Still dead after 20 years

The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner died Nov. 2, 1989.

The Her-Ex building at 11th and Broadway still is on life support. A grandiose $350 million plan to renovate and resusitate it has been put on hold by the staggering economy.

Parts of the building are used as movie sets -- in "Strange Days," "Cable Guy" and "The Usual Suspects." Heidi Duckler and her Collage Dance Theatre troupe once pranced up and down the grand staircases, performing for its audience, using the newsroom and other areas as props.

The building was designed by architect Julia Morgan. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst liked her work on the Herald-Examiner building so much that he commissioned her to build the Hearst castle in San Simeon, California.

One of the most famous Herald-Examiner editors was Jim Bellows, who made a career out of rescuing dull and sinking newspapers such as the Washington Star, the New York Herald Tribune and the Herald-Examiner.

Bellows was born in Detroit but the family moved to Cleveland by the time he enrolled at Kenyon College. Bellows worked at the Detroit Free Press and Miami News, both Knight Newspapers. Bellows died in March, 2009.

For photos of the Her-Ex building, the Hearst Castle and Bellows, click on the headline.