Still, he wanted to be bigger and stronger, so shortly after graduation, he took up weightlifting. They resented my position at the L.A. Times and felt there were a lot of things I could have done differently.. He died in May 1972 at age 47. [1], In 1990, Chandler was trampled by a musk ox in the Northwest Territories of Canada. 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. Norman, the eldest, went through an executive training program and rose to be composing superintendent a position overseeing much of the physical production of the paper before leaving in 1989, when he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. But he was never specific, and the word publisher was never mentioned.. His goal, he once quipped, was to make it a militant middle-of-the-road paper.. The agreement made sense financially for The Times, but it proved to be a boon in another way as well. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. 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. Son of Norman Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler Even Chandler said some of those long stories made the paper seem gray, somewhat dull at times. 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. Reporter Gene Blake produced a five-part expose, written in calm, matter-of-fact language. The New York Times even published an editorial under the headline The Truth According to Otis Chandler.. The shift on the editorial page came as the region itself, once dependably Republican, was becoming less conservative. As it happened, the consultants also recommended that, to ensure stability, the new publisher be capable of holding the job at least 15 years. But as the children grew up and she had more time available, she embarked on a career of her own she got womens lib is how Chandler put it and that exacerbated tensions between them. [1] Not long after, he left his wife, and three years later a year after he moved out of the Times publishers office he and Whitaker, 12 years his junior, were married. And, like most men of his stature, he was on the boards of several civic organizations and served on a variety of local and national commissions and committees. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Otis Chandler. Marian Otis Chandler (1866-1952), Born Emma Marian Otis. 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. Constance Chandler 1896-1962. He put in long hours, but he managed to have dinner with his family most nights, even if it meant doing more work at home after dinner. I was 50, and I didnt want to be unhappy for the rest of my life.. Otis Chandler was born on July 4, 1919. Since his first run for Congress in 1946, he had been championed by The Times as he successfully ran for U.S. Senate and then for the vice presidency on the Eisenhower ticket. [1], Times editorial page editor Anthony Day observed that Chandler "had been raised to be a prince". He wanted the paper to take what he called more balls out positions, and he wanted us to change our position and editorialize against the war in Vietnam.. Williams was 21 years older than Chandler and often pulled in his reins. He started work right away as a pressroom apprentice on the graveyard shift. Like many women of her generation, Marilyn Chandler had long put her own career interests on hold to raise their children. I was just told to be at the Biltmore an hour early for a civic luncheon.. That was far from the only example of Chandlers reversal of long-held dogma at The Times. There Chandler spent much of his time alone, later in life unable to name a single childhood friend. After his divorce, Chandler had begun to move his primary residence so often two places in Malibu, then Hancock Park, back to Malibu, Ojai, Rancho Matilija, Oregon, Ojai again that his children began teasing him about it. And it became clear over the years that he did not have any such intention. But the series also served notice that The Times was in the process of becoming a different and much better newspaper. Despite that, Chandler did not envision journalism as a career during his youth; instead, he often said he would like to become a doctor. 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. 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 He told me, You created a great newspaper, Otis, and well make you proud,. Chandler said. On it, neatly typed, was a seven-year executive training program, scheduled to begin that Sunday night. Regardless, Chandler welcomed the outcome, largely because of his dissatisfaction with the existing management of Times-Mirror. His Stanford roommate, Norman Nourse, suggested that he try the shotput throwing a 16-pound iron ball. Critics also thought his position at the top of the citys power structure prevented The Times from aggressively investigating that establishment. They never forgave her for her apparent role in Otis ascension over Philip. For all his seeming calm and control throughout his life, he had suffered from sporadic bouts of insomnia and intestinal pain diagnosed as a spastic colon ever since he became publisher. 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.. Chandler was an exotic, at times mythic figure among the nations newspaper executives, most of whose exertions and excursions outside the boardroom were generally limited to golf courses and cruise ships. Chandler immediately excelled, breaking the school freshman record with a toss of 48 feet, 761/47 inches. The next evening, a Friday, his father grinning like a Cheshire cat, Chandler would always remember handed him a sheet of paper. Concerned by the growing competition from television, Chandler urged his editors to transform the paper into a regional daily newsmagazine that placed a high premium on analysis, interpretation and good writing not just covering the days events but putting them in context and doing so in a lively and compelling fashion. As he did in every posting at The Times, he filled notebook after notebook with his thoughts on possible improvements. Norman Chandler, then near his 60th birthday, saw the logic in the change. Did The Times change out of foresight or luck? In 1948 the Chandler family had started a second newspaper, an afternoon tabloid called the Los Angeles Mirror, and as part of his training program, Otis worked there too. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. This coincided with the shift of the paper's editorial stance from overtly conservative to independent. Doctors estimated that his dislocated right arm would never fully heal, but, citing a disciplined training regimen, Chandler claimed to regain virtually all use. The Mirror was losing $30,000 a week, and Otis sent his father a confidential memo urging that a strong business manager be hired. One of the first examples came in 1961, when The Times hired Jim Murray as a sports columnist. In 1960, he became publisher of the Los Angeles Times. His mother rushed him to a second hospital, where a doctor she knew revived him with an adrenaline shot to the heart. Otis and Williams perhaps the ablest newspaper editor of his generation, in Halberstams words became a formidable team. There were so many changes going on, and I think if we hadnt kept up with the flow, The Times wouldnt have continued to do well financially Im glad we did what we did.. But after about 18 months, I accepted an invitation to his house for dinner, and when I drove up to this huge mansion in San Marino, I thought, Holy cow! When I got inside, I said, Well, just what do you do at The Times?.. 2443 E Peach Tree Drive is currently listed for rent at $1,995 and was received on February 28, 2023. (Little) Chandler. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. The 1962 gubernatorial campaign was another. His father made sure that Chandler experienced work in all sections of the organization, assigning him to jobs in the industrial production of the paper, business management, clerical administration, and the news-gathering operation.[1]. Arthur O. Sulzberger, who was then publisher of the New York Times, said that although he initially shared his colleagues surprise and disappointment when Chandler left, I later realized that I shouldnt have been so surprised. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. This was the only big investment I ever made, and I didnt do any investigation of it beforehand. 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. In 1995, at age 68, he crashed his motorcycle into a tractor while in New Zealand. 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. 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. In college, he had sometimes worked summers at the paper, most often using his physical strength to move printing plates and other heavy items and equipment. 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. 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. He was rejected anyway; his shoulders and hips were still too big to fit into the cockpit of a jet. He accused Willes and Downing of misusing and abusing the newsroom staff, of unbelievably stupid and unprofessional handling of the Staples special section and of perpetrating a scandal and a fiasco that posed the most serious single threat to the future survival and growth of this great newspaper during my more than 50 years of being associated with The Times., This was, he said, probably the single most devastating period in the history of this great newspaper. But when Williams, the editor, suggested that the paper look into the organization anyway, both Otis and Norman Chandler gave him the go-ahead. Within a few years, The Times had a 2-1 lead over the Herald Examiner in advertising revenue, which provides about 80% of the income for most newspapers. In the midst of a horseback riding lesson, he was thrown hard to the ground. 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. He was 70 then, mandatory retirement age for members of the board of directors. When the Hearsts and Chandlers agreed to fold the two papers, The Times acquired a monopoly in the increasingly lucrative morning market, while Hearsts Los Angeles Herald-Express (renamed the Herald Examiner) was left with a monopoly in the increasingly problematic afternoon market. Brian Lamb, right, founder and CEO of C-Span, interviews Otis Chandler in 2001. Otis is someone whos very used to having his own way, and she impeded that.. He died in 2002. But it was clear that he had felt a growing personal animosity toward Willes, and he saw the takeover as a repudiation of Willes and a vindication of his own criticism. Brother of Camilla Chandler, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Chandler. He hunted. 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. Retired Times publisher Otis Chandlers car collection included a 1931 Duesenberg LeBaron Special Phaeton. [1], On a 1964 safari in Mozambique, an elephant charged his party. With Otis gone, the heat shield was gone, Johnson said. For the first time in his life, he found his personal integrity seriously questioned. He foresaw the sprawling megalopolis that Los Angeles and its neighboring counties would become, and he wanted The Times to be the dominant paper from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border.. Grandson of Harrison Gray Otis. He built a newspaper that was as great as the city it covers. 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. Until shortly before his death in 1973, Chandlers father had helped insulate him from those protests. As recently as September, Chandler appeared fit, aside from a knee injury, and was lucid enough to sit for an interview and give a visitor a guided tour of his classic car and motorcycle museum in Oxnard. But even though the paper and the company has been sold, it feels to me like Im home again.. Buffum), Michael Otis "mike" Chandler, Norman Brant Chandler, From http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2010/09/found-on-ebay-norman-chandler.html, From http://www.laopera.org/tickets/Plan-Your-Visit/About-the-Music-Center/Dorothy-Buffum-Chandler/, U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007. In 1995, when he was 68, his motorcycle collided with a tractor in New Zealand, leaving him with part of the big toe on his left foot missing, another toe severely damaged and the rest of the foot largely numb. His grandfather, Charles Abel Buffum, was a businessman who founded Buffum's, a department store chain, with his brother, Edwin E. Buffum, and a politician, who served as Mayor of Long Beach, California. 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. Then, on April 11, 1960, Norman Chandler invited more than 700 people to a luncheon at the Biltmore Bowl ballroom in downtown Los Angeles, where he promised a special announcement.. Tree Drive is currently listed for rent at $ otis chandler family tree and was received February... Times publisher Otis Chandlers car collection included a 1931 Duesenberg LeBaron Special Phaeton shift the! Power structure prevented the Times, but it proved to be a prince '' they resented my position at top... His thoughts on possible improvements of Times-Mirror he found his personal integrity seriously questioned improvements... 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