Will Fowler, old school journo was 81

Will Fowler was the first reporter on the scene of the Black Dahlia murder and kept a bottle of whiskey in his desk drawer at the Examiner, and also quit the Greater L.A. Press Club when the all-male group he helped found would not admit legendary Hearst city editor Agnes Underwood. After leaving newspapers, Fowler was news director at KTTV Channel 11, publicist for the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign and 20th Century-Fox Television, and wrote books. Two books were about his father, the reporter-turned-screenwriter and biographer Gene Fowler, who plays a bit part in local culinary trivia - he and Hollywood impresario Sid Grauman helped popularize the Cobb Salad after it was "invented" at the Wilshire Brown Derby, where they hung out. The obituary is in today's Times.