Chutes Park Radio Operator ‘Talks’ to Arctic via Morse Code

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Councilmen Are Puzzled Over a Report That the City Will Buy Motorized Fire Engines

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Famed Actor Says He Was the ‘Father’ of Los Angeles Theater

Who Was This Fine Newspaper Artist?

From the Los Angeles Express of July 3, 1908.
WIRELESS TALKS TO ARCTIC

That Los Angeles should be in direct communication by “wireless” with the frozen North appears almost incredible, but this has been accomplished by the new United Wireless telegraph station at Chutes Park.

In calling Mare Island, the San Francisco navy yard station, the night operator at Chutes Park “got” Sitka, Alaska, 1,600 nautical miles to the north.

“It did not strike me as particularly startling,” said H.L. Bleakney, local manager for the United Wireless Co.

“Our wireless station works well for long distances, and I frequently talk to Northhead on the Oregon coast.

[The ‘talk’ was, of course, via a telegraph key and Morse code.]

“Wireless naturally works better at night than in the daytime, and when I noticed on the night operator’s log that he had ‘caught’ Sitka, I made no particular inquiries about it, and I have sent the log to the San Francisco office as usual.

“Not long ago . . . we got the transport Thomas on its way across the Pacific with a lot of troops. It was then three

While it may not seem out of the ordinary to the wireless operator that messages should be sent between Los Angeles and Alaska, to the ordinary person the feat is remarkable. . . .

Had the new station at Chutes Park been built before the [Great White] fleet came to these waters [see story], it is likely that Los Angeles could have reached it far down the coast of Mexico, possibly as far as the Isthmus of Panama.

From the Los Angeles Express of July 4, 1908.
AUTO FIRE ENGINES WILL COST MONEY

Despite the positive announcement of Anthony Schwamm, fire commissioner, that it has been finally determined to abolish horses in the Fire Department during the present fiscal year and install automobile fire engines in their place, six [city councilmen] . . . say that no definite arrangements have been made to get the money from the council.

According to Schwamm’s estimate, it will cost at least $150,000 to make the

“I have heard nothing about it, except as gossip,” says Councilman A.J. Wallace, chairman of the finance committee. “. . . I don’t know enough about it to say whether it would be a good thing.” . . .

The history pages of the Los Angeles Fire Department, here, say that the first automobile was

It was a Haynes, costing $3,300. It was not used for fighting fires, but for transporting the chief, who could then arrive in advance of the horse-drawn engines to “survey the blaze so the placing of men and equipment could be materially speeded.”

“In 1911 the LAFD had 163 fire horses, the most ever. The last fire horse purchased by the Department was in 1915, and in July 1921 all the remaining horses were retired to Griffith Park.  The era of  the horses had come to an end.” Source.

From the Los Angeles Express of July 3, 1908.
Famed Actor Says He Was the ‘Father’ of L.A. Theater

• He ran away from home.

• He went on the stage.

• He was a success.

• He became the dramatic father of Los Angeles.

That’s the life of Arthur McKee Rankin — better known as McKee Rankin — in four chapters.

He is in Los Angeles supporting Nance O’Neil in repertoire at the Auditorium, and he devoted an hour or more to reminiscences of his life and early California history today as he chatted merrily in his apartments at the Hotel Alexandria. . . .

“I was born in Sandwich, a Canadian town just across from Detroit . . . and . . . when I was about 16 . . . I went to Rochester and [went] on the stage under the name of George Henley.”

Rankin traced the main threads of his life and recalled that he came to San Francisco in 1869, “shortly after the railroad was completed” and to Los Angeles in January 1870.

“Yes, I’m the dramatic father of Los Angeles. I dedicated the Merced Theater, next to the old Pico House, with a presentation of Rip Van Winkle, with myself in the title role.

“The stage was primitive in those days, and so was this beautiful city. The old Californians have gone I wonder where. Gamblers, ranchers and shepherds came to see us, but the Mexicans gave us the go-by.

“What a lot of things can happen in 48 years! See how the trust, the syndicate, has changed things! It benefits the public by staging plays better, but it gradually is killing the

“It gives us too much ‘Rogers Brothers’ here and there.

[The Rogers Brothers series of musical farces included The Rogers Brothers in Paris, The Rogers Brothers in Harvard, The Rogers Brothers in London, and so on.]

“We can respond to the good in the drama, but the trust does not give us that. It says it is giving the public what it wants. It is not. It is giving the public what it has to take.

“And what has it done for the actors? Everybody is in a trust or union except the actor . . . .

“Because the actors are at the beck and call of everyone, from union stagehand to syndicate manager, there is no one of particular prominence on the stage today.”

“Mister Mack” is immense physically and conversationally. He is inclined to be fat — that’s the word — and admits it. His face is ample, as is his figure. He is endowed with a real double chin, a white moustache, gray hair, heavy gray eyebrows and bright brown eyes which are shaded by nose glasses.

He has a fine stage presence even when off the stage, and despite his 64 years — oh, shades of Dr. Osler — he still is every inch — length and breadth — a man and an actor.

[Sir William Osler, a Canadian whom some reckoned as the greatest North American physician of the 19th Century, once lectured on "the uselessness of men above 60 years of age." His remark was misinterpreted by many as a call for euthanasia. Source.]

The Merced Theater in 1869-70, when it opened with McKee Rankin on stage (left), and in 1915, after it had closed (right).
Los Angeles Public Library graphics.