By While 60 years leaves a lot of room for memories to fade, Ted Clucas, the first editor of the Daily 49er, which was then a biweekly publication called The Forty-Niner, had nothing but positive stories to share of his 49er days.
Clucas, 86, and his wife, Helen, 86, pieced together their memories of Cal State Long Beach in the following Q-and-A.
After he and his wife moved 18 times in the last 65 years of their marriage, had three kids and now three grandchildren, they now live a quiet life in Orange, Calif.
The Clucas’ lived in Fullerton while taking classes at what was then Los Angeles-Orange County State College. Clucas was a student, but also taught classes because he already had obtained a degree in journalism. He acted as a student adviser, instead, which he says he enjoyed compared to being a faculty member because students “were a lot more fun.”
Joanne Tucker: What did you do as the first campus paper?
Ted Clucas: We were rather new; we took what we could get into. For example, a play was put on by … what was the name of that university?
Helen Clucas: Was it Occidental?
TC: Yes, it was Occidental. She’s very helpful. … [Long Beach] did a part of … a Shakespeare play, but it was good. They did a fine job. … [Helen] was the one who went to see the students perform.
HC: Oh yeah, I remember I went over there with him to Occidental, and it was fun watching our group from Long Beach State — although it was called Orange County State College then — perform, and they did well. … You also had those little parties.
TC: We had our own parties. … I had a lot more fun there than I had at any regular college.
HC: One of the fantastic things too about his going there, is his entire expense for enrolling and for classes was $15, so we could afford that. … Of course, very soon, during the year it was raised, I think, so the next semester it was a little higher, I believe.
TC: Something like $40 or $50 — some outrageous sum.
JT: What did you do as an editor?
TC: On occasion I certainly had to do certain things I hadn’t expected to do. For example, [stories] didn’t come through properly. Some of them were not too thorough. But, everything came well. It was a wonderful bunch to work with; I’ve never had a better bunch to work with. … Obviously, there was a lot of digging that had to be done — 60 years ago is a long way to remember specific details — but we did have [technology as a] problem. And I can’t remember that any of [the stories] caused any serious problems among them.
JT: Do you remember news coverage at the time?
TC: No, frankly no. We were not that much of an affair at the time. As a matter of fact, we were having a terrible time figuring out what we should be doing. … It was an easy job. We didn’t come out as quickly as you do [now].
JT: You were never digging into administration and other affairs?
TC: No. I think some of them did, but I went home.
JT: What were some of the big issues on campus?
HC: Wasn’t parking a problem?
TC: Parking was a bit of a problem. Not much compared to today.
HC: Well, the classes were held in an apartment building that they converted to classrooms.
JT: What was it like watching the newspaper, campus and community grow so rapidly at the time?
TC: It was really startling to see how it happened. It grew so fast; it became so quickly a good and interesting college.
JT: Is there anything you would have done differently?
TC: I came into it blind. I had no idea about what I was getting into; I had no idea what it all would amount to. I know that I had certain suggestions that were made and were turned down and also some that were taken. But I don’t specifically recall what they amounted to. We did what we could do. We were not a very large group.
JT: Are there any memories you would like to add?
TC: Certainly teaching over at [Long Beach] was wonderful for me, and I appreciate it. You put out a lot more blood than we did. We had a lot of fun.
