Dad's Friends

Yeah, there aren't a lot of, ahem, edifying songs about the town.  Too bad.  Because my memory of LA is essentially Dad, LA Police Academy, Dodgers Stadium, Clifton's Cafeteria, Olvera Street, Stanley Mosk Courthouse, Grand Avenue, Tom Donovan's Texaco station at Figueroa and Sunset, Elysian Park, Courtyard Foot Bridge connecting us from Broadway to Spring, the Plaza Mission, the Coliseum with tailgating parties with Chuck Pullman wolfing down burritos and Pepsi from Pedro's midst the smell of cigar smoke and distant mumblings punctuated by guttural laughter, Union Station [with Dad, that was more just to visit the interior], Lincoln Park, the San Antonio Winery, Barbara Ann's Day Old Bakery, the Grand Star Chinese restaurant where he held his retirement party, Barrigan's, of course, Little Joe's in which I'd never set foot but Charlen and Chuck Pullman did.  Dad really was the bridge between multiple generations, giving life, love, and fun and beautiful memories to anyone who would accept it.   

1908, Eastlake Park boathouse, aka Lincoln Park, the counter to Westlake west of Downtown LA. Thanks to Tom Anderson @ Los Angeles.

He liked to drive past Lincoln Park on Valley east, then left and north onto Soto to get to Huntington Drive.  He'd often point to a hospital on the south side of Valley [maybe the buildings were just the public health buildings and not a hospital, I could not tell] then reminisce how he was an orderly in a hospital as a young man.  Whether true or fiction, the story worked.  I never forgot his commitment to service.  And as we drove through that area, we'd hear a cryptic word about Maimi, as if he were driving through the memories of his youth more than on a boulevard.  On only a couple of occasions did we stop at Lincoln Park there with the lagoon and paddle boats.  It's just terrible to have all of these wonderful memories of a place, more of a playground than a metropolis, and not able to have him in our physical presence to thank him for unique experiences that we took for "this is just how things are; doesn't everybody do this?"  

Then there's all the visiting folks in hospitals, where he graded the hospital based on the quality of their chili in the basement cafeteria, oh, and oyster crackers.  If they didn't have oyster crackers, he'd almost curse the hospital.  It was the chili at the Dept. of Water & Power that he praised most and caused me to assess that modern building with extra beauty.

What stuns me is that you guys were much closer to Dad when you started working with him in DTLA.  And yet no stories from ya'll.  Would be nice to have gotten a few stories between Dad and Conroy since they worked together.  

This conversation started on March 27, 2026 

"None of Dad's friends were from the Marine Corps."

Okay, thanks.  That helps.

"The only person that I knew of that Dad mentioned being in the Marine Corps was Jim Stockham (Mom's brother)."

I thought Cruz was in the Marines with Dad.  He doesn't have to be, it's just that's one of many unconfirmed stories I carried in my head.

"I think Dad knew Dan O'Donnell from Cathedral HS.  This is a guess on my part.  The reason I say that is because there is a picture of Dad and Dan O'Donnell (1933) at Uncle Charlie and Aunt May's farm in Colorado.  I don't know how they got there, possibly rode with Ma n Pa to visit relatives back there.  And, yes, Dan O'Donnell also drew cartoons, too, I believe."

Okay, I do recall now that Dad knew O'Donnell from Cathedral.  Is that photo of them in that set of pics on that memory stick you sent out?  Doesn't have to be.  You'd done a lot of work on all of those family pics.  I said that Dad liked O'Donnell's art because Mom told me that one time in the years after Dad's passing.

"Yes, the Colorado Lagoon did have a platform to jump off of or dive from, I believe."  

Corroboration is always a good thing.  Thanks for that.

"I don't remember going to any other cafeteria at a place of business in DTLA other than the DWP.  I think we did it maybe twice in the six years from when I started working in DTLA in 1968 til 1976 when Dad retired."  

Okay.

"Funny thing, too, I remember Dad referring to Barragan's so many times, how much he liked, but I never went there with him.  It wasn't til many, many years later a bunch were invited to celebrate Marilyn D's birthday there one time.  And, I wasn't impressed."

He loved it because he had several lunches there with work friends.  Plus, I think Dad's appetite was easy to please at Mexican restaurants--2 cheese enchiladas, rice and beans, and a Coors.  I went there a few times with friends, and I liked their shrimp and rice with beans and a Coors.  Oh, yeah.  It's good.  It's in the heart of Echo Park, so old LA.  Had charm.

"O'Donnell, Penny, Sullivan, Conroy, Cruz none were in the Marine Corps."

That is good to know.  Thanks, Dan.

"I remember "running into" Dan O'Donnell at the Sears Roebuck on Soto St in LA in the late 70's or early 80's.  I recognized him, I told him who I was, and we talked for a few minutes.  He was working there as a Security Guard.  He and his wife had divorced, and he had some difficult issues he was dealing with for several years.  I meant to get a contact info. for him, but forget."

That's interesting.  I presume he had kids.  Do you know whereabouts in LA he lived?

You guys remember Cecil, the neighbor in San Gabriel who used to make Dad's glasses?  I think he moved to Duarte, and he ran into Mom one time at the Bank of America there across the street from Steamboat where I worked as short order cook and manager.  I think he may even made a brief stop to Duarte to have coffee with Mom for a few minutes to review the days.  Once we were in Duarte, Dad used to have his glasses made by the father of a classmate, John Shandley.  So John Shandley's dad who lived just 2 to 3 blocks south of us off of Greenbank designed Dad's glasses.  I think he did Mary's glasses too when she first started needing them. 

"We used to shop at that Sears when we lived in LA on Virgil Ave.."  

 

Which Sears?  Not the Mail Order building where Mom worked?

"I never heard Dad talk about Dan O'Donnell's artwork/cartoons, and I don't know if anything was ever published."  

Yeah, for me, it was Mom who remembers Dad's admiration for his O'Donnell's skills.

"And, as far as Penny, I don't know how Dad knew him.  Maybe, Charlen remembers overhearing what was their connection."

I see.  Maybe Chuck can ask Charlen.  

"I have a vague memory of a connection through writing or drawing, but this is purely speculative on my part."

That's a start.  Thanks Dan for your great efforts here.  I definitely got a sharper picture of relationships and histories.  Thank you.

Eastlake Park boathouse, aka Lincoln Park, 1908

1908, Eastlake Park boathouse, aka Lincoln Park, the counter to Westlake west of Downtown LA. Thanks to Tom Anderson @ Los Angeles.

I asked a few members of the family back on April 6, 2023 if they had any recollection of Lincoln Park or its previous iteration of Selig Zoo.

Anyone recall Dad talking about going to the Sellg Zoo in Lincoln Park?  I ask because he would occasionally drive past Lincoln Park on Valley Blvd coming out of Downtown from Main Street and then head north on Soto to Huntington Drive back in the day.  He'd reminisce often about Lincoln Park and how he used to work at the County Hospital. as a volunteer changing bed pans.  Oh, what fun.  But that was Dad's civic spirit.  I presume that was pre-WWII.

Grand opening of Crawford’s Village in El Monte, “the world’s largest food basket” on October 18th, 1947.

Welcome to the grand opening of Crawford’s Village in El Monte, where a hungry crowd showed up for a drawing to give away “the world’s largest food basket” on October 18th, 1947.

Really, this was a grand RE-opening as W.H. Crawford first opened his El Monte location in the late 1930s, but looking to both keep up with the times and to stand a fighting chance in the incredibly competitive supermarket boom of the 1940s, they redesigned the property to become the world’s “Biggest Little Country Store,” which they reopened with a raffle to win an enormous food basket (pictured herein), and it looks like they were giving out free food as well.

For context, this was during the LA’s post-war housing shortage, and was at a time when grocery prices were being driven up by high inflation (reported at 14.4% - more than five points higher than its peak following covid). In fact, four days before these were taken, Congress had launched an investigation into high food prices across Los Angeles and W.H. Crawford himself testified his view that consumers needed to be educated on alternatives to the highest-priced items, which would invariably lower demand on those items and free him up from having to keep stocking them, only to rot on his shelves. According to his testimony, he was passing on 33% of his losses to consumers, but couldn’t go any lower as he was already operated at a profit of less than two percent.

Given that crisis, you can understand why this turned put to be such a popular event that evening, and why they continued the giveaways even after prices were brought back down.

Ultimately, this iteration of Crawford’s would catch fire in February 1948, just four months after these photos were taken. Four months after that, Crawford announced his plans to rebuild with a 50,000-square-foot building that would include a coffee bar, a flower shop, and a postal substation. It was estimated to cost $500,000 (equal to $6.9 Million today), and would be completed later that year.

—

Photos by Allan Grant for LIFE Magazine

Special thanks to Gary Cliser's blog on Crawford's which filled in some gaps for me on the story. Thank you to Forgotten Los Angeles.

Hill and 8th St., LA, 1929

1929, Pedestrians and a traffic cop face off at the intersection of Hill and 8th St. According to the Union Bank & Trust clock, it's 1:30 in the afternoon. On the left is the Garfield Building, awnings from The Owl Drug Co., Van de Kamp's Bakery and Ted's Tie and Robe Shop shade the sidewalk. "Herberts Cafe" vertical sign edges the Jeweler's Exchange Building, center. The Alhambra Theater in the Edward D. Silent Building advertises the "Love Doctor, a Talkie" in its marquee. Another vertical sign, this one for Birch and Smith Furniture Co., is just before the theater. (Security Pacific National Bank Collection).  Thank you to LAPL.  Though I've used this search engine to little success, it does in general contain some old photos of LA and surrounding area.  I tried this site, too, Remains of LA, but no luck on finding Herbert's Cafe. 

Mrs. Mike, 1949

I saw this movie as a kid late at night after everyone in the house was asleep.  I liked the title, "Mrs. Mike," because Mike was and is my name, and I thought it'd be nice to entertain what a "Mrs. Mike," a wife for Mike, might look and act like.  And I liked Dick Powell.  And though I remember the dramatic part of the story regarding the diphtheria epidemic, I'd forgotten or overlooked how it was really about the shortages of vaccine serum.  The acting and script were terrific.  Loved the backdrop of a Canadian forest, canoeing across deep forest lakes and rivers and the struggle for life between the Mike and his wife, Kathy.  The cynic in me says that Dick Powel was made a star because he supported key industries, like the vaccine industry, but like I said, that's the cynic in me.  I hope I am wrong.

This author Neglected Films does a nice review, dated July 31, 2024.

Barbara Stanwyck, 1907-1990

Thanks to Terence Butcher. 

Barbara Stanwyck, 1907-1990. 

Parking in DWTN Los Angeles, 1957

Thanks to Forgotten Los Angeles.

Photos aren’t captioned, but here are the ones I’ve figured out. Comment if you recognize others.

• 1-2. Wilshire & Grand

• 3-4. The Pigeon Hole parking garage at 644 S. Flower

• 5. Entrance to the garage under Pershing Square

• 6. Pershing garage interior (i think)

• 7-12. Unknown. Love the guy kicking the meter in 12.

•13-16. Unknown, but bottom of 13 indicates Beverly Hills

•17-20. The May Company’s old parking structure (w/ Park La Brea visible in the distance)