Merry Lepper broke the rules and, in Culver City, became the first US woman to run a marathon. Shifting ground broke the Baldwin Hills dam; we talk with a woman who has never told her story before.
50 years later, Culver City honors first female marathoner
Last year, according to Running USA, women made up 42 percent of marathon finishers. But through the 1960s, female runners weren’t allowed to compete in anything longer than 880 meters. The first sign of change came not in Boston or New York, but in Culver City, 50 years ago Monday.
Back then, male race officials said running long distances would hurt women’s ovaries. Merry Lepper smiled when we talked about it in Culver City a few days ago. "I really had to laugh about that," she said, "because I was hearing the reason that men gave that women couldn’t drive automobiles in Saudi Arabia was that it would hurt their ovaries. Whose ovaries are they!?"
Lepper is an unheralded pioneer in women’s athletics. In 1963, she was a 20-year-old community college student who loved running long distances. "I’m not a very fast runner," she said. "So for me, the distance races were a place where I could run slow."
Lepper’s running partner was her friend Lyn Carman, and her coach was Lyn’s husband, the late Bob Carman, a renowned marathoner. Bob and Lyn had a plan: Lyn would become the first U.S. woman to run a marathon.
Sports historian David Davis, who discovered the story and wrote about it in a Kindle long-read called "Marathon Crasher," says the race they planned to have Lyn crash was Culver City’s annual marathon. "It was called the Western Hemisphere Marathon. Actually started in the late '40s … and it was probably ranked second or third behind Boston as the preeminent marathon in the United States and certainly the biggest one on the West Coast."
Lepper picks up the story: "Lyn had been talking about running in it, and when we went to races we always went together. We were ready for it. We’d been running with the guys. We’d been out running 25 miles every Sunday for a couple of months. We were ready, and she was intending to do that, so I went along."
So on Dec. 16, 1963, Lepper and Lyn Carman showed up at the starting line in Culver City. Lyn says they didn’t get a warm reception: "Before the race, there was one official who spent about 20 minutes chewing me out, saying I’d never be able to have babies again. He said the men would be disqualified if we ran, and he gave me a bit of hell."
The men started, then Lyn Carman and Lepper. Lepper had a hard time finding her stride, so Lyn went ahead. Lepper almost got hit by a car at one point, and she rested on the curb for a bit, but eventually she got back into it.
I was just running along, feeling comfortable, and I didn’t catch Lyn until about mile 20, and I was thinking, “Oh, nice here she is now we can run together.” And as soon as I got up there, she said, “Oh, I feel terrible. I can’t do this. I’m just not feeling good today.” And she said, “I’m quitting.” I said, “You can’t quit!” So I went on by myself.
She finished with a time of 3:37:07, which immediately became the world record for women.
It was obvious to us all along that women could run marathons, women could run distance races. So it wasn’t really a surprise to me. It was just like, now the world can see that women can do this without dying or fainting or something.
Except the world didn’t see the importance of Lepper’s achievement. Maybe it was still too focused on her ovaries. It took the Boston Marathon nine more years to allow women, and the Olympics didn't see the light until 1984 in Los Angeles, when Joan Benoit won the first women's Olympic marathon.
1984 Olympic Women's Marathon - Joan Benoit
But Merry Lepper stayed her laid-back self, getting her masters in zoology and a Ph.D. in plant ecology, and becoming a large animal veterinarian. "I just kind of forgot about it," she says. "I was really pleased to see that women were competing in marathons and they were doing so well."
Then, this spring, David Davis got in touch with Culver City’s politicians, and pointed out their city’s place in history, and that an important anniversary was rapidly approaching. And on Monday, Culver City finally gave Merry Lepper the attention she didn’t get for 50 years.
The commendation reads: Now, therefore, the City Council of the City of Culver City, California, hereby congratulates and commends Merry Lepper, a shining example of how one person can overcome tremendous hurdles to fulfill a dream and, in the process, pave the way for generations to come.
By the way, Lepper, who turns 71 in a couple weeks, has a bad knee and can’t run anymore. But she happily drove the 600 miles from her home in Southeastern Arizona to Culver City to pick up the commendation. After all, she likes long distances.
RIP bassist, jazz great, teacher Charlie Haden
UPDATE 7/11/2014 (Associated Press): Bassist Charlie Haden, who helped change the shape of jazz a half-century ago as a member of the groundbreaking Ornette Coleman Quartet, has died. He was 76. Haden, who had in recent years suffered from post-polio syndrome, died Friday in Los Angeles from the prolonged illness. Tina Pelikan of ECM Records says Haden's wife and children were by his side.
Charlie Haden, the bass player and composer, has worked with musicians such as Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman and his own Liberation Music Orchestra.
Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson went to REDCAT in Downtown L.A. recently for a rare performance by Haden as he conducted his Liberation Music Orchestra, composed entirely of CalArts students.
Raised in the Ozarks, Haden thrived on music his entire life. As a child, he sang folk and country music before contracting polio at 15, damaging his voice. Determined to stick with music, he took up the double bass and has become one of jazz's most important contributors to the instrument.
On the iconic free jazz record "The Shape of Jazz to Come," you can hear him follow Ornette Coleman's lead but build a solid foundation for the band, too:
Haden's had health problems lately — his polio symptoms have resurfaced. He struggles with speaking and said he hasn't eaten solid food in three years. Guests wondered out loud if tonight might be his last show.
Haden was undeterred.
Want to read more? Our own Oscar Garza was there, too. He wrote a review for KPCC's Without a Net blog.
What's a $15K model train look like? Pasadena's Whistle Stop sells them
The Original Whistle Stop in East Pasadena is getting a lot of business lately. It's close to Christmas, so plenty of kids — and grown-ups who still think they're kids — flood the shop to buy the ultimate tree accessory: a model train.
The Whistle Stop first opened its doors in 1951. Fred Hill started working at the Whistle Stop decades ago, and when the place went up for sale in the '70s, he knew he had to buy it.
These days, Hill's store on Colorado Boulevard is packed with antique railroad signs and lanterns, tiny trees and figures to make any miniature railroad come to life and illuminated glass cases that display model trains like prized trophies.
The store has so much stuff, the first timer might find it a bit overwhelming. But Hill says they sell to more than just the pro model railroader — they're there for anybody who likes model trains.
According to Hill, the model train business has changed over the years — and it's still changing. Modern trains sets can come with radio control technology, digital sounds and realistic moving parts.
As with any other hobby, model railroading can become a little bit of an obsession. Not all model trains are toys necessarily. Hill says modelers readily spend top dollar for detail and craftsmanship.
Hill even designs and manufacturers his own model trains. He calls it The Coach Yard line, but serious model railroaders have nicknamed trains like Hill's "Gucci trains" for their high prices and limited availability.
Hill can sell models for top dollar because he really knows his trains. Ready to jump into the model train world with style? How about a $15,000 model train? No joke, Hill says it's a 9-foot Union Pacific Big Boy, hand painted and assembled in Korea by a respected artisan train maker.
Hill's love of trains expands beyond just miniatures, too. He's even worked with a team to restore a real-life train, a 120-ton Santa Fe Northern locomotive that they've driven from L.A. to Chicago and back.
After decades in business, Hill says The Whistle Stop is still going strong. According to him, model trains are here to stay. "It has movement. It has sound. It has smoke. It has action. It also brings back memories of childhood to adults," Hill says. "It's just something that gives you a little smile on your face."
What does a serious model train problem look like? It probably looks like this:
Northlandz Model Railroad, Flemington, NJ
50 years after the Baldwin Hills Dam collapse, a survivor tells her story
On December 14, 1963 — 50 years ago Saturday — the dam in front of the Baldwin Hills reservoir broke. 290 million gallons of water rushed down, killing five people and destroying or damaging 277 homes.
(Dec. 20, 1963, the break in the Baldwin Hills Dam. Doug Wilson/LAPL Herald-Examiner Collection)
Among those displaced by the flood was Rhea Coskey, whose house was destroyed.
Rhea and her family had lived in their home for seven years when the dam broke; a property they owned and a home they built themselves. "It grew as our children grew," says Coskey.
Rhea was at a wedding shower when the dam broke. Her husband was playing golf. Inside their Baldwin Hills home, a babysitter watched one of their children.
"It was only during the course of the wedding shower that there were problems up here in Baldwin Hills," said Coskey. "My sister had just had a baby. Her babysitter was called by my babysitter who was frightened by helicopters overhead."
Soon, Coskey turned on the TV and began frantically calling family members. Nobody answered at first, but she eventually reached her father-in-law, who had all three of her children with him.
KTLA carried a live feed of the disaster from above. It was one of the first breaking news events covered by helicopters. But Coskey couldn't watch.
"I hysterically turned off the television," she says. "I didn't want the children to see that their house had washed away." Large items like pianos and washing machines ended up hundreds of feet from the home.
Rhea says she and her family found support from neighbors.
"A couple weeks later — at one of the community meetings — someone held up a very small little book of photography. Of our children's pictures," says Coskey. "And it was mud soaked. And they asked 'does this belong to anyone?'" Coskey still has the photo album, but not much else from that time.
The collapse could have caused much more damage. David McNeill, head of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, credits the advanced warning government received from engineers who noticed a leak. "By 1 or 2 o'clock, they decided to do a warning and get people out," says McNeill.
Authorities evacuated nearly 8,000 people from the surrounding neighborhoods. Coskey and McNeill credit then-City Councilman Tom Bradley for organizing the recovery and helping get the city to accept some responsibility for the disaster.
Saturday from noon to 4, there'll be a gathering at the former dam site -- now the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area -- to commemorate the anniversary with music, storytelling, politicians, and community groups. They'll pause at 3:38pm for a moment of silence, when it will be exactly 50 years since the Baldwin Hills Dam collapse.
LA archivist pleads for cop shows like 'Mob City' to use 'just the facts'
Michael Holland is LA City Archivist. This is a version of a piece he wrote for the city employee newspaper Alive!
From "Dragnet" to "Adam 12" to "LA Confidential" to "Mob City," few LA institutions are more popular with film and TV than the Los Angeles Police Department. I just wish the producers would spend more time in my office gathering … just the facts, ma’am.
“Mob City,” TNT’s new crime series, is only the latest show to explore police work in LA. Set around 1947, with occasional flashbacks, it follows the efforts of a crime unit dedicated to keeping mobsters like Mickey Cohen at bay and - hopefully - out of the city altogether.
“Mob City” is based on John Buntin’s 2009 book, “L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City.” I heard about the show earlier this year because my wife is a TV critic who visited the set and saw some clips last summer as they were beginning production. Before Buntin wrote his book, he did spend some time with us here at the archive, studying several of our archival resources, including the LAPD annual reports and scrapbooks.
The annual report is required under the City Charter and is sent to the Mayor, City Council, and other officials. It compiles stats on everything the police department did in a given year, including numbers of crimes reported, arrests made, and dollars spent.
The scrapbooks were started in 1947 by the department’s PR office for in-house purposes. The books contain clippings from most if not all of the local daily newspapers, highlighting who was committing the crimes and who made the arrests. They were collected and assembled in chronological order and can be very useful to follow a specific event … instead of going through miles of microfilm at the library.
The year "Mob City" opens, 1947, the annual report is 164 pages of densely packed tables, charts and graphs with incredible detail, such as which hours of what days of the week were most likely to have crime take place -- Saturday evenings accounted for 17% of all crimes committed that year. There’s no public relations spin in the report.
That had changed by 1950, the year William Parker became Chief of Police. The Public Relations office became the Public Information Division, and the role of the annual report changed, too, to highlight the department’s role in public safety and quality of life, and why the department needed more resources to do an almost impossible task. One example from 1950 shows how tough the officer recruitment process was: about 6500 people applied, but fewer than 200 survived all the exams, training, and probation for a paltry 3.8% acceptance rate.
The crime stats weren’t forgotten. They became their own published report known as the Statistical Digest and are also in the archives.
Meanwhile, the scrapbooks continued to collect stories about crooks and the cops who arrested them, but Chief Parker seemed to have given the Public Information Division the ability to include the dark side of the LAPD. The scrapbooks include former officers arrested as narcotic dealers and other criminals. One was a Wilshire Division sergeant, Harvey W. Harper. He and his wife Margaret were picked up as bookies in January 1952. The clippings follow Harper’s resignation from the force to his 8-month prison sentence.
1952 also contain many stories about the “Bloody Christmas” bar brawl involving 7 young men – mostly Hispanic – who were beaten by arresting officers at the scene, then by other cops in the Central Jail. That was the story dramatized in James Ellroy’s “LA Confidential” and the subsequent movie.
Other stories include suicides of cops and family members, shell-shocked war veterans in deadly confrontations with traffic officers, and Zsa Zsa Gabor getting a speeding ticket.
The greatest shot in the arm for morale came in the form of Jack Webb’s “Dragnet.” First as a radio show in 1949, and then as a TV show, and allegedly based on real LA crimes, “Dragnet” has its own scrapbook in the archive with press releases, comic book strips, and even real crime reporting written in the Webb’s deadpan style.
(July 25, 1958: "Television star jack Webb (second from right) and retired businessman Milton Fogleman (right) were members of three-man board to give oral examinations to police applicants here. The non-paying posts were assigned to them by the Civil Service Commission. Other board member was Police Lieut. Merle Sutton. Applicant at left is R. W. Werner." Image: LAPL/Herald-Examiner Collection)
If “Mob City” gets renewed, I hope the research staff will pay me a visit. There are enough real-life stories here to support the story they are trying to tell.
'Young Turks' shows downtown LA arts scene when 'the rent was cheap, the streets were tough, and the beer was warm'
UPDATE 12/12/2013: Tuesday, Dec. 17, “Young Turks” is being released on cable
video on demand, including Comcast, Cox, Frontier and Verizon FIOS; and iTunes, GooglePlay, XBox, Playstation and Vudu.
When I moved to LA, Al's bar, the old center of the downtown LA arts and punk music scene, had only a few months to live. But back in the 1980's, it was the spot to gather, and a number of artists who helped make the scene lived in Al's building, the American Hotel. So it was natural for me to meet Pamela Wilson and Stephen Seemayer at the old Al's Bar site to talk about their new/old documentary, Young Turks.
Young Turks is the kind of doc I like. It's short, meaning the filmmakers respect our time and don't force us to watch every should-be outtake they think is essential to understanding their vision of life. And, it doesn't pretend to unlock the mysteries of the universe. It's about a particular group of people who lived in a particular place for a while. It shows how they lived, where they lived, and what and who they lived among.
Specifically, Young Turks is about Wilson and Seemayer's friends, artists and art-associated people who lived and worked downtown c. 1980, including Bob & Bob, Linda Frye Burnham, sculptors Woods Davy, Coleen Sterritt, John Schroeder, Jon Petersen, and James Croak, "action critic" Randy Johnsen, Al's Bar owner Marc Kreisel, conceptualist Monique Safford, and painter Andrew Wilf. It also includes interviews/vignettes with various homeless people, who become the real stars of the film.
Seemayer shot Young Turks c 1980 on 8mm, and could only manage a very rough cut, which got two showings. Then it sat in his and Pamela's closet for thirty years. Then, partly fueled by being pissed off that Pacific Standard Time ignored their downtown scene, they remastered it digitally and added footage that didn't make the initial cut.
The result is a thought-provoking portrait of a time, with, as Wilson points out, more similarities than differences from today's downtown arts scene.
It's worth going to see it at the Downtown Independent ... where you can drink cold beer in your seat.