1930-1940test

1930-1940 (1930)(1940)(1920-1930)(1940-1950)Table of Contents

Sources

Reyner Banham Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, Pelican: NY, 1971(1976), 256 pp., 1976, 1971, 1930s, See 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., 1934, 1931, 1917 See Text

John Cage* A Year from Monday, Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, CN, 1967, 1931, 1930s, 1926, 1924 See Text

John Cage An Autobiographical Statement, Southwest Review, 1991, 1930s See Text

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., 1937, 1933, 1930s See Text

Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism, LACMA Press Release 2001 August 5 through October 28, 2001, 1973, 1930s See Text

David Gebhard and Robert Winter A Guide to Architecture in Los Angeles & Southern California, Peregrine Smith: Santa Barbara, 1977, 728pp, 1977, 1930s, 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., 1930s See Text

Jim Heimann Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1999, 159pp., 1930s See Text

Bruce Henstell Sunshine and Wealth: Los Angeles in the Twenties and Thirties, Chronicle: San Francisco, 1984. 132pp. See Text

Alan Hess Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1985, 1930s See Text

Mark E. Kann Middle Class Radicalism in Santa Monica, Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1986. 322pp., 1940, 1930s See Text

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, 1930s 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 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, 1936, 1933, 1930s See Text

Marlene Park A Romantic in a Frenzied Office: Macdonald-Wright and the Federal Art Projects, 1934-1943 New Deal Federal Arts Project, 2003, 1930s newdeal.feri.org/smw/ 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), 1930s See Text

Jenny Pirie*, Peter Kastner* and Jeff Mudrick* A Short History of Ocean Park, Ocean Park Community Organization, 1982, (With a 1983 update.) 15pp. 1983, 1940s, 1930s, See Text

Lionel Rolfe Literary L.A., Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 1981. 102pp., 1930s See Text

Karl Rydgren* (1914- ) I Remember, Unpublished Ms., 1975 [Reprinted 2005], 1933, 1930, 1930s, 1908 See Text

Horst Schmidt-Brümmer Venice, California: An Urban Fantasy, Grossman Publishers: NY, (English trans., Feelie Lee) 1973 (Original German Text Verlag Ernst Wasmuth: Tubingen, 1972), 108pp., 1930s See Text

Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1935, 1930s See Text

Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987. 176 pp., 1941, 1938, 1935, 1934, 1933, 1932, 1931, 1929, 1923, See Text

Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1937, 1930s See Text

Carolanne Sudderth Tenants win fight to preserve historic courtyard complex , Ocean Park Gazette, 15 June 2004, 1980s, 1940s, 1930s, 1926, 1925, 1920s, See Text

Greetings From California: 505: Beach between Venice and Sunset Municipal Pier, Venice, California, 1930s, Post Card, Photo, copyright, Jeffrey Stanton, Venice Postcard, Co., 3710 Pacific Ave., #16, Venice CA, 90291, GM, Unused. See Image and Text

Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1930s See Text

Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1930s, See Text

Milford Zornes, b.1908, 1934, 1930s, 1908 See Text

Documents

Reyner Banham Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, Pelican: NY, 1971(1976), 256 pp., 1976, 1971, 1964, 1930s, 1910, 1849,

"Planning in Los Angeles? . . . for this has always been a planned city; Lieutenant Ord's survey map of 1849 is also a plan for further development, and . . . a historical report to the Mayor in 1964. . . .

". . . the proposal that the city shall develop much as it has . . . clusters of towers in a sea of single family dwellings." p. 137

"(1910) an appropriation of $100 . . . for the Planning Committee; . .

" . . . planning . . . is one of those admired facets of the the established Liberal approach to urban problems that has never struck root in the libertarian, but illiberal, atmosphere of Los Angeles (whatever pockets of conventional good planning may have been created by local pockets of conventional liberal thinking)." pp. 138-139

"Conventional standards of planning do not work in Los Angeles, . . . effective planning to the mechanisms that have already given the city its present character: the infrastructure to giant agencies like the Division of Highways and the Metropolitan Water District and their like; the intermediate levels of management to the subdivision and zoning ordinances; the detail decisions to local and private initiatives; with ad hoc interventions by city, State and pressure-groups formed to agitate over matters of clear and present need. . . . " p. 139

"This is not to claim that any of these mechanisms is any more perfect than any other human institution, or works more than averagely well. . . . Bending the zoning regulations is reckoned to be a bigger area of graft than the vice industry, since changes in zoning directly affect land-values and thus impinge on the oldest Angeleno method of turning a fast buck. . .

"Outside the administrative area of the City of Los Angeles itself, the other communities . . . have their own views on the meaning and purpose of zoning practices, and in some cases they have drafted them, and employed them, to reinforce local town planning {in order to} remain exclusive. . . . " p. 141

"So recreational living tends to become another synonym for the social 'turf' system of closed communities; systematic planning remains the creation of privileged enclaves. Less frequently it has meant the creation of underprivileged enclaves, since much of the residential planning of the late thirties, for instance, was intended to create tidy places to dispose of socially untidy people, the lower working classes as understood in the political dogma of the time. . . . Within a couple more years, with the war about to break out, this kind of residential planning became a matter of urgency to house the influx of new industrial workers." pp. 145 and 146.

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"By legislative act, approved April 10, 1917, the State of California made a grant to the City of Santa Monica, in trust for harbor and other public purposes, of the tidelands and submerged lands within the boundaries of the city and below the mean high tide line. This made the city's waterfront activities possible, including its breakwater (built in 1934) and yacht harbor for which Santa Monicans voted a $690,000 bond issue in 1931-despite the Great Depression." p.97

{Vic Tanny is depicted with Surf board.}

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John Cage* A Year from Monday, Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, CN, 1967, thirties, 1931, 1926, 1924

p. 86 "While I was studying with Adolph Weiss in the early 1930's, I became aware of his unhappiness in face of the fact that his music was rarely performed. I too had experienced difficulty in arranging performance of my compositions, so I determined to consider a piece of music only half done when I completed a manuscript. It was my responsibility to finish it by getting it played.

"It was evident that musicians interested in new music were rare. It was equally evident that modern dancers were grateful for any sounds or noises that could be produced for their recitals. My first commission was from the Physical Education Department of U.C.L.A. An accompaniment for an aquatic ballet was needed. Using drums and gongs, I found that the swimmers beneath the surface of the water, not being able to hear the sounds, lost their places. Dipping the gongs into the water while still playing them solved the problems of synchronization and brought the sliding tones of the 'water gong' into the percussion orchestra."

p. 264 "Coming back from an all-Ives concert we'd attended in Connecticut, Minna Lederman said that by separating his insurance business from his composition of music (as completely as day is separated from night, Ives paid fulll respect to the American assumption that the artist has no place in society. (When Mother first heard my percussion quartet years ago in Santa Monica, she said, "I enjoyed it, but where are you going to put it?") But music is, or was at one time, America's sixth-largest industry-above or below steel, I don't remember which. Schoenberg used to say that the movie composers knew their business very well. Once he asked those in the class who intended to become professional musicians to put up their hands. No one did. (Uncle Walter insisted when he married her that Aunt Marge, who was a contralto, should give up her career.) My bet is that the phenomenal prices paid for paintings in New York at the present time have less to do with art than with business. The lady who lived next door in Santa Monica told me the painting she had in her dining room was worth lots of money. She mentioned an astronomical sum. I said, "How do you know?" She said she'd seen a small painting worth a certain amount, measured it, measured hers (which was much larger, multiplied, and that was that."

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John Cage An Autobiographical Statement, Southwest Review, 1991, 1930s

"Later when I returned to California, in the Pacific Palisades, I wrote songs with texts by Gertrude Stein and choruses from The Persians of Aeschylus. I had studied Greek in high school. These compositions were improvised at the piano. The Stein songs are, so to speak, transcriptions from a repetitive language to a repetitive music. I met Richard Buhlig who was the first pianist to play the Opus II of Schoenberg. Though he was not a teacher of composition, he agreed to take charge of my writing of music. From him I went to Henry Cowell and at Cowell's suggestion (based on my twenty-five tone compositions, which, though not serial, were chromatic and required the expression in a single voice of all twenty-five tones before any one of them was repeated) to Adolph Weiss in preparation for studies with Arnold Schoenberg. When I asked Schoenberg to teach me, he said, "You probably can't afford my price." I said, "Don't mention it; I don't have any money." He said, "Will you devote your life to music?" This time I said "Yes." He said he would teach me free of charge. I gave up painting and concentrated on music. After two years it became clear to both of us that I had no feeling for harmony. For Schoenberg, harmony was not just coloristic: it was structural. It was the means one used to distinguish one part of a composition from another. Therefore he said I'd never be able to write music. "Why not?" "You'll come to a wall and won't be able to get through." "Then I'll spend my life knocking my head against that wall."

"I became an assistant to Oskar Fischinger, the film maker, to prepare myself to write the music for one of his films. He happened to say one day, "Everything in the world has its own spirit which can be released by setting it into vibration." I began hitting, rubbing everything, listening, and then writing percussion music, and playing it with friends. These compositions were made up of short motives expressed either as sound or as silence of the same length, motives that were arranged on the perimeter of a circle on which one could proceed forward or backward. I wrote without specifying the instruments, using our rehearsals to try out found or rented instruments. I didn't rent many because I had little money. I did library research work for my father or for lawyers. I was married to Xenia Andreyevna Kashevaroff who was studying bookbinding with Hazel Dreis. Since we all lived in a big house my percussion music was played in the evening by the bookbinders. I invited Schoenberg to one of our performances. "I am not free." "Can you come a week later?" "No, I am not free at any time."

"I found dancers, modern dancers, however, who were interested in my music and could put it to use. I was given a job at the Cornish School in Seattle. It was there that I discovered what I called micro-macrocosmic rhythmic structure. The large parts of a composition had the same proportion as the phrases of a single unit. Thus an entire piece had that number of measures that had a square root. This rhythmic structure could be expressed with any sounds, including noises, or it could be expressed not as sound and silence but as stillness and movement in dance. It was my response to Schoenberg's structural harmony. It was also at the Cornish School that I became aware of Zen Buddhism, which later, as part of oriental philosophy, took the place for me of psychoanalysis. I was disturbed both in my private life and in my public life as a composer. I could not accept the academic idea that the purpose of music was communication, because I noticed that when I conscientiously wrote something sad, people and critics were often apt to laugh. I determined to give up composition unless I could find a better reason for doing it than communication. I found this answer from Gira Sarabhai, an Indian singer and tabla player: The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences. I also found in the writings of Ananda K. Coomaraswammy that the responsibility of the artist is to imitate nature in her manner of operation. I became less disturbed and went back to work.

"Before I left the Cornish School I made the prepared piano. I needed percussion instruments for music for a dance that had an African character by Syvilla Fort. But the theater in which she was to dance had no wings and there was no pit. There was only a small grand piano built in to the front and left of the audience. At the time I either wrote twelve-tone music for piano or I wrote percussion music. There was no room for the instruments. I couldn't find an African twelve tone row. I finally realized I had to change the piano. I did so by placing objects between the strings. The piano was transformed into a percussion orchestra having the loudness, say, of a harpsichord.

"It was also at the Cornish School, in a radio station there, that I made compositions using acoustic sounds mixed with amplified small sounds and recordings of sine waves. I began a series, Imaginary Landscapes.

"I spent two years trying to establish a Center for Experimental Music, in a college or university or with corporate sponsorship. Though I found interest in my work I found no one willing to support it financially."

". . . "

"When I was young and still writing an unstructured music, albeit methodical and not improvised, one of my teachers, Adolph Weiss, used to complain that no sooner had I started a piece than I brought it to an end. I introduced silence. I was a ground, so to speak, in which emptiness could grow."

". . ."

"In the late thirties I heard a lecture by Nancy Wilson Ross on Dada and Zen. I mention this in my forward to Silence then adding that I did not want my work blamed on Zen, though I felt that Zen changes in different times and places and what it has become here and now, I am not certain."

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" . . .

Depression Antidote

That the nation's public schools suffered severely during the depression of the 1930's is undisputed. New school construction, except in rare instances was out of the question, and in some districts funds for even ordinary repairs were lacking. Some schools were forced to shorten the term so that teachers' salaries might be saved. In many communities, because of shifts in population and for other reasons, schools were badly overcrowded, with pupils often receiving only half-day instruction because of a lack of classrooms. [21. H.H. Linn Some Practical Suggestions for W.P.A. Works in Public Schools, American School Board Journal, 92, March, 1936, 27-29.]

But bad as conditions were generally, the observation probably is not unwarranted that the schools of southern California, due to the exigencies described in the preceding section of this chapter, were doubly pressed for money with which to repair damaged buildings and maintain an educational program on greatly reduced tax moneys. Their comeback and even forward progress are doubtless due, at least in large measure, to the aid received from the Works Progress Administration. [22. Charles H. Judd Federal work Program for Better Schools, School and Society, 65, March 21, 1937, 410.] The establishment of the S.E.R.A. (State Emergency Relief Administration) had made possible a start on the demolition of condemned buildings, and the Santa Monica School District, faced with the necessity of rebuilding almost every schoolhouse, had made application for additional funds with which to finance required reconstruction. But the state had only limited emergency money to spend, and the rehabilitation program undertaken with S.E.R.A. labor was forced to an abrupt end. [23. Santa Monica Evening Outlook, July 8, 1950, p. 7G.]

" . . .

Superintendent Davis, anticipating these reports had already ordered the erection of tents on the school grounds the purpose being to use them for classrooms until such time as a more permanent solution to the school housing problem could be found. In the elementary district the amount expended for such equipment did not exceed $26,000, and an even smaller sum was required to make the high school safe for occupancy until more complete changes could be made. [15. Santa Monica Evening Outlook, July 8, 1950, p. 70.]

The rehabilitation of the schools proceeded on funds appropriated from the districts, and on money borrowed from the county unapportioned fund. [16. Board Minutes, April 23, 1934.] The work was organized as projects of the State Emergency Relief Administration, a dozen or more in number, including the demolition of the old Roosevelt, Washington, and Grant elementary schools and the old Garfield building, then occupied by the Santa Monica Junior College. But even before these projects were completed, it was rumored that Federal funds were to be made available for school reconstruction. Accordingly Morton Anderson, President of the Board of Education, was sent at once to Washington to represent Santa Monica and make a personal appeal for the needs of the district. He was the first of such representatives to arrive at the national capitol. Upon his return, Anderson reported that Congressman John Dockweiler, Senator Hiram Johnson, and Admiral Peoples, chief of the Public Works Division, had agreed to allocate $1,500,000 to the Santa Monica School District for the rebuilding of its schools. [17. Santa Monica Evening Outlook, Sept. 9, 1935, p. 1.]

" . . .

The money allotted to these and various other S.E.R.A. projects in the vicinity, had alleviated somewhat the unemployment problem in Santa Monica. But with the exhaustion of the emergency funds, the economic outlook again took on a darkened aspect. Then, ten weeks after the close of the State projects and just one week after the approval of the $290,000 school bonds, the new projects secured by Morton Anderson and approved by Washington, D.C., under the Works Progress Administration, got under way. Unemployed men had jobs again, and local merchants, because of the wages of these men were able to smile with less restraint than formerly. [24. Pearl, op. cit., p. 64.]

The army of W.P.A. artisans and laborers who swarmed over the projects worked two shifts of five hours each; while Paul M. White, superintendent of construction, and his corps of three inspectors worked double and triple time, determined to make as much headway as possible while an abundance of labor was available. To them it was self-evident that when other nearby communities got their reconstruction programs under way, their demands might easily drain the labor market. [25. Santa Monica Evening Outlook, July 8, 1950, p. 7G.]

Substantial savings were effected for the school district when Superintendent White established shops where W.P.A. labor and salvage materials could be utilized. Ventilators, ornamental iron work, cabinets, and other construction accessories were made there, as well as the window frames and sashes for the entire building program. Other shops made and kept in repair tools used in demolition, remodeling, and landscape projects. Besides the financial saving these prefabrication shops effected, the entire program was enabled to proceed at a faster rate than would otherwise have been possible.

The Santa Monica schools secured maximum benefits from the funds provided by the Works Progress Administration. John Adams Junior High School, the Roosevelt School, the Washington School, and the Grant School were provided with new plants. John Muir and Franklin elementary schools were made quake-resistant by the removal of the second story and the strengthening of the lower floor, with additional classrooms being provided to replace those that had been removed. Each of the buildings was modernized and brought up to state standards. Although few changes were made in the original plans of the Lincoln Junior High School and the Madison and McKinley elementary schools, all these buildings were completely rehabilitated and made earthquake resistant. Structural reinforcement, walls filled with concrete by the Gunite process, and modernization adapted these plants to more modern school use.

The largest project in the building program was the complete rehabilitation and modernization of the high school. W.P.A. funds provided a new auditorium, Barnum Hall, which included practice rooms for band and orchestra as well as two music classrooms; a boys' gymnasium; a new wing to the library; and a new shop building. [26. Beach City Labor Journal, Santa Monica Schools Edition, October, 1937, p. 3.] But funds were not sufficient to complete the project, and in 1936 an additional $250,000 in bond money was voted for the purpose. When the high school plant was finally complete, the Board of Education and the W.P.A. had spent more than $1,225,000 in remodeling and new construction. [27. Loc. cit.]

Additional work projects of the W.P.A. meanwhile were paving playgrounds, turfing athletic fields, landscaping and refencing school grounds. Wherever possible, the school administration found work for as many men and women as the Works Progress Administration would provide. Office workers were placed with the Board of Education and in the offices of the several schools, while various art projects received administration support since these served to beautify the school plants. For many school children in Santa Monica today, the depression of the 1930's is a thing about which they merely have heard. But they cannot fail to be impressed with the pieces of sculpture, the paintings, the fountains, which are a part of nearly every school in Santa Monica, and which came to life under the stresses of that dark period in the nation's history. Only those who lived through it can fully appreciate the larger values of the projects carried on by the W.P.A. The employment provided and the resultant stimulation of business did much to bring the city of Santa Monica from the worries of the depression to a more stable economy that followed. [28, Pearl, op. cit., p. 64.]

One by one the schools got back into the finished buildings, and the school program again resumed a more regular pattern. Pupils and teachers alike experienced some trying years when compelled to use makeshift arrangements in improvised tents and bungalows. And yet those years were not without their compensations. True, as Hannah Ogden, teacher at the McKinley School during the reconstruction period, points out, the tents were sometimes cold; the wind billowed the canvas walls distractingly, and those walls were more than a little damp when leaks developed during the rainy season. But this only added authenticity to the "let's play pioneer" spirit which pervaded school life at that time, and gave to it a certain thrill. And on pleasant days, the bird song that interrupted a lesson, the intrusion into the classroom of a bee or a butterfly, the excursion time into the open sunlight at a moment's notice for periods of work activity, all gave added freshness and spontaneity to the business of acquiring an education. [29. Personal interview with Hannah Ogden, May 23, 1951; Santa Monica, California.]

During the actual work on the buildings, the plying of hammer and saw, the riveters at work, and the ceaseless activity that went on just outside the open tent flaps, served to inspire the writing of poems, songs, and stories, and as well give endless impetus to invention. Practical use was made of the building debris. It was no uncommon thing to see a child earnestly exploring piles of discarded lumber ends from which could be constructed boats, mast heads, loading platforms, or other structures. Sand and cement were likewise commandeered from construction work to bring life miniatures of Hoover Dam or the Los Angeles Harbor.

Teachers found less difficulty than might have been expected in adjusting the school work to the primitive conditions forced upon them by the closing of the schools, They were quick to utilize the hazards of a school lot more or less pre-empted by machinery, scaffolding, excavations, and unsteady plank walks, to keep pupils safety conscious, with the older ones looking out for those younger than themselves. When it was found that passing from tent to tent for classes was both awkward and noisy, the children, under the teacher's guidance, developed the important trait of personal responsibility, and themselves brought forth order and quiet. Many of the classes took great pride in beautifying the grounds around their tent homes. [30. Pearl, op. cit., p. 66.] A library under the trees, with only shrubbery and benches to mark its boundaries, was a thing to enjoy rather than to be deplored. Young readers found it both easy and delightful to concentrate on a reference relating to their classroom work, or just to browse through the many attractive books that were available. This freedom and the activity programs carried on in the sunshine, made undeniably for health and happiness, and were taken into account when plans were drawn for the new school buildings.

An appraisal of the work accomplished by the Board of Education and the W.P.A. would certainly reveal many values to Santa Monica and its schools. Total expenditures reached nearly $3,000,000, of which the Board of Education supplied less than $950,000, or about 32 per cent of the total cost. [31. Beach Cities Labor Journal, Santa Monica Schools Edition, October, 1937, p. 3.] Clearly, despite the period of severe economic stress through which the schools had gone from 1931 to 1939, they emerged from the depression strengthened both physically and educationally.

" . . .

The Campus Expands

During the reconstruction period, following the earthquake of 1933, the [Santa Monica] high school campus acquired three new buildings: an auditorium, the boys' gymnasium, and a wing for the art department. The five other main buildings were reconstructed to meet earthquake standards set up for school buildings. All of the buildings were structurally braced to withstand shocks greater than those occurring in 1933 at the quake's center, the Long Beach area. The high gabled roofs were replaced with modern shockproof, deck-type roofing. By removing much of the dangerous "gingerbread" and reinforcing all of the bearing walls with steel then coating the outside with stucco, these buildings took on an appearance of modern architecture. [66. Beach Cities Labor Journal, Santa Monica Schools Edition, Oct. 1937, p. 2.]

" . . .

"For a period of eleven years, from 1925 to 1936, John G. McNeeley served as principal of both the Lincoln Junior High School and the John Adams Junior High School. A great deal of credit is due him for the organization and program that developed in the two schools. In 1936, he asked the Board to be relieved of the supervision of one of the schools. The Board granted his request, and elected Thomas A. Wood, principal of John Adams Junior High School, a position which Wood still holds. McNeeley continued as principal of the Lincoln school until his untimely death in 1949. He truly can be called the father of the junior high school movement in Santa Monica. [27. Personal Interview with Sadie Jenkins, May 17, 1951; Santa Monica, California.]

In describing the function of the junior high schools, McNeeley wrote:

"The main purpose of the junior high school, as we understand it, is to teach those things which will enable each individual to become a self-supporting member of society. We assume that all agree that every child is entitled to master, in so far as he has the ability, the essential in arithmetic, English, and the social studies, and that all should be given systematic work in physical education.
"The above mentioned subjects are required of every child. In addition, the pupil may, within certain reasonable limits, choose other subjects in which he may be interested, such as music, both vocal and instrumental, art, oral English, woodshop, machine shop, electric shop, mechanical drawing, printing, cooking, sewing, algebra, Latin, Spanish, French, biology and others.

"To put it another way, the major objective of the junior high school is to explore by means of material in itself worthwhile, the interests and aptitudes, and capacities of the pupil and to start him along the lines he, his parents, and the school are convinced will most likely be of profit to him and to the state. When the junior high school has accomplished these ends, the pupil will have sufficient information to make the election of future study intelligently, and adapted to the particular type of school in which he is prepared to work. [28. Pearl, op. cit., p. 71.]

Still another time McNeeley wrote of the junior high schools that:

" . . . the immediate need of secondary education seems to be an understanding of our contemporary civilization. In the past the objectives of secondary education have been a lucrative occupation or fitting human beings to be machines in an industrial age. At present the objective is to provide mental comfort and a guiding philosophy of life in the days of stress and tribulation that lie ahead.
"A secondary objective is to give youth a critical appreciation of our American heritage and to equip them to participate intelligently in our democratic form of government." [29. Ibid., p. 77]

His words were prophetic. Conditions have not changed greatly since they were written. The nation is still upon the threshold of a critical period. Though perhaps modified in degree, the objectives set forth by John McNeeley in the 1930's still form a foundation for the junior high school program in Santa Monica today."

" . . .

" Elmer M. Krehbiel, a member of the Evening High School faculty, was finally appointed by the Board as the new principal in January of 1929, and for a year he administered the school without relinquishing any of his regular teaching duties. Then, in 1930, the State Department of Education ruled that districts maintaining evening high schools provide supervision of classes proportionate to the number of classes maintained. Under the new ruling, Krehbiel was given a half-time administrative and half-time teaching assignment. But as the adult program grew, more of his time had to be spent in administration and supervision, with the result that, in 1937, the principalship was made a full-time position.

" . . .

"Subsequent to 1933, the enrollment at the junior college climbed to new heights, and additional bungalows crowded in the small campus. . . . [71. Milo Perry Johnson A Study of the Planning Methods and Techniques for Building New Junior Colleges, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1950, p. 16.]

" . . . In a public address, shortly after the opening of the [Santa Moniica] junior college, Bush [Ralph H. Bush, who had founded the nation's first junior college in Joliet, Illinois and who became the first president of Santa Monica Junior College] said: [68. Ibid., pp. 113-114.]

"About once in every generation there arises a new movement in the field of education. The present generation is witnessing this movement in the reorganization of secondary education with its resultant development of the junior and senior high schools and junior colleges.
"With the great development in the use of machinery less and less boys and girls were needed in industry. As a consequence they were able to stay in school and have the various state legislatures passing the anti-child labor laws and laws raising the compulsory school attendance of children from 10 to 12, 14, 16 and 18. In order to care for all these pupils of the 'teen' age, school plants sprang up all over the country with buildings, equipment, and facilities undreamed of a generation ago. The school day was lengthened as well as the school year. Where in the 1880's and 90's children were needed to help on the farm or in factories, necessitating short school terms and school days, now they stayed in school.

"Educational leaders came to believe that the courses given the first two years in college could be given in communities capable of supporting a good high school. In support of this idea the first public junior college was opened in February, 1902, in Joliet, Illinois. Today there are approximately 500 (1937) public and private junior colleges in the United States."

" . . .

In 1938, the Evening Technical High School was opened and operates today as a part of the Technical School rather than as a unit of the adult education program. Since 1939, there has been a growing trend toward closer cooperation between the Evening High School, City College, and the Technical School. [61. Personal interview with Elmer M. Krehbiel, May 28, 1951; Santa Monica, California.]

" . . .

" . . . in 1940, the Board of Education purchased a new 20-acre site a mile and a half to the east of the existing school in anticipation of developing a new junior college campus. Preliminary plans were already under consideration when the entry of the United States into World War II brought the possibility of a new college abruptly to a halt. [71. Milo Perry Johnson A Study of the Planning Methods and Techniques for Building New Junior Colleges, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1950, p. 16.]

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Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism, LACMA Press Release 2001 August 5 through October 28, 2001, 1973, 1930s

"Not even the Great Depression could slow Macdonald-Wright's enthusiasm for work or his prodigious output. . . . Because of his significance in the area, he was appointed director of the Los Angeles District of the Southern California Region of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. In addition to promoting the project through lectures and exhibitions, Stanton Macdonald-Wright also designed numerous mosaics for local buildings."

Macdonald-Wright's Santa Monica Projects

"Curiously, the Great Depression which seized America in the 1930s gave Macdonald-Wright a unique opportunity to create some large-scale works in Santa Monica. Under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, he painted an extraordinary mural cycle in the Santa Monica Public Library, eight panels of which are included in the LACMA exhibition. It was the most extensive such project ever undertaken in Southern California. At a City Council meeting to approve the project, about $950 was collected to pay for the requisite materials. Macdonald-Wright devoted 18 months to the mural which traces the history of the region from prehistoric times to the birth of the movies, for which he was paid little or nothing,

"As shown in the photograph on this page, the mural was far grander than its setting.

"When the old Public Library was torn down, the mural-which Macdonald-Wright had wisely painted on removable panels-was dispatched by the City to the Smithsonian Institution where it has resided ever since. Not long ago, City Councilman Ken Genser proposed that a place be made for the mural in the Main Library addition.

"Because of his significant place in the Los Angeles art world, Macdonald-Wright was appointed director of the Los Angeles District of the Southern California Region of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. In addition to promoting the project, Macdonald-Wright worked with the architects on various projects and designed numerous mosaics for local buildings-including the murals in the lobby of the Santa Monica City Hall, itself a WPA project, as well as painting the fire curtain mural and designing the mosaic in the lobby of Barnum Hall, the theater on the Santa Monica High School campus.

"The City Hall murals are done in petracrome, a process Macdonald- Wright* developed which combines cement with crushed bits of marble, tile and granite. One of the City Hall murals depicts the arrival of the Spanish explorers in Southern California and the Mexican settlement. The other features such 1930s elements as sailboats, airplanes and road races.

"Built in 1937, Barnum Hall is one of the finest examples of the elegant Streamline Moderne architecture which flourished in Los Angeles in the 1930s. Like City Hall, it was a project of the federal government's Works Progress Administration and Federal Arts Project.

"And so it was that in one of this country's darkest decades Macdonald-Wright* made bright and enduring works in Santa Monica's library, City Hall and high school auditorium. Today, City Hall and Barnum Hall head the roster of distinguished regional landmarks."

Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism, LACMA Press Release 2001 August 5 through October 28, 2001, 1973

"His older brother, Willard Huntington Wright (1888-1939) is worthy of note, too. After being kicked out of Harvard for drinking absinthe in class, he went abroad to study in Paris and Munich. At 22, he became the L.A. Times' literary critic and was promptly labeled "the boy iconoclast of Southern California" for his assaults on L.A. (i.e., "Hypocrisy, like a vast fungus, has spread over the city's surface"). In short order, he was named editor of New York's Smart Set. He also wrote several books of art criticism. Then, after a bout of drug addiction and a nervous breakdown, Wright literally reinvented himself. Under the pseudonym, S.S. Van Dine, he wrote a series of mysteries about a sophisticated, even effete Manhattan sleuth, modeled on himself, Philo Vance, who was featured in 27 motion pictures."

(Back to Sources)

David Gebhard and Robert Winter A Guide to Architecture in Los Angeles & Southern California, Peregrine Smith: Santa Barbara, 1977, 728pp, 1977, 1938, 1937, 1936, 1935, 1930s,

"Southern California was deeply affected by the Depression of the thirties. Ironically, it is for this reason that the area has so many outstanding examples of Streamline and Classical Moderne buildings. The Depression was generally catastrophic to the buildiing industry. But one operation that was not curtailed was the building of moving-picture palaces, the cheap movie being one of the few luxuries of the masses. Even more important to architecture was public building, stimulated by the United States Public Works Administration (PWA), which built schools, libraries and post offices in order to give people work. Its companion relief organization was, of course, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) whose Arts Project engaged in the revolutionary act of giving work to artists. The results of the activities of these federal agencies are everywhere, especially in the Classical Moderne (PWA Moderne) mode." p. 26.

"39. City Hall 1938; Donald B. Parkinson and J.M. Estep, Main St. just S of Fwy.

"Classic Moderne with mosaic tile entrance."

"41. Merle Norman* Bldg. 1935 -36; attrib. George Parr, NE cor. Main & Norman

"A large and delightful mixture of Streamline and Zigzag Moderne, this remodeled building preserves the chrome strips which were the trademark of Moderne design." p. 58 {photo}

"1. Store ca. 1937 Mid-block N side Rose, between 4th & 5th

"A tiny building with an outsize oval window in the Streamline Moderne idiom. The building is being restored." p. 61

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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., 1930s

Part II: 1917-1941

Chapter 11 The EPIC Challenge

1. The Depression

" . . . the city's unions, which were then enjoying a sudden resurgence in response to the recent passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act . . .

"In Los Angeles, after the NIRA was signed into law, thousands of new members joined the unions in a matter of weeks. By the spring of 1934 a strike wave had spread throughout the sate. Celery and berry pickers walked off thier jobs, a protracted garment worker's strike began in October 1933, furniture workers, millinery workers, meat packers, the movie studios, and the relief workers at the Department of Charities all went out . . . Twelve major strikes, each involving more than a hundred employees, occurred in Los Angeles in 1933, and eighteen more in 1934. In May 1934, a seamen and longshoremen's walkout tied up the entire Pacific Coast and led to the historic general strike in San Francisco . . ." p. 204

2. "I, Governor of California"

" . . . By the fall of 1933 . . . Los Angeles County, with more than 300,000 unemployed . . ." p. 205

" . . . In California, the left-leaning Roosevelt followers joined under the banner of the Democratic candidate for governor, Socialist writer Upton Sinclair.

"Sinclair, the author of The Jungle and numerous popular tracts and novels, had lived in Southern California since World War I . . . p. 206

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Jim Heimann Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1999, 159pp., 1930s

" . . . The kingpin of police corruption was chief of police Ed "Two Gun" Davis. He and his city hall cronies made sure L.A. remained safe for bribes and graft, which escalated in the twenties and thirties to a wholesale spoils system. Their regime culminated in 1938 with the car bombing of private investigator Harry Raymond, an ex-LAPD detective who was in the process of exposing the corruption. The bombers were traced back to the LAPD's Intelligence Squad, and the ensuing public outrage ousted Mayor Frank Shaw while Chief Davis, along with twenty-three of his fellow officers, was forced into resigning.

"One of L.A.'s important contributions to the regular rackets lay three miles off its coast. The first gambling ship arrived in 1928 to entertain and unload the pockets of residents and rubes. The various barges that anchored off the coast for the next decade were a lucrative trust for the local syndicate. Flaunting legal jurisdiction, they operated openly until the late thirties, when a series of raids finally grounded them. Ships such as the Rex, the Montfalcone, the Tango, and the Monte Carlo were memorbly drafted onto the pages of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep."

" . . . "

pp. 130, 131["Top. The Rex, Santa Monica Bay's most renowed gambling ship, awaits the Sheriff's Department men approaching the barge for a raid, ca., 1938. Bottom. The operation. Gaming tables and slot machines, ready for the evening's "squirrels" to arrive. Cops and Robbers. Another raid on the Rex with owner and operator, Tony Cornero* (on the left) showing off his playing equipment to Johnny Klein, D.A. investigator; George Contreas, Captain of the Sheriff's Department; and Charles Dice*, Chief of the Santa Monica Police, May, 1936."]

""The Royal Crown seemed to ride as steady as a pier on its four hawsers. Its landing stage was lit up like a theater marquee. Then all this faded into remoteness and another, older smaller boat began to sneak out into the night toward us. It was not much to look at. A converted sea-going freighter with scummed and rusted plates, the superstructure cut down to the boatdeck level, and above that two stumpy masts just high enough for a radio antenna. There was a light on the Montecito also, and music floated across the wet dark sea."-Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely.

pp. 132, 133 ["Top Aboard the Rex, cops detain patrons while the ship gets the once over, ca. 1939. Bottom. Slot machines from the gambling ship Lux are given the heave-ho onto a waiting barge for the trip back to the mainland, February 1941. Opposite. The Rex under assault. During the "Battle of Santa Monica Bay," Tony Cornero*'s "associates" keep the Sheriff's Department at bay by hosing their speedboats, August 1939."]

(Back to Sources)

Bruce Henstell Sunshine and Wealth: Los Angeles in the Twenties and Thirties, Chronicle: San Francisco, 1984. 132pp., 1938

"In early May, 1938, the impending opening of the Rex was announced. . . . Airplanes inserted the ship's name into the skies above Los Angeles and big ads were inserted into the papers. "OPEN MAY 5th, and every afternoon and evening thereafter. Cocktail bar. No cover. Popular priced meals at all hours. Cuisine by Battista, formerly of Trocadero and Victor Hugo's - ALL THE THRILLS OF BIARRITZ, RIVIERA, MONTE CARLO, CANNES - SURPASSED." . . .

""We don't want it!" . . .the Santa Monica Evening Outlook . . . "The gambling barge Rex will be no asset to Santa Monica." Mayor E.S. Gillette [forbid] Tony [Conero] to have a brass band on the Santa Monica Pier the day the ship opened.

". . . A fleet of thirteen water taxis was kept busy ferrying people back and forth. The Rex was open twenty-four hours a day, and there was seldom less than a 1,000 people aboard, and 2-3,000 during the peak hours." pp. 67, 68

(Back to Sources)

Alan Hess Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1985, 1930s

The '30s:

ˆ "The Streamline Modern style of the 1930s in Los Angeles was a convincing dress rehearsal for the democratic technologica future of the 1950s. . . .

" . . .

"The smooth Streamline forms carried the eye easily around corners, reducing resistance for efficient movement, a visual metaphor of the reduced wind resistance of streamlined locomotives and airplanes. The teardrop form, its continuous planes submerging individual elements under a single organic shape, . . . " p. 19

" . . .

"Herbert's, Carpenter's, Simon's, Harrold's, Robert's, Van de Kamp's, and other Los Angeles drive-ins set a pattern of bold, futurist, car-oriented architecture that culminated in the coffee shops of the forties and fifties. . . . Catering tot he Southern California public's fondness for the mobile life style, drive-ins made it easier for people to patronise roadside restraurants, which in turn encouraged the public's reliance on automobile transportation.

"Los Angeles consciously embarked upon a policy of sprawl . . . the dispersed city was a solution to the congestion of eastern cities.

"The climate . . . also shaped the drive-in culture. . . . Buildings could be built more quickly and of lighter material, like wood and stucco . . . " p. 20

" . . . The convertible and the drive-in applied the same principal to the car culture . . ." p. 21

" . . .

"Restaurants offered a wide range of atmospheres, from the society nightclubs like Ciro's and the Trocadero on the Sunset Strip and the fancy dinner houses of La Cienega's restaurant row, to the strip-scaled Tail o' the Pup, the Giant Tamale, and Whizzin's Chili Bowls, with innumerable barbecue pits. greasy spoons, tearooms, cafeterias, and diners in between.

" . . . ." p. 23

"Wayne McAllister moved to Los Angeles in the early thirties . . . designed the first Simon's, . . . circular plan organized cars like spokes of a wheel, making all customers equally accessible to the carhops and the central kitchen. Its octagonal canopy covered the walkway around the building; in later Simon's, McAllister would extend the canopy even farther to cover more of the cars themselves. A central pylon made the building visible to passing motorists; at night, tubing hidden behind metal louvers created a neon exclamation point." p. 24

" . . . Neon was used not just for lettering, or pictorially, but as an integrated architectural element to delineate form.

"A counter with twelve stools stood inside, with the carhop counter between. The drive-in never closed. Indeed, it couldn't close; there were no doors. . . . .

" . . .

"McAllister followed by designing several more Simon's as well as Robert's, Herbert's, McDonnell's, Van de Kamp's and later Bob's Big Boy . . ." p. 25

"The rise of drive-in restaurants was paralleled by the rise of the auto court and motel, shopping centers, the supermarket, and the drive-in theater. All responded to the same technological and commercial phenomenon, the widespread availability and ownership of the auto. . . .

"The drive-ins of the thirties . . . recognized that, for a commercial building, advertising is a legitimate function to be expressed in architectural form. . . . the entire building was conceived as a sign to attract customers. . . . " p. 27

"McAllister helped develop a workable and influential architectural vocabulary for the commercial strip. Bold block letters outlined in neon, the sculptural use of reflected and exposed neon, the circular pavilions with central mast, the use of glass, and functional elements like overhangs, car arrangements, . . ." p. 28

" . . . 1940 when architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock . . ."Outside Neutra's work and that of his group, most of the interesting things are-so far as I could discover, effectively anonymous. I mean the drive-ins . . . represent a very model of what exposition or resort architecture ought to be, light, gay, open, well executed and designed to be as effective by night as by day . . . " p. 28

(Back to Sources)

Mark E. Kann Middle Class Radicalism in Santa Monica, Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1986. 322pp., 1960s, 1949, 1940, 1930s

" . . . Santa Monica's small businessmen were always willing to work with government and accede to its intervention in the marketplace. They supported city-owned and operated amusement piers that helped the resort economy; they welcomed New Deal programs that enhanced the local environment, including a Federal Arts Project that placed a statue of the city's namesake in Palisades Park and a Federal Emergency Public Works Project that built Santa Monica's impressive city hall. . .

"Santa Monica peacefully evolved from a small resort town into a middle-sized city of 50,000 residents by 1940. . . . A few Hollywood figures bought oceanfront homes on Santa Monica's Gold Coast and some Los Angeles garment workers retired to modest bungalows and apartments in Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood. . . .

"Southern California was also on the brink of the Automobile Age. In the 1930s, General Motors bought up the Pacific Electric Railway system to scrap it. The corporation replaced trains with diesel buses that it manufactured. The buses did not carry freight, so merchants were forced to buy or rent trucks that General Motors also manufactured. The buses were uncomfortable and unreliable, which encouraged Southern Californians to purchase automobiles that General Motors gladly sold to them. The corporation was convicted in 1949 of having conspired to replace municipal transit systems with products that it monopolized. The $5,000 fine, however, did not deter General Motors from continuing its practices or from putting its considerable weight behind the $70 billion Interstate Highway Act that reinforced consumer demand for automobiles by underwriting massive highway construction throughout the United States.

"For Santa Monica, the fallout from this corporate maneuvering was the construction of the Santa Monica Freeway in the mid-1960s. . . ."

(Back to Sources)

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, 1930s

" . . . In . . . Sunshine Muse, Peter Plagens* states that "pre-war Southern California produced little important art, and the main gain was the hard-won beginning of modern art's cultural acceptance."

" . . . "

"The second unusual feature paradoxically stands in dramatic contrast to this general cultural environmen: the presence of the spectacular group of European artists and intellectuals fleeing Hitler and the Nazi occupation, along with the group of both European and East Coast Americans who were in Hollywood to sell their various literary, dramatic, and musical skills. . . .

" . . . Many of the artists and literati who settled in Southern California during the 1940s actually liked their adopted home and pursued productive careers there, and the interaction of the traditions they represented and the lively world of mass culture in which they found themselves ultimately created an idiomatic Los Angeles art.

" . . ."

Stanton Macdonald-Wright* (1890-1973), 1990, 1930s, 1920s, 1918, 1916, 1913, 1912, 1910, 1907, 1904, 1900, 1890

"[By the early thirties] . . . he had grown disenchanted with Syncromism, which he felt had become too scholastic. Turning to the Orient for inspiration he delved into Asian calligraphy and studied the tenets of Tao and Zen. His infatuation with the Far East reveals itself in a series of murals that he conceived for the Santa Monica Library (1933-1935) as well as his private easel paintings which, more often than not, revolved around Buddhist myth.

"From 1935 to 1942 Macdonald-Wright* served as director of the Southern California division of the Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration. While performing his bureaucratic duties, he developed architectural murals in Southgate, Santa Monica, and Long Beach and perfected a mosaic compound that he termed Petrachrome. When the Art Project disbanded in 1942, he joined the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles where he taught classes in Eastern aesthetics and art history for the next twelve years [1954].

" . . ."

(Back to Sources)

James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1939

Ocean Park

"3. Neilson Way. The former Trolleyway, it was originally a railroad right-of-way with tracks which was converted to street use in the '30s. It is named for George A. Neilson*, a city commissioner of the '30's and '40's and an Ocean Park resident."

(Back to Sources)

"In Gill's two major works in 1929-a Civic Center for Oceanside and a Christian Science church for Coronado-there was a suggestion that waiting had deprived his talents of some of their limberness.

"On two other occasions Gill sought projects in low-cost housing. He made a trip to Ensenada, Baja California, in the late twenties, to try to interest officials in group dwellings for Mexican families. And just before his death in 1936, he was concerned with a project for a series of houses for the unemployed in Santa Barbara.

(Back to Sources)

Marlene Park A Romantic in a Frenzied Office: Macdonald-Wright and the Federal Art Projects, 1934-1943 New Deal Federal Arts Project, 2003, 1930s newdeal.feri.org/smw/

"The American artist Stanton Macdonald-Wright is best known for his early abstract paintings, first exhibited in Munich and Paris in 1913. He and Morgan Russell called their innovation "Synchromism," and as such it is featured in surveys of American art. Synchromism used colors in the manner of musical notes, if not always in consistent scales. When Macdonald-Wright returned to Southern California his brother, the art critic Willard Huntington Wright, remained in New York where he became famous as the mystery writer S.S. Van Dine. His character, Philo Vance, solved crimes in films as well as in books. In California, Macdonald-Wright is recognized as a leading teacher and apostle of modernism in the between-the-wars period. But what is generally missing from the literature is that his scholarly, romantic disposition, his extensive knowledge of ancient and Chinese art, and his disregard of the more literal arts of the period, made him a successful artist and administrator on the WPA/FAP. He was certainly out of step with the politics and realisms of the 1930s, but he believed that one artist's sensibility could communicate itself to a public, and he promoted experimentation that would adapt the monumental arts of the past to contemporary economic, architectural and technical realities.

"Thus the Southern California WPA/FAP is noted for its "texturalized" mosaics, made from commercial tiles cut into patterns distinctive for each thing represented; its monumental, direct-carve sculpture from native stones; its Petrachrome murals, made like terrazzo floors but without metal divisions between the segments; and its casein tempera murals, painted in thin washes so as not to reduce the acoustic properties of walls in newer earthquake-conscious construction. The latter was adapted only to interior use, but the other media were used indoors and out, giving them greater public visibility.

"Macdonald-Wright was associated with the Federal art projects from 1934 to 1943. When he painted an extensive mural cycle for the new Santa Monica Public Library (1934-35), the Public Works of Art Project helped raise money for the materials and paid the salaries of two assistants. The subject is the two-fold artistic and technological development of mankind, in which the two streams flow together in the creation of the three-color motion picture. (Macdonald-Wright had invented a color film process, made films, and devised a color organ to play his synchromies.) From his olympian viewpoint, he emphasized the interchanges between eastern and western cultures, and pictured great fields of energy as well as portraying individual inventors. The introductory and culminating panels, usually stored in the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, are part of the exhibit.

"Macdonald-Wright's long career with the WPA/FAP commenced immediately upon the program's implementation in Los Angeles. He was an adviser, briefly an artist, and then an administrator, first for Los Angeles County, then for Southern California. His administration was not without controversy. The local chapter of the Artists' Union attacked him, primarily on the grounds that he was not content to administer but usurped the role of artists. He did donate a small still life in oil and several large landscape drawings in pencil (represented in the exhibit) to the project; he designed some five mosaics as well as the Petrachrome panels for the Santa Monica City Hall and two theater curtains. He collaborated on the grandest of all designs, that for the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium mosaic.

"One can read into this material the predicament of much New Deal art: the artist overwhelmed by bureaucratic functions; the collaborative nature, for better and worse, of monumental art; the inability to present the art in a museum context and thus in the context of the artist's other work; the critics' cries of "compromise"; and the judgments that its achievements are isolated because they did not lead to post World War II innovations. Macdonald-Wright did not so much compromise as adapt in order to earn a living. He used other parts of his imagination and knowledge, of his theoretical and pedagogical positions, to move the Southern California project toward practical, popular, and creative solutions. There was nothing ideal about the Federal art projects, but the achievements, as exemplified by Macdonald-Wright, are both fascinating and real.

The reader might find most useful:

Lydia Modi Vitale and Steven M. Gelber, New Deal Art: California , Santa Clara, Calif.: de Saisset Art Gallery and Museum, 1976.

Nancy Dustin Wall Moure, Painting and Sculpture in Los Angeles, 1900-1945 , Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980.

Robin J. Dunitz, Street Gallery: Guide to 1000 Los Angeles Murals , Los Angeles, Calif.: RJD Enterprises, 1993 (with maps).

Will South, "Invention and Imagination: Stanton Macdonald-Wright's Santa Monica Library Mural," Archives of American Art Journal 39, nos. 3 & 4 (1999): 11-20.

(Back to Sources)

Bingo

"The Depression hit Venice hard. Despite the economic cushion provided by the petroleum drilling, the merchants fell on difficult times. The amusement business dropped off sharply.

"People with no spendable income had little need for the Dragon Slide or roller coasters of Venice The carpeting of the Ship's Cafe was worn and no music was played on its bandstand. The Ocean Front Walk seemed empty.

"One amusement continued to prosper. A few small bingo-type games existed along the beachfront. Bingo was illegal in Los Angeles but the games used variations where customers theoretically used "skill" to determine what numbers were selected. Balls rolled down inclines, marbles tossed into grids or darts thrown against a board decided the numbers called. The cards cost anywhere from a nickel to a quarter and offered a chance at prizes from 41.50 to $50.00. It was an affordable risk in Depression times and the games proved popular.

"John Harrah, a successful lawyer and former Venice mayor, had substantial property holdings in Venice. The Depression had collapsed Harrah's pyramid of trust-deed and mortgage investments and he was forced to search for some profitable use for the beachfront space that was draining his financial reserves.

"He and his son William opened a 30-seat bingo parlor called the Circle Game on July 4, 1932. The family-operated venture was immediately successful. They had discovered that by operating wihout "shills" and during the dinner hour when such games usually closed profits steadily increased. The Harrahs added two more parlors that attracted players from throughout Southern California.

"There were a number of other bingo operations in Venice under various ownerships and proprietors which had survived until 1934, when police and county sheriffs began to close them down. The elder Harrah's legal and political ties helped to keep the Circle Game doors open as a "game of skill" for nearly half a year after his competitors were forced to close up.

"The legality of the bingo games were constantly challenged in court and the game operators nimbly developed new versions of the rules and skills to counter the authorities' attempts to close them. There were frequent raids and closures in 1935 and 1936.

"Bill Harrah, who had bought out his father's interest in one of the games, tired of the constant headaches and uncertainties of operating in Venice. He opened a bingo game in Reno, Nevada, in 1937 which was to grow into the Harrah gaming empire of Lake Tahoe and Reno.

"The other Venice bingos stagggered on, with names such as Tango and Bridgo, until the 1940s when the final courtroom test closed the "games of skill" for good."

(Back to Sources)

Jenny Pirie*, Peter Kastner* and Jeff Mudrick* A Short History of Ocean Park, Ocean Park Community Organization, 1982, (With a 1983 update.) 15pp. 1983, 1940s, 1930s,

"The Depression, and the World War that followed it, made great changes in the community of Ocean Park and the change was not necessarily for the worse. The area began its transformation from a vacation home for visitors to a year-round residence for owners and renters. Beachfront cottages which had been second homes for many people were sold and became permanent homes for the new tenants. At the same time, a large number of elderly people from the surrounding communities moved to Ocean Park to take advantage of the ocean climate and the relatively low rents. And the Second World War accelerated this change."

(Back to Sources)

Lionel Rolfe Literary L.A., Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 1981. 102pp., 1930s

3. The Day of the Locust: The Greatest Holywood Novel of Them All.

" . . .

" . . .[Nathanael] West . . . was a hotel manager and night clerk himself, in New York before he got his first job in a Hollywood studio. He came to Hollywood in 1933 for a job writing scripts, on the strength of his sale of Miss Lonelyhearts to Twentieth Century-Fox for four thousand dolllar, even though the novel itself had sold poorly. He stayed only a few months.

"It was when West returned to Hollywood from the East Coast in 1935 that he moved into the Parva-Sed Apta. . . . [unlike] his good friend F. Scott Fitzgerald . . . in The Last Tycoon . West was writing about the lower depths, the sea of hopefuls from which the chosen few emerge. Unlike so many writers who came to Hollywood, West was rather good at separating his life's work, writing novels, from his hack work, which was grinding out scenarios, mostly for "B" movies.

"Hundreds of novels have been published about Hollywood . . . one must include [among the good] Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One, Raymond Chandler's works, The Last Tycoon, and perhaps even Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run? . . . many critics contend that the elusive essence of Hollywood was best captured in West's novel.

" . . .

"To some . . . it is a book about a Hollywood that no longer exists . . . "there was still a lot of hope as well as innocence" . . . the Hollywood population has gained a substratum that has no aspirations to glamour. The glamour is gone.

" . . .

" . . . there was a Depression on. Hollywood was a boom town when West first arrived, almost in the manner of San Francisco during the Gold Rush. The early thirties were especially good for writers, because talkies weer still coming in, and there was a big need for scripts. Films were becoming a major industry in the country during the Depression-one of the nation's top ten industries . . . And it was an industry centered in Los Angeles.

"West had come from an affluent family that was wiped out financially by the Depression. West's sister Laura, however, had married his old college chum S.J. Perelman. Perelman became not only West's lifelong admirer but also his patron. . . .

" . . .

" . . . West was something of an artist himself . . . had been an art student . . .

" . . . he loved to cruise Hollywood Boulevard, and was a perennial fixture in front of Musso & Frank's Grill . . .[along with] . . . writers . . . next door to Stanley Rose's bookstore. . . .Among them were John O'Hara, Erskine Caldwell, William Saroyan, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Dashiell Hammett.

"In 1936 . . . West sought sleaze. In pursuit of the underworld, he became . . . a fixture in the pressrooms downtown. He got to know police-beat reporters and went out on calls with them. He was particularly intrigued by domestic murders, which were usually over money. He enjoyed Filipino dance halls, and he was an inveterate cockfight attender . . . . in Wilmington . . .

"Another Los Angeles phenomenon West found fascinating . . . was Sister Aimee Semple McPherson's temple (officially called the Angelus Temple, which still overlooks Echo Park Lake . . . which houses the nation's biggest lotus collection . . . a gift from the mystic East, given by Sister McPherson in the twenties. . . .

"In a very basic sense, West was out of step with his age . . . Like so many during the Depression, West was a communist sympathizer and even a political activist. He went on to become one of the founders, for instance , of the Screenwriter's Guild. But many of his leftist friends were uncomfortable with his unrelieved pessimism. . . . West wanted The Day of the Locust to be a Marxist morality play. He wanted to say that proletarian politics offered hope. But . . . ultimately he was saying, "Nothing redeems, and there's no promise of redemption." . . . .

"It is clear that West could almost certainly be counted as the first Jewish writer in America to achieve . . . the ranks of the nation's great writers, even if Nathan Weinstein did change his name to the oh-so-English-sounding Nathanael West. . . .

" . . .

" . . . In April of 1939, West sent Fitzgerald galleys of The Day of the Locust, tellling him how difficult it had been to write in between "working on westerns and cops and robbers." . . .

" . . . he was becoming far less pessimistic because of his marriage in 1939 to Eileen McKenney, the "Eileen" of the popular book, My Sister Eileen written by her sister Ruth.

Eileen and West were killed in an automobile accident in El Centro on December 22, 1940."

" . . . "

"Politics was ultimately to direct [Upton] Sinclair's efforts away from the studios. The Depression was deepening. Sinclair had already taken out his typewriter and knocked off a couple of books telling what he would do about the country's financial problems- I, Candidate for Governor and How I Ended Poverty: A True Story of the Future. They were novels, but among the people they impressed was a contingent of Democrats in Santa Monica, including the owner of one of that town's biggest hotels. They liked his ideas about what to do, and kept urging him to run for governor as a Democrat, not a Socialist.

" . . .

"Thus it was out of a book, a book that was really only fiction, that Sinclair's EPIC movement-End Poverty in California-was born. The EPIC plan became a giant grassroots movement such as California has not seen since. There were EPIC clubs, EPIC theaters and an EPIC newspaper, which had a daily circulation of two million at one point in Sinclair's campaign .

" . . ."

" . . . EPIC [1930s] . . . won [Sinclair] the Democratic nomination, and he lost to the Republicans with forty-five percent of the vote only after one of the most vicious political smear campaigns ever launched. . . . Sinclair's candidacy forced a realignment of the two major political parties . . . [leading to] later Democratic officeholders as U.S. Senator Sheridan Downey, Governor Culbert Olson, Congressman Jerry Voorhis and Los Angeles County Supervisor John Anson Ford."

" . . . "

(Back to Sources)

Karl Rydgren* (1914- ) I Remember, Unpublished Ms., 1975 [Reprinted 2005], 1933, 1930, 1930s, 1929, 1924, 1920s, 1919, 1914, 1908.

"In 1908, my Dad worked for Mr. Erikson of the Frisco Bakery (on Pier Avenue) delivering bread. My Dad took photos of the great White Fleet when it passed by. I have a photo from back then of Dad with a horse drawn cart at 4th Street and Marine. Mr. Erikson died when the floorboards of his carriage broke and he fell through. The horse's hooves kicked him in the stomach, and he died. Mrs. Erikson had a cafeteria at the corner of Pier Avenue and the Speedway in the early 1930s. Mrs. Erikson's brother, Carl Johnson, owned a restaurant at the 3rd Street alley and Wilshire in the early 1930s. He later opened another restaurant in the old Santa Monica Evening Outlook building on 4th Street north of Arizona Avenue. Mr. Johnson was quite a pastry chef and member of the Elks Lodge #906 for many years.

"When I worked for Mr. Dehne, he had 250 cases of near beer in a storage room in 1932-33. Prohibition was ended, but some people wouldn't drink the 3.2% beer. So I sold every bottle he had, for 25 cents each. People came from as far away as Pasadena."

"John MacPherson was a terrific swimmer who helped build the Santa Monica breakwater. He was the only person to die during construction. He fell onto the breakwater as the boat from Catalina was off-loading heavy rocks and was crushed.

" . . .

"Santa Monica High School played Venice High in football regularly each year. Every game there were fist fights, but no knives or guns. The last game was played at UCLA with the usual fights.

"The statue of movie star Myrna Loy in front of Venice High was often painted by kids, as was the Seal in front of Santa Monica High.

"Santa Monica High played Santa Ana for the C.I.F. title. Jack Noonan caught the only pass for the only score. Santa Ana had a huge team."

(Back to Sources)

"The city [Los Angeles] put its stamp on Venice. The major part of the canal system was filled in and turned into roads. When the land itself became more profitable than the gambling halls and miniature trains, the city opened the land to the oil companies. The oil derricks scattered throughout now transfomed the entertainment area into an industrial park. Because of oil sewage, the Venice beach became quarantined for years. "

(Back to Sources)

Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1935, 1930s, 1928, 1929
4 Santa Monica Harbor and Breakwater (1928-1941)
{Chapter 4 is a very detailed account of the politics and engineering which enabled the Santa Monica Habor Breakwater . . .}

"Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, Feb. 24, 1928 endorses harbor breakwater and pleasure harbor; endorsed by the Beverly Hills CC and Los Angeles CC in March.

"State Senator Charles Lyon and State Assemblyman Walter Little tried to pass state legislation to form an assessment district which would include Beverly Hills, Westwood, Hollywood, inland to Western Av. and south to Pico. Passed in both the Senate and the Assembly, May 2 and May 9, 1929. Govenor C.C. Young refused to sign it because of opposition by both the Hearst newspapers and the Los Angeles Times. For some reason they feared Alphonzo Bell, a large westside landowner, would commercialize the port. The Los Angeles Playground Commission was also opposed to any piers or breakwaters in Santa Monica Bay.

"William Randolph Hearst didn't want a harbor in Santa Monica and Young was his man.

"Judge Arthur W. Weber had authored the legislation but his pleading was to no avail.

"The amusement pier business was competitive during the summer 1929 season. Ocean Park added a $3,000,000 five hundred foot extension to their pier with a Chute-the-Chute ride and numerous attractions. . . . Pickering with much less capital [replaced] the Aeroscape with a smaller yet more exciting Captive Airplane Ride. . . .

"He offered numerous free children's activities. There was a Punch and Judy puppet show, movies, and ballroom dancing accompanied by the famous La Monica Dance Orchestra from 2-5 p.m. On weekends Matt Gay, the world's highest diver, dove from a 97 foot platform into a twelve foot square tank of water." p. 68

"Expositions were held on the Santa Monica Pier and sport fishing remained viable from offshore barges.

"Unexpectedly severe weather conditions which trapped off-shore fishermen and capsized a sports fishing boat led Santa Monica officials to tighten up or down regulations. They awarded an exclusive franchise to Captain Olaf C. Olson, who had a small landing on the Looff pier. He sublet dock space to the Hernage family, Owl Boat Company and Morris Pleasure Fishing run by Captain Morris' widow and brother.

"Charles Arnold soon joined them in late 1930, when he bought a 300 foot long, 43 foot wide all steel sailing ship called the Kinelworth. It had been used for salmon fishing in Alaska during the 20's. Since it was constructed in Scotland in 1887, Arnold renamed in the Star of Scotland, converted it into a fishing barge, and anchored it midway between the Santa Monica and Ocean Park piers. He operated a water taxi service to the barge.

" . . . Eugene Craven . . . His Santa Monica Harbor Co., June 14, 1930.

" . . ." p. 71

"Jonathan Beach Club and Santa Monica Breakers Club protested the sealed auction for the harbor which Craven was awarded Aug. 4th.

"The summer 1930 amusement season was exceptionally slow. . . . Pickering . . . cancelled everything. . . . the Santa Monica Amusement Co. . . . owed the city $1200. The Whirlwind Dipper Co. went bankrupt at the end of the summer, and they tore down the roller coaster in October. The space was used to build a Tom Thumb Miniature Golf Course that was the latest fad. . . .

" . . . the Santa Monica Harbor Co. was also affected. . . . Feb., 1931

" . . . On May 5 the state legislature passed bill #1140. It was the same as the one vetoed by the governor two years previously, but James Rolph Jr. was the new governor. . . .

"Despite rising unemployment during the darkest days of the Depression, Santa Monica Pier businesses were fortunate during the 1931 summer season as crowds at the beach were larger than in the previous two years. Water temperatures hovered between a record 76 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit, only a degree or two colder than the waters off Hawaii. Hammerhead sharks were sighted in the bay for the first time. World wide weather was bizarre that summer, extreme heat and drought in North America with record rain throughout Europe. Inland Los Angeles temperatures hovered around the 100 degree mark . . . The Sunday July 26th crowd that packed the narrow beach solid from Del Rey to the Santa Monica Pier was estimated at 450,000 people. Hundreds took a midnight swim near the pier." p. 72

"The Santa Monica Amusement Co. wanted to extend their franchise, which included a sports fishing franchise on the Looff pier, but were opposed by Captain Olaf C. Olson who held the exclusive fishing franchise on the Municipal Pier . . .

"Commissioner of Finance Frank Helton tried to mediate . . . "Pier interests have gotten away with murder and robbed the public." . . .

"City Engineer, Howard B. Carter . . .

"Contract eventually was let to the Puget Sound Bridge Co. in partnership with W.F. Way of Los Angeles.

". . . Gilman Hot Springs where Commissioner of Finance Frank Helton vacationed . . .

"Plans were approved September 25, 1932. . . . . p. 74

"A series of construction setbacks delayed and significantly modified the construction . . .

"The Breakwater Committee . . .; the Ocean Park Municipal League . . . June, 1933

"Superior Court Judge William P. Hazlett upheld the City . . . 1933

"Work began July 6 dumping Catalina quarried rock in the breakwater area. . . .

". . . .

"On December 13th, during the first big rain storm of the season. . . Johnny McPherson*, a thirty-one year old Ocean Park fisherman on the rain drenched walk between two of the barge's five hoppers . . . slipped on the wet gunwale and lost his balance just as ten tons of rock thundered down into the water. He was caught in the load and undertow, then he disappeared. His body was found the next day under several pieces of core rock in twenty feet of water." p. 81

"Santa Monica engineer, Walter Young, was inspecting the sea wall on April 16th when he was swept off the top of the breakwater by a huge wave. He narrowly escaped death as he was carried one hundred feet before being released by the surf's powerful undertow.

"Santa Monica assumed control over their Municipal Pier on April 17, 1934. G. T. Mills, deputy pier manager. Commissioner H.C. Sanborn . . . p. 82

" . . .

"The breakwater was dedicated on Sunday August 5, 1934 . . . Congressman John Dockweiler spoke . . .

" . . . speeches by Mayor Carter, County Supervisor Quinn and Congressman Dockweiler. "The plaque ritual, conducted by Charles A. Koenig, grand president of the Native Sons of the Golden West . . ." p. 84

"SERA (Social Economic Recovery Act) funds were used to pay workers to repaint and repave the pier.

"Leases were granted to Morris Pleasure Fishing, Hernage and Bray, Kern and Tedford, and Charles Arnold. Santa Monica Bait and Tackle and later Frank Volt offered fishing supplies. Both Union Oil and Standard Oil serviced the fishing fleet, piped from tanks buried on the beach.

" . . .

"The city, in need of a convention center, leased the La Monica Ballroom in October to serve as a 4000 seat convention hall. It was a two year lease . . . The building would also be used to house the lifeguard headquarters, offices for the harbor and the city's publicity departments, and concessions catering to fishermen and yachtsmen.

"In some ways it was a sad fate for the famous ballroom, but hard times had hit the financially strapped Santa Monica Amusement Co. Pier patrons had little money to spend during the Depression and company had to close virtually all their amusements except the carousel, shuffleboatd and shooting gallery concesssions. Ernest Pickering resigned at the end of the 1934 season when the amusement conpany couldn't afford his salary. The company eventually declared bankruptcy the following spirng.

"SERA carpenter crews began the remodeling job shortly before Christmas with lumber salvaged from motion picture studios. They began work on the lifeguard headquarters and sleeping quarters located on the northeast corner of the building. The guards planned to furnish their offices with used nautical gear from a salvage company in San Pedro . . .

"Offices, concessions, and conference rooms facing inwards were built in a square around the huge dance hall floor. Each conference room resembled houses of different countries and periods, complete with roofs and chimneys. The row of cottages on the east side included a Swiss Chalet, and English cottage, Pompeian reception room, Italian room, and a garden room. A stage accomodating 300, sixty feet long and forty foot deep, was constructed at the south end of the ballroom. Offices for the convention center as well as for the California Naval Militia, the Santa Monica Sailing Club, and lifeguard services were on the mezzanine level. Six store-fronts were built along the north side of the auditorium and leased out to defray rent of the entire building."p. 87

" . . . The Wrigley interests approached the city about inaugurating an experimental line if the city was willing to build pier docking facilities. Commissioner Sanborn conferred with Captain W.H. Leisk of the steamer Cabrillo and determined that it involved extending the lower deck by eighteen feet so that tidal surges wouldn't throw the steamship against the pilings. . . .

"Daily summer service to Avalon Bay started June 1, 1935. The 600 passenger, 611 ton steamer left Santa Monica in the early afternoon on a three and one half hour voyage to the offshore island. It returned the following morning. . . .

"The 1935 Fourth of July weekend was one of the busiest on record with 250,000 people cramming the beaches and piers. The aircraft carrier Saratoga was anchored in the bay and the throng awaiting the launches was the greatest ever assembled on the pier. Nine thousand people visited the Saratoga during the weekend and eight hundred paid passengers booked passage on the pier's day fishing boats. . . . The naval and military ball held at the La Monica that evening was attended by over one thousand people.

"Passenger service business to Catalina was far below forecasts . . .they discontinued service between September 15, 1935 . . . and didn't resume the next summer." p.90

"Security First National Bank foreclosed on [Santa Monica Amusement Co.'s] property which they received but the bank didn't get the twenty year franchise.

" . . .

" . . . Commissioner Plummer . . ." p. 93

"The $1,750,000 beach erosion suit finally went to trial during the early summer. The beach clubs south of the pier were involved in what was known as the the Carpenter case. Carpenter represented Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. who had bought the old Del Mar Club in 1934. The club's southwest boundary was the mean high tide line on what had been a very wide beach. The clubs alleged that construction of the yacht harbor breakwater interfered with south bound currents that normally deposited sand on their privately ownd beaches in front of their properties and instead caused them to erode.

" . . .

" . . . Pacific -American Fire Insurance Co. were suing for $578, 967.52 , and offered to sell their property for $75,000. They owned 197 feet of frontage between Grand Hotel and the old Edgewater Club. (The case would drag on until 1944.)" p. 94

"Except for the lifeguard headquarters, the city decided to abandon their questionably titled lease from Security National Bank, in 1937.

"The Bank leased out the La Monica to Austin McFadden who announced that he would operate it . . . as the Rollaway Roller Rink. He renovated the former ballroom so that it would be the most beautiful and up to date rink in the country. He purchased hundreds of skates and had his paid attendants help put on patron's skates without charge. . . .

" . . .

"The late 1930s brought back the popularity of the offshore gambling boats. Several of these boats began operation in 1929 beginning with the Johanna Smith that anchored five miles directly west of the the Venice Pier. Water taxis would deposit gamblers at these floating casinos that sometimes offered entertainment and dancing in addition to crap tables and roulette.

"In 1938 Tony Cornero bought the Star of Scotland fishing barge, a 51 year old four-masted barkentine, and converted it into a gambling ship. . . . . His investment . . . was financed by Bugsy Siegal and George Raft. He towed his boat exactly 3.1 miles offshore, and announced with radio and newspaper advertisements on May 4, 1938 that he was open for business. He offered a challenge . . . to anyone who could show that any game on the Rex was rigged.

"It was a first class operation with good food, top name dance bands, unwatered booze and honest games. Gamblers had a choice of playing craps, roulette, blackjack, chuck-a-luck, high spade, wheel of fortune, chinese lottery , stud poker , and faro. There were tango layouts between decks and 150 one armed bandits.

"The McGough brothers' Santa Monica Boat Service began operating eleven water taxis to the gambling barge once the Rex was open for business. . . . Commissioner Milliken served notice on Roy and E.J. McGough that the city would revoke thier lease on the grounds that it did not permit the operation of taxis to the barge or anywhere else in the harbor. . . . the brothers filed suit in Superior Court . . .

"The McGoughs remodeled and redecorated their waiting rooms on the lower deck of the pier adjacent to the former Catalina Island terminal. Milliken countered by shutting off the water and power to their building and he refused to allow them to post signs. . . . The barge owners . . . placed a large neon sign on the Santa Monica Pier auto park that was owned by the bank. The sign had an arrow pointing to the water taxi dock on the adjoining pier.

"The city continued to try to oust the McGough brothers from the pier despite three court restraining orders issued by Judge Orlando Rhodes. Commissioner Milliken made a motion at their May 15, 1938 meeting to eject them, remove their water taxi float and gang plank. Mayor Gillette voted 'No' because the Council had informed the McGoughs previously that it would approve a plan for them to use the old Catalina Island steamer waiting room if its proposed boat service to the island "wouldn't "detour" to the gambling barge. Two days later the city, despite restraining orders, locked their waiting rooms, removed their float and raised thier gang plank. . . .

"On May 25th Judge Rhodes ruled against the Rex, Los Angeles County law enforcement officers threatened . . .Cornero . . . moved first to Long Beach, then back to Santa Monica Bay where he anchored off Redondo Beach on June 14th. . . . ." p. 94

" . . . But to obtain a PWA grant for $158,000, [the City of Santa Monica] needed to prematurely abandon their old city hall at 4th and Santa Monica Blvd. by January 10, 1939. City departments leased space wherever it was possible. The Police Department transferred all their offices, court and the city jail to the La Monica Ballroom in early December 1938.

" . . .

"On the afternoon of January 2, 1939, a giant swell out of nowhere, washed nine fishermen, one a woman, off the seawall as it swept it end to end. The wave was the forerunner of a violent storm that battered the beaches the following day. The storm accompanied by some of the highest tides of the year washed away most of the sand in front of the Del Mar Club and reached the Promenade in places . . .

" . . .

{In 1939 Santa Monica voters passed an anti-oil drilling ordinance which applied offshore and onshore.}

"Security First National Bank announced on May 15, 1939 . . . the sale of the La Monica Pier and Auditorium to a group of investors headed by Mrs. Harriet Ball, wife of a Texas oil man. . . .

"The new owners bought the ornate Parker carousel from the Venice Pier and sold their 1916 Looff carousel to San Diego's Mission Beach park. Harry Hargrove's American Amusement Company operated the new carousel. . . . One of the vacant buildings was leased out as a penny arcade. The La Monica's dance floor continued to be used as a skating rink and as a location for occasional special events." p. 97

" . . .

"In late September [1939] construction began on a 650 foot bridge from Colorado Av. to the Municipal Pier. After the Roosevelt Highway to Malibu opened in 1935, traffic in front of the pier at Appian Way caused a bottleneck. The completion of the tunnel under Colorado in February 1936 that routed traffic inland helped, but . . .

"The city continued throughout the fall to dredge the harbor despite a river of sand flowing south that built up faster than the dredge could remove it. . . . Sand pumped out and deposited south of the pier in front of the Grand Hotel flowed north . . .

" . . .The harbor was losing its popularity, not just from a decrease in anchorage space, but because it lacked docks. People didn't like to approach thier yachts from a dingy tied up to a pier among dirty fishing boats. . . .

" . . ." p. 98

" . . . Security First National Bank repossessed the property . . . the city reassigned the pier franchise back to the bank on March 28, 1940.

"The Municipal Pier was redecked during the spring a sa WPA project. . . .

"Charles Arnold in 1940 decided to reopen his water taxi and fishing barge business. He leased the ex-gambling ship Texas from the government, renamed it Star of Scotland, and parked it about a mile offshore in front of the breakwater in eighty feet of water. The 261 foot long ship had been an British navy Q-Boat in World War I.

"He operated the boat at first as a fishing barge during daylight hours and as a floating nightclub at night . . . ." The nightclub only lasted a year and the boat sunk during World War II off the pier, still a fishing barge.

"Carpenter testifies on beach erosion. Appealed. p. 99

{Page 66, 1934 photo unloading breakwater capstone from a bay barge.}

{P. 67, probably 1934 aerial photo also showing breakwater construction, the Santa Monica Pier, Beach Clubs and in the distance Ocean Parks, Ocean Av., Main St. and maybe Fourth St., and then perhaps all the way to Ballona Creek.}

{1934 Photo of Girls on Breakwater, p. 68.}

{P. 69 Regatta Week, August 5-12, dedication of the harbor, spectators, and yacht races. P. 70, 1934 Regatta week paddleboard racing. Pp. 70 and 71 show the new harbor including several hundred yachts and small boats.}

{P.73 1932 photo of honorary Santa Monica lifeguard, Buster Crabbe; undated picture of Leo Carrillo weighing a billfish on the pier.}

{P. 75 late 1930s photo of Delta dinghys built by Tedford's Boat Service next to the Carousel.; bottom 1937 photo shows the Santa Monica Municpal Pier's enlarged end 'T' with a lower deck, constructed in 1934 and a large building, the harbor office.}

{Page 76 Undated photo of the Santa Monica Municipal Lifeguard Service formed in 1932 and housed along with the aquarium in the La Monica Ballroom.}

{P. 77 1936 photo of lifeguards' annual test.}

{P. 78 The La Monica was used as the city's convention center from 1934 to 1937, including in 1934 the California Federation of Women's Clubs]

{P. 82 1935 photo showing the U.S.S. Saratoga, aircraft carrier, located off the end of the pier.; p. 83, 1936 photo of lines of people waiting to be ferried to the U.S.S. Ranger.}

{P. 86 The mackerel fleet was anchored on the south side of the La Monica Pier. They sold fish to companies that made fertilizer.}

{P. 88 The Manoa Paddleboard Cub whose clubhouse was underneath on a subdeck of the pier, 1933}

{P.89 1933 Paddleboaders Bob Donnis and Pete Peterson-Pete's mom owned the Santa Monica Bathhouse, just north of the Pier; Fishemen on the Pier, 1935}

{Pp. 90 and 91 Santa Monica Pier in the late 1930s, B'low Deck Cafe; Boat Rides; Santa Monica Bait and Tackle Co., Boats For Rent;}

{P. 92 Water Taxis from the Santa Monica and Ocean Park Piers took patrons to the gambling barge Rex, closed down in August 1939.}

{P. 96 Undated photo shows children watching short films on moviolas in the arcade: Titles: Electric Chair at Sing Sing; Fire at Sea!; Dempsey-Tunney Championship Fight. The arcade provided a foot bench for shorter children.}

{P. 96 1936 photo of gymnasts working out on playground equipment south of the pier.}

{P. 97 September 1939 photos of the construction of the ramp down to the pier over Appian Way., The Fish Restaurant at Colorado and Ocean is identifiable, and there is a Snack Stand north of the ramp and a Hotel on the Promenade}

{P. 98 Dec. 21, 1941, fishing boats beached in front of the Edgewater due to high winds and heavy surf.}

{P. 99 1940 Photo of Santa Monica Yacht Harbor Sign.}

Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990.

Chapter 5: Santa Monica Pier on the Skids (1941-974)

"Acrobatic and gymnastic exhibitions were featured at the playground several hundred feet south of the pier. This area that had become known as "Muscle Beach" was built in th early 30's as a Works Progress Administration "time-killer". The WPA built a weight lifting platform to provide work and recreation facilities for the crowds of unemployed and relief recipients who had nothing to do during the Depression. It was eventually taken over by the Santa Monica Recreation Department after the original users found jobs and moved on.". . .

"Spade Cooley* . . .

"Cooley*, who gained his nickname when he once drew a five spade flush in a poker game, came to Hollywood from Oklahoma in 1934. He showed up one day at the gate of Republic Pictures with a fiddle and six cents. Roy Rodgers liked him and gave him a job as his stand-in. Eventually he formed his own band and his "barn dance' style entertainment caught on during the war."

(Back to Sources)

Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987. 176 pp., 1941, 1938, 1935, 1934, 1933, 1932, 1931, 1929, 1923,

Chapter 6: Oil, Depression & War Years (1930-1945)

"Venice entered the Depression in the midst of hope and despair. On the one hand the economic downturn caused by the stock market crash and the subsequent failure of the banking industry meant little disposable income for the amusement industry. On the other hand the discovery of oil held the possibilities of untold wealth for the community.

"The Ohio Oil Company brought in a wildcat well on December 18, 1929 in Del Rey on county property just east of the Grand Canal at Avenue 35. . . . The . . . company then asked for a zoning variance that would permit them to drill for oil within the city limits on the Venice Peninsula.

"The town's excitement soon turned to oil fever. Parcels of land and mineral rights rapidly traded hands. Residents talked of nothing but oil and the money that could be made by having an oil well in one's backyard. . . . Ocean Park residents, however, weren't so lucky. Santa Monica was strictly against drilling." p. 126

"Despite the economic cushion provided by the oil business, the amusement business began to suffer that first summer of the Depression. . . ." p. 129

"With spending money becoming scarce and money for new attractions non-existent, amusement men resorted to promotions and celebrations to lure paying customers to Venice and Ocean Park. The schedule for 1931 included the St. Patrick's Day parade, Easter Fashion Pageant, Pacific Memorial Day services, Fiesta Week in June, Independence Day with fireworks, Annual Bathing Revue, Mermaid Mardi Gras in August, Labor Day celebration, Halloween Carnival, Armistice Day celebration, 1st Annual Turkey Trot, two weeks long Christmas Fiesta and the 24th annual New Year's Eve Frolic.

"Amusement interests were fortunate that summer as the crowds at the beach were larger than in the previous two years and water temperatures hovered between a record 76 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit, only a degree or two colder than the waters off Hawaii. Hammerhead sharks were sighted in the bay for the first time. World wide weather was bizarre that summer; extreme heat and drought in North America with record rain throughout Europe. Inland Los Angeles temperatures hovered around the 100 degree mark throughout the summer and residents headed for the beach to escape the heat. Sunday's July 26th crowd that packed the narrow beach solid from Del Rey to the Ocean Park Pier was estimated at 350,000 people. Five hundred people took a late evening swim by moon light near the pier. the only discomfort was the swarms of mosquitoes that plagued Venice throughout the summer.

" . . .

"The pier's amusement rides were considered safe, but on August 13th there was a bizarre accident on the Ocean Park Pier's Hi-Boy roller coaster. The front car became uncoupled from the rest of the train and didn't make it to the top of the next hill. The empty rear cars, with much less momentum, stopped near the bottom. When the front car, rolling backwards, struck the rest of the train at the bottom, its four passengers were hurled backwards out of their seats to land in the empty car behind. It was a lucky accident or they might have fallen between the rails to their deaths.

"Others weren't always so lucky. There were always signs posted warning passengers 'Do not stand up!' One teenager, no doubt showing off to his friends, disobeyed the warning sign when Some Kick coaster first opened in 1923 and had his head smashed in by a protruding post. Over the years some stood up and were hurled out of the cars on sharp turns, only to land on the pier far below or sometimes in the ocean. Most were drunk but a few did it on a dare, One kid tried to ride a coaster unseated, hanging on to the restraining bar by his hands alone. He lost his grip on a fast turn and died when he struck the pier pilings below.

"Many consider 1932 the worst year of the depression. Banks like the First National Bank of Venice and Ocean Park's Marine Bank were failing in record numbers, and jobs were scarce everywhere. But Los Angeles was preparing for the 10th Olympiad and the Venice/ Ocean Park amusement interests intended to take advantage of it. They planned to lure the Olympic crowd with 25 cent Pacific Electric roundtrip excursion fares on Wednesdays and Sundays.

"In May the Southern California water polo team, composed mostly of Venice swimmers, won the West Coast championship. Five Venice men including Wally O'Conner (captain), Phil Daubenspeck, Charles Finn, Herb Wildman and Bill O'Conner won positions on the United States water polo team. The team upset Brazil and Japan in the playoffs and tied Germany 4-4 in the semi-finals. But in the August 11th final match, they lost to Hungary 7-0.

"Venice held some interesting events that summer. July 4th {1932} festivities included a daredevil's descent by parachute while operating a fireworks show. Louis 'Speedy' Babbs leaped from a plane at 8000 feet with bombs strapped to his body and a brand in his teeth. Unfortunately, one of the bombs prematurely exploded and his clothes caught fire at 5000 feet. Spectators didn't realize what had happened until his writhing body, enveloped in flames, dropped out of the fog into the clear a few hundred feet above the ocean where speed boats quickly rescued him. He was hospitalized with first and second degree burns. p. 130

"Natural disasters in 1933 and 1934 did almost as much to damage Venice as the Depression did. The Long Beach earthquake on March 10, 1933 wrecked the high school auditorium and damaged a number of buildings. . . ." p.130

"Then in January 1934 heavy rains caused Ballona Creek and the Grand Canal to overflow and flood Venice. . . . The Works Progress Administration did, however, begin work on building a flood control levee on Ballona Creek the following year. It helped but failed to curtail the brunt of the 1938 flood.

"Congress pass the Little Volsted Act on April 7, 1933 as a prelude to ending Prohibition. It authorized the consumption 3.2% beer in any municipality that would allow it. Los Angeles put the issue on the May ballot and it passed. . . . By the end of the year the states ratified the repeal of the 21st Amendment, and it became legal once again to drink liquor on December 5, 1933." p. 132

{p. 133 photo :1941 aerial view of the Sunset, Venice and OP Piers, and Santa Monica.}

"The Venice Surfing Club gained prominence during the time {1935 - 1941} of the Mardi Gras festivals. Its thirty to forty members, mostly teens and young adults, met at a small clubhouse on the end of the Sunset Pier. It was first formed as a paddle board club in the early 30's, but when members like Luigi Varlucchi, Tom Wilde, Ed Adams, Tom Blake and Tully Clark began shaping the big wooden boards and experimenting with unmovable rudders placed on the tail, most members began to surf. Lifeguards reserved half of the beach area between Sunset Pier and the Venice Pier exclusively for surfboards and paddle boards.

"Venice began to recover from the Depression after 1935. Business conditions improved, primarily because of the success of the Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, which was busy making DC-3's. Workers seeking housing and families who were staying in Venice through the winter because of higher rents inland cause a housing shortage. Garages were converted into living quarters and single family residences were converted to multi-family." p.135

Gambling, Bingo and Prohibition

"While few people were spending money on amusement rides during the Depression, they were spending it on bingo or at least a variation of the popular game. Bingo was considered a gambling game and therefore was illegal in Los Angeles. However, the clever game operators invented variations that allowed the customers to use their "skill" to select the numbers called. This might involve tossing marbles in a grid, or rolling balls down an incline. Game cards costing a nickel to a quarter, depending on the number of players, offered prizes of $1.50 to $50.00.

"One of the most successful operators was John Harrah and his son Bill. The former Venice mayor was badly in debt after the stock market crash, yet owned mortgages on a number of beach properties far above their deflated value. One such property was the Plaza building at the entrance to the Venice Pier. At the time it housed mostly bowling alleys and a pool hall. They decided to use part of the empty space to open up a variation of bingo which they called the "Circle Game." Players sat at a large circular style bar during the game and marked their bingo cards. A revolving game board with its connecting runway was placed in the center. Each player in turn determined the next number by rolling a ball down the runway so that it landed into one of the numbered slots. The 32 seat parlor grossed $100 the first night it opened on July 4, 1932. The Harrahs were so successful that they soon opened a second game called Tango, then a third.

"In 1934 the state passed a law outlawing bingo as a game of chance at his parlors and others that lined the coast. The police and county sheriffs raided the games to shut them down. The arresting officer became confused when Harrah's game didn't even look like bingo. They managed to stay open nearly six months after everyone else was closed by constantly changing the games and keeping one step ahead of the law.

"The legality of the games were constantly challenged in court, but there were still periodic raids and closures in 1935 and 1936. While Harrah became fed up with the constant legal trials and uncertainties and moved to Reno in 1937, others evolved the game into a variation called Bridgo. It lasted until after World War II when a final courtroom test closed the "games of skill" for good.

"The late 1930's brought back the popularity of the offshore gambling boats. A fleet of these boats began in 1929 with the operation of the Tango anchored five miles directly west of the Venice Pier. Water taxis would deposit gamblers at these floating casinos that sometimes offered entertainment and dancing in addition to crap tables and roulette.

"In 1938 Tony Cornero converted a 41year old brigantine into a gambling ship. It had a superstructure especially designed as a luxury gambling casino. His investment, rumored to be $600,000, was financed by Bugsy Siegal and George Raft. He towed his boat exactly 3.1 miles offshore, and announced by radio and newspaper advertisements that he was open for business. He offered a challenge, a $100,000 reward to anyone who could show that any game on the Rex was rigged.

"It was a first class operation with good food, top name dance bands, unwatered booze and honest games. Gamblers had a choice of playing craps, roulette, blackjack, chuck-a-luck, high spade, wheel of fortune, Chinese lottery, stud poker and faro. There were Tango layouts between decks and 150 "one armed bandits" lined the casino walls. The operation was a success and netted Tony $300,000 per month.

"The Rex and the other gambling boats were a thorn in the side of anti-gambling forces. The local authorities could do nothing because they operated just beyond their jurisdiction. Police often harassed the water taxi service, but their efforts were struck down in court. Finally California Attorney General Earl Warren decided to take action. He armed himself with nuisance abatement warrants and went after the gambling fleet.

"He had no difficulty shutting down two boats in Long Beach and the Texas off Venice, but the Rex didn't give in easily. Cornero got wind of the operation when seventeen unarmed plainclothes officers tried to sneak aboard the ship with the other customers. Bouncers spotted them easily and escorted them off the ship.

"Warren rounded up a flotilla of State and Game boats, manned them with deputies and ordered them out to the Rex. Cornero was ready and repelled the invasion with high pressure hoses. The authorities laid siege for nine tense days while Cornero's men stood guard with sub-machine guns. His attorneys filed suit after suit charging Warren with everything from harassment to piracy.

"Then Tony Cornero unexpectedly surrendered on August 9, 1938. The war moved to the courts. The high court finally ruled a year later that the three mile limit in the Santa Monica Bay extended from an imaginary line connecting Point Dume to Point Vicente. Tony had to pay fines and court costs."

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Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1930s

" . . . the Depression period . . .

" . . . the [U.S.] government [funded] various projects . . . some worthwhile . . . some boondoggling . . . welfare disguised as work.

"Truly constructive works came under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Administration, the others . . . the WPA (Works Progress Adminstration.)

"Santa Monica had its share of both, and even set up a municipal office to coordinate the activities.

"Most significant of the various federally funded projects was the construction of the city hall at its present location.

"The old building, which had stood since 1906 at the corner of Fouth and Santa Monica Boulevard, was obsolete and in need of enlargement to meet the needs of a growing community.

"The city had already acquired the necessary site from the Southern Pacific Railway Co., and the new building was completed in 1938, the Main Street elevation then being identical with that of 1974."

" . . ."

"It started with the DC-1, made to, but far exceedng the specifications of an airline customer. From it developed the DC-2 and then the DC-3, which proved to be the workhorse of the airlines all over the world, and in World War II, the military.

" . . . the[ Douglas Aircraft Co.] company . . . became one of the largest in the industry, using methods of construction which were an example to others . . .

"The DC-3 . . . flew December 17, 1935 . . . and orders poured in from all over the world.

"During those years between the wars, Douglas also built a wide variety of military aircraft under orders from both Army and Navy, including bombers, patrol craft, transports, torpedo bombers and even a flying boat. . . .the SBD Dauntless, the B-18, the A-20.

"The great Douglas plant gave rise to a host of smaller ones, generally related to the aviation industry and in many cases suppliers of components.

" . . . John K. Northrop, once an engineer with Douglas, originator of the so-called multi-cellular wing and designer of the "flying wing," a tailless airplane. He was once again enlisted by Douglas to help solve a particular design problem involved in a Navy order.

"In 1932 the Northrop Corporation was formed as a Douglas subsidary, with Northrop as president and chief engineer. Later this was merged with Douglas, and Northrop formed the Northrop Aircraft Company, a separate and independent enterprise.

"Not only did the Douglas Aircraft Co. give rise to the Northrop Corp., still a leader in the industry [1974], but former Douglas executives "Dutch" Kindelberger and Leland Atwood started North American Aviation in the late 1930s. At about the same time Harry H. Wetzel, vice president of Douglas, was largely responsible for the organization of the Garrett Corp. "

" . . .

" . . . Harry Wetzel . . . in 1924 . . . explained the controls of the World Flight . . . planes to this reporter . . .

"On another pre-war occasion, the infamous sit-down strike launched against Douglas [1937], when strikers ocuupied the plant and were, it developed, prepared to set it afire, Harry Wetzel was the man I interviewed, first passing through a line of pickets recruited from the longshoremen at San Pedro, who were marching in lockstep in front of the door. I planted my leather heel rather firmly on the instep of a picket, and walked in, learned the Douglas position from Harry Wetzel.

"Later I interviewed Walter Reuther, the then young labor leader who was master-minding the strike, at his Ocean Park hotel room. I do not remember having been especially impressed with his logic, although his delivery was what might have been expected from a fiery redhead.

" . . .

"Still not satisfied that municipal growth and development had been adequately directed, the city administration retained Gordon Whitnall, an eminent city planning expert, as a consultant. As a result, a much improved zoning ordinance was submitted. . . . by the time it was enacted in 1937, it had been much diluted, in response to pressure from builders and other interests. In particular, it was grossly inadequate in the matter of off-street parking requirements.

" . . .

"The brickyards should go.

" . . . clays lying beneath the surface had been found to be excellent for the making of bricks and sewer pipe, a series of brickyards had been in operation for years, and excavating vast holes, 40 or 50 feet deep, and covering literally acres of land.

"Damage to the land was almost as great as that resulting from strip mining of coal or placeer mining of gold.

"Leading the fight to curb and ultimately eliminate the brickyards was Edmund Slama, who devoted much time and energy to this end, and who served for many years on the planning commission.

"The city . . . was confronted by a real legal problem:

"How to close down the yards without being guilty of inverse condemnation, which is the curtailment or elimination of a property right without due compensation.

" . . . it was the law of economics rather than the law of the land which did . . . eliminate the brickyards."

" . . . "

"Drafters of the charter amendment which set up the commission form of government [thought] $250 a month . . . would attract competent men , , , for each of the three commissioners who were charged with all legislative and admistrative responsibilities in city government.

"The amount was set by terms of the charter itself and not subject to easy change.

"For a time $250 a month did . . . attract capable men, who were required to give full time to their city position.

"The city grew, the dollar shrank in value, and the attraction of $250 per month waned. Government became a bit slipshod, if not actually venal, and the first indication of this was fairly open gambling and vice.

"Bookmakers operated rather brazenly, slot machines appeared here and there, bingo games in the amusement district paid off, ostensibly in merchandise, actually in cash..

"It is also a fact that for a brief period at least, a call house operated on La Mesa Drive, and, at about the same time, a full fledged gambling casino was set up on the Ocean Park pier.

"Then there was the case of the gambling barge, Rex, a converted windjammer anchored in the bay, a few miles out from the municipal pier. Water taxis plied regularly between pier and the barge, operated by one Tony Cornero*, a widely known figure in the gambling world.

"He claimed immunity by reason of being in international waters, beyond the three mile limit. In due course the courts held otherwise, ruling that the three mile limit was three miles beyond a line drawn from Point Dume to Point Vicente, [too far] for convenient water taxi commuting.

"The gambling barge was shut down, its paraphenalia destroyed by deputy sheriffs.

"This however, by no means ended petty gambling enterprises ashore, and a movement for governmental reform built up, not, however to be effectuated until after the end of the war.

" . . ."

(Back to Sources)

Carolanne Sudderth Tenants win fight to preserve historic courtyard complex , Ocean Park Gazette, 15 June 2004, 1980s, 1940s, 1930s, 1926, 1925, 1920s,

"June 15 - . . . residents of 125 Pacific Street celebrated victory last night when the Landmarks Commission voted to grant their building landmark designation that allows them to retain their homes. Owners of the building, an LLC had applied for a permit to demolish the structure's 24 units and replace it.

"Built between 1925 and 1926, Christie Court is one of two surviving (intact) courtyards west of Neilson (nee Trolley) Way, (The other is the landmark Horatio West Courts at 140 Hollister Ave. two blocks away.) The project consists of 24 adjoined units built in a horsehoe around a broad swath of green lawn. The picnic table set therein has served as a gathering ground and meeting place.

" . . . Resident Mark Hooker led off by presenting a 271 signature petition in support of saving the building. One by one, tenants related different sections of a carefully traced history of the building based largely on the oral histories of people who had lived there.

"In the beginning, the building's placement was a tale of two piers when Santa Monica was a pleasure resort. In addition to enjoying the beach, people came to dance at the prestigious Santa Monica ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier or gamble at Nat Goodwin's cafe on the Crystal/Bristol Pier at the foot of Hollister Avenue.

"The building provided housing for local trades people. During the 20s, a pair of plumbers lived their and walked across Main to their offices in what is now Star Liquor In the 30s and 40s, there were salespeople from Henshey's Department Store and a chef at Casa del Mar Club, and Douglas Aircraft workers during the war years."

(Back to Sources)

Greetings From California: 505: Beach between Venice and Sunset Municipal Pier, Venice, California, 1930s

(Back to Sources)

Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1930s

"In July, 1930, a block of stock was purchased in the Santa Monica Deauville Club, a romantic Norman structure built in 1926 as an adjunct to a projected city club at Sixth and Flower streets. Reputedly patterned after the famous Casino in Deauville, France, the building had a choice location between the SMAC and the Santa Monica pier, a beach frontage of 250 feet, and was valued at a million dollars. No courtesies were exchanged with the LAAC, however, until full affiliation took place in the mid-thirties.

11. The Tenth Olympiad

" . . . winning four AAU championships in 1930- . . . the gymnasts, led by Leo Vandendaele in tumbling and Paul Krempel in the flying rings.

"At the July swimming meet, Buster Crabbe won two freestyle events and the medley . . .

" . . . 1932 . . . The LAAC water polo team, which was chosen to represent the U.S., was unfortunately weakened when three of its strongest members were disqualified under AAU rules for working as lifeguards." p.127

" . . . the Riviera Country Club was busy welcoming the visiting equedstrians . . .

"Los Angeles greeted each national contingent in the spirit of La Fiesta: the Czechs were entertained at the Deuville, the Germans at the Surf and Sand. . . .

12. Faith in the Future

" . . .

"The Wheelman of the Past Century held annual dinner meetings at the Club from 1926 to 1942, reliving their past heroics. . . . In 1936 Sheriff Biscailuz* was installed as chairman and served until the grop disbanded.

" . . .

"The Depression also brought renewed emphasis to the physical and spiritual benefits of body-building. A Life Extentsion Department . . . "Why suffer from auto-intoication, lowered vitality, colds, constipation, despondence. [Memories of Sandow, who died in 1925, were revived in the thirties as part of the physical culture movement.]

" . . .

"The sixth Allied Club, the Santa Monica Deauville, was added to the chain in 1935 when the mortgage (held by the LAAC), interest, and taxes all came due simultaneously. Architecturally attractive, the new club was famous for its handsome espanade and for its plunge, the largest fresh water indoor pool on the coast.

"The original design for the Deuville had included a tower with athletic facilities and and guest rooms. When the City of Santa Monica decided not to let any structure interfere with the view from the palisades, however, the tower had to be deleted, taking away much of the beach club's year-round appeal. Joined in management with the Santa Monica Athletic Club, the two clubs could at least cooperate. The SMAC provided a limited number of rooms and some athletic facilities, while all of the food preparation was transferred to the modern Deauville kitchens.

"In summer business was brisk. "Club hopping" was a popular pastime in the thirties when a dozen beach clubs lined the strand, and swimming pools had not yet become backyard commodities. The Deauville provided a rendezvous for college students on Friday nights with dancing to Ted Miller's orchestra, a complete dinner for $1.50, and an economy-minded supper for $1.15." p. 142

(Back to Sources)

Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1930s

"One of Santa Monica's favorite sons, Leo Carrillo, chose a wooded strip of land along the creek for his home, an adobe hacienda with a barn and ample spaces for horses. Leo was a true Californio, tracing his ancestry back to Raymundo Carrillo, who arrived in California in 1769 as a soldier with the Portolá party and settled in Santa Barbara. His father, Juan, came to Santa Monica in 1881, started out as a fisherman and later rose to prominence as a judge and first president of the city's trustees.

"Leo was one of thirteen children and the most famous. He began his acting career on the stage in New York, and after returning to California appeared in some fifty films. He was a familiar sight at parades and other public events, with his white horse, elaborate outfits, and fancy silver saddles . . . A good friend of Will Rogers, he was an avid polo fan . . . Another close friend was Earl Warren; after managing Warren's successful gubernatorial campaign, Leo was appointed to the state parks commission, a post he held with distinction. . . . His brothers Ottie and Jack also had homes in the canyon.

" . . ."

"533 West Rustic-The original house, which is still located at the rear, was commissioned by a Mrs. Montgomery and designed by architect John Byers in 1930 for sculptors Olger and Helen Jensen and their family. Helen make lifelike scuptures; his were less representational. They were known for such diverse work as the statue of Senator Jones in Santa Monica, a bust of Dr. Rufus B. von KleinSmid, animals at the San Diego zoo and the popular, "Laughing Head." . . .

" . . . Later the house was occupied by Nicolai Fechin, the famous Russian artist . . . who has a permanent exhibit at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City . . .

"After Fechin died in 1955, the house was sold to Sergei Bongart (-1985), a Russian artist who had come to the United States in 1947. . . he was the subject of the opening segment on the PBS series, "Profiles in American Art." . . . He married one of his students, Patricia LaGrand. . . ."

"487 Mesa . . . Douglas Shearer, brother of Norma Shearer and chief MGM sound technician, who was married to Marion, known for her friendliness and turned their badminton court on East Rustic Road into a social center for the lively group of artists and writers who lived in the neighborhood. It all came to an end in the mid-1930s, when she learned of her husband's infidelity and took her own life at the shooting gallery on the Ocean Park pier."

"410 Mesa . . . occupied in the 1930s by C.P.L. (Cecil Phillips Livingston) Nicholls, Superintendent of Aquatics, Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. His wife, Josephine, was a trained artist, specializing in watercolors . . . Nicholls developed the city system of thirty-two swimming pools, the chain of public beaches, the lifeguard system, several mountain parks, and the Cabrillo Beach Marine Museum. He organized aquatic events and was involved in the Olympic Games and the building of the Olympic pool in Exposition Park. . . . "

(Back to Sources)

Milford Zornes, b.1908, . . . "the last surviving member of the California Style, along with Millard Sheets and Emil Kosa, entered Pomona College in the early thirties where he met Sheets who taught at Scripps College. The Roosevelts chose one of his paintings, Old Adobe, for the White House in 1934. Subsequently he taught at both Pomona College and Otis College of Art and Design."

(Back to Sources)