Endangered Navy Site Finds a TV Champion

With a black armband tied around his bulging biceps, TV personality Huell Howser graciously roams from table to table consoling the troops. He is at once an irresistible presence and a charming host, a big bear of a man with deep dimples, a Southern drawl and a huge heart.

About 800 people, mostly retired military officers and their families, have come to the Officer’s Club at the Long Beach Naval Station to dance and dine and drink champagne and bloody Marys together for the last time. With the planned closure of the once-thriving facility this month, they are saying farewell not only to a Sunday tradition but to a way of life.

Howser has come alone. He isn’t here with a film crew. He isn’t here to conduct official business. He’s come, he said, because he cares.

To many residents of Long Beach and surrounding communities, the name Huell Howser has come to mean hero. In little more than a month, the unlikely rabble-rouser has galvanized a city of 435,000 with a messianic charisma. At issue is the city’s plan to demolish 11 historic buildings on the 378-acre naval station--including classic International-style buildings designed by the late Paul Revere Williams--and millions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art recreational facilities.

Since coming to the Navy station last month to film “Visiting . . . With Huell Howser,” the broadcaster billed as “Everyone’s Favorite Visitor” has become a politician’s worst nightmare. He’s become the leading man in a civic drama that is pitting The People against The Establishment.

Now the debate has quickly moved from issues and politics to the motives of the man himself. For all the popular support Howser is receiving, he’s also been the brunt of attack. The Hollywood resident has been called a hayseed and a charlatan. He’s been reviled as an opportunist and blamed for the city’s problems.

In a letter to Howser, Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau President Linda Howell DiMario wrote that she “deeply resents the fact that someone from another city would come into our city and incite citizens to action with such complete and utter disregard” for the city’s efforts toward economic recovery.

“He’s absolutely inflamed the people and stirred up a hornet’s nest,” said Mary Barton, president of the International Business Assn.

“He’s come to rally the troops and it is not appropriate,” said Randy Gordon, president and CEO of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.

“My blood is boiling,” Howser, 47, thunders in response to such criticism. “The city officials of Long Beach are arrogant. They are looking for someone to blame.” Howser said he simply came to town to tell a story about a portion of the Navy site now known as the Roosevelt Historic District and became outraged to learn it was about to be leveled.

The ocean-side real estate is an oasis of palm and olive trees, rosebushes and manicured lawns that looks like a college campus. Facilities include a huge gymnasium and pool, and newly constructed and renovated buildings including Bachelor Officer’s Quarters.

Though city officials thought their plan to level the structures to make way for a Chinese shipping terminal were a fait accompli, many Southern Californians had never seen what the base looked like until they saw it on TV.

Howser not only showed them, he came riding back into town like a white knight to try to save the site. Overnight, he became a sensation. He appeared on local TV and at public meetings and rallies. He was the subject of newspaper columns and letters to the editor. He was granted hours of private time with the mayor and city manager.

Earlier this month, he energized a heckling crowd of 1,700 at a Navy-sponsored public hearing. The event, one of the biggest and most derisive of its kind in city history, led to demands for the recall of Mayor Beverly O’Neill.

O’Neill, a mayor who has enjoyed two years of popularity, said he’s been torn up by the level of unhappiness members have expressed since Howser came to town. She said she’s shocked that after four years of laborious reports and 15 public hearings, people still don’t seem to grasp why the city plans to level the Naval Station and lease it to the Chinese government-owned China Ocean Shipping Co.

While it might look like a cargo shed versus a children’s playground issue, it isn’t that simple, she said. The real issue is jobs in a community that can’t afford to maintain the parks it has, let alone others.

“It’s painful to see our city divided,” O’Neill said. “Huell Howser is a very popular person. He’s brought people in--and not just people from Long Beach. From all over. He’s used it for a personal cause. . . . He has the power of the media. He doesn’t really show the other side.”

Referring to Howser’s ability to marshal community interest, she added, “I don’t feel defensive. I feel frustrated I can’t do it as well as Huell can.”

Howser is seated in a quiet corner near the bar in the Officer’s Club reflecting on his sudden and unexpected plunge into politics. One minute he is the aw-shucks host of “California’s Gold,” a guy with a taste for horseradish festivals and cowboy stories, redwood trees and poppy fields, ice cream parlors and salt water taffy.

The next, he is the outraged citizen, a former Marine who says he’s mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore.

“I’m not a rabble-rouser,” he said, speaking rapidly, his voice rising. “I am an activist for California. I have made my life in California telling positive stories.

“I am a journalist. A journalist does not have to give up his citizenship. I labeled my report as ‘my opinion.’ I begged the mayor and the City Council to be on my show,” he said.

“The whole system is stacked against the average person,” he added. “I shouldn’t have to be on the defensive. I shouldn’t have to feel paranoid. People have been affected by my TV show.

“It’s like when I grew up in the South during segregation and everyone thought the problem was NBC, not segregation. The people down there said, ‘If only NBC would get out of here so our Negroes would be happy and go back and pick cotton.’ NBC went down there because there was a story.”

With a smile that could thaw his harshest critics, he added, “I’m not some radical Maoist. What dark hole has Long Beach fallen into?”

Howser grew up in the rural South in the town of Gallatin, Tenn. His father was an attorney; his mother the first woman in the county to earn a college degree. Harold and Jewell Howser took their son and daughter to plays and museums in New York and instilled in them a respect for democracy and the dignity of all people, he said.

They named their only son Huell, a combination of both their names.

Howser studied history at the University of Tennessee and once served on Sen. Howard Baker’s staff. He came to Los Angeles in 1981 to work as a reporter for KCBS-TV, and joined KCET in 1987 to produce “Videolog.”

Over the years he’s been active in numerous civic and charitable groups, and, though he has never married and has no children, is the 1996 honorary chairman of the California PTA. He says his mission is simply “to reveal the wonders of the human spirit.”

Until now, his only public crusade has been in support of public libraries. How he got a reputation as a manipulator and egomaniac is beyond him.

“We all face a point in time, an issue, that tests our belief in who we are,” he said. “I believe in the dignity of people, that every person is due our respect. I’ve never been considered an outside agitator in all my life.

“I’m not against the port expanding its container yards or trading with China. What bothers me is that the city and the port made up their minds years ago, and the people have been absolutely and totally left out. The city officials are unmoved by public opinion. It’s a complete arrogance of power. A complete abuse of power.”

A young man introduces himself to Howser in the officers club. His name is Allen Worthy, and he’s driven down to Long Beach from Sherman Oaks on his day off to see the historic Williams buildings.

“I’m devastated. I am absolutely devastated,” he tells Howser. “I had no idea all of this was here until I saw your show.”

“It’s not over yet,” Howser assures him with the famous smile. “I’ve jumped in full force, and I don’t intend to walk away.”

Ray Grabinski, a former Long Beach city councilman, said people in the community are upset by a whole slew of related issues ranging from a heated controversy over a sports complex to taxpayer-financed redevelopment projects.

Howser just happened to come along and give voice to their frustration, he said. “The issue is all about perception. People feel alienated.”

As the officers and crew begin to leave the Allen Center Club for the last time, it’s not the mayor or members of the City Council or the port commissioners who are on deck to salute them. It’s Huell Howser, the man who has become captain of the sinking ship.