<Begin Segment 15>

RN: And I left home, I started living on my own right after high school. I lived in a hotel, in a hotel for a while right across the street from the old Examiner. See, there used to be the Herald, and then the L.A. Examiner, and they merged and became the Herald Examiner, and then, of course, the Herald Examiner closed. So I worked for the old L.A. Examiner.

SY: Were they both Hearst papers?

RN: Yeah, yeah. And it was right on Eleventh and Broadway. The building is still there, they use it as a movie set.

SY: And that's where you lived?

RN: Yeah, I lived in that hotel, the Case Hotel across the street for about six months until a copy boy friend and I moved into an apartment. But I lived downtown for six months.

SY: How did you support yourself?

RN: Working, I didn't get paid well, but I got paid as a copy boy. I used to do things like going to J-town on the streetcar, and go to the Far East Cafe, and you could get a... the Far East Cafe, when you got rice, they gave you that double, big bowl, and an order of hamyu. So for seventy-five cents, I could have this hamyu and this big bowl of rice. And then a lot of us would go to Rand's Roundup which is an all you can eat place. And so we'd go at three o'clock in the morning where they change from dinner to breakfast, so we'd eat dinner and stay in there and eat breakfast. [Laughs] So I made, I forgot how much I was getting paid, but the hotel was, you know, not that expensive 'cause it's... I know there was a brothel on the eighth floor, so it was kind of a scuzzy place. I mean, when you're young, it's kind of exciting, actually.

SY: What prompted you to leave home?

RN: I got in an argument with my mom, 'cause I told her I was quitting Pepperdine after I got the scholarship and they made a big deal about it to their families and all of that, all their friends. And I said, "I can't take it." So I got in a big argument with my, well, both my mom and my dad, but mostly my mom. So I moved out.

SY: And you stayed estranged or were you...

RN: Yeah, not for long, maybe six months or so, then they got over it.

SY: Sounds like your mom was kind of a strong woman in some ways.

RN: Yeah, yeah.

SY: She kind of pulled her weight?

RN: Yeah, right. Well, yeah, she gave up after I quit Pepperdine. Not gave up, but she just said, "Do whatever." She was supportive. So I wasn't really legitimate even with my Art Center and my photojournalism and all that. I wasn't legitimate until I started teaching at UCLA, then all of a sudden "my son the college professor," they loved that. But all that other time, they didn't know what I was doing.

SY: Valued education.

RN: Yeah, right. [Laughs] Photographer when you couldn't get a job. So I made them happy when I started teaching at UCLA. They could understand that, they could brag to their friends.

SY: So that must have been hard for you in a certain sense, because being a photographer or wanting to be a photographer was, it was probably that little tug and pull from her, maybe?

RN: Oh, well, yeah, they wanted, like in any family, they want you to be a pharmacist or a doctor or a dentist.

SY: Was that a conflict? Was that an inner conflict of yours?

RN: Yeah, you always kind of feel that, but I'm totally -- as witnessed by my math abilities -- that was totally out of the question.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.