About 300 persons gathered at the Sportsmen's Lodge Saturday night to honor Sam W. Yorty, Los Angeles' mayor from 1961-74, a few days shy of his 82nd birthday.

Yorty — known as the "maverick mayor" — was feted in ceremonies presided over by KIEV-radio talk show host George Putnam. In 1961, Putnam, then anchorman-commentator on KTTV-TV, was instrumental in bringing about Yorty's victory over then-Mayor Norris Poulson.

Yorty and Putnam reminisced over the impact in that campaign of the "trash" issue. Yorty recalled that he promised to end the segregation of trash; metal cans had to be saved for a month for pick-up by a private company.

If the metal cans were left out on the scheduled day and the private company didn't come by, Yorty said, those cans would have to be stored for another month.

Saturday's program, which took place while attendees ate, was free-wheeling. Putnam stood at the microphone for most of the evening; Yorty was perched next to him on a stool, periodically alighting, taking the mike, and presenting observations. A few politicians came to the podium to offer reminiscences and praise; and Yorty-appointed commissioners and others, one by one, came up to a floor-level microphone to confer accolades on the city's former chief executive.

Separate resolutions were presented to Yorty by Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro of the Fourth District and by Tenth District City Councilman Nate Holden.

The audience reacted with enthusiastic applause when Putnam urged that Ferraro, who lost a 1985 mayoral bid, be chosen as mayor in 1993.

Holden, who lost in 1989 to incumbent Tom Bradley — the man who had toppled Yorty and withstood the challenge of Ferraro — bemoaned that doors of residences in his district are fitted with double locks. When Yorty was in office, he observed, "people felt a lot safer than they do now."

He exclaimed:

"May the Yorty Years live forever!"

Among those in attendance were Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Mildred L. Lillie, who swore Yorty into office; Assemblyman Willard Murray, D Paramount, who had been a Yorty aide; Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Workman, who served during the Yorty administration on a state-county-city commission overseeing El Pueblo Park; Ruth Lamport, widow of Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Lamport; and attorney Grace Quinn, widow of one of Yorty's two deputy mayors, Joseph M. Quinn.

Yorty also made reference to his other deputy mayor, the late Eleanor Chambers. It was she, he recounted, who handled political matters for the administration.

"I wasn't a politician," he told his well-wishers. "I was an administrator."

He said that by appointing competent commissioners, he had no worries over the running of the various city departments.

Yorty — who in May told an audience that "black racists are trying to get rid of our white chief of police" — on Saturday recalled that when he was mayor, "we didn't fight with the chief of police."

He was accompanied by his wife, Gloria. His first wife, Elizabeth — known as "Betts" — died in 1984. Their only child, William, died the year before.

The event was organized by Dan Carasso, one of the co-chairpersons of Yorty's 1973 reelection campaign. Carasso told persons telephoning for reservations to make out checks to "AD40RCC" — not elaborating that the initials stood for "40th Assembly District, Republican Central Committee."

Democrat Willard Murray told the audience his dinner ticket was paid for by funds from his Democratic committee, and joked:

"When the [campaign finances] reports come out, I might have some explaining to do."

The event was, however, organized on a no-profit and non-partisan basis. Yorty, though a Republican since 1973, was a Democrat during his years as mayor, and his earlier days as an assemblyman (1936-40 and 1949-50) and as a congressman (1950-54).

Among his unsuccessful campaigns were his 1981 mayoral comeback attempt, his 1966 bid for the Democratic nomination for governor (losing to incumbent Pat Brown, who in turn lost to Republican challenger Ronald Reagan), and his try for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

Yorty's motivation in seeking the presidency despite lack of funding or support was seemingly inexplicable at the time. However, Joseph Quinn, in later years, revealed the reason: Yorty had been advised by a psychic that the president of the United States at the time of the nation's bicentennial would be an Irish Protestant born in Nebraska.

Yorty was an Irish Protestant born in Nebraska.

The Democratic nominee in 1972 was Sen. George McGovern, who lost to the incumbent, Republican Richard Nixon. But the man who had ascended to the presidency by the time of the nation's 200th birthday in 1976 was Gerald Ford:

An Irish Protestant born in Nebraska.

Copyright 1991, Metropolitan News Company