Title supplied by cataloger. Rolland Joseph 'Speedy' Curtis was born in Louisiana in 1922. After serving three years in the Marines during World War II, he and his wife, Gloria, relocated from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1946. Curtis served four years with the Los Angeles Police Department, but resigned from the force in order to pursue both a Bachelor's and Master's degree from USC. He later became involved in city politics, as an associate of Sam Yorty, and later a field deputy to City Council members Billy Mills and Tom Bradley. He was briefly director of the Model Cities program in 1973. Rolland J. Curtis died in his home in 1979, the victim of a homicide. An affordable housing complex on Exposition Blvd. near Vermont Ave. was named in his honor in 1981, along with a nearby street and park.; Rosalind (Roz) Wiener Wyman (b. 1930-) was the youngest person (and only the second woman) ever elected to the Los Angeles City Council and one of the youngest elected officials of a major U.S. city, as well as the first Jewish Council member in 53 years. Wyman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1948 and attended the University of Southern California where she received a B.S. in Public Administration in 1952. She became politically active in college, launched her successful campaign for the City Council seat and was elected in 1953 when she was just 22. During her first Council term in 1954 she married attorney Eugene Wyman, a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School - a fellow Democratic activist, who founded a large entertainment law firm in Los Angeles. While on the city council, Rosalind Wyman was the first female acting mayor, and she played a pivotal role in bringing the Dodgers baseball team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1957. Unfortunately, controversies over that arrangement contributed to Wyman's defeat for a fourth term in 1965. After leaving office, and in the sad aftermath of her husband's unexpected death in 1973, Wyman continued her involvement in political and public affairs, her influence extending beyond California to the national Democratic Party. During the 1974 congressional campaigns, she became the first woman to head a major party's fund-raising efforts. She served as Convention Chair and chief executive officer of the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, the first woman of either major Party to wield the gavel at a presidential nominating convention. Wyman has been a delegate to every Democratic National Convention since 1952 (except one), last attending the historic 2008 Convention which nominated Barack Obama. Wyman's national appointments include the UNESCO Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has been a leader of the Los Angeles Jewish community, has received many Jewish community awards, chaired fund-raising events, and served on the board of American Friends of the Hebrew University. Wyman has also been a board member of many arts, social services, educational and health organizations, and has received numerous awards, locally and nationally. Councilmember Rosalind Wiener Wyman, Governor Edmund ""Pat"" Brown (center), and attorney Eugene L. Wyman are pictured at an event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel hosted by the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation on December 10, 1964. Partially visible in the background is future Los Angeles Assemblywoman candidate Louise Ridgle White. See images 00053384; 00118782; 00120479; 00128451, 00128452; and 00138699 through 00138705 for additional photos in this series.
Type
image
Format
1 negative : safety ; 10 x 13 cm. Photographic safety negatives
Wyman, Rosalind Wiener Wyman, Rosalind Wiener--Family Brown, Edmund G.--(Edmund Gerald),--1905-1996 White, Louise Ridgle,--1928- California.--Governor (1959-1967 : Brown) Beverly Hilton Hotel (Beverly Hills, Calif.) City council members Governors Educators Politicians Politicians' spouses Husband and wife Couples African American women Women Men Eyeglasses Smiling Beverly Hills (Calif.)
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