eagle that serves as the symbol of The Times I like to soar, to get above the minutiae and the crowds he insisted that as long as he was publisher, I was living the life I wanted to live. Knowing that he couldnt create a high-quality, widely respected news organization if he relied exclusively on wire service reports and his existing staff, he began hiring top reporters and editors from other major news organizations and opening Times bureaus around the world. But in 1968, the paper endorsed Democrat Alan Cranston for U.S. Senate over Republican Max Rafferty, whom it called an outspoken, militant conservative.. I wasnt satisfied Im that way whether Im out riding my bike or racing a car.. The Mirror was losing $30,000 a week, and Otis sent his father a confidential memo urging that a strong business manager be hired. Together, he wrote to Johnson after the changing of the guard, we are going to push the New York Times off its perch.. And it became clear over the years that he did not have any such intention. Or did it, in some way, lead the region into change? By 1962, Palmer was gone and the gubernatorial race between Brown and Richard Nixon was covered primarily by two new reporters: Richard Bergholz, who had come from the Mirror, and Carl Greenberg, from Hearsts Los Angeles Examiner. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Otis Chandler. He finished second in the nation, third in the heavyweight division at the national weightlifting championships that year. Otis . But it was fitting that his departure was so surprising to so many, for he had long been something of an enigma to his fellow publishers. When, by late September, it appeared that Brown might win as he ultimately did Times political editor Kyle Palmer, the papers lead reporter on the campaign, wrote a column acknowledging that the situation sounds a trifle grim for us Republicans.. On arrival, she encountered a doctor she knew, and he revived the boy with a shot of adrenaline in the heart. In 1986, Chandler surrendered the titles of chairman and editor in chief, although he remained on the board and took on the largely ceremonial role of chairman of the companys executive committee. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Central Coast chapter of the Alzheimers Association in Santa Barbara, or the Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association/Hospice of Ventura. [1], Chandler visited The Times frequently as a child, sliding down chutes that were used to drop papers to delivery trucks. FOR THE RECORD:In an earlier version of this article, the date of the Helsinki Olympic Games was incorrectly given as 1948. Away from the paper, off the board, with most of his Times Mirror stock in trust, he no longer had the power or the inclination to do anything concrete, not even as a fourth third-generation newspapering Chandler. He hunted. He had purchased his first a 1931 Duesenberg in 1968 for $35,000, and he built a world-class collection of Porsches, Ferraris, Duesenbergs, Cadillacs, Packards and other classics before selling all of them to meet the financial terms of his divorce settlement. They wanted to impeach Earl Warren, chief justice of the United States. Nobody had ever heard of the Chandlers, he said later. The paper warmly endorsed Nixon but also praised Browns accomplishments in the same editorial. Recovery was slow but complete, and it was during that period of recuperation, Chandler said many years later, that he did a lot of thinking and somehow developed my competitiveness.. Chandler liked the shotput and weightlifting, he once said, because they were individual sports, and he could be judged on his own merits. The change that ignited the biggest debate was Willes announced intention to blow up, with a bazooka, if necessary, the wall that had traditionally separated and insulated the newsroom of the paper from the business department to avoid conflicts of interest. Otis Chandler in MyHeritage family trees (Sturtevant Web Site) view all 15 Immediate Family Diana Chandler mother Asa Chandler, Jr. father Cynthia Bailey sister Emily (Chandler) Washburn sister Diana Chandler sister Noah Chandler, I brother Lucinda Chandler sister Laura Chandler sister Martin Chandler brother David Chandler brother George Chandler Three top editors asked Boyarsky not to read the statement aloud, fearing that it would further provoke an already enraged staff. But William Thomas, who was Times editor when Chandler made his decision to step down as publisher, said he remembered sitting in a taxi with him in Madrid in 1975 before hed met Whitaker, when he was still married to Missy and hearing Otis say he wanted to give up the publishers job in three to five years. Their first child was a boy named Norman after Chandler's father. Six weeks later, on the day that John Puerner of Tribune Co. took over as publisher of The Times, Chandler had dinner with Puerner and Jack Fuller, then-president of Tribune Publishing at their invitation. Marian Otis Chandler (1866-1952), Born Emma Marian Otis. [2] In 1945, her husband became publisher of the Times, a position he held until he was succeeded by their son, Otis, in 1960. More than 15,000 readers canceled their subscriptions, and Chandlers breach with some members of his family was widened still further. The shift on the editorial page came as the region itself, once dependably Republican, was becoming less conservative. Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife, "Publisher Who Couldn't Get Enough Competition", "Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication", "Otis Chandler, 78; transformed L.A. Times into a leading paper", "Otis Chandler, Publisher Who Transformed Los Angeles Times, Dies at 78", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Otis_Chandler&oldid=1112344101, Stanford Cardinal men's track and field athletes, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Pages using infobox person with multiple parents, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 25 September 2022, at 21:57. Father of Private; Michael Otis "Mike" Chandler; Norman Brant Chandler; Private and Private Thats more than I ever heard from Mark Willes.. [1] Later, Chandler said his motivation to invest in The Times' quality could be attributed, at least in part, to his desire to combat the East Coast opinion that, "The Times was regarded as a bad newspaper from a hick town". Less conservative Tree Drive is currently listed for rent at $ 1,995 and was received February! 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