Los Angeles Downtown News | Los Angeles Times
Twenty-three years after the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner closed, its last employee is retiring. Charles Lutz has watched over the former Hearst paper’s iconic building ever since, Richard Guzmán reports:
He’s also in charge of signing a lot of film contracts, since the building is currently mainly used for that purpose. He checks the mail, makes sure bills get paid and collects several newspapers a day, which he then sends to the San Francisco office so Hearst officials have hard copies of local news.
Lutz, Steve Lopez writes, has “seen half of Hollywood walk past his scrubby ground-floor office.” He started working at the paper in 1973 as a truck driver and stayed on in his caretaker role at Hearst’s request.
The 68-year-old doesn’t often leave his chair, Lopez writes — “The job requires so little movement that weight gain has been an occupational hazard” — but he did get up to watch Clint Eastwood direct.
I made the mistake of asking if he got permission.
“I walk in my own building,” he squealed, “and I stand behind who I want to stand behind. What are they going to do about it?”
In retirement, Lutz intends to train horses with his brother. “He will be replaced by another Hearst employee who has no ties to the Herald-Examiner,” Guzmán reports.
Comments