 The Romance of the Ranchos Los Angeles 1830 American violates custom to win lovely senorita Los Angeles 1850 Murder of prominent American narrowly averted Los Angeles 1860 First theatrical troupe plays Los Angeles The title insurance and trust company of Los Angeles presents the romance of the ranchos A weekly dramatization of the colorful events and characters which make California history so interesting Each week our wandering vocero Frank Graham returns to tell another true story of the days of the dawn War savings bonds is the new official name for the securities that were formerly called defense savings bonds The change in name is significant It indicates that America is now turning its attention to the all-out aggressive warfare which alone can bring final victory So let us on the home front take the offensive tool Let us resolve again to go all out with the weapons we have Our dimes and dollars Buy a war savings bond tomorrow And now here to tell us the story is our wandering vocero Frank Graham Buenas noches señoras y señores Tonight we're going to trace the highlights from the life of Don Juan Tempo One of the earliest American pioneers in Southern California On the land of Rancho Los Cerritos, his home, the great city of Long Beach now stands The history of this man and the land furnish a romantic chapter in the romance of the ranchos It was in the year 1827 that this young Massachusetts born man, John Tempo Stepped off a sailing ship in the sleepy little part of Alta California, San Diego They just beaten a course from far away Honolulu And the travelers were thankful to set foot on dry land It's mighty pleasant, isn't it? Being able to stand up on your two feet Not feel a deck sliding out from under you I must admit that the feel of the land is a good one Even if it is in such a God forsaken out-of-the-way spot Oh, you mean this lovely little village in San Diego? Sure, and what kind of hallucinations are you having? Lovely little village is it? You're daft man Never have I seen a more desolate spot in the face of the globe Hot, dry, baked, dirty, lonely In other words, this is not the sort of landscape that suits your fancy Putting it mildly Why, anyone in his right mind would want to be putting up here I don't know But as for me, it only makes me long the more for my green hills of Killarney No, maybe you're right Come back in a year or two and I'll tell you what I think A year or two? Come back here Yeah, and when you do, look me up Here's where we say goodbye Oh man, what are you saying? Getting off here? You're out of your head Well, maybe, but I'm staying here And what's more, I think I'm going to like it But man, what will you do here? How will you live? What in the world? Oh, don't worry From all I hear about this country, I'll get along all right A man can make his fortune here, they tell me Live like a king Oh, but live in here with these provincials I think I like them You know, they take things easy No Russia, fuss, sounds good to me Anyway, there's nothing you can say to change my mind I've thought it all over, so I'm going to stay You rarely mean it Uh-huh The first thing I'm going to do is get myself baptized in their church Then I'll become a citizen And then I... Well, I'll just be one of them I should get along all right Man, you are crazy And it'll be my sad duty to tell all your friends That John Temple has buried himself alive At the end of the earth And California was just about the end of the earth As far as the rest of the world was concerned Back in 1827, when John Temple became one of the first Americans to settle here A few ships stopped at widely separated ports along the coast But the towns were still the sleepy Mexican villages John Temple had an idea that he'd find a good life And he was right For a while he made his headquarters in San Diego But soon he discovered Los Angeles and the beautiful countries surrounding it Then too, there was another traction nearby The Senorita Rafael Acota was a traction enough for any man And soon Don Juan Temple was head over heels in love with the bright-eyed Spanish beauty Finally, he called upon her one day Senor Don Juan, it is you Senorita, where is this? Won't you come in? Sí, gracias I'm sorry, Senor We did not expect visitors today My mother is not at home No? Well, I'm just as happy for that, Senorita For it's you I came to see Senor, you flatter me Senorita Rafael, one cannot flatter the beauty of a sunrise Senor And don't you, Manuela, charming as she is Could hardly hold the attraction for a young man that her lovely daughter does Senor Temple, you are too bold It is not proper that we should talk here like this alone But it is This is just the chance I've been waiting for For a long time We've never had a chance to speak Well, privately Always there must be a mother or your aunt or someone That is the costume of my country, Senor You know that? Young people should not be alone But there are things I want to say to you that I just can't say in front of other people That is the very reason for the costume You must not say them It is not proper Senorita Rafael, certainly there are times when you'd like to talk to a man That is beside the point, Senor What we might wish is not important We cannot It is not done But Americanos have no manners anyway, Senorita I'm an American So please don't run off Stay for just a minute But Senor I have something I want to ask I know that in your country I should ask someone else first But I just can't do it I can't until I know how you feel Aye, Senor Don Juan Very well I shall sit here Now, what is it? Well, I... You said you wanted to ask me something Well, I see, yes I did Well, now I have stayed I am here seated beside you What did you want to ask? I don't know how to say it But you were so persistent You said it was important Something you could not say in front of others It is very important to me, Senorita And yet, now that I have consented to disobey my mother And listen to you, you will not ask Are you afraid, Senor? See, I am Now that the time has really come And I really have my chance I'm afraid that your answer might not be What I want to hear Well, I cannot say what my answer will be If you do not ask Come, Senor What did they say? Faint heart, never one fell lady Oh, then you know You've guessed No, Senor But I was only quoting Senor Shakespeare Oh, Senorita, you're laughing at me Oh, don't want, I'm not Really? But what did you want to ask me? Um, well I love you, Raffiana I want you to be my wife Oh, Senorita I know I'm not much to look at Probably you don't love me But I think I can make you love me in time And I'll try my best to make you happy Senor, I'm shocked Shocked that you should speak of such a subject to me Without my mother's permission Oh, I know But I had to find out how you felt I just couldn't bring myself to A bold one If I had known the subject of your question I should never have consented to listen Oh, no, please, don't be angry I apologize for my lack of manners You should, Senor And now I must ask you to go Senorita You won't even tell me if you'd be pleased If I ask your mother? It is not proper, Senor And you must go Very well then I guess that's plain enough How you feel I'm sorry to have troubled you, Senorita When is this? But, Senor Wait Please I... Well Perhaps it would be better if I were to go And you were to wait here Wait here? See My mother, she will be here at any minute And Well You might address your question to her The proper person Senorita You mean You want me to? I should be most unhappy If you did not Carry the meal And so Don Juan Tempo found love in California too Soon he was married and settled in Los Angeles And he started in business for himself Very quickly his little store prospered For the Yankee had a keen business sense Well, here you go They've arrived Give you me those great packages from Mesa go seas in your temple They are here But I haven't had time to unpack them yet Never mind, we'll unpack just one of the packages tonight And have them ready to sell tomorrow Just one They're all alike See the whole batch What an order Never have I seen so many packages It took a whole train of cars to bring them They're Serapis Serapis Madre de Dios, is that all? Just thousands of Serapis That's all But Senorita, what an effort nobody sells Serapis That's just the point Nobody does sell any And yet everybody uses them It's considered a great treat to get a new Serapis Imported from Mexico And nobody has thought of importing some to sell right here Well, that's your right Of course I'm right You watch and see Everybody will be buying Serapis From me I've got a corner on the business Talent in cornering the market on a product which everybody used Was typical of John Temple's genius for business Soon he was prosperous A big man in a growing Pueblo He never went in for politics But at one point in 1836 His store was the meeting place for a crowd of the town's most important citizens I'm telling you Senors These things have gone on far enough We've had enough of Robin and horse teaming and killing Yes, ma'am, ma'am But what are we going to do about it? I'll tell you what we're going to do about it We're going to have a police force That's right Up to now we've never had any need for them But things are different these days You'll have a hard time getting the citizens to put up their money for a police force Sure we would Only this police force won't be paid Now, because we're going to do the policing ourselves You mean we're going to be the police force? That's right, Senorita This meeting was called to form the first company of the Los Angeles Vigilante Society In those rough days, strong measures were needed to protect peaceful citizens from lawlessness John Temple was to learn that himself by hair-raising experience Since there were no banks in those days Most people kept their ready cash hidden somewhere about the house When they needed things, they dug up the family hoard John Temple, however, had a system He made regular shipments to San Francisco Where his shippers kept a credit balance on hand for him He used to carry the money down to the boat at San Pedro And it was after one such lonely trip That he was confronted by his worried brother, Francis, who had joined him in California John, John, glory be to you It's really you Thanks a lot Well, what in the hell are you talking about, man? Well, you heard today, aren't you? How do you feel? Francis, will you please explain yourselves? You mean you don't know? No, no what? Well, didn't anything happen? When? On your ride down to San Pedro Of course not It was a very pleasant ride Nothing at all out of the way Good Lord How you escaped, I don't know We were just forming a posse to look for you A posse? Oh, now look here, Francis Explain to me what this is all about Why in the world should you send a posse out after me? I'm old enough to take care of myself We just got word a little while ago That bandit Dave Brown was bragging around town That he was going to hold you up He even told them his plans just before he left He was going to waylay you on the road to San Pedro And then kill and rob you Good Lord Me with all that gold You didn't even see him No Well, I took a different road today Had some property I wanted to see over in the left bank of the river So I rode that way No wonder He's probably still lying and waiting the main road to San Pedro Holy Moses I don't know what made me change my route today But I thank the Lord I did As Los Angeles grew And John Temple's fortune grew with it The American began to dream of new fields to conquer He longed to own a great ram show As had a few other Americans And one day as he talked to his wife A solution came to him Ah, it'd be great Just think, Raffaele To have a lovely home in the country A great ram show of your own See, I know You forget I have known ram show life In fact, I own part of ram show Los Cerritos See, so you do I'd almost forgotten Oh, but all your brothers and sisters Own part of it too I mean one All our own But have you thought Perhaps Los Cerritos could be ours All ours Why? What do you mean? None of my brothers and sisters live there It is useless to them They are not interested in being rancheros Many are married, live elsewhere The land is not used at all No, but that doesn't change the fact that they own it It could Many times I have heard my brothers express the desire To sell their share in the ram show They would rather have what money they could get Than the land No, they've really said that See, and as for the girls What do they care about it? They have ram shows or homes of their own I see, of course, right under my nose A fine ram show Fertile land for grazing Big enough for thousands of cattle Close to the harbor Everything's ideal And I hadn't even thought of it But you have now See, with your help Caridamia And I shall buy the rancher Los Cerritos From your brothers and sisters And on it I shall build a most beautiful home For you If you own a car You probably have insurance on it So that if it should be stolen Your loss would be repaid by the insurance company When you buy a home Title insurance is just as necessary Because here, too, you run the risk of serious loss If your title is ever proved invalid Perhaps because of some illegal sale Or transfer long ago You can lose your home Now, obviously, you may have neither the time Nor the required experience To examine your own title But you can buy the service of experts To do this for you When you get title insurance From the title insurance and trust company Of Los Angeles The company will not only do this work for you But it will also ensure the accuracy Of its findings It also protects you against many common Off-the-record defects Not revealed by the public records And any loss or legal expense That you may suffer ever Because of any one of these defects Will be repaid by the company Up to the full amount of the policy Title insurance is the only safe And sound protection Of your investment in land And title insurance and trust company Of Los Angeles Provides this protection At rates so moderate That no property owner Can afford to be without it Learn how inexpensively You can obtain title insurance For your property For $275 a piece To each of the 12 children Of Dona Manuela Nieto de Cota Don Juan Temple purchased The great Rancho Los Cerritos Upon which today stands most Of the city of Long Beach There he built a great hacienda Now, he was a great cattle baron As well as merchant His interests, his investments And his affluence grew apace Soon he held a mortgage For the Mexican government's mint In Mexico City A mortgage for which he once refused $1 million cash His ventures in Los Angeles Were to make him famous, too For in 1858, at Main and Temple streets Was completed a great building A building built by Don Juan And called the Temple Block But at first, this venture was a failure Because... But George, what's wrong? Why won't you rent space? Well, Johnny, it's a mighty fine building Best in these parts, no doubt about that Well, I... I don't know... Now, wait a minute There must be some reason You say it's fine But you don't want to rent space for a store You say it's the best building in Los Angeles But you're gonna stay where you are Now what's the matter? Am I asking too high rent? Oh, no Your rent's mighty reasonable Considering how new and fine everything is No, it ain't rent And what in heaven's name is it? Oh, nothing, Johnny It's fine But you won't rent I don't understand Here, I build what I think Will be the show place of Los Angeles And nobody, nobody will rent it And won't even tell me what's wrong You really want to know, Johnny Would I be asking you if I didn't want to know? Well, just take a look at the door Yeah? Well, what's wrong with it? It's a perfectly good door Oh, yes But look what leads up to it You mean the steps? Yep, that's it, Johnny Steps Why couldn't you have built your stores Flush with the streets? Why did you have to raise them up And put steps up to the door? Well, why not? It's more artistic Looks better No, but you'd starved to death In those stores Starved to death? Sure, you know You ran a store once People won't climb stairs to buy, Johnny No, sorry They just won't climb stairs As long as they feel that way And as long as you got stairs on your stores I'll stay where I am The defect remedied John Temple's building prospered And in spite of the shaky start as a builder He completed an even larger project the next year In 1859 This was the first Los Angeles courthouse A landmark for many years It was an unusual building for the Los Angles Of that day in many respects For instance, it had a high tower With a huge four-sided clock It was such a local landmark Sir, here you are I just stepped right up here I've got a real bargain to show you, sir What are you selling, young man? I just arrived in your fair city From the mighty Metropolis of the East And I brought with me the latest in timepieces Now right here's a lovely old Genuine silver-plated pocket watch As fine As fine little crock As ever was offered for only $3 Now, it's a special bargain to you, sir I'll give it to you for only... A watch, you say, young man? Never mind giving me a bargain It won't do you no good Well, yes, but my dear man No one can afford to be without a watch Temperature does feel good Time is precious, you know How long you've been in this town, young fella? I just arrived this morning, sir You're my first customer And that's why I'm willing to pop With this jewel of a timepiece for only... Well, sonny, you picked the wrong town Take a look up there Huh? Well, see that there, clock on the tower there? Oh, well, it's got four faces You can see it from a mile outside of town From any direction Nobody in this town keeps a watch They don't need them You'd better catch the next boat out You expect to make your living Selling them chronometers Although the lower floor of the temple block Was given over to a great city market The upstairs soon took on importance in the city life The courtrooms of the United States District Judges Took up a part of the upstairs And the other half became The first theater in Los Angeles Great was the excitement when, in November of 1860 The company of Stark and Rider Imported all the way from San Francisco Inaugurated the new stage No more will you be pursued By this vile villain, little Nell For I, true blue herald, will protect you And virtue is triumphant, once again The man might get loose But he's not safe with a man like that around Oh, but Mark, it's only play acting He ain't really a villain Oh, don't tell me I saw him with my own eyes And he must be a bad man to play that part so well And besides George Smith I saw you making sheep's eyes at that That painted hussy on the stage Come on, you're going home right now John Campbell introduced the first theater in Los Angeles And was a leader in bringing other cultural advantages And civic improvements to the fast growing little town Early he'd been instrumental in founding a library association And acted as its first president He had planted the first trees on downtown streets Around his temple block Late in 1860, he put in the first brick sidewalk A vast improvement over the rickety wooden ones in use But he made one mistake For one day, the following summer John Campbell Don't sling that Spanish at me I'm going to sue you What, sue me? Oh, what for George? What have I ever done to you? This Now lookie here, just look at my shoes They're ruined And I'm going to sue you for a new pair What in the world do you have on them? It's that black pitch, that tar Where'd you get it? Well, I got to do it Where'd I get it? From off in your sidewalks, that's where You covered your bricks with that dad-blasted La Brea tar And now in the heat of the day Well, look, look out the window Just take a look at them Well, what in the world? Yeah, just look at them Look at the people practically wading through that soft tar Well, they're worse than the old mud sidewalks I didn't think about the hot sun No, well, you had better do something about it pretty quick Or you're going to have to buy everybody in town A new pair of shoes In spite of an occasional embarrassing moment John Temple Sir Main Street The aging pioneer was honored By having the thoroughfare named Temple Street The name it still bears But now, old Don Juan was not young anymore And the cares of business weighed heavy upon him So it was that in 1866 He gave directions to his business agent Don Inacio Garcia Welcome to Rancho Los Ritos, Don Inacio Garcia's Don Juan You have a nice trip down See, it is always pleasant to come down here To this beautiful Rancho I don't blame you for staying here most of the time Yes, I know what you mean But that's what I called you down here for I'm not going to stay here anymore Not stay here anymore You're coming into town? No, I'm going to sell out my Amiga Leave Don Juan, you don't mean that You're not going to leave California But why? Where will you go? What are you thinking? I know, I know It was a hard decision to make But I've made it You see, I've made my pile I'm comfortably fixed If I sell the Rancho Pull up stakes My family and I can travel See the world But where? Where will you go? Oh, Paris maybe You know, we went over there a while back My wife lights it And my daughter found a handsome gentleman over there So maybe Paris My Amigo, but surely you will come back I don't know That remains to be seen But I'll keep in touch with you You will still handle my business All except Los Ritos here And what about the Rancho? I'm going to sell I've talked to a couple of fellas Flint, Bixby and company that call themselves And they've offered me $20,000 in gold Caramba, that is a good price See, especially since things Have been going badly here for some time Drought, taxes and everything I'll be glad to get out from under That is a very good price I wonder why they pay that much In these times They're willing too for a reason Dona Nacio There's going to be a change here soon Change? Oh, yeah, it's coming These men aren't thinking of Los Ritos As a cattle rancher They're going to raise sheep Sheep? Yeah They'll make a go of it too They're going to raise sheep On a southern California rancher I know it'll offend the cattlemen But it'll save the rancheros You wait and see Why don't you stay and raise sheep? Oh, no, me neither I'll leave that to the others I'm going to relax a little now Enjoy life a little No This is goodbye to California For John Temple But John Temple never did say goodbye to California For he only had time to sell the rancho He settled up his affairs And traveled as far as San Francisco Before death caught up with him late in 1866 Thus ended a life which meant much To the early growth of our Southland A pioneer whose enterprise Spelled progress for the community Such is the romance of the ranchos In California's early days Land was bought and sold Traded and mortgaged much as it is today But the total volume of such transactions Naturally was much less The customary procedure Before modern title insurance service was available Was to have some confident person Make a search of all the available public records And make a report, which was called an abstract This abstract was then passed upon by an attorney And the deal was closed If, in his opinion, the title was sound The purchaser, however, had no insurance To protect him against loss In the event that some document Might have been accidentally overlooked Or incorrectly construed Today, such insurance is available From the title insurance and trust company of Los Angeles And because of the efficiency Of its hundreds of trained employees Both the search of the records And the insurance of the accuracy Of the complete title examination Cost modern landowners much less Than partial protection did in the early days And now, Frank, what's the story for next week? Next week, we're going to trace The history of a romantic tract of land Which houses a great part of Hollywood In Los Angeles today The Rancho La Brea, which was owned by A colorful pioneer of the Southland Major Henry Hancock It's a dramatic story which goes back Clear to prehistoric times For on the Rancho are the La Brea pits From which many valuable prehistoric relics Have been taken, be sure to hear And now, this is your wandering Vaquero Frank Graham saying Hasta la vista, señoras y señores The romance of the Ranchos A presentation of the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles Featuring Frank Graham as the wandering Vaquero is dramatized by John Dunkel And produced by Ted Bliss With special music arranged by Gaylord Carter Bob LeMond saying goodnight This is the Columbia Broadcasting System