Category: Seal Beach History

On this date in 1915, a perhaps apocryphal story about Seal Beach real estate appeared in the Des Moines Tribune about an encounter between a extra and Hollywood film director Frank Lloyd.

At the end of a long day of shooting a big crowd scene for “The Gentleman from Indiana,” the extras lined up to receive their pay. The director, conveniently for this anecdote, forgot what the extras were getting paid and asked one how much he had made that day.

The extra answered with a happy grin, “Two Hundred and thirty dollars!” This number far exceeded the standard range of pay for an extra in 1915 was at very best only a few bucks.

The extra explained to the shocked Lloyd that he was a real estate man and had sold five Seal Beach lots to his fellow extras during the day.

This story also appeared in newspapers in Montana and Oregon. I can’t help but wonder. Did this obvious P.R. story come from Paramount Pictures or from Seal Beach itself?

– Michael Dobkins

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On this date in 1945, Seal Beach film fans could stroll down to the recently opened Beach Theatre on Main Street and catch a double feature of “You Came Along” and “The Kid Sister.” The Beach had only just opened the previous week on November 22, Thanksgiving Day.

“You Came Along” was a tear-jerker about three USAAF officers flying across the U.S. on a war bond tour. The film introduced Lisbeth Scott as the officer’s unlikely chaperone, Ivy Hotchkiss who falls for Robert Cummings, playing Major Robert “Bob” Collins, the rowdiest of the officers who is carrying a tragic secret.

The Kid Sister was a piece of comedic poverty row fluff that clocked in at less than an hour. It starred Judy Clark as a rebellious and precocious teen who gets up to all sorts of mischief and shenanigans, usually at the expense of her snooty older sister.

You can watch the entire film here in glorious black and white.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-te0ou6_d8]
The next year, The Beach Theatre would be bought by the Fox Theater chain, closed on June 23, 1946, and then reopened as The Bay Theatre on July 17, 1946.

What to see a schedule of the films shown at the Beach Theatre during its brief seven-month history? Click here.

– Michael Dobkins

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On this date in 1980, the Los Angeles Times ran an ad for the Seafood Broiler restaurant chain, including the newly opened Seal Beach location.

– Michael Dobkins

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This Date in Seal Beach History also has an online store hosted at Cafepress where you can order shirts, tote bags, stationery, and other gift items imprinted with vintage Seal Beach images. Visit the online store by clicking here.

On this date in 1963, Kiko’s of Seal Beach opened the “Very In” room which displayed art by local artists. Owners Betty and Frank Semasko entertained  a crowd of 75 guests, including Mayor Dean Gemmill and Mrs. Shirley Gemmill, Dixie and Dick Swift. Bonnie and Harry Orme, The Don Wolfs, Dr. and Mrs. Tanne Hill, and Vernon and Marilyn Leckman.

Kiko’s was located at 909 Ocean Avenue and is still missed with grand fondness today by its regular customers. The sandwich ingredients were exotic, and the sandwich names were eccentric. You could order “The Playboy,” “The Hofbrau,” “The Picadilly” and “The Danny Thomas Special,” which was a concoction of round steak, pine nuts, garlic, onion, and Near East spices jammed into a Lebanese roll.

Betty and Frank Semasko sold Kiko’s in 1972 and moved to Estoril, Portugal.

– Michael Dobkins

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On this date in 1954, 58-year old widow Ernestine Goetz refused to be interviewed by reporters and secluded herself inside her home in the Seal Beach Trailer Park.

The West Virginia Supreme Court had just ruled that Ernestine would inherit an equal share of an estimated 4.5 million dollar estate that belonged to an eccentric aunt of her deceased husband. Mr. Goetz had contested the will with two other Goetz relatives, but had passed away in 1953.

Ernestine Goetz was understandably overwhelmed by the situation. “Just say I’m grateful. I have no plans. I’m sorry — I’m a little shy,” she shared from behind the door of her green trailer.

And that was all the reporters got from her. Ernestine continued to live in the trailer park for a couple more years according to voting records, but her trail runs cold after that.

– Michael Dobkins

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On this date in 1962, the Southland Magazine section of the Long Beach Independent ran a full page ad advertising Seal Beach shops under the following banner:

Here are the ads for the ten individual shops and restaurants:

At the bottom of the page, a footer read:
Fifty-five years later only the Bay Hardware is still in business.

– Michael Dobkins

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On this date in 1966, the local retail chain, Uncle Al’s Toy Korral celebrated the opening of their new Seal Beach store by offering a toy sale at their Tustin location as shown in this ad from The Tustin News.

The Seal Beach location was in the then new Seal Beach Shopping Center where Send It Packing is now located. Uncle Al’s Toy Korral was open in Seal Beach for roughly two years.

Uncle Al’s Toy Korral started in Long Beach in 1957 and once expanded to four locations in the sixties. When it went out of business in 1977, all that remained was the original Long Beach store on Spring Street.

– Michael Dobkins

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This Date in Seal Beach History also has an online store hosted at Cafepress where you can order shirts, tote bags, stationery, and other gift items imprinted with vintage Seal Beach images. Visit the online store by clicking here.

 

On this date in 1921, Los Angeles and Seal Beach realtor F. L. Flack’s $12,000 home at Seal Way and Dolphin Avenue burned to the ground while members of the Seal Beach Fire Department watched helplessly.

The cause of their helplessness was due to the department’s fire truck being stuck in wet sand. The water pressure from the city’s mains had been insufficient to fight the flames, so the firemen drove the fire truck on to the beach in hopes get an adequate supply of water from the ocean. A service car from a local garage attempted to pull the truck from the sand, but it also became stuck. Ultimately four teams of horses managed to pull both vehicles from the sand, but by that time the teams were done, the house had been consumed completely by flames.

– Michael Dobkins

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On this date in 1913, the Santa Ana Register reported that a land dredger, a rarity in 1913 Southern California, had started work on the sand dunes of Seal Beach.

A mere four posts ago, I made fun of the dredger being mentioned as an attraction listed in a Seal Beach advertisement, but after stumbling across this article, it really does sound impressive.

It used an electric pump to remove sand from the beach and disperse it across the Pacific Electric tracks and throughout the town to fill in “swales and low places” in preparation to grade the landscape for installing sidewalks, cement curbs, parking, water pipes, “and ornamental shade trees.”

The Guy M. Rush Company shared that all this activity was a prelude to replacing the dunes with a promenade and a seventy foot and twenty foot cement promenade.

No pricetag for this project was mentioned, but the irony is that millions have probably bent spent over the decades to replace sand in Seal Beach due to beach erosion and flooding.

– Michael Dobkins

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Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.

This Date in Seal Beach History also has an online store hosted at Cafepress where you can order shirts, tote bags, stationery, and other gift items imprinted with vintage Seal Beach images. Visit the online store by clicking here.

 

On this date in 1913, the Guy M. Rush ran this ad in the Santa Ana Register reminding potential Seal Beach real estate buyers that a special Pacific Electric red car was leaving for Seal Beach (actually still named Bay City) the next morning at 9:30 a.m.

I have no idea what the yawning baby and “Little Seal Beachers” have to do with selecting a lot, but two bits got you a round trip and a lunch.

– Michael Dobkins

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Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?

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Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.

This Date in Seal Beach History also has an online store hosted at Cafepress where you can order shirts, tote bags, stationery, and other gift items imprinted with vintage Seal Beach images. Visit the online store by clicking here.