VIEW FROM THE PIER
by
Herman Sillas
If you read the Sun Post, you know John Hall’s “Hall Around Town.” Ever wonder how he knows so much about San Clemente? I do. So, I decided to find out and arranged an afternoon meeting with John and his lovely wife Toni at the Cellar on Avenida Del Mar.
John is originally from L. A., and was Student Body President at Manual Arts High School. He lettered in baseball and basketball and made the 1946 All Southern League Basketball Team. That earned him a Stanford scholarship to play basketball. But World War II ended and the soldier athletes returned, putting John on the bench forever. He intended to be a lawyer, like his grandfather, Tom Murphine, who had been Ole Hanson’s partner and mayor of San Clemente from 1928 to 1934, but hashing at a law school fraternity changed John’s mind. The law students were so dull, he was afraid he’d grow up like them. He didn’t;John isn’t dull.
Aware of his past writings for the high school paper and the Stanford Daily, John considered a newspaper career or becoming a sociologist. A summer job on the circulation docks for the L. A. Herald started him on his long illustrious newspaper career. He recalled taking Walter Winchell’s columns to the newspaper’s attorney to check for libel. Later, John became Assistant Sports Editor for the Hollywood Citizens’ News. That put him in contact with Hollywood stars, celebrities, and professional athletes. John covered baseball games, boxing, and opening acts at Hollywood’s top night clubs. Later at the Mirror, he covered the Pacific Coast League and the boxing beat. We reminisced over some of the Coast league’s players’ like, “Broadway” Billy Schuster. Eventually, John went to the LA Times covering major sporting events along with Jim Murray. Many folks that John interviewed and covered became his friends. They are too numerous to list here in this column. But think of a name —he knew the person. In 1987 he came to San Clemente. John wrote for the Orange County Register and retired at 65 in 1993 to become consultant with the Angeles and Special Projects Director for the Orange County Sports Association.
Folks, that’s how we got him and his “Hall Around Town.” As I listened to John, I realized he’s a walking history book of a thousand behind the scene stories of an era that will never return. We talked about the future of newspapers and the impact of the internet on delivery of news into the home. He recalled when newspapers published six or seven editions a day to get the latest news to its readers. John spoke of trust between the press and news-makers and its absence today. Loyalty runs deep in John and you sense it. This quality gained him the respect of his profession and of those he knew well in the past. John now covers San Clemente events and people like an invisible fog. He has contacts to very inch of this town. He concentrates on folks that might otherwise be overlooked. Several organizations have made him an honorary member because of his loyalty to them and their events.
He’s thought about writing a book. The new generation hasn’t a clue as to how John and his generation got stories without cell phones, videos, internet, and texting messages. No one knows his stories. Sure, he told me some of them, but you won’t read about them here. He needs to tell them as only he can. Otherwise, they’ll be lost forever or some blogger will claim them later. Then it’s the blogger’s story. I’d rather hear it from John Hall who was there when the story happened. That’s the view from the pier.
***30***
(Sillas, a San Clemente resident and L.A. attorney can be found most weekend mornings fishing on the pier. He can be reached at sillasla@aol.com)
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