by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As a member of the Industry Hill Rotary Club, it was a great pleasure to be asked to provide a short background on the establishment a century ago of the Chino club, with this presentation looking at some major events of 1925 as well as some of the happenings with the club in its first year, along with a brief look at the development of Rotary in greater Los Angeles dating back to the first decade of the 20th century.
The Rotary Club dates back to 23 February 1905 when attorney Paul Harris and three other business figures established the first club in Chicago and the name derived from the simple fact that the location of meetings rotated among the members. From the outset, the concern was for what the organization emphasized was “Service Above Self” in the form of community betterment projects. The first located reference to such an endeavor was from fall 1907 when the Chicago club embarked on work to construct a pair of “comfort stations,” or public bathrooms, in the Windy City’s Loop district.
In its 18 June 1909 edition, the Los Angeles Express briefly reported that “about fifty members of the newly organized Rotary club met at the Hollenbeck hotel at noon today for their first informal luncheon.” The account continued that “the club is composed of Los Angeles business men who will ‘boost for one another'” and that it was “modeled after organizations formed in San Francisco, Portland and Chicago and which have been very successful.”
The focus on business boosting was present from the beginning, as well as community service, while there were also presentations at the weekly luncheons. An early one at the Los Angeles club was by member Oscar Farish, who also happened to be a candidate for mayor and an advocate for the annexation of the towns of San Pedro and Wilmington that, through a rather infamous “shoestring” of land connected these communities, comprising the Port of Los Angeles, to the rest of the Angel City.
Another important early project supported by the Rotary club was discussed in the 11 September 1909 edition of the Los Angeles Herald as the organization worked to support the holding of the just the second international aviation meet in the area. The paper, which published a photo of the luncheon, recorded the deliberations at a meeting and noted that $1,000 was raised toward the effort, while it was added that the balmy midwinter climate was perfect for the holding of the races. In January 1910, the meet was held at the Dominguez ranch in modern Compton and was truly a landmark for regional aviation.
With another boom under way in the first years of the 20th century’s second decade and a second club, the National, was formed. In late November 1912, however, it was determined to merge the two into a Rotary Club of Los Angeles that boasted 300 members. The newly combined club also “decided to give the little ones at the Children’s hospital the most complete Christmas fete” as its first endeavor, including the purchase and installation of a Christmas tree for the young patients to enjoy.
Moreover, it was determined that a new club slogan, “Made in Los Angeles,” was to be promoted and a “home products dinner” held that featured food from local sources (what we might call now the “farm to table” concept). Mention was also made of refraining from political activity under club auspices, while the National club’s president, William P. Schlosser, was given a watch and praised for his efforts.
The next February, as Rotary marked its sixth anniversary, the Los Angeles Tribune, of the 23rd, published a pair of photos of Los Angeles club members and broadcast that it was the largest in the nation and world (clubs overseas were also rapidly forming) in terms of membership, the number reaching 318. The paper remarked that,
In brief, the Rotary club is an organization of clean-cut business men ambitious to practice the golden rule of business. And the club does not confine itself to business by any means. As the result of the movement it started and directed, a fund of $5000 was raised for a seaside home for the little inmates of the Children’s hospital, and the money is now in the bank to the credit of the hospital. On Christmas, every child there received not one but a number of presents, consisting of attractive playthings and useful articles of clothing. A splendid tree, too, gladdened the hearts of the youthful patients.
Roger Andrews, assistant to the president of the Citizens Trust and Savings Bank, was the key figure in these early days of the Los Angeles Rotary Club and he shared remarks he made at the national convention in Duluth, Minnesota, the prior year. This included “if I devote some of my time in an effort to promote your interests and the welfare of your deserving business enterprises . . . I will, by the same token, improve the condition of my own business.” This involved another motto of the day for the organization: “He profits most who serves best.”
As for those weekly meetings, the Tribune remarked that “no livelier meetings were ever held by a club in Southern California than are the weekly gatherings” as “fun arrives in a running jump . . . and never leaves” until they end. This meant that “so much good fellowship and humor are in evidence that the attendance is great” and space had to be set aside in adjoining rooms in the Union Club’s quarters.
With respect to speakers, these included “noted visitors in the city, well-known business men, actors, preachers” and more, while “every week is ‘Boost Week'” related to the fact that members promoted the business activities of their fellows, though it was insisted that this was “entirely apart from any pecuniary benefit that may result.” The article ended with the observation that,
There’s no solemn piety about the Rotarians. They’re a laughing crowd and laugh hardest when they are raising funds to help someone out of a hole without letting him know anything about it. They tell jokes on themselves at every meeting so everybody can laugh. It is said that no man ever attends a Rotary club luncheon without having at least four good new stories. When the last speaker has had his say and the chairman has obtained order, they all rise and sing a verse of “America” and go their several ways.
In summer 1913, a delegation of Angel City Rotarians headed south to San Diego to offer aid and assistance to their compatriots as the southern metropolis was readying for the mounting of the Panama-California Exposition, held in 1915 and 1916 to mark the completion of the Panama Canal and the benefit of trade accruing to California’s port cities. A photo in the Tribune of 20 July included a bit of Rotarian humor as a banner was brought that read, “Imported Royal Hungry-Arion Band” and included the name of “John Phillip Snooza,” a play on the name of the famed bandleader John Phillip Souza.
After the Christmas holiday of 1913 and the turn of the new year, the Tribune covered the first meeting of 1914 and commented that “with swelling hearts and moistening eyes more than 200 members of the Rotary club listened yesterday noon at Brink’s cafe to a complete report of the good deeds done by the Good Fellows during the Christmas holidays.” The “Good Fellows” was an ad-hoc organization led by Rotarians, who invited members of other clubs to participate in works that involved “splendid generosity, unselfishness and hard work [which] succeeded in gladdening the hearts of several thousand unfortunate people at Yuletide.”
The report specified that the Good Fellows was established “for the purpose of assisting the Shriners [a fraternal order of prominence] in responding to letters to Santa Claus” and which were sent to the Shriners by the post-office for replies. Rotary President Andrews suggested that “the very best help that could be offered would be for a large number of individuals to each take one letter, and attend to it personally; in other words, to play individual Santa Claus to one needy family.”
Part of the project was that “contributions of cash, clothing, groceries, fuel, etc., were freely offered, and these were distributed to worthy families in need of immediate relief, or used to supplement the work of Good Fellows to whom families were assigned and who were unable to supply all their needs.” Clubs involved in the amalgamation included the Athletic, Bankers, California, Jonathan, German American Alliance, Realty Board, Union League and University and more than 2,500 individuals were involved in some way.
Some examples of service were given, including by print shop owner A.M. Dunn, who played Santa Claus to a dozen families, involving nearly 100 persons, including a veteran of the Spanish-American War, for whom Dunn drove almost thirty miles to deliver clothing and food. A.F. Borden was also cited for appearing in person as St. Nick and went to the assigned family’s home at 4 a.m. on Christmas “provided with a tree and a well-filled pack, with which he prepared a surprise for those happy youngsters that they will remember as long as they live.”
There was some vetting to do regarding requests for assistance and, in one instance, checked up on a local man’s claim that he needed funds to send to his destitute spouse in Indiana. When they sent a telegraph to inquire about her situation, they found that she’d been deserted and the wayward husband planned to keep the money for himself, but “the Good Fellows wired the money direct to her and had the imposter put in jail” for desertion and a more serious criminal charge.
The report then concluded,
We gave out about 1500 meal tickets, some 500 tickets for lodging and a few old clothes to poor floaters who doubtless had only themselves to blame for their sad plight, but who were no less in need of food and shelter, and it was a joy to give it to them just “because it was Christmas.”
Sometimes Rotarians took on projects that reflected the biases and prejudices of the time, such as when the Tribune reported in February 1915 on a “hilarious minstrel show” at the city’s finest hotel, the Alexandria, but a photo printed in the paper showed member H.C. Warden in blackface as he sat next to Andrews during the performance.
In 1918, the Angel City club aligned with the Los Angeles Settlement House, which was among several such institutions (Mary Julia Workman, grand-niece of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste, was the prime mover of the Roman Catholic Brownson House during the era) working with immigrants, including Asians, Europeans and Latinos in an effort involving an outlay of about $25,000.
Taking place during the First World War, when the club also assisted the Red Cross with a military base hospital, the effort emphasized that “Americanization of the alien resident is of vital importance not only in war time but for the future development of the morale of citizenship in our country.” This included, in a late July report from the Los Angeles Times, the goal of the club to be “in conformity to the wish of President [Woodrow] Wilson that everything be done to ‘Americanize the foreigner within our gates,'” as it was noted that the settlement house served a population including 32 nationalities. It was mentioned that funds were sought from “the patriotic people of the city” for the endeavor.
At the Christmas holiday, Rotarians worked with the settlement house to provide baskets costing $3-5 each, while “a large Christmas tree is being planned for and permission has been obtained to put it up in front of the Settlement House” and “the outdoor entertainment and distribution of baskets will take place Christmas Eve.” Also of note was that $1,000 was provided by a club member for an endowed bed at the House in the memory of Henry B. Day, who recently died in the flu pandemic.
With regard to Americanism, the famed Scottish singer Harry Lauder, a member of his hometown Edinburgh Rotary Club, visited the settlement house in fall 1919, through the offices of the well-known Jewish packing company and philanthropist Louis M. Cole. It was noted by the Times of 16 November that the Los Angeles club sought “to permanently endow this institution and make it self-supporting” by raising money so that $50,000 could account for annual operating costs. The performer encapsulated much current thinking when he proclaimed,
I think the work undertaken by the Los Angeles Rotary Club is most praiseworthy. In these days of Bolshevism, syndicalism, radicalism, there is but one “ism” which should be constantly before the eyes of the American people, and that is Americanism. Where is there a more fitting place than right here in the Community Settlement House to teach the young citizens of foreign-born parentage the tenets of Americanism? Implant the seeds of right living and right thinking in these embryonic Americans, and when they reach manhood and womanhood they will not only be better citizens, but will be able to appreciate the fallacies of false teachings.
Another entertainer of note associated with the Los Angeles club was actor, comedian, playwright and writer Will Cressy, who was well-known for his efforts, through Rotary, to assist orphaned and poor children. In early March 1917, he entertained local children while performing at the Orpheum Theatre and three years later, the Times of 13 June 1920 reported that he, said to be “the only international Rotarian in the world,” and wife and stage partner Blanche Dayne, purportedly “the only woman member of the order on earth” as an honorary member, returned to the venue for an entertainment for youngsters assembling at Pershing Square and marching, with American flags in hand and a surprise awaiting them, to the Orpheum.
There was another notable woman, Kate Waller Barrett, who visited Los Angeles in April 1915 and, according to the Los Angeles Express of the 17th, “is the only woman in the world honored with a membership in a Rotary club, being an honorary member of the Minneapolis organization.” Barrett was president of the National Florence Crittenton Mission, now the Justice + Joy National Collaborative, and spoke to the club in “voicing an eloquent plea in behalf of unfortunate girls and women” and their needs in society.
We’ll return with a second part, carrying this review of some of the early regional Rotary Club history into the Roaring Twenties, so check back for that.