Customer Reviews

Red Ink, White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Newspapers 1920-1962

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I love to read about Los Angeles history, and I thought I've studied just about everything on this city. But this book just blew me away. It's a totaly different take on early 20th century Los Angeles told by the men and women who lived it and reported on for the city's daily newspapers. It is filled with anecdotal accounts of L.A.'s most sensational crimes, mobsters, and bad cops. It tells the history of the city not from the scholarly ivory tower but through the eyes of the newspaper reporter, editor, and photographer who witnessed these actual awesome events. A real wonderful read. It's well-sourced. I got a kick out of the who's who at the end of the book that lists and provides bios of nearly 200 L.A. journalists of the day.

Rob Wagner has performed a great and long overdue service. He has chronicled the history of L.A. newspapers in the first half of the 20th Century---a "Front Page" era when L.A. had a half-dozen dailies, with many editions per day. Wagner is to be particularly congratulated for recounting the rise and fall of the original L.A. Daily News, a peach-colored oversized tabloid much revered in its day. The DN, at one time the circulation leader, hosted an array of great writers, from the legendary Matt Weinstock (THE L.A. columnist of his day)to Jack Smith and Jim Murray. The book is painstaking in its research of circulation figures and union struggles---spiced with rollicking anecdotes about great newspapermen (and women) of the day. This is the definitive history of Los Angeles newspapers.

Red Ink, White Lies is an impressive and informative chronicle of the successes and failures of six Los Angeles daily newspapers during an era of the city's fiercest newspaper wars and competitions. Author Rob Wagner (who is a veteran of more than 26 years as a reporter, city editor, managing editor, and night editor) interviewed dozens of newsman and women, resulting in a vivid and candid portrait of prewar and postwar newspaper reporters, including their lifestyle, ethics and professionalism. From celebrity journalism to mob era police corruption, reportage of ethnic minority communities and the "red-baiting" 50s, Red Ink, White Lies is a thoroughly fascinating, insightful contribution to the 20th century history of journalism.

Red Ink, White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Newspapers 1920-1962 I am certain that
Mr. Wagner's book has many fine qualities but I must protest the outright lies he told about a relative of mine:
Louella O Parsons.
First he blew her off with 2 (two) mentions in the entire book: one commented on her being "rip-roaring drunk"
while phoning in or writing a story. This is an outright lie.
Second, he spoke of her talking to Jim Richardson on the phone. I was listening only to what she was saying to Jim
(not his response) but I assure you she was ripping him a new one regularly. Why? Because someone had changed a word or a part of her column or story.
(If you are interested in the truth, my I recommend Samantha Barbas excellent book "The First Lady of Hollywood"
published in 2006.)
Louella Parsons, for better or worse, created the Hollywood gossip column. She cared about Hollywood and the industry more than anything else, and always sought to show the industry in the best way possible.
At the height of her success she was one of the most highly-paid and read women in the world.
In addition Mr. Wagner kept referring to the "Herald & Express". In all my years around the LA newspaper and
Hollywood scene I never once heard it referred to as anything but the "Herald Express".
Louella E Rehfield

This book gives a fascinating glimpse into the minds and hearts of newspaper reporters. The section of how reporters covered the Black Dahlia murder case was interesting, if not a little disturbing. Very thorough look at L.A. and its newspapers.