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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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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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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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On this date in 1928, The Santa Ana Register announced the first members of the newly established Seal Beach Junior Police. The new members were Jay Goade, Harry Scott, James Wheat, Junior Morris, Edward Howard, and Ellis Winterstein.

Quoting Stan Berry from an earlier post about the Seal Beach Junior Police:

This is a 1929 group photo of the Seal Beach Police Department under the command of Chief A. G. Johnson. One of the programs that Chief Johnson was instrumental with was the organization of a juvenile police force of six (6) members.   These boys were chosen from their school because of the record  they held for trustworthiness, faithfulness to duty and the ability to work successfully with their schoolmates.  The duties of the juvenile police  were to protect little children at all times and to see that vacant property was not vandalized.  The boys met with the Chief each Saturday to discuss any problems.

– 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 1965, The Los Angeles Times reported that the Woman’s Club of Seal Beach was “the largest federated woman’s club in Orange District” with 579 members. The Tustin Area Woman’s Club took a close second place with more than 500 members.

The oddly constructed phrase, “largest federated woman’s club in Orange District” terminology is probably taken from the California Federation of Women’s Clubs which is divided into districts. One interesting note is the unnamed reporter cites Mrs. Robert Bidwell Jr., district president, and Mrs. Clyde G Reinoehl, club membership chairman in the story, but still made the mistake of claiming the Seal Beach club had only been organized two years before. The Woman’s Club of Seal Beach was formed in 1923, so he was only forty years off.

Factual errors aside, the story was accompanied by this nifty photo highlighting one of the WCSB’s 1965 projects — the beautification of Seal Beach during its 50th anniversary year. Mrs. Hubert Taylor, dressed in 1915 garb, Mrs. James Facer, working the shovel, and Mrs. Leonard Flint, making an odd gesture with her hands, are shown about to plant a tree at J. H. McGaugh Intermediate School.

Addendum: I don’t why I didn’t check this before, but a check on Google Streetviews appears to show that the tree behind Mrs. Hubert Taylor, and the one about to be planted are still there next to the administration building:
– Michael Dobkins

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

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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 1914, the Santa Ana Register ran this lovely ad featuring more of cartoonist Henri DeKruif’s seals with eccentric anatomy. In this ad, the seals are gliding across the dance floor just like Seal Beach was “gliding right along.”

The ad exhorts the reader to “See the Seal Family. See the two beautiful still water bays. See the beautiful twin pavilion. Swim in the surf without an undertow.” This is all laid out in regular-sized type, but above that copy in larger type and capital letters is “SEE THE BIG HYDRAULIC DREDGER,” which must have really been something to see.

Also note that you could buy a lot 3 blocks from the sea for only $550.

– Michael Dobkins

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

If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.

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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, the Long Beach Independent ran a story about the new craze, folk music. In two mid-sized columns, the unnamed reporter covered the growing popularity of folk music on college campuses, Hootenanny, the ABC network’s musical variety show that featured many folk acts, and the perception of folk music as do-it-yourself music. The article quickly covers important figures in traditional folk music such as Leadbelly, John and Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie, and The Weavers. The story even touches briefly on folk music’s subversive reputation.

While all that is interesting as a snapshot of folk music’s position in the mainstream culture in late 1963, it doesn’t really have anything to do with Seal Beach history except that the story was accompanied by this photo:

The caption for the photo confirms something about Seal Beach’s musical history that I’ve heard before so I’m going to quote it fully:

JOAN BAEZ, wears the long hair and high-necked female folk singer’s trademark costume. Miss Baez, not the example folk singer purists would point to as authentic, has built up a considerable following since strumming and singing in a Seal Beach coffee house some two and one-half years ago.

The coffee house in question is almost certainly the Rouge et Noir. If we count back that two and one-half years, Baez played on Main Street Seal Beach in May of 1961, give or take a few months.

In September 1963, Vanguard Records released her second LP album, imaginatively titled, “Joan Baez, Volume 2.” Here’s “Old Blue,” a song from that album. Perhaps Baez tested it on a Seal Beach audience in the Rouge et Noir some night over fifty years ago. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q4XAg1ZUbo]

On a unrelated note, I’ve occasionally griped here about how awful microfilm was as a medium for archiving newspapers and magazines. Please note the truly lousy quality of microfilmed photo above the quoted caption and then compare it to the actual image it was taken from:

I hate microfilm.

ADDENDUM: One time Seal Beach resident has shared this on Facebook on November 12th, 2019 in the “You know you grew up in Seal Beach, CA when…” group:

“Saw young Baez there. She sang Silver Dagger – Knocked me out.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xlmb8gG7HU]

– Michael Dobkins

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

If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.

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.