I hope I'm not sharing
too much, but I stumbled across some photos of my parents while gathering up the "silent movie" stuff, and as they relate more directly to LA itself, I figured I'd post them here.
Like many Japanese Americans after World War II, my mother lived briefly at the
Evergreen Hostel at 506 North Evergreen Avenue in Boyle Heights.
LINK
I was
sure I'd read about the Evergreen Hostel earlier in this thread, but I couldn't find the post (if it exists).
The building still stands, and can be seen
here on Google Maps. Here's a good article about the hostel:
http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Evergreen_Hostel/
Upon leaving the hostel after two months, my mother got a job at the
City News Service. I looked in the CD and found this:
LINK
LINK
It seems that the City News Service was located right between the Broadway Christian Church (seen
here) and the "Clifton House", which I've never seen a photo of.
My mom on the far right. Not yet married, she was still Mary
Kitano. The door says "City News Service of Los Angeles". Note the headline:
LINK
Quote:
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ABOVE: Mary Kitano from Manzanar works for City New Service in Los Angeles. Holding the paper is Betty Lyou, Korean; next to her, her husband, Rodney Voight, manager of City News Service, a Caucasian; then Miss Fusako Takemoto and Miss Mary Kitano, both Nisei. Photographer: Mace, Charles E.
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LINK
Quote:
ABOVE: Mary Kitano from Manzanar and her fellow-workers on the staff of the City News Service. Left to right: Betty Lyou, Korean; Fusako Takemoto, Nisei (never in Centers), seated; Mary Kitano back of her; Vera Haprov and Mary Planin, both Russians.
Mary Kitano just received a $25 check from Readers Digest for a picturesque patter item, and also has a commission to write for Now magazine. City News Service has 15 reporters, covering metropolitan Los Angeles for nearby small-city papers. Mary reads and finds news items in over 100 papers. A Chinese rewrite man and three Russian girls also work there. Mary was hired first, then brought her chum Fusako Takemoto, who was also hired. Photographer: Mace, Charles E.
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The following photo was taken inside of the Pan-Pacific Auditorium:
Online Archive of California
My mom is the second from the left. The back of the photo reads:
Quote:
ABOVE: Date: 1945-09-06
Booth at the Pan-Pacific Industrial Exposition, Los Angeles, California, sponsored by Friends of the American Way, Council for Civic Unity, Fair Play Committee, W.R.A. and other organizations interested in returnees and in combating racism.
Left to right: Mrs. Sylvia Leventhal, of B'nai B'rith Women, L.A. Miss Mary Kitano, newspaper woman with City News Service, L.A. She is formerly from Manzanar. Col. H. A. Finch, U.S. Army, retired, active officer of Friends of the American Way, Pasadena. Miss Eva Lee, American of Chinese descent, of International Institute, L.A. Miss Mary Suzuki of W.R.A. Area Office, L.A. She is formerly of Manzanar.
Photographer: Iwasaki, Hikaru
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In 1947 my mother started working for the
Los Angeles Daily News (where she met my father), located at Pico and Los Angeles Street.
LINK
Quote:
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The Los Angeles Daily News, published by Manchester Boddy, was the self-proclaimed "only Democratic newspaper west of the Rockies." An oversized tabloid---peach colored---it boasted the most free-spirited staff in L.A. newspaper history---from young rewrite man Jack Smith to sports editor Ned Cronin and columnist Matt Weinstock. It is pictured here, at the corner of Pico and Los Angeles Streets, in the early 1940s.
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The building still stands, and can be seen below on Google Maps:
GSV
LINK
My mom at the Daily News:
LINK
Quote:
ABOVE: Here the versatile Mary Kitano cuts either a birthday or going-away cake for the Daily Newsies, circa 1950. Note the numerous women employed at the paper.
Also note: The seated fellow in the center is David Kenyon Webster, who was a copyboy and reporter at the Daily News from '49 through '52. He was also the author who wrote a book about his World War II experiences, Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich. Webster's letters and manuscript were used as source material by Stephen Ambrose for his book Band of Brothers, and as background for the writers of HBO's ten-part miniseries, "Band of Brothers."
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While my mother worked for the Daily News, my father worked for United Press - known today as United Press
International, or UPI - the offices of which were located in the same building as the Daily News. The following photo is from around the same time (though clearly not in the same building, as the arched windows don't match the rectangular windows of the Daily News building):
family photo
As a final image, here is my mother working as a fashion model at Ciro's (she's holding up a hand mirror):
http://www.janm.org/collections/item/96.267.27/
My mother actually won the "Miss Compton" beauty pageant at some point. I've got a great photo of her, sitting in a car in a parade, as Miss Compton, but it's somewhere in storage.
PS: If you'd care to read an interview with my parents about the early days of LA newspapers, you can read it here. I find it really interesting, but I'm probably not the most neutral of critics in this case!
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