La Jolla Light enters its 100th year of publishing with its January 3, 2013 issue

By Phyllis Pfeiffer

Publisher

This edition of the

La Jolla Light,

the first in 2013, launches our year-long commemoration of the 100 years since the La Jolla Light printed its first edition in 1913. That was the same year the La Jolla Recreation Center and the Colonial Apartments and Hotel (now the Grande Colonial) opened, as well as the Orient Theater (now Panera Bread at Girard and Wall Streets). The La Jolla Fire Station Engine Company 13 on Herschel Avenue was also built in 1913, designed by noted local architect Harold Abrams.

The first

La Jolla Light

was published two years after electricity came to La Jolla for four customers, and a year before the start of World War I. It is humbling to note that I have been associated with the

La Jolla Light

(on, off and now on again) for 40 of its 100 years. My first journalism job was at the

Light

in 1973. And I must confess, it was not as a paperboy when I was eight-years-old.

In my early years at the paper, some notable names in San Diego journalism and beyond worked at the

La Jolla Light

1. Stan Honda, now a photographer for the French news agency, Agence-France Presse, who shot the iconic 9/11 images including the photo of Marcy Borders covered in ash and dust, got his start at the

La Jolla Light.

Carrie Rickey, longtime film critic for the Philadelphia Enquirer, got her start writing movie reviews for the

Light.

Logan Jenkins, columnist for

U-T San Diego

, was editor of the

Light

for a time. Allene Arthur, noted writer and columnist for T

he Desert Sun

was society editor of the

Light

for many years. Maureen Shiftan (aka Maureen Clancy and Leslie James) former food editor of the Union Tribune got her start in print journalism as a restaurant critic for the

Light.

Notable San Diego Interior Designer Pamela Smith, often covered by

Architectural Digest,

was the artist at the

Light

for many years; drawing exquisite covers by hand for all the special sections.

Those were the days.

Those were also the days when Ted Geisel, Jonas Salk and Roger Revelle made news in the

Light.

The debate over parking, the Soledad Cross and whether La Jolla should secede from San Diego raged then as it does now. A Night in Monte Carlo and the Jewel Ball were the highlights of the summer social calendar. Real estate in the 92037 Zip code was among the priciest on Earth.

Some things don’t change.

While the

Light h

as changed over the years and now also publishes the lajollalight.com website, which is updated daily, our staff is still the same quality of journalists, artists and marketers, who are dedicated to providing you with news of the community, telling stories about people who matter and reflecting the best of La Jolla.

After publishing 5,200 editions of the

Light,

we are honored to continue to chronicle La Jolla history. We at the

La Jolla Light

wish all of you and the entire La Jolla community, a very happy and healthy New Year.