Posts Tagged ‘Percy J. Benbough’

Major General Leonard Wood, chief of staff of the United States army, gave the command . . . The first automobile in the desperate San Diego-Phoenix race shot forward with a bound. –San Diego Union, Oct. 27, 1912.

In the fall of 1912, San Diego challenged Los Angeles to a road race across the desert to Arizona. The story of The Great Race. 

Ed Fletcher behind the wheel of his 20 hp Franklin “race car.” Special Collections, University of California, San Diego.

The public library will be open to the public evenings and Sundays, even if it requires the use of an axe, a la Carrie Nation style. –City Councilmen Percy Benbough, Jan. 20, 1917.

In 1917, San Diego librarians and the public waged war with the City Council over the library hours. Who would back down? The Library Mutiny.

San Diego's Carnegie Library at 8th and E Streets.

 

C. Leon de Aryan

Shivering like a nudist in a rumble seat and leaving a trail of bayfront water behind him, C. Leon De Aryan, editor of The Broom, appeared at the police station today charging that five longshoremen had thrown him into the bay off the Municipal pier. –San Diego Sun, Nov. 24, 1936

Public hostility rarely bothered C. Leon de Aryan. The owner and publisher of the San Diego newspaper called The Broom craved attention of any kind and often received it from his provocative editorials denouncing organized labor, international bankers, Communists, Jews, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The story of a racist newspaper publisher, The San Diego Crack Pot.