Venice Vanguard

On June 17, 1907, C.B. Irvine and Judge William A. Rennie published the first edition of the Venice Vanguard.^[1] Irvine was soon bought out.^[2] In January 1910, Rennie was appointed justice of the peace of Ballona Township.^[3] He also served as a city recorder for Venice.^[4] Around that time his sons, Robert H. Rennie and Walter W. Rennie, joined the firm.^[5]

Rennie was secretary of the good Government League in Venice but resigned to run for office.^[6] In 1912, Rennie ran for state assembly as a Progressive but dropped out of the race.^[4] Rennie served five terms as vice president of the Southern California Editorial Association. In 1919, Rennie died of Spanish influenza.^[7][8]

In 1920, George W. Tompkins acquired the paper from the Rennie family.^[9] In 1922, F.W. Kellogg and Edward A. Dickson acquired the business.^[10][11] In 1928, Kellogg sold his newspaper chain to Ira C. Copley, owner of Copley Press.^[12] The Vanguard was a daily until 1941 due to newsprint shortages caused by World War II.^[13]

In 1947, Ira C. Copley died.^[14] In 1949, the paper resumed daily publication.^[13] In 1969, James S. Copley announced the sale of the Vanguard, Culver City Star-News and Westchester Star-News to Edwin W. Dean Jr., publisher of the Inglewood Daily News.^[15][16] In November 1976, a former Culver City mayor filed a $3 million libel suit against Dean Jr. and a former city councilmember.^[17] In January 1977, R.D. Funk, owner of United Western Newspapers, acquired the Vanguard and merged it into the Venice-Marina News.^[18]

In 1907, newspaper published an article, later termed an "allegory," a take-off of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, and meant to be amusing, which mentioned Abbot Kinney, the founder of Venice, and W.H. Anderson. A court held the reference to be libelous but levied only a small sum, $750, as recompense, to be paid by Kinney to Anderson.^{[19][20][21][22]}

Alva A. Layne, owner of the Ocean Park Journal, sought $5,000 in damages.^[23] More than a hundred thousand dollars had been sought in the five suits filed.^[24] The trial was a lengthy one, but the jury deliberated for only sixteen minutes.^[25][26]

In October 1910, Vanguard owner W.A. Rennie sued Raymond Wayman of the Wilmington Journal, alleging libel and asking $50,000 in damages. He claimed that the Journal, in an article headlined "The Squealing of a Rat," had called him a "cheap little squirt" who "stole editorials," a "lovely ass," and a "long-tailed sewer rat." He said the article painted him as "out of sympathy" with the families of the victims of the Los Angeles Times bombing.^[27]