1920 to 1930 (1910-1920) (1930-1940)(1920)(1930)Table of Contents
(The twenties, 1920s, the 20s, the 20's etc.)
Ocean Park Pier and Dome Theatre, 1920s-Adelbert Bartlett (Carolyn Farnham Collection) See Image and Text
Ocean Park Pier, Dome Theatre and Fleischer's Cafe, 1920s-Adelbert Bartlett (Carolyn Farnham Collection) See Image and Text
Santa Monica Municipal Auditorium in Ocean Park, outdoor concert, ca. 1920s -Adelbert Bartlett (Carolyn Bartlett Farnham Collection) See Image and Text
Fred E. Basten Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years, A pictorial history of Santa Monica, Venice, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu, Douglas-West Publishers: Los Angeles, CA, 1974, 227 pp., 1963, 1950s, 1926, 1925, 1924, 1923, 1922, 1921, 1920s See Text
Under a Concrete Pier, Model, Post Card, Unknown publisher. One sided photo margin. AZO, 1920s See Images
Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1920s See Text
Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism, LACMA Press Release 2001 August 5 through October 28, 2001, 1973 See Text
Kevin Conley Annals of Amusement: How High Can You Go? The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, pp. 48-55. 2004a, 1920s, 1895, 1884, 1827 See Sources
Laurence Goldstein, The American poet at the movies: a critical history , Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1994, 272 pp., Introduction, 1922, 1920s, 1915 See Text
Robert Gottlieb and Irene Wolt* Thinking Big: The Story of the Los Angeles Times, Its Publishers and Their Influence on Southern California, G.P. Putnam's Sons: NY, 1977. 603 pp., 1920s See Text
Jim Heimann Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1999, 159pp., 1920s See Text
Bruce Henstell* Sunshine and Wealth: Los Angeles in the Twenties and Thirties, Chronicle: San Francisco, 1984. 132pp., 1924, 1920s, 1919, 1915 See Text
Paul J. Karlstrom and Susan Ehrlich Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists 1920-956, Barry M. Heisler Introduction Santa Barbara Museum of Art 1990, 1920s See Text
John Laughery ,The Man Who Created Philo Vance 1920s, 1910s See Text
James W. Lunsford* The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1917 See Text
Esther McCoy Irving Gill 1870-1936 Five California Architects, 1960, Reprinted in Marvin Rand Irving J. Gill: Architect 1870-1936, Gibbs Smith, Publisher: Salt Lake City, UT, Design, Ahde Lahti; Photographs, Marvin Rand, 2006, 238 pp. pp. 219-227, 2006a, 1960, 1920s See Text
Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979) (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts), 1920s See Text
Cecilia Rasmussen L.A. Then and Now: In 'Whites Only' Era, an Oasis for L.A.'s Blacks Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2005 B2, 1920s, See Text
Karl Rydgren* [1914- ] I Remember, Unpublished Ms., 1975 [Reprinted 2005], 1920s, See Text
Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1920s See Text
Kevin Starr Embattled Dreams California in War and Peace 1940-1950, Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2002, 386 pp., 1940s, 1930s, 1920s, See Text
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1920s See Text
Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1920s See Text
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1920s See Text
Documents
Ocean Park Pier and Dome Theatre
Ocean Park Pier, Dome Theatre and Fleischer's Cafe, 1920s
Santa Monica Municipal Auditorium in Ocean Park, outdoor concert, ca. 1920s
Santa Monica Municipal Auditorium in Ocean Park, outdoor concert, ca. 1920s-Adelbert Bartlett (Carolyn Bartlett Farnham Collection) http://www.smpl.org/archive/2105/IMG0088.JPG
Fred E. Basten Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years, A pictorial history of Santa Monica, Venice, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu, Douglas-West Publishers: Los Angeles, CA, 1974, 227 pp., 1963, 1950s, 1926, 1925, 1924, 1923, 1922, 1921, 1920s
"With the dawn of the '20s, following World War I, the rush of people into Southern California turned into a flood. Los Angeles had two booming industries, oil and motion pictures. Venice and Ocean Park were the 'fun capitals'{sic} of the coast-if not the world. Santa Monica was being reborn with a new civic spirit . . . the most natural center for 'refined pleasures.' . . . In 1921, a group . . . formed the All-Year Club to promote the virtues of the Southland. . . . Overnight, the town lost its staid, provincial and exclusive character. A full-scale amusement pier, one to rival those down the shore, was born and the beach club era was about to begin. In 1922, ornate clubs started to blossom up and down the beach from Ocean Park to Santa Monica Canyon and by 1923 more than 15 membership organizations were flourishing. . . . " p. 110.
{Pictures on pages 112 and 113 of Santa Monica Blue Streak Roller Coaster and Venice, Oean Park and Santa Monica Piers. ca 1922}
{Between pages 133 and 114 is a four page layout of the Ocean Park Pier from Rose Avenue, 1921. On the back of this are several photos, one of the Municipal buses at Hendrick's Corner (Lincoln and Pico Blvds., now a dry cleaners and restaurant.}
{Pages 122 through 129 are photos taken from atop a power pole at the intersection of Fourth and Marine Streets beginning with Culver City and moving west all the way through Malibu to West wood.}
{p. 137 A Corner of Ocean Park looking toward the amusement area, 1924.}
{pp. 138 and 139 Ocean Park Pier ablaze in 1924.}
{p. 140 Pier and Speedway 1924 Hotel Edmond Phone 63151 Ocean Park}
{p. 141 Main and Navy 1924 W.L. Heinickle Lincoln Ford Fordson Phone 61007 Venice}
{p. 142 Lake and Rose 1924 Patten & Davies Lumber Phone 61963 Venice}
{p. 143 116 Pier 1924 Fullerton & Campbell Ocean Park}
{p. 144 ca 1925 Merritt Jones Hotel Ocean Park}
{p.144 "Looking toward Santa Monica from Rose and Main Streets, early twenties}
The La Monica Ball Room: Excels in Beauty and Splendor: Spectacular Lighting Effects; finest Dance Floor in America; 5,000 can dance with comfort; room for 5,000 spectators{see photos on pages 128, 146, 147. 148, 149, 150}
"The La Monica Ballroom on Santa Monica Pier was billed as the largest ballroom in the world (it could accommodate 10,000 persons easily-with room to roam). Inside, with its ornamental carvings, gilt chandeliers, carved ballastrades(sic) and upholstered settees, the setting was palatial, reminescent (sic) of some exotic far-off land (the vogue in silent movies of the day). Outside, with its stylized Byzantine domed turrets, the building looked strangely fascinating as it 'floated' on pilings above the surf-a giant arena from another time and place. page 146.
"In 1924, the La Monica Ballroom was open for dancing at 7:30 pm every night of the year-with afternoon matinees scheduled for 2:30 pm. Loge seating was available around the perimeter of the dance floor for spectators and reservations were necessary. The resident orchestra of 18 musicians was conducted by Don Clark." p. 147
"South side of the La Monica Ballroom, 1926. In later years when its glory days as a dance palace had faded, other attractions such as country-western shows lured customers to the then renamed Santa Monica Ballroom. Ultimately, the building was transformed into a roller rink. After several bouts with fire, it was torn down in 1963." p. 147
"As it does today, this grassy oasis-on-the-beach offered visitors in 1926 a comfortable place to relax and play. The park, with its colonnaded arbor, is located just south of Pico Boulevard. The Crystal Beach pier is seen in the background." p. 152
"Advertising 1926: Ocean Park: The Unsurpassed All Year 'Playground of the West' Because the miles of natural silver strand bathing beach The Mammoth Indoor Ocean Park Plunge Always courteous Attendants and Efficient Swimming Instructors The Ideally Beautiful and Alluring Egyptian Ballroom And innumerable high-class attractions on the Ocean Park Pier 'The Playground of the West' All Steel and Concrete Construction-Absolutely Fireproof." p. 154
"Buy Now Before its to(sic) Late : Santa Monica Mountain Acreage 'We know the Mountains'Louis T. Busch Co. Ocean Ave. at Pico, Phone 24430" p. 156
"Crystal Beach Made Famous by Celebrites (sic) Billy Cox's Orchestra 10--Pieces--10 Rendezvous Ball Room The Home of Refined Dancing Crystal Beach, Santa Monica Phone 62801." "Crystal Beach, mid-way between Santa Monica and Ocean Park Piers, was a popular place to relax-if you could find a spot. The Crystal Beach Bath House and Plunge, an open-air attraction located at the foot of Hollister Avenue, was removed in the '50s." p.160
"Advertising, 1928 Plumbing: "Hurry!" "Right Away, Madam." When your plumbing gets jamed(sic) you can get us on the wire.Theodore I. Cooney, 2901 Main St., Ocean Park, Calif. Phone 62669." "Hendricks Corner, Pico and Lincoln Boulevards" pp. 168 and 169 {The corner looks like a combination mini-mall and Mooresque Fantasy.}
Untitled (Under a Concrete Pier, Model), Unknown publisher. One sided photo margin. AZO, 1920s
Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1920s
" . . .
Four New Elementary Schools
The second big "building boom" of the early 1920s caused an upsurge in tract development and again gave impetus to the construction of many new homes, so that the existing elementary schools could no longer provide for the additional enrollments. The Board had priorly purchased three new elementary sites and had torn down the original Lincoln School building to provide a fourth. Thus, in 1923, when the need became urgent, it was possible to start construction on two of the four schools ultimately to be built: the John Muir School at Ocean Park and Lincoln Boulevards, and the new McKinley School at Santa Monica Boulevard and Chelsea. [30. Board Minutes, Dec. 30, 1921.]
Similar in design, these two schools each contained eight classrooms, a large kindergarten, an auditorium and administrative offices. They were of two-story brick construction with tile roofs and were of the Mediterranean type of architecture. Each was built on a site of nearly six acres.
" . . .
The Platoon Schools
In 1924, Horace M. Rebok resigned as Superintendent of Schools in Santa Monica to become Executive Secretary of the California Society for Secondary Education. He had served the Santa Monica schools for seventeen years, and under his leadership they had greatly progressed. He was interested in and connected with many state-wide movements for the study and improvement of California's schools, and his diligent efforts on behalf of the Santa Monica system had had a most favorable effect upon the educational program. [35. Pearl, op. cit., p. 124.]
Rebok was succeeded by Frederick F. Martin, former business manager of the Pasadena City Schools, who served the District for eight years. His assumption of office coincided with the completion of the new John Muir and McKinley schools, and during his incumbency Franklin and Madison schools also began operation. One of Superintendent Martin's first projects was to interest the Board of Education in the platoon plan of organization for the new elementary schools. [36. Personal interview with Sadie Jenkins, May 17, 1951; Santa Monica, California.]
The platoon system was originated by William Wirt, Superintendent of Schools in Gary, Indiana, and represented a radical departure from the self-contained classrooms that had characterized the period prior to the early 1920's. It might truthfully be said that the influence of John Dewey and his educational philosophy constituted the foundation upon which William Wirt built the first platoon school and from which the platoon-school idea in Santa Monica was adapted. [37. R.D. Case The Platoon School in America Stanford University: Stanford University Press, 1931, p. 3.]
Briefly, the platoon system provided for the division of pupils in schools of approximately 500 into two groups, called platoons. Class schedules were arranged so that during morning sessions one platoon was studying the fundamental subjects (language, spelling, writing , reading, arithmetic) in the home room, while the other platoon was engaged in activity subjects (social studies, science, physical education, music, art) in "special" rooms. [38. A 'special" room was one in which the teacher had specialized in the subject area taught.] The two platoons then interchanged activities for the other half-day. The "duplicate" features of the plan brought about a maximum use of the school plant. [39. Case, op. cit., p. 19.]
The following are some of the advantages claimed for the program: [40. Frederick F. Martin, Annual Report of the Santa Monica City Schools, 1929-30, unpublished report in files of the Santa Monica Board of Education, p. 23.]
1. Maximum use of school facilities was made possible. In a school with but eighteen classrooms, the school could accommodate twenty classes by using the auditorium and having one group on the playground for physical education.2. The cost of equipment was lessened, since materials for special subjects were provided only for the special room in which the subject was taught.
3. The teacher could better fit himself for teaching fewer subjects than was possible if he taught the full list of required subjects.
4. The pupils were given the advantage of being exposed to different teachers' personalities.
5. The pupils were not subjected to the monotony of sitting in one classroom for an entire day. They worked intensively for a brief time and then moved on to another environment to undertake new studies.
6. The freedom and variety of this type of program developed self-control and initiative, and was designed to conserve the energies of the pupils and the teachers.
The platoon schools met with immediate approval in Santa Monica. The full utilization of the school plant appealed to the economy-minded taxpayers and the idea of having specially trained teachers for each subject was considered by the parents as sound teaching. Adaptation of the original platoon idea was made in Santa Monica, however, only in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. The members of the Board of Education believed that primary pupils were too young to make adjustments to the several rooms and teachers as required in the somewhat complex platoon organization. [41. Personal interview with Hannah H. Ogden, teacher in the McKinley School (1927-1949), May 23, 1951; Santa Monica, California.]
Many desirable outgrowths of the platoon program have become a regular part of the curriculum of the present-day elementary schools. As a result of the platoon special-room subjects, a sound program of music, physical education, and library instruction was established in Santa Monica's elementary schools which has outlived the platoon organization itself. The music program established while the platoon schools operated has continued to grow into a particularly gratifying one. According to Wade Thomas, Supervisor of Music, the people of Santa Monica have always had a strong interest in music, and expect music to be a regular part of the program of the schools. Special music teachers provide classroom instruction in voice training, music reading, and music appreciation in the upper grades. Other specialists instruct small instrumental groups in strings, brass, and woodwinds; while glee clubs, orchestras, and an occasional elementary school band provide additional musical training at the elementary level. [42. Personal interview with Wade Thomas, June 7, 1951; Santa Monica,, California.]
The music program is continued and extended in the program of the secondary schools. Piano classes are offered at the junior high school level as well as the opportunity to participate in the a cappella choir, glee clubs, band and orchestra. The high school and city college music program, Thomas points out, extend the secondary program even farther, providing great opportunity for both average students and those wishing to major in music. [43. Ibid.]
Student accomplishment under the direction of the music department is demonstrated each year through participation in three combined community programs. The first is a Christmas program presented by various glee clubs and instrumental groups, and held annually in the Presbyterian Church. In April of each year the glee clubs, orchestra, and instrumental groups participate in the Concert of the Masters, and the Symphonies by the Sea in May. These three concerts have become traditional in the community and are enjoyed by many music enthusiasts.
The present physical education program in Santa Monica's likewise a direct outgrowth of the program initiated in the platoon schools. Part-time boys' physical education instructors assist with the upper grade program in each elementary school. In addition, special classes in rhythms and folk dancing are part of the regular program in all elementary grades. Moreover, each school, like those of equally progressive communities, maintains a supervised, after-school playground. These playgrounds are under the supervision of a physical education teacher within the system, or a student of physical education from the University of California, Los Angeles. Supervised summer playgrounds are also maintained, and each recreation center is open daily from nine to five with the exception of Saturday when a half-day schedule is followed. During the summer, the more strenuous physical activities are supplemented by a program of table games and handcrafts that attract many children to the playground at each elementary and junior high school. [44. Personal Interview with Supervisor of Physical Education Bess Shirley King, June 6, 1951; Santa Monica, California.]
According to Grace W. Jones, Director of Libraries for the Santa Monica City Schools, the most widespread influence of the platoon school idea is the continuation of the library program in the elementary schools. Each elementary school has a complete library unit staffed by a library clerk, all textbooks,supplementary texts, unit books, reference works, and recreational reading books being supplied by the individual schools. Each fourth, fifth, and sixth grade class spends a number of periods in the library every week, while upper grade pupils are allowed to come to the library or take books back to their rooms to supply reference materials supplementing their regular class work. [45. Personal interview with Grace W. Jones, June 9, 1951; Santa Monica, California.]
The library clerk is responsible for the library environment and sees that the books are properly shelved. She also assists teachers in the selection and placement of reading books and materials, and is responsible for the collection of audio-visual materials as well as the scheduling of instructional films for the various classes. The library program had become fully established in the elementary schools of Santa Monica by 1933. Following the earthquake of that year, however, and the subsequent condemnation of buildings, the progress came to an abrupt halt. An attempt was made to relocate the specially equipped rooms in tents that had been erected to house the dispossessed classes; but lack of space and the restriction of materials and supplies due to the "hard times" of the depression years forced curtailment of the platoon program.
In 1936 and 1937, as the remodeled school buildings were reopened, the platoon plan was replaced by the activity program carried on in the individual classrooms. The reduction in enrollments, the rearrangement of school boundaries, and changes in administrative philosophy were the prime factors in the curriculum changes in the elementary schools. The reorganization had resulted in the establishment of each school on a basis of the six elementary grades with the added kindergarten.
" . . .
" . . . and in 1923 a cafeteria bungalow and lunch pavilion were added [to Washington School.] Later, the windows of the pavilion were screened and domestic science classes were held there. An adjustment room was established in 1929,
Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism, LACMA Press Release 2001 August 5 through October 28, 2001, 1973
Macdonald-Wright in California
"Disappointed with the New York art scene and detesting the city, Macdonald-Wright returned to Los Angeles in 1918 and immediately plunged into a wide variety of projects that challenged a local art community still under the spell of Impressionism. Though he was literally penniless, in the midst of a divorce and overcoming an opium addiction, he quickly established himself as the foremost modernist in the region and, more than anyone, encouraged the development of a distinctively West Coast response to modernism.
"He taught at the Chouinard School of Art (now the California Institute of the Arts), directed the Art Students League of Los Angeles, lectured and published his ideas on art aesthetics and philosophy, and eventually taught at UCLA. He is also credited with organizing the first exhibition of modern art in Southern California, the 1920 Exhibition of American Modernists at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art (the forerunner of LACMA). Throughout his life, Macdonald-Wright was one of the foremost advocates of modern art on the West Coast, organizing numerous shows of his work and that of other progressive artists.
"Macdonald-Wright's painting in Southern California reflected new influences and aspirations. Central to his work was his increasing absorption in all things Asian. In addition to his study of Buddhist and Taoist philosophies, he continued his Chinese studies, frequented Chinatown, and attended traditional Chinese theater. Inspired by Eastern art and thought, Macdonald-Wright's work was now characterized by more subtle and elegant compositions. His landscapes, based on California's many hills and valleys, were rendered in the delicate style of Chinese scroll painting and his still lifes featured formal simplicity and identifiably Asian motifs.
"He maintained that East and West were equal halves of an as yet unrealized whole, and that a harmonious union could only be achieved through the marriage of Western logic and technology to Eastern philosophy and imagination. He not only tirelessly expounded on the inevitable unity of the two cultures, but also attempted to fuse Eastern and Western elements in his own work. One of his most successful examples is Yin Synchromy, No. 3 (1930) that depicts an idealized nude female figure (based on Michelangelo's Creation of Adam and Eve in the Sistine Chapel) floating within an evanescent mountainscape reminiscent of Japan."
"L.A art critic Merle Armitage described Macdonald-Wright as "a formidable man." Distinguished director/writer John Huston, a most formidable man himself, once said, "S. Macdonald-Wright furnished the foundation of whatever education I have."
Kevin Conley Annals of Amusement: How High Can You Go? The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, pp. 48-55. 2004a, 1920s, 1895, 1884, 1827
" . . . By the late nineteen-twenties, there were more than fifteen hundred wooden coasters (but very few loops) at piers and pleasure gardens and trolley parks. Many had to fit into small and oddly shaped beach-front plots, so the designers came up with a whole list of "stunts"-side shakers, shimmies, camelbacks, kangaroo hops, fan curves, swoop curves, jump tracks, figure-eights, and spiral dips. . . . then as now, a roller coaster was an engineer's way of telling jokes.
" . . . "
Laurence Goldstein, The American poet at the movies: a critical history, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1994, 272 pp., 1915
"[Vachel] Lindsay, like many other writers of the teens and 1920s, held contradictory opinions about the dynamism of a mass society serviced by popular media. On the one hand, he was appalled by the Brownian motion of citizens caught up in a frenzy of getting, spending, and recreating. He saw this hectic activity reflected in the "speeded-up, unreasoning hieroglyphics" of silent film, with its montage of often loosely organized images. As an expression of a materialistic civilization, the movies threatened to degenerate into a "lavish department-store basement gone wrong" and the spectator's mind into "a Ringling circus, a gigantic spectacle but not set in order, not harmonized by a stage manager" (24-25). Whitman had exerted his poetic powers to contain and order the prolific spectacle of commodified behaviors and objects by means of his catalogs and the inspired sequencing of his discrete impressions. But Lindsay saw himself and contemporary poets in danger of being overwhelmed by the anarchic conditions of modernity signified by the moving pictures of the Roaring Twenties."
Robert Gottlieb and Irene Wolt* Thinking Big: The Story of the Los Angeles Times, Its Publishers and Their Influence on Southern California, G.P. Putnam's Sons: NY, 1977. 603 pp., 1920s
Part II: 1917-1941
Chapter 12
Chapter 13 Crime Waves, High Powers, and Union "Gorillas"
1. Times Fundamentalism
"Los Angeles, Harry Chandler's Times had often reminded its readers, was the "White Spot of America," blessed by the absence of crime and labor unrest. The message appealed to those middle-class Angelenos of the 1920s and 1930s who identified with the paper's Midwinters, its Monday morning religious sermon reprints, its weather reports on the "storms back east." its "oil news" and "shipping news," its Southland provincialism, and its constant barrrage of anti-radical, anti-union reports.
"The Times was a fundamentalist newspaper. It backed prohibition and vigorously attacked the "wet" Al Smith in 1928 . . ."
Jim Heimann Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1999, 159pp., 1920s
"In the 1920s prohibition increased the problems. . .
"Gangs and crime bosses knew a good thing when they sniffed it and came crawling across the country to set up shop. Bootleggers such as Tony Conero,* Dominic DiCiolla, and Albert Marco, controlled the business. Vice lords Guy McAfee, Nola Hahn, Jack Dragna and Bob Gans commandeered their turf, laying claim to numbers rackets, prostitution, gambling, and slot machines. They were local hoodlums . . ."
[p. 89] [Caption: "Dance marathons masqueraded as entertainment for a fad-hungry Los Angeles whose population gobbled up the sport. The Depression-era craze served as the background for They Shoot Horses Don't They?, a novel set in a seaside ballroom similar to the one advertised in this brochure." Pictured "Official Program All American Championship Non-Stop Dance Marathon No Sleep No Rest How Long Can They Last? 25c Any Time 25c Free Parking"Duke Hall " Master of Ceremonies Now Being Staged at La Monica Ball Room Santa Monica-on the Pier Phone S.M. 22606 Broadcasting Three Times Daily KTM Tune In 760 Kilocycles 8:00-8:05 a.m. 1:45-2 p.m. 10:00-10:30 p.m." And the photo is labeled "Couple No. 4 Charlie Loeb and Billie Jones Marathon Dance Presented by Duke Hall Santa Monica, CA in white ink; in black ink "1,167 hrs" and "To my friend Jack Niedorf? best of luck Your Pal, Charlie Loeb"]
[KTM Santa Monica, CA *11/--/1928 05/06/1935=KEHE, now KABC-790, Los Angeles]
Bruce Henstell Sunshine and Wealth: Los Angeles in the Twenties and Thirties, Chronicle: San Francisco, 1984. 132pp. 1924, 1920s,
"The Pacific Electric. A visitor arriving in Los Angeles in the 1920s would have been immediately impressed by the size of the Pacific Electric, Southern California's streetcar system. Biggest in the world! some native was sure to boast, with 1,000 miles of track connecting cities from San Fernando to Balboa. In 1924, 109,650 passengers rode the rails. Via a PE Big Red Car or a Yellow Car of the Los Angeles Railway, which operated within L.A. city limits, it was only an hour from the surf at Santa Monica to downtown and another forty-five minutes to Pasadena. There was a subway, and there was Mt. Lowe, the magical incline railway behind Pasadena that lifted you up the sheer face of a mountain and then twisted around until you reached the summit and the Alpine Tavern. You could see clear to Catalina and everything in between.
"The native was sure to suggest to the tourist that the best and cheapest way to see Southern California was aboard a Big Red Car. There were 6,000 trains each day over 115 different routes, and the basic fare was five cents. . . . Or the beach cities, Hollywood and Beverly Hills along the Balloon Route. . . .
"In 1915, the president of the PE called Los Angeles an "electric railway paradise." It was. Graceful new cars glided over miles of unobstructed right of way, past spectacular scenery, delivering passengers in, as the company boasted on its logo, speed, safety, comfort. Yet, by 1920, for all its apparent health, the system had begun to die. Its death throes were spasmodic and ultimately irreversible.
"Los Angeles was growing up too fast. There were too many people to serve and they were taking up residence in places increasingly distant from the tracks the PE operated. . . . " p. 23
[p. 27 photo of the Ocean Park Beach ca.1920?]
"The Beaches. . . . On the July 4 weekend in 1925, for example, three-car streetcar trains arrived every four minutes through the day and every one was jammed. . . . " p. 27
" . . . Now, on the night of June 30, 1919, {U.S. enacts National prohibition} . . .
"A long line of cars crowded the roads to Venice and special three-car trains of the Pacific Electric were in service to convey the estimated 100,000 drinking men and women who wanted to bid farewell to inebriation while at the sea. At the Ship Cafe alongside the Venice pier, tables were $300 each. Harlow's the Strand, the Ocean Inn and every other watering hole in Venice and neighboring Ocean Park locked their doors by 10:00 p.m. against the endless crush of revelers." pp. 58 & 59
". . .
" . . . The Ocean Park or Fraser Pier burned twice in the 1920s." p. 106
Paul J. Karlstrom and Susan Ehrlich Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists 1920-1956, Barry M. Heisler Introduction Santa Barbara Museum of Art 1990, 1920s
"Nowhere else in the country were the traditional ideas of urban environment and social structure so inoperative from about 1920. It was as if the city were being reinvented to suit the needs and desires of a new, adolescent society. The result was a world distinguished, and to a remarkable degree formed, by a new set of community values: speed, mobility, constant change and individual choice. In a sense Los Angeles was the first and remains the archetypal twentieth-century city, with the attendant problems and opportunities associated with growth, experimentation, and license.
" . . . In a community that has-more than any other-created itself, the possibility and example for invention and experimentation with a minimum of risk is greatest. The distinction between fine art and popular entertainment/ commercial art is probably more blurred in and around Hollywood during these years than anywhere else in the world and, for that mattter, at any time in history. Los Angeles provided the perfect environment for the emergence of what have now been identified as post-modernist ideas and attitudes. It is entirely possible that, at least in terms of an absence of "requirements" for producing art, Southern California offered an unprecedented freedom to creative individuals . . ."
" . . . "
Stanton Macdonald-Wright* (1890-1973), 1990, 1920s, 1918, 1916, 1913, 1912, 1910, 1907, 1904, 1900, 1890
"In the mid-twenties, Macdonald Wright* codified his theories of color, prompted by his role as a teacher and director of the Los Angeles Art Students League. In his instructive Treatise on Color, published in 1924, he subjected chroma to in-depth analysis, discussing it as pigment and light, physical substance and emotional force. He warned, however, that his findings only had meaning insofar as they yielded aesthetic harmony . . .
" . . . Macdonald-Wright*'s Synchromies stand as ideal paradigms that interpret the region as undefiled Eden. Their dreamy vistas of mountains and valleys, nestled in clouds of tropical color, convey a sense of tranquil well-being, of poised serenity.
"In 1927 Macdonald-Wright* organized a joint exhibition with Morgan Russell at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where he showed again five years later . . . "
hometown.aol.com/_ht_a/bookviewzine/issue127.html -
John Laughery, The Man Who Created Philo Vance 1920s, 1910s
"S. S. van Dine was born Willard Huntington Wright* on October 15, 1887. Reading a variety of mystery novels Willard* wrote his first Philo Vance novel The Benson Murder Case which was published under the name "S. S. Van Dine" to separate himself from the light entertainment. Max Perkins, an editor for Scribners, accepted the manuscript and in 1926 the novel was published. Philo Vance was a hit with the public and Willard was finally a success. There was soon more Philo Vance novels and in 1928 William Powell played Philo in a Paramount movie that also starred Louise Brooks. The second Philo Vance was Basil Rathbone in The Bishop Murder Case (1930). Willard had a good lifestyle but by 1937 the fashion of detective fiction had changed and Willard's style of writing was no longer wanted by Scribners. His last book was the Winter Murder Case. On April 11, 1938 Willard died. By the 1960s both Willard* and Philo Vance were pretty much forgotten by the readers of detective fiction. A good biography that recreates the times of Willard Huntington Wright*."
James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1917
Civic Center-High School
"Santa Monica's Civic Center, including the City Hall, County Building, School District Offices, Civic Auditorium, and Rand Corporation, is located directly south of the downtown district in an area long inaccessible because of the deep arroyo now occupied by the Santa Monica Freeway. Finally opened to development in the mid-'20s by completion of the Main Street Bridge, the area was considered a prime location for some type of public use and was eventually selected as the site for a new Civic Center.
"The Civic Center today includes a number of historical and noteworthy features, among them the following:
"1. Main Street Bridge. An open spandrel arch bridge completed in the mid-'20s. Remarkably similar plans for such a bridge were originally proposed in 1917 by Erminci Gamberi, a merchant on Second Street, to provide a better connection between Ocean Park and Santa Monica."
Esther McCoy Irving Gill 1870-1936 Five California Architects, 1960, Reprinted in Marvin Rand Irving J. Gill: Architect 1870-1936, Gibbs Smith, Publisher: Salt Lake City, UT, Design, Ahde Lahti; Photographs, Marvin Rand, 2006, 238 pp. pp. 219-227, 2006a, 1960, 1920s
"At the end of the twenties there was a brief respite. Gill received two commissions, the Christian Science Church for Coronado, and the Oceanside City Hall, Fire Station and Police Station. It was while this work was in progress that he married for the first time at the age of 58. His wife was Mrs. Marion Brashears of Palos Verdes. Although he had always been enormously popular with women, he appeared to have committed himself to one woman happily enough-judging from a letter written during a brief separation just following his marriage. "My wife," he wrote, "how beautifully the word is. A word I've akways wanted to use." The couple went to Palos Verdes to live, but less than ten months later he wrote in his notebook "Moved to Carlsbad 1:50 p.m. Thursday March 7, 1929."
"The move came seven months before the market crash. In Carlsbad he lived in a house set in an acre or two of orchard belonging to his wife. It had no inside plumbing or gas for cooking and heating. Shortly after his arrival Gill had a heart attack; although he was weakened. he continued to work."
Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979) (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts), 1920s
Annexaton
"Venice's municipal government was burdened with a host of problems. The city tax rate had reached the maximum allowed by state law. The municipal debt was staggering and seemed impossible to liquidate. Charges of corruption and incompetence were leveled against a number of the trustees. The treasurer's embezzlement had further undermined any confidence the electorate might have had in Venice's ability to confront the world of the 1920s.
"Instead of internal change the municipal reformers turned their hopes eastward towards Los Angeles. With a seemingly endless supply of Owens Valley water and a relatively low tax rate, Los Angeles had been growing at a spectacular rate. The growth came primarily through annexations of previously unincorporated areas and smaller cities. Four square miles of beach front would be a handsome addition to Los Angeles' list of attractions.
"But the first attempt at an annnexation election was not with Los Angeles but with neighboring Santa Monica. The border between Venice and Santa Monica actually bisected several Ocean Park businesses. The consolidation of the two cities would, proponents claimed, provide adequate sewage, unite the Venice and Ocean Park amusement zones, remove the menace of Los Angeles annexation and permit construction of a harbor in the Playa Del Rey section of Venice.
"The annexation proposal went to the voters February 20, 1923. It was defeated 1466 to 922. Within a month petitions containing over 2000 signatures were presented to the Venice City Clerk asking for annexation to Los Angeles
"The measure stirred intense controversy. The Venice Chamber of Commerce asked for the en masse resignation of the trustees to restore local confidence. Signs reading "To Annexation and Ruin" pointed toward Los Angeles. A member of the audience leaped up and attempted to shoot Judge Fred Taft when he was giving an anti-annexation speech at the Neptune Theater.
"The results of the July 11, 1923, election were announced at 10 p.m. accompanied by siren blasts and whistles. Venice voters had chosen to remain independent by a margin of 1,849 to 1,503.
"Government matters continued to deteriorate in Venice. The Venice Band's contract was cancelled. All city employees earning over $4.50 per day were asked to resign. A county health inspector reported an epidemic of rats running loose within the city. The District Attorney started a series of raids on local speakeasies, gambling dens and "blind pigs."
"A "Committee of 100" was formed to push again for annexation to Los Angeles. They claimed it was a step that would "generally drag their blessed Venice out of the gutter." A billboard advertisement announced that "Annexation is worth any price."
"The amusement industry was afraid Los Angeles "blue laws" would ban late-night and Sunday dancing and close many of Venice's concessions. Business reflected on the new $8.5 million city hall planned for Los Angeles and wondered how long it would be before Los Angeles taxes began to rise.
"As a last-minute tactic, a number of anti-Los Angeles Venetians proposed a consolidation with Santa Moica as the lesser of two evils. Thornton Kinney pledged $10,000 to work for that goal if the Los Angeles annexation bid could be defeated. His sole interest was, he said, "to save the dear Venetians from getting into the grasping villainy of that juggernaut monster neighbor of cannibalistic tendencies, Los Angeles."
"The Venetians didn't want to be saved. On October 2, 1925, they voted for annexation to Los Angeles, 3,130 to 2, 216.
"There was talk of obtaining an injunction against the annexation based on the lack of contiguiity between the two cities but no legal steps were taken. The official transfer took place November 25, 1925. The City of Venice became a suburb of Los Angeles."
Cecilia Rasmussen L.A. Then and Now: In 'Whites Only' Era, an Oasis for L.A.'s Blacks Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2005 B2
Inkwell in Santa Monica was the only local beach African Americans could go to in the 1920s. It was also home to the first black surfer.
"When 17-year-old Verna Deckard and her fiance, 21-year-old Arthur Lewis, visited Santa Monica in 1924, Inkwell Beach was the only place they could spread a blanket.
""All the rest of the beach … you couldn't go there unless you belonged to a club, and we couldn't belong to a club" because of racial restrictions, she recalled in a four-hour interview for the Los Angeles Public Library's Shades of L.A. project, which was taped before Verna Deckard Lewis Williams, as she later became, died in 1998.
"During the 1920s, Inkwell was an oasis for African American beachgoers &emdash; the only part of the sand they were allowed to set foot on, except, briefly, for a small section of Manhattan Beach. The 200-foot-long roped-off area at the foot of Pico Boulevard was marked "for Negroes only." Although racial restrictions on public beaches were invalidated by the courts in 1927 and generally disappeared by the 1930s, blacks continued to call Inkwell their own through the early 1950s.
"The impetus for Inkwell came when a young black chauffeur named Arthur Valentine and his family and friends brazenly settled on a section of the "whites only" beach for Santa Monica's Memorial Day festivities in 1920. Three police officers ordered them to leave.
"When the group refused, one officer picked up and "tossed aside a small black child who got in their way," Douglas Flamming wrote in "Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America," a book published in 2005. The police beat Valentine and then shot him, Flamming wrote.
"When Valentine filed a complaint, the authorities charged him with assault with a deadly weapon. If he had had a weapon, historical records do not indicate what it was.
"The Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission had the power to investigate Valentine's complaint but refused because of the charges against him. He turned to Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Thomas Lee Woolwine, who was highly respected for his unbiased treatment of minorities. Woolwine filed felony assault charges against the officers.
"Over the next three years, Flamming wrote, Valentine was assaulted by the police periodically. Woolwine was heckled by the Ku Klux Klan. Finally, the charges against the officers were dismissed for lack of evidence. The charges against Valentine were dropped too.
"The incident prompted blacks to claim their own sliver of public beach near the Crystal Plunge, a former open-air swimming pool that had been destroyed by a flood in 1905, then abandoned. The area was a polluted, debris-filled spot that no one else wanted. Around 1922, it became known as Inkwell Beach.
"Inkwell offered ocean breezes, swimming, volleyball and a small, black-owned bathhouse called La Bonita, which rented swimsuits to black beachgoers. It was on Pico Boulevard several blocks off the beach.
"Williams, who was from Texas, loved Los Angeles because blacks had more freedom here than in the South. "You couldn't even go to the park in Texas," she said.
"But it was far from perfect. Most black visitors to Inkwell rode in the back of the Big Red Cars along the Pacific Electric trolley lines down Pico Boulevard to Santa Monica Beach. Williams drove her own little Ford, often filled with the "Joy Girls," her new group of friends.
"Since the early 1900s, a black community had thrived near 4th and Bay streets, where the 100-year-old Phillips Chapel CME Church stands today. But coastal land was becoming more valuable and, as Santa Monica's black population increased, whites' hostility and racism grew.
"In 1922, homeowners formed the Santa Monica Bay Protective League to drive blacks out, according to newspaper coverage at the time. "Settlement of Negroes Is Opposed," a Times headline read. The group's agenda, The Times wrote, was "eliminating all objectionable features or anything that now is or will prove a menace to the bay district … or prove detrimental to our property values."
"Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce President Sylvester L. Weaver Sr. urged fellow chamber directors to stop the sale of private beach in Santa Monica before the public found "the ocean fenced off." He continued: "In front of where I have a summer residence … a piece of land has been fenced off and none but colored people allowed. I was born pretty far south to have that in front of my house."
"In actuality, the beach was public; it was merely fenced off, as many other areas were for whites.
" Black investors had tried to purchase the adjacent Crystal Plunge site; they were rejected. But in 1924, it was sold to white developers who wanted to build a private beach club and hotel. Even before they broke ground, builders erected fences for the "safety of our members," The Times reported.
"The Italian Renaissance Revival building, designed by architect Charles F. Plummer, became the Club Casa del Mar, opening in 1926. During Prohibition, wealthy white tourists went there for swinging beach parties, dinner dances and illicit gambling and drinking.
"Next door, Inkwell patrons reaped the benefits of the fancy hotel by dancing to the tunes of big bands that played at the posh address.
"Blacks also played volleyball and took late-night dips in the surf with the help of the hotel's floodlight system.
"Williams remembered once when playing with a beach ball at Inkwell the ball accidentally flew over the fence onto Club Casa Del Mar's turf.
""When I ran over there to get it, a little old lady comes running up to me saying, 'You got no business over here.' And I just looked at her, didn't say anything. I just took my ball and went back, where I belonged."
"In the early 1920s, developers in Santa Monica and elsewhere put racial restrictions on deeds, barring "Negroes from ownership and occupation" of land.
"When Sunday night dances at a black-owned club, George Caldwell's Dance Hall at Pico Boulevard and 3rd Street, were a little too rowdy, neighbors complained and the city banned dances.
"When a group of black investors tried to build a resort, including a bathhouse with beach access and an amusement center, the city denied construction permits.
"Property owners pulled the plug on all land sales to black buyers. (The U.S. Supreme Court struck down racial covenants in 1948.)
" . . ."
Karl Rydgren* (1914- ) I Remember, Unpublished Ms., 1975 [Reprinted 2005], 1933, 1929, 1924, 1920s, 1919, 1914,
"[My parents, Erick Arthur and Clara Ericka Rydgren*, my brother, Torsten, and I] moved into our first home in 1919 at 1507 17th Street in Santa Monica, and lived there until 1933. [There were two more brothers to follow, Clarence and Erick.] (It's now Culligan Water Softener Co.) This home was the start of my formative years and caused me to remember how the Pacific Electric Streetcars traveled back and forth to Los Angeles along Santa Monica Boulevard. Broadway was paved up to 14th Street, Colorado Boulevard was paved up to Lincoln Boulevard. Colorado had ditches on the south side. They placed wooden ramps over the ditches for traffic.
"Ditches were dug along Broadway for gas, water and sewer lines by Latino laborers with pick and shovel. As kids, we used to talk to them while they ate a lunch of tortillas and beans. They impressed my friends and I a lot-we were so young.
"The J.D. Kneen Paving Company graded the streets with mule-drawn Fresno scrapers. The asphalt was poured and leveled with big hand rakes. A huge steam roller followed to finish the job.
"My brother Todd got up at 4 am to deliver milk for Sweets Dairy, located below Colorado at Centinella Avenue. I used to substitute for him from time to time. We both went to McKinley School at 20th Street and Arizona Avenue. My brother and I used to get up early before dawn and pick snails at the big nursery where St. John's Hospital now stand. (Some of the tall palm trees are still there.) Also, at that time there were many semi-tropical plants and bushes that served as a backdrop for motion pictures. We were paid 25 cents a gallon for snails, which we killed with salt.
"A new school was built at 24th Street about this time. One day, I was sent to the supply office for my teacher. As I went out of the door on the second floor, I could see all the way to the Ocean. At that very moment eleven (11) huge water spouts shot up from the ocean. I called the teacher and she told me they were mini tornadoes at sea.
"Haines Grain and Feed Company occupied the entire block from 17th Street to 19th Street on the south side of Colorado. The grain building was built of wood. But the hay building consisted of brick, and still stands today on 17th Street. My family used to shop for the entire week at Johnson's Market in the 1400 block of 4th Street. Later the Pioneer Market was opened up on Third Street. On several occasions they would hang an entire buffalo up in front of the market. They would cut it up for sale. On the sidewalk they had a painting of a covered wagon scene in color.
"We used to go down under the livery building at the southeast corner of Third Street and Broadway. There were numerous old and fancy horse carriages and empty horse stalls from an earlier era. The upper floor was a Studebaker Agency with a repair garage in the rear.
"My dad bought two Saxon Six automobiles from one of the mechanics who worked there. These cars never got us past Beverly Hills in our attempt to visit our uncle in Los Angeles. Dad spent more time under those cars than in them.
"Dad was a house painter by day, but used to paint dramatic oil paintings at night as a hobby. He also made his own frames of wood, and gilded them with gold leaf. I still have some of his sea and land paintings. He painted in great detail, like the Masters.
"We went on picnics from the church, and also helped cut hay on Ocean Avenue. There was a long row of eucalyptus trees on the north side and clover fields on the south side. We took photos of the Douglas Around-the-World airplanes. There were U.S. World War I Army soldiers everywhere with their legs wrapped in leggings. They shouldered rifles.
"Often after school went to the Douglas factory on the other side of Wilshire.There was a W.W. I Jenny airplane parked by the factory. West of the factory was a very deep ditch that drained the north side of Santa Monica. Together with George Lipscomb (later S.M.P.D.), we would hunt rabbits there from a Model T Ford at night. George's father was a Santa Monica Policeman and very well respected. Charlie Dice (later Police Chief) drove his son and me to the Race Track in Beverly Hills on his motorcycle. Charlie later switched to the Sheriff's Department, and later was loaned to the SMPD as Chief of Police."
" . . .
"During Prohibition, Tommy Carn, a detective (known as the man with a thousand faces because of the disguises he wore on raids), would lead police raids on peoples' houses if he heard they had beer or other alcohol. He just broke in and arrested the people and took the evidence. A Japanese friend's, Masii Akishi Yoshi, Mom make homebrew in her basement, but the beer was too green, and exploded in the bottles (one at a time.) By the time the police raided, all the beer bottles had already broken, and the beer had soaked through the dirt floor. However, the Mom had good Sake hidden in a chicken coop out back that the police never found."
" . . .
"I have never seen storms like the ones in the 1920s. Nearly all the boats moored in the Santa Monica Bay were torn off their moorings and smashed against the shore. Some were re-floated. Capt. T.J. Morris*, Abe Gregory*, and Paul Brooks* were drowned when they were lowered in a skiff from the Pier, and it turned over. T.J. Morris* was found on the bottom of the skiff. He had each drowned man in each of his arms. The boat they had gone after was later re-floated.
"Jack Duggan*, an employee of Morris*', tried to get through the surf but was flipped over backwards. He was smashed up against the beach with only two corks left in his life jacket.
" . . .
"The Depression was preceded by lots of easy money and bootleg whiskey. Scotch and London Dry gin was popular at $5 a quart. Good home made wine cost $1 per gallon.
"Huge covered trucks came down the Coast Road from Malibu Ranch early in the morning. They were suspected of hauling booze from rum runners who landed up the coast."
Santa Monica Municipal Band Programs for Ocean Park Concerts: Week of June 18th to Sunday, June 23rd
Advertisements: 1920s
("Sparton
Corporation was founded with 15 employees and $15,000 capital in 1900
in Jackson, Michigan, by Philip H. and Winthrop Withington. Shortly,
thereafter, the Withington's were joined by William Sparks and the
company became known as the Sparks-Withington Company .
"First
products were ferrules and small steel parts for agricultural
implements. Early in the history of the company they also made
automotive stampings such as hubcaps, brake drums and universal joint
castings.
"1909-Car
radiator cooling fan assemblies were introduced. Some 7,000
assemblies were manufactured the first year. By 1917 production was
over 275,000 units.
"1911-First
all electric horn in the nation developed and introduced to the
automotive industry. "Sparton" was adopted as a trade name.
"1914-Hudson
adopted the horn as standard equipment; first in the history of the
American automobile industry.
"1914-1918-In
World War I, Sparton made helmets, shell casings and alarm signals,
hand grenades and Liberty airplane engine radiators.
"1925-Sparton
introduced battery powered radios.
"1926-Sparton
introduced the first all electric radio, known as "Radio's Richest
Voice". Another first in radio included the first push button tuned
set and the first electric eye tuner.
"1930-Sparton
introduced its radio line in Canada, forming Sparton of Canada,
Ltd.
"1938-development
work was started on television receivers which were field tested in
1939.)
Amanda
Schacter (ed.) Santa Monica Landmarks Santa Monica Landmarks
Commission, 1990.
9 Horatio West Court
140 Hollister Ave.
Built: Circa 1919
Architect: Irving Gill
Designated 1 February 1979
"Horatio West Court is among the finest remaining examples of Irving Gill's work in the Los Angeles area.
" . . .The two large upstairs bedrooms face north onto a sunporch which was glassed in during the 1920's. In the 1970's, the buildings were restored to their present state. Horatio West Court is listed on the National Register of Historic Places." p. 6
18 Moses Hostetter* House
2601 Second Street
Built: 1893
Designated 4 December 1990
"This Victorian era single family home was constructed in 1893 by Moses Hostetter*, an Iowa farmer who migrated to Santa Monica in 1893. The only alteration to the structure is the removal of the upper gable, which occurred sometime in the 1920's.
"The house was carefully restored during the 1980's." p. 10
Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1928, 1920s, 1919
Chapter3 Pier Expansion and Rebuilding (1919-1928)
[Because all the contractors' bids were high, the City decided to build the new pier itself, and this time with creasoted pilings . . .]
" . . .The pier officially opened without fanfare on January 19, 1921. . . "
" . . .
"Cutthroat competition began in 1920 when Ernest Pickering doubled the size of his Ocean Park Pier . . . He rebuilt and enlarged the pier's dance hall and added eight new amusement rides including a new racing roller coaster. The Kinney Company, in answer to the competition, upgraded their Venice Pier with a new roller coaster and several other attractions, but then faced disaster when their pier was destroyed by fire five days before Christmas.
" . . .
"The Looff family agreed that their pier needed a dance pavilion and entered into a lease agreement with Cramer and Reed. . . . The completed building's style would be oriental with turrets and towers.
"The Palisades Pavilion dance hall opened Saturday June 4, 1921. It was managed by P.A. Bishop who had operated Abbot Kinney's Venice Pier Dance Hall before the disastrous fire. Silvey's Orchestra featuring Frank Lewis, Harry Rowe, Bernard Saenz, and Chadwick Silvey [played] Friday and Saturday night and on Sunday afternoons.
"During the following year there was talk about extending the Municipal Pier another thousand feet to accomodate more fishermen, and the possibility of constructing a large harbor. Speakers at a dinner of the Greater Santa Monica Club at the Sunset Inn on June 9, 1922 discussed the proposed harbor. Five hundred diners, representing all the bay cities, listend to Jack Davis of Douglas Aircraft Company explain that his company was building torpedo sea planes for the government and they needed a protected harbor for practice. They hoped to interest the federal government in funding a Santa Monica Harbor.
"Commodore Soiland of the Southern California Yachting Association said, " a safe anchorage in the Santa Monica Bay will make it a haven of the yachting fleet on the Pacific, if not the world." . . .
" . . . There was the 1921 mid winter expo and carnival that featured an aerial circus, huge electrical displays and an auto show, and a weekend in 1922 when Ted Miller, the star rider of the L.A. Motorcycle, jumped from the pier into the ocean. . . . The 1923 [annual picnic] attracted ten thousand people who came for a free lunch. They were served from several hundred picnic tables loaded with food. Children were treated to free amusement rides that day.
" . . . it was announced on February 26, 1923 that [the Looff family] would sell their pier . . ." p.45
"Finally, in mid September a syndicate headed by E.B. Conliss, D. B. Pascoe and C.D. Terry, all local businessmen, made an offer to the Looff estate that was accepted.. . .
"The syndicate's Santa Monica Amusement Company had ambitious plans. . . . Frank Prior and Fred Church, Venice's famed roller coaster builders were commissioned to design a superlative $75,000 twister coaster . . . Arthur Looff . . . would supervise its construction. . . .
"E.B. Conliss assured the public . . . quality amusements, . . .Kramer as Pier Manager . . . freedom from rowdyism . . .
"The eighty foot high Whirlwind Dipper roller coaster opened on March 30, 1924 . . . Mayor Steele was present to handle the brakes for the first car . . .
" . . .
"The Whirlwind Dipper was a 'Bobs' design, short for bob sled, that Fred Church had perfected first on the Venice Pier then refined in his Ocean Park Pier designs. His newly patented cars with three point suspension and a shorter wheel base enabled the cars to negotiate the banked sharper turns he favored. . . . This allowed Church to design fast but compact roller coasters especially suited for the limited space on amusement piers. . . .
". . . during April and May. . . The Aeroscope ride was moved seaward of the coaster and installed on a new platform . . .
" . . . owners . . . selected T.H. Eslick to design the La Monica Ballroom and supervise its construction. He had achieved international fame in designing amusement palaces worldwide. Since the building would be the largest ballroom on the west coast, Eslick had to sink extra strength pilings down to bedrock to support its weight. He chose a Spanish theme for the La Monica's exterior and a modified French Renaissance motif for the interior of the huge 227 x 180 foot building. To add grace to the building, the ballroom's gray Spanish stucco exterior was crowned with a dozen towering minarets, each was twelve feet square and rising fifteen feet to twenty feet above the roof line. The minaret's caps were outlined with hundreds of lights at night.
"The La Monica's interior ws ingeniously designed to handle 5000 patrons at a time. The architect's simple yet perfect system of checking wraps, many spacious entrances to the dance floor, numerous ticket booths, a beautiful promenade and a mezzanine balcony furnished with upholstery chairs and doge divans gave everyone a pleasant experience. Refreshments were available at the La Monica Fountain and Cafe located on the east side of the mezzanine level.
"The ballroom's 15,000 square foot hard maple floor had beautiful inlaid patterns to break the monotony of its immense surface. Thirty-six thousand strips of maple in ten foot lengths were used to achieve the effect. Beneath it was a 'spring floor' made by layering the dance floor on an especially constructed subfloor.
"Thirty six bell shaped transparent chandeliers were suspended from the ballroom ceiling by gold ropes. The wall decorations, painted by Russian artists, depicted a submarine garden. The effect gave patrons the illusion of dancing on coral. The final cost of the building exceeded $150,000.
"The La Monica Ballroom opened with great fanfare on Wednesday evening July 23, 1924 at 7:30 p.m. The wealthy, the famous and numerous Hollywood silent screen stars arrived in limousines to attend the dedication of the structure by Mayor John C. Steele and his fellow Commissioners. . . . dance[d] to the sounds of the twenty member La Monica Orchestra. Don Clark, director, had come directly from Paul Whiteman's Orchestra in New York City.
"Customers, who bought dance tickets for a dime, danced the Charleston, fox trot, waltz and pivoting, a dance where couples turned continuously as they moved rapidly around the dance floor. At the end of each five minute dance, attendents used a big long rope to herd the couples off the dance floor and keep them separate from the new group coming onto the floor. Single women would watch from the side until an eligible male would ask them to dance. Couples, who usually came together, traditionally occupied the loges.
"Roy Randolf operated his La Monica School for Dancing within the building. He offered classes primarily for adults in all aspects of ballroom dancing. In the late fall he staged a series of free Saturday matinees by and for children. Each week he featured a session devoted to folk and old fashioned dances of a particular country like Spain, Russia, China or Japan." p. 51
"While the Santa Monica Amusement Company's initial success was attributed to the opening of the La Monica Ballroom and the Whirlwind Dipper coaster, it also benefitted from the fire that totally destroyed Ocean Park's competing amusement zone in January 1924 and the growth of Santa Monica's nearby beach clubs. The Santa Monica Athletic Club approximately a half mile north of the pier debuted in 1922. It was followed in 1923 by The Beach Club and the Santa Monica Swimming Clubs that were built side by side. These clubs provided a steady stream of wealthy clientele who would patronize the pier's amusements and dance hall.{?} {I'm not sure what this would mean other than the clubs were someplace people could drink.}
"In December Jack and Tilford Harter of the H & H Holding Co. announced plans to build their two million dollar Casa del Mar beach club on the ocean front at Pico Blvd. . . .They obtained the Pico Pier franchise from the city in February 1925 . . .
" . . .There had been live bait boats like Mel Sheares' Ursula that serviced the pier as early as 1920 . . . in late 1921, Captain T.J. Morris began operating the first fishing excursion boats.
In 1925 Morris became head of . . . Morris Pleasure Fishing Company., charter boats that cruised for rock bass, barracuda, and yellowtail. His smaller boats were used as water taxis . . .
" . . . A.A. Hernage operated two fishing boats . . . The Owl Boat company [1926-1933] . . .
" . . . F.S. Volk, the proprietor of the tackle and bait house. . .
"At the end of March 1925, the Southern California Steamship Co. applied to the city to land their 660 passenger steamer 'Long Beach' at the Municipal Pier. The ship was equipped with a big ballroom . . .
" . . .
"The company's La Monica Ballroom continued to do fabulous business. Guest orchestras led by Paul Whiteman and Glen Oswald appeared throughout the spring and summer seasons. The La Monica Ballrom Orchestra directed by Carol Laughner was hired for the 1925-26 winter session. the east coast band was unique in that all its members could sing like a glee club. They were on hand when Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner sponsored its first dance contest. The newspaper offered a $5000 prize to the best couple who danced the Charleston.
"One of the La Monica's most exciting nights was the Friday before Halloween 1925 when the ballroom was almost robbed. It started when four young men driving a car with red wheels held up the Montana Bus Lines office. The police set up a dragnet and located the car in the La Monica parking lot on the pier. Police headquarters telephoned Lincoln Hart, the ballroom's manager, to inform him that the dance hall was in danger of being robbed. He was advised that the police were on their way and to close if possible."
"Plain-clothes men arrived shortly afterwards to round up the bandits. The manager opened up the arsenal and issued pistols to his responsible help. The nightwatchman had palsy so instead he was given a cutlass. Each man was responsible for guarding a ticket booth. The police arrived in force shortly afterwards. They even brought a shotgun squad for backup. . . .
" . . . Garfield Leon, Hart's assistant manager, explained that the young men were his friends and frequented the dance hall often."
"On Monday February 1, 1926 waves from a huge mid Pacific storm began to threaten the Santa Monica Bay piers. The waves built up throughout the day until they were breaking during the night atop a fifteen foot high building at the end of Ocean Park's pier. The landing stage at the end of Santa Monica's Municipal Pier soon crumbled under the highest breakers since 1916.
"The storm continued throughout the following day as the giant waves began pulling up pilings by their roots and hammering the standing timbers into kindling wood. The night watchman notified the owners that the dance hall's foor was buckling. Workers arrived immediately after midnight to remove everything of value including a $2000 grand piano. Even boats that had been dragged onto the pier for safety were taken off the pier to shore.
"Word spread quickly . . . that the pier's collapse was imminent. Thousands swarmed the ocean front and atop the palisades . . . Police had to establish fire lines . . ." p. 57
"High tide peaked shortly after noon on Wednesday February 3rd. William Murdoch, a noted construction engineer, predicted that if the structure could survive until 1 p.m. that day, it would survive. . . .
"When the storm subsided slightly later that day, constuction workers found the ballroom floor buckled beyond repair. It had sunk three feet on the west side near the orchestra pit. The three principal owners were making determined plans to save the ballroom, but they were philosophical about the outcome. . . .
"Reconstruction began on Feb. 5th. Workers tore a hole in the side of the ballroom and moved a heavy pile driver inside. . . .
"The owners blamed the city. . . .
"The La Monica's interior was restored with loving care. the owners employed one hundred local artisans and construction workers. A.B. Rice, the famed dance floor builder, laid down the new dance floor. The ballrooom's decorations were the conception of the Russian artist V. Ulianoff and his partner John Thackento who painted the unusual motif, a mixture of Oriental, Russian and barbaric art. They used pale tints to blend in quietly with the lights and decorative schemes.
"Thousands including numerous Hollywoood celebrities attended the La Monica's gala reopening on March 25, 1926. Sally Rand, Follies girl and movie actress danced the Charleston and demonstrated various steps of the latest dance craze." p. 58
"The winter storm season wasn't over yet. On April 8th high seas, some say worse than the awesome February storm, tore the fishing fleet loose from their moorings near the Municipal Pier. Captain T.J. Morris, Paul Brooks and Lee Gregory tried to prevent a floundering launch, the "W.K." from wrecking the Municipal Pier. They were washed overboard and the unattended boat was later dashed to pieces south of the pier in front of the Edgewater Club. When Charles Trecy and Jack Dugan tried to rescue the drowning men, their small skiff was capsized by a huge breaker. Lifeguards rescued them but were unable to help the three fishermen who were swept south under the Crystal Pier and crushed against its pilings. Morris's body was found a week later offshore in El Segundo.
"These two destructive storms prompted the Greater Santa Monica Club to revive their harbor plan to protect the pier. They hired Taggart Aston, constulting engineer, . . . His plans were presented to members of the club and to Howard B. Carter, city engineer at their May 5th meeting.
" . . .
". . . R. J. Conners, the Edgewater Club's president opposed the harbor because it would end surf bathing in front of his club . . .
"Santa Monica's eleven beach clubs by the summer of 1927 were becoming a major political force in matters relating to the beach front. These clubs with a membership of 25,000 . . . extended one and a half miles from Pico Blvd. to the city's northern limit. The Casa del Mar, Edgewater and Breakers were located south of the pier, while the Deuville, Sea Breeze, Miramar, Club Chateau, Wavecrest, Santa Monica Athletic, The Beach Club, and Gables were located north of the pier.
"Most of the clubs had swimming pools, beach cabanas, banquet rooms and extensive social and sports programs. . . . the Del Mar drew its membership from Santa Monica's and Los Angeles' business and professional people . . .
" . . ." p. 61
"In September 1927 the Santa Monica Amusement Company, which owned the Looff Pier and controlling interest in the La Monica Ballroom and the Whirlwind Dipper, was sold to a syndicate headed by Dr. Frank J. Wagner. . . Wagner was one of the four previous owners. . . .
"City Council granted Dr. Wagner permission to expand the pier at their February 20, 1928 meeting . . . [who] died of a heart attack . . . June 27, 1928, age 55.
"His widow hired Ernest Pickering to manage the pier for her. Pickering had been very active in the area since he installed his first rides on the Abbot Kinney Pier in 1909. He had owned the Pickering Pier in Ocean Park from 1919 to 1923, then moved to San Bernardino to manage Pickering Park, a small amusement area. He proved to be a capable general manager.
"The La Monica reopened for the 1928 season with T.S. Eslick as the new manager. Each week featured novel attractions, surprises and personal appearances. The opening night's attraction was the beautiful transcontinental horseback rider, Miss Vonceil Viking, whose horse galloped from New York City to Los Angeles in 120 days. Management held a La Monica Club night featuring old time dances staged with an old time orchestra, Carnival night on the lines of the big annual festivals in Europe and Collegiate Night featuring college dancing and prizes for the winning contestants.
" . . ." p. 64
{Page 46 1924 photo of the Municipal and La Monica Piers shows the La Monica Ballroom and the Whirlwind Dipper roller coaster behind the Carousel building. There are signs for the Overlook Hotel & Apartments; the Royal Cafe serving fish and clam dinners; La Monica Ballroom Auto Park; . . . House Auto Park; a Fish Market, Hollymaid Ice Cream; The La Monica School of Dancing (in what looks like Sinbad's) in front of the La Monica Ballroom;, but there seems to be a Fish Bait and Tackle and Auto Park immediately in to the east of the Ballroom; and the photo on page 47 shows "The 80 foot high Whirlwind Dipper roller coaster's track outlined by thousands of lights at night. The coaster, a Prior & Church 'bobs' design, had tight twisting turns along 3300 feet of track . . ."}
{p.48 1924 photo shows the La Monica Ballroom and the banquet hall next to the billiard hall had not yet been moved next to the ballroom; there is also a building on the seaward side of the Promenade, immediately to the south of the La Monica Pier which includes or is adjacent itself to a boathouse: there seems to be windows overlooking the beach and separated roofs or courts inside.}
{p.49 is a 1928 diagram of the La Monica & Municipal Piers showing the location of the Looff Carousel & Hippodrome; Whirlwind Dipper Coaster; Bowling and Billiards; Bennett's Seafood Grotto; Auto Parking Area; Whip Ride; Circle Swing; Eli 24 Ferris Wheel; Shooting Gallery; Restaurant; Aeroscope ride; La Monica Ballroom; and at the very end, a Cafe.}
{Photo page 50 undated but shows the La Monica Ballroom nearly awash, afloat and captioned "The La Monica Ballroom was the largest ballroom on the west coast. It's 15,000 square foot dance floor could accomodate 5000 danceers. The building's Spanish Stucco exterior was crowned with a dozen minarets that were lit up at night. The Aeroscope ride was moved west of the roller coaster and raised on a pedestal.}
{Pages 52 and 53 1926 double page photo American Legion Long Beach Post #123 sponsored beauty contest during their annual Interpost Water Carnival and Mardi Gras on and in front of the Aero . . . and one can see in the mist Casa Del Mar Beach Club, the midway entrance to La Monica Pier and on the north side, a sign advertising Tango. On the right side among the spectators are the Santa Monica Municipal Band in Salvation Army uniforms and in the middle behind the contestants are members of another band in World War I helmets. At the very center is a trumpeter in a fez and pilot goggles.}
{Page 54 is a 1924 postcard of the crowds at Crystal Pier at the foot of Hollister St., The Rendezvous Ballroom on the Crystal Pier appears to be at the foot of Hollister on the sand.]
{Page 55, mid-1920s south of the pier view of the Breakers, Edgewater and Casa del Mar.}
{p. 56 1927 Movie Shoot south of the pier}
{p. 57 1922 Barrs Flying Circus Flight over the Ocean Park Pier, the Dome Theater is clearly a dome.}
{Spectators gathered on the beach and on the playground equipment to watch the 1926 storm batter the SM Pier.]
{P. 59 1926 Photo of the La Monica Ballroom nearly falling into the sea.}
{P. 62 1927 photo of Evening Outlook newsboys; Owl Boat Co., fishing boats.}
{P. 63 1927 Sunday View north from the Crystal Pier to the Santa Monica Pier, packed solid with sitters and umbrella, as though it were a concert with "Tom's Place Pacific Fish Dinners Sandwiches Coffee East Side Drink Coca Cola Sealed in Sterilized Bottles" in front of the Del Mar Club and others. A difficult to read sign which may be repeated is EZ2TAN Salon, deciphered from a later photo.}
Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987, 176 pp., 1924, 1923, 1922, 1920
Chapter 4: Setbacks, Rebuilding, & Political Confusion (1920-1924)
{p. 72 postcard of Lick's dome Pier, 1922; Frolic ride on the Pickering Pier, 1920}
{p.73 photo of Dentzel Carousel on the Pickering Pier in Ocean Park, 1920}
". . . Ocean Park Pier owner, Fredrick Pickering, and amusement ride designers Fred Church and Frank Prior, who took over after his father's death . . . {razed} the old 'Rapids' ride to make space for a new roller coaster designed by John A. Miller . . . the 70 foot high 'Big Dipper' featured dips on the curves as well as the straight-aways . . . opened May 8th, 1920. . .
"Leonard Crandell was busy razing his Scenic Railroad and planned to move it to Ocean Park. The 1500 seat California Theater was to be built on the former coaster site. New attractions near the end of the pier included the Bug House, an illusion ride where one sat in a swinging chair that appeared to swing higher and higher. In reality the walls rocked back and for, higher and higher, until the room turned upside down around the nearly stationary customers. With the nearby Pig Slide the player had to throw a ball through a circular hole to star the animal performers. The little pigs that were released from their pens slid down an incline and were then herded back to their pens by a trained fox terrier. In addition, a Noah's Ark attraction depicting the biblical story opened near the pier entrance.
"Construction began in March on the expansion of Ocean Park's Pickering Pier and the addition of five exciting new rides. Pickering, . . . . was doubling the size of his pier to 400,000 square feet. It would be the largest pier in the world. . . .
"Crandell decided to design and build a brand new racing roller coaster on the old Ben Hur site instead of reconstructing his outdated scenic railroad. His new Blarney Racer wasn't a very fast ride . . .It share the site with a Ye Old Red Mill ride whose course ran under the arches of the racing coaster. . . On the far end of the site was a rather unique attraction, the Monkey Speedway Auto Races. It was a game in which monkeys would peddle miniature autos along three tracks and people could bet on the winner of each race." p.73 and 76.
"Pickering rebuild and enlarged the pier's dance hall and placed new rides around it. The Captive Aeroplane and Tango rides were built directly opposite the Crackerbox Dance Hall. Over the Top, a big hit at Luna Park in Coney Island, was installed by Henry Riehl in the area west of the dance hall. It was a cross between a Virginal Reel and a small spiral coaster. The rotating saucer shaped cars, traveling up, over, and down the 30 degree slope, steadily spiraled inward until they exited through a tunnel to the outer loop's station.
"The 'Frolic' ride was placed directly across from the 'Ye Old Red Mill'. Twenty four people rode chariots that whirled around a circle 200 feet in circumference. The chariots tipped forward and backwards at a 45 degree angle, and swayed outward with centrifugal force.
"William Dentzel's beautiful 72 animal 'Carousel' occupied an 80 foot square building between the Frolic and the new Rosemary Theater. This Philadelphia-made ride along with its mechanical organ cost $22,500. Other attractions making their debut that season were Over the Rockies, a ride in a tub in and out of dark tunnels., The Bug House, a shooting gallery, and the 'Kentucky Derby' game.
"Ocean Park residents were proud of their new pier, and realized that they needed a convention center to accommodate thousands of visiting delegates. They approved $375,000 in bonds in the May election to build a new auditorium, bandstand, and auto park on the north side of the Pickering Pier. The bandstand plaza in front of the auditorium could entertain 10,000 people, and the auto park set on pilings behind the building could accommodate 500 autos.
"Two hundred men worked diligently to finish the pier, builds and attractions in time for the June 18, 1920 grand opening. It was a weekend of celebration in which all the rides operated at capacity throughout the day until midnight, and the dance hall was full of happy couples. Twenty five thousand people came on Saturday; 60,000 people on Sunday. Their fun filled day was capped with a 30 minute fireworks display each evening.
"Stockholders were certainly pleased with business that summer. Pickering declared and paid one percent dividends on a monthly basis. In August he hired Barr's Illuminated Aerial Circus to entertain nightly. The plane had lights outlining it as it did tricks. Seventy five thousand people watched the show the first night." p.76
{page 74 schematic of the Pickering/Lick Piers 1923}
{p. 75 photos of 1920 Blarney Racer roller coaster at the Pickering Pier and an aerial view of the 1920 Pickering Pier in Ocean Park.}
"Ocean Park got a big boost in September when Charles Lick, Austin McFadden and George Leihy invested $250,000 in the construction of a new pier behind the Dome Dance Pavilion. The proposed Lick Pier at the foot of Navy Street adjoining the south side of the Pickering Pier was almost entirely within Venice's boundary.
"The 800 foot long, 225 foot wide pier was to have a roller coaster, dance hall, 40 car Dodge 'em, Caterpillar, Captive aeroplanes and Limit rides. McFadden, who was in charge of construction, hired John A. Miller to design his roller coaster. Plans were for the longest and steepest pier roller coaster in the Bay area. Each of its dips would be double instead of single; down 75 feet, up 60 feet, down 58 feet. They called the 600 foot long coaster the 'Zip' when it opened in time for Easter in 1922.
"Lick's new 22,000 square foot Bon Ton Ballroom featured an oval-shaped dance floor for better acoustics. The hall was large enough to be split into two separate ballrooms with different orchestras. Major Baisden's twelve piece orchestra was the first to entertain dancers when it opened. The old Dome Dance Hall was converted into a theater, and a Casino was under construction across from it on Ocean Front Walk just north of Navy Street. It too would have a dance hall and shops, with billiards and bowling in the basement.
"Pickering made only a few changes to his pier that spring. He added the Double Whirl, Dodge 'em, and the Witching Waves rides to round out the amusements. . . . People rode a boat shaped car around an oval track, propelled by the down grade of a moving mechanical wave. Bell cranks and huge connecting rods imparted the wave motion to the ride's flexible metal flooring.
"The Double Whirl had cars set on a figure eight track with a slight incline where the two circular sections crossed. The cars were pushed by radial arms, rotating around the two fixed hubs. When the cars approached each other at the top and collision appeared inevitable, each car would glide into the other circle." p. 83
" . . . As the Windward business district proved to be too small to accommodate the city's rapid growth, other business centers developed including the Ocean Park Pier business district centering around Marine Street, the area next to city hall where Shell Avenue met the Short Line Track and on an area near the Center Street Pier. The existence of these centers and the lack of any central hub created political factionalism that weakened and often paralyzed Venice's municipal government." p. 86
"There were other problems such as an undependable supply of fresh water delivered by three water companies, a city owned incinerator whose volume of garbage had outgrown capacity and an inadequate municipally owned sewer system that had been designed in 1912 for 3000 people. The sewer system was so badly overloaded that at times the State Board of Health quarantined much of the ocean and beach on both sides of the outfall at the Center Street Pier. A new treatment plant had been designed, but voters did not approve the sale of bonds in the April 11, 1922 election." p.86
{p. 87 picture looking north from Venice Plunge tower, 1922 toward O.P. Piers}
{p. 88 Picture of the Ocean Park Bathhouse and beach, 1924; people seem to be watching people entering the bathhouse.}
{p. 89 Picture showing Lick Pier and the Bon Ton Ballroom and Zip roller coaster, 1922.}
February 20, 1923 new charter and bond measures defeated in election.
July 10, 1923 annexation to Los Angeles vote defeated, 1849 to 1503.
Gambling, Bingo and Prohibition
"Overt gambling had always been an integral part of Venice's fun zone. Razzle dazzle and layout games, where spinning wheels determined the prize winners, proliferated along the boardwalks and piers. Sometimes the games were rigged as fireman discovered after the 1915 Ocean Park Pier fire. When they were cleaning up, they pulled down some of the Japanese gambling games wheels and found intricate electrical wiring on the under side of the spindles. These games' legality were also questionable. Arrests were made periodically by crusading district attorneys and local police.
"Larger scale gambling was also de-rigueur. Whether the gaming took place in private dining rooms at the Ship Cafe or in small casinos in the basements of various hotels and restaurants, if one were looking for a place to lose money it was easily found.
"In September 1923 the police raided a gambling club that occupied the quarters of the Submarine Garden, once a high class cafe beneath the old Dome Pier. They found a maze of tunnels connecting a labyrinth of gambling rooms, cards and $150 on the tables, then arrested fifteen alleged gamblers.
"The place was very difficult to raid. It looked like a pool room, but the back of the room led to a long tunnel with branches leading every which way. Exotic futuristic paintings, water stained and covered with cobwebs decorated the walls, and secret doors opened behind angles in the tunnel. Sand, covering the tunnel floor concealed secret buttons which operated a system of buzzers and colored lights in the main rooms of the labyrinth. The system of tunnels was so involved that it took two hours to find the fifteen arrested, and at least that many more were believed to have escaped. As soon as Charles Lick found out about it, he closed the club.
"During the years that Prohibition was in effect, (1920-1933) Canadian liquor was smuggled into Venice from off-shore rumrunners by high-powered motorboats that docked beneath the pier in the dead of night. Mobster Tony Cornero ran the operation. Kinney's underground utility tunnels along the alleys on either side of Windward Avenue proved handy to the smugglers who delivered to "speakeasy" bars in the basements of the business district. There were a few newspaper accounts of police engaging in shoot-outs with rumrunners along the beach near the Ocean Park Pier.
"It was an open secret that there were "speakeasy" in the basements of the Antler Hotel on the lagoon and beneath Menotti's Grocery store and other businesses on Windward. A man lift in the back alley behind the store carried those that gave the right password from the hide-away street level door to the sinful caverns below. Considering the amount of police corruption in those days, it isn't surprising that there were rarely any raids and arrests at these places. "Dry agents," however, did crack down and raid various houses in the area, especially along the sparsely populated Venice peninsula, where they confiscated huge caches of liquor." p. 90
{Page 91 picture of Ocean Front Walk at the Pickering/Lick Piers; 1923}
"Another disastrous fire occurred in early 1924. This time both the Pickering and Lick piers in Ocean Park were totally consumed in an early morning blaze on January 6th. The fire was believed to have stared at 9:30 a.m. in the Ritz Cafe kitchen, but it didn't explain how the fire spread so rapidly. Some thought that rubbish was set ablaze beneath the pier near the restaurant.
"When the firemen first arrived it seemed like the Municipal Auditorium was doomed. Fire trucks laid hoses but before the water could be turned on, flames burst up from underneath and the entire walk was ablaze and the hoses burned. Another fire truck broke and the water stopped.
"The wind blowing offshore toward the southwest rose to its height and all of Ocean Park was threatened. Rumors that they were going to dynamite scattered the the huge crowd who lined up on every street to watch,. They became panic stricken. Many on the concessionaires who became trapped on the pier dove into the cold water.
"Ten fire companies fought the blaze. The shift of the wind by several points at 11 a.m. had firemen worried. Had it blown parallel to the beach, it would have devastated the entire business district. Luckily the Dome Theater's concrete structure at the northeast corner of the pier contained the fire and prevented it from leaping across Ocean Front Walk. By 11:45 a.m. firemen had the fire under control, and not one building east of Ocean Front Walk had burned.
"The losses were enormous, $2,000,000, with only $100,000 of the loss insured. Both the Rosemary and Dome Theaters were destroyed, the latter's loss alone was set at $500,000. All of the pier's rides and concessions were completely destroyed, with the exception of the sea end section of the Giant Dipper coaster. Frank Prior thought he could rebuild it because the ride's most difficult section was intact. They and everyone else would have to await new owners." p. 92
{p.92 pictures of the OP fires and remains, 1924}
{p. 93 picture of smoldering ruins, January 6, 1924.}
Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987. 176 pp., 1929, 1927, 1926, 1925, 1924, 1920, 1920s, 1919
Chapter 5: Annexation & Ruin (1924-1929)
"The Venice Investment Company and West Coast Theaters acquired Pickering's beach holdings for $2,000,000 just two weeks after the fire. The sale was a windfall for Pickering, who took a terrible loss and would have had difficulty financing a new concrete and fireproof pier that Santa Monica would have insisted upon. The new owners got a 50 year lease on the beach property, or at least they thought they did.
"When they applied for a building permit in mid February, city officials in Santa Monica informed them that they wouldn't grant a permit but would instead lease the sand which they claimed the city owned. Santa Monica officials intended to advertise for bids for a pier franchise on their property. The stunned new owners filed for an injunction to stop the bidding.
"The auction took place at City Hall on March 18, 1924. The Venice Investment Company, intent on regaining control of the pier property, out bid several other companies. Their winning bid was $2,000/month. The next day they announced plans to rebuild the pier at a cost of $3,000,000 and begin work one week later. Other than clearing the site, little was accomplished that spring. Work would begin in earnest on the pier in the fall.
"Owners of both the Dome and Rosemary theaters on Ocean Front Walk put higher priority on reopening than the Venice Investment company did. The Rosemary Theater began operating immediately in temporary quarters on the promenade at Kinney Street. The new 1600 seat Dome Theater, rebuilt in only 23 days, opened May 30th at the proposed entrance to the pier. The original interior had a Spanish design, but the following spring they redecorated it with an Egyptian motif to match the theme of the new dance hall. They also added a $65,000 organ.
"Lick, whose pier resided across the Venice boundary line, was able to begin reconstruction almost immediately after the fire. Work on his pier progressed rapidly, and by May 14th the Bon Ton Ballroom was ready for paying customers. The interior of the enlarged ballroom was decorated in a modified Louis XV motif. Caryle Stevenson and his orchestra entertained nightly and day on weekends." page 94
{Page 94 photo of the rebuilt 1925 OP Pier. Playing at the Rosemary was Milton Sills "Men of Steel"}
{Page 95 Schematic of the 1929 OP/Lick Piers}
{Pages 96 and 97 1926 view of the South side of the Lick Pier.}
"Lick's new pier was basically the same layout, as his old pier, the Bon Ton Ballroom, Dodge 'em ride and a few concessions along the south side of the pier, with space for a roller coaster behind. Lick needed a new roller coaster for the summer so he contracted Prior and Church to rebuild their famous Giant Dipper coaster on the site formally occupied by the Zip. The 85 feet high ride opened July 4, 1924.
"The 1924 spring election brought to power an administration that seemed bent on self-destruction. The Civic Betterment League slate, C, Gordon Parkhurst, H.L. Anderman and Thomas Thurlow, gained control of the Board of Trustees and had no ties to the Kinney Company. They were committed to local government only if public confidence could be restored to enable financing of a comprehensive series of civic improvements. However, one of their ideas of improving Venice in the name of progress was to build more roads. That meant paving the Pacific Electric's right of way on Trolley Way and filling in the canals. . . ." page 98
{Page 98 photo of the Lighthouse slide and midway looking east on the OP Pier.}
{Page 99 photos of the Egyptian Ballroom on the OP Pier, 1925, and the entrance to the Hi-Boy roller coaster on the OP Pier.}
" . . .
"Nearby in Ocean Park 200 men began working on the 960 foot long, 275 foot wide concrete pier. Work was progressing steadily and the owners expected it to open for Easter." p. 99
{Page 100 photo of the Toonerville Fun House on the Ocean Park Pier, 1929}
{Page 101 photo of the Parker carousel on the Ocean P ark Pier before it was moved to the Venice Pier in 1929.}
"The Egyptian Ballroom on June 27, 1925 was the first to open on the new Ocean Park Pier. The owners made a point of emphasizing the word 'fireproof' in all their advertising. They built the structure entirely of reinforced concrete and steel. The pier, too, was fireproofed with a concrete deck. Eight fire hydrants were connected to a 200,000 gallon tank on the roof of the Dome Theater.
"The ballroom's interior was a replica in miniature of the temple of Rameses III, King of Egypt. Carvings on the wall painted in soft Egyptian colors depicted the likenesses of all the kings of the ancient kingdom on the Nile, and sketches depicted its historic highlights. There were scenes of Cleopatra and the death of Karasan, soul god of the Nile. Dance music was provided by Dave Snell's orchestra.
"Jone's Fun Palace on Ocean Front Walk on the north side of the pier opened several days later. The large fun house style structure contained slides, rotating barrels, a miniature coaster, various kiddie rides and a large ornate Parker carousel. It was a large machine on a 48 foot diameter platform with 45 horses set three abreast. It also had to chariots and one row of very small horses." p. 101
"The pier celebrated its grand opening with a ten day festival beginning on Saturday August 29, 1925. One hundred thousand people visited the pier on opening day and watched entertainers like Jack Cox make a fire dive into a tank of water. There were numerous new rides and attractions to suit people of all ages including the 75 foot tall Hi-Boy roller coaster, (another Miller design), an Aerial Swing, Speedboats, Flying Planes, the Rosemary Theater and a bowling and billiards center. The Lighthouse Slide towered 150 feet above the bay and almost beneath it was the Miniature Auto Speedway where pint-sized autos raced through tunnels and over hills.
"Toonerville, the new fun house, looked from the midway like a village of dilapidated, possibly haunted shacks. Inside among its mostly dark winding passages were slides, rotating barrels and creepy things that scared you in the dark.
"A Loof carousel was installed inside the Merry-go-round building. The three abreast menagerie style machine was an old model built in 1916. It had beautifully carved giraffes, rabbits, ostriches, lions and stags among its rows of fancy white prancing horses. " Venice continued to become more and more politically impossible to govern. . . . The trustees called a special annexation election for October 2, 1925. . .
" . . . opponents charged that the amusement businesses were only concerned that Los Angeles' stiff 'Blue Laws', which contained anti-gambling statutes and also banned Sunday and all night dancing, could close one-third of the piers. . .. ." p.102
{P. 102 photo of Aerial view of the OP Pier, Bristol Pier and SM Pier, 1929}
{p. 103 photo 1927 midway of the OP Pier}
" . . . Annexation won 3130 to 2215.
". . . Venice became part of Los Angeles as scheduled on November 25, 1925.
"Venice's amusement zone was affected immediately by Los Angeles' Blue Laws. The Sunday dancing ban and anti-gambling statutes went in effect and pier business consequently suffered. The effect was most pronounced in the Ocean Park area. Huge Sunday crowds thronged the Ocean Park Pier, while few patrons wandered over to Venice's Lick Pier side where the Bon Ton Ballroom and other game concessions were closed. After two danceless Sundays amusement owners decided to campaign for a special amusement zone." p. 103
{p. 104 photos of The Chutes on the OP Pier, 1929}
{p.105 Venice Beach looking north to the Lick Pier, I suppose}
"There was a big debate over the Sunday Blue Law measure. Its opponents wre mostly churches aligned with ultra-conservatives. The Venice Chamber of Commerce countered that the blue laws drive business out of Venice into the unrestricted amusement zones in Santa Monica. It was definitely affecting business as 24 places went out of business and one-third of Edison's meters were idle in the amusement zone. They pointed out that Sunday was the only day a working person in Southern California could get away for pleasure.
"The majority voted for the special amusement zone with all night and Sunday dancing: 112,305 for it, 77,832 against it. The Venice vote was more than three to one in favor and Venice dance halls reopened for Sunday business May 16th.
"The Venice Ballroom was once again crowded with Sunday dancers. Ben Pollack and his Californians occupied the ballroom bandstand. Customers, who bought forty dance tickets for a dollar, danced the charleston, fox trot, waltz and pivoting, a dance where the couple turned continuously as they moved rapidly about the dance floor.
"Attendants walked the floor and enforced the law against dancing 'cheek to cheek' by tapping the offending couple on the shoulder and instructing them to move apart. At the end of each five minute dance, attendants used a big long rope to herd the couples off the dance floor and keep them separate from the new group coming onto the floor. Single girls would watch from the side until an eligible male would ask them to dance, while couples who came together usually occupied the loges."
"Venice's first spring as part of Los Angeles was a quiet one, until the disappearance of evangelist Aimee Sempre McPherson thrust it into the national limelight. She checked into her suite at the Ocean View Hotel on May 18, 1926. The she and her secretary walked to the beach. Aimee waded into the surf while her secretary read a bible. When she failed to return an intensive search making national headlines was launched.
"Airplanes and deep sea divers were called into the search. Thousands of 'Sister Aimee's' followers came to the beach to help and to pray. One mourner committed suicide and a lifeguard drowned during the search for her body.
"Of course it was rumored that local amusement interests were involved in foul play. The evangelist had advocated a referendum to ban Sunday dancing in Venice.
"A month later they held a memorial service at Venice beach. Then two days later Aimee reappeared outside Douglas, Arizona, and told a tale of kidnapping, torture, and escape across the Mexican desert. When contradictions in her story surfaced, charges were filed against her for obstructing justice. However, prosecution was suddenly halted, and all charges against the evangelist were dropped in 1927.
"Ocean Park amusement interests enjoyed the unexpected publicity and as usual prepared for the busy summer season by adding new attractions to their Ocean Park Pier. The Whip and Scooter rides were place between the Merry-go-round building and the Dome Theater. Other new attractions in 1926 included the Pig Slide, Freak Slide Show, Captive Aeroplanes, Tango and Rabit{sic} Racer.
"One of the most unusual attractions added that year was the 'Chinatown and the Underworld' waxworks. Each of the 29 separate exhibits, designed by F.R. Glass of New York City, featured realistic scenes such as McGurk's suicide hall in the Bowery, a Chinese opium den and a wedding showing slave girls and tong hatchet men.Underworld scenes included gambling dens with the capture of drug smugglers, an electrocution at Sing Sing, crimes in the Parisian sewers, Brooklyn's black hand kidnapper's in action, the Furnail murder and several dramatically portrayed beheadings and torture scenes. They were a complete replica of the noted New York City Mott and Tyler streets inside. The entire wax exhibit was a work of art." p. 113 and p. 118
"Ocean Park held their Mardi Gras festival and water carnival over the Fourth of July weekend. The three day festival climaxed with a presentation of 'Ocean Park on Fire', a grand firework display that held spectators spellbound. Apparently tourists who missed last year's fire, could watch a reenactment of the disaster in miniature.
"Ocean Park's parades and celebrations during the twenties were an alternative to those of rival Venice, somewhat offbeat and different. While the Children's Floral Parade had been an annual event since 1920, the Male Beauty Parade was first staged in the late twenties. Males of every type from Hollywood Sheiks with oily pomaded hair to big he-men competed for the $300 in prize money. There were burly men and puny men, ones that were fat and short, others that were tall and lean. There were prizes for the most perfect figure, most handsome male, most athletic male, homeliest male, and even a comic division." p. 118
"The roaring twenties ended with one last pier expansion in Ocean Park. In April 1929 E.P. King, general manager of Ocean Park Realty Corporation, announced $3,000,000 worth of improvements to the Ocean Park Pier. They lengthened the pier 500 feet and built five new buildings and attractions.
"Foremost was C.L. Langley's $150,000 Shoot the Shoots ride at the very end of the pier. It was the highest amusement chute ever built, and the only one on a pier. The 56 foot wide pool at the bottom contained 150,000 tons of water. Although the ride first appeared back in 1895 at Sea Lion Park in Coney Island and was a standard feature at most amusement parks, it wasn't built in the Venice/ Ocean Park area until concrete piers were built strong enough to support its huge weight.
"Flat bottom boats would make a thrilling descent down a 120 foot high 30 degree sloped water runway into a three feet deep pool. In charge of every boatload of passengers was a competent oarsman whose duty was to bring the boast to the landing stage after the boat ran out of momentum. They stood erect in the rear of the boat and maintained their balance with one heavy single oar in hand as the craft struck water at the bottom and bounded in the air. When the boat stopped the oarsman sculled it to one side of the pond where passengers landed.
"Other rides installed nearby were a Ferris Wheel with seats in pairs facing each other, some kiddie rides and an Aero Glider, Jone's Fun Palace on Ocean Front Walk was converted into a roller skating rink. P. 123, 124, 125
Kevin Starr Embattled Dreams California in War and Peace 1940-1950, Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2002, 386 pp., 1940s, 1930s, 1920s
[p. 301] "If one were to send to Central Casting for someone to embody the Folks of Southern California in all their hope, glory, and occasional grotesquerie, then John B. Tenny [1898- ] might very well turn up on the set. But then again, Tenny himself-hard-drinking, paranoid, dyspeptic-could have been played by W.C. Fields in one of the actor's grouchier moods. Born in St. Louis, Tenney arrived in Los Angeles as a boy of ten in 1908 with his parents as they joined the great migration of Folks to the Southland. During the war, he fought with the American Expeditionary Force in France. Upon his return, Tenney, a pianist, formed the Majestic Orchestra and spent the first half of the 1920s driving from dance hall to dance hall throughout the southern tier of the state. When bookings in the better dance halls or hotels wre lacking, the Majestic played places like the Owl in Mexicali. Situated across the border from Calexico, Mexicali functioned as a funnel for Mexican farm workers passing to and from the Imperial Valley. In January 1923 Tenney and the Majestic Orchestra were playing the Imperial Dance Hall in Mexicali. For some weeks previously, Tenney had been fiddling with a tune in his mind, a modified waltz. A regular at the Imperial was a woman named Rose, who ran a boardinghouse for railroad men in Brawley, which is to put the best possible interpretation upon the establishment. Rose would come into the Imperial after midnight, already a bit drunk, and was wont to break into tears, especially when Tenney and the Majestic played the waltz tune Tenney had composed. Seeing Rose in tears one night, Tenney was inspired to attach lyrics to his melody. He later described Mexicali Rose as a tribute to all beautiful, black-eyed señoritas. Like the Ramona myth, Mexicali Rose, took on a life of its own. Two movies were made, and the sheet music sold steadily throughout Tenney's lifetime. Mexicali Rose became one of the most recorded songs in the history of Tin Pan Alley. Banal, sentimental, touched with spurious Hispanic romance, the song embodied the hopes and dreams of the Folks as they settled into their new identity as Southern Californians."
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1929, 1922, 1920, 1920s
P. 35 [Photo caption: "Ocean Park's big bath house was popular in the first quarter of the century, as this 1920 photo shows the building."]
Pp. 42 [ Photo captions: "In 1921 Santa Monica beaches were getting a bit crowded from time to time and many bathers sought shelter from the sun."]
"During the decade prior to the Great Depression, however, changes accelerated, and the population increased rapidly. This was the period in which Southern California generally, under the leadership of the All-Year Club, embarked upon a vigorous campaign of national advertising which was designed to attract people from the eastern and miiddle western states.
"The effort proved very successful."
" . . ."
"Confronted by the possibility of a development heartily disapproved by the populace, the city council enacted a primitive and incomplete zoning ordinance as early at 1922 and followed with one much more comprehensive in character in 1929."
" . . ."
"The Evening Outlook, through ist editorial policy, made every effort to spur development,although during the 1920s the paper was little more than an adjunct to the Los Angeles Express, owned at that time by F.W. Kellogg. Kellogg was convinced that local news was needed in order to increase circulation of the Express in the suburbs, and he bought a number of local daily papers, including the Outlook. Subscribers received both, with the Outlook on the outside.
" . . . Robert P. Holliday . . . editor of the Outlook, which was sold to the Copley chain shortly before the Depression struck. . . . the paper was acquired by the late Samuel G. McClure and his family, the present owners [1974].
[Colonel] McClure, father of Robert E. McClure, the retired editor of the paper . . . [sought] to correct certain governmental shortcomings which were known to exist at that time, but which were difficult indeed to prove."
" . . . "
Chapter Four: Industry Arrives
"Forces which were to bring profound changes to the beach residential community of Santa Monica were released by World War I, when the world realized that the airplane was more than an engineering dream and that it would find greater and greater application not only in war, but in commerce.
"Santa Monica was destined, although this was unknown to the citizens of 1918, to occupy a position of world leadership in the nascent avciation industry.
"Fate brought Donald W. Douglas to Santa Monica.
"Douglas, a sailor at heart but an engineer by design, had entered the United States Naval Academy in 1909, but he already had a great interest in aviation, an interest not shared by the Navy at that time. Even so, he remained a midshipman until 1912, when he resigned and sought admission to Massachusetts Intstitute of Technology. He was told that while M.I.T. respected his scholastic achievements at Annapolis, he could not expect an engineering degree in less than another four years. He made it in two, and received an immediate appointment to the faculty, a post which he occupied for only one year. Even while teaching, he was acting as consultant to the Connecticut Aircraft Co., and he found that he was much more interested in design and construction than in teaching.
"In 1915 Glenn L. Martin summoned young Douglas, whom he had never met to Los Angeles to join his organization. . . .
"Douglas' first tour of duty with the Martin Company was brief, for in 1916 he was called to Washington as chief civilian aeronautical engineer for the Aviation Section of the Army Signal Corps, but after only a year Douglas and the Army agreed that his work might be more productive if he were outside the government, and he rejoined Martin, who by that time had a plant in Cleveland, Ohio.
"There Douglas designed the prototype of the Martin bomber, which far outclassed anything in the world at that time and which was suitable for mass production. First flight of this design was August 17, 1917.
"World War I ended November 11, 1918, and Douglas began to feel an urge to have his own business, and in March of 1920 he and his family moved to Southern California. His total assets amounted to $600, an amount hardly sufficient to establish a factory even in those days when the gold standard still applied and a dollar was indeed a dollar.
"He sought financial support, found it in the person of David R. Davis, and designed and built the Cloudster, first airplane capable of flying across the continent non-stop. It actually flew February 24, 1921, less than a year after Douglas came to California with $600 in his pocket.
"In April of the same year, Douglas received the first of a series of orders, orders which would tax the capacity of the plant which was established in what had been a small but by then defunct motion picture studio on Wilshire Boullevard and Chelsea Street in Santa Monica, present site of Douglas Park.
"Money was needed to fill these orders, and Douglas enlisted the aid of the late Bill Henry, at that time sports editor of the Los Angeles Times. Bill Henry knew his way around Los Angeles financial circles, and Douglas was able to borrow $15,000 on a note backed by ten signatures representing personal fortunes totalling around $150,000,000. Among them were those of Harry Chandler, then publisher of the Times, a bank vice president, a prominent attorney, and the president of a major drug company.
"Then came the event . . . the first Army contract given to the young company, a contract for the construction of four airplanes which would circumnavigate the globe.
Pp. 30, 31[Photo captions: "This scene in 1924, preceded the start of the U.S. Army World Flight, which originated at Clover Field, now the Santa Monica municipal airport. The wood and fabric biplanes were powered by Liberty engines left over from World War I. The flight put Santa Monica, and Douglas, "on the map."; "]
"On St. Patrick' Day, 1924, all Douglas employees went from the Wilshire plant to Clover Field, now the Santa Monica Municipal Airport, but then the dusty station of a small Air National Guard unit, for the takeooff.
"Also among those present were civic leaders, and a young reporter for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook, the writer of this narrative, himself to become an officer in the Army Air Corps many years later in World War II.
" . . . three of the original four completed the globe girdling trip, landing at Clover Field September 23, thiss despite the fact that actual flying time amounted to only 15 days, 11 hours and seven minutes for the 25,553 miles covered.
"The remaining five and a half months were used in mechanical overhauls, engine replacements, etc.
" . . . it was the first such flight in aviatiion history, and it . . . led . . . to . . . additional and larger contracts with the armed services, and also with the airlines which came into existence a few years later.
" . . . the U.S. Navy . . . in the earliest days of the company . . . Douglas and a handful of employees had built three torpedo bombers by hand. Douglas himself having designed them in accordance with a Navy request.
"In 1922 the Navy ordered 38 more of the bombers. This led to the establishment of the Wilshire plant. Then, in Jaunuary of 1925 an inspector for the Air Service visited the plant . . .
"The . . . next month the army ordered 75 O-2 observation planes for which the World Cruisers were the prototype.
"Then in November of the same year, Western Air Express purchased six M-2 transports with which to carry U.S. mails. It was the first order for Douglas commercial aircraft and Western, now Western Airlines, . . .
" . . . the Wilshire Boulevard plant [became] crowded. The Cloudster, first non-stop transcontinental airplane, had been put together in a loft about a planing mill, and by comparison the Wilshire plant was luxurious. . . . Clover Field was close, and, thanks to a bond issue, had become a municipal field. Douglas purchased property adjacent to the airport and in 1929 manufacturing was moved to the . . . new factory at the airport.
" . . ."
Pp. 28, 29 [Photo Captions:; "Here Donald W. Douglas and a small group of dedicated men built the Army World Flight planes. The location was an abandoned movie studio on Wilshire Boulevard at the present location of Douglas Park"]
Irving S. Cobb; Will Rogers
" . . .
"Banks continued to be local institutions for many years, until the branch banking system began to develop and to absorb the smaller institutions, largely during the period of economic expansion which followed World War I and which came to a crashing halt with the bank holiday of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression."
" . . .
"One of my moe interesting interviews as a young staffer on the Evenig Outlook was with a young woman who was wearing nothing at all.
"She had . . . been picked up on the beach in Ocean Park, where she was nonchalantly sunbathing in the altogether.
"Nude bathing in the 1920s had not gained the popular acceptance of today, and the police were properly scandalized and escorted her to the pokey, there she was taken in charge by Mrs. Brown, the matron."
" . . .
"Pp. 26. 27[Photo captions: "Famous dance bnds performed in the La Monica ballrom on what is now known as the Newcomb Pier. The building, long gone, attracted people from all parts of Southern California"]
Pp. 38, 39 [Photo captions: "; "This view from the air was made circa 1930. Taken from a point on the south side of Venice, it shows a small, long-gone pier in the foreground, then the big Venice amusement pier, only the breakwater seaward of which now remains, and the Ocean Park pier, the Crystal pier and the Santa Monica piers" [an aerial photo from the south side of Venice]"]
Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1920s
9. The Exuberant Twenties
" . . .
"A group of business men under the leadership of Harry Chandler formed the All Year Club in 1921 to attract a new and potentially rich crop of winter tourists to Southern California . . . Los Angeles itself annexed large chunks of territory to become a paragon of urban growth, its population increasing from 576,673 in 1920 to 1,238,048 in 1930.
" . . ."
10. Growth and Expansion
"The boom of the twenties fragmented Los Angeles into a cluster of suburbs and kindled Frank Garbutt's dream of a chain oof affliated sports facilities throughout the Southlandd. He envisioned yacht clubs and beach clubs along the Pacific shore, at least one golf course and country home, a gun club, and satellite town clubs, plus courtesy privilieges at independent clubs . . .
"One tempting opportunity followed another as clubs sprang up all over Southern California, publicized by tantalizing ads and brochures. Many were organized by promoters who sold life memberships and built lavish facilities. They maneuvered . . . local business leaders into executive positions, then disappeared with the cash . . . making such financially distressed properties available on attractive terms.
" . . .
"In June 1916, arrangements were made with J.J. Jenkins of the Brentwood Country Club. . . . 300-acre site . . . with a small but cozy clubhouse on San Vicente Boulevard . . .
"In 1920 the Uplifters . . . found their own bucolic hideaway in Rustic Canyon, midway between Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades . . The original clubhouse burned down in 1922 and was replaced with a Spanish-style. . .
"Although LAAC bigwigs Garland, Garbutt, Chandler, and Hall were all Uplifter members and attended some of the social functions, they took no active part in the organization. It was Harry Haldeman who reigned supreme as the "Grand Muscle" of the Social Club from its inception in 1913 until 1925 and as president of the Uplifters Country Home Corporation until 1921 to 1927. . .
"In 1930, Harry Haldeman died . . .
"In 1923 (while the purchase of Santa Cruz Island was being considered), Uplifter Joe Musgrove suggested [the Riviera tract] 640 acres to be purchased from Alphonzo Bell who had acquired extensive westside holdings from Robert C. Gillis and Arthur H. Fleming of the Santa Monica Montain Park Company. In 1925 LAAC loaned the Riviera Corporation the funds to subdivide the property and donate the Country Club to LAAC.
" . . . [For the Country Club] A fifth design by J. Bernard Richards of Santa Monica was ultimately chosen .. .
"In 1925, the builders of the Olympic Auditorium defaulted and the property reverted to the LAAC . . .
" . . . In 1924 negotiations with Alphonzo Bell for 7,000 feet of ocean frontage just beyond Santa Monica Canyon were abandoned when a parcel further west became available, includig over a mile of beach at the mouth of "Topango" Canyon and 1,800 acres of mountainous interior . . .
" . . .
"Several Santa Monica beach clubs also found themselves in difficulty and sought help. Requests from the Gables and Edgewater clubs were denied, but in July, 1929, the five-year-old Santa Monica Athletic Club was taken over. It had 150-foot beach frontage valued at $150,000 [and] an additional 140 feet on temporary lease, anda building worth $100,000, against an indebtedness of $80,000. With LAAC backing SMAC president Robert Curry and architect J.B. Richards began immediate work . . .
" . . ."
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1920s
12 State Beach
"The beach at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon, . . . known as "State Beach" . . . helped set the pattern for the mythical Southern California beach culture.
"In the mid-1920s a string of newly built beach clubs lined the strand below the Santa Monica bluffs and gave the city's resort status a bright new lustre. As a safety measure for members, the first lifeguards in Santa Monica were hired by the clubs, including the Santa Monica Swimming Club, located just southeast of Santa Monica Canyon. It was here that the legendary Sam Reid and Tom Blake not only served as lifeguards, but developed their surfing skills. . .
"Surfing was introduced to the California coast in 1907, when George Freeth, who was born and raised in Hawaii, was brought by railroad magnate Henry Huntington to Redondo Beach as an attraction for his new plunge . . . He performed twice a day for tourists. He became the first official lifeguard in the Santa Monica Bay area, assembled the first volunteer lifesaving corps in Southern Californa, and developed a cigar-shaped metal rescue kit which he mounted on a motorcycle sidecar.
"The twin sports of body-surfing and board-surfing also arrived in Santa Monica in the 1920s. Pioneer surfer Sam Reid discovered board-surfing in Atlantic City in 1912 when, at the age of six, he saw Duke Kahanamoku in an exhibition and borrowed the family ironing board to ride his first wave. Moving to California, he was hired as a lifeguard at the Santa Monica Swimming Club in 1925. . . .
"Tom [Blake] [1902- ], who had moved to the West Coast in 1921 at the age of nineteen, first attained fame when he entered a competition with a board into which he had drilled holes, lightening it . . . He used it to win the 1928 Pacific Coast Paddleboard Championships and thereafter patented a hollow paddleboard design. In 1935 he led the way again by adding a fin to the board for greater stability. . . . honored posthumously on the . . . Surfing Walk of Fame at Huntington Beach."
