Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager

Participant in plot to kill Hitler

Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, 90, thought to be the last surviving member of the inner circle of plotters who attempted to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944 with a briefcase bomb, died Thursday night, the German military command said. The cause and place of his death were not announced.

The assassination attempt was carried out by Col. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. Von Boeselager was part of a group of German military officers who joined the plot and supplied explosives for the operation.

On July 20, 1944, Von Stauffenberg placed the bomb in a conference room where Hitler was meeting with his aides and military advisors. The Nazi leader survived the blast when someone moved the briefcase next to a heavy table leg, deflecting much of the explosive force.

Von Stauffenberg and many of the plotters were quickly arrested and executed in revenge killings that saw some hanged by the neck with piano wire. Though many of those rounded up by Nazi officials were tortured to give up other conspirators, Von Boeselager's name was never divulged and he was never found out.

Still, he carried a cyanide capsule with him until the end of the war in case his secret was revealed.

The Von Stauffenberg plot is the basis for the upcoming Tom Cruise movie "Valkyrie," in which the actor plays the aristocratic colonel.

James Day

Co-founded early public TV station

James Day, 89, who co-founded an early public television station and became known for his masterful interviews with well-known figures, died April 24 of respiratory failure at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. His death was announced by KQED-TV Channel 9, the San Francisco station he helped create in 1954.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Day obituary: The obituary in Saturday's California section on James Day said he co-founded an early public television station in San Francisco that merged several years later with New York's WDNT-TV. The New York station was WNDT-TV. —

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For 16 years, he was president and general manager of the station. He is credited with establishing now-standard public TV fundraising techniques such as pledge nights and televised auctions.

He also was host of a weekly program, "Kaleidoscope," on which he interviewed hundreds of famous personalities, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Aldous Huxley and Bing Crosby. After Day launched a syndicated version of the show, Cecil Smith wrote in The Times in 1974 that Day had "a kind of genius" for the televised interview.

In 1969, Day became president of National Educational Television, which was then public television's national network. When the San Francisco station merged with New York's WDNT-TV, Day served as president of the East Coast station, renamed WNET-TV Channel 13.

From 1976 to 1988, he was a professor of radio and television at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

Day was born Dec. 22, 1918, in Alameda, Calif., and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1941. He served in the Army during World War II and earned a graduate degree at Stanford University in 1951.

Mitchell Stewart

Owner of 2 local music venues

Mitchell Stewart, 48, who owned the local music venues the Vault 350 in Long Beach and the Malibu Inn in Malibu, died Sunday of an apparent heart attack at his home in Calabasas, his family announced.

After purchasing a historic 1920s bank building in downtown Long Beach for a reported $3.8 million in 2003, Stewart opened the Vault 350 the next year.

The nightclub often hosts nationally touring acts and can hold 1,500 people.

A few years ago, Stewart bought the Malibu Inn and made a key upgrade to the restaurant and nightclub by building a legitimate stage, The Times noted in 2004.

With his wife and business partner, Nurit Petri, Stewart was working on opening a jazz and blues supper club next to the Vault 350.

Born in 1959 in Louisiana and raised in Illinois, Stewart earned a bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Minnesota in 1981.

After working as a securities trader, he opened a mortgage bank in 1993 in Long Beach.

A father of four, Stewart also had a home in Malibu.

From Times Staff and Wire Reports