Harold A. Henry

In 1938 Mayor Fletcher Bowron appointed him to the city's Playground and Recreation Commission. He served until 1945 and was commission president for four years. He was later a member of the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission.[1]

See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1945–59

Henry ran for the Los Angeles City Council District 4 seat of retiring Councilman Robert L. Burns in 1945 and was elected in the final vote. In every contest thereafter through 1959 he was reelected in the primary election.

In 1955 the district included much of the Wilshire district and in general was bounded by Fountain Avenue, Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue and Catalina Street.[4]

Henry also ran unsuccessfully for Los Angeles County supervisor in 1958.[5]

Henry was president of the City Council for four two-year terms, beginning 1947, 1949, 1951 and 1961. As such he was acting mayor when the mayor was out of the state. His first term resulted from a closed meeting by the City Council[6] at the Jonathan Club, when nine of fifteen council members voted to seat him in place of the then-president, George H. Moore.[7]

As acting mayor he was responsible for issuing many special declarations, including:

• Brotherhood Week. "The cornerstone of American democracy rests on brotherhood and understanding among the Protestants, Catholics and Jews of our nation," he said in February 1950.[8]
• Free Football for Kids Week, when he posed for a photo with children of Los Angeles Rams coaches in October 1951.[9]
• My L.A. Week. In honor of the opening of a new musical based upon the popular newspaper columns of Matt Weinstock, December 1951.[10]
• Hungarian Freedom Fighters Day. Memorializing October 23, 1956, when Hungarians began "a short-lived revolt against their Communist overlords."[11]

Henry was also responsible for ordering the temporary cessation of monthly air raid alarm testing during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis at the request of the California Disaster Council, to avoid public panic.[12]

Un-American, 1952. Henry and Council Members Kenneth Hahn, Earle D.Baker and J. Win Austin attended a dinner meeting in South Gate to honor the House Committee on Un-American Activities.[13]

Timberlake, 1953. Henry was in dispute with Council Member L.E. Timberlake over many issues, including a controversial $1 million plan to build public housing in Los Angeles (Timberlake favoring and Henry opposing), with Timberlake disputing many of Henry's rulings from the chair. One of them upset Henry so much that in January 1953 he was led to exclaim, "Mr. Timberlake, if you persist in this intolerable situation, there will be ways devised to prevent you!"[14]

West Hollywood, 1957. He was instrumental in assuring that the city of Los Angeles remained neutral in a 1957 proposal by West Hollywood residents to incorporate as a city.[15]

Dodgers, 1958. Henry was one of the three council members—Patrick D. McGee and John C. Holland being the others—who voted in 1958 against a proposal to turn Chavez Ravine over to the Los Angeles Dodgers for use as a baseball stadium.[16]

Teachers, 1959. He was active in work of the Senior League, sponsor of the annual Teachers Remembrance Day.[17]

Sanitation, 1961. He had a separate, $100-a-month position as city representative on the County Sanitation District, to which he reappointed himself in July 1961. That pay was in addition to his salary of $12,000 as a council member.[18]

Human relations, 1964. After a heated City Council debate, Henry voted with the prevailing side in rejecting calls for the establishment of a separate city Human Relations Commission. The majority decided instead to maintain city membership on a similar county agency.[19]