Town Celebrates Post’s 80th Anniversary

Even the prospect of a Palin/Biden dust-up failed to make a dent in a well-attended event last Thursday evening, as nearly 300 people swung by the Palisadian-Post’s offices to celebrate the newspaper’s 80th anniversary. Party guests represented a wide swath of the community, including members of organizations and schools, local business owners and employees, and past Palisadians, such as film historian and author Harry Medved, who enjoyed his first visit to the Post’s offices. ‘This newsroom looks straight out of those 1930’s screwball comedies about news reporters,’ said an impressed Medved, head of public relations for Fandango.com, as he toured the Post’s offices and on-site press facilities. ‘The core of Pacific Palisades is this wonderful newspaper,’ said Chamber of Commerce President Toni Balfour before introducing Post Publisher Roberta Donohue to partygoers. Donohue, in turn, paid homage to a very special guest: 93-year-old former Post owner Charlie Brown, who ran the newspaper from 1954 to 1981 with his late brother, Bill Brown. ‘He was my mentor, my second father, my teacher, my first boss,’ said Donohue, who lived on the same street as Charlie Brown in Marquez Knolls, when she was growing up. ‘I’ve known him since I was two years old.’ Dressed colorfully in a bright blue blazer and a necktie festively illustrated with snare and bass drums, Charlie Brown cut quite a figure at the festivities. Post Production Manager Jim Reynolds, a current employee of nearly 30 years, was excited to reconnect with his former employer. ‘We built this from nothing,’ Brown said, surveying the newspaper’s assembly-line machinery from his chair in the pressroom. When he and his brother purchased the Post, they greatly expanded the facilities and installed a letterpress.   ’Ten years later, we junked all of it and put in the off-set press,’ Brown told Reynolds with a laugh. The Browns, who bought the Pacific Palisades Post from Paul Weaver and, in 1960, acquired the Palisadian, almost did not buy the newspaper, as Charlie said they had been considering purchasing a community paper in their Minnesota. Despite the repeated insistence of an intermediate party, who pleaded with them to visit Pacific Palisades and consider the Post, the Brown brothers resisted until they visited the third party’s Beverly Hills office, where Charlie Brown asked the secretary two questions. ‘I asked her, ‘Did you grow up in Los Angeles?” Brown recalled. ‘She said, ‘Born and raised here.’ Then I asked her where she would like to live if she could live anywhere in the city. She said, ‘No question, Pacific Palisades.’ So my twin brother and I finally drove out to Pacific Palisades. We were sold.’ Nearly 170 journalism awards later, Charlie and his brother sold the newspaper (and commercial printing business) to its current owner, the Small Newspaper Group of Kankakee, Illinois. Today, Brown agrees with that secretary. He told the Post that while he enjoys his current Lake Forest address, ‘Nothing compares to Pacific Palisades.’ In addition to Brown, distinguished guests included 10 Citizen-of-the-Year recipients: Kurt Toppel, Emil Wroblicky, Mike Martini, Phyllis Genovese (founder of The Letter Shop in 1947), Flo Elfant, Carol Leacock, Dottie Larson, Palisades historians Randy Young and Betty Lou Young, and current Citizen-of-the-Year Bob Jeffers. Carol Hurley, one of the founders of the Palisades AARP chapter, joined the festivities, along with Palisades High CFO Greg Wood and American Legion member Hal Vieau, accompanied by his wife of 63 years, Beverly. Welcoming all arrivals was the Post’s staff, assisted by the publisher’s daughter, Jennifer Donohue. You couldn’t miss a Post employee, as all staffers, from Production and Reception to Advertising and Editorial, wore matching navy-blue polo shirts created to commemorate the occasion. The employees gave guests informal tours of the newspaper’s various departments and manned several bars set up throughout the building. One guest who had his hands full was David Williams, owner of Mogan’s Caf’, who personally catered the event. The Post’s parking lot, converted into a burger-and-salad bar, became the party’s most popular destination. ‘I’m totally excited about catering the 80th, I look at it as kind of an honor,’ said Williams, who grew up in the Palisades and graduated from PaliHi in 1983. Dick Wullinger, a Palisadian of 32 years, said he values the Post’s contributions to his organization, the Pacific Palisades Historical Society, noting ‘We’ve been scanning archival photos from the Post.’ Appearing cool and casual in a mint green dress shirt and black slacks, the always-presentable Chris ‘Mr. Palisades’ Alexakis was all smiles. ‘Every Thursday, I learn something new about the Palisades,’ said the PaliHi grad, now a freshman at Cal State Channel Islands. ‘The newspaper is exciting, edgy and funny but most of all, it’s informative. It’s the best way to find out what’s going on in town.’ Guests took in the press plant, where the most popular libations came courtesy of J.J. Reynolds, son of Post employees Jim and Sharon Reynolds. J.J., who worked in that same press room from 1987 through 2000, served up the special 80th anniversary microbrew that he created just for the occasion. So how popular was his beer? Reynolds brought 10 gallons of his pale ale, which was all gone by evening’s end. ‘It’s great to be back!’ said Reynolds, a graphic designer. ‘This is where I got my start. It’s great to meet some new faces and still see a lot of the old faces.’ There was even a celebrity sighting at the party, as Pacific Palisades Honorary Mayor Gavin MacLeod stopped by to catch up with friends, including Andrew Frew of Theatre Palisades. The ‘Love Boat’ actor remarked how his Thursday night tradition is to read the Post. The festivities may have been enough to give MacLeod flashbacks to playing in Blake Edwards’ ‘The Party,’ but fortunately, this party did not end up submerged in soapsuds. So was the Post event worth missing the debates for? ‘Yes! Absolutely,’ Medved said. ‘It’s rare to find a newsroom that has its own printing press as colorful as the Palisadian-Post’s. It would make a great movie location!’