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Tag: 1958

  • Take a Look at Historical Seal Beach – Late 1958

    If you belong to a generation who lived during the era when black and white series still aired on broadcast television, chances are you fondly remember the television show named “Sea Hunt.” This was an immensely popular syndicated half hour action and adventure show that enjoyed a top-rated four season first run from 1958 to 1961 and then went to reruns for decades.

    The series starred Lloyd Bridges as hyper-competent ex-Navy frogman and freelance scuba diver, Mike Nelson. Each week (or every afternoon once the show went into reruns), Nelson’s steadiness and ultra-reliability made him the go-to guy for the military, law enforcement, charter fishermen, or anyone who needed assistance with a marine crisis or seabound adventure. For 155 episodes, Mike Nelson tangled with bank robbers and crooks, consulted on top-secret military missions, recovered underwater treasure, fought dangerous sea critters, rescued distressed seagoing folks, and solved other underwater crises. The stories were lean and straightforward pulp narratives with no room for subtleties like deep characterization, subplots, or subtext. Bridge’s gruff and matter-of-fact narration of the underwater sequences makes the series oddly diverting, even when viewed with jaded twenty-first century eyes.

    What makes the show especially relevant for local history is that much of it was filmed on location in the Bahamas, Florida, and, for a couple seasons, the Long Beach area — especially Naples, the Long Beach peninsula, Alamitos Bay, and the newly built Long Beach Marina. The above-water locales in many of the show’s episodes serve as a visual catalog of the Long Beach area as it existed in the late fifties. I’ve never seen an episode filmed specifically in Seal Beach, but Seal Beach landmarks are often featured prominently in the background in scenes shot on the Long Beach Marina.

    One episode did feature a Seal Beach landmark prominently, so much so that it appears in the episode’s title card.

    In the second season’s “Underwater Security,” Mike is hired by the military to go undercover to test the security of a seaside rocket fuel plant and ends up foiling the plans of actual saboteurs. Seal Beach residents tuning in to that night’s “Sea Hunt” episode on January 19th, 1959 would have been surprised to see the Seal Beach power plant passing itself off as the rocket fuel factory. The episode itself was probably filmed in late 1958.

    (There’s a very mild irony in that an actual rocket assembly facility would be constructed in a few years on the other end of town to build the second stage of the Apollo program’s Saturn rockets.)

    You can watch “Underwater Security” below.

    And here’s a link to a YouTube playlist for all the “Sea Hunt” episodes. If you see Seal Beach appearing in any episodes, please share the show’s title in the comments section. I don’t have time to go through all the episodes, but if we all crowdsource the project, maybe we can create a comprehensive index of Seal Beach appearances in “Sea Hunt.”

    Other films using Seal Beach include the silent version of “Ten Commandments” and the first Billy Jack movie, “Born Losers.”

    – Michael Dobkins

    I won’t resume daily blogging here until 2024, but I’m trying out a new feature that I hope won’t take as much writing, researching, and prep time. For lack of a better title, I’m calling this new feature, “Take a Look at Historical Seal Beach.”

    If you have unique photos from Seal Beach’s past that you’re willing share on this blog, please contact me at mike@SealBeachHistory.com. What I’m looking for are high resolution scanned images in either a tiff or jpeg and a few words to provide a little commentary and context on what is being shared.

    I hope to share a new post of photos (or just one photo) from a single donor each month. Currently I have images stockpiled for the rest of 2020. That leaves thirty-six months to cover from January 2021 to December 2023. With luck, there will be enough interest and response to fill those thirty-six months.

  • October 18th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1957, the Long Beach Independent published the following black and white illustration of the proposed Bank Of Belmont Shore branch to be built in Seal Beach in early 1958.

    The footprint of the property the bank would have stood on would have encompassed the lots where Brita’s Old Town Gardens (225 Main Street), The Flipside Beach Boutique (231 Main Street) and the First Team Real Estate (245 Main Street) now do business. It might have also included the land where Nick’s Deli now serves breakfast burritos, but it’s difficult to tell just from the illustration.

    Seal Beach history is filled with ambitious proposals that never became a reality, and this is one of stranger ones.

    The bank building was scheduled to be opened on the southwest corner of Electric Avenue and Main Street on the inauspicious date of April 1st. Charles L. Green, the member of the bank’s board of directors in charge of planning the new branch told a Los Angeles Times reporter on June 29th that architects’ plans were to be completed in two months. And what plans they were!

    The architectural style eschewed the traditional bank design of classical marble columns in favor of a more modern and open look with plate glass walls on two sides and a nautical theme for the interior decor. This was not an unusual aesthetic for the mid-fifties. What took the design on a Mr. Toad’s wild ride into wonkiness was revealed in seven words that were part of the caption for the illustration: Live seals will swim in a pool.

    I assume that the smaller structure that runs from inside the bank building out into the landscape in front of the bank is the pool for the seals. It’s hard to tell from the grainy illustration taken from a newspaper page that was poorly scanned for microfilm archives, but there does seem to be at least two seals featured in the architect’s rendering.

    LIVE SEALS WILL SWIM IN A POOL

    Now, please. I ask you to pause and take a long moment to imagine the entirety implied in the concept of “Live seals will swim in a pool.” Close your eyes if it helps you imagine — but only for a moment. You’re going to have to reopen them to read the next paragraph.

    First, think about what it would be like to do your financial business in a building with a pool of seals. Could you go over the details of a home mortgage, a business loan, or a deposit error with a bank officer or teller while playful aquatic mammals splash around and grunt a few yards away? If you were a teller or vault manager, could you concentrate enough to balance out your drawers at the end of the day after listening to that cacophony for eight hours? Who feeds the seals? Where’s the closest veterinarian who can treat sick seals? What does it smell like in the bank? What do you do about all the kids and oddballs who show up just to watch the seals and get in the way of your actual customers? On a practical level, the seals would be cute for about a day, and then they would become a banking nightmare.

    I found this news item only a few hours ago, and these questions immediately occurred to me. Who came up with this idea, and why didn’t he reject it for instantly apparent practical reasons?

    Did Charles L. Green visit Marineland (which opened in 1954), see a crowd of tourists around the seal tank, and say to himself, “Boy, if only we could get a crowd this size into our bank. We’d make a fortune! Wait a minute, we want to open up a Seal Beach branch! This is genius! I can’t wait to tell the guys!”

    This was during the economic and real estate boom brought by the construction of the Long Beach Marina, so maybe this aquatic scheme seemed… on brand?

    Whatever sparked the inspiration for this idea and whoever pitched it, Not single member of the Bank of Belmont Shore’s board of directors objected to this lunacy. What I would give to be a fly on the wall when these solid community leaders and supposedly sensible businessmen decided to pass the idea on to an architectural firm.

    I don’t blame the architects. If the check clears, crazy people’s money spends just as well as sane folks’s cash.

    If I’m flippantly casting aspersions of the sanity of someone’s kindly grandfather or beloved relative nearly two-thirds of a century later, please forgive me. Whatever their finer qualities and life achievements might have been, you have to admit that approving a tank of live seals in a bank was crazier than a soup sandwich.

    Or maybe it was all merely an elaborate April Fool’s Day prank The Bank of Belmont Shore was playing on the City of Seal Beach. It was due to be opened on April 1st, after all. Who knows?

    Please forgive this self-indulgent digression. Sometimes the ideal of objective history telling must set aside for a good “What were they — nuts?” rant.

    ——————-

    Luckily for whatever unsuspecting seals might have ended up in such unpleasant captivity, the branch was never built, but the reason remains elusive. According to city council minutes, the City of Seal Beach did business with the Bank of Belmont Shore between 1955 and 1958, but there is no mention of a potential bank branch in the city. The likely reason for plans for the proposed branch being abandoned had less to do with impractical building designs and more to do with internal issues within The Bank of Belmont Shore that become public in December 1957.

    The Bank of Belmont Shore always had a troubled history. The original Belmont Shore branch building still exists at 5354 East Second Street and is a familiar landmark to anyone who visits Belmont Shore regularly. The building was built in 1929 and spent the good part of two decades as a location for a variety of short-lived restaurants. In 1950, Pasadena investors bought the building and commissioned Francis Gentry to design and remodel a state-of-the-art banking facility tucked stylishly inside a distinctive Spanish Colonial Revival exterior with drive-thru teller windows. That remodel was completed in 1951.

    Then the $200,000 building remained unoccupied for more than a year and a half. The venture was originally to be funded by a half a million dollar stock offering to local investors, but only $35,000 was raised. Soon, the Pasadena investors were beset by liens against the building by Gentry, the Herman Safe Co., and speedboat race champion Richard Loynes, owner of the land leased to the investors. When the bank finally did open on December 14, 1953, none of those original Pasadena investors was listed among the names of new bank’s leaders and officers.

    For the next few years, news articles about the bank were favorable, mostly highlighting community involvement or meetings held in the bank’s popular community room. The bank was even a sponsor of The Miss Universe contest and often hosted appearances of individual contestants.

    This image of civic virtue came crashing down when it was revealed that the bank’s president and vice-president had embezzled from the bank numerous times to a staggering total of $305,000, starting a mere month after the bank’s grand opening. The two bank officers were forced to resign to face an indictment with seventy counts of embezzlement, conspiracy, misapplications of funds, and making false entries. They were also forced to sell their shares in the bank, giving more honest investors control of the bank.

    By all accounts, the new management ran The Bank of Belmont Shore honestly and well, and the institution’s prosperity grew year-by-year. Unfortunately, at the same time the two resigned officers were in and out of court for their crimes from 1958 to 1960, constantly tainting The Bank of Belmont Shore’s reputation with news stories of fraud, embezzlement, and dishonesty. In May 1960, The Bank of Belmont Shore was renamed Coast Bank the day before the former bank president was sentenced.

    That’s not really Seal Beach history, but it does explain why none of us will ever ask on social media if anyone else remembers the bank on Main and Electric that had a tank of seals.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • October 12th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1958, the Long Beach Independent Press Telegram ran a profile of Seal Beach resident Clark Pettingill of 205 Fifth Street and what he called “The Pettingill Apple Tree.”

    Clark Pettingill and his famous front yard apple tree

    Seal Beach is not famed for its fruit-producing trees, but this tree was special. The Pettingill Apple Tree produced such phenomenal apples, that the tree had been patented with grafts being distributed by Armstrong Nurseries.

    Twenty-five to thirty years earlier, Clark separated two apple trees that had started growing in his front yard. Clark believed the two trees probably came from the same apple core. The second tree was replanted in the backyard, but only produced fair apples.

    The Pettingill Apple Tree in the front yard, however, produced a large crop of big red apples, ranging from 10 to 12 ounces. Clark shared that he once picked a 22-ounce apple.

    We close with a cautionary note for modern-day apple poachers. While a tree does grow today in the front yard at 205 Fifth Street, that tree is not The Pettingill Apple Tree. It, like Clark Pettingill (1884-1964), is gone, but continues to leave a legacy as this Google search will attest.

    Birthplace of the Pettingill Apple

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • September 7th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1958, the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram ran a profile of Gene Harding, the manager of the Marina Shores tract in Seal Beach and the 1957 Long Beach Sales Executive Club’s Salesman of the Year under the headline “Blue-Eyed Blonde Bosses Seal Beach Sales Office.” The paper also ran a couple of photographs that reproduce poorly from microfilm.

    sept_7_1958_gene_harding_photoThe reporter of this piece, Sterling Bemis, knew a good hook when he saw it and played up the contrast of Gene Harding’s business acumen and success with her smashing good looks. Somewhere while describing her as “a spun-taffy blonde with blue eyes” and making note of her silky tan 35-24-35 figure, he mentions in passing that Gene’s “an alert, intense executive who is in the job up to 12 hours a day, often seven days a week.”

    Gene was short for Emogene, which Bemis described as a “curvy cognomen in tune with a 34-year old mother” with a 15 year-old son and a 5 year-old daughter. Gene was married to  a dietary specialist whose vitamin therapy was apparently responsible for her healthy physique, although she admitted that she kept “so busy that an extra pound wouldn’t dare tackle her.”  

    sept_7_1958_gene_harding_photo_2I like to think that last line shows that Gene had a sense of humor about the angle Bemis choose for the story, and that as a good “salesman” she realized that the publicity from the article would bring more people to the Marina Shores tract. Whether she realized it or not, she was using an oft-used tactic for promoting Seal Beach real estate with cheesecake. 

    Still, it had to feel at least a little disheartening for Gene to be a more than competent manager and salesperson and yet the bulk of her profile was spent focusing on her physical attributes.

    You can see an ad for Marina Shores in the post for March 30th in Seal Beach History. 

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 24th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1958, the Long Beach Independent reported the award winners of the second annual Children’s Daze Art Show sponsored by the Seal Beach Artists’ League as part of a summer weekend series of outdoor art exhibits just east of the Seal Beach pier. The show displayed an assortment of fifty paintings and sculptures. The judges were from the Long Beach Museum of Art.

    The top ribbon was awarded to six year-old Kathy King of 114 12th Street by unanimous vote. Other winners were:

    SEVEN TO NINE YEARS OF AGE
    First place: Sonia Ericson, 8, of La Habra
    Second place: Claudia Nissley, 8, of 1211 Electric Avenue

    TEN TO ELEVEN YEARS OF AGE
    First place: Rusty Burris, 10, of 108 25th Sunset Beach
    Second place: Connie King, 10, of 114 12th Street
    Third place: Meta Nissley, 10, 0f 1211 Electric Avenue

    TWELVE YEARS OF AGE
    First place: Jolyan Pratt of 277 Bay Shore Avenue
    Second place: Adriene Werth of 16822 Pacific Coast Highway

    THIRTEEN TO SIXTEEN YEARS OF AGE
    First place: Dawn Ericson, 14, of La Habra
    Second place: David Brown, 13, of 224 4th Street

    Honorable mention in the sculpture category went to Meta and Claudia Nissley

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 18th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1957, The Los Angeles Times did a short profile on the recently completed renovations of the Girl Scout club house at 257 Seventh Street.

    The project was launched with a presentation at J. H. McGaugh School by Mrs. Connell and Mrs. Ralph Latta of the Girl Scouts ways and means committee the previous winter. The gist of the presentation was that the original clubhouse from 1946 had become inadequate to meet the needs of the 175 Girl Scouts currently using the property.

    The renovation was a community effort started in February that collected more than $4000 through a door-to-door fundraising campaign and more than 900 hours of volunteer time from parents and Seal Beach citizens. Frank Curtis directed the construction which expanded the clubhouse to 1060 square feet.

    The site is still active today after more than seven decades of serving the community and helping girls discover and develop themselves.

    You can find out more about today’s Girl Scouts of Orange County by clicking here.

    Screenshot 2016-08-18 17.06.58– Michael Dobkins

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  • June 7th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1958, the Seal Beach Community Chapel Assembly of God, located at 10th Street and Electric Avenue held a revival by Reverend and Mrs. Jerry Barnard at 7:30 pm.

    This was the start of a revival series in Seal Beach by Reverend Bernard that lasted throughout June, a campaign he and his wife had conducted successfully a number of times at several Long Beach churches. Mrs. Bernard provided inspirational music for the events, which one hopes was not the “Something Worse Than Hell!” mentioned in this ad. Other highlights of Reverend Barnard’s series were two sermons, “Can Man Live Forever in This Present World?” and the prophetic “The Invasion From Outer Space.”

    The Community Chapel Assembly of God held meeting nightly except for Mondays, and Reverend Walter M. Price presided over the non-revival church activities.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • April 20th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1958, the Argo Gallery at 142 Main Street opened an exhibit of artist Ray White’s paintings and drawings with a reception from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m..  Naples resident White taught painting at Long Beach City College and Lindbergh Junior High School and had his poetry published in the Atlantic Monthly.

    For every Main Street Seal Beach that lasted decades and became local institutions fondly remembered years later, there are scores of shops, restaurants, and businesses that barely lasted a season or two before closing forever. Sales inventories are drastically discounted until there are bare shelves. Decor and fixtures are either sold or tossed in a dumpster with the store sign. Whatever hopes, dreams, and ambitions were invested in that storefront evaporate as the owners move on with their lives and a new business moves in to start the cycle anew.

    The Argo Gallery was one of those short-lived Main Street businesses. It was a product of owners Robert and Juanita Hare’s eclectic and bohemian tastes and provided a venue for the Long Beach arts community. It launched in late 1957 with a Christmas exhibit of local artists, many who were teachers and instructors at Long Beach State College.  In addition to the Ray White exhibit, 1958 saw exhibits of artist Jack Van Eden and a typographers exhibit of four local printers.

    The Argo Gallery closed in late 1958, probably when the lease ended, but Robert and Juanita may have secured a tiny spot in Seal Beach history for themselves as owners of the first Seal Beach business on record as offering home model espresso machines for sale. One hopes hard core coffee aficionados can forgive the “expresso” misspelling in this one single ad I found for the Argo Gallery.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • April 5th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1958, the first Miss Seal Beach was crowned.

    Nitpickers could argue that she was not the first Miss Seal Beach, and technically there’s some truth to that.

    On June 5, 1924, a grunion festival featuring open air dancing on Seal Way to a 45-piece band, bon fires and marshmallows, and a grunion hunt, was held. Also listed for the grunion festival was an event billed as a wedding ceremony of Miss Seal Beach and Mr. Long Beach. No other details were given, but I assume the marriage was purely symbolic civic boosterism.

    In 1926, twelve year old Norma Barraclough of 148 Seventh Street portrayed “Miss Seal Beach” as part of an elaborate celebration of the opening of the state highway from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach. Starting in Long Beach, a “Miss Long Beach” boarded a boat on motorized wheels that journeyed down the coast to Laguna, stopping at each city along the highway to pick up a young girl, ages ranging from eight to twelve, representing that locale. (Coletta Dean portrayed “Miss Sunset Beach.”)

    In 1930, an unnamed “Miss Seal Beach” garnered at least 18,300 votes in a county-wide popularity contest to decide who would be queen at the American Legion celebration in Brea on Labor Day, but Lucille Brawley of Brea was crowned queen with 55,300 votes.

    It’s worth mentioning those previous Miss Seal Beaches of yesteryear in passing, but the one true first Miss Seal Beach, a local girl chosen in a local contest to represent the city for a year, was crowned in 1958 on April 5th.

    I’ll share that first Miss Seal Beach’s name in a bit, but first let’s cover some details of the build-up to her crowning. It’s also important to note that in 1958, there wasn’t even a hint that Miss Seal Beach would become an annual tradition with some breaks in between) that continues to this very day. It’s doubtful that the event would have continued if she hadn’t fulfilled the role so well.

    On March 21, 1958, the Long Beach Independent reported that an event billed as a “Glamourama” was to open the Seal Beach season that year. B.C. (Jimmy) Phelan, chairman of the event shared that the program would include a boat parade, a dance, and an art exhibit. The highlight of the event would be a contest in which a “Seal Beach Beauty Queen” would be selected. The winner would received a sportswear wardrobe, a trophy, and a modeling course. Two runner-ups would also receive trophies.

    Two days later, the Sunday Los Angeles Times ran a photo of eight contestants and shared more details about the event.

    It named the ten contestants vying for the title of Miss Seal Beach of 1958: Mary Jo McKee (16), Sharon Pearsall (16), Rozalind Madick (16), Chantal Moschella (19), Barbara Calkins (19), Madeline Keller (19), Sally Harper (16), Bonnie Sharp (16), Christie Sexton (17), and Vickie Larrain (16).

    The ten contestants were paraded on trailer-mounted boats “through the principal streets of Seal Beach” at 12:30 p.m., and the contest would be held at the entrance to the Seal Beach pier at 2 p.m. Mayor Paul Calvo would welcome the contestants, and Harvey Wagner would act as MC for the entertainment and also perform as a singer.

    The judges were Oscar Meinhardt, executive producer of the Long Beach Miss Universe contest, Mrs. Carlin Drake, Miss United States of 1955 under her maiden name of Carlin King Johnson, Dr. Lois J. Swanson, Associate Dean of Students at Long Beach State College, and Assemblyman Richard Hanna of Westminster.

    The article also listed the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce’s committee for the event: Jim Phelan, Beverly Cole, Frank Finch, Harry Rose, and Ben Jones.

    So who was the first Miss Seal Beach? Meet Christie Sexton.

    Ms. Sexton shared the following personal account with me in an 2015 e-mail:

    It was a big deal at the time; with parade down Main St., etc.. As a side note, I happened to win the contest, much to my surprise, and it really helped form who I became as an adult; giving me much more confidence, etc. I went on to model for a short time, thanks to one of the prizes being a modeling course at Elda Berry Modeling School in Long Beach, and the Miss Orange County Fair contest, 1958. I did not win that contest (won by Miss Brea).

    My interests were mainly on swimming and tanning with the gang at our 10th Street beach hangout and my part-time job at the café at end of the pier…The pageant frowned on getting tan, and it was difficult to drag me away from the beach for photo shoots, promotional events, etc.

    One highlight of that year was representing Seal Beach on the Dude Martin TV show. My escort was Alan Harbour. We had to both leave our respective girl/boyfriends, and travel in, I believe, Alan’s Corvette, to Hollywood. We had a great dinner after the show at Diamond Jim’s on Hollywood Blvd. Both Doug Buell (my boyfriend) and Pauline DeSadeleer were not too happy about Alan and me spending the day in Hollywood without them. LOL.

    After the year as reigning queen, I was happy to give up my crown at the 1959 pageant held at McGaugh Elementary School to a beautiful girl named Vickie.

    I did not pursue modeling or the “phoniness” of pageants and went on to have a rewarding career in the executive secretarial and marketing/sales fields, in addition to raising two daughters. After over 50 years of working I finally retired this past January from Pima Community College in Tucson, AZ. I have fond memories of my Seal Beach days and I guess, in my heart, I will always be a Seal Beacher!

    Thanks for listening!

    Christie Sexton
    Miss Seal Beach 1958

    Ms. Sexton later clarified that Alan Harbour was a city employee at the time, and the city had requested that he accompany her to the Dude Martin show.

    She was also kind enough to share a clipping from the April 6, 1958 Long Beach Independent that showed her holding the very first Miss Seal Beach trophy (it was made of brass!) and a photo of her crowning the second Miss Seal Beach, Vickie Larrain, in 1959. (It’s an oddity that the only two contestants missing from the Los Angeles Times photo in 1958 went on to become the first two Miss Seal Beaches.)

    On a personal note, I’d like to thank Ms. Sexton for her generosity in sharing her memories of the event and her years as Miss Seal Beach. I had wanted to cover this event back in 2015 for the centennial, but I couldn’t find any clear images in the newspaper archives.

    It’s been four years and Ms. Sexton has been very patient, but with her images and the one I found from the Los Angeles Times, Christie Sexton’s Date with Seal Beach History can finally be shared.

    – Michael Dobkins

    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.

  • March 30th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1958, the Long Beach Independent ran the following real estate ad enticing the reader to “Live At The Beach in smog free Marina Shores.”

    Bordered by Bolsa Avenue and Bay Boulevard (now Seal Beach Boulevard), Marina Shores was developed by the Butler-Harbour Construction Co. and sold by Walker & Lee, Inc.. The new tract was promoted by five model residences on display at 600 South Shore Drive. Marina Shores homes were three or four bedroom homes with luxury baths, large family rooms, and color-matched kitchens. Some models featured built-in dishwashers and refrigerators. One of the five model homes had a large swimming pool and two separate patio areas. Terms started at $1450 down, $114 a month and were considered “ideal for families with an income of $600 a month or more.” 

    – Michael Dobkins

    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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