Delay for Caryl Chessman

Oct. 22, 1959, Times Cover

Oct. 22, 1959: President Eisenhower transfers German rocket scientists led by Wernher von Braun from Army jurisdiction to NASA.

Oct. 22, 1959, Sports Luau anyone?

The Dodgers submitted a map for their Chavez Ravine ballpark and some of the features were downright headline grabbers. Proposed were a sit-down restaurant, a quick service restaurant, a carwash and automotive center. And a group-luau restaurant.

The City Council quickly moved to delay the whole matter for further study. The city attorney said the automotive center was at the request of traffic and police officials who wanted something nearby to handle stalled cars and overheated engines.

"We know that the confusion about the map is very definitely our responsibility," Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley said in The Times Oct. 24. "The baseball stadium will be set in a tastefully landscaped park and of course will be completely without any shoddy atmosphere or commercialism. This is what we have pledged and what we have always intended to build."

Personally, I would have loved the luau. But the gas station certainly is part of the Dodger Stadium landscape and without it, there never would have been this classic commercial with Tom Lasorda taking Vin Scully out of the game.

–Keith Thursby

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
This entry was posted in #courts, Caryl Chessman, City Hall, Dodgers, Downtown, Politics. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Delay for Caryl Chessman

  1. Paul M. Mock's avatar Paul M. Mock says:

    Fabulous commercial! I’d never seen that one before. Classic old Dodgers stuff.

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  2. Chris Morales's avatar Chris Morales says:

    It’s interesting how Walter O’Malley spoke of the “tastefully landscaped park …completely without any shoddy atmosphere or commercialism” while proposing a quick-service (fast food?) restaurant, car wash and “group luau” restaurant. Of course one must recall that O’Malley was an attorney, architect, engineer and shrewd businessman. He originally had Buckminster Fuller design a domed stadium (with a retractable roof) for Brooklyn and copied the now vanished dugout level seats from a stadium in Japan. In the end, he opted for taste.

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