Isaac Rohrer Landis (1883-1949) was general manager of the Empire China Company, which operated (on Empire Avenue, naturally) from 1921 to 1933. Landis and Fred E. Keeler owned a kaolin clay pit near Caliente, Nevada, which supplied the raw materials for their dishware business. Landis was also a grifter. In 1908, years before getting into crockery, he was accused of swindling thousands from Whittier citizens by posing as the nephew of a famous judge while selling shares in a mining interest. (He attempted to flee to Chicago but was nabbed in Caliente, of all places.) As Empire China shut down amidst cries of malfeasance, Landis got in hot water again in 1932 by selling shares in a Lake Arrowhead property and pocketing the dough. This earned him four years at San Quentin.
Find it on the map:
