LA Bantam - Pacific Mutual Building

In some of the books published by Bantam Publications, Inc. of Los Angeles the publisher's address is given as the Pacific Mutual Building. Built in 1908 as corporate headquarters for the Pacific Mutual Insurance Company the building was extended, modified and restored throughout the Twentieth century. Now known as the Pacific Center the complex of three interconnected buildings still exists in downtown Los Angeles at 523 W. 6th St.. Here are photos of the building today.

A lovely building but why was Bantam in Los Angeles? Why not New York, then and now the center of the American publishing industry?

Bantam was owned by Western Printing and Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. By 1940 Western had an office in Poughkeepsie, NY where they managed their arrangement with Dell Publishing to edit and print Dell's comics and, in 1943, paperbacks. Did Western have an arrangement with someone in LA as they did with Dell? Never heard of one. So the question remains unanswered.