P. M. , with in conversation, an author who will be presenting her book. Please feel free to subscribe to our newsletter. Please go online to do that. This evenings Virtual Event will end with a q a. youre interested in reporting, you can click on the purchase button to purchase at home, directly below the viewscreen, the link will redirect you to a site where you can continue your checkout process with our audiobooks and ebooks for those interested. With that let me introduce you to our interviewer and author. Janice is an awardwinning journalist and producer at npr. She began her career as an entertainment digital curator and over the past five years she has shifted to audio sharing narratives about communities of color. During her time as radio producer she had Language Access and culture and humanize her stories and her work has been featured in the new yorktimes , nprs post it, and more. Our author tonight is eric nusbaum. He is a former Sports Editor device and in addition his work on sports, history and culture has appeared in espn magazine, sports illustrated, outside, the daily beast, dustbin and best american sportswriting anthology. Eric was born and raised in la and he has been many hours of attending games at Dodger Stadium and sitting in traffic to reach those games as many of us have. They are here tonight to present erics book stealing home so id like to turn it over to them and when we get to the q and a section ill let you know so please enjoy it, janice, eric, please enjoy. Okay eric. A janice, hows it going . You are muted. [inaudible] its a really good feeling. I remember when the first box came to the door and opening it up and seeing the actual book in hardcover. It was surreal. Thats the book behind you. It should be busy. So im going to go over these quick intros about you but i just want what about your career and how it all came togetherfor you to write the book. This book was in my head before i even had a career. I was a High School Student and a man named Frank Wilkinson who was one of the central figures in the book spoke to my us history class at culver high and he told the story of his life. And he was a housing official for the city of los angeles who was kind of dramatically blacklisted from 1962 for his secret membership in the communist party. And the reason he was outed as a communist is he was trying to develop a Public Housing project in the land where dodgers stadium now sits. And his story kinda began with this phrase dodgers stadium should not exist and i was the kid who loved baseball and that was shocking to me. And it always stuck with me, the power of that story and as i grew up and became a journalist and a writer, i never really let it go. And i think on some level ive wanted to kind of had my contribution to the story of dodgers stadium and the communities that preceded it that whole time. When you heard that phrase dodgers stadium should not exist , thats one thing to know but to realize that historybehind it. He gave us a very brief rundown and if you read the book, you will see that he was a very true believer in Public Housing. He was dodgers stadium should not exist because private stadiums should be part of something called allegiance apartheid which would have been this grand Housing Project. He didnt get into the community too much and as i learned more about them, i came to have a much deeper understanding of kind of the real tragedy in the story which is that families lost their homes and ultimately land sold by the government to a private businessman and that, theres a lot of drama and ins and outs and how that happened but thats kind of what happened. We had conversations earlier and we talked about. [inaudible] i guess the decision for you not just to make it into anarticle but to make it into a book, what was the decision like for you . Part of it was that i dont think i could have fit everything into an article. I really wanted to tell the story as completely as i could. Within reason and within a single volume. I wanted to kind of unspool the fred as long as it could be and when yourewriting a Magazine Article , even along Magazine Article, a feature cover story type article, they really are, they have a certain length and a certain kind of focus, usually one or two subjects and if you go beyond that it can be confusing and it doesnt do the subjects justice and i knew that the subject of this book really needed kind of a, they needed a longer telling on the page but also more time and more research to be told right. And as a journalist, you only have so much time to get your next story and hit your deadline and i couldnt have done enough work as a reporter and researcher to turn this into a magazine story. And going from there and hearing how, in the book theres a lot of history whether its about baseball, mexico, the us in general and also you talk a lot about the historical tension. But you also write about people in different chapters. What are the people involved in the bigger story but specifically the book is focused in on two characters, anna and Frank Wilkinson, how that decision, not for you and kind of focus in on their stories. When i first started i didnt quite have that specific of a focus. I had a broader kind of idea, vision for the book probably. But on one level, as storyteller you have the best way to tell a story is through peoples lives, these few individuals and something about those two lives in particular really stuck out to me. She was just a really remarkable person who live a life that in many ways was pretty normal. She was a mother and grandmother. She worked hard and took care of her family. She was an immigrant but she also and the kind of rubbing up against these big historical forces that kind of lame her life around and theres something about her thats kind of cost or two resists those forces in a way that other people didnt and not because they couldnt or didnt want to, whatever it was. Theres Something Different about her personality that drew me in and when you hear about the story of Dodger Stadium you often see the images of family getting evicted from their house and i was curious what was it about this family and their journey that led them to be violently evicted sheriffs deputies where that didnt happen to most of their neighbors. And it was frank. So frank was really the inspiration, the book in many ways, he was the person who put the story in my head. He was also just a fascinating character. He lived a life that felt like something out of a movie. He was bit by a coyote as the child. He traveled europe in the 30s. He went from being a conservative methodist you in Beverly Hills to beinga radical communist. He had multiple second acts in his career. He ended up kind of after the book is over he goes to jail, federal prison. A process that happened in the Unamerican Activities Committee and frank, he just was a handful and also he was somebody whos kind of ambition and career were similar, i dont know, thrown into chaos by forces beyond his control and i was curious about that. When you were in the book going through it and devouring it, i could see their almost parallel lives in a way. Theres still a part but also you have scenes in the book where you take one person in another year into that moment where there are intersections that happened. [inaudible] i knew early on that the book was going to center on this sort of Inflection Point where their lives meet and i was going to be in 1949, 50 when Housing Authority is evicting people from where or got a so to build legion park heights. I knew that was going to be the place where they met and then i knew that their lives were going to go in Different Directions after that. So a lot of the work of the book was getting their timelines down, being where they were and what they were doing and what the focus is on and then be balancing how to tell the stories in a way that you cared enough to get the both of them with the understanding they would eventually have this sort of tragic meeting, i guess. And i think its fascinating about the history. [inaudible] it was not very difficult in that it was impossible. Some members of her family wanted to speak about her and some people in the community wanted to speak about her and some didnt. I dont think i reached out every singleperson. I know i didnt, there was too many. Its a testament to her that she was a memorable person who kind of left his impression on those who knew her. Including her grandchildren, some of whom were gracious enough to speak with me. My background is more a reporter and it is a historian doing that stuff is probably more natural than going to an archetype for me but its still, im an outsider. And her family were really mistreated by reporters, in the 50s when this wasall happening. So i think if there was this traffic ithink it was pretty justified. And when we were speaking to family members and Even Community members , did you sense that that change came back as they were telling their stories or even specifically that era, that legacy of throughout their generation. I think so. I think even for people who have a more forgive and forget attitude there still tame, if you lose your home and your family loses their home, thats painful. For some people its really visible and later, theres still really hurt over it. There was not a lot of mens made by anybody. For what happened to these communities and the experience of being sort of mistreated by governments and by business and then having to get on with your life, without the community that you built, that you love is really a heavy experience and ive never experienced it myself so i cant see to the specificity of their pain but when you go through Something Like that, it doesnt just go away. And also, youve spoken to grandchildren, all the greatgrandchildren. Absolutely. [inaudible] there were greatgrandchildren that were in activism over it, a group called the blues that had rendered activism and i mean, they feel it. They inherited trauma i think is the phrase that i heard. Its not. These events whether its Dodger Stadium or a Public Housing project or anything else lingering effects on thecommunity. Theres something that happened in research for this book that you were like i had no idea. [inaudible] i was struck repeatedly by how, im a member of the media but i was struck by how transparently onesided and propagandists that l. A. Times was in the 50s and a lot of the newspapers. The Chandler Family is notorious, they were notorious for using the paper as a political cudgel, but like reading the actual articles and seeing how sensationalist and blatantly untrue a lot of the stuff that they published was just advanced the political agenda of the owners, that was something that left an impression for sure. Definitely, especially as a member of the media. Im in love with the l. A. Times and i love the paper. I think the l. A. Times now is amazing but reading about the l. A. Times in the 50s and reading those articles was mind blowing. [inaudible] it was an interesting experience. One thing about this book that i love was getting the chance to speak with people about their lives and getting people to tell their story. Its hard to overstate the responsibility that i feel when nobodys sitting down with me so my favorite memories from writing the book are probably sitting in somebodys tiny room or kitchen with them andjust hearing them tell their stories. A few of the people i interviewed had passed away. And since i started writing the book and heavy as well. A guy named amelia in the book, dining ali wrote in the book and its fascinating to get to see the new product but im also grateful that i got their time and i got the chance to tell a little of their story. Usually there are any additions that are historical in the book. I remember those illustrations, do you want to tell a little bit about that . Illustrations are by a guy named adam galassi, hes a friend of mine in their incredible. I should get the book downim going to put something over to show you. So i thought about doing photos in the book. But one thing about getting photos in the book and is that you have to get the rights to put them and so some of the photos were trickier than others. You also have to pay for it as an author outofpocket if im going to be paying for photos to use in the book, i really wanted to something that was going to be special and different sort of give an impression and create more emotional residence to the reader. So i asked adam if he would kind of draw the book for me a little bit. And he did and it cannot break. Hes really excited about that, seeing the picture and also my kids like the pictures in the book. It makes it feel accessible to them. I think for me, kind of really letting you know, talking in the beginning about how everything came together to get this book. Theresone thing that stuck out to me a lot. You read that Dodger Stadium was often full of pain for so many people and how that experience from end to end of the making of this book. How that startle started and how to change anything for you . I think itself. I think its become that struggle is sort of like a question of the book. And i kind of came to believe that to struggle with that question. I love the dodgers and not as much as like i care so much about what trades they make which i do but as an institution i love the city of la and i wanted to explore that a little bit and i think if you love something its okay to be critical of it. Its not even okay, its good to do that. Its good to say i love this but its not right. You can do that with your religion or your family or the city you live in. I love la to la has a lot of problems out and i dont think anybody who lives there and tell you otherwise so if youre a fan of the team and an institution like the dodgers its okay to say this is wrong and this wasnt right. With this book is much more about the city of la this county and kind of the region of us history and it is about a Baseball Team but i think that question of whether you can love a place and have problems with it at the same time kind of extended from just being Dodger Stadium to being i guess los angeles. [inaudible] i feel like you write about los angeles in a very beautiful way but you bring to life something that happened with government and people that were affected by this. Thank you. Bringing things to the present, what could they do. [inaudible] what i would say, the dodgers are not like the guilty party in this book, this is not a book criticizing the dodgers. Its critical of the dodgers but really its about time that the failure ofgovernment more than anything else. And i think the dodgers and the city of la and county government, state government, federal government, there should be an acknowledgment of what happened and that it was wrong. That would be a very basic first step. But im not a member of those communities. Im not somebody who was evicted by Eminent Domain to fill a Public Housing project only to see my housebecome a baseball stadium. So its not for me to say what they should do but i think just saying something would be a really good start. I know that. [inaudible] i think 20 years ago in the year 2000 when the dodgers were owned by fox a had a small private ceremony in a church in one canyon and they extended a little olive branch to some humanity members but it was very much like a one time deal and now, the doctors dont really talk about this. If not really on the agenda for theteam. For whatever reason. And in the making of this book i said that you had, were you able to go toplaces that you wrote about that are no longer there . Its interesting because you go to legion park or the hills around Dodger Stadium and some of the roads are still there and the little streets are still there but theyre not really the same, the construction of Dodger Stadium changed the landscape geographically of what that area was going to look like so i went to a few times the desperado picnic who people who live in the community will go every july and have a picnic at allegiance park and you talk with some of the elders there and you say where was soandso and the truth is that they can give you generally where things were but the hills are not the same. Dodgers moved hundreds and thousands of tons of dirt to rebuild the stadium. There access roads and freeway entrances and its a different looking place and different feeling place and it was then. [inaudible] did you notice they stayedaway around the area in los angeles . A lot of people moved to Lincoln Heights or Laurel Heights for just nearby areas. I think some people even while, other parts of la, long beach. It wasnt like they were banished from the country they kind of got your back into the city where everybody else was. And it wasnt the same. I think everybody would say that we went back to whatever neighborhood it was and you didnt know our neighbors and we didnt have the same sense of community we had before and i think losing the sense of community that sense of pride was one of the big losses in addition to gus physical loss the home. The loss of community, i know is something that was a big loss. [inaudible] the community was mostly evicted and kind of like 52 and 53 Housing Project was scratched. So it was empty and it sat empty for a long time except for a few families so people like kids, High Schoolers would come back on friday night to hang out in their empty neighborhood. Could you imagine doing that western markets such a strange feeling thats what it was like. I dont know. [inaudible] i think they were entertained and enjoy the book first of all and that they come away with some slightly maybe the per understanding of this story and las history and a sense of how people and institutions around us interact and how you know, kind of power works in cities and that was sort of a revelation for me when i was writing it or sure to see how things that seemed infamous can become intimate,basically. You talked before about how this book has a story specifically even though its more than 50 years ago, its still happening in all those countries. Absolutely, its going on in la right now and its different but there is still communities being affected either construction of sports stadiums. Theres still displacement, still gentrification. Its not a totally old story. Welcome back. I was here the whole time, dont worry. So were going to transition into our q a session. Which i will ask some of the questions and then janice will ask any followups that you see that might be interesting. Being as youll were just talking about the continued effects of things like this with inglewood and planned areas that are affected by these kind ofconstruction things , its one of the better questions we have here is you see similarities, this is from romano crews and hes asked, do you see similarities with gentrification in los angeles now and the displacement of folks in the chavez regime then. Yes, i dont think its the same. That was a specific circumstances that led to that displacement but i think if you look at the underlying dynamics where you have powerful people deciding what should happen to the land of less powerful people and wealthy people deciding what should happen to the land of four people, thats very much happening. Thats happening in inglewood right now. It just depends how you look at itbut my question , my answer is yes. And patrick uni commented on that particular question. Do you know if Frank Wilkinson ever quoteunquote did anything about his fbi file . Actually sued to get his file. Frank wilkinson and i didnt say this, he was tailed by the fbi for decades is not 100 percent, i cant prove this but my understanding is his fbi tail was kind to the communist Party Membership through the la Real Estate Interests who wanted his career to get ruined. And he found this out much later. He said the fbi in the 80s for his file and thats when he found out that he had been tail or decades. He didnt know until he was already an older man. He had an fbi agent on him his entire life. Come to find out thats pretty soft. The next highest question is from cheryl like her. She asked since the book has been released have you heard anything of the Dodger Organization about this mark know. Nothing at all. Also, i mean, theres no baseball right now to so who knows, the dodgers might be too distracted to comment on the book. But i havent heard anything from the dodgers. Want some of the owners at the pop on . Theres definitely a couple on here i think you mentioned during the course of it talking about you know, the emotions, all the people youve interviewed. You talk about that definitely still dealing the echoes of what has happened to the families over those generations. But andrew a asks when the dodgers came to los angeles almost immediately, i needed him the spanish voice of the dodgers read was the scene as a representation of Hispanic Community during the early years afforded the battle of the chavez regime overshadow his presence and where there. Cutoff and picked up again. How did the chavez regime overshadow and werethere hispanic Fernando Valenzuela joined the team . The one thing about the dodgers is that i dont think they came to town with the impression of just pissing off every mexicanamerican mexican person in la at the time. Was not their goal. Their goal was to be an inclusive franchise. And one of the ideals omalley talk about in the book is you wanted to be a stadium for everybody you wanted to be affordable which it was really you want to place women comfortable coming to games because that was not always the case and its the old and in other majorleague parts. And if you wanted to reach diverse audiences so be in starting and 59, to broadcast gains in spanish and i think that people listen. I dont know how how many, i dont have the ratings but i need has been employed sense by the dodgers, he still calling games and so the fernando question. I think that theres always this theory that everybody in east la hated the dodgers until Fernando Valenzuela came but im not sure if thats totally true. I cant imagine that there were no hispanic dodger fans before 1981. I think that fernando increase the dodgers ability in latin america a lot. In the communities in la and also among non white, almost among everybody. Fernando balance with was truly universal and his appeal went beyond any one group. You also write a book about, i didnt know much about baseball or how was, but that was interesting in that phase, how someone. [inaudible] especially northern mexico. Baseball remains extremely popular and it was popular all throughout this kind even though we say its the american sport, the National Pastime baseball has a long history obviously in other countries. In cuba and japan and mexico and the dominican republic. The only professionalbaseball being played right now is in taiwan and korea. Im covering some other things that you had already talked about but sorry. Ward asked if you interview anyone from the omalley family for comments or information on this book . I was really fortunate that the omalley family allowed me access to walter omalleys papers and his files from when he was moving to la and kind of planning the stadium. Omalley granted me and it was such detail in writing the book, im thankful to them for that because i wasnt really aware of what a kind of visionarywalter omalley was. Kind of how you conceive baseball as a spectator sport. I think now about baseball stadiums that have all these different entertainment things and then dodgers might seem old in that context but he was the first person to really see baseball as this familyfriendly, kind of experience. He spoke with walt disney about how to build a ideal experience in Dodger Stadium, thats the kind of level he was thinking on when it came to this way and getting to dive into his little notes and index cards, was just, it was great. It was helpful in assembling the last part of the book and also as a baseball fan and as aperson who loves Dodger Stadium im thrilled to see where it came from. Thats pretty amazing. Now we dont have time for a few more questions. I guess this one, you see any evidence from mike sean, any linkages between the destruction of the chavez regime bunker hill . Sure. These historical ones, im going to get kind of nerdy. Their products, sort of like the theorists will say that both part of the same kind of general project with la which is creating a centralized downtown that was more corporate friendly and less worried about people. Bunker hill was a neighborhood in downtown got raised to make way for hospitals pretty much area the pavilion, stuff like that i guess theres an la audience, idont have to tell you that. These are the same forces that play that caused both these things and even if you think about Public Housing, one of the reasons that Frank Wilkinson and his allies wanted Public Housing in those communities was because they were going to need to find something to do with the people who live in bunkerhill. Was part of theconversation. So the kind of questions of housing and Corporate Development and where four people got to live in la at this time were really up in the air. And whether or not you were a quote unquote progressive or you were a quote unquote conservative, Business Leader who wanted private development, you were probably talking about displacing people and kind of rebuilding the city physically to your own vision for what it should be. For Dodger Stadium, thats what happened and with bunker hill thats what happened and had been on a certainlevel thats what would have happened. Tommy stanton asks you illustrate the links between transcendentalism into baseball in the book. The history of metrics also havephilosophical roots . I dont know if it has actual philosophical roots, you have to ask Priscilla James to see what he was reading when he came up with these metric steps. I will say though that plenty of ancient mystical groups found meeting in numbers. And in you know, baseball people are doing that in their own way too. Numerology just in a different way. Ive got two more questions. Lets see. Amy warner says as a culver city teacher i am proud you are a graduate of w hcs, which Elementary School did you attend and did you start writing spanish at el marino . I started studying spanish when the Immersion Program in culver city was there and i moved to el marino. But that answers those questions. Thanks for being here. That is cool. One last question, this is pretty hardhitting. So its a good one to end on red after the dodger dog what is your favorite alltime concession item at Dodger Stadium . This is going to be really not like a good answer i have 2 red one is the chocolate malt red malt is the best thing Dodger Stadium when they have them come in and out of style. Also unlike a soccer for the carls jr. Dodger stadium but i used to love going up to the reserve level getting, i dont know why. Sitting there and eating those college carls jr. s were great one year they had thinka Dodger Stadium that was great. Tim, i hope that answers your question. What little time do we have for the q a part. Dennis, ill turn it back over to you if you have any finalthoughts or final questions you might want to ask. I have one last question, when it came to writing the book, i note you talk a lot about carl, can you tell us a little bit about community, but also acknowledging that there are more than one. The True Community is that we now politely collectively called the chavez regime. I too, thats where i got a and she wasnt her family wouldhave made part of the book. Also it was the Biggest Community of the three. It was the most developed. It like most like a normal la neighborhood probably area but there were all three unique places and vibrant places and theres a really famous quote unquote book called chavez regime 1949 by john nor mark that came out the book called chavez regime but the photos are almost all , if you want to get a look at what llama look. That would be a way to do it read the cover photo on my book , we had pointed the right way. That was also from llama. So there are three communities, i have somebody else write a lowlevel or a bishop. Maybe i will, i dont know but they all deserve to have their stories told. And using images of the final day mark. This is the picture around you can see video of the family unfortunately. ,i want to thank you so very much. For doing this and for being a part of our first patrol, it was fantastic. Thank you for having us, this has been great. I appreciate that. Thanks for chatting, thanks everybody came to watch to you. Definitely, thank youfor everyone that attended. We did have, just so you know there was a couple of questions about your reading excerptsfrom it but i thought it was a little late in the game that. So thats the wrapup on my commendation for going home by eric nusbaum. We appreciate your support and if you are interested in persons in the book make sure you lick on that purchase stealing home button right there. That will take you to our website where you will be able to purchase it and get it sent over. Were also, we have a bunch of different ways to order things. So for regular updates on our events you can make sure to follow us at the podcast here. That way you will know for all the future Virtual Event thatwill be happening. So this will also be available to watch afterwards. I think you can find it there and if you have any parts if you want to relive. So again, i you guys so much and on behalf of roman bookstore i want to tell you we appreciate it. A bestseller and awardwinning books beginning at 8 pm eastern author eric larson discusses the splendid and vile looks at Prime Minister Winston Churchills leadership during the london blitz. Then James Patterson and his latest book on the politics of the kennedy family. Later, the announcement of the 20 20 Anthony Lucas prize , the winner announced during this Virtual Event with kerry greenwich and her book black radical and alex, which is an american summer. Watch tv tonight and over the weekend on cspan2. The president from Public Affairs available on the book. Presents biographies of every president organized by their writing by noted historian, from best to worst. Features perspectives into the lives of our nations keep executives and leadership styles. 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