Photographer Has Developed a Heady View of History

Spy missions, political intrigue, rock singers, movie stars, wars and the atom bomb are heady topics for a photography class at Orange Coast College.

But it’s not surprising when the instructor is Douglas Jones, a former Look Magazine photographer who tosses out tidbits such as: “There I was, drinking beer with (the late) President Kennedy” or “I looked funny as a blond, blue-eyed spy in China.”

For some he teaches, those events happened too long ago.

“Many of my students never saw a Look Magazine and weren’t even born when Kennedy was president,” said Jones of Costa Mesa, who traveled and worked in 39 countries, some during wartime, in the course of his 23 years with the pictorial publication.

But the more knowledgeable, older students “can relate to me,” Jones said, adding, “and now the younger ones are asking me questions, and I enjoy that. They feed me and I feed them. It’s like I’m getting a blood transfusion from a young healthy athlete.”

Jones, who said Kennedy “considered me a friend,” gained a measure of fame when a picture he took of the President was used on a commemorative postage stamp after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

His photo layout of the late rock star Janis Joplin--”She was electric”--and Look Magazine cover photos of Arthur Godfrey, Robert Young, Rowan and Martin, Goldie Hawn, Cary Grant and Nancy Sinatra established him as a top photographer of personalities.

Well before then, Jones had hopes of becoming a World War II fighter pilot. But a couple of plane crashes during training flights ended that dream.

He continued as a U.S. Navy photographer, spending two years photographing a super-secret military mission in China. When he returned to civilian life, he took some of the first pictures of atom bomb tests after the war, an assignment that landed him a job with Look.

Still active behind the camera, Jones spreads his time among teaching the class, shooting occasional magazine assignments and taking publicity photos for movie and television studios.

Although Jones says that “I’m a craftsman, not an artist,” his most current work involves creating colorful abstracts with his camera.

Jones also is putting some order in his task of identifying about 30,000 of his photographs, many of them unpublished. “I’m the only one who would know who or what they are,” he said, pausing to survey his cluttered apartment.

“My God,” he added, “I’ve had a busy life.”

For an 11-year-old, Heidi Giesen of Buena Park has a lot of smarts to go along with artistic talent.

Her entry in a poster contest titled “Moving Day! A Glad Day, a Sad Day” showed friends sadly waving goodby on one side and smiling new neighbors greeting them on the other side. In the middle of the drawing was a Bekins moving van.

Heidi won the $100 first prize over 40 others.

Guess who sponsored the contest.

Let’s hear it for Liane Cragnell of Garden Grove and Marilyn Moore of Placentia, who work at the Anaheim Convention Center where they found two well-filled purses that were returned to their frantic owners. One contained $540 in cash and the other had $1,000 in cash.

Honestly!

For someone who took a stroll to all 48 states in 1923, a hike down the Grand Canyon isn’t such a big deal except that Francis Raymond Line, 83, is going to walk the 17-mile round trip with his wife, Helen, 79, on their 59th wedding anniversary on May 1.

Actually, the Capistrano Beach couple started the Grand Canyon anniversary walk 11 years ago. Next year, they plan to rent the Phantom Ranch at the end of trail and host a party for friends and relatives who can make it. His first trip through the Grand Canyon took place 63 years ago.

“We keep in shape because you have to be fit to walk the canyon,” he said, pointing out that he hasn’t missed a day of walking in 16 years. “Matter of fact, I jog a half a mile to the newsstand every day.”

The Lines are so taken with hiking the canyon that they wrote a book called “Grand Canyon Love Story.” He is about to publish a book called “Foot by Foot Through the U.S.A.,” recounting the 13-month-long walk he took before his college days and before he met his wife.

“I never once slept in a hotel during the trip,” he said proudly. “I roughed it outside.”