Please join us for a webinar with two of our 2021 LACHS Scholarship recipients. Students will present their essays followed by a Q&A session. The webinar will also be recorded and published on our website.

7:00 pm
Sorry Charlie: How a Cartoon Fish Became America’s most Enduring Icon of Counterculture Capitalism - Angela Romero

Everyone knows Charlie the Tuna, the lovable and unsinkable spokesfish who is so famous for getting rejected that "Sorry, Charlie" became part of the American lexicon. Although he has come and gone on television over the last sixty years, Charlie has remained an ever-present piece of American advertising iconography; his permanent home on the cans and pouches of Star-Kist brand tuna products. Most Americans have grown up with Charlie, and they take his red hat, heavy-rimmed glasses, and Brooklyn accent at face value- that is just Charlie. However, each of those pieces of Charlie's persona gave him a precise identity, deeply rooted in the early 1960s when Charlie was created. Charlie the Tuna is both the creation of, as well as the technicolor embodiment of the intersection of three different movements that were occurring in the late 1950s and early 1960s; the youth counterculture, specifically the Beat Generation's hipsterism; advertising's creative revolution; and Star-Kist’s transition from a successful family-owned business to an international corporate powerhouse. This paper traces Charlie's pedigree from the tuna industry's origins in the early twentieth century, with its unique reliance on advertising, through Star-Kist’s ascension to one of America's top tuna brands. It ends with his launch in 1961, as a creation of the Leo Burnett agency, where Charlie will become one of the first, if not the first, counterculture capitalism icon.  

If things had gone differently in the early twentieth century, Charlie the Tuna might have been a sardine. Terminal Island, a small, mostly manmade island within the Port of Los Angeles, would be the future home of the American tuna industry; however, the first fish cannery built there in 1893 canned sardines and mackerel.

In memory of Angela Romero
It is with sadness that we announce the passing of LACHS 2021 Scholarship recipient Angela Romero on April 8, 2022. She was only 43. Angela was very involved in sharing the history of San Pedro with the community, including founding a nonprofit dedicated to establishing the San Pedro Heritage Museum. We will miss her greatly and appreciate her contributions to the Los Angeles City Historical Society.  She won her scholarship for her paper “Sorry Charlie: How a Cartoon Fish Became America’s most Enduring Icon of Counterculture Capitalism”.

7:30 pm
The Formula for a Massacre: Growing Stereotypes and Rising Tensions Towards the Chinese Community in the Late 1800s - Valeria Martinez

Old Chinatown, Los Angeles, which was the scene of Chinese riots of 1871. Photo: University of Southern California Libraries / California Historical Society 

It all started with two men fighting for possession of a woman. Ya Hit was a young and beautiful woman valued around $2,500 – the equivalent of $50,000 today – in the 1870s. Under Yo Hing's ownership, a prominent faction leader among the Chinese community in Los Angeles, Ya Hit brought decent revenue for him until she got kidnapped.  Kidnapping Ya Hit was a mistake; Yo Hing was not a man many wanted to mess with during this period. His reputation preceded him, enforcing the idea many already had of Asians, seeing them as these people who have no regard for the law, marriage, or taking matters into their own hands to deal out their punishments and associated habits with Yo Hing.  Regardless of these habits, Yo Hing issued a warrant for Ya Hit’s arrest claiming that she had stolen expensive jewelry from him and took the matter to court. However, this was a mistake in judgment on his part as Sam Yeun, leader of a rival company against Yo Hing, paid Ya Hit's bail and effectively came into possession of her. Never would Ya Hit have expected to be the spark for what would later be known as one of the bloodiest and racially charged massacres in Los Angeles’ history.

Both essays are available for download here: lacityhistory.org/scholarship

LOCATION

Webinar via Zoom

REGISTRATION

This is a free event but registration is required.

If you have questions about the event, please email us at lacityhistoryevents@gmail.com. 

About the LACHS Scholarship Program

In 2019, the Los Angeles City Historical Society implemented a program to award scholarships to outstanding history graduate students at local universities and colleges. We hope that LACHS members and friends wish to support the program by donating funds to the program.  Please note that 100% of all donations will go to students. 

The Board recognizes the critical value of the study and analysis of history to our democracy and seeks to encourage outstanding students in the field.

For more information about the LACHS Scholarship Program and to read the students’ essays, please visit lacityhistory.org/scholarship