Ex-Mayor Bradley Recovering in Cardiac Unit

Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who led the city for an unprecedented five terms, was in fair condition and “resting comfortably” at a Hollywood hospital after suffering a heart attack earlier in the week, doctors said Saturday.

Bradley, 78 years old and still working as an attorney in private practice, had no history of health trouble.

“He is responding well to medication. His vital signs are stable and within normal limitations. He is presently resting comfortably,” Dr. Fred Alexander, Bradley’s physician, said at the Kaiser Permanente hospital on Sunset Boulevard. Alexander declined to characterize the heart attack, saying that all should be treated as “a serious event.”

Alexander was hopeful for a good recovery and said there are no plans for cardiac surgery or for artery-clearing angioplasty. The 6-foot-4 Bradley, a UCLA track star and Los Angeles police officer in his younger days, exercised daily until suffering chest pains Wednesday night while driving in an automobile, officials said.

Details remain sketchy, but sheriff’s deputies and friends said Bradley stopped at a McDonald’s restaurant in Norwalk to telephone for help. Paramedics took him to Coast Plaza Medical Center in Norwalk. He was transferred Thursday to Kaiser’s regional center for heart patients.

The news of Bradley’s illness elicited sympathy from many quarters of the city he helped to shape. The sweep of his career--a sharecropper’s son from Texas who became one of the nation’s most prominent African American leaders--still has an emotional hold on Angelenos, despite the 1992 riots and ethics investigations in the final of his five terms in City Hall.

“This is sad news,” Mayor Richard Riordan said through a spokeswoman Saturday. “My thoughts are with him and all Angelenos should be praying for his speedy recovery.”

Riordan and Bradley were together Wednesday at a ceremony for the 1996 Olympic torch’s journey though Southern California. The event recalled the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a golden time of Bradley’s mayoralty.

“Obviously, he is well respected for his 50 years of service to the city of Los Angeles,” said City Council President John Ferraro, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Bradley in 1985 but has remained good friends with him. “Needless to say, we wish him a speedy recovery,” said Ferraro, who has had two open heart surgeries.

Doctors on Saturday reported that Bradley was sitting up in bed in a private room at Kaiser’s cardiac care unit and was alert and able to converse. Although Alexander said he expected Bradley to start walking soon, the physician would not speculate about a discharge date. “We don’t want to send him home until he is totally stable and, on the other hand, we don’t want to keep him longer than necessary,” Alexander said.

At Bradley’s request, only his family members are being allowed to visit him. He and his wife, Ethel, have two daughters. Mrs. Bradley could not be reached for comment.

After being the first African American elected to the City Council, Bradley won the mayoralty in 1973 and was succeeded two years ago by Richard Riordan. In 1982, Bradley came within 52,295 votes of becoming the first black governor of California. Four years later, he lost the governor’s race once more to George Deukmejian.

Nowadays, Bradley specializes in Asian business for the Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison law firm. A taciturn man, he only occasionally speaks out on public matters. Last year he urged support for affirmative action and criticized Riordan’s opposition to a commercial and housing development on Vermont Avenue in South Los Angeles.

In a 1994 interview, Bradley told The Times that he lost weight, slowed down and he enjoys his morning newspaper more since leaving City Hall. “It’s a joy to get up in the morning, walk out to the front yard, pick up the paper and say: ‘I don’t give a damn what’s in it,’ ” Bradley said. “I had enough exposure in 20 years to last a lifetime. If my name was never printed again it wouldn’t bother me.”