KTLA newsman and World War II veteran Stan Chambers, who is retiring after 63 years at the station, will be honored by the Arcadia City Council on Aug. 28 at the city’s free Patriotic Concert featuring the 1st Marine Division Band on the lawn of City Hall, 240 West Huntington Drive.
Stan Chambers
Chambers is celebrating his 87th birthday today, Aug. 11.
This year, one of the winners of the Stan Chambers Journalism Awards, an essay contest for high school seniors, was an Arcadia High School senior.
The concert continues a long Arcadia tradition of supporting and recognizing the service and sacrifices of local veterans and active duty military. Wear your red, white and blue, bring a picnic lunch and a blanket or lawn chair.
(Story continues following video highlights of the Marine band patriotic concert July 7, 2007 and second video of the Marine band swing concert at City Hall in 2008 below…)
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Get the Flash Player to see this content. . Activities for kids will start at 4 p.m., followed by a presentation to Mr. Chambers and other local veterans at 4:40 p.m. and the band performance at 5 p.m.
Stan Chambers is one of the most beloved and honored members of broadcast journalism in Southern California. Multiple generations have grown up watching him as he reported on more than 22,000 stories since 1947 including the Bel Air fires, the Baldwin Hills dam break, the Northridge earthquake, Robert Kennedy assassination, the Frank Sinatra, Jr. kidnapping, the Nevada A-bomb test, the Manson family murders, the case of the Hillside Strangler, the Rodney King beating story, coverage of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Los Angeles, and the Watts and Los Angeles Riots. Stan was also the reporter for KTLA’s annual broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade.
The story that still stands out as the defining moment of his career – and one that many Arcadians remember – is his coverage of the tragic death of three-year old Kathy Fiscus in 1949. The little girl fell down a well shaft while playing in a field in San Marino. With equipment that would now be considered primitive, Chambers and his colleague Bill Welsh provided 27.5 hours of continuous live coverage, reporting every step of the ultimately unsuccessful rescue effort.
Chambers earned several Emmy and Golden Mike Awards, the Sigma Delta Chi Broadcaster of the Year Award, the Governor’s Award from the Television Academy, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, a “star” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an L.A. Press Club Award, and from his alma mater, the USC Alumni Association Award.
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