Word: tallent
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Promised Land. The man who rules Cabazon is an incredible person, even in California politics. His name is L. D. (for nothing) Tallent. He drifted into town from Oklahoma eight years ago. His past is murky. His body is tragically misshapen: he was born without legs, with a right arm that ends at the elbow, a left that withers into two malformed fingers. But the face of L. D. Tallent, 41, is alertly handsome, his mind razor keen, his ambition huge...
From the first, Tallent saw dismal Cabazon as a promised land. He bought a dilapidated parcel of land, divided it into lots, became publisher of the local weekly and president of the Chamber of Commerce. Then he waited. In 1954 came the sort of man that Tallent had been waiting for: Jerry Kosseff, a glib, messianic promoter from Hollywood. On the speaker's stand Kosseff was a Bible-quoting spellbinder. Recalls one Cabazonian: "Kosseff told us, 'Look around us. This is the Sinai Desert. All we have to do is stretch out our hands and the manna will...
...Tallent and Kosseff, the manna-mad citizens of Cabazon soon voted to incorporate their town. The specific purpose of the move was to establish a drive-in draw-poker palace; under California law, only incorporated towns may establish poker parlors. In as Cabazon's mayor went L. D. Tallent-and before long he was also police commissioner, fire commissioner and civil defense commissioner (Kosseff, his usefulness fulfilled, soon sloped back toward Hollywood, later died...
Working Man. The $100,000 Club Cabazon failed to attract the expected bonanza of customers from Palm Springs, and its franchise passed from hand to hand like the Hope diamond, bringing bad luck to everyone who held it. But under the direction of Tallent-appointed Police Chief Robert ("Doc") Morton, an ex-chiropractor, Cabazon quickly won and richly deserved a reputation as the worst speed trap in Southern California. Last year traffic tickets brought in $27,985, while all business license fees returned only $5,817. Explains Morton, who has since broken bitterly with Tallent: "It was all Tallent...
Long before Club Cabazon mysteriously burned to its foundations last December, it became clear to the townfolk that the only citizen who was making any profit out of Cabazon was Mayor Tallent. An opposition group, the Civic Improvement Association, began to gather recruits. The anti-Tallent cause was helped when Riverside County deputy sheriffs raided Tallent's home, claimed they found and photographed him nude in bed with his secretary, the wife of a Cabazon cop. Says Tallent, still up for trial on a misdemeanor charge: "I will definitely ask for a jury. I don't think...