Samuel William Yorty was an American politician, attorney, and radio host from Los Angeles, California.
35 Facts About Sam Yorty
2.
Sam Yorty served as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the California State Assembly, but he is most remembered for his turbulent three terms as the 37th Mayor of Los Angeles from 1961 to 1973.
3.
Sam Yorty was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Frank Patrick and Johanna Yorty.
4.
Sam Yorty began his political education as the son of a Democratic father in a Republican state, with a mother who showed a strong interest in politics.
5.
The family moved to Southern California when Sam Yorty completed high school.
6.
Sam Yorty enrolled at Southwestern University and later the University of California at Los Angeles, working for a time at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
7.
Sam Yorty advocated state ownership of public utilities and strong labor unions, showing a liberal approach to politics.
8.
Sam Yorty was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1950 and was reelected in 1952, but again lost his race for the US Senate in 1954.
9.
In that special election for the two years remaining of the term of Richard M Nixon, Yorty received 1,788,071 votes to Senator Thomas H Kuchel's 2,090,831.
10.
In 1960, Yorty endorsed fellow Californian Richard Nixon over Massachusetts Senator and fellow Democrat John F Kennedy for president.
11.
The bitter campaign was marked by Poulson's claim that Sam Yorty was backed by members of organized crime, a comment that caused Sam Yorty to sue Poulson for $3.3 million.
12.
Sam Yorty railed against "a little ruling clique" of "downtown interests" and promised to revise the city charter, which had become unwieldy with the city's growth from a quiet West Coast town to the third largest metropolis in the country.
13.
Sam Yorty was a strong advocate of expanding the freeway network.
14.
Sam Yorty made good on his waste management and highway promises, and oversaw the emergence of Los Angeles as a major city.
15.
Sam Yorty was a backer of the Los Angeles Music Center, business districts such as Little Tokyo, and of the Los Angeles Zoo.
16.
Sam Yorty made frequent appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which boosted his popularity.
17.
In 1965, Yorty was reelected over Democratic Congressman James Roosevelt, son of the late President Franklin D Roosevelt.
18.
Roosevelt's campaign cost around $450,000, but Sam Yorty spent less than half that amount.
19.
Sam Yorty attacked Yorty's membership in a segregated private club and repeatedly criticized Yorty for having a bad temper.
20.
The often-irascible Sam Yorty held his temper throughout the campaign, seeming almost cool in contrast to Roosevelt.
21.
Sam Yorty pointed to the fact that he had cut city taxes, streamlined city government and improved garbage pickups.
22.
Sam Yorty outpolled Roosevelt 392,775 to 247,313, with the remainder of votes going to six other candidates on the ballot.
23.
Sam Yorty received 981,088 votes to Brown's 1,355,262.
24.
In 1967, Sam Yorty was forced to deal with scandal after the Los Angeles Times published an expose on the city's harbor commission.
25.
Support among the white middle classes fell after Yorty was embroiled in the controversy following the 1968 assassination of Robert F Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel.
26.
The strategy behind this approach was that Sam Yorty would be rewarded with a cabinet post by Richard Nixon for his lack of support of Humphrey, but Nixon declined to offer him a position in the new administration.
27.
Sam Yorty painted his opponent as a dangerous radical, alternately of the black power or Communist revolutionary varieties.
28.
Sam Yorty ran again for governor in 1970 but was handily defeated in the Democratic primary by State Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, 1,602,690 to 659,494.
29.
Sam Yorty began to leave all but the most important decisions to his staff.
30.
Sam Yorty had received strong support from influential New Hampshire publisher William Loeb, stating that President Nixon had "caved in" to anti-war senators and that he had never agreed with the government's policy on the war.
31.
However, Sam Yorty received just six percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary and was never able to gain any momentum in his bid for the nomination.
32.
Sam Yorty finally ended his bid shortly before the California primary in June 1972, asking voters to support Humphrey because of the "radical" nature of anti-Vietnam War candidate George McGovern.
33.
Sam Yorty's previous race-baiting demagoguery came back to haunt him in 1973, when Bradley soundly defeated him in a rematch of their 1969 race.
34.
In 1981, Sam Yorty failed again in a bid to unseat Bradley.
35.
Sam Yorty suffered a stroke on May 24,1998, then contracted pneumonia.