C S Smith

Biography

Clifton Stanwood Smith was born in Washington Court House, Ohio on May 6, 1894, the son of Frank C. Smith and Mary Stanwood. He was raised in San Antonio, Texas, where his father was the chief engineer of the San Antonio Power & Light Company, along with other directors Collis P. Huntington and Samuel F.B. Morse. His father was also an organizer of the Memphis Power & Light Company and the Columbus (Ohio) Telephone Company. He was also a successful rancher and cattleman. His ranch stood at the confluence of the rivers which now form "Riverwalk" of San Antonio and the family home still stands in the historic district of San Antonio.

The family relocated to Riverside, California in 1910. Smith graduated as valedictorian of his class from the Peacock Military Academy in San Antonio. When the United States joined the Allies in World War I, Smith enlisted and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Air Service, Signal Corps of America, the first Air Force of the United States. He trained at March Field in Riverside along with another cadet, James Doolittle, who would gain fame for his raid on Tokyo during World War II. Smith graduated first in his class and was retained as an instructor during the rest of the war. He retired from active military duty as a Major in the Army Reserve. He then founded the Long Beach Meat Packing Company and became the concessionaire for over 70 Safeway grocery stores in Southern California. Safeway abruptly cancelled his contracts, nearly ruining him financially. During that time, he moved to Compton, one of the first suburbs of Los Angeles, which was founded in 1880. In Compton, he founded the Compton Airport and earned extra money as a barnstormer. Taking what money he could scrape together, he began what later became one of the largest supermarket chains in Southern California—Smith's Markets. He is credited as one of the first to create large, self-service supermarkets with lower prices and Sunday openings. That led him into severe price wars with the other major chains of the era—Von's, Ralphs and Thiftimart. He made a practice of locating his large markets near the much smaller and more expensive Safeways, effectively driving them out of much of Southern California for decades.

A Roosevelt "New Deal" Democrat, Smith was elected mayor of Compton in 1933. He was mayor at the time of the devastating 1933 Long Beach earthquake, which locally was known as the "Compton Earthquake." The earthquake destroyed the Compton City Hall and most of the city's schools. As mayor, Smith supervised the reconstruction of all schools in the city, the city hall and the fire stations. Many Compton schools still bear his name on their dedication plaques. As the depression worsened, he often anonymously paid the property taxes of residents in danger of losing their homes. Because of his politics and his outspoken nature, he became a lightning rod for controversy. He was a vehement anti-Communist. When the National Recovery Administration cited him for selling sugar below the controlled price, Smith joined other companies to sue the federal government seeking to declare the National Recovery Act unconstitutional. That suit was successful and Smith widely promoted the fact that the government had penalized him for "selling food too low." Smith ultimately owned and operated his own cattle ranch, dairy farms, vegetable produce wholesaler and bakery to service his markets.

He was an avid yachtsman and offshore power boat racer. In the late 1920s, he was one of about two dozen founders of the prestigious Long Beach Yacht Club, whose membership was limited to those who owned power yachts. He later became Commodore in 1941. In 1936, he purchased the "Zumbrota," the 98-foot yacht built by John Ringling of circus fame.

As mayor, a feud developed between him and Compton Chief of Police E. A. West. It reached a climax in April 1936, when Smith, who stood no more than 5'6", slammed his fist into the 6'4" West's jaw during a city council meeting, knocking him out and causing his hospitalization. This led to a well-publicized trial. Later, after fighting broke out between Communist protesters in Compton and the police department reinforced by members of the American Legion recruited by Smith, Smith and four other Compton City Councilmen were successfully recalled from office in a September special election. Smith and one ally were defeated, but his three opponents on the council were also. Their replacements comprised a majority of Smith's allies, but he never ran for political office again. Instead, he acquired a small weekly newspaper, the Compton Herald American.

Smith was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the California National Guard in 1936 by then-Governor Cuthbert Olsen. His 6th Infantry, California National Guard, was headquartered in a building that still stands on Alameda Street in Compton, not far from Smith's headquarters. The 6th Infantry was the only army unit in Los Angeles on December 7, 1941. It was nationalized ten days later and ordered to join a relief expedition to the Philippines. When that operation was cancelled, the regiment was assigned to San Francisco, where it remained during World War II guarding the Oakland Bay Bridge and Vallejo gas fields. During World War II, he was promoted to the rank of full colonel, United States Army Reserve.

Throughout, his supermarkets and newspaper chain grew rapidly. Fueled by advertising from the supermarket chain, the Herald American grew into one of the largest biweekly newspaper chains in the country. Its 13 editions on each Thursday and Sunday reached a peak circulation of 340,000 by 1966. Smith used his newspapers to elect allies and pummel opponents. His editorial support was cited by the late Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, a Democrat, as a major factor in his first supervisorial election victory. Smith also used his newspapers to support the election of Republican Compton Mayor Del Clawson to Congress. Smith remained a Democrat, but was a close personal friend of Republican Gov. Goodwin Knight. When Knight was defeated in the 1958 election, Smith became close friends with Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, who appointed him to the Sixth District Agricultural Commission which was mainly responsible for the California Museum of Science & Industry (now the California Science Center) in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, He served three terms on the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission representing the state of California. Other directors who served with him included Howard Ahmanson, founder and CEO of Home Savings & Loan, Howard Edgerton, CEO of California Federal Savings, Pierre Salinger, former press secretary to President John F. Kennedy, and industrialist George Kinsey.

After World War II, Smith bought back his yacht from the U.S. Navy, which had taken it and many others at the outbreak of the war. Smith also bid on a 148-foot converted luxury yacht, the Alabaster, which had served as a radio relay ship in the South Pacific. Smith won the bid and restored the vessel to its pre-war condition and pre-war name, the Alamo, in honor of his home town of San Antonio. He cruised on Alamo until 1960 when it was sold to a tour operator in Acapulco, Mexico. The Alamo was the largest privately owned yacht on the West Coast for many years.

In business, Smith attempted to fight the large publicly owned corporations which had bought Von's (Household Finance), Ralphs (Federated Department Stores), Kroger and others, a battle in which he was not successful. When his health began to fail in 1968, he sold the Herald American newspapers, which eventually were split between the Hearst Corporation and Meredith Publishing (Better Homes & Gardens).

Even though Smith had supported Gov. Brown against challenger Ronald Reagan in 1966, Gov. Reagan reappointed him to the Sixth District Agricultural Commission shortly before Smith's death. Smith served as a director of the powerful California Merchants & Manufacturers Association for 34 years. He was a long-time director of the Long Beach Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, a director of the City of Hope National Medical Center, a director of the National Conference of Christians & Jews, and a member of El Bekal Shrine in Long Beach. He married the former Evelyn Slade in 1951 and had two sons.

Despite his wealth and the changing demographics of Compton, Smith remained in Compton until his death on March 30, 1971.