Newspaper Wars Part 4: Signal Hill’s Checkered Past

 

   This is the final chapter of "Signal Hill's Checkered Past."  As mentioned in part 1 of this series, the alleged “political boss” of Signal Hill in the 1960s and 1970s was Thomas W. Denham, Sr.  To some Denham was a trusted public servant, revered by many. Others saw beyond his Southern charm, claiming he was looking out for his own interests, using the press, as well as his police chief son, to achieve his own aims.

Signal Hill City Hall

            In 1962, Denham secured a seat on the Signal Hill City Council, a position he held from 1962-1974. He was also mayor from 1964-1965 and again in 1967-79. He took steps to secure his influence. He and other businessmen began subsidizing the Signal Hill Tribune, the town’s only newspaper by purchasing block subscriptions from publisher H. Fred Harris. Signal Hill began publishing its ordinances in the Tribune in type so large it cost the city extra newspaper space. David Caretto, future city manager of the city told the Los Angeles Times in 1981“The city was subsidizing the newspaper.” As a result, the paper printed what Denham and his supporters wanted them to, ignoring stories of police brutality, and launching scathing stories about their opponents.
 

The 1968 Election
            Thomas W. Denham Sr.’s reign was not without challenge. In 1968, 23-year-old, USC graduate, Sandra Miller decided to run against him. She and her husband Don Bazemore owned the Long Beach Argus, a weekly newspaper in Long Beach and started a Signal Hill edition called the Beacon and later the Green Sheet, in opposition to the Denham-controlled Tribune.  The election became one of the most vicious newspaper fights in Signal Hill history.
            Denham survived, but Miller and her supporter Gertrude Beebe defeated two members of the Denham slate.  The other city council members, not up for re-election that year, were Denham supporters.  The next four years Miller described as the most bitter four years of her life. 
            Her first legislative act was to remove Fred Baxter, city administrator. Members in the audience supported her, citing corrupt civil service matters and alleged harassment of city employees prior to the election. Only Gertrude Beebe, also new to the council, supported Miller’s move.  But public opposition to Baxter continued and in July 1968 he resigned to accept a similar position in Victorville. 
 
The 1970 Election
        The 1968 election was a seeming “victory” for Miller, but Denham was not one to lose easily. He shifted his supporters into high gear. “It was a fight for survival,” his son Tom Denham told the Times in 1981. If the women were able to oust one more member of the council in the 1970 election, their anti-corruption platform would have taken over the old-boys’ rule.  Mayor Denham would not let that happen.  He called in the press, and the police force headed by his son to help in the battle.
            Soon the newspapers entered the fray. The Tribune began by calling the Green Sheet “the Green Thing.” It accused Miller and her associates of fronting for gambling interests. It ridiculed her as “our cute little 23-year-old miniskirted council lady.” It implied she and Bazemore were not married, since she had kept her maiden name.
            The Green Sheet, in return, accused Mayor Denham of rail roading street improvements in front of Denham family property. It described him as “King of the Hill.” As police chief, it said, his son “wouldn’t qualify as a dog catcher.”
            The war intensified with Denham calling in the police. They arrested Bazemore on suspicion of being drunk. The Green Sheet reported the incident:
 
            Two policemen jerked both of Bazemore’s feet out from under him while he was spread-eagled over the trunk of the police car. He fell with his head hitting the police car bumper. Three officers then picked him up and threw him into the back of the car. One braced against the next car in the parking lot and with both feet kicked him to the floor of the police car.”(LA Times 10/11/1981 from an earlier article in the Green Sheet)
 
Long Beach Municipal Court Judge Charlie T. Smith dismissed the charge of drunkenness, saying it was purely a setup. Not deterred by the decision, the Signal Hill police continued to harass Bazemore. In another instance they followed Bazemore into Long Beach and arrested him on suspicion of bouncing a check. He was again taken to jail and beaten. He was acquitted of the charge. He was arrested at least four more times on minor charges such as disturbing the peace.  
            In another instance, Miller had her car ticketed for double-parking while she and Bazemore loaded their newspaper racks and for obscuring their license plate with a bumper hitch.  Police said it wasn’t harassment, it was done to stop them interfering with police work by following officers with microphones and cameras and listening to the police radio – as part of a “power play” to take control of the community. Miller told the Times “There was an atmosphere of total corruption in the city. There was a constant feeling of oppression.”
            Bazemore, who had attended the University of Tennessee for one year before completing his marketing major at the University of Virginia, cast himself directly into the battle by running for city council in 1970 on a platform against nepotism in city government. Bazemore pointed out that one of Mayor Thomas Denham’s sons was police chief, the other a sergeant, and the son-in-law of former police chief William Stovall (now councilman) was also a police sergeant.           Less than half of the city’s 2,276 registered voters turned out for the election. Bazemore secured 239 votes of 1,026 votes cast.  He lost to George Papadakis (724 votes), and former police chief William F. Stovall, running for re-election (693 votes), all Denham supporters.
 
The 1972 Election
            In 1972, three of the five seats on the city council were at stake. Thomas Denham had decided not to seek re-election, but incumbents Miller and Beebe were in the running. It seemed certain that Miller and Beebe, would be elected.  Miller’s husband Don Bazemore decided to once again cast his hat into the election.  But Bazemore was not able to secure nomination papers for the April election. Every time he went into City Hall, City Clerk Merle Hunt was “out of the office” and had not appointed anyone else to hand out the papers. It was an act which Denham knew would trigger Bazemore’s temper…and it did.
            When it came time for public business at the next council meeting Bazemore accused City Clerk Hunt of purposely trying to deny him the proper paperwork to run for office. Hunt denied the charges and Bazemore called him a liar. His temper flaring, Hunt charged Bazemore from his desk, as members of the audience restrained Hunt. Bazemore said they could settle their difference outside, but Mayor Stovall ordered Bazemore arrested and charged with “offering to duel.” As Councilwoman Miller started to speak into her council microphone, Hunt lashed out at her telling her to “shut up your big mouth.” An angry Bazemore demanded to know why he was being arrested. Stovall told him he would find out when he got to jail.  Police officer Malcolm Guleserian and Mayor Stovall wrestled Bazemore to the ground. Guleserian applied a restraining hold across Bazemore. When Bazemore said he couldn’t breathe Gulesorian eased the pressure. In March 1972, Bazemore was convicted in Long Beach Municipal Court of disturbing the peace, put on two years’ probation and fined $625.

The Easter sunrise service had been a tradition on Signal Hill since 1916

            Perhaps it was this act of her husband, who ran the Beacon with Miller, or Miller’s questioning of paying city workers to erect the platform for the Easter sunrise service at Rotary Park which led to her defeat.
             In March 1972, Miller wondered why taxpayers should pay for setting up for a religious service. She thought the idea of using volunteers should be explored.
            She had been set up by the Denton contingent, just weeks before the election.  Mayor Stovall responded that he was sorry that she was against Easter. Miller said she wasn’t against Easter and doubted if the council would do the same thing for Passover. She pointed out the Supreme Court had ruled against using taxpayers’ funds for religious purposes.  At this point Councilman Papadakis joined the spat by suggesting the same objection might be raised against authorizing use of the city park by the Girl Scouts because they referred to God in their oath. Papadakis went on to add that if anyone chose to sue the city, for them to go ahead.  Miller closed the discussion by commenting that a taxpayer’s suit would be terribly expensive and she did not think a taxpayers’ suit would win. Her statements may have cost her the vote of city employees, who had always been the ones who built the platform for Easter services in the park, and the vote of those who thought her anti-Christian. 
 
            In the April 1972 election, Gertrude Beebe led with the most votes (404), followed by Keaton King (504) and William Mendenhall (502). Sandra Miller with 365 votes came in 4^th.  Under the new regime, Fred Baxter was asked to return to his old job as city administrator, with a $4,500 ($28,000) raise. It was a position the former Air Force colonel would hold for three years, resigning as Signal Hill city administrator following a stroke in June 1975. His assistant, John W. Jameson, was selected to replace him.
            The Green Sheet and Beacon died. Miller said the Denham machine went after every advertiser they had, destroying the paper.
 
The 1980 Election
            As the 1980 election neared, Thomas W. Denham Sr. was dead. Richard Denham was no longer the police chief, and Sgt. Tom Denham was a year away from retirement. Two Denham men on the Council were under attack. One of them, Reginald Balchin, had been accused by Councilman David Bellis of concealing some of his property holdings and voting on issues that would increase their value. The other Denham man, Marion (Buzz) McCallen was accused of violating several city ordinances at his used-car lots, and at his massage parlor.
            But for this fight, the Denhams no longer could count on the Tribune. Published Fred Harris had sold the newspaper to Ken Mills, 42, a former editor of the Contra Costa Times. The Denhams approached Mills with offers to help with financing. However, Mills, who wanted to establish the Tribune’s independence, resisted. The Tribune’s total advertising dropped to half a page.  Mills’ problems compounded because he refused to block subscription purchases his predecessor had accepted from power groups, such as the Denham machine and oil companies. Mills said they were unethical – and could cost him his second-class mailing privileges.  Mills was going broke.
            Tom and Richard Denham tried to buy the paper outright. At the last minute, a group of politicians aligned with the Silent American Majority (SAM) a group opposed to the Denhams, offered to contribute money to keep Mills alive. They solicited other contributions at meetings, the $5 and $10 bills kept the paper going. The Denhams started a newspaper of their own – the Signal Hill Star (1980-84). Finally, the financial strain was too much. Mills sold the Tribune back to its former publisher, who sold it to the Denhams the same day. But it was too late. The voters threw Balchin and McCallen out of office in a recall election. Meanwhile brutality claims against the police continued to mount, culminating in the 1981 death of African American Ron Settles, found hanged in his jail cell two hours after his arrest.
            In October 1981, maverick city councilman David J. Bellis, who led the successful recall of fellow councilmen Balchin and McCallen survived a recall of his own. However, Bellis, an author and political science professor, lost in the absentee ballot vote. He was suspicious City Clerk Merle Hunt who hand-delivered about half the absentee ballots in the recall did some campaigning while voters filled out the ballot. 
            Bellis began feuding with council members soon after he was elected in April 1980. Then mayor McCallen asked Bellis to resign after Bellis admitted he once was a heroin addict. Another citizen asked Bellis to submit to a physical examination and lie detector test to prove he no longer took drugs. Bellis agreed to the physical but refused the lie detector. In the notice of intent to recall, Bellis was accused of concealing his former heroin addiction from voters, making false statements on his candidate and office-holder’s campaign statements, of disregarding the interests of voters and of “conduct reprehensible, intolerable and deleterious to the operation of city government.”  As the drive to recall Bellis gathered momentum, the councilman financed the printing and distribution of The Signal, a 12-page tabloid which he called a “public information bulletin” that criticized local politics. That, and the nationwide media attention over Ron Settle’s death in a Signal Hill jail, rallied support for Bellis. Councilman Papadakis said: “the media did a job on our city. Bellis used (the media) very effectively. He does anything to gain people’s sympathy.” (LA Times 10/29/1981)
            Bellis won reelection in 1984 and remained on the council until September 1986. He resigned after accepting a position as associate professor of public administration at California State University, San Bernardino and moved to Lake Arrowhead.  During his term in office he oversaw a change in administration in the Police Department following the death of Ron Settles in 1981. He also oversaw the city’s redevelopment efforts, which brought the Price Club (now Costco) to the city.
 

Sources:

Andrew, Bob. “Hill election wide open – no incumbents on ballot.” Press Telegram, 1 April 1970.

Andrew, Bob. “Mayor applies the handcuffs in council’s uproar.” Press Telegram, 2 February 1972.

Barber, Mary. After Signal Hill recall 3 councilmen left, 1 will be mayor. Los Angeles Times, 16 November 1980.

Beebe refuses to be bullied.” Independent Press Telegram, 2 April 1972.

 Goodman, Mike & Meyer, Richard. “Brutality Charges. Signal Hill: Power to the Police.” Los Angeles Times. 11 October 1981.

 LaRiviere, Anne. Bellis survives Signal Hill recall. Los Angeles Times, 29 October 1981.

 Lowe, Hal. “City Chief quits, blasts Signal Hill.” Press Telegram, 19 June 1968.

 Mader, Vint. “Incumbents Win, lose in Signal Hill Election.” Press Telegram, 10 April 1968.

“Signal Hill Councilman Bellis resigns.” Los Angeles Times, 18 September 1986.

 “Signal Hill reporter guilty in ruckus.” Press Telegram, 9 March 1972.

 

Interesting Elections: Part 3 - Signal Hill's Checkered Past

 

            In October 1959, Long Beach Independent reporter Bob Wells described how the 4500 residents of Signal Hill liked their politics loud, partisan and frequent. At the drop of a hat, it would take up recall petitions and remove what it considers to be the “boil on the body politic.” The recall weapon was first brought into use in 1926, a short time after the city was established in 1923. The populace swept from office a council it blamed for a street paving job it felt was not up to standards. Recalls followed in 1935, 1948, 1953, 1958 and 1959.

            On April 7, 1959, Signal Hill traded in its 17-man police force for officers almost outnumbered by the population of the “island” city. The change gave the 4000 residents of the city the full law-enforcement services of the 3800 member Sheriff’s Department. Along with the 20 or so men who worked out of the Signal Hill substation (Signal Hill police officers would be absorbed into the Sheriff’s department) , the city would be covered by narcotics, vice and other special details from other sheriff’s offices. Under the contract, the city paid $113,000 ($1 million today) a year for services. The council felt that for the $113,000 they would be getting more protection than under the $168,000 ($1.5 million) police budget. The change, the council stated, was the end result of months of morale-shattering unrest during which officers were fired, rehired and then fired again. On June 24, 1959, county fire and ambulance service for Signal Hill also went into effect.

            Cities contracting out for services was a relatively new thing at the time.  Citizens believed they should have been consulted on what would in later years become a basic municipal action. However, other issues were such as a $90,000 ($800,000 today) police building – just completed in 1959 – sitting virtually unused because the county sheriff’s office worked through a Lakewood station, and five police cars and a city fire ambulance being placed “in storage” were also decisive factors in the recall. In October 1959 75% of the city’s registered voters turned out to give the recall a 2.5 to 1 majority.  Recalled were four of the five city council members – Harold V. Clark, Frank B. Vaughn, Emil B. Haughty and Benjamin A. Moyle (who also served as mayor).  Only Councilwoman Nellie Combellack, who had not voted for the contract move, remained in office.  The contract for police and fire service with Los Angeles County ended July 1, 1960.

            A reader told me an interesting story about moving into Nellie Combellack’s former home at Orange and 33^rd Street in the summer of 1959. Shortly after the Smith’s moved in and had gone to bed the family heard two loud blasts. Not wanting to disturb his wife, who had just returned from the hospital, Mr. Smith got up without turning on a light, looked around and didn’t find anything wrong. However, the next morning the Smiths’ found lots of glass, shredded drapes, the back of a new chair shredded with stuffing covering the floor, holes in the living room and kitchen windows and the hallway door leading to bedrooms full of shotgun holes. The debris ended just a foot from where the recently hospitalized Mrs. Smith was sleeping.

            Sheriff's  officers were called and seemed VERY surprised that the house did not belong to Mrs. Combellack. They started questioning family members as to who they knew who could have done it. They asked the Smith daughter if she had a jealous boyfriend, etc. In between questions, they kept asking about Mrs. Combellack. Mr. Smith said after they left he thought the sheriff's did it. His parting words to them, his daughter recalled, were “make sure you tell people Mrs. Combellack doesn’t live here anymore.” When the sheriff's were contacted asking about the status of the investigation the Smith’s got the feeling no one wanted to talk about it. No leads. However, the family did feel fortunate that the door onto the hallway and Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s bedroom door was closed, or someone could have been seriously injured or killed. The Smith daughter, who told me this story, said the family would talk about it over the years and remark that not everyone got their house shot gunned in the wee hours of the night…especially in 1959.

            Nothing was reported in the press about the incident and no suspect was ever found.

                                                                      -----

Kid Mexico

            Drama surrounded many Signal Hill elections such as the one in April 1952, which had Bingo King Kid Mexico (Tod Faulkner) afraid that his gambling interests would come to an end. On election day Faulkner said he needed guys with cars to drive certain Signal Hill citizens to the polls.  An undercover reporter for the Long Beach Independent signed up to be a driver.

            There was no mention then of what drivers were to be paid, but word had circulated beforehand that they would get $15 ($146) each – plus a big fat $30 ($292) bonus if the gambler’s slate won. Faulkner’s campaign manager, Cliff Waters told drivers he had a list of 1200 registered voters whom they believed would vote the “right” ticket. Waters then explained who the “right” candidates were – Mayor Lloyd J. Tomlin, Loring R. Jones and James F. Walsh. Drivers went out at 7 a.m., knocking on doors, ringing bells, and making pitches for Faulkner’s slate of candidates. Each driver was given a pack of cards, more or less sample ballots, on which crosses had been marked opposite the names of Tomlin, Jones and Walsh. Drivers were told to hand a card to each passenger to guide him or her in choosing the “right” candidate.

            The undercover reporter was surprised to find most people already up, and they weren’t surprised to see someone at their door so early. Perhaps they had been told beforehand that drivers would be around. However no one, except one sickly lady, accepted the reporter’s invitation to ride to the polls. This wasn’t so hard to take when one realized that the polling place was only two blocks away from the street were the reporter had been assigned. Despite Faulkner’s actions only Mayor Lloyd Tomlin, who had been in office since December 1946, was reelected.  In July 1953, Faulkner pleaded guilty to election fraud charges which involved his trying to rig registrations in the November 1952 Signal Hill election.  An anti-gambling ordinance passed by a vote of 1358 to 660. But Faulkner was not one to give up.

            Faulkner found religion. He claimed that in April 1958, God and Faulkner’s dead wife Edna appeared to him, telling him to go out and preach the word of God. One person he found “ungodly” was Signal Hill City Administrator-Engineer Charles Trygg. In 1962, Faulkner, admitted he helped finance a four-page smear sheet against Trygg distributed in Signal Hill just before the April 10 municipal election. The paper referred to the city administrator as “Big Wig Trygg,” “Boss Trygg” and “Mr. Big Trygg” and cast innuendo on Trygg’s competence, although no specific charges were made.  Faulkner was successful. A new city council asked for Trygg’s resignation. Trygg resigned, though the charges brought against him were not revealed.

  

          A persistent  Faulkner decided to run for council himself in 1964. His platform included: effective zoning to provide for high-rise developments without sacrificing single-family residential areas; working to create a modern “downtown” area with top-quality retailers; creating a municipal auditorium for conventions and other meetings; attracting  modern businesses in order to keep the tax rate low and get Signal Hill moving ahead. He also pledged to keep away politics and gambling. Faulkner ended up running sixth among nine candidates.

(For more about Faulkner see my 2016 blog “Kid Mexico.”)

                                                                            -----

             In the April 1968 Signal Hill election another “interesting” campaign began when City Council candidate George Papadakis offered to pay 5 cents for each election poster of Floyd Jones which was removed from any power pole, school or public property.  It seemed zealous supporters of Jones had stuck campaign posters on illegal places such as power poles, schools or other public property. But Jones posters had also appeared on private property and youngsters who wanted to collect a nickel for every poster they could find snapped up all the Jones posters all over town, including ones Jones had tacked to his own home and garage. In retaliation, the Jones contingent planned to put 6000 Jones posters throughout Signal Hill and invite the kids to tear them down and redeem them from Papadakis at 5 cents apiece. The thing was 100 or 200 posters would be attached to a single nail, so everybody would get a shot at the bounty money.

Papadakas

            George E. Papadakis, a Torrance school teacher, Floyd Jones and Gertrude Beebe were running to fill the vacancy of Morris L. Shoup, who decided not to run for reelection.  Floyd and Beebe both lived in the 7-year-old Flintstone Apartments at 2165 E. 21^st Street, known for its two-story high mosaic dinosaur with red mazda eyes, which adorned the front of the apartments (see my Flintstone Apartments article). Papadakis was their neighbor who owned a small apartment house outflanked by the Flintstone.

            Earlier I wrote about Papadakis’ fight with Flintstone owner Miles Shook over partying at the apartment building and how, as a city planning commissioner, he was able to convince the city council to pass a city-wide anti-noise ordinance in 1962.  Ironically, he was now running against two residents of the Flintstone.        

            Both Jones and Beebe agreed that Signal Hill needed to be straightened out. Here’s where the gut fighting and nit picking came in: Floyd Jones said he wanted to know why the curbs in front of the apartment house owned by the mayor were not painted, allowing parking, when in front of other apartment houses they were painted red.  Jones called the Signal Hill Police Department “worse than a Mack Sennett comedy,” and he deplored the nepotism in the department, epitomized by the fact that the police chief, Richard Denham, was the mayor’s son.

            A native of Wheatland, Wyoming, Mrs. Beebe taught elementary school in that state for six years after graduation from the University of Wyoming before moving to Signal Hill in 1935. She served as city treasurer from 1942 to 1966.  Mrs. Beebe, held the distinction (and possibly the state record) of being reelected as city treasurer and as city clerk, all on the same ballot in 1966. She said this about the City Council and the Police Department: “The city councilmen are no more than puppets for the city administrative officer (Fred Baxter) and the police operate in pathetic fashion. Many of our patrolmen are the finest law enforcement officers one could find, but politics prevents them from doing their duty as they see fit.” (Press Telegram, 3/15/1968)  She also mentioned remedying the city hiring policy, which barred blacks from being employed by the city.         

            Gertrude Beebe won a seat on the council and continued to serve as councilwoman until March 1976 and as mayor from March 1974-March 1975. Papadakis bounced back in April 1970, continuing an on and off career as council person until March 1984, also serving as Mayor from April 1973-March 1974 and from March 1981-July 1981. Floyd Jones also made another run for a council seat in 1970, charging misuse of city funds “so the politicos can make a killing in real estate.” He also favored a break up of “family control of Signal Hill.” He lost.

            Another candidate who won in the 1968 election was Sandra L. Miller who served on the council until April 1972. More about her and her fight against the political bosses of the city in my final chapter of Signal Hill's Checkered Past.

 

Sources:

“Hill elects councilmen Tuesday.” Independent Press Telegram, 12 April 1964.

 “Kid Mexico handed $500 fine, no jail in vote fraud.” Long Beach Independent, 7 August, 1953.

 “The ‘Kid’ shows ‘em how to vote up on the hill.” Long Beach Independent, 9 April 1952.

 Robeson, George. “Politics gets sticky up on Signal Hill.” Independent Press Telegram, 15 March 1968.

 Robeson, George. “Signal Hill is the West’s Tammany Hall.” Press Telegram, 5 April 1968.

Wells, Bob. “Signal Hill recalls 4 council members.” Long Beach Independent, 28 October 1959.

 Williams, Sherm. “Signal Hill vote 3-to-2 against keeping Trygg.” Long Beach Independent, 20 June, 1962.

 Whearley, Bob. “Signal Hill trades in its police force.” Press Telegram, 7 April 1959.

 “Signal Hill’s fire, service pact OKd.” Press Telegram, 1 July 1959.