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 61
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
871
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
money to buy clothes and school books. He had many varied exper- iences before his talents finally centered upon the stage. His introduction into the theatrical world was as head usher in the old Chicago Opera House. Later he was employed in the box office and as assistant treasurer of the same theatre. Finally he decided his interest was in back of the curtain instead of in front of it. His first acting engagement was with George Fawcett, then at the head of a company playing in Chicago. For this engagement he was paid at the rate of a dollar a performance, nine dollars a week, and although the compensation was very small the work was congenial and in complete line with his inclination and taient. Subsequently he secured a small part in a stock company at eighteen dollars a week. The company went on the road, became stranded, and when some local people took over the organization the salaries were cut, Mr. Washburn's going down to sixteen dollars a week. After this disastrous experience he joined, the Percy Haswell Stock Company playing at the Royal Alexandria Theatre, Toronto, Canada. This was Mr. Washburn's first really successful engagement. At the end of this season he again joined Mr. Fawcett's company. During the next season he played a small part in "The Remittance Man" and the leading role in "The Wolf."
At this point in Mr. Washburn's career the motion picture industry was just beginning to unfold itself, but was looked upon as a venture to be shunned by those ingrained with legitimate stage ideals. However, while in New York he overheard a manager saying there was a fine opening for a young man in pictures in Chicago. As Chicago was Mr. Washburn's home and not having seen his parents for some time and the season of the year not being propitious for the securing of a theatrical engagement, he decided to investigate the possibilities of pictures. More for the trip to his home than for any other reason he signed a contract for the summer months with the Essanay Company. At the expiration of this engagement he discovered a strong liking as well as a great aptitude for screen work-and the engagement that was entered into as a makeshift resulted in his continuing with the Essanay Company for over seven years. During these years Mr. Washburn played every con- ceivable role from dope fiends to Grand Dukes. Just before leaving this organization he made what is conceded to be one of the greatest comedies ever producd-"Skinner's Dress Suit."
Shortly after the Essanay engagement terminated he became identified with the Famous Players Lasky Corporation, and his name ranks high among the great stars in that galaxy of talent. Mr. Washburn has religiously refused to play in any vehicle that was not thoroughly clean and wholesome, being far-sighted enough to realize that plays of that kind only can endure. Among the excellent pictures he has made for the Paramount-Artcraft programme are: "It Pays to Advertise," "Why Smith Left Home," "Too Much Johnson," "Six Best Cellars," "Sins of St. Anthony," "Mrs. Temple's Telegram," "What Happened to Jones" and "A Full House." Mr. Washburn's one hobby is work and plenty of it.
He married Mabel Forrest Chidester in Chicago July 3, 1914. Mrs. Washburn is a very talented musician. They have two sons, Bryant Washburn IV, born in 1915, and Dwight Ludlow, born in 1919. The younger child was named for Mr. Washburn's great uncle, Dwight L. Moody the world famous evangelist.
Mr. Washburn is a great lover of California Shortly after coming
872
LOS ANGELES
to California he purchased a beautiful home at 7003 Hawthorne Avenue, Hollywood.
Mr. Washburn is a member of the Brentwood Country Club of Los Angeles and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason.
WILLIAM BENJAMIN SCOTT, while he began his career in the Cali- fornia oil fields as a rig builder, had attained a quarter of a century later a reputation as one of the most active and successful oil operators in the state. He was associated in business and on the plane of friend- ship with a notable group of California men, men whose material achieve- ments have made up the constructive progress of the Southwest, and whose ideals and character as business men and citizens can never be sufficiently admired.
Willianı Benjamin Scott was born in Johnson County, Missouri, November 15, 1868, and came to California too young to remember any- thing of the state of his birth or the journey to the far West. His parents settled at Santa Paula, where Mr. Scott was educated, one of his teachers being Hon. Thomas O. Toland, of Los Angeles. He served an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and it was his skill at that trade that made him a useful factor at the beginning of his oil career as a rig builder with the Union Oil Company of California. He worked for this company in Torrey Canyon and the Tarr Creek districts of Ventura County. He was fascinated by the oil industry, and it undoubtedly brought out the finest qualities of an executive genius that lay dormant under his role as a mechanic. He learned tool dressing, the practical operations of drilling, and his experience comprised every technical process involved in oil production.
Mr. Scott's independent operations commenced in 1894, when he came to Los Angeles and began building rigs by contract for different oil operators in the Los Angeles city fields. This was followed by his drilling oil wells under contract for various companies. Later a partner- ship was formed by Mr. Scott and Mr. William Loftus, and for several years this firm was engaged in operating for themselves and drilling wells by contract for others.
In 1898, together with Mr. W. L. Hardison, Mr. Scott secured leases in the Olinda oil district in Orange County, California, which formed the basis for the organization of the Columbia Oil Company, of which Mr. Hardison was president, and Mr. Scott vice president. In 1900 this company was reorganized as the Columbia Oil Producing Com- pany, having an authorized capital of $1,000,000, with Mr. Hardison as president, and Mr. Scott as vice president, with whom were also asso- ciated Mr. Harry Chandler, Guy L. Hardison and F. X. Pfaffinger and other Los Angeles business men.
In 1903 a consolidation was effected between the Columbia Oil Producing Company and the Puente Oil Company, the latter company being headed by W. R. Rowland, and with him associated J. A. Graves, Richard and William Lacey and others, Mr. Hardison becoming president and Mr. Scott vice president of the consolidated companies. This gave the reorganization an operating refinery at Chino, as well as a selling organization, thus combining production, refining and marketing. By 1907 Mr. Scott had greatly increased his stock holdings and had become president of the company. During that year, also, Mr. Scott, together with E. A. Clampitt, Captain Tompkinson, I. N. Richards and others, organized the Orange Oil Company, which controlled fifty-six acres in
mo Seatt
873
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
Brea Canyon, Mr. Scott becoming also president of this new company. This Brea Canyon property became very productive. In 1909, with the purchase of four hundred acres adjoining the old Puente property in Brea Canyon, the Pico Oil Company was organized by Mr. Scott, Harry Chandler, General Sherman, W. L. Stewart, Chester W. Brown and Charles Astley.
The final consolidation of all these properties and companies was effected in 1912, at which time the capital stock of the Columbia was increased to three million five hundred thousand shares par value one dollar. The holdings consisted of about five thousand acres of oil lands, leases and mineral rights in fee, located in Orange and Los Angeles counties, with approximately a hundred wells of substantial production and a refinery and sales organization. While some of his prominent associates have been named, the substantial credit for this progressive accumulation of oil properties and the business organization is due to the foresight and genius of Mr. Scott, who became president of the reorganized company, his fellow directors being Chandler, Stewart, Row- land, Sherman, Clampitt and Astley. Mr. Scott remained as chief execu- tive until Angust, 1919, when the Union Oil Company of Delaware pur- chased and contracted to purchase the outstanding stock of the company on a basis of six million dollars to the stockholders. The Eastern com- pany took over the property and active management January 1, 1920, and by special request Mr. Scott remained on the board of directors, and was serving as such at the time of his death on April 27, 1920.
He died in his fifty-second year, and while his friends were shocked by his premature end, all admired the tremendous array of achievements to the credit of his life. They had known him as a tireless worker, a man of rare good judgment and business acumen, not as a shrewd bargainer, but, as one friend said, "He used the golden rule as a yardstick for the measure of his conduct, and if he had any doubt as to its application in the matter at issue, he gave the other the benefit of the doubt." It means a great deal when one of his friends could sincerely say: "He was brave, kind, good, true. His every thought was pure and honest and his every act a living expression of his noble thought." Many stories have been told illustrating his integrity of character. All the years he was in the oil fields he was strictly a legitimate operator, and no one could ever tempt him to join in the frequent "wildcatting" practices that prevailed here as elsewhere. He also had a high measure of apprecia- tion for those who worked for him and with him for the success of his business. At the time of the sale to the Eastern investors, and upon the initiative of Mr. Scott, a special bonus was paid to all employes of the company equal to ten per cent of the entire amount earned by each during continuous employment. This generous provision called for the distribution of approximately $110,000. That act was characteristic of Scott's numerous kindly acts to his fellow men, though many of the impulses that directed him to practical generosity were completely hidden from public view.
In addition to his activities as an oil operator, Mr. Scott had a diversity of interests. He was a director of the Citizens National Bank, and a director of the Los Angeles Chamber of Oil and Mines. He also served on important committees of the Los Angeles Chamber of Com- merce.
On June 24, 1896, Mr. Scott was married to Miss Luna M. Hardi- son, of Caribou, Maine. This union was blessed with two children, Miss
874
LOS ANGELES
Josephine Scott, now a student at Stanford University, and William Keith Scott, a student of Los Angeles High School.
It was the financiers, business executives, prominent men in social, professional and public affairs, and the numerous employes who had worked under his leadership, who rendered sincere and complete homage to the life and services of Mr. Scott at the time of his death. He was laid to rest in Inglewood cemetery, the burial services being conducted by the Santa Paula Masonic Lodge, of which he was a life member.
FRED R. DORN, architect, is a son of one of the early contractors and builders of Los Angeles and has been in the building business almost from his earliest recollections. His interests in that line were soon concen- trated in architecture, a profession he has followed independently since he was twenty-one years of age. During the past thirty years Mr. Dorn has been architect for a great number of the business structures, includ- ing hotel and office buildings, which make up the conspicuous landmarks in Los Angeles.
Mr. Dorn was born at Port Henry, New York, June 13, 1866, son of R. H. and Maria Louise (Rice) Dorn, also natives of New York State. The family settled in Los Angeles in 1886, where R. H. Dorn continued in business as a contractor and builder for many years. He died in 1911 and his wife in 1901. Their children, one daughter and three sons, all reside in Los Angeles: Mrs. A. G. Slocum, Charles H. Dorn, W. W. Dorn and Fred R. Dorn.
Fred R. Dorn acquired his early education in the public schools of Port Henry, New York, Saratoga Springs and Rochester. He was twenty years of age when he came to Los Angeles, and the following year he set up independently as an architect. Monuments of his constructive skill might be pointed out in all parts of the city. Perhaps the most con- spicuous is the twelve story Marsh-Strom office building at Ninth, Spring and Main streets, in which Mr. Dorn has his own offices. In the course of his long career he has drawn plans and supervised the construction of numerous private residences, churches, hotels and schools, but his main work has been in business buildings. He was architect of the Woodward Hotel on Eighth Street and also furnished the plans for a five-story office building known as the Pickerill & Scott Building at Long Beach.
Mr. Dorn has usually voted as a republican. He married at Los Angeles February 8, 1894, Miss Alice D. Austermell. She was born at Alton, Illinois, daughter of J. H. Austermell and wife, who came to Los Angeles more than thirty years ago. Both parents are now deceased. Mrs. Dorn was educated in Los Angeles. She had a special gift in vocal music, and in former years made many public appearances as a singer in Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Dorn have two children, both of whom were born and educated in Los Angeles and are graduates of the city high school. The daughter is Mrs. W. D. Sink, wife of a physician and surgeon at Guadalupe, California. The son, Paul A., is now specializing in chemistry at the University of California. The Dorn family home is at 1126 Fourth Avenue.
HENRY' MACRAE is director general of production of the Universal Film Corporation, and has been one of the men most active in that world famous institution since it was started at Hollywood in 1912.
He thence moved with such rapidity in the film world that many California people have forgotten the old Nestor Comedy Company, which
875
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
was organized in 1912 and employed only twenty people. In the same years the promoters acquired the "101 Bison Film Company" studio lo- cated at Gower Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. This studio consisted of a small cutting room, scenario department, projecting rooms, technical office and a stage 35x50 feet. All of this was under one roof 60x100 feet. There was a great deal of vitality in the personnel of the organiza- tion, and in less than one year they had enlarged the original capacity three times and had ten companies at work. Other buildings were added to the plant on the south side of Sunset Boulevard, where they erected a stage 300x60 feet, large property room and elaborate office building. The company also secured a twelve hundred acre ranch, where they fitted out two big stages, an office building, bunk houses, cook houses, corrals, sta- bles, and bought a carload of equipment for the making of pictures.
In the meantime the business had been organized and incorporated as the Universal Film Corporation. In 1914 the organization acquired two hundred thirty-seven acres near Hollywood and began the con- struction of what is now the largest motion picture studio in the world. This comprises ten acres of stages, which are built with concrete founda- tions, and at the present time thirty-three companies represent the the- atrical personnel under the immediate control of the Universal Film Cor- poration.
It is a matter of interesting history for Southern California to note some of the stars employed by the Universal in the past. Some of these names are Florence Lawrence, Nat Goodwin, Henrietta Crossman, Digby Bell, Frank Keenan, Edna Aug, Julia Dean, Helen Ware, George Fauset, Mary Pickford, King Baggett and Annette Kellerman.
The Universal Film Corporation recently adopted the policy of creating its own stars, and the film world knows many of these under the names of Carmel Myers, Franklin Farnum, Dorothy Philips, Ella Hall, Monroe Salisbury, Grace Conard, Marie Walcamp, Ruth Clifford, Mary McLaren, Gladys Brockwell and J. Warren Kerrigan.
The corporation represents a city and a great industry in itself. It pays out about fifty-five thousand dollars every week in Los Angeles and from seven hundred to three thousand people are employed in this vast enterprise. One feature of the industry is a complete plant for manufacturing not only films, furniture and costumes, but also mills for planing lumber, furnishing iron work, plaster and papier mache. The company owns its own water, light and sewage system, and other prop- erty interests include a hospital, restaurant, developing plant, school house, theater for projecting films, ranch with everything that goes with it, and last but not least a zoological farm, where they breed and raise lions, tigers, wolves, elephants, camels and practically every other ani- mal that has a part in the varied stage settings.
The director general of production for this corporation is an old and tried theatrical man. Born in Toronto, Canada, son of David and Mary MacRae, he left school at the age of eleven to play juvenile parts in the stock company of the Princess Theater. After two years he went out on the road with various theatrical companies in Canada and the United States, and later attained to the dignity of having a company of his own. He was on the road playing the latest dramatic successes as released for stock companies, and his organization earned him no small degree of fame. For three years he lived at Honolulu, and made a tre- mendous success of his theatrical venture in that city.
-
876
LOS ANGELES
Mr. MacRae came to Los Angeles in 1912 and became a factor in the direction of motion picture plays for the Universal Film Corporation, and since 1917 has been its director general of production.
Mr. MacRae is a charter member of the Motion Picture Directors' Association, is a member of the Pacific and Country Clubs of Honolulu, and of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and the Masonic and Elks fra- ternities. He owns a beautiful home on Canyon Drive in Hollywood. Mr. MacRae's favorite hobby and recreation is horseback riding, and it is said he owns one of the finest riding horses in Southern California. In politics he is a democrat and in religion a member of the Christian Science church. In 1906, at Yonkers, New York, Mr. MacRae married Margaret Oswald, well known to the theatrical world. They have one child, Henry, who is seven years old and is being trained under private tutors.
GEORGE STECKEL. In the field of portrait photography there is only one George Steckel, and in the opinion of many experts and others qualified to judge, George Steckel is the only man capable of bringing out many of those intangible qualities which make all the difference be- tween the mechanical and really lifelike portrait. Mr. Steckel is one of the veteran photographers of America, and has had his home and business at Los Angeles for thirty years.
He was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1864. He left public school at the age of thirteen and the next two years worked in a photographic shop in Allentown. He learned the business in a time of crude facilities and when photography was largely an experi- mental process. For a year after leaving Allentown he was employed in a studio at Philadelphia, and then opened a studio of his own at Allentown, continuing it three years. By that time he thought he had exhausted the possibilities of photography, and desiring some other line, he sold out and went West. After considerable travel, he finally located at Kansas City, where he was engaged in the real estate business until 1888.
In that year Mr. Steckel took advantage of the low rate offered by the railroads to come West. The journey brought him to Los Angeles, and while he had no intention of settling here permanently, he found the city so attractive in every way that he has had no other home since that date. He soon opened a photographic studio opposite the Hollen- beck Hotel, forming a partnership with Joseph H. Lamson under the name Steckel & Lamson. Two years later they dissolved partnership and since then Mr. Steckel's studio has been conducted under his in- dividual name. In 1905 he moved to his present location at 33612 South Broadway, where he occupies the entire top floor of an office building.
Literally a host of patrons can speak appreciatively of the work and talents of George Steckel. Moreover, there are many expert credentials to substantiate all such assertions. He has long been a member of the National Photographic Association of America, that association honoring him with the office of second vice president in 1897, and first vice pres- ident in 1898. At the convention of the association at Boston, Massa- chusetts, in 1899, his work won the first award of merit. In 1890 the bronze medal was given him in recognition of his work at the Buffalo convention of the association. When the association held its meeting at Chicago during the World's Fair of 1893, his portraits received the award of two gold medals and the Committee of Awards of the Exposi-
877
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
tion itself gave him a medal for artistic excellence. In the same year he had an exhibit at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco and brought away all five of the silver medals offered by that body. Altogether his distinctive ability as an artist photographer has been awarded eighteen medals and numerous diplomas. These include the silver medal given his work at the Paris Exposition in 1900.
Mr. Steckel's ideals have always been more on the artistic than on the commercial side of his profession. After forty years behind the camera, he has adopted methods for securing individuality in adults and children that are often described as the George Steckel style, which is still maintained by his personal supervision. Experience and skill have enabled him to bring out that indefinable something which distinguishes portrait photography as a real art.
From 1897 to 1907 Mr. Steckel devoted a portion of his studio to: an art exhibit. This gallery consisted of paintings by many of the best known artists in the world. Mr. Steckel was one of the seven men who met in the parlors of the Hollenbeck Hotel and founded the Jonathan Club, of which he is still a member. He is also a member of the Cali- fornia Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Los Angeles Country Club, South Gate Lodge No. 320, A. F. and A. M., Knight Templar Commandery No. 9 and the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, and for twenty-nine years has been an executive of the Ellis Club, a local musical organization. He is a republican voter. At Los Angeles, October 3, 1905, Mr. Steckel married Evangeline Buck. They have two children, George Jr., born in 1908, and Margaret, born in 1913, both attending the public schools.
PAUL J. HOWARD,' landscape architect, has been engaged in land- scape architecture and horticulture since boyhood. There was an irre- sistible attraction for him into this line, and the success he has made of his profession finds striking evidence in the many notable homes and private and public grounds which he has beautified and adorned.
Mr. Howard was born at Los Angeles, son of Frederick P. and Caro- line (Huber) Howard. He received his education in the public schools and in 1904 became a partner in the firm of Howard & Smith, landscape artists and horticulturists. After ten years he branched out in business for himself, although still retaining an interest in the firm. His name and title as given above is now his business signature. In 1914 he opened his office in the I. W. Hillman Building, in 1915 he moved to the Marsh- Strong Building, and in 1917 to his present address at 1521 West Seventh Street.
In 1915 Mr. Howard bought twenty acres of Los Nietas. This he has developed into a nursery, cultivating ornamental and fruit trees and shrubbery and economic plants of all kinds. From it he has supplied great quantities of trees and shrubbery for the adornment of Los An- geles homes.
The character of his work and his standing in the profession can most briefly be indicated by reference to some of the private homes and grounds which have been adorned by him and under his direction. The list includes the residences and grounds of H. Jevne in Pasadena, L. N. Brunswick. John E. Powers, R. J. Gaffney, Howard J. Schoder, R. E. Fuller, Elsbery W. Reynolds, Dr. Norman Bridge, A. T. Stimson, J. Ross Clark, Mrs. H. O. Ayres, Mrs. Florence P. Holstead, D A. Mizner,
878
LOS ANGELES
W J. Hole of Riverside, and J. Myrick Jr. of Nordhoff Mr. Howard also did the exterior improvement and landscape gardening for the Gar- den Court Apartments, which is considered one of the finest apartment houses and gardens in the West. Every detail of exterior adornment, in- cluding the placing and construction of fountains, and other ornaments, as well as planning and care of vegetation, are within the scope of Mr. Howard's business.
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.