“Stand fast. Stand firm. Stand sure. Stand true.” While these words are not some of the most famous or poetic in history, they do appear on a plaque attached to an imposing bronze statue planted on a large rock on the edge of Los Angeles’ McArthur Park. It is the oft-overlooked statue of Los Angeles Times founder Gen. Harrison Gray Otis (1837-1917), identified as “Soldier, Journalist, Friend of Freedom.” The statue was done by Paul Troubetskoy in 1920 and shows the general with a Teddy Roosevelt-style hat pointing firmly toward something (the future, perhaps). Beneath that statue on a smaller, flatter rock, is a boy in proportionate size, with a cap, bag and knickers in the tradition of the “newsies,” holding out a newspaper in the opposite direction and yelling out something (the latest headlines, perhaps).
