KTLA News: "Kenneth Hahn, Tom Bradley discuss Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren" (1974)

[L. A. Supervisor, Kenneth Hahn] When the roof comes in. [No audio] [Hahn] America is better because of Earl Warren. [Reporter] How about California? [Hahn] Oh, he was the only three-time, elected governor. He was a very strong, progressive governor. And, and the state is much better for him. He was concerned with little things and big things. And he brought a nonpartisan, administration. this is when we, we used to have cross-filing in California. You know and his decisions were not really partisan.  All Republican or all Democrat. [Mayor Tom Bradley] The nation will surely miss him. [Reporters talking over each other] [Bradley, over reporters] While we remember him most for the Supreme Court decisions during his sixteen year tenure. The school desegregation cases among them being a landmark. I think that what I remember most about him, is the fact that he was a man who was cool at a time of crisis. Whether he was an attorney general or governor, or supreme court justice. But a man, most of all, who was committed to the question of compassion and concern for all people. [Hahn] Okay. [Reporter] Just, how can we remember, [Reporter] Chief Justice Earl Warren. [Reporter] So much that's being said about him. So many nice things. Ah, yet you knew him personally, ah, [Reporter] How can, how do you see we should remember the, the former Chief Justice? [Hahn] I think we should remember him as a good American. A man that had tremendous  courage. Yet a very, ah, warm person. I remember the first time I met him was in 1946. When my brother Gordon, was just elected to the legislature and I went up, with him to see the, ah, the governor. We sat in his office and talked to him. And, ah, one of the big thrills that my mother had when she was alive was that, when he was the governor, going down the street in Sacramento one day, he stopped his car. Had his highway patrol driver stop his car. And asked my mother, "Mrs. Hahn, where are you going? Can I, "take you somewhere?" And of course she was terribly impressed that when, the governor took her to the nearby, hotel where she was staying. I, every Rose Bowl game, Earl Warren came to, in Pasadena. And I'd always after the game, he'd wait for the crowd to go out. I'd go down and talk to him. Ah, when he was the Chief Justice, ah, of the United States, I went back and talked to him in the Supreme Court building. When the county built our courthouse over here. Ah, we asked him to come and turn the first shovel. You know, the ceremonial function. And he did it. and then, there was a lot of hoopla, as all public, ceremonies are. And we had a reception for him. And then I thought it would be good if the Board of Supervisors of this county would authorize, a painting for him. So, ah, after much debate on the board. I think it was a split vote. And I'm a Democrat and, and, ah, Earl Warren is a Republican. But I said, I said he's a great man and we should have a painting in the courthouse for him. Er, went through the board. Of much fighting. And the mail I got. Oh, the mail. The people were mad at him on some decision and some of them wanted to, impeach Earl Warren. And they had billboards all over the streets and, ah, Some of the right-wing people just despised him. We had a ceremony in the courthouse to unveil the picture. I recall that, an artist here from Los Angeles went back, to Washington D, while the Chief Justice sat for the painting. And the Chief Justice didn't like the, the eyes or the nose. So they did the painting all over again and then we had a nice ceremony here in the courthouse. To unveil the, ah, picture. And he was always so gracious when you did something nice for him. He was always so gracious. And thanked you for it, and, I, I look back and say that, ah, he was an example to young people going into office. I remember, I was only twenty six when I first, ah, met him. And I wasn't in office then. And he told me, he says, "You ought to run for office." He spoke to the graduation class at Pepperdine College. When I graduated, he was the graduation speaker. Always remember his, his, not the words he said, but, ah, he was wise enough to know that for graduates, he better only speak ten minutes. And I remember that his speech was was ten minutes in length. And which, and you remember the person. Ah, but he encouraged a lot of young people, to get into politics. And, ah, he's a great example, to the, to the young people today. That a man can be a district attorney of his, county. The attorney general of a state. Three times governor. He ran for vice president with Tom Dewey. And then appointed by President Eisenhower to be the Chief Justice of the United States. He corrected me once. It was interesting how he  corrected me publicly. I was introducing, him to the court officials when we unveiled the picture. And I said I'd like to present, ah, ah, the Honorable Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. And I thought that was the proper title. And everybody clapped for him. Then he, afterwards he came and set beside me. He, he said to me, he says, "Kenneth," [Unintelligible] "I'm not the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. I'm the Chief Justice of the United States. And that was the first time I knew that was the, official title that he had. [No audio] [Reporters, background noise] [Bradley] I was deeply saddened by the death of Chief Justice Earl Warren. He was a man whose very life was intertwined with the whole quest for justice in this country.