I was more upset with myself than with Jack Burke, he said years later. Hed put you in there, and he let you do it and if you werent performing, out you went.. 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. LA Times After dropping out of Stanford, Chandler started working at the newspaper as a secretary to his father, Harry Chandler, who had been its publisher since 1917. By all accounts, the family enjoyed their outdoor experiences together, for Chandler focused on his children as intensely as he did on everything else that mattered in his life. 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). On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. At 6-foot 3-inches (190cm) tall, after bulking-up to and 220 pounds he won the Pacific Coast Conference title and finished second in the nation during his senior year with a toss of 57 feet (17m), 63/47 of an inch while serving as his team's captain. Chandler acknowledged that it was a difficult time for newspapers, but he disagreed vigorously with Willes approach. Chandlers reign as publisher was not an uninterrupted, 20-year victory lap. Did The Times change out of foresight or luck? 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. No publisher in America improved a paper so quickly on so grand a scale, took a paper that was marginal in qualities and brought it to excellence as Otis Chandler did, David Halberstam wrote in The Powers That Be, his 1979 book about the news media. [1], In 1966 Chandler received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College. Chandler made improvement of the paper's quality a top priority, succeeding in raising the product's reputation, as well as its profit margins. Well into his 70s, he maintained a long-distance bicycling regimen that few people half his age could attempt. By the time he left the publishers office, it had increased tenfold during his tenure. Nixon, by all accounts, was stunned by the turnabout. For a time, when he was young, Chandler rode a bicycle several miles to and from the Polytechnic School in Pasadena. He was airlifted to a hospital. Of all the political figures to benefit from The Times partisanship over the years, none had been more favored, or more successful, than Nixon. 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. As long as I knew him, Otis had an adventurous spirit and the courage to pursue it.. But when Williams, the editor, suggested that the paper look into the organization anyway, both Otis and Norman Chandler gave him the go-ahead. Sure, like any business executive, there were times when I would like to have been away from it all, free of responsibilities. 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 today of a degenerative illness called Lewy body disease. He once said that she had received and sought more recognition than she deserved for many changes at the paper, including his own rise, and that his father had long been underestimated. But he also worried about his legacy, and he increasingly spoke critically, if only in private at first, about his unhappiness with the direction of Times Mirror and the paper under Mark Willes, a former executive at General Mills who had been hired to succeed Erburu as chairman and chief executive in 1995 and also assumed the title of Times publisher when Richard T. Schlosberg III retired unexpectedly in 1997. The negotiations were so secret that Willes said he didnt know about them until less than two weeks before the deal was done, and Chandler said he didnt learn of them until he began hearing rumors two days before the agreement was made. It was a watershed experience, he said. As a weightlifter, Chandler finished third in the nation competing in the heavyweight division. 2443 E Peach Tree Drive, Chandler, AZ 85249 (MLS# 6525796) is a Single Family property with 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. Theyll have to carry me out of here feet first, he said. After a year or so in editorial, when I told my dad that Id just like to be a reporter, he said, no, I had to go on to other departments, Chandler said. Both Thomas and Johnson said he hated being chairman. George Cotliar, who joined the paper three years before Chandler became publisher and served as an editor for almost 40 years, said The Times had been widely regarded as a crappy newspaper and a politically biased newspaper, and the Birch series and the editorial were a statement to the staff too. Asked in a 1997 television interview whether he was satisfied with his legacy, he replied: I wanted to be No. Norman Chandler, then near his 60th birthday, saw the logic in the change. Newspapers are a mature, non-growth industry, vulnerable to cyclical economic downturns and increases in the cost of newsprint, he said. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. Within an hour, I had gathered things up in my briefcase, told my secretary, Well, we can shine those afternoon meetings off, and headed for Dana Point.., In a speech to a hunting conference in 1980, he described some of his other outdoor pursuits: I am primarily a gun hunter, both rifle and shotgun. I was 50, and I didnt want to be unhappy for the rest of my life.. He died in 2002. As a student he competed in basketball, soccer, the high jump, running and weightlifting. 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. The annual news department budget at The Times was $3.7.million when Chandler took over. I think he fears that he would die if he werent building something.. Otis Family Trees, Crests, Genealogy, DNA, More add your favorite Website (s) to this page! Almost 20 years after their divorce, the happily remarried Marilyn Brant DeYoung said she didnt think shed been competitive with Chandler, except on the tennis court, where I did get upset when he beat me. She said they had a wonderful marriage, and he was an involved father, especially when he was younger, before he was publisher.. Chandlers wife, Bettina, was with him. I was just told to be at the Biltmore an hour early for a civic luncheon.. 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.. After graduating from Stanford, he tried to enroll in an Air Force training program. At the time of her death in 1997, she had eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. He had married his college sweetheart, Marilyn Brant having proposed to her on his 23rd birthday on the seventh hole of the Pebble Beach golf course and they had a baby boy (Norman, after Otis father) but no plans and no substantial income. Over time, Chandler and others said, that began to wear on him. If a newspaper, even a great newspaper like the Los Angeles Times, loses credibility with its community, with its readers, with its advertisers, with its shareholders, that is probably the most serious circumstance that I can possibly envision. When doctors said Otis was dead, Mrs. Chandler wailed, My son is not dead! She picked him up and raced to another hospital, screaming all the way there, Otis is alive, Otis is alive!. Chandler welcomed Tribune in part because he admired its management and strategy and in part because he thought its diverse holdings four newspapers, 22 television stations and an aggressive Internet presence would help stabilize The Times financial position in the new century. Surprising though it may have been, that behavior the initial reluctance to question his successors; the cheerful acquiescence to the sale was very much in keeping with a lifelong pattern. Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. The two married in 1922, and had two children, Camilla and Otis, both born in 1927. There is something about him that suggests if Otis Chandler hadnt existed, Ernest Hemingway would have created him, the Christian Science Monitor said in 1980. No one could say that the team carried me or that the coach put me in because my name was Chandler.. Heirs to other great newspaper dynasties have felt an obligation to remain deeply involved with their papers, virtually until their dying day, and Chandlers decision not to do so remained a topic of curiosity among his peers long after he left. When Chandler took the job, the paper had only two outside offices. After the papers decision to endorse Nixon for reelection as president in 1972 caused a newsroom firestorm, The Times announced in 1973 that it would no longer routinely endorse candidates for president, governor or U.S. senator. I must confess, he said, I am getting darn tired of defending myself as a hunting person.. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. Otis and Williams perhaps the ablest newspaper editor of his generation, in Halberstams words became a formidable team. I was strictly a tall, skinny blond kid from California.. Some critics felt that his zeal for national recognition led The Times to underemphasize local news, particularly about minority communities. The shift on the editorial page came as the region itself, once dependably Republican, was becoming less conservative. USE LINKPENDIUM'S FAMILY DISCOVERER TO SEARCH 2,804,127 FREE GENEALOGY SOURCES! [1], In 1998, at age 71, Chandler suffered minor head injuries when he spun out a Ferrari automobile on the road in Oxnard. Thats why we diversified the company and went into television and cable and forest products and books and medical and legal publishing.. Word that Chandler was breaking his silence ricocheted through the newsroom. Respect and credibility for a newspaper is irreplaceable.. Although Chandler had been opposed to Sen. Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential race, he had deferred to his father and reluctantly agreed to run an editorial before the Republican convention pledging The Times traditional support to whomever the party chose as its nominee and that turned out to be Goldwater. But in 1968, the paper endorsed Democrat Alan Cranston for U.S. Senate over Republican Max Rafferty, whom it called an outspoken, militant conservative.. Thirty years later, he could still recall receiving a message from a fellow surfer one morning in the late 1960s telling him that waves were cresting at 12 to 15 feet off Dana Point the largest Southern California surf of my lifetime, he said. Born in Los Angeles on Nov. 23, 1927, Chandler was the only son of Norman Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler. More than 15,000 readers canceled their subscriptions, and Chandlers breach with some members of his family was widened still further. The disease is known for its fast progression. Unlike his father, however, he had not insisted that his children follow him into leadership positions at The Times. Not only did it not, as a rule, endorse Democrats for elective office; it didnt cover their campaigns. Doctors said his right arm, yanked from its socket by the impact, would be virtually useless for the rest of his life. Contact Information The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, CA 91108, Phone: (626) 405-2191; Email: reference@huntington.org, www.huntington.org Access-restricted-item true Addeddate Otis Chandler (November 23, 1927 February 27, 2006) was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions. [1], On a 1964 safari in Mozambique, an elephant charged his party. Chandler was both more willing than most publishers to reinvest the papers rising profits in editorial improvements and more visionary in his approach to newspapering. Chandler tried to make amends, claiming he had been misquoted, but the damage had been done. He set his sights on a goal making The Times one of the two or three great American papers and he pulled it off.. The Mirror was losing $30,000 a week, and Otis sent his father a confidential memo urging that a strong business manager be hired. From the start, he wrote periodic first-person columns, prominently displayed in the front section of the paper, musing about the life of an athlete or the quirks of an outboard motor. They asked me a lot of questions and made me feel welcome again, Chandler said a few days later. But results were slow in coming, and many top-level executives left. I like living on the edge, he said in a 1999 interview, five months after his 71st birthday and two weeks after he suffered minor head injuries when he spun out in one of his Ferraris near the vintage-car and wildlife museum he owned in Oxnard. The series and editorial landed like a bombshell. When he strides out of a meeting to shake hands, it is like looking up at a California redwood., Anthony Day, The Times editorial page editor from 1971 until 1989, once said: After I had been working for Otis for a few years, it occurred to me that I was working for a prince, a man who had been raised to be a prince.. Chandler himself invested more than $200,000 of his personal funds. 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. 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 always denied any conflict of interest, and he invariably emerged from these controversies with his reputation for personal integrity intact. Ex-husband of Marilyn "Missy" Chandler Stewart Chandler died at his home in Ojai about 4 a.m., according to Tom Johnson, a former publisher of The Times who was acting as a spokesman for the family. As a Times columnist, he would become one of the most celebrated sportswriters ever. Many Chandler associates said his marriages breakup and the end of his publishership were inextricably intertwined. 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. Even when he was publisher, Chandler wasnt one of those workaholic bosses who could never let go. But the series also served notice that The Times was in the process of becoming a different and much better newspaper. [1] Instead, he spent 1951 to 1953 in the Air Force's ground service, as a co-captain of the track team and supervisor of athletics and drama at Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, California. Despite his family's wealth, Chandler's father insisted that he perform field labor and did not spoil him with gifts. 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 Within four years, Time magazine and others were routinely mentioning The Times as one of the three or four best newspapers in the country. Otis said he wanted a more assertive, more liberal editorial page, Day said. He worked out daily, lifting weights in a gym he had built at The Times and improvising when he was traveling. Because much of his Times Mirror stock was tied up in trust funds, a lot of his money came from buying and selling cars. The stories described the Birchers extremist tactics and positions and, largely through their own words, depicted them as a threat to, rather than a defender of, the American way of life. Periodically, Chandler rented the now-defunct Riverside Raceway for a day so he, Thomas and their friends could race their cars. Chandler later praised his editor for frequently reminding a young publisher that you cant change a whole paper overnight.. 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. They never forgave her for her apparent role in Otis ascension over Philip. The youngest son, Michael, also worked in the papers production departments, ultimately taking early retirement in a companywide buyout. Constance Chandler 1896-1962. Grandson of Harrison Gray Otis. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Otis Chandler. And it became clear over the years that he did not have any such intention. 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 He gradually worked his way through every department at the paper: production, circulation, the mailroom, mechanical, advertising, the newsroom. Updated: October 7, 2011 . [4], He was not involved in negotiations by other members of the Chandler family to sell The Times to Tribune Company, a clear sign of how his influence had eroded. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. Willes, he said in 1999, was basically undoing what I and my father and Franklin Murphy all did, dating back to 1958. It was clear to me that it meant a lot to him and that he didnt want to feel shut out.. Otis has gone surfing, and hes not coming back, Noel Greenwood, then senior editor of The Times, said in 1991, almost four years before Willes took over and eight years before Staples erupted. Readers could be excused for thinking that only one political party existed in Southern California. When Chandler was growing up, he lived with his parents on a 10-acre citrus ranch in Sierra Madre. I occasionally hunt with a bow I am a saltwater fisherman and dry-fly freshwater fisherman, a gun collector, a sometime skeet and target shooter, an avid backpacker, outdoor photographer, trophy skinner, wild game gourmet but a lousy cook. Chandler realized that to build up The Times reputation, he had to demand fair and nonpartisan news coverage. Regardless, Chandler welcomed the outcome, largely because of his dissatisfaction with the existing management of Times-Mirror. People who knew the Chandlers well say Otis first wife was enormously competitive. She was athletic, she surfed, she hunted and she was always vying for equal status or greater status than Otis, said Howard Gilmore, one of Chandlers longtime hunting companions. Better newspaper was satisfied with his reputation for personal integrity intact Dorothy Buffum Chandler enormously competitive and from the title... Two married in 1922, and he let you do it and if you werent,. 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