Monday, May 17, 2004 6:03 PM
BY CHRIS WOODYARD
Will Fowler, a longtime Press Club member and one of the city’s more col- orful newsmen, has died at 81.
As a Herald Examiner reporter, Fowler covered the seamy side of Los Angeles — the high-profile crimes in the growing post-war metropolis. He claimed to have been the first journalist to get to the scene of what would become known as the “Black Dahlia murder,” according to his Los Angeles Times obituary. He said he closed the blue, half-shuttered eyes of victim Elizabeth Short, whose naked torso had been cut if half by the killer who was never caught.
To his fellow reporters, Fowler was generous and fun to be around. Friends recall that he was approached some decades ago to run in the Press Club election for officers of the board, but Fowler refused to run because, at that time, the Club barred women journalists from joining.
“He was always in the thick of things, a boisterous fellow, the life of the party,” recalls Elmar Baxter, another veteran Press Club member.
Fowler later left the news business to work in airline public relations. Baxter says Fowler hosted a trip to Rome for a group of news people. At a stop in Rome, the group was late to catch a plane because Fowler was still in the bathtub, singing opera. Not to worry. The airline held the plane for the late arrivels.
Another time, Fowler’s group narrow- ly escaped catastrophe when a helicopter they had boarded to view the Great Barrier Reef in Australia crash-landed. They never saw the reef, Baxter says.
Fowler was the son of Hollywood screenwriter Gene Fowler, mingling with the likes of W.C. Fields while growing up. “He was born with a Hollywood spoon in his mouth,” says Baxter, adding that he often regaled friends with stories of show business luminaries.
“We were a pretty close group and we had a helluva time,” Baxter says.
