Norris Poulson

Charles Norris Poulson (July 23, 1895 – September 25, 1982) was an American politician who represented Southern California in public office at the local, state, and federal levels. He served as the 36th Mayor of Los Angeles from 1953 to 1961, after having been a California State Assemblyman and then a member of the United States Congress. He was a Republican.

Charles Norris Poulson
Poulson in 1959
36th Mayor of Los Angeles
In office July 1, 1953 – July 1, 1961
Preceded by	Fletcher Bowron
Succeeded by	Sam Yorty
15th President of the United States Conference of Mayors
In office 1958–1959
Preceded by	Robert F. Wagner Jr.
Succeeded by	Richard J. Daley
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California
In office January 3, 1947 – June 11, 1953
Preceded by	Ned R. Healy
Succeeded by	Glenard P. Lipscomb
Constituency	13th district (1947–53) 24th district (1953)
In office January 3, 1943 – January 3, 1945
Preceded by	Charles Kramer
Succeeded by	Ned R. Healy
Constituency	13th district
Member of the California State Assembly from the 56th district
In office January 2, 1939 – January 3, 1943
Preceded by	Thomas Cunningham
Succeeded by	Ernest E. Debs
Personal details
Born	Charles Norris Poulson (1895-07-23)July 23, 1895 Baker County, Oregon, U.S.
Died	September 25, 1982(1982-09-25) (aged 87) Orange, California, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Erna J. Loennig ​ ​ (m. 1916; died 1981)​
Children	3

Early life and career

Charles Norris Poulson was born in Baker County, Oregon. He was the son of Peter Skovo Poulson (1843–1928), an immigrant from Denmark. Poulson attended Oregon State University for two years before he wed Erna June Loennig on December 25, 1916. The couple arrived in Los Angeles in 1923. Poulson became a certified public accountant through correspondence classes and night school at Southwestern Law School, which at that time had a business school.

Political career

California State Assembly and U.S. Congress

In 1938, he was elected to the District 56 seat of the California State Assembly. He won a congressional seat four years later. After losing the seat in the 1944 election, he returned to the United States Congress following the 1946 elections, remaining there until his election as mayor of Los Angeles. During his years as a congressman, Poulson helped lead California in its fight against Arizona over Colorado River water. At the time of his departure from Congress, he was the chairman of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.

Mayor of Los Angeles

Poulson proclaiming Negro History Week in 1956.

Poulson's victory in the Los Angeles mayoral race came after a contentious battle in which his opponent, incumbent mayor Fletcher Bowron, claimed that the Los Angeles Times wanted to control city government and, by endorsing Poulson, would have a puppet in the mayor's office. Poulson, for his part, challenged Bowron's support for public housing, in particular a project in the area known as Chavez Ravine in Elysian Park Heights (the site on which Dodger Stadium would later be built). With the support of the group Citizens Against Socialist Housing (CASH) and drawing on the anti-communist atmosphere of the time, Poulson promised to end support for such "un-American" housing projects and to fire city employees who were communists or who refused to answer questions about their political activities.

During his eight years as mayor, Los Angeles became the third largest city in the United States, with Poulson instrumental in leading the construction of Los Angeles International Airport and expanding the Los Angeles Harbor. Most notably, he led the drive to lure baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. This led to what became known as the Battle of Chavez Ravine, which resulted in the removal of Hispanic residents from land on which Dodger Stadium was later constructed. He helped integrate the city's fire and police departments and initiated a garbage recycling program that proved to be a factor in his defeat in 1961.

In 1958 and 1959, Paulson served as president of the United States Conference of Mayors.

Perhaps the most memorable image of his mayoral career came on September 21, 1959, when he addressed Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during a public ceremony. The comments came after Khrushchev had constantly touted Soviet superiority during his tour of the city by Poulson. Citing Khrushchev's phrase, "We will bury you," Poulson responded, "You shall not bury us and we shall not bury you. We tell you in the friendliest terms possible we are planning no funerals, yours or our own." Poulson received over 3,600 letters following the incident, many of them praising him for his comments.

He lost a reelection campaign in 1961 to Sam Yorty, partly due to having to explain the expenses incurred by the Dodgers' franchise shift. Efforts to blunt such criticism were limited due to a severe case of laryngitis, which prevented him from responding to the invitation from local television personality George Putnam to debate Yorty on his show. Poulson did not recover from the laryngitis in time, and his campaign never recovered from the setback.

Following the defeat, Poulson briefly returned to accounting before retiring to La Jolla in San Diego in 1962. He died at a hospital in Orange, California, in 1982, after a colostomy operation. His grandson Norris Brandt is a nationally-recognized expert on water policy.

See also

• George P. Cronk, Poulson's campaign manager in 1953

External links

• Norris Poulson at Find a Grave
• Norris Poulson papers
• Join California Norris Poulson

Further reading

• Buntin, John (2009). L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 9780307352071. OCLC 431334523. Retrieved 14 November 2014.