L.A. Burns – August 13, 1965
Watts: 1965. Giving new meaning to the phrase “long, hot summer”.
Click on the link here for audio player: Watts Riot Coverage – Aug. 13, 1965
August 13, 1965 marked the third straight day of civil unrest, gunfire, and burning buildings in the Los Angeles suburb of Watts. In what began as a routine traffic stop quickly escalated into a tense standoff, was downplayed on local radio and TV as “nothing important going on”, and then exploded into one of the most violent and deadly confrontations to take place in an American city in a long time. By the time it was over, some 20,0000 National Guard troops were patrolling the streets, some 30 people lay dead and destruction of homes and businesses was estimated in the millions.
Here is a portion of that third day (from roughly 10:00 -11:15 pm) as reported by KTLA in Los Angeles on August 13, 1965. In later years, such violent confrontations would warrant our uninterrupted attention. But in 1965 there was still time out for commercial breaks.
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Bernard
I’m sorry. I hit Publish before the file had finished uploading. It’s all working now. Thanks!
A great historical recording.
Do any videotapes or kinescopes exist of KTLA’s coverage??
I believe that some reports/footage from KTLA’s copter (the first TV news copter anywhere) were picked-up by the networks.
I live near Boston, and as a small youngster, seem to think that Stan Chambers of KTLA was in the copter one day during the riots and did a live report from the copter for NBC’s “Huntley/Brinkley Report” in which he quoted public officials as fearing rioting would intensify when the sun went down “in about four hours” (this would be 6:30 P.M. EDT, or 3:30 in Los Angeles) and that Chambers signed off by saying “Stan Chambers of KTLA reporting for NBC News, in the KTLA Telecopter flying over the Watts section of Los Angeles. We return you now to NBC News in New York…”.
Yes, video does exist of the ’65 riots. I think KTLA has it, or it’s over at UCLA. I don’t know how much there is left. Sometimes video gets erased by accident or destroyed or some is just kept as a representative overview of an event. I will check with UCLA and see how much they have if they have it.