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The 1938 Los Angeles mayoral recall election took place on September 16, 1938 following the recall of incumbent Frank L. Shaw. Shaw was defeated by Fletcher Bowron in the election, making him the first recalled mayor in American history. [1]
Municipal elections in California, including Mayor of Los Angeles, are officially nonpartisan; candidates' party affiliations do not appear on the ballot. [2]
Shaw had been accosted with corruption in City Hall which led to a recall movement against him and his close associates. Reformers who opposed Shaw and the Los Angeles Times both agreed that Shaw was "building the largest machine in the city's history," choosing Fletcher Bowron, a Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, to run against Shaw. [3] [4] The reformers campaigned for Shaw's recall saying that he did not do enough to stop crime and that he had supposedly committeed arious crimes during his tenure. [5] The recall was approved by voters by a large margin, and Bowron defeated Shaw by a landslide. [6]
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
 Yes | 235,395 | 64.65 |
| No | 128,727 | 35.35 |
| Total votes | 364,122 | 100.00 |
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fletcher Bowron | 233,427 | 64.33 | |
| Frank L. Shaw (incumbent) | 122,692 | 33.81 | |
| Alonzo J. Riggs | 4,050 | 1.12 | |
| Albert F. Osterloh | 2,706 | 0.75 | |
| Total votes | 362,875 | 100.00 | |
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Elections and referendums in Los Angeles | ||
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John Clinton Porter was a U.S. political figure. The Los Angeles Times wrote that he represented a "unique mixture of reform politics and xenophobic Protestant populism [that] took him quite literally from the junk yard to City Hall." Porter was a member of the Ku Klux Klan during its popular resurgence in the early 1920s.
The Los Angeles City Council is the lawmaking body for the city government of Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States. It has 15 members who each represent the 15 city council districts that are spread throughout the city's 501 square miles of land.
Frank Lawrence Shaw was the first mayor of a major American city to be recalled from office, in 1938. He was also a member of the Los Angeles City Council and then the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. His administration was seen as one of the most corrupt in Los Angeles history, although he had some defenders and was never charged officially with any crime.
Fletcher Bowron was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. He was the 35th Mayor of Los Angeles from 1938 to 1953. A member of the Republican Party, he was at the time the city's longest-serving mayor and was the city's second longest-serving mayor overall after Tom Bradley, presiding over the war boom and very heavy population growth, and building freeways to handle them.
James Edgar Davis was an American police officer who served as the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1926 to 1929, and from 1933 to 1939. During his first term as LAPD chief, Davis emphasized firearms training. Under Davis, the LAPD developed its lasting reputation as an organization that relied on brute force to enforce public order. It also became publicly entangled in corruption. Members of the LAPD were revealed to have undertaken a campaign of brutal harassment, including the bombings of political reformers who had incurred the wrath of the department and the civic administration.
John C. Holland was one of the longest-serving Los Angeles City Council members, for 24 years from 1943 to 1967, and was known for his losing fight against bringing the Los Angeles Dodgers to Chavez Ravine and for his reputation as a watchdog over the city treasury.
Employers Group was founded as the Merchants and Manufacturers Association (M&M) in 1896 in California. It has become a worldwide organization advocating for employers and giving guidance about employment laws and regulations, professional development, consulting projects, and compensation and workplace trends surveys.
Kent Kane Parrot was an American political figure and attorney who was considered the "boss" of municipal politics in Los Angeles, California, in the 1920s.
Earl C. Gay (1902–1972) was a registered pharmacist who was a member of the Los Angeles City Council between 1933 and 1945.
The 1933 Los Angeles mayoral election took place on May 2, 1933, with a run-off election on June 6, 1933. Incumbent John Clinton Porter was defeated by Frank L. Shaw, a Los Angeles County Supervisor, in the runoff election. During the election, Shaw's citizenship was questions as his birth records could not be located.
The 1937 Los Angeles mayoral election took place on April 6, 1937, with a runoff election on May 4, 1937. Incumbent Frank L. Shaw was reelected over Supervisor John Anson Ford in the runoff election.
The 1941 Los Angeles mayoral election took place on April 1, 1941, with a run-off election on May 6, 1941. Incumbent Fletcher Bowron was re-elected in the runoff election, defeating councilmember Stephen W. Cunningham.
The 1945 Los Angeles mayoral election took place on April 3, 1945. Incumbent Fletcher Bowron was re-elected outright with minimal opposition. The candidates challenging Bowron included restaurateur Clifford Clinton, city councilmember Ira J. McDonald, and former State Assemblymember Sam Yorty.
The 1949 Los Angeles mayoral election took place on April 5, 1949, with a run-off election on May 31, 1949. Incumbent Fletcher Bowron was re-elected.
The 1953 Los Angeles mayoral election took place on April 7, 1953, with a run-off election on May 26, 1953. Incumbent Fletcher Bowron was defeated by Norris Poulson, a U.S. Representative.
Carl Bernardino Wirsching was an American engineer, veteran, and politician who was active in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 1940s. After serving in the United States Army as a part of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, he returned to Los Angeles to pursue political activities, running in the 1937 Los Angeles mayoral election and placing fourth in the primary.
Charles W. Cradick was an American attorney and political campaign manager who worked primarily in Los Angeles, California. Cradick's clients included the California Amusement Machines Operators Association (CAMOA), which was accused by civic reformers of being a front for a slot-machine racket, and the Hollywood film actress Barbara Stanwyck.
"The Lid Off Los Angeles" was a 1939 six-part series of newsmagazine articles that ran in Liberty, an American general interest magazine. The series, written by Dwight F. McKinney and Fred Allhoff, asserted that the Los Angeles Police Department, in cooperation with officials in municipal government, had partnered with organized crime figures in the city for mutual financial benefit but to the detriment of the body politic. The article alleged police protection of gambling, alcohol smuggling, and bordello prostitution in exchange for payoffs by crime bosses, as well bribery, intimidation, spying, dirty tricks, ratfucking, and ultimately violence on the part of the corrupt LAPD to protect gambling-prostitute-bootlegging revenue for crime bosses over a 20-year period, ending under the administrations of Chief of Police James E. Davis and Los Angeles mayor Frank L. Shaw. Frank L. Shaw, who had been removed from Los Angeles City Hall and replaced with Fletcher Bowron by the 1938 Los Angeles mayoral recall election, sued the authors for libel, sued again for a different article in another magazine, and was later countersued by civic reformer Clifford Clinton for making false allegations. A jury in the first lawsuit was unable to reach a verdict. After lengthy court proceedings over several years, all parties settled out of court in 1943. The articles are considered very influential in the history of Los Angeles, and the title has been continuously reused in reference to crime and problems generally in Los Angeles. The title of the series comes from a statement made by Clinton in the wake of the car bomb that almost killed private investigator Harry J. Raymond; he announced he had information about the involvement of elected officials that would "blow the lid off of Los Angeles".
Joseph Edward Shaw was an American political figure and U.S. Navy officer. He served during the World War I era and rose to the rank of lieutenant. His brother, Frank L. Shaw, was mayor of Los Angeles from 1933 to 1938. Joe Shaw worked as his brother's secretary and chief of staff during this period and "acted as the liaison with less savory elements of the alliance" that had elected his brother. In 1939, following the 1938 Los Angeles mayoral recall election that removed Frank Shaw from office, Joseph E. Shaw was "indicted and later convicted on 63 counts of selling civil service appointments and promotions. Joe Shaw served no time".
