USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Los Angeles from the mountains to the sea : with selected biography of actors and witnesses to the period of growth and achievement, Volume III > Part 55
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
He was also interested in various other business enterprises, and al- together his life was one of substantial service and advantage to South- ern California.
FRED R. KELLOGG has been closely associated with some of the large and important oil developments in Southern California during the past eighteen years. A lawyer by training, he has used his knowledge only as a supplement to his very practical business career.
Mr. Kellogg is a native of Iowa, a son of H. C. and Elizabeth Kellogg. His father was one of the most prominent and successful attorneys in Iowa. Fred R. Kellogg was educated in common and high schools in that state, and for two years read law at Sioux City. Aban- doning his intention of practicing law, he took up farming in his native state, and was one of the progressive agriculturists of that great com- monwealth until he came to Los Angeles in 1902.
Since coming to this state his activities have been largely in the oil and refining business. In 1906 he incorporated the Kellogg Oil Com- pany, with himself as president and G. J. Syminton as secretary and treasurer. This company marketed both crude and distilled oils. Its facilities were greatly enlarged when they took over the Topping Oil Plant of the Santa Fe Railroad at Taft, California. In 1911 they con- solidated with the Los Angeles Oil and Refining Company, thus acquir- ing a complete refinery at Los Angeles. The new name of the corpora- tion at this time became the Richfield Oil Company, of which company Mr. Kellogg is now the president.
In 1915 this company bought the Phoenix Refining Company at Bakersfield, California. At the present time a further extension to their facilities of a gasoline refining plant at Bakersfield has been finished and is in operation. The company employs altogether about one hundred and twenty-five people. Mr. Kellogg was one of the founders of the California Independent Oil Association and was active in the various war departments, he is the vice-president of the El Segunda Bank of El Segunda, California, a president of the Buttonlath Manufacturing Com- pany and a director in several large business enterprises in Los Angeles. He is a Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of the California Club of Los Angeles. He is a republican and in religion a Congregationalist.
Mr. Kellogg was married at Cherokee, Iowa, in 1895, to Miss Leota Smith, daughter of Major Robert M. Smith, of the 78th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil war, and a member of the Loyal Legion. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Kellogg, of whom three are
828
LOS ANGELES
living: Margaret, who was active in Red Cross canteen work, is a graduate of the Marlborough School; H. Chandler, a student at Cor- vallis, Oregon, and Marion, attending school at Marlborough.
JAMES OAKLEY, who died at his home at 1247 East Thirty-eighth Street in Los Angeles in April, 1919, was a pioneer character, not only of Southern California, where he lived many years and did a great and important work as a real estate developer and home builder, but also in the middle west.
He was born in New York City in 1827, of old colonial stock. Most of his boyhood was spent at Peekskill, New York, where he acquired his early education. As a young man he worked with his brother-in-law in the storage business in New York. Failing health caused him to leave the East and at the age of twenty-seven he went to Iowa, then a new state, and acquired government land. He did the heavy work of pioneer- ing and saw his efforts unite with those of other fellow pioneers in the rearing of an imposing community in Iowa. A man of good education and of fine character, he was elected and served twelve years as county supervisor of Howard County, Iowa, and made his office a means of constructive and permanent good to the institutions he served.
Mr. Oakley was a resident of Iowa thirty years. Owing to the severity of the winters he had looked forward and planned a residence under California skies, and on coming to the state he and his family lived for a year and a half at Whittier and after that moved to Los Angeles. At Los Angeles Mr. Oakley acquired some land holdings which he developed as home sites. He first bought a tract at Twenty-second and Central and East Adam streets, which he laid out and improved as the Oakley Home tract and the Oakley Central Avenue tract. Mr. Oakley built more than two hundred houses in the City of Los Angeles and properly regarded that business not only as a source of personal profit but as a real constructive service in the development of the com- munity. While his interests were extensive, he never had an office and did his business from his home. He was very deeply interested in the welfare and improvement of schools, even before he had children of his own. Mr. Oakley is remembered as a man of sterling character, and lived a very long and virile life. His memory was remarkable and at the time of his death, though ninety-two years of age, he discoursed easily upon scenes and incidents in politics and affairs which happened during his boyhood.
At the age of fifty-nine Mr. Oakley married Franc Robinson. Her parents were among the pioneers of Iowa. Mrs. Oakley and two daugh- ters survive, Susie and Clemmence. Susie has shown much talent in painting and was educated at St. Mary's School for Girls at Los Angeles. Clemmence is a graduate of the law department of the University of Southern California and was admitted to the bar the day before she graduated. On November 21, 1918, she became the wife of Alfred Bettys of San Bonito.
THE ZOELLNER QUARTET, consisting of Antoinette, Amandus, Joseph Sr. and Joseph Jr., whose musical performances have delighted the in- tellects and tastes of two continents, are birthright Americans. As mu- sicians they are of the world, carrying their art wherever chamber music is loved and appreciated. But about two years ago they realized a long
JAMES OAKLEY
829
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
growing desire to establish the environment of their private lives in a home in Southern California, and Los Angeles takes the greatest pride in claiming The Zoellners in a peculiar sense as its own.
Joseph Zoellner Sr. was born at Brooklyn, New York, February 2, 1862, a son of Johann and Kathrina Zoellner. During his early resi- dence at Aschaffenburg, Germany, he began to study piano forte and violin at the Musikschule under Ostermeyer and in 1872 under Hegner. He also studied violin under Lorenzen and Theodore Jacoby at New York, and also with Henri Petri at Dresden. From 1882 to 1903 he directed his own music school in Brooklyn, interrupted by a few Euro- pean visits, and in 1884 was musical director of the famous Niblo's Gar- den at New York. From 1907 to 1912 he lived abroad, touring in Russia in 1908-09, and was head of the violin department of the Ecole Communale at Etterbek, Brussels, Belgium, from 1909 to 1910. From 1910 to 1912 with his two sons he was a member of the Durant Sym- phony Orchestra, Brussels.
It was in 1904 that he founded the Zoellner String Quartet, con- sisting of himself, his daughter and his two sons. Their first public per- formance was in Brooklyn, New York, in 1904, since which time they have made close to a thousand appearances here and abroad. More than any other organization in America they have brought chamber music close to the people by their well chosen programs and their willingness to go anywhere and everywhere. Chamber music makes the most difficult and exacting requirements of any musical composition upon the perform- ers. It requires four artists with a technique and a feeling for ensemble which should give the effect of four minds playing as one thought. The Zoellners as a family has had the unique advantage of living on intimate terms, playing together daily and thinking and feeling in harmony for years, so that their artistic expression satisfies the highest critical standards. That the Zoellners are recognized as artists of great dis- tinction was only possible through Mr. Zoellner and his three children being gifted with extraordinary talent, the daughter and two sons being true musical geniuses.
In 1884 Mr. Joseph Zoellner Sr. married Helena Schneider of Brook- lyn. Antoinette showed a decided talent for the violin, and from her fourth year was taught daily by her father. Joseph Jr. began the study of the piano at six, while Amandus, the other brother, took up the violin at the age of four and a half. Joseph Jr. later studied the cello, and when Amandus was seven and a half years old the quartet was founded. From the beginning the idea of serious work was impressed upon the children. Perhaps no family has moved its domicile as often as did this artistic group. From Brooklyn, where Mr. Zoellner has a well-estab- lished music school, they went abroad. It was Mr. Zoellner's intention to take charge of a school in Forst near Leipzig. His plans did not ma- terialize, and the family remained in Dresden for some time, where they took advantage of the presence of many brilliant artists, whose perform- ances were in themselves an education to the Zoellner children. A physi- cian ordered a climatic change for Mr. Zoellner and one of his children, so back they came to America and to California in 1904, where they stayed a short time. Mr. Zoellner was not content with anything less than the highest standard of excellence for his quartette, and another sacrifice had to be made. Then it was that he took his family to Belgium in 1907, where advanced studies were begun at the Royal Conservatory,
830
LOS ANGELES
Antoinette and Amandus under Henry Van Hecke and Cesar Thomson in violin, and Joseph Jr. with Gerardy and Gaillard, cello, and piano with Arthur de Greef and Joseph Wieniawaski. In 1910 Joseph Jr. graduated with highest honors from the Royal Conservatory as pianist. Here the Zoellners met all the great artists, also played before critical audiences, and were recognized as an ensemble of formidable attainments. Both Van Hecke and Thomson gave them continuous encouragement, Thomson introducing them to the Brussels public at soirees at his own home, while Van Hecke, a man of high ideals, was ready with encourage- ment in times of depression. They remained in Brussels from 1907 to 1912, giving many concerts during that time in that city. They appeared in Berlin with great success, also in France, and made several concert tours of Belgium. January 13, 1912, by royal command, they appeared before the Countess of Flanders, mother of the present King of Belgium, by whom they were decorated, thus gaining the unique distinction of being the only Americans ever decorated by the Countess. They played before the King and Queen of Belgium, Princess Aristarchi, Duchess of Vendome and many others.
Returning to America, in the fall of 1912, they have since that time been filling with unqualified success engagements in all the principal cities of the country. They moved to Los Angeles in April, 1918. In that month the Zoellners gave three chamber music concerts, and their reception was so enthusiastic that arrangements were made for a series of ten concerts in as many weeks. The guarantors who encouraged this series of concerts are seeking to establish these chamber music evenings of the Zoellners on a permanent basis for Los Angeles, thereby consider- ably increasing the standing of Los Angeles as a recognized musical center.
CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG. No one did more to vitalize the concerted effort on the part of Californians interested in the preservation and restoration of the famous old Missions than an adopted daughter of the state, Clara Kimball Young, famous throughout the world as one of the greatest stars of the screen. Having for several years made an inti- mate study of the history of the state, and particularly the California Missions, she was one of the first prominent personages to respond to the plan for their restoration, and made her individual role indispensable through her production of a picture version of the wonderful story of early California life "For the Soul of Rafael."
The time, energy and intelligence used in this production aroused an interest that nothing else could-an interest that resulted in the con- crete effort for the restoration of the Missions. Moreover the story is a living document of tremendous historical value to California, since it portrays in the most infinite detail the life, costumes, customs and ac- tivities of the people contemporaneous with the Missions in an historical- ly perfect surrounding and atmosphere.
Clara Kimball Young might be said to have been born to the stage. Her mother, Pauline Maddern Garrett, whose recent death was mourned by thousands of friends and admirers, was a descendant of the de Picards, prominent figures of the Court of Napoleon. Her family had lived in America since the downfall of the great emperor. Mrs. Kimball spent most of her career on the stage.
Miss Young's father, Edward Marshall Kimball, is a direct de-
831
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
scendant of the greatest actors of history, Sarah Siddons and John Kemble, both of whom are buried in Westminster Abbey. Mr. Kimball also has been a favorite actor of the American stage practically all his life and in recent years has gained fame as a screen artist.
Miss Young is also of a fighting ancestry. In every national war members of her family have been on the fighting line in support of the flag. During the World War Clara Kimball Young was one of the first to respond, closing her studios, leaving her work and joining the colors, serving as a recruiting sergeant for U. S. Marines until the end of the war. She is a Comrade of San Francisco Post No. 1 of the American Legion.
Miss Young was born in Chicago, where she was educated, receiving her finishing work in St. Xavier's Convent in that city. Her first appear- ance on the stage was at the age of six weeks, when she was carried in the arms of her mother in one of the popular plays of the time. In a few years she was doing child parts with unusual success, and appeared in her first speaking part at the age of two and a half years. One of the traditions of theatrical circles is how this tiny bit of humanity memorized twelve sides of manuscript at the time of her first speaking part. Up to the age of nine she appeared in many of the famous characterizations of the day, accumulating a considerable amount of fame and popularity as well as experience which laid the foundation of her mature career. Thereafter until about nine years ago Miss Young was one of the best known young actresses of the American stage, but about 1912, when the motion picture was beginning to make itself felt as a real vehicle of modern art, it claimed the attention of Miss Young as it did that of many other. artists. She accepted an offer with the Vitagraph Company, where her success was immediate and startling in its proportions, and has con- tinued until today she occupies the very pinnacle of screen fame.
As a star with the Vitagraph Company she made a tour of the world taking pictures in practically every great country on the globe. Shortly after leaving this company she became a producer on her own account. Her natural histrionic ability is combined with a keen business insight and a knowledge of the intricate details of picture production, thus readily accounting for her success as a producer. For years a foremost artist, during the period of the World War she was first a patriot and then an artist. So distinguished were her services for the United States and the Allied countries that upon the occasion of the visit of King Albert of Belgium and Queen Elizabeth to Los Angeles in 1919, she was granted a special audience with these royal personages on the personal request of King Albert, who thanked her for the aid she had given the Belgian cause during the war. This presentation was made by Meredith P. Snyder, mayor of Los Angeles, and was one of the most interesting events of the visit of King Albert to the city.
Following the war Miss Young engaged in her most recent and by far her most successful business enterprise in the production of her special features for the Garson Studios in Los Angeles. In keeping with her keen interest and appreciation for all things Californian, the studios at which she now appears are built after the fashion of the old Missions of California, the main gateway being an exact replica of the belfry of the San Gabriel Mission, while Miss Young's bungalow dress- ing room is surrounded by gardens copied from the enclosures of the famous old California churches.
832
LOS ANGELES
BARNEY OLDFIELD. Despite the weird limitations of fame, so that no single celebrity in history is known to all the people all the time, it is safe to say that the name Barney Oldfield is and has been for years inevitably linked with the word automobile, constituting a degree of fame upon which even the vaulting amibition of a Caesar could hardly aspire.
As a driver and pilot in speed racing Barney Oldfield has been before the public for over twenty years. His life covers something more than forty years, and it is appropriate to note some of the early milestones in his career.
He was born on a farm three miles from Wauseon, Ohio, January 29, 1878, and just eleven years later the family moved to Toledo, where during 1890-91 he sold newspapers on the streets. During 1892 he worked as waterboy with a railroad section gang, and from his savings of sixty-five dollars bought his first "Advance" bicycle. During the next year he was employed as bell boy in the Boody House, and was diligently practicing on his "whele" and on Decoration Day of 1894 won second place in an eighteen mile road race. During 1895 he was appearing in a number of events as a bicycle racer, otherwise doing duty as an elevator boy. In that year he won two medals and a gold watch in Ohio state championships at Canton, and soon afterward began selling bicycles. By 1896 he was recognized as the bicycle race champion of Ohio, and then turned professional, and covered Ohio and Michigan as traveling sales representative of bicycle manufacturers. The two years following he campaigned as a racing man in seasons, and during the winter was employed as salesman and factory worker.
It was in 1899 that Barney Oldfield had his first experience with a machine driven by motor power. This was a gasoline motorcycle, and as a pilot he was soon ranked as an expert. During 1900, 1901 and 1902 he was a participant in nearly all the national events as a rider of bicycles and motorcycles.
-
Probably the most significant event in his entire career came in 1902, when he became associated with Tom Cooper, a former national bicycle champion, with Henry Ford, an obscure engineer, Oldfield being the mechanic and later driver of two racing automobiles built from Ford's designs and financed by Cooper's money. Oldfield was a driver in a historic race, over a five mile course, with the Ford "999." The place and date was September 21, 1902, on the Grosse Pointe track at Detroit, and the time 5:20 set a world record. The next year, 1903, Barney Old -. field drove the "999" at Indianapolis in 0:59 3-5, the first time the minute mark was ever broken on a one mile circular course.
Since then on virtually every race course in the country Barney Oldfield has broken records and thrilled throngs, and with seventeen years of race driving to his credit he well deserves the title of "master driver," being the dean of all racers. As one critic has written: "He has seen three generations of drivers come out, race and either retire or come to grief by the accident of the terribly dangerous sport. Barney Oldfield was more than a daredevil. He was a thinker-a student."
He has cut record after record, including the world's non-stop race record of three hundred one miles at Corono, California, with an aver- age of 86 1-2 miles an hour. In 1917 he set a record, still unbroken, on a mile track at St. Louis, and with a series of distances ranging from one to fifty miles.
1
ELTON TOWNTO
Barney Olafield
833
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
Barney. Oldfield recently retired from racing. He has always been a successful business man and was financially independent long before he retired from racing. In 1919 he became president of the Oldfield Tire Company at Cleveland. The history of automobile racing proves that the great majority of accidents have been due not to faulty mech- anism, but to tire troubles, and for years Barney Oldfield has been a student of the tire problem and in order to get his exacting specifica- tions and experience translated into concrete results, he is now head of a tire company making a tire according to his personal standards, under his personal supervision and bearing his name as a personal guarantee.
The unusual progress of The Oldfield Tire Company has been one of the miracles of the tire industry. The company has been in actual operation a little more than a year, and in this short time has passed more than eighty-five per cent of its competitors in volume of business. To cap the climax, on May 31, 1920, Oldfield Tires equipped the cars finishing 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 in the Indianapolis 500-miles speedway race. The winner of the race finished without a single tire change-the first time in history that any tire has been able to accomplish this wonderful feat. Mr. Oldfield considers this victory of his tire as even more signifi- cant than any of the record-breaking performances in which he par- ticipated as a driver.
While he spends a great deal of time in Cleveland, he has made his residence in Los Angeles for ten years. He is a member of the Elks, and politically a republican. He married in Chicago, Illinois, in Novem- ber, 1904, Bessy Gooby, a native of Alameda, California. They have no children.
EDWIN HARVEY FLAGG. Los Angeles being the world's chief center in motion picture production, it is appropriate that it should also be the home of the largest scenic studio and equipment establishment. That business or industry is known as the Edward H. Flagg Scenic Company.
Mr. Flagg, its founder, probably knows more of the history of the technical machinery and processes involved in motion picture than any' living man. A quarter of a century ago he operated one of the old cinematagraphs, and he has been more or less closely connected with the development and improvement of the motion picture and more particu- larly with the theatrical settings for the pictures ever since.
Not long ago Mr. Flagg contributed to The Architect and Engineer an article on the "Evolution of Architectural and Other Features of Moving Picture Theaters," an article that was copied in six of New York's leading magazines. It is both a historical and technical study of rare interest and value, coming from a foremost authority. He refers to the first commercial use of motion pictures in 1894, when they were merely a novelty like "liquid air demonstrations." Their novelty soon failed to attract, and they practically disappeared from vaudeville and other shows for a time. Their educational and incomparable entertaining possibilities had not been dreamed of. He follows their history through the various stages of development to the modern era marked by great auditoriums "with large, commodious stages and every conceivable ac- commodation for comfort, and witnessing in addition to the best moving pictures either the highest type of dramatic and operatic tabloid produc- tions or spectacular scenic exhibitions not surpassed by the regular production theaters."
834
LOS ANGELES
Edwin Harvey Flagg was born at Point Edward, Ontario, Canada, June 30, 1879, son of John Graham and Anne Belle Flagg. His father was born on a farm near Morrisburg, Ontario, and was descended from the prominent Flagg family of Albany, New York. The mother was born at Northfield, Minnesota.
Edwin Harvey Flagg spent some years of his youth in Chicago, where he finished his literary education in the Cook County Normal School. From boyhood he has been in the theatrical business, and at some time or other has held nearly every position except that of leading lady. He played small parts in stock companies in Denver, was advance agent for various companies out of San Francisco, and for a time was" engaged as assistant scenic artist of the Alcazar Theater of San Francisco. Leaving there in 1896, at the age of seventeen, he returned to Denver and took up the then novelty of the moving picture, operating a picture machine for several months and selling advertising slides. It was many years after this that moving pictures were taken seriously, and while he did not long remain in the commercial end of it, he never lost his interest and as a scenic artist and in other ways has done some of the real pioneer work of establishing the motion picture in its modern popu- larity. From Denver after his moving picture experience he returned to Chicago, where he opened a scenic studio in the Marlow Theater in 1898. For several years he was engaged in planning and equipping the- aters. In 1903 Mr. Flagg took over several theaters in Louisiana, with headquarters at Alexandria, and operated them in connection with Klaw & Erlanger for four years.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.