E. Manchester Boddy
Encyclopedia
Elias Manchester Boddy (1891–1967) rose from poverty to became the publisher of a major California newspaper and a candidate for Congress. His estate, Descanso Gardens, was bequeathed to the County of Los Angeles as a floral park.
and the University of Montana.
in the infantry. He was gassed in the Argonne
and sent home disabled. He spent months in a hospital. He was said to have resembled the actor Adolphe Menjou
, and Time magazine said much later that he was "High-voiced, quick-moving, affable, . . . an efficient horseman, pistol shot and fisherman."http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755809,00.html#ixzz1V77wOljXf
by hiring students as his agents. He was then promoted to sales manager for the encyclopedia.
After the war he resumed his old sales vocation by selling back issues of the magazine Current History
as bound volumes titled The European War. He moved west for his health, founded a book publishing company in Los Angeles and sold copies of the Mexican Year Book and other titles for Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler
. For fifty dollars he purchased an unsuccessful publication called Smiles and persuaded the Commercial Board of Los Angeles to take the magazine as its house organ
thereby establishing himself as a publisher.
Boddy assumed ownership of the newspaper on August 5, 1926. Its plant, at Pico Boulevard and Los Angeles Street, was deeply in debt. He rejected Vanderbilt’s editorial philosophy of emphasizing good news by turning the Daily News into a crusading newspaper that addressed police corruption, gambling and prostitution. He quickly earned the enmity of Los Angeles Police Chief James E. Davis
, who attempted to silence the News by arresting Boddy. Davis used an obscure municipal law that made it illegal to publish horse-racing entries and results in a general circulation newspaper. The charges never got beyond the arraignment stage, and Boddy continued reporting vice and corruption in his paper.
Boddy was a Republican and supported Herbert Hoover
in the 1932 Presidential election. He believed the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt
was a “terrible mistake.” Still, he recognized that Roosevelt’s New Deal
policies had merit and could lift the country out of the Depression. The Daily News was the only Los Angeles newspaper to openly endorse Roosevelt and give him balanced coverage. It also devoted considerable coverage to Technocracy, a type of scientific management of society and the economy. Boddy gave news space to Robert Noble’s “Ham ‘N Eggs” plan and Dr. Francis Townsend’s “Townsend Plan,” which proposed that state and federal governments would issue funds to people over age 60. The Daily News also extensively covered Upton Sinclair
’s run for California governor and his controversial End Poverty in California (EPIC) campaign. Competing newspapers either ignored the campaign or wrote vehement editorials against Sinclair’s programs.
Boddy’s editorial policies in these early years established the Daily News as the city’s only liberal journalistic voice.
After the end of World War II, Boddy’s interest in the newspaper began to wane. His efforts to stimulate interest in various plans to boost the country’s economy and his crusades for noble causes had ended with the war. Los Angeles had become a mecca for job-seekers and a refuge for new arrivals from the frozen East Coast. Postwar Los Angeles was emerging as an increasingly cosmopolitan city, and many of Boddy’s editorial policies seemed quaint to the city’s new residents.
Boddy spent less and time at the newspaper as he focused his energies on his estate, Descanso Gardens, in La Canada. He eventually turned the day-to-day operations over to his general manager, Robert L. Smith. Without Boddy, the newspaper lost its spunk and no longer tilted at windmills, reported newspaper researcher and writer Rob Leicester Wagner. By the fall of 1953, the Daily News was losing $75,000 a month, and it folded in December 1954. The assets were purchased by the Times Mirror Company. The Los Angeles Mirror, a Times-owned afternoon tabloid newspaper, took the Daily News name to become the Mirror-News.
, north of Los Angeles. Boddy had a wide range of interests, including horticulture, ranching, plant science, and politics. In 1942, he bought Mission Nursery of San Gabriel—and its stock—from the Yoshimura family, who were interned. Boddy named his estate in La Canada as Rancho de Descanso, which translates as “Ranch of Restfulness (or Repose).” The estate was deeded to Los Angeles County and is now open to the public as Descanso Gardens
.
.
In 1950, U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas challenged Democratic Senator Sheridan Downey
for the Democratic senatorial nomination from California. When Downey bowed out of the campaign, citing ill health, Boddy entered the race. California's Democratic State Central Committee had tried to draft Boddy to run for office in previous elections in 1942 and 1946. Boddy refused, claiming he had no interest in public office. For the 1950 Senate race, Boddy offered no specific reasons why he was running for office other than to say it was a "challenge" and he would meet interesting people.
Boddy's campaign got off to a late start and, according to Wagner, was disorganized. He received an important endorsement from Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, a Republican, and also got strong support from labor unions. His primary campaign plank was public ownership of hydroelectric plants across the state. He also supported a controversial proposal to limit land ownership in the Central Valley
to 160 acre (0.6474976 km²). His primary weakness was the lack of solid programs to boost California's economy.
Los Angeles Times political reporter Kyle Palmer wrote that "words flow" easily from Boddy, but his late start and lack of political credentials were handicaps to a successful campaign.
In May 1950, just weeks before the primary election, Boddy labeled Douglas the "Pink Lady" by implying that she was aligned with Communists and was part of a group of "red hots" trying to seize control of Democratic county committees in the state. Boddy and Douglas ran a bitter primary campaign, leaving Douglas, the Democratic victor, badly wounded in her race against the winner of the Republican primary, Congressman Richard Nixon
. Boddy came up with the idea of comparing Douglas' voting record to that of leftist Congressman Vito Marcantonio
of the American Labor Party—a tactic that was seized on by Nixon and his campaign manager, Murray Chotiner
in the final election.
On June 6, 1950, Douglas beat Boddy at the polls largely on the strength of her popularity with African-American voters. She garnered 889,000 votes to Boddy's 532,000. Nixon, who had crossed-filed in both parties in the primary, won 1,060,000 votes. Douglas lost to Nixon in the November general election
at the age of 75 on May 12, 1967. He was survived by his wife, the former Berenice M. Klotz, and two sons, Calvin and Robert.
Birth and education
Boddy was born November 1, 1891, in a log cabin on a Lake Tapps, Washington, homestead. He was said to have walked five miles daily to and from school and later attended Washington State CollegeWashington State University
Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...
and the University of Montana.
Personal
In World War I, Boddy was a second lieutenantSecond Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the infantry. He was gassed in the Argonne
Argonne
Argonne may refer to:*The Forest of Argonne in France*Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. D.O.E. National Laboratory near Chicago, Illinois*Meuse-Argonne Offensive, also called the Battle of Argonne Forest, a World War I battle*Argonne, Wisconsin, a town, US...
and sent home disabled. He spent months in a hospital. He was said to have resembled the actor Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born...
, and Time magazine said much later that he was "High-voiced, quick-moving, affable, . . . an efficient horseman, pistol shot and fisherman."http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755809,00.html#ixzz1V77wOljXf
Sales
Boddy's career was called by Art Berman of the Los Angeles Times a "classic example of the self-made man, with his early years marked by poverty." Boddy's university years were interspersed with periods of working as a "door-to-door flatiron salesman, ditch digger, janitor and miner." He was also a milker, ditch-digger, janitor, recruiter for the University of Montana, and New York City subway guard, then an Encyclopaedia Britannica salesman in that city, where he persuaded poor families to band together to buy the volumes. In Massachusetts, he evaded a ban on book salesmen at Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
by hiring students as his agents. He was then promoted to sales manager for the encyclopedia.
After the war he resumed his old sales vocation by selling back issues of the magazine Current History
Current History
Current History is the oldest United States-based publication devoted exclusively to contemporary world affairs. The magazine was founded in 1914 by George Washington Ochs Oakes, brother of New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs, in order to provide detailed coverage of World War I. Current History...
as bound volumes titled The European War. He moved west for his health, founded a book publishing company in Los Angeles and sold copies of the Mexican Year Book and other titles for Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler
Harry Chandler
Harry Chandler was an American newspaper publisher and investor who became owner of the largest real estate empire in the U.S.-Biography:...
. For fifty dollars he purchased an unsuccessful publication called Smiles and persuaded the Commercial Board of Los Angeles to take the magazine as its house organ
House organ
A house organ is a magazine or periodical published by a company for its customers or its employees...
thereby establishing himself as a publisher.
Newspaper
In 1926, Boddy was hired as editor of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, a failing newspaper originally been founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. The following year, with the newspaper bankrupt, he persuaded a stockholder committee and then, a federal judge to allow him to take over the newspaper. Within years, it became immensely profitable with Boddy as editor and publisher.Boddy assumed ownership of the newspaper on August 5, 1926. Its plant, at Pico Boulevard and Los Angeles Street, was deeply in debt. He rejected Vanderbilt’s editorial philosophy of emphasizing good news by turning the Daily News into a crusading newspaper that addressed police corruption, gambling and prostitution. He quickly earned the enmity of Los Angeles Police Chief James E. Davis
James E. Davis (police)
James Edgar Davis was Chief of Police of the City of Los Angeles Police Department from 1926–1931 and from 1933-1939. During his first term as Police Chief, Davis emphasized firearms training. Under Davis, the L.A.P.D. developed its lasting reputation as an organization that relied on brute force...
, who attempted to silence the News by arresting Boddy. Davis used an obscure municipal law that made it illegal to publish horse-racing entries and results in a general circulation newspaper. The charges never got beyond the arraignment stage, and Boddy continued reporting vice and corruption in his paper.
Boddy was a Republican and supported Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
in the 1932 Presidential election. He believed the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
was a “terrible mistake.” Still, he recognized that Roosevelt’s New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
policies had merit and could lift the country out of the Depression. The Daily News was the only Los Angeles newspaper to openly endorse Roosevelt and give him balanced coverage. It also devoted considerable coverage to Technocracy, a type of scientific management of society and the economy. Boddy gave news space to Robert Noble’s “Ham ‘N Eggs” plan and Dr. Francis Townsend’s “Townsend Plan,” which proposed that state and federal governments would issue funds to people over age 60. The Daily News also extensively covered Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
’s run for California governor and his controversial End Poverty in California (EPIC) campaign. Competing newspapers either ignored the campaign or wrote vehement editorials against Sinclair’s programs.
Boddy’s editorial policies in these early years established the Daily News as the city’s only liberal journalistic voice.
After the end of World War II, Boddy’s interest in the newspaper began to wane. His efforts to stimulate interest in various plans to boost the country’s economy and his crusades for noble causes had ended with the war. Los Angeles had become a mecca for job-seekers and a refuge for new arrivals from the frozen East Coast. Postwar Los Angeles was emerging as an increasingly cosmopolitan city, and many of Boddy’s editorial policies seemed quaint to the city’s new residents.
Boddy spent less and time at the newspaper as he focused his energies on his estate, Descanso Gardens, in La Canada. He eventually turned the day-to-day operations over to his general manager, Robert L. Smith. Without Boddy, the newspaper lost its spunk and no longer tilted at windmills, reported newspaper researcher and writer Rob Leicester Wagner. By the fall of 1953, the Daily News was losing $75,000 a month, and it folded in December 1954. The assets were purchased by the Times Mirror Company. The Los Angeles Mirror, a Times-owned afternoon tabloid newspaper, took the Daily News name to become the Mirror-News.
Horticultural
In 1936, Boddy purchased a 150 acre (0.607029 km²) parcel in La CanadaLa Cañada Flintridge, California
La Cañada Flintridge is a small and affluent city in Los Angeles County, California, United States whose population at the 2010 census was 20,246, down from 20,318 at the 2000 census. According to Forbes, as of 2010, La Cañada Flintridge ranks as the 143rd most expensive U.S...
, north of Los Angeles. Boddy had a wide range of interests, including horticulture, ranching, plant science, and politics. In 1942, he bought Mission Nursery of San Gabriel—and its stock—from the Yoshimura family, who were interned. Boddy named his estate in La Canada as Rancho de Descanso, which translates as “Ranch of Restfulness (or Repose).” The estate was deeded to Los Angeles County and is now open to the public as Descanso Gardens
Descanso Gardens
Descanso Gardens, located in La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles County, California, is a botanical garden.At one time, this property belonged to newspaper magnate E. Manchester Boddy, who owned the Los Angeles Daily News...
.
Political
For more, see United States Senate election in California, 1950United States Senate election in California, 1950
The 1950 United States Senate election in California followed a campaign characterized by accusations and name-calling. Republican Richard Nixon defeated Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas, after Democratic incumbent Sheridan Downey withdrew during the primary election campaign...
.
In 1950, U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas challenged Democratic Senator Sheridan Downey
Sheridan Downey
Sheridan Downey was a lawyer and a Democratic U.S. Senator from California from 1939 to 1950.-Early life:...
for the Democratic senatorial nomination from California. When Downey bowed out of the campaign, citing ill health, Boddy entered the race. California's Democratic State Central Committee had tried to draft Boddy to run for office in previous elections in 1942 and 1946. Boddy refused, claiming he had no interest in public office. For the 1950 Senate race, Boddy offered no specific reasons why he was running for office other than to say it was a "challenge" and he would meet interesting people.
Boddy's campaign got off to a late start and, according to Wagner, was disorganized. He received an important endorsement from Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, a Republican, and also got strong support from labor unions. His primary campaign plank was public ownership of hydroelectric plants across the state. He also supported a controversial proposal to limit land ownership in the Central Valley
Central Valley
Central Valley may refer to:*Central Valley *Central Valley, New York*Chilean Central Valley **Central Valley *Costa Rican Central Valley...
to 160 acre (0.6474976 km²). His primary weakness was the lack of solid programs to boost California's economy.
Los Angeles Times political reporter Kyle Palmer wrote that "words flow" easily from Boddy, but his late start and lack of political credentials were handicaps to a successful campaign.
In May 1950, just weeks before the primary election, Boddy labeled Douglas the "Pink Lady" by implying that she was aligned with Communists and was part of a group of "red hots" trying to seize control of Democratic county committees in the state. Boddy and Douglas ran a bitter primary campaign, leaving Douglas, the Democratic victor, badly wounded in her race against the winner of the Republican primary, Congressman Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. Boddy came up with the idea of comparing Douglas' voting record to that of leftist Congressman Vito Marcantonio
Vito Marcantonio
Vito Anthony Marcantonio was an American lawyer and democratic socialist politician. Originally a member of the Republican Party and a supporter of Fiorello LaGuardia, he switched to the American Labor Party.-Early life:...
of the American Labor Party—a tactic that was seized on by Nixon and his campaign manager, Murray Chotiner
Murray Chotiner
Murray M Chotiner was an American political strategist, attorney, government official, and close associate and friend of President Richard Nixon during much of the 37th President's political career...
in the final election.
On June 6, 1950, Douglas beat Boddy at the polls largely on the strength of her popularity with African-American voters. She garnered 889,000 votes to Boddy's 532,000. Nixon, who had crossed-filed in both parties in the primary, won 1,060,000 votes. Douglas lost to Nixon in the November general election
Death
Boddy died in Pasadena, California, of congestive heart failureCongestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
at the age of 75 on May 12, 1967. He was survived by his wife, the former Berenice M. Klotz, and two sons, Calvin and Robert.
See also
- Charles E. DownsCharles E. DownsCharles E. Downs was the first Los Angeles City Council member representing the 10th District after a new city charter went into effect in 1925...
, jailed City Council member supported by Boddy - C.H. Garrigues, Daily News political writer