Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times (Peter Jones, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Viewed at the Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times (Peter Jones, 2009) is a fascinating expose’ concerning four generations of the LA Times newspaper dynasty.  Family ownership of the paper began with Gen. Harrison Gray Otis and ended with his great-grandson Otis Chandler.

A Republican and former soldier in the Union Army, Harrison Otis was the Times publisher and contributed many by-lines to the paper which slanted the opinions towards the Right.  He supported suburban growth in Los Angeles and had questionable inside knowledge regarding the route of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, mainly that it was being diverted through San Fernando Valley – of which he had land holdings.  John Huston’s creepy character Noah Cross in Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) was loosely based on the Otis/Chandler dynasty.

Harry Chandler was son-in-law to Harrison Otis and took over as publisher upon Harrison Otis’ death in 1917; he proved to be exceedingly shrewder than the General.  Harry Chandler invested in land, oil, and the booming aerospace industry – ever hear of Hollywoodland or Douglas Aircraft?  Harry’s son Norman Chandler assumed the role of publisher after his father’s death in 1944.  He married Dorothy Buffum – heir of the (now defunct) Buffum’s Department Stores.  Norman ran the paper successfully as Dorothy began a philanthropic movement in Los Angeles, which brought life back to the famed Hollywood Bowl and the birth of the Los Angeles Music Center; this included the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, one-time home of the Academy Awards ceremony.

Dorothy’s son Otis Chandler took the reins as publisher around 1960 which then shifted the paper’s Right Wing views towards the Left.  Otis was young, hip and handsome and he breathed new life into the stuffy old paper, shocking many of the relatives and stockholders.  His paper fully covered the Watergate scandal, which made enemies with his father’s friend Richard Nixon.  However, being the good son that he was, Otis did in fact “bury” a news piece that concerned his mother Dorothy and questionable business tactics regarding the Music Center.  The Times remained in the family holdings until 2000, when unbeknownst to Otis, the paper was sold under him to the Tribune Company of Chicago.

At 1 hour & 57 minutes, the film moves along at a steady pace.  There are interviews with ex-wives, compiled images from the past, and voice-overs from various family members which bring the major characters to life.  Being a former Angeleno  myself with a longing for the nostalgia of what once was Los Angeles, I found this reflection into the past perfectly engaging – good or bad, these characters were brought to life before my eyes and I simply couldn’t get enough.