1960 Convention Volunteer to Reprise Role

Ellen Jacobs can testify to how much things have changed since Los Angeles last hosted a major political convention in 1960.

Jacobs was picked to be a “golden girl” at the 1960 Democratic National Convention, one of the many hostesses who acted as meeters, greeters and guides for conventioneers. Jacobs, who was 31 back then, fondly recalls taking New Hampshire delegates on a tour of MGM studios, and helping to clear a passageway on the Sports Arena floor for John F. Kennedy on his way to accept the presidential nomination.

Forty years later, it’s a safe bet there won’t be any golden girls at the convention. But Jacobs will be there, a die-hard Democrat who is volunteering for the host committee once again. So far, her duties--mostly unglamorous office work--bear little resemblance to her previous assignment. She hasn’t even gotten her marching orders yet for next month’s convention. But you won’t catch her complaining.

“Everybody says, ‘Well, I’ll volunteer, but I want to be on the floor of the convention,’ ” Jacobs said. “Well, you’re not going to be on the floor of the convention. You take what you can get. But just to be involved, I think, is exciting.”

Jacobs was one of several featured guests Saturday morning at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of Kennedy’s nomination. Held at the Biltmore Hotel, which was the nerve center of the 1960 convention, the event was part nostalgia and part publicity for L.A. Convention 2000, with an underlying current of civic boosterism.

“We made history in 1960 as we set the stage for a new era in America, and in just 27 days we’ll make history again,” said Mayor Richard Riordan. “The eyes of the world will be focused on Los Angeles, and we will show them why Los Angeles is the greatest city in the world.”

There will be some major differences from last time. Several speakers Saturday pointed out how lax security was in the old days, when you could practically walk up to the candidates. Now, you’ll be lucky to get a faraway glimpse. Also, the smog was so unbearable 40 years ago that journalists got a bottle of Visine in their media packets.

Said veteran KTLA newscaster Stan Chambers, who covered the 1960 convention: “Jet planes had just gone into action in ‘59, so coast-to-coast travel was [suddenly] easier. Bunker Hill was just a hill. All of the homes had been leveled.”

Jacobs was a member of the Inglewood Democratic Club and the California Democratic Council. But she never thought of channeling her energies into a political career, she said.

“You’re talking the ‘50s and early ‘60s. I was raising children, and that’s what you did--you stayed home,” Jacobs said. “I was a housewife. And most of us were.”

Jacobs later worked at her husband’s printing business in North Hollywood before retiring last year. When the Los Angeles host committee came around soliciting volunteers several months ago, she jumped at the chance.

With this year’s nomination a foregone conclusion, the convention will lack the drama of 1960, when Kennedy battled Lyndon Johnson and Adlai Stevenson for the bid. Jacobs said she was a Stevenson supporter who was eventually won over by Kennedy.

“He had a magnetism and a charisma about him that everybody talks about, and he did,” she said. “At the convention it was like putting a hex or something on you. You just knew that this was the man who could win.”

And this year? Won’t the lack of competition take all the fun out of it?

Jacobs shook her head. “I don’t know who’s going to be vice president.”