It won't get much attention outside Los Angeles — and maybe even not much here — but Ralph Story died yesterday at the age of 86. Mr. Story had a brief career as a game show host (The $64,000 Challenge) but most of his broadcasting days were spent on local radio and television in Los Angeles. He did interview shows and the local news but was best known for a program he did for six years, starting in 1964.
It was called Ralph Story's Los Angeles and it pretty much consisted of Ralph bringing us interesting tales about our town — its heritage, its history, its very identity. Story was a fine storyteller with a friendly, folksy quality about him. Each week, he'd pick out some odd corner of the city and we'd learn what it was and how it came to be. I was born in this burg but an awful lot of what I know about it was learned from Ralph Story's Los Angeles.
The U.C.L.A. Film and Television Archive lists among its collection, and I quote: "104 two-inch videotapes of Ralph Story's Los Angeles (1964-1970), the highest-rated and most fondly remembered local series in Los Angeles television history." Wish someone would put those out on DVD. I suspect they'd stand up very well today…and the history in them would be more important than ever.