1920 (1919) (1921) (1910-1920) (1920-1930) (Table of Contents)
Carolyn Elayne Alexander Images of America: Venice, Arcadia: San Francisco, CA 2004 (1999), 128pp., 1920 See Text
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1920 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, 1973, 1948, 1920, 1907, 1893, [late] 1800s See Text
McKinley School Kindergarten, including Karl Rydgren, 1920 Photographer unknown. Photograph from the collection of Alyssa Navopanich, See Image
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), 1920, 1900s, 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, 1920 See Text
Ted Shawn Studio Opening Program, 1920, See Images and Text
Ted Shawn Ruth St. Denis Pioneer & Prophet Prospectus San Franciso: John Howell, Pub., John Henry Nash, Printer, List of Subscribers; several plates, 450 limited edition, 1920 17 scanned pages including photos and art See Images and Text
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1920
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1920 See Text
Discussion and Notes
The Volstead Act, Prohibition, went into effect January 16, 1920.
Pp. 44, 45 [Photo captions: "Nat Goodwin owned the cafe at the foot of Hollister Avenue. It was built on a short structure known as the Crystal Pier. The photo dates to about 1920."] Storrs, 1974
Documents
Carolyn Elayne Alexander Images of America: Venice, Arcadia: San Francisco, CA 2004 (1999), 128pp., 1920
Introduction:
Abbot Kinney* [1850-1920], son of Franklin Kinney and Mary Cogswell, attended Columbia University, and then the University of Heidelberg, the Sorbonne, and various Swiss schools, all the while suffering from asthma. He formed the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company in his mid-twenties with his brother, Francis, using his multi-linguistic skills as foreign buyer. On one such trip he docked in San Francisco (1880) and traveled south to Los Angeles and from there to East Pasadena and the Sierra Madre Villa Hotel, a hotel and sanitarium. Finding it salubrious, he built an estate (1881) nearby which he called Kinneloa, improving many new strains of fruit, especially the blood orange. He failed to win a seat in the State Legislature but did win the hand of Margaret Thornton*, [ -1911] daughter of State Supreme Court Justice William Dabney Thornton. Kinneloa didn't suit her in the summer months and they built Mayflower Cottage at Marguerita and Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. Abbot sold his tobbacco company shares to his brother enabling him to speculate in land and development, including Abbotsford Inn and the Boyle Heights Cable Railway. Kinney, a California men's tennis single's champion, wrote numerous books, founded libraries and chaired a Yosemite Committee. He accompanied Helen Hunt Jackson on her trip to Indian country, which resulted in the book Ramona. In Santa Monica he met Francis Ryan* and they formed a land development partnership which purchased Rancho La Ballona. ". . . they built a walk/fishing pier in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica, developed a commercial street, a family entertainment casino, and a bandstand." Ryan died in 1898. Matilda Ryan* married T.H. Dudley* six months later. In 1899 the Dudley's sold their share to four men, also with whom Kinney couldn't agree, so they split the Ocean Park property half of which was developed. Kinney chose the undeveloped half, . . . "Although the area was called Venice, it was really part of the Ocean Park district of Santa Monica until 1911, when residents voted to break away from the mother town and become an independent city." Abbot Kinney remarried in 1914 to Winifred Harwell and they had two children, Helen (who married Jack Gerety, the son of Venice's mayor) and Clan, who was briefly married to an Al G. Barnes Circus elephant rider named Patricia Clancy.
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1920
Chapter XXIII Los Angeles Is Somewhere Else
"p. 306 . . .
"[p. 306] Manhattan Beach, Shakespeare Beach, Hermosa, El Segundo, Playa del Rey (where the movie stars in great excitement spoiled their summer homes by drilling oil-wells in the backyards), Venice.
"Venice is a millionaire's dream that went sour. Abbott Kinney [1920] was a millionaire who grew rich from manufacturing Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. He came out here with Helen Hunt Jackson on a governmenht commission to investigate the conditions of the California Indians. And stayed on. He planned Venice as a world cultural center-a Bayreuth- where great scientists would meet to exchange their discoveries; where grand opera stars would sing under master batons . . . where to win fame would signify world recognition. He dug a series of canals to make it a Venice and started the idea of going with a venetian palace. For the town café he had ship architects construct an ancient galleon upoon which at sunset every nightl a trumpeter in medieval armor would climb to the poop deck to bugle the sun down behind the sea horizon and fire a sunset salute from a brass cannon. Alas for dreams! The canals have been filled up. The wharf where the opera stars were to walk at evening gaining inspiration, is a country fair ballyhoo walk . . . throw a ring over the cane and take home a clock . . . shooting galleries, roller coasters, mirror mazes, "crazy horses," knock-down-the-doll with a baseball . . . hot dog stands . . . There is a movie house which is the acid test for previewing doubtful pictures; if any comedy can keep this audience quiet, [p. 307] with the sound of jazz orchestras pounding in the dance hall next door in their ears, it is a sure winner."
" . . .
Chapter XXVII "The Athens of America"
"[p. 357] Some chance orator, soaring into the blue ether . . .
" . . .
"Probably the first man who thought of making Los Angeles a world center of science and culture was Abbott Kinney, the cigarette manufacturer who started Venice and saw it become a Coney Island."
Chapter XXVII The Athens of America
"[p. 362] Everything about our pueblo is either very old or very new. The Huntington Libray is of the past; the California Institute of Technology is so new-so of the future that the calender has to pant to keep up.
"It was started originally in the nineties as a manual-[p. 363] training school, by an amiable old gentleman named Amos Throop. In 1920, a group of rich pobladores decided to put Southern California on the map as the scientific center of the world. They raided the Univeristy of Chicago for Dr. Robert A. Millikan and he brought to the institution men of world-fame in science like Bateman, Michelson, Morgan and Noyes. They changed the name from Throop to California Institute of Technology.
" . . .
"In 1889 Harvard established a branch observatory on the top of a peak near Mt. Wilson, but the professors were nervous about the rattlesnakes and moved out to South America. In 1892 a rising young astronomer named George Ellery Hale, of the new-born University of Chicago, made observations from the top of Mr. Wilson and came down to say, "Previous observations of the sun at Pike's Peak, Mount Etna and Mount Hamilton in no wise prepared me for my experience on Mount Wilson."
"[p. 366] . . .
"Hubble has even calculated the total number of electrons in the universe . . .
" . . . Dr. Millikan . . .
" . . .
"Dr. Millikan was inclined to shock the profundity ot the scientific minds at first. He is gay, handsome, a good talker, likes sports and society . . . is a capital toast-master, orator and California booster. Basically he is an experimental rather than a theoretical physicist. He achieved world fame and the Nobel Prize on the "oil drop" experiment (the minutest details of which every freshman chemistry student now knows by rote) which proved conclusively the existence [p. 367] of the electron. Since coming to Cal Tech, his best personal work has been the investigation of the cosmic rays.
"[p. 367] . . .
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908, 1908a, 1920
[p. 326, Abbot Kinney, 1908b]
[p. 327] Chapter XI Venice of America and Its Founder
Abbot Kinney [1850- ] was born in Brookside, N.J., November 16, 1850, his parents being Franklin Sherwood and Mary Cogswell Kinney, both descendents of old colonial families. His boyhood was mostly passed in Washington where his uncle, James Dixon, represented the state of Connecticut in the United States Senate. Here the young man had advatntages of education and of contact with many of the prominent men of that time and thus retains memories of the men who made the history of that period. To complete his education, he went to Europe and studied at Heidelberg, Germany, and in France and Switzerland, perfecting himself in foreign languages and making a special study of political, economic and social problems.
On returning to Washington, he became interested in the tobacco business and after a couple of years practical experience, he decided to go to Turkey and make a personal study of their methods of manufacturing cigarettes. In 1877, he started on a three years' tour of the world, one year of which was passed in Egypt. His keen powers of observation and active intellect were devoted during these years to the study of the conditions as he found them in various countries, and the conclusions thus acquired have since been applied in many ways to the problems presented in our own country.
He reached San Francisco, on his return voyage, in the winter of 1880, and finding himself unable to proceed directly east on account of heavy snow blockades in the Sierras, he came to Southern California. Here, afte a few weeks spent in the old Sierra Madre Villa, he felt that he had found the climate for which he had sought the world over. He secured a large tract of unimproved land in the vicinity of Sierra Madre and at once set about creating a beautiful and profit-yielding home out of what had been a waste. He planted out a large citrus orchard and turned his mind to the solution of the many difficulties which seemed almost insurmountable to the pioneer horticulturists of this region. As a result, "Kinneola" became a fine example of the possibilities of citrus culture and is known as one of the most beautiful country homes in California.
Broad-minded and public-spirited, he devoted the knowledge gained through investigation and costly experiments to the public use and became one of the projectors of the Southern California Pomological Society and served as its president.
[p. 328] In 1883, he was appointed a commissioner to serve with Helen Hunt Jackson in an investigation into the conditions of the Mission Indians of Southern California. After several months of travel and personal examination of the various reservations and their people, Mr. Kinney prepared a report to the government, advising the breaking up of the reservation system and the use of common-sense methods in the treatment of these miserable and helpless remmnants of the first occupants of our country. It was during this period that Mrs. Jackson gathered much of the material used in the construction of Ramona and in her articles on the Missions and the Mission Indians.
In 1884, Mr. Kinney was married to Miss Margaret, the daughter of Judge James D. Thornton, justice of the Supreme Court of California.
In 1885 he was appointed chairman of the newly created board of forestry. Since that time Mr. Kinney has devoted much research and practical experimenting to the subject of forestry, particularly in its relation to the welfare of Southern California. In 1887, a tract of twenty acres, located on Santa Monica Heights, was donated to the state as a site for a Forestry Experimental Station in this section of the state. The board at once set apart a fund to be devoted to this purpose. Mr. Kinney took a keen interest in the experiments and practical working of this station and made an especially exhaustive study of Eucalypti, the results of which he later published. He was also instrumental in securing the initiation of National Forestry on a practical basis and in procuring the legislation which set aside the forest reserves in California and in establishing the School of Forestry in connection with the University of Southern California. This school gave special attention to the subject of forestry in relation to water-sheds and preservation of forests, with lectures by such men as Abbot Kinney, A.H. Koebig, Henry Hawgood, J.B. Lippincott, T.S . Van Dyke and T.P. Lukens.
Mr. Kinney is an unusual combination-the practical man of affairs, looking personally to his large interests-and at the same time the student and thinker. He has been an investigator along with many lines of thought and has published several books as the results of his study. In 1893, he issued, The Conquest of Death, dealing with a sociological subject, and Tasks by Twilight, which sets forth some original theories as to the training of the young. As the author is the parent of five sons, he had practical data to deal with. He devoted much study to the workings of the Australian ballot system and published a pamphlet on this subject and earnestly advocated its adoption in this country. He has also published a strong argument on the tariff question; made a study of climatology, particularly with reference to Santa Monca, and written many valuable lectures and monographs upon various topics. In all of his writing his use of English is direct and forcible and his course of reasoning clear and logical.
[p. 329] He has served as president of the Southern California Academy of Science and of the Southern California Forest and Water Association; and as vice president of the American Forestry Association of California. In 1897 he was appointed by Governor Budd as one of the Yosemite Park Commission, which made sweeping reforms in the conditions which had nearly destroyed the pleasure of a visit to this wonder of the world. In all of his public work, Mr. Kinney has shown a broad public spirit and devotion to the general good.
After a few years residence at "Kinneloa," Mr. Kinney found that the seaside air was better suited to his health than the foothills, and, in the early eighties, he purchased a home on Ocean avenue, Santa Monica. Since that time he has been closely associated with the development of the Santa Monica bay cities. In 1886 he formed a syndicate to purchase a large parcel of land on the north side of Santa Monica Canyon. Here, he proposed to make an ideal residence tract, with unsurpassed views of ocean, mountain and valley. Trees were planted, streets were laid out and a railroad planned. Later this tract was transferred to the Southern Pacific Company and furnished the site for the "long wharf."
In 1888, Mr. Kinney was one of the organizers of the Santa Monica Improvement Company which built the Casino on North Third street and laid out the grounds and tennis courts above it. This was the forerunner of "Country Clubs" and was for years the center of tennis interests in Southern California. About this time he was appointed road commissioner in the districet of Santa Monica and devoted much time and energy to the opening up and improvement of the roads of the vicinity. The boulevard to the Soldiers' Home was laid out under his supervision and during his administration he set out some nine miles of trees along the public roads and started them growing-a Herculean task in this country of sheep, squirrels, and other hungry varmints-to say nothing of the lack of water.
Mr. Kinney was a member of the first library board of Santa Monica and was also instrumental in establishing the public library at Pasadena and in providing a free library at the Soldiers' Home.
About 1891 Mr. Kinney acquired an interest in a strip of ocean frontage, extending from the south boundary of the Lucas tract to the southern boundary of Ballona grant. This strip of sand was then considered worthless for any purpose whatever. But Mr. Kinney has imagination and foresight. In the face of many discouragements, he and his partner, F.G. Ryan, began putting up cottages and leasing lots in what was then known as South Santa Monica, because such lots on the sand could not be sold until their advantages were demonstrated. Through their effort the Y.M.C,A. was induced to to locate its summer home on this beach and the "Ocean Park" Association was formed. [p. 330, Creating Venice, 1908b] Messrs. Kinney and Ryan planted out trees, planted parks and pavilions, wharfs and sidewalks, and slowly, they developed what became for a time at least, the most popular resort of the beach-the old Ocean Park district.
But there was still a stretch of sand to the south of the settled area which was apparently hopeless, as it was little more than a salt marsh. Drainage suggested canals to Mr. Kinney, and he had a vision of a city that should equal in beauty and picturesqueness the Venice of his youthful enthusiasm. With the unfettered confidence of the progressive Armerican to the power of mind and money over material obstacles, he began the creation of an ideal city upon his salt marsh. The courage and persistance with which he has met the many unforeseen obstacles, the misunderstanding, and the opposition of a small but bitter faction, makes the history of Venice of America the crowning achievement of Mr. Kinney's long and active career in California . While the plans and the hopes of her projector have not all been fulfilled, Venice is already the most beautiful and the most unique pleasure resort on the Pacific coast.
James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1973, 1948, 1920, 1907, 1893, [late] 1800s
Ocean Park
"One of the oldest sections of Santa Monica, Ocean Park had its beginning in 1893 when the Santa Fe Railroad contructed a passenger station and baggage room at what is now the intersection of Hill Street and Neilson Way and planted a few trees and grass on nearby plot of ground that was then called Ocean Park. The name clung and eventually was extended to the entire area. The original station was razed in 1920. There is some evidence that the trees had been planted before 1893 by either W.S. Vawter or E.J. Vawter, who wished to improve their real estate tract. Ocean Park, comprising the area south of Pico and west of Lincoln, is rich in notable sites.
54. The Baron's Castle, 2103 Third Street. A Moorish villa designed and erected in 1907 by Nicolas Baida, a Syrian-born art dealer. With its three stories topped off by a large dome and its elaborately landscaped grounds, it was known as "The Palace" in its early years. In 1920 and 1921 it served as a convalescent home for veterans of World War I. It was eventually acquired by Baron Michel Leone, a professional wrestler who built the new portions of the building and gave it the name "Baron's Castle."
McKinley School Kindergarten, including Karl Rydgren, 1920 Photographer unknown. Photograph from the collection of Alyssa Navopanich.
McKinley School Kindergarten, including Karl Rydgren, 1920 Photographer unknown. Photograph from the collection of Alyssa Navopanich.
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), 1920, 1900s
Abbot Kinney
"Abbot Kinney* was the founder of Venice . . .
"He was born in 1850 to an influential New Jersey family that claimed kinship with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes and William Henry Harrison. The young Kinney worked for an uncle, Senator James Dixon of Connecticut, and then traveled abroad to complete his education in France, Switzerland, and at Heidelberg University in Germany.
"President Ulysses S. Grant employed the youth on his personal staff. Kinney left that post to speculate in the stock market. Poor investments in a rigged market left him penniless and he had to take a clerking job at a Baltimore dry goods store.
"Kinney's brothers formed a tobacco manufacturing company and Abbot joined the family firm. He traveled throughout the Middle East as a buyer of tobacco in quantity. The cigarette was a relatively new product for smokers but it was cutting into the traditional cigar-dominated smoking market. The Kinney firm blended Virginia "bright" tobacco with imported Turkish varieties. The products they marketed, Egyptian, Cleopatra, Flowers and Sweet Caporal cigarettes were commercially successful and the Kinneys became wealthy men.
[p. 8 photo of Kinneloa, courtesy Helen Kinney Boyle]
"Abbot Kinney suffered ill health and an almost constant state of insomnia. . . .
" . . . He arrived by steamer in San Francisco's harbor in 1880 . . .
" . . . he decided to visit a Southern California resort noted for its therapeutic qualities, the Sierra Madre In in the foothills east of Los Angeles.
"Intent on playing billiards to wile the night away, Kinney tired and fell asleep on the game table. . .
"He . . . purchased sufficient land to build a wood-frame house, and plant a citrus orchard . . . which he named "Kinneloa". . . .
"Kinney took an active interest in Southern California affairs. He invested in business property in downtown Los Angeles and subdivided real estate on the east side of the city. He was instrumental in forming a free library in Pasadena . . .
"He helped form the American Pomological Society, headed the California Academy of Sciences and was an active fighter against the California "fruit trust" involvement in the citrus marketplace.
"Politically he was a Democrat and an avid follower of William Jennings Bryan's precepts. He ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat in the California state assembly, and he was appointed to the California Forestry Board, the Yosemite Valley Commission and the Los Angeles County Road Commission.
"He authored numeous books and pamphlets on political, social and scientific tops and published a weekly newspaper, The Los Angeles Post.
"Kinney joined the California National Guard and was awarded the rank of major.
"With author Helen Hunt Jackson, Kinney undertook a government-sponsored study of California Mission Indians and the two co-authored a report recommending a number of reforms needed in the treatment of the native American."
" . . . "
Death of Kinney
Thornton Kinney was in Venice; Innes came from the ranch at Kinneloa; Carleton came from his Paso Robles almond farm, November 14, 1920, Abbott Kinney died of cancer. . . . "Abbot Kinney was buried beside his wife Margaret, who had died in 1911, and four Kinnney children who had died prematurely."
"He was a man of splendid brain, wonderful ability and great accomplishment," said California Governor Stephens . . ."The state lost a great man," echoed Venice's Mayor A.E. Coles.
"Controlling interest in the Abbot Kinney Company was willed to Kinney's second wife, Winnifred Harwell Kinney. . . .
Fire
The Venice Pier burnt December 21, 1920.
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, 1920
"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."
Ted Shawn Studio Opening Program, 1920
Ted Shawn Studio Opening Program, 1920
932 Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, California
April Sixth
1920
Programme
Invocation
The Twenty-Third Psalm & The Palms, by Ted Shawn
~~
For the entire scheme of re-decoration of the building, and particularly for the black drawing room and auditorium, credit is due Mr. Raymond G. Law. The Egyptian hall, murals, furniture and lighting effects, were designed and executed by Mr. Edward Buk Ulrich, as was also the frieze in the auditorium.
Ted Shawn Ruth St. Denis Pioneer & Prophet Prospectus San Franciso: John Howell, Pub., John Henry Nash, Printer, List of Subscribers; several plates, 450 limited edition, 1920 17 scanned pages including photos and art
Ted Shawn Ruth St. Denis: Pioneer & Propet Prospectus, 1920
Mr. & Mrs. Goddard Dubois, New York City
Plate XXIII . . . Arnold Genthe
John Howell announces that he is about to publish Ruth St. Denis, Pioneer & Prophet by Ted Shawn. The book is to be printed by John Henry Nash, San Francisco. Limited to four hundred and fifty copies.
"Margaret, this is poetry!" Emerson is said to have remarked to Margaret Fuller when together they saw Fannie Elssler dance. "Waldo," replied Miss Fuller, "it is religion!" What would we not now give for an adequate record of the career of a dancer who could put into her dancing so much spirituality as to call forth such comments from such beholders! It does not exist. The modern renaissance of the dance has been treated by a number of acute, sympathetic critics, and, though this book by Mr. Shawn will be the first really adequate account of it, Miss St. Denis' contribution to it is stated in "Modern Dancing and Dancers," by Caffin; "The Dance," by the Kinneys; "The Book of the Dance," by Arnold Genthe; "Dancing and Dancers of Today," by J. Crawford Flitch; "The Art of the Ballet," by Mark Perugini; "Der Modern Tanz," by Hans Brandenburg; "Le Ballet Contemporain," by Svetlow; "Vaudeville," by Caroline Caffin; and in other works. But in Ruth St. Denis, Pioneer & Prophet, is for the first time an authentic record of what dancing means to an artist-dancer of high ideals and great attainments. The book should therefore be of especial interest and value to all dancers, to all lovers of the dance, and to all artists, whatever their medium of self-expression.
Ruth St. Denis created a new art, a synthetic art: of which creation this book makes a complete record. It is not the life-story of the artist, but rather a history of the dances that made her world-famous,-how they originated, developed, flowered into works of consummate art, and furnished seeds that this "Burbank of the dance" utilized to produce still more beautiful results.
A full account is given of the East Indian cycle that first brought her fame: "Rahda," the mystic dance of the five senses; "The Incense Dance, or the Purda;" "The Cobras, or the Snake Charmer;" "The Nautch;" "The Yogi;" and "The Lotus Pond." There are complete descriptions of her Egyptian productions, in which were introduced the first ancient Egyptian dances to be done in this age; the Japanese dance play, "Omika;" the Hindoo love-tale, "Bakawali;" "The Garden of Kama;" "The Spirit of the Sea;" "The Legend of the Peacock;" "Ourieda: A Romance of the North African Desert;" "The Scherzo Waltz;" "Kuan-Yin;" "and "The St. Denis Mazurka," and other single dance numbers. A chapter is devoted to the magnificient "Pageant of Egypt, Greece, and India," produced by Miss St. Denis at the Greek Theatre of the University of California, in which she is the only dancer that has been honored by an invitation to appear. Acccounts are given of the famous Tiffany Ball in New York, the Potter Palmer Charity Ball in Chicago, and the many other gala events at which Miss St. Denis' dancing has been the prime attraction. Denishawn, the Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn School of Dancing and Its Related Arts, which in less than five years has become established as an internationally famous University of the dance, is also adequately treated.
The book will be profusely illustrated. Because of her incomparable pictorial genius, Miss St. Denis has been sought as a subject by painters, sculptors, and artist photographers wherever she has gone; and in this volume will appear exceptionally beautiful reproductions of works by such masters of painting as Robert Henri, and Kaulbach of Berlin; and of photography: "Veritas," of Munich; Boyer, of Paris; Baron Demeyer, and E.O. Hoppe, of London; Anne Brigman, Siri Fischer-Schneevoight, of Berlin; Arnold Genthe and Count Jean de Strelecki, of New York; and Arthur Kales and Francis Brugiere, of San Francisco. Not only will the plot, the dramatic action, the music, the stage setting, the costuming, the light effects, and the external history of each of Miss St. Denis' famous dances be set forth in detail, but each chapter of the text will be accompanied by a picture of the full stage setting and one of each costume worn.
No one else is fitted to make such a record of Miss St. Denis' career as Mr. Shawn. While he was studying for the ministry at the University of Denver, his health broke down; and to regain it he took up esthetic dancing as an interesting means of exercise. Not only was his health completely restored but he came so to appreciate the spiritual significance of the dance that he decided to devote himself to it, with no feeling that he had made any radical change in his choice of a life-work. He soon won recognition as America's foremost male dancer, differing from most of the others by his high ideals and serious purpose. After a tour of the country at the head of his own company, four years ago he joined Miss St. Denis as her premier danseur, and one year later they were married. Recognizing in her an artist with ideals kindred to his own, even before they met he had begun the collection of material on which he has drawn in the making of this book, and he has now in his possession upwards of a thousand different photographs of Miss St. Denis in her various dances, and innumerable press criticisms. And from constant association with her he has learned the esoteric history of her creations. A thorough student of the dance, its theory, its history, and its possibilities, he has contributed articles on the subject to a number of leading magazines of the country.
The book ends with a short monograph, a prophecy concerning the dance, by Miss St. Denis herself. As no one has done more to bring the dance to its present honored position than this artist-pioneer, surely no one is better fitted than she to see its unfolded possibilities. J. Crawford Flitch writes in his work previously named: "Miss St. Denis duly ranks as one of the most cultured dancers of her time, and in her special sphere, certainly the most learned." Her special sphere is the dance as a synthetic art, and it is in connection with the universality of the dance and its still untouched spiritual possibilities that she prophesies.
Plate XII . . . From a painting by F.A. Kaulbach
The foregoing was written by the late Professor William Dallam Armes, of the Department of English of the University of California, who also, just prior to his death, edited the entire manuscript of the book.
In size the book will be a royal quarto, and will be printed on Arnold unbleached, an English hand-made paper. This announcement shows the type page and the manner of treating the reproductions, but does not show the paper or size of the book.
Each chapter will have a decorated head-band with an insert indicative of the text, as shown on page 1. The frontispiece and title-page will be surrounded by a decorative border in colors. This work is by Mr. W. F. Rauschnabel. The frontispiece will be a reproduction in original colors of a painting by Robert Henri of Miss St. Denis in her famous "Peacock Dance."
The binding will be of Arches hand-made paper boards with an unbleached linen backbone and paper label.
Four hundred and fifty numbered copies will be printed and autographed by Miss St. Denis and the author, and will be for sale at $25.00 each, at the bookstore of John Howell, 328 Post Street, San Francisco.
Plate LVI . . . Arthur F. Kales
Plate III . . . White
Complere List of Illustrations with Notes
Frontispiece in color from a painting by Robert Henri
Plate
I. "Egypta," by H.T. Motoyoshi, San Francisco
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1920
"E. Gamberi, after a long and successful career as a saloon keeper, was a law-abiding man. Hence, with the coming of the prohibition era, he turned to a new endeavor. He became the operator of the trams which ran from a point not far northwesterly of the municipal pier in Santa Monica to the Ocean Park Pier.
"The trams were electric, and carried a vast array of storage batteries of Edison design beneath the bench-like seats. At each end were two vertical levers; one controlled speed, the other direction. Steering was a trifle odd, since the trams didn't turn around at either terminus, but simply reversed. That meant that in one direction the vehicle, in effect backed all the way.
"Speed was very moderate, and brakes virtually non-existent. Fare was a nickel, and there were no transfer privileges to the next line, which plied between Ocean Park and Venice.
"Operation was greatly curtailed during winter weekdays, but in the summer and on weekends drivers were for the most part, students from Santa Monica High School, over whom Mrs. Gamberi maintained a close watch from a position on the promenade adjacent to the merry-go-round which still exists.
"On a good day each tram, and as I remember there were about half a dozen of them, took in something like $25, almost all in nickels and dimes.
"Each driver was equipped with a small nickel-plated device which hung from his belt and upon which he rang up fares, a small bell indicating the number so recorded.
"I remember very vividly, I having been a driver at the time, that late one day Mrs. Gamberi accused one of my fellow-workers of failing to ring up a fare.
"Deeply affronted, he turned all his pockets inside out, dumping the day's receipts into the middle of the promenade, and stalked away.
"Mrs. Gambieri spent the ensuing hour or so retrieving small change from the pavement, a task which she was assistd by a numer of bystanders, who probably pocketed half the loot."
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1920
"In 1920 Theresa Sletten arrived [as a teacher at Canyon School] . . . graduated from Santa Monica High School . . ."