Wilder W. Hartley (April 4,1901 –August 17,1970) was a member of the Los Angeles City Council from the Harbor and South Los Angeles districts from 1939 to 1943.
Hartley was born in Reno,Nevada,on April 4,1901,and was brought to Wilmington,California,in 1903,where his father became chief engineer for the Hammond Lumber Company. Wilder attended Wilmington High School and Stanford University. He worked for Hammond for a time and then went into the insurance business. In 1924 he and Laura Mae Clark were married. Hartley was a Republican. [1]
Hartley died at the age of 69 on August 17,1970,in Harbor City,leaving his wife and three daughters,Marilyn Swanson,Ann Wilmoth and Joyce Christiansen. [2] He was buried in San Pedro. [1]
Hartley ran against Franklin Pierce Buyer,the incumbent member for Los Angeles City Council District 15,in 1939 and was elected in the final vote. Buyer challenged Hartley again in 1941 but was defeated in the final. Two years later,in 1943,Hartley was ousted by George H. Moore in the primary,and the same Hartley-Moore matchup had the same result in 1945. Hartley tried against Moore for the last time in 1947 but was defeated in the final vote.
Hitchhikers (1940). Hartley proposed a law against hitchhiking. The Los Angeles Times reported:
Efforts of women drivers to escape the importunities of hitchhikers cause them to drive through traffic signals,creating a traffic hazard,Hartley asserted. Councilman Arthur E. Briggs declared such drivers would go through signals anyhow. He said he couldn't see why drivers did not have sufficient willpower not to pick up hikers if they did not want to. [3]
Ex-Communist (1940). Hartley joined the 9-4 majority of the council in asking Mayor Fletcher Bowron to remove a former Communist,labor leader Don Healy,from a city charter revision committee that Bowron had appointed months previously. "Communists don't change overnight," Hartley said,referring to Healy's switch in registration from Communist to Democratic. [4]
Mayor (1940). He was appointed to a committee of five council members to call on Bowron to complain about "persistent and erroneous" remarks the mayor made about the council in his radio addresses. [5]
Servicemen (1943). He suggested that "spacious City Hall rooms" might be set aside at night for emergency sleeping quarters for servicemen "instead of having them walking the streets,sleeping in parks or telephone booths due to lack of hotel rooms." [6]
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.
Guy Vernon Bennett was superintendent of schools in Pomona,a professor of education at the University of Southern California,and a Los Angeles city councilman from the 10th District from 1935 to 1951. He was defeated for reelection after seventeen years in office in the wake of his arrest on a morals charge. He was a Democrat.
George H. Moore,an attorney and a judge who was active in civic affairs of the Los Angeles Harbor region,was district attorney of San Benito County and a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1943 to 1951.
Ira J. McDonald was a Downey,California,attorney and member of the Los Angeles City Council between 1941 and 1945.
Arthur Elbert Briggs was a teacher and law school dean who was a Los Angeles City Council member from 1939 to 1941 and the leader of the Ethical Society of Los Angeles in 1953.
Edward Lee Thrasher was a builder,contractor and decorator who served on the Los Angeles,California,City Council between 1931 and 1942.
Ned Romeyn Healy was a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1943 to 1945 and a member of Congress from 1945 to 1947.
Byron Bernard Brainard was an electrician,auto mechanic,auto salesman,real estate broker and community newspaper editor who was a Los Angeles City Council member between 1933 and 1939.
Earl C. Gay (1902–1972) was a registered pharmacist who was a member of the Los Angeles City Council between 1933 and 1945.
John Walter Baumgartner was an American civil engineer who was a member of the Los Angeles,California,City Council from 1933 to 1945.
Robert Stuart MacAlister was an oil-well-supplies salesman and a member of the Los Angeles,California,City Council between 1934 and 1939.
Norris J. Nelson was an American politician who served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1939 to 1943.
Carl Christian Rasmussen was a Lutheran minister who was also a member of the Los Angeles,California,City Council between 1939 and 1947.
Harold Harby was elected to the Los Angeles,California,City Council in 1939,but he had to leave office in 1942 when he was convicted of using a city car for a trip out of the state. He was reelected in 1943 and served until 1957. Harby was noted for casting a 1951 swing vote that killed a $100 million proposal to build a massive public-housing project in the city as well as for his opposition to modern art and music.
Roy Hampton was an attorney,ex-Marine and former journalist who was a member of the Los Angeles,California,City Council from 1939 to 1943. Sheriff's deputies said he killed himself in a Malibu motel in 1953.
J. Win Austin was a retired businessman who became a Los Angeles,California,City Council member from 1941 to 1953. He was earlier on the Police and Health commissions.
Edward J. Davenport was an American politician who served on the Los Angeles City Council for the 12th district from 1945 to 1953. Elected as a liberal Democrat,he became a staunch conservative anti-communist,switching his party to Republican in 1948.
Thomas Meade McClanahan Jr. was an industrial engineer and businessman who was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1945 but was ousted by voters in 1946 based upon his support for controversial preacher and political organizer Gerald L. K. Smith.
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 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.
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