Beverly Hills Indian

Miss Langstaff said, "I was twelve years old in 1931. I frequently rode the bus from my parent's home in Beverly Hills to downtown Los Angeles. The yellow busses were double-deckers, and I enjoyed riding in the front seat by the windshield on the upper deck. This gave me a wonderful vantage point to view the countryside as the bus rolled along Wilshire Boulevard. Looking out at the now famous La Brea Tar Pits, I saw a wire-fenced enclosure with fields of unkempt weeds growing. I saw the black tar pit with gas bubbles coming to the surface. It was not a pretty area.

"At the corner of Rossmore and Wilshire there was a large Colonial home set back from the street by an expansive well tended grass lawn. The home had pillars out front and was a two story mansion owned by a flamboyant Native American from Oklahoma. He and his beautiful blond wife were the talk of the town. She was usually seated in a large white peacock chair. She dressed in beautiful dresses like those worn by Southern Belles in the middle nineteen hundreds. She sat in the white chair on the lawn with a red and blue macaw parrot. Many of the people who drove by had never seen such a beautiful bird before. The lady and the bird sat relaxed watching her husband who was in the middle of the intersection. He never seemed to tire of directing traffic in the daytime.

"This handsome man was so wealthy that there was no need for him to work. He was blessed with a perfect opportunity to go anyplace or engage in any activity his heart desired. As his favorite occupation he chose to direct traffic in Los Angeles. He was well built with a slightly plump body. His gray hair was short and groomed perfectly. He was clean shaven and wore a business suit. All traffic slowed down to look at him and to gaze at his beautiful wife and her bird as they sat on the lawn. It was also a pleasure just to look at the lovely colonial mansion.

"This traffic activity went on during the entire depression years but was finally halted by the Los Angeles City Council. There were many news items about the situation. Some politicians claimed that instead of helping direct traffic, the Native American was actually impeding it. Others, however, felt he was providing a valuable service to the city while also functioning as a tourist attraction. Most women enjoyed watching the man work. Men enjoyed seeing his pretty wife. As the traffic increased over the years it became too hazardous to allow the man to continue his strange hobby. The sight, however, of this stately man in the middle of a Los Angeles intersection was imprinted on my mind as a little girl who rode the bus." Miss Langstaff told me about it in 1991 sixty years after she saw the Beverly Hills Indian directing traffic."