Source: http://metroprimaryresources.info/90-years-ago-today-los-angeles-railway-rolls-out-information-men-public-service/2062/
Metro Digital Resources Librarian | December 5, 2011
The December 5, 1921 issue of the Los Angeles Railway employee newsmagazine posed the question: “How would you like to be an information man?”
An article titled “Information Men Help L.A., They’ll Tell The World!” appeared in Two Bells.
Ninety years ago, Los Angeles Railway launched the “Information Men” who served as early Los Angeles’ public information officers.
The article reads as follows:
How would you like to be an information man?
Looks like a pretty interesting job judging by the attitude of George Feller in the picture above.
George is one of the five uniformed information bureaus of the Los Angeles Railway.
This additional service for the public came into being a few weeks ago and has been greatly appreciated.
At the depots and at busy corners downtown the information men are asked all sorts of questions about politics, street cars and Ford spark plugs.
An acquaintance stepped up to C.W. Jordan, the answer man at the Santa Fe depot, and casually asked Charlie, “What do you know today?”
If he had waited for Charlie to tell him everything he knew he would be there yet.
The other men who work with the slogan “I’ll tell the world” are F.A. Christy, formerly conductor of Div. Three; W.R. Boyd, former motorman of Division Four and C.D. Blakeman, formerly conductor of Division Four were motormen at Division One.
All are veterans of street car life and their long service makes them thoroughly acquainted with the city and ideal men for the information jobs.
Showing posts with label Rail History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rail History. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Burbank Had First Monorail in 1911, SaMo Wanted One in 1912 (http://la.curbed.com)
Burbank Had First Monorail in 1911, SaMo Wanted One in 1912
Image via USC Digital Library
Yeah, it's pretty sad that Los Angeles had and lost a comprehensive mass transit system that linked the whole city and beyond, but it's heartbreaking that we had and lost a monorail and missed the chance for a line running the length of Santa Monica too. The first monorail-ish vehicle was an aerial trolley that ran between Lake and Flower Streets in Burbank, according to Burbank history repository Burbankia. It opened around 1911, the year the city was incorporated and got its first Red Cars, and it was built (and patented) by local eccentric J.W. Fawkes, who owned the land roughly between Victory and Flower, southeast of Olive (which is now home to a bunch of car and RV dealerships and repair places, perhaps ironically).
Image via USC Digital Library
A 1912 article in the LA Times said the Burbank monorail "runs on a trussed rail and is propelled with a fan, operated by a gasolene motor," and could get up to a speed of about 25 miles per hour. But Fawkes claimed that a proposed line in Santa Monica could reach 150 mph, which sounds pretty terrifying.
The Santa Monica City Council backed the Aerial Trolley Company's 1912 effort to build a line running down Fremont Avenue all the way from the ocean to the city's border with Los Angeles, but property owners and the city's Chamber of Commerce opposed the plan. The Burbank line was shut down in the early 1920s.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
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