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A tip for the 24 hardy souls now seeking to become the next mayor of Los Angeles:
Remember Alpheus P. Hodges.
Or forget him. Everybody else has.
Nobody celebrates the birthday of L.A.'s first mayor. They couldn't if they wanted to. Nobody knows what day it is.
City Hall tour guides don't recognize his name. His portrait does not hang in the corridors of power.
Other mayors have seen their names slapped on streets, an airport terminal, a shopping mall, a water fountain, even a mountain. (Mt. Wilson commemorates the city's second mayor, Benjamin D. Wilson.) Not Hodges.
"History does not record much about Los Angeles' first mayor," says a brief biographical sketch at the Central Library.
No kidding. So herewith a cautionary tale for the two dozen stalwarts seeking lasting fame and political fortune as the leader of this fair city.
The search for the Lost Mayor of Los Angeles begins at the City Archives, a scholarly outpost tucked away in Piper Technical Center, a massive fortress-like building near Union Station.
"We have Mayor Fletcher Bowron's radio addresses," city archivist Rob Freeman says helpfully. "We have about 1,000 (Sam) Yorty photos."
City historians know plenty about other, more interesting mayors: Stephen Foster (1854-1856) resigned briefly to head...