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Fall 1995

SANmiddotOAQUIN CmiddotO UN T Y

HISTORICAL SOCIETY amp MUSEUM

The San Joaquin Historian

Quarterly Journal of The San Joaquin County Historical Society Volume IX New Series Number 3

Fall 1995

Robert Shellenberger Editor

Published by

The San Joaquin County Historical Society Inc

Micke Grove Regional Park Po Box 30

Lodi CA 95241 - 0030 (209) 331-2055 (209) 953-3460

Gary Christopherson President Craig Rasmussen President-Elect Elise Austin Forbes Secretary Robert F McMaster Finance Vacant Museum Vacant Society Robert Shellenberger Publications Timothy J Hachman Past President

The Society a non-profit corporation meets the fourth Monday monthly except July August and December Membership includes subscriptions to the San Joaquin Historian and the monthly newsletter News and Notes Additional copies may be purchased at the Museum

The Society operates the San Joaquin County Historical Museum at Micke Grove Regional Park in partnership with San Joaquin County The Society maintains an office at the Museum

Manuscripts relating to the history of San Joaquin County or the Delta will always be considered The editor reserves the right to shorten material based on local interest and space considerations Inquiry should be made through the Museum office

San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum

Michael W Bennett Director

1995 San Joaquin County Historical Society Inc

This Issue Each year the San Joaquin Counhj HistOrical

Society selects one century-old business for speCial recognition This year the recipient is Tile Record a newspaper that has served Stockton San Joaquin County and its neighbors since 1895 The Record memorialized this landmark with a special commemorative edition and an album This issue of the Historian supplements these efforts with a more personal history by Marjorie Flaherty retired Record reporter who can be described as part of the corporate memory

On The Cover Time erased not only the wooden building

where the Record was born but the very street on which that stood or sagged according to some reports

Parkers Alley ran east and west between Hunter and EI Dorado streets south of Main Street A half century ago residents could point to it by directing people to the downtown Odd Fellows Temple and central fire station The alley started just opposite those

Redevelopment wiped out the temple and the firehouse and the building earlier built on the abandoned alley They exist today only in the sketches of Record cartoonist Ralph 0 Yardley whose collected newspaper drawings were presented to The Haggin Museum by the Stockton Record The Haggin has described him as Stocktons inkwell artist extraordinaire

On the cover of this issue YardleyS pen gives both a peek at the place of the Records birth and a look at life in 1895 when horses not cars ruled the road continued on page 12

Page 2 San Joaquin Historian Fall 1995

A History of the Record

The Man

Irving L Martin Founder The $)tOCktOll 3Rccoril

by

Marj orie Flaherty

The Record made its debut on April 8 1895 to at least one resounding jeer A rival publication printed a cartoon showing a freshlyshydug grave awaiting the new Evening Record in a plot with headstones of four other dailies that had perished

The Records founder -Irving t Martin lived to have the last laugh as his competitors vanished from the scene But the cartoon was almost prophetic he admitted to one of his reporters 54 years later in a modest anniversary story (published not on the front page but on an inside page) He started the paper on borrowed money and had to struggle to pay it back

In fact related the Records own employee newsletter the Family Log in a 30th anniversary column in 1924 At one time the late A A Seaver (Record business manager) remarked that the Record was so deep in debt that it couldnt go under its creditors wouldnt let it

Except for the sketch that sneered the older papers ignored the brash upstart the Record reported in a 1925 anniversary story but the snub only stiffened Martins ambitiongt

While the Record itself has looked back often in the century that followed that first day it was an outside publication the Western Publisher headquartered in Los Angeles that gave one of the most colorful accounts of Martins rise from printers devil to recognition as the dean of California newspapermen

The Record reprinted the article beside a picture of Martin with the following caption Our Boss-Irving Martin Sr publisher of the Stockton Record whose career is an inspiration to every ambitious boy Were slipping this over on him in his absence from the shop

This 1930 tribute to Martin began Seth Peytons saloon and a personal

capacity for plenty of punishment contributed more perhaps to the creation at Stockton of one of Californias outstanding newspapers than some of Publisher Irving Martins close friends are aware

Seth generous anti-drouth host provided a IS-cent lunch with refreshments upon which a printers ambitious devil daily sustained the flame of youthful ambition-at least until he discovered Seth would serve the same setup at two-for-a-quarter Young

Fall 1995 San Joaquin Historian Page 3

Irving L Martin Sr 1865 - 1952

The Dean of California publishers is seen at work at his desk in his later years Irving Martin remained a hands-on publisher and in-charge leader until the time of his retirement at age 87 His regard for his chosen profession is best illustrated by his 1948 article in Editor and Publisher

the three principal duties of a newspaper LLFirst to get and publish as much news as you can Second to interpret that news and make it plain Third to provide descriptive comment and opinion

Martin added lilt does not make much difference whether the readers agree with you It does matter that they are stimulated by it and thereby find and learn their own opinions

His legacy lives on Photo courtesy Bank of Stockton Photo Collection


Irving connived with a fellow-devil to pay the bill for lunch on alternate days thus early revealing his keen sense for business

These two-for-a-quarter luncheons and a restaurant special dinner at 20 cents may have sustained the flames but they had been lighted earlier each day by a 10-cent breakfast of coffee rolls and mush in a chop house in the basement of the Stockton Independent (newspaper) building Food served so thoroughly to deplete his $4-ashyweek pay-check that Martin was forced to

transformed the paper into a daily with EH Fontecilla as his partner Shortly Martin bought out Fontecilla and the paper became his alone In the dailys first issue the 30-year-old chalshylenged established publications with a declaration that he intended to go boldly where he thought no other newspapers were going

Under the greeting Shake he wrote Good afternoon There has for a long time been a continuous clamor for a daily

complete the comforts ------------- newspaper in Stockton of home with a bunk There has for a long time been a that will print ALL the in the Independent continuous clamor for a daily news The Eveningshop (In other Record will stop the accounts Martin said newspaper in Stockton that will c I a m 0 r His he started work for print ALL the news The Evening determination was to even less reward $3 a Record will stop the clamor make him a force not week) only in the newspaper

The magazine went Irving L Martin business but in politicsApril 8 1895

on to give the basic facts of Martins life He was born in Beth North Carolina on March 19 1865 orphaned in infancy and shipped to the Yuba County ranch of distant relatives at the age of 7 to earn his own keep

At 17 Martin moved to Stockton intending to enter a business college Finding the enrollment fee too expensive he took a job with the morning Independent as a chore boy - printers devil - and printers ink began to flow through his veins

Eventually the devil got his due in the form of a Typographical Union card the magazine recounted and with his diploma in hand and a strong grasp on the fundamentals of newspaper making Martin sought and obtained assignment as a reporter on the Independent staff

Martin was only 23 with six years of experience as an apprentice printer and reporter when he started a weekly The Commercial Record with William Denig (known as Pony because of past service as a government pony express rider)

Seven years later he bought out Denig changed the name to Evening Record and

local on up No matter how much recognition

he gained however Martin remained close to his printer roots

In a warm reminiscence written a quarter of a century ago for an anniversary edition A very 1 Kizer who began his career with the Record as a paperboy and ended it as Opinion Page editor wrote of Martin

In the beginning was a printer He handwrote the copy handset the type handled the hand-cranked press handshyfolded the two-up sheet He sold subscriptions and advertising he staved off creditors

Printer to publisher to editor to political kingmaker to politician but always the printer That was Irving Martin

Kizer remembered when the publisher (known affectionately in Record departments as The Boss) looking back on his life conceded that A young man couldnt make it like that today He couldnt start a daily newspaper with a stick of type a dream and somebody elses money

From a thread-bare start without even a wire service - a staffer got the first editions


of the San Francisco papers and telephoned their substance to the paper-the Record early in its life became recognized as an important publication in the state

Unlike many businesses that reach the century-mark The Record remained in the family of its founder for almost three quarters of a century and under Martins personal direction for 57 years

Kizer described the man Lithe almost ascetically thin quick of pace and of movement Martin could turn up wraith-like anywhere in the plant Within some limitations of reserve he enjoyed socializing with what he genuinely regarded as The Record Family In his later years he bemoaned the fact that faces he could not ca11 by name appeared as the family multiplied in size

Many a Saturday afternoon or holiday once the final had gone to press the morgue or library was the scene of a modest poker game Martin often sat in for a few hands but by no means in a share-the-wealth spirit

Of Martins manner of editorial guidance Kizer recalled He would appear suddenly during the late afternoon period of concentrated writing hoist himself agilely onto the board oak desk and sit tailorshyfashion without apparent discomfort even at the age of 80

Then would come gently a few quietlyshyspoken probing questions on several subjects until one began to emerge as the objective of the visit Martins thinking process often involved asking himself questions some hypothetical some actually answered Then he would say I wonder what would happen if and proceed to speculate on editorial strategy

Martin became a legend in his own newsroom as old-timers passed along to neophytes bits of his wisdom and wit A favorite tale concerned the reporter who was told by leaders of the group he had been assigned to cover that he could wait outside during their dinner then join the gathering

The newsman called the publisher who ordered him back to the office and then informed the organization that if his reporter wasnt good enough to eat with them the organization wasnt good enough to be covered

The details varied with each teller and each retelling but the meaning was grasped and held dear by every reporter who heard it This was a publisher who backed his staff

To Martin Record employees were a family a feeling clearly communicated throughout his plant and expressed not only in doings for employees and jottings in The Family Log but in the newspaper as well

Accounts make it clear that he paid attention to readers too and not just to important personages

Kizer wrote of Martin Somewhere in his orphaned childhood Irving Martin acquired a strict moral sense that contradicted his oneshydrink limit and his skill at poker One day

The first front page of the Record reported the untold story of an eyeshywitness to a San Francisco policemans murder a talk to 1000 by the pastor of Grace ME Church South and the start of the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railway A top-of-the-page ad focused on All wool mens suits at $675750 and 900

he reminisced I saw an old lady pick up the Record with fire tongs and carry it to the trash barrel I asked her why and she said she wouldnt touch a dirty sheet that printed prize fighting

So for years the Marquis of Queensbury was forbidden the Records columns

Martin had no qualms about other kinds of fights however In its 30th anniversary story the Family Log noted the papers debtshyridden beginning then added But during that time the Record wasnt satisfied to fight for an existence alone It took on about every powerful opponent it could find It tackled


the saloons at a time when the liquor interests could virtually tell Stockton where to head in

The Record came out for woman suffrage when that proposal was about the biggest joke in the political minstrel show And so it was down the line Anything that was so wrong and so big that no powerful influence dared oppose it drew the Records fire Anything that was right the Record championed In fighting so much the Record developed a lot of muscle and skill

Seventy-five years later Kizer rounded out the portrait of the man who powered the paper Nominally a Republican Martin often was at odds with party regulars always was he ready to salute Wilson the Democrat as among the greatest Presidents

Bigwigs for major office did not monopolize Martins attention He was as farsightedly careful in laying out a program of voter appeal for a candidate-friend in a a race for county administrator as he was in offering advisories to senators and governors

He was added Kizer marvelously sensitive to political vibrations He had a trick of listening head tilted to one side so concentratedly that one could be sure a sixth sense was at work

Martin spelled out for the Jan 19 1948 issue of Editor and Publisher the number one trade publication of the industry the three principal duties of a newspaper

First to get and publish as much news as you can

Second to interpret that news and make it plain

Third to provide descriptive comment and opinion

Martin added It does not make much difference whether the readers agree with you It does matter that they are stimulated by it and thereby find and learn their own opinions

After 57 years of actively pressing these principals in his publication Martin retired

as president and publisher on May 26 1952 He was succeeded by his grandson Irving L Gully Martin and by Ross Williams the man he made general manager

The son he had once envisioned as his successor Irving Martin Jr took his own life in 1944 depressed over painfu1 illness The son was vice president at the time a columnist who wrote under the title As the Sun Sets and himself a champion of causes The Record editorialized that The Stockton community has lost a humane helpful valuable friend

The grandson like the son was also to commit suicide but the grandfather was not to live for this sadness Six months after he stepped down as publisher founder Martin died He was 87 and had been preceded in death not only by Irving Jr but by his wife Clara Funeral services were conducted by Dr Tully C Knoles chancellor of College of the Pacific who told mourners The job of editing and publishing a newspaper is more than a function it is a responsibility

The eulogies made clear that Martin the former printers devil recognized his challenge and executed his responsibilities with respect skill and honor

Practicing What He Preached The Record came out for woman

suffrage when that proposal was about the biggest joke in the political minstrel show wrote a reporter in 1930

Martins view of women as equal partners was not limited to the vote By the time the Record had hired its first girl paper carrier (Esther Broedhl in 1927) the daily already counted on women to gather the news Female reporters were not confined to society or culture but covered the courts the police beat (including the morgue) the Chamber of Commerce and politics


Stocktons Newspapers A string of papers served the community

before the Record with politics the main reason for the appearance of a number of them

Heavy competition led to heated confrontations and one sensational murder the fatal shooting in 1854 of Republican coshyowner John Mansfield by Journal editor John Tabor in an argument over legal advertising Tabor was found guilty and sentenced to death He was pardoned by the governor an hour before the scheduled hanging

Few newspapers remained neutral during the The Civil War when the pro-Confederacy stands of several led to government suppression on grounds of treason

The roster of newspapers included the

TIMES-1850-1851 Started as a weekly evolved into a semishy

weekly

JOURNAL-1850-1854 A weekly that became a daily in 1853

absorbed by the Daily Argus in 1854

SAN JOAQUIN REPUBLlCAN-1851-1872 Evolved from the Times as a weekly

became a daily in 1854 was suppressed by the Federal Government for printing treasonable editorials in 1862 revived In

1869 but failed in 1872

EVENING POST-1854 spring to June Combined with the Journal to become the

Daily Argus

DAILY ARGU5-1854-1862 Suppressed by the federal Government for

treason in September 1862

WEEKLY DEMOCRAT-1857-1862 Suppressed by the Federal Government

for treason in 1862

NOEPENDENT-I861-1939 Evolved from the San Alldreas Weekly

turned into a daily the first newspaper in Stockton to use steam power to run the

press the first to use a Linotype and the oldest newspaper in continuous operation in California when it went out of business

EVENING MAIL-1880-1917 The first newspaper in Stockton to use

cartoons and large headlines ceased operations after being acquired by Irving Martin of the Stockton Record in mid-1917

EVENING HERALD-1865-1885 Acquired by the Stocktoll Rccord

GAZETTE-1867-1869 Absorbed by the Evening Herald

In a footnote to local newspaper history the Pacific Observer was the only religious newspaper published in Stockton Created by the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination it flourished for a short time in the 1860s

From Stockton AlbulIl Tllrotlgh the Years 1959 by photographer

V Covert Iartin and historian R Coke Wood

Family Man Family Paper Irving Martin looked on the newspaper

staff as family and happily hired the relatives of staffers when he could including his own (son Irving Jr and grandson Irving L)

In stories over the years the paper spotlighted its families The Shaede name was big with Herman heading production brother Al directing makeup and sisters Frieda in the proof booth and Erna in the office While L Clare Davis wrote a column l

her son Sheldon wrote editorials Bob Peterson son of L V Peterson (Pete and His Pipe) for years headed the stereotyping department the Marquis brothers Tom and Norm worked together as circulation managers and the Smith brothers Bert (who went to work for the Record in 1901) and Bob were major figures in production

Among husband-wife teams have been Joan Simpson womens editor and Jim reporter Jan Jacinto advertising and Chuck composing Cliff George composing and Thelma circulation


Publishers The Record remained firmly in the hands

of its founder Irving Martin for fifty-seven years less firmly in the Martin name for seventeen more

When the dean of California newsmen retired in 1952 co-publishers were named to keep the flame-his grandson Irving L Martin known as Gully and his longtime associate business manager Ross Williams

In the early 50s Ross really ran the show recalled Bob Whittington then a reporter Over the years (Gully) Martin took an increasing role in the Record he added although he never got involved in the community the way his grandfather did Gully was a very shy person said Whittington although that may seem strange to people who remember him growing up as being a little well flashy He wasnt like his grandfather a mover and shaker

Co-publisher Williams was persuaded to join the Record as advertiSing director in 1929 by the newspapers founder He became business director in 1937 was named to the board of directors in 1948 vice president and co-publisher four years later

Less visible in the commumty than hIS mentor and rarely seen in the newsroom Williams nevertheless made Whos Who in America for his newspapering He had been a reporter editor and publisher before joining the Record He began as a boy selling newspapers on the streets of Cripple Creek Colorado and in surrounding mining camps and after playing baseball in the Texas League became a reporter for the Denver Post in the heyday of the legendary Damon Runyon Gene Fowler and Nell Brinkley

He went on to other papers in Colorado and California shifting to the circulation and business side although he put in a brief stint at the Sacramento Union as co-owner general manager and editor

After Wil1iams death in 1966 Gully Martin became sole publisher When he took his own life in 1967 his death set the stage for the move of the Record from family ownership

Clyde Long who had joined the Record as a bookkeeper in 1926 was named president and acting publisher in July 1967 after Martins death Martins widow Loretta became publisher in January 1968 but Long remained as president and treasurer until his retirement in 1969 ending 43 years with the daily

Estate taxes made it necessary for Mrs Martin to sell the paper and the newspaper long proud of its home-owned leadership was acquired by Speidel Newspapers a group of mainly small papers (Stoc~ton is still home to two former publIshers Whittington and Bob Uecker)

Whittington who joined the paper in 1950 as a sports writer was publisher from the Speidel takeover in January 1969 until 1972 when he moved to Reno as vice president of Speidel Newspapers At the time it bought the Record Speidel was owned by its executives and although it became publicly held a few years later tax and inheritance laws proved unmanageable for those who still held most of the ownership and Speidel was swallowed by the mammoth Gannett Co in a merger of the two entities

Speidel left its newspapers largely alone as far as operations were concerned but Gannett took a much closer interest It was Gannetts decision to close Record news bureaus outside of Stockton and company wide policy was reflected in programs such as the much-touted Neu)s 2000

Neither Speidel nor Gannett ever dictated editorial policy according to Whittington and Uecker who succeeded him as publisher and held the post for a dozen years about half under each ownership

Decisions on what or whom to be for or against did not matter to headquarters (Never once did we receive any directions


Itttorb Publishers 1895-1984

Former publishers (left to right from upper left) Irving Martin (1895-1952) Founders grandson Gully Martin (1952-1966) Heir-apparent Irving L Martin Jr popular columnist who preceded his father in death Robert Whittington (1969-1972) Robert P Uecker (1972shy1984)

Photos courtesy Bank of Stockton Photo Collection and Robert Uecker

0 San Joaquin Historian Fall 1995

or even suggestions regarding editorial positions emphasized Uecker)-as long as the monetary return was there That devotion to the bottom line by Gannett is what most irritated Uecker

My biggest disappointment (as publisher) was with corporate headshyquarters Uecker said Every year our financial performance improved And every year they wanted us to do better than last year Some things he wanted to do were blocked by the demand for financial return like hiring a promotion managershysomething Gannett finally did after Uecker departed

Ueckers recollection of relations vith employees is much more pleasant The thing that first impressed me was the dedication employees felt toward their responsibilities in the community

Four men rotated through the publishers office in the decade after UechershyCristopher Dix Richard L Holtz Orage Quarles III and Virgil Smith

When The Omaha World-Herald Co bought the Record from Gannett on Iov 29 1994 Terry Kroeger was named publisher

Under his stewardship the Record marked its centennial with a mammoth special edition paying tribute to the dailys legacy with a community party and open house and with the publication of The Record Family album a look at the first 100 years

In a foreward Kroeger wrote The mission of this newspaper has been and will continue to be providing a high-quality locally-focused news report to our readership and a high level of service to our advertising customer It is this mission that will continue to guide us as we embatk upon OUt second 100 years of service

Kroeger dedicated the publication and the celebration to those who have gone before us as stewards of the Record

Our founder Irving Martin showed the entrepreneurial spirit and guts in 1895 to start a newspaper that was not even acknowledged by his much strong comshypetitor known as the Stockton Independent

lecotb Owners

Iv1artinfamily-ApriL1895-January 19

SpeidelNewspapers Inc-January 19-June 1977

Gannett after merger withSpeidelshyJunel977-November1m

TheOmaha World-Herald Co-Nov 28 1m

lecotb Publishers

Irving Martin-April 8 1895shyMay 26 1952

Irving L Gully Martin (founderS grandson) and Ross Williams co-publishers-1952 -1966

Irving L Martin-1966-1967

Clyde Long acting publisher-1967 shy1968

Loretta Martin widow of Gully Martinshy1968 1969

Robert Whittington-1969 -1972

Robert P Uecker-1972 - 1984

Christopher Dix-1984 - 1988

Richard L Holtz-1988 1990

Orage Quarles 111-1990 1993

Virgil Smith-1993 -1994

Terry Kroeger-1994

On issues the Record has often been on the unpopular side of the fence but never on the fence L V Peterson

Pete and His Pipe column April 6 1946


Parker Alley-continued from page 2

Yardley captured events and ideas of the day in editorial cartoons and personalities in caricatures but his glimpses of the communitys past captured the hearts of readers He offered a brief bit of history with each under the continuing three-word title Do You Remember

The Haggin unveiled an exhibition of YardleyS work in May 1987 that reached beyond his work for the Record to show calendar illustrations covers created for such magazines as Leslies Illustrated Weekly Harpers Weekly and the San Francisco Calls Sunday Magazine posters and other drarings Born and reared in Stockton he showed his colors as an artist in high school and trained later at Hopkins Art Institute and Partington Art School in San Francisco

He got his first job as an artist with the San Francisco Examiner and later worked for the San Francisco Chronicle Pacific Commercial Advertiser in Hawaii San Francisco Bulletin San Francisco Call and New York Globe In 1922 the Record established an artists position and persuaded Yardley to come home He spent 30 years with the Record He died in 1961 at the age of 83

He was succeeded by Bert yhitman a charter member of the National Society of Cartoonists who had created the Green Hornet and Debbie Dean comic strips Later while Whitman spent his working hours on political cartoons for the Record he devoted many of his leisure hours to painting

Cover courtesy The Haggin Museum a gift of the Stockton Record

r----r---------~--

This office at 21 S Hunter Street (center) occupied the abandoned Parkers Alley It was razed for reshydevelopment in the 50s Photo by Craig Hubbard

Labor Unions Vhen Local 56 of the Stockton Typoshy

graphical Union celebrated its centennialshyon March 9 1961-most of its 100-plus members worked at the Record and its history was compiled by Record printer Vernon Altree

The man at the top Irving Martin had set out on the road to success as a member of the local and he never forgot that At the time of the 100th anniversary the union paid tribute to the communitys printer pioneers including Francis Marion Gumm who made up the first issue of the Record Gumm remained with the Record until his death in 1946

As the Record grew so grew the unions representing employees-Pressmens Union 4 Mailers Local 18 Stereotypers and Electrotypers Local 145 and Graphic Arts Local 14 which included the papers job (commercial) printer

And when the wave of labor organization caught up with newsrooms in the 1930s the paper was not exempt City editor Mel Bennett copy desk chief Larry Coats and Avery Kizer fhen on the copy desk decided it was time to bring the American Newspaper Guild to the Record and approached the publisher

Years later Bennett recalled that meeting of union enthusiasts with Martin He listened to us then patiently explained the reasons we didnt need union We just about gave up when he said All right I will recognize the Guild and we were in without even an election And Guild Local 100 came to the Record in 1937

The changing atmosphere of laborshymanagement relations the move of the Record from a family publication to small chain to huge media corporation eventually meant the end of unions By the time the papers centennial came decertification votes and modern production technologies had left the newspaper free of unions


Stockton Record proof readers at work in the 19505 Reporters were the first to admit thel saved our bacon every day fr lAell read and meticulolls they labored unsung behind the scenes

Newsies

When the Record came off its Parker Alley press in its first days Adolph P Krumb was there to grab a stack to hawk We couldnt afford bicycles so we walked and talked our papers to the public he recalled in a Record feature that appeared on Aug 29 1949

Krumb then a retired Lodi merchant added If the gasoline engine press broke down however wed be late and have to run to the pier to sell our papers on the evening boat leaving for San Francisco

Not all newsies walked and talk each issue In the early days of the newspaper many newspapers reached subscribers via mail carrier and some by horse In a 1970 feature by Gene Turner Bob Smith a Record carrier in 1906 who retired 62 years later as a pressman recalled that he and others delivered papers by horseback

Courtesy Bank of Stockton Collection

Some boys boarded the electric cars of the Central California Traction Co that ran up and down the valley from Stockton and tossed off copies of the Record to customers along the line as the cars rolled along Turner related

For years a flume tender in a remote area near Murphys received his paper in a watershytight container that was dropped over a bridge railing to be caught in a wire screen down stream (It is said that on occasion the Record delivery included a bottle of 98-proof whiskey)

The newspaper boy who made good was no myth at the Record For decades the daily paid tribute to carriers in success stories touting their own staff members who started that way and extolling others in the community who rose to fame from newsboy beginnings A quarter of a century ago


Penthouse

For years the Record had a penthouse on top occupied not by the publisher but by the plant engineer Wilbur Williams and his wife In 1932 the couple made the front page of the house organ with the garden they had created high above the ground

reporter Bill Cook said 21 of the papers employees with more than 40 years of service started as carriers The list included then circulation manager Arthur Corrigan purchasing agent Donald Reid stereotyping foreman Robert Peterson production manager Herman Schaede Opinion Page editor Avery Kizer want ad manager Clarence Diffenderfer legal advertising manager Earl Lenfesty printer Wilbur Krenz stereotypers Jack Trantham and Marvin Pete Paddock and circulation department workers Virgil Green Al Fostine Norman Marquis and Corwin Miller

In fact noted Cook the only longtime Record employees who didnt start as carriers are city editor Mel Bennett sports editor John Peri mailing room foreman Leland Stover composing room foreman Leslie Davidson makeup foreman Alfred Schaede and composing room worker Charles Edwards

From the beginning the Record saw its carriers as its key public contact A manual for the carrier salesman published in 1940 urged this front line employee to Always be clean neat and tidy your face hands and fingernails should be clean and your hair combed Wear a smile The booklet also pressed its young representatives to get subscriptions Talk to customers If they say they cant afford it talk about the moneyshysaving offers in the advertisements

James Johnstone now San Joaquin County Recorder-Clerk says delivering the Record

was taken seriously by managers and carriers alike in the early an mid 1930s We went through a training course and took an exam afterward And unless the route was in an outlying area you were expected to walk not bicycle and you didnt throw the paper you placed it on the porch

Johnstones carrier career was ended by Al Fostine then circulation manager and deservedly so Johnstone conceded It seems Stockton High was playing a big football game in Fresno and Johnstone wanting to go lined up a totally incompetent fellow to substitute for him Fostine told me not to do it but I did it anyway The result was a disaster with the circulation manager ending up delivering the papers himself and Johnstone winding up an ex-carrier

The carriers had their own column in the newspapers Family Log with profiles of high achievers and news of activities The latter included the Stockton Record Carriers Band formed in 1917

Charlie Smith Stocktons elementary school music director for 34 years organized and directed the band It disbanded around 1931 when schools had bands of their own A retirement story when he closed out his schools career reported that band members remembered Smith leading the band with a baton in one hand and a trumpet in the other

The music educator grew a number of music educators in the papers band as well as musicians including Lawrence Littleman later head of the Galt High Band Adrian Cooper Stockton Sciots Band Verl Swan coordinator of music for Vallejo schools Herbie Taylor musical director for MGM motion picture studio and Gene Lancelle band director at Franklin High

Say What If copy is rushed Head to Kum see that

copy and head are properly and uniformly slugged with catchline

Stockton Record Style book -1939


The Plant

Irving Martin was not afraid history would repeat itself when he put out his first paper the weekly Commercial Record in 1892

He did so where the Stockton Republican newspaper had failed But the only bad vibes the young publisher felt in that old frame building on Parkers Alley carne from the cranky old press he and partner WM Pony Denig inherited he told reporters in later years

Looking back in 1970 Record reporter Herb Stoy wrote that Martins tenacity in the face of shaky financing and formidable competition so impressed one M S Arndt that he suggested the Record lease the second floor of a building he would built on land along California Street between Main Street and Weber Avenue

And so it was that in 1896 at just one year old the paper moved from the alley into a brand new structure Just four years later the Record amazed observers by installing a new press that cost a breath-taking $10000 Martin recalled later that he knew the equipment would give him the edge on his competition

By 1910 he had proved his point the Record was out of debt with money in the bank So Martin then bought the land where the Record stands today had a three-story plant built and moved his newspaper into it in 1911 along with new equipment He pointed out later that the block was on the highest ground in Stockton a spot where people took their livestock in periods of flooding so it seemed a safe place to put perishables like presses

The 1911 plant was hailed by the National Printer Journalist as one of the Golden States model newspaper establishments a giant leap from the badly-ventilated poorlyshylighted shop in which the Record began

In the years since under family then corporate ownership the physical plant expanded to fill the block interior spaces changing to accommodate newer equipment and procedures While the old most often

High and Dry While the spectre of flooding haunted

the paper at its earlier site The Record never missed a scheduled edition noted LV Peterson in his Pete and His Pipe column on the newspapers 51st anniversary It did appear early once he said a sort of Stockton Noahs Ark edition to beat a floods time schedule for overflowing the East Street levee (East is now Wilson Way)

gave way to the new to the cheering of those who put out the paper nostalgia at times led to brief obituaries like the one appearing in the Records Family Log the employee newsletter on June 4 1927

Old No I the first machine to the left as you enter the composing room is on its way to the junk pile after 30 years of operation and with the passing of the old machine there comes a flood of memories of by-gone days

Seventy-two years later as the Record moved toward the 21st century and greater technological transition its new owner the Omaha World-Herald Company paid special tribute to the giant Goss Headliner letterpress that had printed the paper since 1956 by painting it fire engine red

Elections Without Computers Martin emphasized that his staff

constituted one big family and staffers lived up to his perception with a team approach For example the Family Log reported in November 1932 that One hour after the polls closed election night the Record had in its office a complete cross section of partial returns from Stockton and San Joaquin County

The numbers were run on adding ~ projected stories written and an extra hit the streets shortly after 9 pm with results

The paper credited carriers for the success Election coverage strategists made city carriers news gatherers for the night


covering 127 precincts while branch office workers and and carriers handled the 98 precincts outside Stockton Each counter tallied the first 15 votes in the precinct reporting the figures on papers designed to go directly to the composing room as copy Circulation district managers picked up the totals at each city precinct while branch workers called in results

The papers political mavens figured the first 15 ballots would point to the final results and thus made their projections They were right The final count did not change the result JJby a whisker

Scissors Record writers over its 1 0 decades have

gathered fans-including such columnists as Irving Martin Jr with As the Sun Sets L V Peterson with Pete and His Pipe and todays Michael Fitzgerald with Michael Fitzgerald

But one of the most popular features in the newspaper for years had no by-line The Scissors column was compiled anonymously from clippings Heavy on humor the editorial page feature contained jokes oneshyliners philosophical bits and poems culled on the rush by reporters expected to squeeze in and around serious assignments their scissoring of publications When the back shop called to say it was missing a Scissors though editors jumped to gave the response high priority

Call Me Mister if the Boss Approves JJSociety department may use Ml at

will Its occasional use in general news copy will be permitted when writer is attempting to show special respect but its use must have sanction of the managing editor

Stockton Record Style Book 1939

The Record Dabbles in Pioneer Radio

Hello - hello - hello all western states This is the Stockton Record Station of the Portable Wireless Telephone Company at Stockton - Radio 6F1 This is the opening radiophone concert of this concern

So began the broadcast of November 221921 by Stockton World War I navy vet Paul Oard It was one of the first commercial broadcasts heard in the west His programs included music news (presumably from the Record) and humor His prior amateur broadcasts had proved so popular that he formed the Portable Wireless Telephone Company with two partners By late 1921 he needed room for expansion and the Record agreed to house the fledgling enterprise on its third floor provide power and allow a transmission tower on the roof The premier broadcast from the Record featured Madame Schuman-Heink famous opera diva and a WW I heroine to many Americans Less than three weeks later the station was awarded th~ call letters K W G arguably the second-oldest commercial station in the US and certainly among the oldest ten

The Record declined to invest in this new communication technology because Irving Martin did not want distractions or deviations that might affect the Record By 1927 K W G had moved to the basement of the Medico-Dental Building In 1930 it was acquired by the McClatchy interests publishers of the Sacramento Bee and Modesto Bee newspapers

See KWG by James F Lehman The Far-Westerner April 1972

Promotions The Record-sponsored concerts of the

1990s are a decorous version of such past promotions as the escape artist who freed himself from a straitjacket atop the newspaper building while a crowd watched from below


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The Home Office c 1920

In about 1920 someone at the Record created this photo montage of the Horne Office but in the tradition of all newsshyrooms he couldnt play it straight Note reference to the boys who put punch into local news reports and the Scoop appellation awarded LV Peterson-shown with his pipe Also of interest is the inclusion of yet another dean-historian George H Tinkham

Courtesy Bank of Stockton Photo Collection

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Bil gt Ijlt~ tj 11~~ 1- (lffi~~r~~~~iattd Pt ~t)f oMit t~lt11 GltM~ r~t[~ oiJ4 Chi~ ~tfrili fraquo11

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after stints at the Independent the Sacramento Founder Irving Martin was not the only

Record personality to have the term dean conferred on him by an admiring public While Martin became known as the dean of Californias news producers John Peri gained renown as the dean of West Coast sports writers

Peri began working for the Record in 1920

Bee World War I and the Modesto Herald He retired 55 years later at 80 honored not only by his colleagues but applauded by readers and athletic figures from throughout the west at a big testimonial dinner He stood out in his field in his wear as well as his work appearing always in suit and tie looking more like a banker than a reporter


The 1934 City Softball Champs In keeping with the family style of Martin management the Record also fielded several

athletic teams Pictured here at a keg celebration are the Records 1934 City League Champs (Note the team tie)

Photo courtesy the Bank of Stockton Collection

At Home Fun The 1990s women careerist who opts to

work at home is not so different from L Clare Davis Record columnist of more than six decades ago In a story for the employees Family Lng on Feb 14 1939 Davis mother of editorial writer Sheldon Davis wrote

It must be nice to do your writing at home remarked Idamae (Idamae Johnson a reporter at the office) no rattle of typeshywriters no interruptions no complainers no visitors nobody lifting an eyebrow if copy is delayed nobody sitting on your desk no talking no noise no echo no nothin but quiet and peace and a chance to think long thoughts

uYeah it is all that if I keep both front and back doors locked stuff paper in the keyshyholes pull down the shades and like the three little Japanese monkeys decided I will not see too much nor hear too much while Im telling all I know to the Record Davis

went on to detail the kind of interruptions the home worker must endure

Morning or Evening Over the years the mast atop Page One

has read Evening Record Stockton Record and The Record An afternoon paper at its birth the fledging paper early flirted briefly with morning publication It appeared as a morning paper from June 25 1896 to January 31 1897 then reverted to late day status It remained an afternoon publication until 1985 when it became part of a national move of dailies from late day to morning

The Family Log On its sixth birthday the newspapers

Family Log reported that the employee monthly had started as a stunt staged by the classified advertising department for a homecoming celebration for the publisher when he ended eight years on the railroad commission An instant success it became the house organ


The Last Quarter Century

Vith the end of the Martin era 26 years ago the Record itself became the personality instead of the owner

Speidel Inc was the first non-family presence in the plant although the first publisher under the corporation Robert hittington kept alive a home-town feeling until he moved into a corporate vice presIdency out of Stockton three years later

Whittington came up through the editorial side of the paper from sports writer to city government reporter to assistant city editor to executive news editor to associate publisher Under his direction the Record crossed the threshold from six-day-a-week publication to one with a Sunday edition When he moved into a corporate vice presidency and out of Stockton (and later into the presidency) the paper welcomed the first publisher from out of town Robert C ecker and its corporate entity took shape

The merger of Speidel and Gannett in 1977 brought into Stockton a national giant with ~-plusmn dailies in 19 states and six in the acquisition wings The major change for readers came eight years later when the Record became a morning paper fonowing a national trend

Sale of the daily to the Omaha WorldshyHerald Company in November 1994 swung it into a smaller newspaper group New publisher Terry Kroeger told readers The S~tcord will get the attention it deserves because it is a bigger part of a smaller nespaper family and the World-Heralds iirst incursion into the West Coast The ~ll1ll1lU1 World-Herald itself is much larger t ha n The Record circulating throughout ebraska and beyond But our other new daily newspaper siblings in Columbus and Kearney Neb Brookings and Huron SD and Calsbad NM are much smaller

In recent years the Record has accelerated its travel through technology moving into the computer age (getting the lead out

said one in-house observer) and beyond -cyberspace

Decades ago readers wanting the latest news hurried downtown to look at bulletins printed on sheets placed on Record windows or chalked on a board above the entrance

Today with e-mail Record OnLine and Record Oneall they use their own telephones and computers to keep up with happenings

The Legacy

When the Record installed a new press in October 1919 Irving Martm wrote

May the Record never arrive but may it ever travel hopefully helpfully good-humoredly and kindly While striving itself to push onward may it ever feel inclined to lend a helping hand to others to aid any worthy cause and to find time to drop a word of cheer and encouragement to others who may have stumbled or who may have become footsore and weary on the journey

In Appreciation Many thanks to Leslie Crow Bank of Stockton

archivist Tod Ruhstaller director of The Haggin Museum and Stockton Public Library researchers for fishing photos and information from files for this article

Assisting with these glimpses of the past was Gene Turner a Record reporter for 34 years staff water expert who covered county government and a myried of community happenings Turner retired from the paper to the family cattle ranch in Hornitos

Marjorie Flaherty was a Record reporter for more than 36 years In retirement she first edited Senior Spectrum and now edits Senior Lifestyles monthly

In the custom of her craft Reporter Author Flaherty declined her photo and biography

Its not modesty Bob its tradition RS

Summer 1995 San Joaquin Historian Page 19

Our thanks to the people ofStockton and San Joaquin County

for your support over the past 100 years

SERVINGSANjOAQUINCOUNIYFOR 1()() YEARS For home delivery call 948-1702 or 800-606-9742

Address Correction Requested San Joaquin County Historical

Society and Museum PO Box 30 Lodi CA 95241-0030

Non-Profit Organization

POSTAGE PAID

Permit No 48 Lodi CA 95241

SANmiddotOAQUIN CmiddotO UN T Y

HISTORICAL SOCIETY amp MUSEUM

The San Joaquin Historian

Quarterly Journal of The San Joaquin County Historical Society Volume IX New Series Number 3

Fall 1995

Robert Shellenberger Editor

Published by

The San Joaquin County Historical Society Inc

Micke Grove Regional Park Po Box 30

Lodi CA 95241 - 0030 (209) 331-2055 (209) 953-3460

Gary Christopherson President Craig Rasmussen President-Elect Elise Austin Forbes Secretary Robert F McMaster Finance Vacant Museum Vacant Society Robert Shellenberger Publications Timothy J Hachman Past President

The Society a non-profit corporation meets the fourth Monday monthly except July August and December Membership includes subscriptions to the San Joaquin Historian and the monthly newsletter News and Notes Additional copies may be purchased at the Museum

The Society operates the San Joaquin County Historical Museum at Micke Grove Regional Park in partnership with San Joaquin County The Society maintains an office at the Museum

Manuscripts relating to the history of San Joaquin County or the Delta will always be considered The editor reserves the right to shorten material based on local interest and space considerations Inquiry should be made through the Museum office

San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum

Michael W Bennett Director

1995 San Joaquin County Historical Society Inc

This Issue Each year the San Joaquin Counhj HistOrical

Society selects one century-old business for speCial recognition This year the recipient is Tile Record a newspaper that has served Stockton San Joaquin County and its neighbors since 1895 The Record memorialized this landmark with a special commemorative edition and an album This issue of the Historian supplements these efforts with a more personal history by Marjorie Flaherty retired Record reporter who can be described as part of the corporate memory

On The Cover Time erased not only the wooden building

where the Record was born but the very street on which that stood or sagged according to some reports

Parkers Alley ran east and west between Hunter and EI Dorado streets south of Main Street A half century ago residents could point to it by directing people to the downtown Odd Fellows Temple and central fire station The alley started just opposite those

Redevelopment wiped out the temple and the firehouse and the building earlier built on the abandoned alley They exist today only in the sketches of Record cartoonist Ralph 0 Yardley whose collected newspaper drawings were presented to The Haggin Museum by the Stockton Record The Haggin has described him as Stocktons inkwell artist extraordinaire

On the cover of this issue YardleyS pen gives both a peek at the place of the Records birth and a look at life in 1895 when horses not cars ruled the road continued on page 12

San Joaquin Historian Fall 1995


The Man


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Fall 1995 San Joaquin Historian




































































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Summer 1995 San Joaquin Historian







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