90 Years Ago Today: Los Angeles Railway Rolls Out “Information Men” Public Service

The December 5, 1921 issue of the Los Angeles Railway employee newsmagazine posed the question: “How would you like to be an information man?”

An article titled “Information Men Help L.A., They’ll Tell The World!” appeared in Two Bells.

Ninety years ago, Los Angeles Railway launched the “Information Men” who served as early Los Angeles’ public information officers.

The article reads as follows:

How would you like to be an information man?

Looks like a pretty interesting job judging by the attitude of George Feller in the picture above.

George is one of the five uniformed information bureaus of the Los Angeles Railway.

This additional service for the public came into being a few weeks ago and has been greatly appreciated.

At the depots and at busy corners downtown the information men are asked all sorts of questions about politics, street cars and Ford spark plugs.

An acquaintance stepped up to C.W. Jordan, the answer man at the Santa Fe depot, and casually asked Charlie, “What do you know today?”

If he had waited for Charlie to tell him everything he knew he would be there yet.

The other men who work with the slogan “I’ll tell the world” are F.A. Christy, formerly conductor of Div. Three; W.R. Boyd, former motorman of Division Four and C.D. Blakeman, formerly conductor of Division Four were motormen at Division One.

All are veterans of street car life and their long service makes them thoroughly acquainted with the city and ideal men for the information jobs.