Running for congress and tending camelias took Daily News publisher/columnist Manchester Boddy more and more away from his longtime newspaper and platform. The publisher, held in wide affection by a staff he entrusted to function without his interference, eventually lost interest in the operation and retired in 1952.
The paper folded for good just before Christmas, 1954.

Sparky Saldana, a popular reporter and later night city editor of the Daily News.  He covered police and harbor beats in the 1930s and early '40s. During WWII he supervised the Spanish-language division of the Office of War Information. Saldana also co-authored (with Daily News reporter John Clarke) a life story of Mickey Cohen in 1949. He went into PR when the Daily News folded in 1954.*

City editor Chuck Chappell, a WWII ace held in great affection by friends and colleagues.

The great Vern Partlow (right, with reporter Jack Cravens), reporter/songwriter who wrote the immortal newsman's "hymn," "A Newspaperman Meets Such Interesting People," which was often sung at Daily News parties, and beyond. He also wrote "Old Man Atom," which was blacklisted for "communist" implications. Partlow was ultimately blackballed from the Daily News in a sad red-baiting chapter of its late life.

Sparky Saldana and reporter Carol Tiegs. Tiegs blazed a trail for young women reporters covering specialty beats.*

Reporter Ruth Harvey. Initially scorned by male reporters because she was promoted from secretary, she
proved them wrong as an assertive, successful writer.*

Legendary sports editor and daily columnist Ned Cronin,
one of the more literarily inclined sportswriters in L.A. journalism history.

Copy chief and later managing editor Phil Garrison. Years later, at the Valley News and Green Sheet, Phil was night slot man, known for thumbing through the Guiness Book of World Records for amusement. Turns out the habit began at the Daily News. Garrison represented management in the red-baiting episode involving reporters Darr Smith and Vern Partlow, demanding that Smith and Partlow reveal whether they were communists. His make-up editor, Laurance G. Fowler (see gallery page three) represented the union on behalf of Smith and Partlow. Garrison later worked as night copy chief at the Valley News and Green Sheet under Fowler.

Reporter Jack Smith in the Daily News city room, long before he became the longtime beloved L.A. Times columnist.

 Smith, Ruth Harvey, Paul Weeks.

Les Claypool, political reporter who tried to save the Daily News by having employees become the newspaper's owners.*

David Bongard, who covered arts and went on to a career in public relations with the L.A. Philharmonic.

Assistant Sports Editor Chuck Genuit

Reporter Jack Cravens,
who co-founded the Greater Los Angeles Press Club.*

Mildred Newton

Librarian Mary Kitano, a pioneering Asian-American L.A. journalist hired by the Daily News after her release from the Manzanar "relocation camp."

Jerry Ramlow (left), in a mild editorial dispute with
Jack Cravens. Ramlow was one of the last police reporters trained in prewar newsgathering where reporters often took on the role of police investigator while interviewing suspects.*

If Naomi Black looks like a society writer, there's a good reason.

Ace photographer Harry Watson, one of the famed Watson brothers, who were photog mainstays of L.A. newspapers. Harry appears to be faking a mild case of the D.T.'s in or near the Daily News darkroom.

Jack Smith gives dictation to one D. Leonard. Smith joined the Daily News after a stint as a combat war correspondent with the Marines in the Pacific Theater of WWII.*

Reporter Lu Haas was a strong leader in the Los Angeles Newspaper guild, serving as shop steward for the Daily News. Met and married his wife, Janet, an artist at the Daily News.

Helen Brush Jenkins was a pioneering woman news photographer for the Daily News, and wife of photo editor Gib Brush. She made history by photographing the birth of her own children (printed in Life Magazine), and almost accidentally capturing an enormous Nevada atomic bomb blast that lit up the pre-dawn skies of Los Angeles like, well, dawn.

Roy Ringer worked in many capacities---as was the case with many "Newsies"---copy desk, sports rewrite, and night city editor (he even found himself pinch-hitting as an opera critic.) He went on to a career in political PR, and wrote speeches for Robert F. Kennedy during the senator's ill-fated 1968 campaign.

Vivian Ringer wrote for the women's page and later general assignment. She met her husband, Roy, at the Daily News, over a broken typewriter.

Reporter John Beckler on the job. Beckler had a long career with the Daily News before going to the Times, and later to Associated Press.*

Sports reporter and columnist Art Rense, who is also the reason this website exists. Art covered the L.A. Rams, among many other things, including their first and only world championship in 1951. Hi, Dad!