Frank E. Wolfe

Wolfe was born Franklin Eden Wolfe on May 18, 1869, in Princeton, Illinois, to Daniel Wolfe and Arabella Reed. He completed three years of college before marrying Emma Jorgenson on Aug.

3, 1891, in New York City.

By 1902 the couple had fully embraced socialism and moved to Los Angeles, settling at a small residence at 408 Santa Monica Blvd. Wolfe quickly immersed himself in the socialist cause, initially working as a union organizer for railroad and telegraph workers.

By 1909 he was named managing editor of the Los Angeles Herald newspaper. With the Herald, he tilted its coverage toward socialist and pro-labor themes. He also directed investigative reporting of Los Angeles Mayor Arthur Harper's ties to the Southern Pacific Railroad's political machine. The newspaper uncovered graft and corruption in the mayor's office, which led to the first recall of a mayor of a large city in the United States.

Facing the recall, Harper resigned in March 1909. Wolfe's efforts to root out corruption in public office and his leftist policies in the newsroom led to his firing the same year. Wolfe bounced back by taking an editing job with the Los Angeles Municipal News.

1, 1910. The Socialist Party of Los Angeles and labor unions rallied around the brothers alleging there was a conspiracy to frame them for the crime. But the McNamaras pleaded guilty on Dec.

Wolfe joined the socialist ticket in a bid for a seat Los Angeles City Council for the 1911 election. He joined the suffragette Mila Tupper Maynard in the race among other prominent socialists seeking council seats. Fellow socialist Job Harriman was a candidate for mayor and favored to win. However, the looming Dark Cloud over the election was the trial of brothers John and James McNamara. The radical labor activists John and James McNamaras were accused of bombing the Los Angeles Times building that killed 21 people on Oct.

1, 1911, in a surprise move orchestrated by their lawyer, Clarence Darrow. Harriman, who was on the McNamara defense team, was taken by surprise by the guilty plea. Four days later Harriman lost the mayoral election along with Wolfe and other socialist candidates for city council.

Frank Wolfe was a committed socialist, filmmaker and newspaperman who directed the seminal pro-labor film "From Dusk to Dawn" in 1913. He was closely associated with the socialist movement in Los Angeles and helped Job Harriman establish the Utopian community Llano del Rio at the edge of the Mojave Desert.

Wolfe ran again for Los Angeles City Council in 1913, garnering a nomination on the socialist ticket in the May primary.

He served two terms from 1913 to 1917 and from 1921 to 1925.

Emma also joined the political fray in 1913, running for a seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education as a socialist. However, she failed to obtain enough votes to win.

Wolfe helped establish The Western Comrade magazine by 1913 with other leading West Coast socialists. On the editorial staff were Fred Wheeler, Stanley B. Wilson, Eleanor Wentworth, Mila Tupper Maynard, her husband Rezin A. Maynard, Chester M. Wright, Emanuel Haldeman-Julius and Rob Wagner. The magazine profiled celebrity socialists, including author Jack London, espoused socialist dogma and promoted the cooperative Llano del Rio. During this period, Wolfe began filming his epic socialist-themed movie "From Dusk to Dawn. " The film told the story of Daniel Grayson, an iron works molder and union activist fired by his employer as a dangerous agitator. When his friend and co-worker, Freddy Wayne, dies in an explosion at the iron works plant, Grayson runs for governor on the labor ticket to champion workers' rights and safety. The film runs over five reels at about 90 minutes and reportedly featured as many as 10,000 extras used in the mob scenes. Wolfe interspersed documentary footage with his scenes to capture the realism of the labor movement. The film's graphic scenes of poverty and violence against workers were considered groundbreaking at the time of its release. His use of the romance between Dan Grayson and Carlena Wayne, the sister of Grayson's dead friend, helped deliver a pro-labor message that appealed to the movie-going public. Clarence Darrow and Harriman appeared in the film along with other leading socialists. The film premiered at the Mozart Theater on Grand Street in Los Angeles on Oct.

19, 1913. The film opened in Chicago on Oct. 30. "From Dawn to Dusk" served as an idealized version of the McNamara case, but instead of a guilty plea that was a fatal blow to the socialist movement in Los Angeles, Grayson wins the election and as governor signs into law "right to work" legislation. Wolfe had hoped to use the infant art form of movies to deliver socialist messages to a mass audience. By employing melodrama and romance, such as the relationship between Dan Grayson and Carlena Wayne, and action, socialism could be advocated in a compelling story without a lecture.

Occidental Motion Picture Company, which had $25,000 in capital by the end of 1913, produced the film. Wolfe, was the film company's director and had on his board C. F. Walsh, Fred Siegert, J. B. Sturtevant and N. P. Moerdyke. "From Dusk to Dawn" was Wolfe's only film.

He announced that by 1915 he would open a film studio at Llano del Rio, but the effort failed as it became increasingly difficult for Llano del Rio to sustain itself as a cooperative community without an adequate water supply for the community's crops.

Although an estimated 150 families lived at Llano del Rio, the project was suspended in 1918 and relocated to Louisiana. Wolfe did not follow Llano del Rio to Louisiana.

By 1920, Frank had taken a job as a newspaper editor in Chicago.

By 1921 he was living with Emma in New Albany, Indiana. He organized with Albert M. Braddon and Joseph N. Moorehead the Motion Art Corporation with $100,000 in capital. Yet there is no documentation that the new company ever produced a film. Following the release of "From Dusk to Dawn" Frank and Emma Wolfe moved around the country.

He served as a newspaper editor in Forth Worth, Texas, for a period before moving in 1935 to Washington, D. C. , where he worked in journalism.

By 1940, the Wolfes returned to California, settling in Long Beach. Emma died in Los Angeles at the age of 74 on Feb.

16, 1940, in Los Angeles. Frank died at the age of 83 on Oct.

He came in 16th overall on the ballot with 8,772 votes. He lost in the general election. Frederick C. Wheeler was the only socialist to win a council seat.