Note: This is an expanded version of the news story about veteran photographer Dan Watson by Stephen K. Peeples published in The Signal on July 10, 2024.

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Dan Watson, the Santa Clarita Valley Signal newspaper’s award-winning chief photojournalist and photo editor for nearly 20 years, officially retired from the daily news beat on Saturday, June 15, 2024.

Now, for the first time he can remember, Watson, 67, gets to ignore the Pavlovian urge to grab his cameras and leap into action every time he hears the wail of a first responder’s siren.

“Ah, isn’t that great? I hear them go by and I don’t have to run to them,” the longtime Castaic resident said, gleefully, just a week after his final assignment. “I feel like a cloud has been lifted off me. I don’t even want to pick up a camera for a while.”

That’s a remarkable thing to say, considering Watson’s been handling cameras since he could crawl.

His retirement from The Signal marks the end of a dynasty that stretches back to the late 19^th century – four generations of movie actors, horse wranglers, stuntmen, special effects producers, film studio innovators and inventors, news and commercial photographers, photojournalists, and newsreel-TV cameramen.

Hollywood Dynasty: Dan Watson is the last of 10 photographers spanning four generations of the Watsons, the “First Family of Hollywood.” Top row (from left): James, Coy Sr., and George. Bottom row: Dan, Coy Jr., Harry, Bill, Delmar, Garry, and Bobs. Photo illustration: Dan Watson. Courtesy Watson Family Photo Collection.

Renowned since the 1920s and 1930s as “The First Family of Hollywood,” various Watson siblings appeared in and/or worked on more than 1,000 movies as they grew up during Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Later, behind the lens, they were visual storytellers – hard-boiled news news photographers shooting for every major newspaper published in the Los Angeles area. Two Watsons were also pioneering TV cameramen when the medium was new.

“They were an unbelievable group of newsmen with cameras in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s who had the personalities to go into any situation and weren’t timid at all, because of their acting,” Dan said. “They were always acting like Vaudevillians, so if you think of a Vaudevillian with a camera shooting an assignment, that’s what it was. They weren’t necessarily creative, but innovative. They’d make whatever equipment they needed to get the picture.”

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored the Watson Family with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999. Not surprisingly, Dan Watson was on the scene that day, on assignment photographing the momentous event for The Signal.

As the last shooter standing in the Watson dynasty of 10 professional photographers, Dan grew up and came of age in the high-powered media business in Burbank and Los Angeles. He had natural talent, skills, and insider connections to go in just about any direction in media he chose.

But since his teens, Watson’s passion has been for community news. When he chose to join The Signal in 1998, both he and the paper thought they were a perfect match.

That didn’t always prove to be true.

Three Tours of Duty with The Signal

Dan Watson’s three tours of duty with The Signal were 1998-2003, 2009-2017, and 2018-2024. That’s more than 19 years behind the lens documenting and illustrating life in the Santa Clarita Valley for the venerable newspaper of record founded in Newhall in 1919.

“The Signal has indeed been blessed with many really good news photographers over the years,” said Leon Worden, a longtime Signal editor (1998-2007) and former Watson colleague who is now president/CEO at community television station SCVTV and vice president of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

“In every generation, it seems, someone has come along who defines the era,” Worden said. “In the 1950s and ’60s, it was Gus Trueblood. In the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, Gary Thornhill, Kevin Karzin. Since 1998, it’s been Dan Watson. His work has touched more lives locally than most people probably realize.”

Dan Watson grins on the field behind home plate at Dodger Stadium while covering SCV Dodger Day for The Signal on March 14, 2011. Photo: Stephen K. Peeples.

“I don’t think it can be argued that Dan Watson is the most influential photojournalist in the history of the Santa Clarita Valley,” said Cary Osborne, a longtime Signal sports editor and assistant managing editor who worked closely with Watson and is now a media executive with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I took the Signal job because I always liked small community news and wanted to learn the computers,” Watson said in 2019. “The daily (photo) shooting – I liked finding the features around the valley, meeting interesting people, the veterans, the older people, and the daily sports. I liked to shoot all that stuff.”

Watson covered everything from breaking news, natural disasters, car crashes, and crime to traditional annual events. From academia and athletics and sporting events to business ribbon-cuttings and nonprofit fundraisers.

He interacted with everyone from kids to seniors and the homeless. From city and civic leaders and politicians to first responders and veterans. All that barely scratches the surface of the length, breadth, and depth of his career in community news.

As a public-facing representative of The Signal, Watson earned deep respect and admiration from all corners of the community, not just as a professional and creative lensman, but also as a genuinely humble, empathetic human who “just wants to get along.”

Provided he got his shot, and nobody back at the paper screwed it up, that is.

An aerial view to the northwest from Magic Mountain Parkway of the back of The Signal newspaper building on Creekside Road in Valencia as construction neared completion on January 29, 1986. Creekside dead-ended; nothing west of The Signal was yet developed. At left are the loading docks; to the right, the pressroom where the Goss press printed the paper. The front entrance off of Creekside and main entrance to the executive and editorial offices are seen at center right. The building was sold and the paper moved to Centre Pointe in 2016. Signal file photo.

On assignment, Watson eschewed the public eye, preferring to document whatever he was covering without insinuating himself into the story.

He also disdained professional attention and accolades with authentic humility. He won numerous photography awards over the past five decades and grudgingly accepted them in his characteristically good-natured, self-deprecating way. But he couldn’t tell you how many.

“I never kept track,” Watson said.

Dan Watson (right) caught a confrontation between Black Lives Matter supporters and protesters in Santa Clarita on assignment for The Signal on May 30, 2020. Photo: Unknown. Courtesy Watson Family Photographic Collection.

‘Photography is In Dan’s Blood’

“If you talk to anyone in the community, they’ll tell you what a good guy Dan is, but also how he is just a consummate professional,” said Tim Whyte, The Signal’s managing editor when he hired Watson in April 1998. Whyte has been editor-in-chief since 2018.

“Dan was a real pro,” said Will Fleet, The Signal’s publisher when the paper hired Watson the first time, in 1998. “He brought consistent dedication to his job. It was in his blood, and it showed in his work. We consistently had great art in that newspaper. He was a great photographer and a really good guy, too.

“Dan definitely had a wry sense of humor, and he was sneaky funny,” Fleet said. “He worked very well with Tim Whyte. I think they got along pretty well most of the time, and it made things very productive. Dan did a lot of things over and above. He deserves all the accolades people are sending his way.”

Dan Watson and his trusty Nikon were amidst the thousands of Santa Clarita Valley school kids who gathered at College of the Canyons’ Cougar Stadium in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt a new Guinness world record for the largest drum circle on May 18, 2012. Photo: Stephen K. Peeples.

“Photography is in Dan’s blood,” said Signal Owner/Publisher Richard Budman, a former publisher and part-owner (2004-2007) who purchased the paper outright in mid-2018 and rehired Watson for his third tour soon after.

“You can teach somebody the mechanics, but you can’t teach them to have an eye. Dan has that skill,” Budman said. “But what makes him a great photographer is how he interacts with people to get a great shot. He’s like an actor. Around the office, he’s a normal great guy, but when he goes out to a shoot, he comes alive. He’ll joke with people, spend time with kids.

“Just the way he can get people to relax is amazing,” he said. “They are like Dan. A lot of people don’t like their photos taken, like him. But he won’t take no for an answer. He’ll find a way to get the shot. Anytime he’s dealing with people, he’s just on his game.

“Photographers don’t seem to get the acclaim reporters do, because the reporters are up front, writing the story,” Budman said. “Photographers are an important part of every story, but they tend to be in the background, and that suited Dan’s personality.”

A young man reacts after riding a roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain, in a shot timed to catch the coaster roaring by behind him. Dan Watson’s first assignment as The Signal’s new chief photographer was shooting the opening of the Joker ride at SFMM on April 1, 1998. Photo: Dan Watson/The Signal.

Said Carol Rock, entertainment editor at The Signal at the start of Dan’s first tour: “He really had the knack of putting everyone at ease, even people who had no media savvy. It may have been the first time they ever encountered a press photographer or a reporter, but he could put the subject at ease so they would feel comfortable enough to talk and the reporter really could get the story.”

“For me as an editor, Dan’s automatic,” Whyte said. “If I see on a photo assignment that he shot the art, I know I’m going to have really good art. That’s not only skill but also talent. He’s got an incredible eye for what makes a good shot, what tells the story. And he will come back from an assignment with not only shots that tell the story, but also shots that tell the various aspects of the story. We were blessed to have Dan here for as many years as we did.”

As Watson quipped in 2019: “There’s a lot of Signal ink in my blood, and there’s a lot of my blood on the streets of Santa Clarita.”

Why Retire Now?

Watson, who usually equates being interviewed with a trip to the dentist, relented to sit-downs with a former colleague in June and July for a Signal story about his retirement, and this feature (and others to follow) to more expansively document his colorful career and family background. His and others’ quotes appear here for the first time unless otherwise attributed.

The first question: Why hang up his cameras now?

Watson said two things prompted him to call it a career in summer 2024: the deaths of two close friends, also longtime photographers, and his wife Candy’s recent retirement.

“My friends died in the last few months,” he said. “It was always, ‘We’re going to have lunch next week? Oh, I’ve got to work.’ So that just really hit me.

“And my poor wife has put up with this for almost 43 years now (they married on November 14, 1981). That takes a certain kind of person. I didn’t do much of the late-night stuff recently, but my whole career, when we were in a bowling league, I’d always get there late. Or I couldn’t show up at all because there was a murder or a fire. Our life has been that way and she’s always been there, always been very supportive and patient.”

Two deer spot a photographer shooting a brushfire behind them, as the man captured a shot much more interesting than just “flaming dirt.” Photo: Dan Watson/The Signal.

Candy was in banking for many years. “She worked her way up from a teller to mortgage to reverse mortgage and retired a couple of years ago. I couldn’t have done this job without her financial assistance and moral support all these years.”

Watson said he was always glad he and Candy had girls. “I think I was a pretty good father, but I was gone a lot. I tried to do whatever I could for the kids.”

Candy and Dan Watson, 1980. Courtesy Watson Family Photographic Collection.

Now, Watson’s only assignment is to catch up with Candy, their two now-grown daughters, Jennie Fontana and Missy McKown (both professionals but in other “non-pro” fields), grandchildren Emma (now 7) and Finnegan (age 5), and Dan’s half-sister Katie Haight. And he’ll be able to spend more time with his father and primary photographic mentor, Garry Watson, now 96, who lives nearby.

Accolades From a Grateful Community

To celebrate Dan Watson’s retirement from The Signal, the Santa Clarita City Council, the William S. Hart Union High School District, College of the Canyons, and the re-animated SCV Press Club honored Watson with special proclamations and presentations at City Hall on Tuesday night, July 9.

Dan Watson, who retired as chief and staff photographer for The Signal newspaper in Santa Clarita, California on June 15, 2024, after three tours of duty totaling nearly 20 years, received congratulations and accolades from the community at the Santa Clarita City Council’s meeting at City Hall on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. From left: Pearl Obispo and Patti Rasmussen, Signal veterans; Santa Clarita City Councilmembers Jason Gibbs and Marsha McLean; Alethia Calagias, Signal veteran; Mayor Cameron Smyth; Carol Rock, Signal veteran; Barbara Myler, SCV Press Club; John Green, College of the Canyons associate vice president of district communications; Dan Watson; Tim Whyte, Signal editor-in-chief; Candy Watson, Dan’s spouse; Jennie Fontana, one of Dan and Candy’s two daughters (Missy McKown was out of town but present in spirit); former Watson Signal colleague Leon Worden, also SCVTV president/CEO and Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society vice president; Richard Budman, Signal owner/publisher; Stephen K. Peeples, Signal and SCVTV veteran; Councilmember Laurene Weste and her husband James McCarthy; and Mayor Pro Tem Bill Miranda. Photo: City of Santa Clarita.

[Watson tributes start at 37:20.]

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More of the Watson Chronicles to come:

Part 2: Tracing Four Generations of ‘Hollywood’s First Family’

Part 3: Dan Watson: Last in the Dynasty of Family Photographers

Part 4: City Council & SCV Press Club Salutes to Dan Watson, Plans A & B

Part 5: Epilog: Back to the Future: Old Habits Die Hard

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Stephen K. Peeples, an award-winning Santa Clarita journalist and Grammy-nominated producer, was Online Editor and a colleague of Dan Watson at The Signal from 2009-2011. Special thanks to Leon Worden, Susan Shapiro, Michele Buttelman, Carol Rock, Bryan Kneiding, Richard Budman, and especially Dan Watson and the Watson Family Photo Collection for their assistance in producing this series.