Anybody who thinks Los Angeles is a hotbed of corruption, bribes and backstabbing in 2025 has only to dive back a few decades in L.A.’s past to discover we ain’t as pure as the wind-driven snow our Chamber of Commerce makes us out to be.
We were up to our eyeballs in it as far back as there has been a Los Angeles – it’s part of what makes Los Angeles an interesting place, but it’s also what makes Los Angeles a baffling place.
No doubt we are no less corrupt than our sister cities. San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and of course New York are fairly bursting with bribes, influence peddling, City Council tampering, greasing palms and making thinly veiled threats.
And there have been those people throughout history who have sought to right these wrongs – blow the whistle on corruption – jail all the guilty ones and bestow freedom and unending happiness on those victimized by our Civic Thug culture, or at least try.
Clifford Clinton was certainly one of them. A restauranteur and political activist, Clinton was one of those people who set out to right wrongs, and for his efforts spent more than his fair share of time fighting and litigating and recovering from all those forces that wanted to put an end to this whistle blowing and just allow Los Angeles to get on with the business of bribing, peddling and threatening as it always has done.
One of the big plusses in Clifford Clintons favor were the airwaves – running daily radio programs telling the audience what was going on and stirring people into action. And Clinton took wild advantage of this forum and turned it into a crusade. Pointing out wrongs as well as promoting candidates for local offices who would not be susceptible to bribes
And not only was Clifford Clinton actively engaged in these broadcasts, so was his son Edmond who is actually heard on this broadcast from March 22, 1939.
Yes, Los Angeles was a hotbed of corruption, bribes and backstabbing – still is. But in 1939 it was the best drama on radio and easily a festival of close-calls, bomb threats and frivolous lawsuits – all in real life.
Here’s a slice of March 22, 1939 to remind you.
