Harold Harby
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Harold Harby (September 8, 1894 – November 24, 1978) was elected to the Los Angeles, California, City Council in 1939, but he had to leave office in 1942 when he was convicted of using a city car for a trip out of the state. He was reelected in 1943 and served until 1957. Harby was noted for casting a 1951 swing vote that killed a $100 million proposal to build a massive public-housing project in the city as well as for his opposition to modern art and music.


Biography

Harby was born September 8, 1894, in
Gjøvik is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Toten. The administrative centre of the municipality is town of Gjøvik. Some of the villages in Gjøvik include Biri, Bybrua, and Hunndalen. The ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, the son of Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Harby. He attended high school in that country and came to the United States in 1910. He was married in 1917 to Emmalee Thompson of
Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of and is the principal city of the Great Falls, M ...
. They had two sons, Harold D. and Thornton L., and in the late 1930s he was living at 2642 Halm Avenue in the Mid-City area.Ted Thackrey Jr., "Harold Harby Services Set; Longtime L.A. Councilman," ''Los Angeles Times,'' November 29, 1978, page A-30
/ref> He moved to California in 1918 to work at West Coast shipyards and then became associated with the oil business, working at various times for
Shell Oil Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yor ...
,
Richfield Oil Richfield Oil Corporation was an American petroleum company based in California from 1905 to 1966. In 1966 it merged with Atlantic Refining Company to form the Atlantic Richfield Company (later renamed ARCO). History The Richfield Oil Corporat ...
and Pacific Western Oil.Los Angeles Public Library reference file
/ref> Harby died November 24, 1978, in
Laguna Hills, California Laguna Hills (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a city in south Orange County, California, United States. Its name refers to its proximity to Laguna Canyon and the much older Laguna Beach. Other newer cities nearby—Laguna Niguel and Lagun ...
, after a lengthy illness. Memorial services were in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress.


City Council


Tenure

Harby was a materials and supply executive for Richfield in 1939 when he defeated incumbent
Robert S. MacAlister Robert Stuart MacAlister (May 11, 1897 – January 15, 1957) was an oil-well-supplies salesman and a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council between 1934 and 1939. Biography MacAlister was born on May 11, 1897 in Camden, New Jersey ...
in
Los Angeles City Council District 11 Los Angeles City Council District 11 is one of the 15 districts of the Los Angeles City Council, representing the Westside of the city to the Pacific Ocean. Traci Park is the district's current representative on the City Council. Geography P ...
, which at that time included the
West Adams West Adams is a historic neighborhood in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California. The area is known for its large number of historic buildings, structures and notable houses and mansions throughout Los Angeles. It is a youth ...
and
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
areas. He was supported by political leader
Clifford Clinton Clifford E. Clinton (August 3, 1900 – November 20, 1969) was a California restaurateur who founded Meals for Millions, one of two parent organizations of Freedom from Hunger, in 1946. In 1905, Clifford Clinton traveled to China (for the firs ...
and served through 1957 — with one exception:
The single break came in 1942, when he fell out with Clinton, who seized on an incident (he discovered that Harby had used a city car for a trip out of state) to oust him from office. Harby said he had been given permission to use the vehicle and the City Council voted to confirm the use as official business. But the matter was taken to Superior Court, where Harby was removed from office.
The City Council appointed
Dave Stannard __NOTOC__ David Samuel Benjamin Stannard (March 31, 1881 – June 14, 1959) was a journalist and advertising representative named to the Los Angeles, California, City Council in 1942 to replace Harold Harby, who had been stripped of his seat becau ...
to take his place in May 1942, but the next year, 1943, Harby was reelected by a vote of 6,392 for himself and 5,988 for Stannard. Harby kept winning elections—in 1949 he had no opponent—until 1957, when he was defeated by Karl L. Rundberg.


Controversies


Public housing

Harby switched his position from "yes" to "no" in December 1951 to block a City Council vote of 8 to 7 a proposed $100 million public-housing plan that had divided the city, with business and real-estate factions on one side and labor and progressive interests on the other."Council About-Face Halts Housing Push," ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 4, 1951, page 1
/ref> Harby explained his reason by saying:
I find upon further investigation that much of this proposed housing ... is not essentially a
slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
project and buildings will be built on heretofore unoccupied territory. When you remove the slum-clearance element from public housing, there is nothing much left but Socialism.
Although he said his mail ran 10 to 1 in favor of his stand, he also displayed a letter containing a death threat, and his Halm Avenue home was "invaded" by protestors and picketed.


Art and music

Harby was also known for his opposition to
modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
, sculpture and music. He objected to the City Art Department accepting a gift of a painting titled "Bird on the Moon," noting that "I never saw any birds on the moon. Is this picture as crazy as it sounds?" He said the whole idea was "nuts, much like most of the rest of this so-called modern art." He also was the principal opponent to a statuary group by sculptor
Bernard Rosenthal Bernard J. Rosenthal (August 9, 1914 – July 28, 2009), also known as Tony Rosenthal, was an American Abstract art, abstract sculptor widely known for his monumental public art sculptures, created over seven decades. Biography Rosenthal was ...
that had been designed for the new Police Building across Main Street from the
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
. He suggested that the "14-foot, 1000-pound brass-and-bronze statue be consigned to a smelter and its metal salvaged for a tablet memorializing policemen who have given their lives in service to the community." The statue in question represented "a father, young boy, mother and a babe in arms expressing the idea that the Police Department is dedicated to the protection of the family.""Move Launched to Scrap Police Building Statue," ''Los Angeles Times,'' January 22, 1955, page 1
With a photograph.
After Harby's motion was referred to committee, members of the Council marched in a body to view the sculpture. Harby climbed atop a scaffold, pointed to the figure representing the babe in arms and asked, "This is a baby?"
In a letter to the ''Los Angeles Times,'' Harby praised the artistry of singer
Jeanette MacDonald Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American singer and Actor, actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (''The Love Parade'', ''Love Me Tonight'', ''The Merry Widow (1934 ...
and attacked modern music, which he called "gibberish" that "to me and millions of others is nothing but the echo of the drums of darkest Africa. ... Meaningless, purposeless and repulsive." He added: "savagery is no substitute for beauty."


Other

Mayor. He was appointed to a committee of five council members in May 1940 to call on Mayor
Fletcher Bowron Fletcher Bowron (August 13, 1887 – September 11, 1968) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. He was the 35th mayor of Los Angeles, California, from September 26, 1938, until June 30, 1953. He was at the time the city's longest-serving ...
to complain about "persistent and erroneous" remarks the mayor made about the council in his radio addresses. FDR painting. In October 1945, Harby and Rollin McNitt, chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, physically interfered with the removal of a portrait of the late President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
from the space behind the City Council president's rostrum, as previously ordered by the council. It was later removed and drapes hung in the empty space to provide better acoustics. Tokyo Rose. In December 1947, Harby authored a successful resolution in the Council asking Congress to "keep the female
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Jap propagandist
Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...
out of America." The resolution noted she was a one-time resident of Los Angeles. Feud. He and Councilman
Kenneth Hahn Kenneth Hahn (August 19, 1920 – October 12, 1997) was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for forty years, from 1952 to 1992. Hahn was on the Los Angeles City Council from 1947 to 1952. He was an ardent supporter of civil r ...
engaged in what was called a "feud" over various subjects, including their differences concerning the subject of continuing wartime
rent control Rent regulation is a system of laws, administered by a court or a public authority, which aims to ensure the affordability of housing and tenancies on the rental market for dwellings. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves: *Price cont ...
in Los Angeles, with Hahn favoring and Harby opposing. Harby also called a suggestion by Hahn for a pay raise for city employees "political prostitution in its lowest form." Harby used the same term, calling Hahn a "political prostitute" in a raucous debate over the fate of a $110-million-dollar
public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...
proposal for the city (Hahn in favor and Harby opposed; see above). At one point, Harby "reached over" and shoved Hahn back into his seat. Bomb shelters. In January 1951 he broached the idea of converting the city's major storm drains into atomic air-raid shelters. The City Council asked the city's Board of Public Works to study the matter. Anti-Communism. In October 1952, Harby joined a group of people supporting a
House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
probe into Communist sympathies among Los Angeles attorneys. Harby repeatedly took photographs of one of the anti-committee picketers who were also on the scene, "then made shaming signs with his finger and chided, 'You ought to be ashamed of yourself.' ""18 Attorneys Hurl Defiance at Committee"
''Los Angeles Times,'' October 2, 1952, pages 1–3


References

Access to the ''Los Angeles Times'' links requires the use of a library card. ---- {{DEFAULTSORT:Harby, Harold 1894 births 1978 deaths Los Angeles City Council members Businesspeople from California Politicians from Gjøvik Norwegian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American businesspeople