On this date in 1938, Halloween was celebrated with plenty of “Whoopee” and fun at Vivian Laird’s Garden of Allah on the coast highway at Seal Beach.
There was also “Whoopee” and fun at Vivian Laird’s South Seas, located between Santa Ana and Anaheim, but we all know that Seal Beach’s Halloween “Whoopee” and fun was (and is) the best.
– Michael Boo!-kins
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On this date in 1979, The Gold Mine, located at 218 1/2 Main Street ran this ad in the Los Angeles Times with the enticing slogan of “Now selling gold the way it should be sold by weight.”
Today Ebb Persephone fulfills all your new age gift needs at this address.
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1977, the shops on Main Street held an Old Fashioned Sidewalk Sale from 9 a.m. to dusk.
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1929, the new Seal Beach city hall was officially opened and dedicated at 8th Street and Central Avenue in a gala ceremony.
After a narrowly defeated bond election in 1928 and a second successful bond of $50,000 at the end of January 1929, the City of Seal Beach managed to pick an architect, choose a building site, and construct the new fireproof city hall building in nine short months (with delays that pushed the expected September 1st opening and celebration to October 29.)
Fresh and brand new in 1929
The dedication program included:
The Dick Rogers orchestra (probably the Llewellyn Orchestra)
Opening prayer and blessing by Reverend D. W. Wilt
Presentation of Building by Horace W. Austin
Receipt of building by Mayor R. E. Dolly
Flag presentation and salute of the U.S. Flag by the Junior Police, directed by Chief of Police Andy Johnson
Song by the grammar school glee club
Introduction of distinguished guests
Baritone solo by Jimmie McGarrigle
Guests were escorted through the building by the junior police, and refreshments were served by the Woman’s Club of Seal Beach.
From the main entrance on 8th Street a long hallway stretched to the back of the building. On the left, the clerical offices for the city clerk, recorder, engineer, auditor and courtroom.
Beyond the clerical offices (but still on the left), stood the police department’s rooms, including a private office for the chief of police, the squad room, and a examining room for prisoners.
At the rear, the fire department took up the first floor with sleeping quarters for the firemen above on the second floor. The first floor housed the city’s firefighting equipment, including a brand new American LaFrance 500-gallon pump truck and the old chemical firetruck and a wide door opened out on to Central Avenue for speedy exits to emergencies.
A more modern view of the fire department section of the 1929 city hall with vintage fire engines.
To the right of the entrance, the library was equipped with ample shelf space and two reading rooms, one for the adults and one for children. Just beyond that was the jail with three double cell and one single for men and four cells for women.
The floors of the offices were hardwood, and the jail and fire department had concrete floors. Brand new furniture for the city treasurer’s office, the water and street department, and the police department had been provided under a contract awarded to the Pacific Desk Company in Long Beach on October 24th, and city library had already moved to the new building on October 18th.
The second floor, except for the sleeping quarters at the rear for the fire department, was used as a city auditorium and a city council meeting room. This also had a hardwood floor that would serve well for dances and banquets. A portrait of President Hoover hung at the end of the auditorium.
At the rear of the building, there was a six-car garage for municipal use and confiscated cars.
The reception committee members for the dedication were C. O Wheat (commitee chair), Father Raley,Mrs. William Taylor (PTA President), Mrs. E. W. Reed (Woman’s Club President), and Reverend D. W. Wilt and W. D. Miller.
The other significant historical event on October 29th, 1929, was Black Tuesday, the culmination of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and the beginning of the 12-year worldwide Great Depression. (Who says it’s impossible to sum up extremely complicated historical events in a few broad brushstrokes of simple description?)
Great Depression aside, the new city hall was a smashing success for this era of Seal Beach history. The building lasted as a functional city hall for forty years before being expanded in 1969 (the library had moved across the street in 1962) and is still functioning today, housing SBTV, the Miss Seal Beach office, and the Chamber of Commerce.
A Google Street View of the 1929 city hall building in March 2016
All in all, a vast improvement over renting space in the Labourdette Building on Main Street.
The original City Hall rented space in the Labourdette building in Seal Beach
(Special thanks to Robin Fort-Lincke of SBTV for sharing some of the background and images in this post.)
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1929, ladies danced free, and gentlemen paid a dollar to give their ten little tip-tap-tapping toes a lowdown beat.
H.R. “Dick” Rogers took over the Seal Beach Pavilion in September of 1929, and he promptly hired the Llewellyn Orchestra of Anaheim to play on Sundays.
The Llewellyn Ochestra offered “peppy music” suitable for foxtrots, two steps, cymbal dances, occasional waltzes, or a Paul Jones, as demonstrated in this clip from 1931’s The Guilty Generation:
You know who should have felt guilty? Dick Rogers and the Llewellyn Orchestra, that’s who! They abandoned the Seal Beach Pavilion for Anaheim’s Cinderella Hall in January 1930. It must have been a shorter drive from home.
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1947, Idaho Senator Glen H. Taylor kicked off his horseback peace tour with an impromptu concert in Seal Beach. Taylor wanted to “point out to the American people that they are being pushed into a needless war” and felt that a transcontinental ramble through the United States on the back of a white roan (and a back-up horse being towed by his brother-in-law) was the way to get the message out.
Senator Glen H. Taylor waves to a small crowd in the 8th Street beach parking lot. Note that he is not riding a white roan as promised.
Taylor, a former cowhand, actor, and singer, felt that American foreign policy, especially the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine, put the country on a collision course with the Soviet Union. His soft on Russia stance probably contributed to his losing his Senate seat in 1950.
Taylor was a true eccentric. When he came to Washington, D.C. to serve as Senator, the city was suffering through a bout of post-war housing scarcity. Unable to find a place to settle with his family, he took to the Capitol steps with his banjo and sang to the tune of Home On The Range, “O, give us a home, near the Capitol dome, with a yard for two children to play…” When asked about rumors of a flying saucer crash at Roswell, Taylor opined that he hoped there were spaceships from other planets.”They could end our petty arguments on earth.”
While it’s easy to dismiss Taylor as a nutcase, he was a man of true moral convictions and a committed civil rights activist. In 1948, he was arrested for disorderly conduct by none other than Sheriff Bull Connor for entering a “Coloreds Only” entrance to attend a Southern Negro Youth Congress meeting. He also requested a delay in the swearing in of Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo in 1946 pending an investigation into Bilbo being charged of corruption and civil rights violations. Bilbo was never formally sworn in for his final term and died the next year.
And let’s be honest, how many of our current politicians can play the banjo and carry a tune?
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1915, Seal Beach was officially incorporated as a city. Or was it?
Here’s a little Seal Beach mystery that requires a little further research. October 25th is the official birthday. It says so on the city web site. The county archives confirmed it in a phone call back in 2010. There was an incorporation election on October 19th, and the Orange County Supervisors officially recognized the election results on October 25th is the accepted narrative.
Above you can see the current City of Seal Beach seal that pinpoints the city’s incorporation to 1915. Here’s an earlier version of the city seal:
At one time, October 27th was the officially accepted incorporation date. During the city’s jubilee celebration in 1965, October 27th was cited at the official date. So what changed? And when? And why?
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1960, Seal Beach resident Don Gill, age 22, of 1206 Ocean Avenue won the first annual Long Beach State College Inter-Fraternity Spaghetti Eat-Off. This mighty feat was accomplished at the Gay 90’s restaurant in Signal Hill.
We’ve had many celebrities in Seal Beach, both as visitors and as residents, but there was only one “World’s Champion Glutton,” as the judges dubbed Don. Don won $25 for his fraternity, Sigma Pi by polishing off 3 pounds and 7 ounces of spaghetti and going the distance of 1400 feet of pasta.
Don is pictured below next to his nifty trash can trophy (which might be useful later) and 7 empty plates. He is surrounded by the event judges (l to r) former MLB player Vern Stephens, ex-MLB umpire Beans Reardon, Long Beach Independent columnist Bob Wells, and engineer Martin Nishkian.
There is no record of a second annual Long Beach State College Inter-Fraternity Spaghetti Eat-Off, so Don probably still holds the title.
(LB Independent staff photo by Bob Shumway and poorly reproduced from accursed microfilm)
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1941, the American Legion of Seal Beach threw a gala night party to inaugurate the recently finished Neptune Room at Sam’s Seafood Cafe. The fun and frolicking included the Belmont Shore Westerners and Arthur Gibson and his 7-piece orchestra who, as this Long Beach Independent ad promised, “WILL ENTERTAIN YOU WITH MUSICAL RENDITIONS IN A HUGE WAY.”
Gibson had worked steadily throughout the thirties, playing in St. Louis and Kansas City before landing a coveted gig at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel rooftop stage. His biggest success was in Arizona at the Grand Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona, where he also had his own local radio show briefly. Before the Sam’s Seafood Cafe gig, he had returned to the West coast, playing at Palm Springs Hotel and Riverside’s Mission Inn. His engagement in the Neptune Room lasted two weeks.
There’s very little information about the Belmont Shore Westerners. They were a local drill corps of “cow girls” active briefly from 1941 to 1942. Made up of Long Beach high school and junior college students, they were lead by policeman Gene F. Fisher and captained by Jean Soss and amassed numerous awards and trophies .
Belmont Shore Westerners captain Jean Soss rehearses the corps in preparation for their hosting duties the All-Western Band Revew held in Long Beach on November 21, 1941
A little over a month after the Sam’s Seafood gala, The Belmont Shore Westerners were featured at a Santa Claus Parade in Huntington Beach on the night of Saturday, December 6th. The next morning, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, and the country changed.
Arthur Gibson and his orchestra seems to have vanished after the Neptune Room engagement. No doubt some of the band members and maybe even Gibson himself entered military service in the next few months, and musical tastes changed during the war years.
As for the Belmont Shore Westerners, there is a brief article in the April 26, 1942 Long Beach Independent about their completing a standard first aid course for the war effort and getting invitation to various local USO shows. After that, they also vanish from public record.
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1920, Harry H. Mayer ran the follow ad in the Santa Ana Register — again.
From July until November of 1920, poor Mr. Mayer could not get rid of his span of mare mules no matter how much he advertised, but he must have finally found a buyer because he stopped advertising. Mayer’s ads for his mules and the ad back in August selling a fresh Swiss Jersey cow indicates that the character of Seal Beach in 1920 was much more rural than the city is today.
Harry was tall with a medium build and brown eyes and hair, according to his WWI draft card. He came from Philadelphia to Southern California with his German-born wife, Augusta. He bought the lot at 126 11th Street in early 1914 with a down payment of ten dollars and either built (or hired someone to build) a house on the lot in 1915 that still stands today. In Pennsylvania, Mayer had been employed as a policeman and must have been good at it because the 1920 census lists him as a city marshal for Seal Beach.
– Michael Dobkins
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