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 65
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BERT LYTELL, one of the youngest and most popular screen celeb- rities, has a well deserved national fame but is a thorough Californian, as is also his talented wife.
He was born in New York City February 24, 1885, and may be said to have been born and grown up in the atmosphere and environ- ment of the stage. His father, William H. Lytell, was a noted actor and producer. His mother, Blanche Mortimer, was a leading woman of her time, and daughter of J. K. Mortimer, one of Augustin Daly's stars.
The early education of Bert Lytell was obtained at Upper Canada College. He left there at the age of fifteen and has been on the stage ever since. He went through the rudiments of his training at Fred Be- lasco's Alcazar Theater in San Francisco. He has the distinction of having been the youngest stock company manager in the country, man- aging his own summer stock company in Rochester and Albany, New York, besides having managed companies in New Orleans, Honolulu, Los Angeles and Boston. He played on Broadway as leading man to Marie Dressler in connection with an all-star cast containing Ben Johnson, Forrest Robinson, George Probert, Holbrook Blain and others. Mr. Lytell's last appearance on the legitimate stage was when he created the leading part in "Mary's Ankle."
His first screen production was in "The Lone Wolf." The better known pictures he has done since then are "The Spender," "Faith," "One Thing at a Time," "O'Day," "Lombardi Limited," "The Right of Way," and "Alias Jimmy Valentine."
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During the war he was in the Central Infantry Officers Camp at Waco, Texas, and gave some very effective aid in behalf of two of the Liberty Loan drives. While not at his studio he rides, fishes, hunts and his great hobby is farming. He has a twelve hundred sixty acre ranch in Napa County, but since prohibition has made his vineyard unprofitable he has decided in the future to confine his farming to a Hollywood gar- den. He has enjoyed success and has deserved it, and what more than anything else, not counting native talents, has contributed to his suc- cess has been hard work and persistency. His whole personality reflects determination and inflexibility of purpose, all combined with a warm- hearted, sympathetic manner.
Mr. Lytell is a member of the Lambs Club of New York and is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner. Ten years ago he married Miss Evelyn Vaughan. She was a leading woman in stock companies in San Francisco and on Broadway.
FRED PENNINGTON NEWPORT. Vision, initiative, executive abifry and tenacity are the attributes that have combined to make the name of Fred Pennington Newport a synonym of successful real estate develop- ment from the viewpoint of both buyer and seller. Since 1907 Mr. Newport, head of the F. P. Newport Company, has achieved distinction as a pioneer in various extensive undertakings promoted by himself and associates.
His operations cover both northern and southern California involving vast acreages of now high priced agricultural lands and properties in- cluded in the most exclusive and valuable business and residential sections of Los Angeles. Strong in his faith that Los Angeles was destined to become the most populous city west of St. Louis, he and his associates invested millions of dollars in desirable holdings and in their actual development. In later years, believing that the action and influence of the Panama Canal on maritime Los Angeles would make this metropolis the most important commercial and industrial center of the Pacific sea- board, he has been the means of interesting thousands of people in tide- water frontage and industrial sites at Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor.
Conforming to established precedent, at the present time he is pioneering in a development unique in the annals of Southern California realty-that of converting into surpassingly beautiful home sites about three hundred acres of fertile foothill and valley lands in historic Verdugo Canyon. In this "Switzerland of California" situated in North Glendale and within the ten mile circle from the heart of the city, he has platted spacious villa sites and endowed them with every convenience, the most notable feature perhaps being the substantially constructed domestic water system and development of electricity for both cooking and heating pur- poses. He has built a wide boulevard through the subdivision and already many handsome homes dot this picturesque gem of the "Mother Moun- tains."
Mr. Newport is a self made man, and though not yet in his prime has taken liis position among the influential factors in business and financial circles of his adopted state. He was born in New Brunswick, Canada, son of Burton and Mary (Pennington) Newport, but was reared on an Illinois farm. He graduated from the Princeton High School of Illinois, did special work in the University of Minnesota, the North- western University at Chicago, and Drake University at Des Moines. In
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HP newport
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early life he was principal of schools at Creighton, Nebraska, and also superintendent of agents of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, and as noted above for more than ten years has been sole owner of F. P. Newport Company.
Mr. Newport is a member of the Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Tuna Club, Los Angeles Realty Board, Merchants and Manu- facturers Association, Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Real Estate Exchanges. He is a Mason, a republican and a member of the Congregational Church. April 19, 1901, he married Letty Johnson, of Meadow Grove, Nebraska.
HENRY M. ROBINSON. At a time when the characters of many public men in America are undergoing the fierce assaults of destructive criticism, the figure of Henry M. Robinson of Pasadena stands out in contrasting relief with a proved record of independence of judgment, administrative skill and knowledge of domestic and international affairs. A republican, he served as adviser to a democratic president, as well as commissioner of the United States Shipping Board, and as special ship- ping commissioner at the Peace Conference. He was a member with Samuel Gompers of the International Labor Conference, served on the Council of National Defense and is a banker who, through square deal- ing, has won the entire confidence of organized labor.
While the results of the Peace Conference have been assailed at every conceivable point, Mr. Robinson returned from that conference with the unique record of having gained for the United States every point of importance for which he contended. For this work he was made Cheva- lier de la Legion D'Honeur of France and was also decorated by Albert of Belgium. He won the contention advanced by the United States that German and Austrian shipping interned in American ports at the time the United States entered the war should go to the United States and not be pooled for distribution among the Allies on a basis of shipping loss. This was probably the greatest single victory won by the United States at the Peace Conference.
At the Brussels Conference, acting as chairman of the subcommittee on shipping, and associated with Herbert Hoover, he obtained, in return for food, the assignment to the United States of the largest German liners, including such well known heavy tonnage ships as the Imperator, Zeppelin, Prinz, Frederich Wilhelm, Graf Waldersee, Patricia, Cap Fin- isterre Pretoria, Cleveland and the Kaiserin Augusta Victoria. These ships went to the United States because of America's need for troop transports, while Great Britain and France obtained ships of smaller ton- nage for use in cargo trade.
Equally notable was his influence as representative with Samuel Gompers of the United States at the International Labor Conference. The result of this conference was to place America on a parity at sea with the great mass of her competitors, not through the reduction of American wage standards set up by the LaFollette act, but by forcing the foreign nations to adopt the American basis. Commenting on this mis- sion, John Temple Graves, the great southern editor, wrote: "Robinson, who took Hurley's place for the United States, was subtle-minded, prac- tical, patient, courageous in his advocacy of the American· position and in his exposition of the peculiar difficulties adherent thereto. His was a far keener mentality than that of Gompers, who was always more ready
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to fight than to understand, more prone to thunder than to construct."
Both abroad and at home Mr. Robinson was an influential figure in the affairs of the nation during the war. But unlike some others who did less he worked without thought of self aggrandizement. One of the men who built up the nation-wide system of the Council of National De- fense, he was a strong though unheralded factor in Washington. When the shipyards became demoralized through strikes, he worked day and night with the President, with Chairman Hurley and with Samuel Gom- pers in bringing labor whole-heartedly into the war. His broad vision and progressive tendencies led him to keep in close and sympathetic contact with labor throughout the country.
In July, 1919, Mr. Robinson was made assistant to the chairman of the Shipping Board in charge of the preparation of studies relating to foreign trade, and, following the signing of the armistice he was given the duty of collecting shipping data necessary for presentation at the Peace Conference, to which he was called in December.
While abroad he was offered and declined the Director Generalship of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, the place which Schwab held during the war, and it was not until after he declined this post that he was made commissioner of the Shipping Board to succeed Commissioner Page of San Francisco. On returning from Paris he brought the neces- sary foreign data with which the Shipping Board supplemented the studies made in the United States covering the future operation of the American Merchant Marine.
In December, 1919, and the early months of 1920, Mr. Robinson served with the President's Second Industrial Conference in Washington and was chairman of the United States Bituminous Coal Commission in the settlement of the coal strike. He is a member of the Bankers' Com- mittee on Ships Securities and a director in the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of the Twelfth District. In private life he is president of the First National Bank of Los Angeles and of the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank.
Mr. Robinson is a native of the Western Reserve of Ohio, born at Ravenna, and was liberally educated, attending the Western Reserve Academy and later Cornell University. Admitted to the bar in 1890, his interests for many years were identified with the great industrial City of Youngstown, Ohio, where he practiced law nine years, and then moved to New York City where he continued his profession until 1904. He earned his early prominence as a banker while at Youngstown, serv- ing as vice-president of the First National Bank and the Dollar Savings Bank and Trust Company from 1899 to 1904. These are two of the largest banking institutions in Ohio, and he is still a director in them.
Mr. Robinson came to California in 1906, and among other impor- tant interests in the Southwest he is a director of the Southern California Edison Company, the Pacific Lumber Company, the Union Oil Company and of the Southern California Telephone Company. In former years he was also interested in newspapers in Kansas City and Boston.
MISS MABEL WATSON. The working hours of Miss Watson are spent in a picturesque little, studio at 249 East Colorado Street in Pasa- dena, a studio that is not without distinction and appreciation among the cultivated tastes of the world as a center of "fine arts" and "art photo- graphs." She has specialized for several years in pictoral photography,
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and an interesting tribute to her genius was paid when an editorial board selected some of her work from hundreds of prints submitted by pictorial- ists from every part of the country for publication in "Pictorial Photog- raphy in America," published in New York in 1920. This handsome work represents the best current expression of American pictorial photog- raphers.
Miss Watson was born in Illinois, but was reared in Indiana, where her family located when she was very young. Her father, Robert N. Watson, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and was born in Ohio. He was a student, and his life was devoted to scholarly pursuits. For many years he was a college professor, was deeply interested in the law and at dif- ferent times gave all the force of his quiet influence in the direction of clean politics. Never strong physically, he indulged so far as his duties permitted a simple rustic life, and finally, because of his health, came to California and died at Pasadena in 1910.
Miss Watson's mother was Sarah Ellen Brewer, a native of Indiana and also of Scotch-Irish parentage. Her people were all artistically in- clined. Her uncles were soldiers in the Civil war and her brother was a skillful wood carver. Miss Watson is one of five children, all daughters, and two of them are artists.
Mabel Watson was educated at the Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, studying art there and also studied in the Art Institute in Chicago, in New York and abroad. Her early dreams took the form of an ambition to apply art in some practical way. She took up photography, and at a time when a new school of photography was elevating the art from a mechanical process to a profession demanding the most delicate adjustment of artistic perceptions. She came under the inspiration of the new movement, and her own work has been a contribution to its further progress. Her first shop in California was very small, mortgaged and in debt, but all those obligations have been cleared away, and as the business grew she had her equipment and studio completely remodeled and has introduced many artistic chambers. She is now planning a new studio with large gardens, and all the technical equipment permitting her to apply her knowledge of art and set new standards for her already splendid work. Miss Watson each year goes East and keeps in close touch with the leading exemplars of her profession.
In her art shop at Pasadena she carries the Rookwood Pottery, having been selected by the Rookwood interests as their exclusive agent. Her shop has a very attractive frontage and adjoining is a Japanese garden with bits of artistic fences and other "et cetera" required by her photography. All her pictures are made on English water color paper, the most beautiful paper made.
Miss Watson is a member of the Pictorial Photographers of Ameri- ca, an organization not of mere photographers, but those whose work designates them as pictorial artists. This organization has for its purpose the bringing to the attention of museums and art societies all over the country the value of photography as a means of art expression.
FRED E. PETTIT, JR., began his professional career as an attorney at law in the summer of 1914. He was born at Peabody, Kansas, Novem- ber 23, 1888, and attended the grammar and high schools of his native city. Thereafter he received the A. B. degree from the University of Kansas, having majored in economics and taken certain additional work
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in engineering. He then took up the study of law, and after one year's work in the Harvard University Law School and two in Stanford Uni- versity Law School, graduated from the latter with the J. D. degree.
On October 15, 1914, Mr. Pettit entered the law department of the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad Company, having previously been engaged in the private practice of his profession. On June 1, 1917, he was made general attorney for the State of California for that com- pany, and just a year later entered the army in a radio detachment and afterward attended the Officers' Training Camp at Waco, Texas. Upon his discharge from army service he became attorney for the Southern California Edison Company and its subsidiaries, but resigned March 15, 1920, to become assistant general counsel and again as general attorney for California for the Railroad Company whose line is commonly known as the Salt Lake Route.
Mr. Pettit is unmarried. He is a member of the Masonic Order, the Phi Kappa Psi and Phi Alpha Delta fraternities, the University Club of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Newport Harhor Yacht Club ; and politically he is a republican.
FREDERICK ROLLIN FEITSHANS had achieved a flattering degree of success in business when he came to Los Angeles, but came here not to retire but merely to find a new field for his energies. A trained in- vestigator of oil properties, and at one time an oil operator in the Mid- Continent field in Kansas, Mr. Feitshans has had little interest in petro- leum since coming to Southern California, his choice of business having been made in an entirely different line. By a process of upbuilding and by consolidation he has made the Los Angeles Desk Company, of which he is president, the foremost concern of its kind on the Pacific Coast.
Mr. Feitshans was born at Springfield, Illinois, March 4, 1881. His parents were Frederick Rollin and Mary (Flanders) Feitshans. His father was a very prominent educator. At Springfield, Illinois, he was superintendent of the city schools. Mrs. M. F. Feitshans who now, divides her time between Los Angeles and Boston, Massachusetts, also has an interesting record in educational affairs. She has the distinction of being the first woman to serve on any State Board of Education in the United States.
Frederick Rollin Feitshans, the younger of two children, received his early education at Springfield, Illinois, also attended school in Kansas City, Missouri, and the high school at Los Angeles. In 1904 he graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kansas. During his last two years in the University of Kansas he was assistant to the State Geologist, and spent much of the time traveling over Kansas. From that experience in economic geology he engaged in the oil industry, and had a part in opening up several noted fields in that state. He drilled oil wells, and his judgment as an operator made him a handsome fortune. While in Kansas University he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and for many years was president and is now vice-president of the Los Angeles Branch of the Alumni Association. He also did much in athletics while in the university and in his home has many trophies of his prowess as a tennis player. He held the tennis champion- ship and during his last year at university held the intercollegiate middle west championship, both singles and doubles. In 1919 Mr. Feitshans was appointed alumni lecturer for the year by the University of Kansas. The
Seitdans
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series of three lectures he is to deliver at the university are entitled "Development of South American Trade," "Metal Mining in Alaska," and "Fuel a's a Factor in the Industrial Development of Pacific Coast States."
On leaving Kansas and coming to Los Angeles Mr. Feitshans estab- lished what is today the Los Angeles Desk Company. It was first known as the Los Angeles Desk Exchange located at 208 North Broadway, was later moved to 105 North Broadway and then to 117-119 South Broad- way. Mr. Feitshans took over the Bronson-Carlisle Desk Company at 729 South Spring Street and in the meantime had taken over the office furniture departments of several furniture houses of Los Angeles includ- ing the California Furniture Company, the Pease Brothers Furniture Company. All these new additions to his enterprise were eventually consolidated under the name Los Angeles Desk Company, and that business was incorporated in 1908. Since 1910 it has occupied a building of its own at 848-850 South Hill Street. In 1910 Mr. Feitshans bought out the Pockels-Bishop Desk Company.
He is president of the corporation and majority stock holder, owns the ground and building on which his business is located and is now adding three more stories so as to convert it into a seven story building, all of which will make an adequate and commodious home for the Desk Company. The business .includes the handling of all classes of high grade office furniture both wholesale and retail. He also manufactures goods in his line. For several years Mr. Feitshans has been contributing to general publicity work on Los Angeles by issuing a series of "Facts About Los Angeles and Southern California," distributed thousands of copies and containing much information of value to prospective business interests.
Mr. Feitshans is a director of the Continental National Bank of Los Angeles, one of the largest banking institutions in Southern Cali- fornia. He is a former president of the Los Angeles Sales Managers Association, and has been vice-president of the International Sales Man- agers Association and director and officer in various other business and civic organizations. He is a member of the University Club and is sec- retary and treasurer of the Board of Control of the Inter Club Associa- tion of Los Angeles. He also belongs to the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Automobile Club of Southern California, Chamber of Commerce, being on its membership committee and representative of the Chamber of the United States Chamber of Commerce Session at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1919, is a member of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, the Chamber of Mines, is president of the Kiwanis Club, member of the Lions Club and in politics is a republican. During the war he served as a member of the Home Guard Company. He was also chairman of the Red Cross for the business district of Los Angeles and was captain in every Liberty Bond campaign in Los Angeles. He also organized the Hill Street Improvement Association of which D. A. Hamburger is president with Mr. Feitshans vice-president. This asso- ciation is succeeding in extending Hill Street south through the Ball Park to Santa Barbara Avenue and north from Temple Street to Sunset Boulevard. As a result the street will be four and a half miles in length and ninety-two feet wide, and will be one of the longest downtown boule- vards in the city.
Mr. Feitshans has never ceased to be a lover of outdoor sports and pastimes. Hunting is one of his favorite diversions. He has hunted
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big game in Alaska and as head of an exploration party visited Alaska, and one of the large glaciers on the Snow River he named the Celia Glacier in honor of his wife.
On September 8, 1906, Mr. Feitshans married Miss Celia Traber of Kansas City, Missouri. Though the last subject to be mentioned, his family is in fact first and last with Mr. Feitshans. His wife was born and educated in Kansas City, being a graduate of the Kansas City High School. Her father, the late Judge Traber, was a prominent pioneer of Kansas City. Mrs. Feitshans is a talented vocalist. Recently Mr. Feitshans bought ground in the West Adams Street district, and is planning a modern home there. He and his wife have seven children, all native sons and daughters born at Los Angeles, their names being Mary Elizabeth, Frederick R., Jr., Traber L., Beatrice, James Douglas, Victor and Sylvia.
EDWIN TOBIAS EARL. never held a "job," never received a "position" with more or less lucrative remuneration, was never an employe. These negative facts are not stated as matters of curious interest ; they probably furnish a significant interpretation of a significant career. More or less consciously even from boyhood he was doubtless actuated by a sense of commitment to "a work" as a fulfillment of life and life's aims. His joy was in the journey, not the journey's end. And the impulse to work came from within ; economic necessity exercised no compulsion over him.
Having revolutionized the fruit industry of California, he had the generous rewards of the inventor and great business executive. The spirit of democracy is labor and service, and he remained as essentially democratic when a millionaire as when an obscure fruit shipper. He was a capitalist, but not of the capitalistic caste. His character never became rigid, his human sympathies broadening and deepening with the years. At a time when the political and social convictions of most men became fixed, he was not only receptive to but became a warm exponent of the progressive movement in the republican party, and to him much credit is due for the fact that California today retains more of the vitality of progressive principles than any other section of the nation.
There is no space here for an extended review of a career which may be recommended for a thorough study by an economic and philo- sophic historian. The fact remains beyond dispute that Edwin T. Earl was one of the greatest Californians of his generation. It is significant that while his work became a public achievement, of his own personal career he seldom permitted himself or others to speak. All this article can hope to do is to sketch a few facts of his personal history, and make brief reference to the several successive tasks to which his energies and genius of mind and heart were devoted.
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