Charles Harris Garrigues
Charles Harris Garrigues (July 7, 1902 – March 8, 1974) was an American writer and journalist. Known as Brick for his red hair, he worked as a general‑assignment reporter in Los Angeles in the 1920s, investigated politics and graft in the 1930s, edited newspapers in the 1940s, and became a jazz critic in the 1950s.
He was the fourth child of Charles Louis and Emily Young Garrigues, born in Utica, Kansas, and later moved with his family to Imperial, California near the Mexican border. While at Imperial High School, a 1918 letter fight with a fellow writer led to his expulsion. The editor of the local paper mentored him in journalism, and Garrigues graduated in 1919 after a school walkout by students protesting the decision.
Garrigues briefly attended the University of Southern California before starting his reporting career with the Hemet News. He then worked for the Venice Vanguard and the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. In 1926 he returned to Los Angeles as a copy editor for the Los Angeles Express and soon moved to the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, where he covered civic affairs and later wrote opera and classical music reviews. He also ran a political column, “The Spotlight,” and began investigations into county government graft.
In January 1931 he left Boddy’s paper to work temporarily for the Los Angeles District Attorney, Buron Fitts, as an investigator. His work helped convict county supervisor Sidney T. Graves for taking a bribe. In 1934 a county grand jury, working with Judge Fletcher Bowron, indicted Fitts themselves on charges of bribery and perjury. Garrigues was assaulted in the Hall of Justice during this period.
By 1936 he was freelancing as a political consultant. He briefly edited the Labor Leader in San Diego in 1937 and helped organize workers for the American Newspaper Guild. He joined the Communist Party in 1937 but left the party in 1938.
In 1939 Garrigues moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and worked as a copy editor for the San Francisco Examiner, where he stayed until his retirement in 1967. He also wrote about the local jazz scene. In 1943 he was mentioned in a Tenney Committee report related to his past Communist Party ties. In March 1953 he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee about his labor movement involvement and Communist Party membership. From 1956 to 1961 he was the Examiner’s staff jazz reviewer, with a weekly column.
Garrigues retired in 1967 and moved to Brentwood in 1968. He died on March 8, 1974, in Pacific Palisades. He was married three times: first to Beulah May Dickey in 1926, with whom he had two sons and later divorced in 1937; second to Naomi Silver in 1938, with whom he had a daughter and who died in 1968; and third to Marguerite (Peggy) Walker in 1968. In addition to his many newspaper articles and music writings, Garrigues contributed jazz liner notes and other pieces during his career.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 01:32 (CET).