Beschrijving

The Biggest Short Guy is the sort of story that is increasingly rare in today’s hyper-connected world. News of anyone doing anything significantly good or bad travels fast and is devoured widely. Add to that the ease with which we can uncover a virtual history of anyone in minutes, and it’s easy to see why being unheard of is quite unheard of. Yet an online search of Walter Beran would yield a notable yet paltry biography, largely from his L.A. Times obituary. Walter Beran was a man who arguably shaped the soul of Los Angeles more than any contemporary from the 1970s-1990s. To accomplish this as a city official, philanthropist or entertainer would not be surprising. To accomplish this as an accountant is almost unbelievable.And yet that was the primary channel through which he repaired and enlightened a community fractured along unjust racial, religious, and societal lines. It is not an understatement to say that Los Angeles and a great number of its residents would not be where they are today if a small, poor, orphaned boy from Texas named Walter had not called their city home for the last 35 years of his life.\