Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1922-02-27
Defends HOLLYWOOD
AND CALIFORNIA
Former Webster City Man
Says Both are Mis-
represented.

ials are usually quite bright and sensi
BILE. but the few "squibs" you have
been shooting into that column lately
about Hollywood and California in
reasonable For instance. you quote Il
news dispatch from California telling
about the snow they had here. To
start with the man that wrote the dis
patch was either Il hair Drained idiot
or lust plain fool, rs he ought to have
known that the public in general didn't
know what he knew. lie. that the snow
they were having was way up in the
mountains. At least a mile high. Ii he
bad have written the dispatch and said
that the mountain passes were drifted
with the worst snow storm in years he
would have told the truth and the
general public would have understood
it. AS it is. all the eastern folks can
picture in their minds is Il blizzard in
the orange groves. which is not true
at all. The frost did do som" damage
To some groves. Another thing very
few eastern people know or realize and
that is that California is over 1000
miles from south TO north
As nm illustration l will take Flag
staff. Arizona, which has weather SINH
lar TO Iowa, and Phoenix. not to exceed
200 miles south, hardly ever sees the
thermometer down to freezing.
The northern part of California does
not brag very much over their climate,
but southern California does. and well
she NAV. have lived here now nearly
f,ur wears and have never seen ice here
caused by the weather conditions.
can lump in my car and inside of two
h0urS can he M in 3 feet OF snow ana
this almost any time of year eNccpt
possibly June. July and August. An
other thing. you newspapers just dellght
10 do is to tell that our crop of tourists
ETC.. etc, etc. II may interest you ana
YOUR readers to know that California
in general and Los Angeles in partict-
lar could get along seven Thousand
wears without tourists and be just as
nrcsperous. as the following figures will
show. In 1920 Los Angeles county lead
Ell counties in the United States III
live stock products. S71.313.S!D. Manu-
featured products of Los Angeles S1SS'-
G.2, 600. Total agricultural products for
southern California S321.114.Wl. Now
add them together and see if we could
MT possibly get along without the tour
lists you talk so much about. But we
want the tourists and the reason Is
moi that we want his loose change.
but 10 per cent of them come back 10
make their home here. That's why we
want him. and / have just faint St's-
nicion that's the reason You knock at
California
Regarding Hollywood. ! have to say
that / live in Hollywood and like 1t
there very much. Hollywood is exactly
the Sa me Ill LOS .NLSViSs as '''"
Ii, to Webster City, simply district.
The majority of the best citizens OF
Los Angeles reside in the Wiltshire and
Hollywood districts and the property
located in those districts are by far
the most desirable and high priced.
Possibly GO per cent OF the moving
picture studios are located in the Holly
wood district. but the other 40 per cent
is scattered throughout Los Angeles
other districts. There are always
certain per cent of undesirablcs get into
the Masons. Elks. churches and other
organizations and the per cent of
scamp" movie people is no higher than
II, the other organizations named. The
moral fitness Of the people in Holly
wood is just exactly as high as it is
in Webster City or any other town or
city in the United States the only thing
being that when you pull off scan
dal' it don't get beyond your borders,
as the people concerned are not in the
public eve. while Il few of them that
get caught here are more or less prom
ncnt and that fact coupled with an
unreliable reporter who gets paid by
tn. column for writing sensational rot.
which is further added to by the papers
that copy this junk until no wonder
every one thinks the movie people are
sucb rotterS There was no more rea- |
son for all the sensation over the
Taylor murder than there would be for
;ny one of Il dozen things that happen
right there in Web Center. In the
first place he did not live in the Holly
wood district at all. but in the West
Lake district and in the second place
there were no movie people connected
with the murder mt all-it just nap
rened that he was Il movie director and
was fighting II narcotic ring that was
s,pplying his people with drugs ana
some of these narcotic pcddlers got
him Eut. Notwithstanding this fact
ha newspapers got up their usual "N-
and brought lot of publicity
10. perfectly innocent bystandcrs ana :