Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp.
Chapter XV Underneath the Surface
p. 186 "The bringing of the Olympic Games to Los Angeles was the result of more than five years' ceaseless propaganda-including several trips to Europe by leading citizens of the pueblo. The technical arrangements-once the games were assured-represented two years work by experts.
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[p. 188] ". . . Although our cheers for the Japanese were innocent enthusiams without guile, we learned a lot about internationalisms during the Games.
Chapter XXV Characters Make a Town
[p. 331] "California now produces 25 percent of the national output and 18 per cent of the world's oil. At the end of 1927 the output was 2,800,000,000 barrels valued at $3,000,000,000. The output was choked back by the regulations of the N.R.A.
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Chapter XXVII The Athens of America
[p. 358] "Henry E. Huntington [1850-1927] was a different type [than Collis Huntington]. He was a tall, distinguished-looking, but rather shy. He had a very curious habit of repeating the last words of every sentence; as for instance: "It looks to me as though it were going to rain-I say going to rain. I had better take along my umbrella-I say my umbrella."
"He gave me the first big scoop I had ever had on a newspaper. The city editor knew he had come to town with a party of financial men and all the experienced reporters were out; so he had sent me-with obvious misgivings. I waylaid Mr. Huntington as he was going through the Southern Pacific Depot on his way to his private car with a bevy of gentlemen who looked like money. It would have been impossible for any one to have looked as scared as I felt; but I must have looked scared enough for him to take pity on me. He sent his party ahead and we sat down on a bench.
"[p. 359] . . .
" . . . he handed me some information that stood the town on its head and sent up the curtain for a new and one of the greatest acts of our pueblo. Mr. Huntington was about to start the great system of interurban railroads that now spreads like a network all over Southern California, annexing them all in a way to Los Angeles.
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[p. 359] "He had been brought up in the railroad business by his uncle, and came to Los Angeles in 1898 with a large fortune which he must have multiplied many times by his real estate operations. Every time it was announced that Huntington was to build another suburban line into another town, a boom in real estate spurted up in that town. As Huntington was the only man who knew where the next town would be, he was able to buy up the real estate and profit by his own boom. His railroad building paid for itself as it went along.
"In the course of this expansion, he gobbled up several other weaker railroad ventures. It is a fairly good guess that the great Huntington Library resulted from a conversation with one of the gobbled. Unable to hold out against the pressure, the owner of one of these squeezed-out railroads burst into Mr. Huntington's office, defying the czar on his throne. "Go ahead; take my railroad," he shouted. "You will grab all the money in Southern California and die and no one will ever know that you have ever lived-just like your uncle-only a hated name." [p. 360]
[p. 360] "Mr. Huntington said nothing; he merely smiled a cold, chilled-steel smile; but he built the Huntington Library, which will perpetuate his memory long after his railroads have been forgotten.
"Another fact had also something to do with it. After his death there were found among his effects a collectin of sketches he had drawn of his estate; he wanted to paint and he painted with millions . . . tens of millions.
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Details about the location and extent of the collections of the Huntington Library pp. 360, 361, 362.
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