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  • 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.

  • Take a Look at Historical Seal Beach – January 1959

    I’m conducting an experiment.

    I still won’t be resuming “This Date in Seal Beach History” daily posts until 2025, but I also don’t like leaving such a large gap of time without some historical Seal Beach content. Ideally, this content would not require time and labor intensive research or writing on my part because I’m devoting most of my free time to other writing projects. It took a few months, but I think I’ve stumbled upon a plan that fulfills these requirements.

    The solution came in the form of an e-mail from Dave Gibbs, son of former Seal Beach mayor, Norma Gibbs. Back in January, Dave was kind enough to send an e-mail to me with some Seal Beach photographs from his mother’s estate. I’m sure you agree that these are fantastic photos.

    Looking at these photos, I realized they’d make a great post just on the visual appeal of the images. I also realized that there must plenty of unique and personal photos like these tucked in the photo albums and boxes of current and past Seal Beach residents that can be shared with a minimum of research or writing from me.

    So here’s the experiment. 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.

    For lack of a better title, I’m calling this new feature, “Take a Look at Historical Seal Beach. 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 November and December 2020. That leaves forty-eight months to cover from January 2021 to December 2024. With luck, there will be enough interest and response to fill those thirty-six months.

    If not, it will be a long content-free hiatus of no posts until 2025.

    So without further delay and in celebration of Seal Beach’s 105th birthday today, here’s our inaugural “Take a Look at Historical Seal Beach” with a few words from Dave Gibbs:

    I thought you would like these…check out the guy with the duckfeet fins ready to go body surf the big swell, love it!  I appreciate all the work you do on the Seal Beach blog on Facebook. I put these on my Facebook and I also shared the article you posted about my Mom Norma from 1960. I was born in 1959 and Mom climbed over these sandbags to get to the hospital. I think my Mom or Dad took these pics, not sure who but I found a ton of them in her estate. Feel free to share these and if I find any other gems I’ll send them to ya. Dave 

    Note the serene Sphinx surveying the surf it has bestowed upon the Seal Beach shore.
    The aftermath of an East Seal Beach storm flood – A Seal Beach tradition since before it was Seal Beach
    Another iconic Seal Beach moment

  • September 11th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1960, the Los Angeles Times ran a short article on Phyllis Jay and the Seal Beach Marina Players.

    Bruce Jay looks on as his mother Phyllis Jay prepares for a performance
    Son Bruce looks on as his mother Phyllis Jay prepares for another performance

    In March 1959, Phyllis Jay produced and directed a 30-minute parody of South Pacific for a Huntington Beach High School PTA benefit. The performance was to be for one night only, but the response was too good to stop at one performance. As high school trustee Willard Hanzlik put it, “It’s so good it ought to hit the road.”

    Jay’s group of amateur players did just that, performing the piece 26 times locally at various benefits for PTAs, scout groups, veteran hospitals, senior citizens, and the mentally handicapped.

    Cooperation and adaptability was the key ingredients to the Seal Beach Marina Players success.

    Marge Tozer, one of the players designed and built the sets to fit into one station wagon with three different backgrounds to be used depending on the size of the stage. The players had to be flexible enough to perform with or without curtains, on small, medium, or large stages, and sometimes at floor level where the actors could literally “reach out and touch” the audience.

    A major highlight for Mrs. Jay was a Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce hosted “welcome neighbor” party night. The Seal Beach Marina Players gave three performances in one night in a 300-seat school auditorium (probably the J. H. McGaugh School Auditorium). 

    At the time of the article, the group had raised $3,000, approximately $24,000 in 2016 dollars.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • September 2nd in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1959, the Seal Beach Police, acting on a tip from Long Beach Police,  shut down a $4,000 bookie joint at 1605 ½ Seal Way. John L. Allen, 48, and Wilbur J. Hughes, 56, were arrested.

    Allen, who resided at the address, collapsed due to “acute shock brought on by extreme nervousness,” according to the Long Beach Independent, and was taken to the Orange County General Hospital.

    Hughes, a Long Beach resident, somehow managed to weather the ordeal without requiring hospital care.

    – Michael Dobkins

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    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.

     

  • July 10th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1959, the Long Beach Independent ran the following advertisement for the opening of Boatswain’s Locker. Note that the address given is 10 Bolsa Avenue.

    Today’s locals think of Bolsa Avenue ending at Main Street, but if you look at a map of Seal Beach, you’ll see that Marina Drive continues the path of Bolsa Avenue to the west end on town and crosses the bridge to join Long Beach’s North Marina Drive. Before the Long Beach Marina was built in the late fifties and early sixties, Marina Drive was known as Bolsa Avenue.

    July_10_1959_Boatswains_Locker_OpeningMost recently this address belonged to the now closed Ca Everglades and still belongs to  So Cal Sports and Marine Repair.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • June 26th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1959, the Los Angeles Times ran this photo of Vici Larrain, that year’s Miss Seal Beach, modeling a hat she created to qualify for the Orange County Fair queen contest.

    – 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.

    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.

     

  • June 19th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1964, the following ad for Surf Boards By Jack Haley ran in the Los Angeles Times.

    This is just one date in time from one man’s notable life. Jack Haley was and remains a Seal Beach institution. In his sixty-five years of life, He was so many things: family man, surfing pioneer, lifeguard, entrepreneur, mentor, and restaurateur. People who knew Jack Haley called him, “Mister Excitement.”

    Mister Excitement first came to prominence on September 22, 1959 when he became the first West Coast Surfing Champion. This was in the early long board days of the surfing culture before it blossomed into a multi-millionaire industry. The enthusiasm and personalities of young surfers like Haley, Blackie August, Rich Harbour, and so many others influenced the shape of that culture, and that influence is still felt today.

    But surfers need day jobs, and Jack Haley kept close to the waves and beach by becoming a Seal Beach lifeguard in the early sixties. If you’ve ever spoken to Seal Beach lifeguards, you know they have countless stories about their experiences. Two incidents from Jack Haley’s lifeguard days were noteworthy enough into the Long Beach Independent Press Telegram.

    The first is a typical lifeguard rescue story. Four surfers had been swept half a mile out to sea on a Sunday afternoon in February 1963. The teenagers lost their surfboards in the breaking waves at the mouth of the San Gabriel River where the ocean tides mixed with river’s current. Three of the surfers, teenaged friends from Whittier, were saved by boat, and it was uncertain when the story was written whether or not the fourth, not part of the Whittier group had made it to shore independently.

    “The surf out there was terrible,” said Lt. Lifeguard Haley. “When they lost their boards they couldn’t swim against the river’s current. They were rescued near the oil drilling island, which is a half-mile from shore.”

    According to Haley, it was the first time in ten years the waves were breaking beyond the end of the the quarter mile long Seal Beach pier — the sort of detail a seasoned surfer would note. In the newspaper story, Haley seems to be the source for the information about the rescue, but care was taken to also give credit to Seal Beach lifeguards Fred Miller and Tim Dorsey for other less striking and yet important swimmer and surfer rescues under rough conditions.

    At nightfall, the fourth surfer had still not been located, and the Coast Guard planned to resume searching the next day. There is no follow up story, so one hopes the surfer made it to shore, safe but unnoticed.

    The second story is little more unusual and takes places two months later in April 1963. Under the lovely headline of “Surfboard Terror Arrested At Sea,” the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram of surfer Terry Lee Gardner of Garden Grove. Gardner had attached razor blades to the skag (rudder) of his surfboard and threatened to “cut to ribbons anyone who got in his way.”

    At the time, there were 150 surfers in the newly designated surfing area. Gardner tried to run his fellow surfer down until the Seal Beach police arrived and ordered him to shore. Instead of complying, Gardener paddled out to sea.

    Haley set out after Gardner in a rowboat, and the Long Beach Harbor Patrol boats were called out. When Haley and the patrol boats caught up with Gardner, he was frantically trying to remove the razor blades from his board. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

    Not every workday in a lifeguard’s life are as dramatic as these, but rescuing, life-saving, maintaining a safe beach and waters, and aiding beachgoers and swimmers are regular events, whether newspapers take note or not. A single lifeguard can have an immeasurable, but significant impact on thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives during his or her career.

    One would think being the first West Coast Surfing Champion and a Seal Beach lifeguard would be enough for one lifetime, but Jack Haley had an entrepreneurial spirit. Riding the wave of his success as a surfing champion, he opened his own surfboard shop in Seal Beach in 1961.

    In 1963, two months after helping nab the Surfboard Terror of Garden Grove, Haley and his brother Mike opened a surfing school.

    Next on Jack Haley’s list of accomplishments came in 1965 when he opened Captain Jack’s in Sunset Beach. The first few years of business were a struggle for Haley and his family, but over half a century later, you can still get a table at Captain Jack’s, and enjoy a cocktail and a nice steak or seafood meal with a complimentary basket of bread. Other long-lasting local restaurants like Sam’s Seafood, the Ranch House, and the Glide ‘er Inn have slipped into history, fondly remembered and gone, but Captain Jack’s is still flourishing and is still run by the Haley family.

    In 1997, Haley spearheaded a successful campaign to privately fund construction of a lifeguard station at the base of the Seal Beach pier, and the station was named for him. In July 1999, Haley was inducted into the Surfer Hall of Fame.

    For all the drive for success and excellence and variety of activities that Jack Haley poured into life, he did not neglect his family: his wife, Jeanette; his mother, Virginia, another notable Seal Beach citizen; and children, Tim, currently manager of Captain Jack’s, Sondra, and Jack Jr., who played two seasons for the Lakers and passed away in 2015.

    In a 2015 Los Angeles Times profile celebration of Captain Jack’s 50th anniversary, Tim Haley recalled various family outings like cruises to Catalina on the yacht, Christina, ski trips to Mammoth, and motorcycle rides to Enseneda. The family would have dinner together every night.

    On March 26, 2000, Jack Haley passed away at age sixty-five to cancer. True to form, Mister Excitement had planned his own beach party memorial with Hawaiian shirts and mariachi music. “He demanded there not be a tear at the party. He wanted it to celebrate his life,” said Tim Haley in the Los Angeles Times obituary. Later, Tim added, Jack Haley’s ashes would be spread in the sea at Maui and Cabo San Lucas, “so he will continue surfing.”

    You can visit Captain Jack’s web site here, or call after 3 p.m. 562-592-2514 for reservations.

    – Michael Dobkins

    P.S. Because it’s come up more than a few times over the years, Seal Beach’s Jack Haley was not related to Jack Haley, the song and dance man best known for his role as the Tin Man in the 1939 MGM musical, The Wizard of Oz. Or Bill Haley of “Rock Around The Clock” fame. Let’s stop spreading these myths, folks!

    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.

  • 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

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  • March 15th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1959, The Teeple’s Garden Center advertised its new Seal Beach location in the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram.

    W.J. Teeples and Sons started in 1924 in Wilmington and then shifted retail operations to West Long Beach in 1934 while still using the old Wilmington location for growing grounds. Finally, the company moved to Seal Beach at 600 Bolsa Avenue (600 Marina Drive today).

    Many long-term Seal Beach remember this nursery location fondly, both as Teeples and then in the seventies under new owners as the Growin’ My Way Nursery. Today the nursery lot is occupied by the Pacific Inn.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • February 18th In Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1959, the Long Beach Independent dropped the curtain on the finale of a typical show biz story.

    We’ve all heard weepy tales about a young, first-time actress, just bursting with natural talent, getting cast in a play and then outshining the more experienced actors and actresses playing the lead roles. And then it all goes sour, the young actress takes her success for granted, misses performances, and is finally replaced. The actress plunges back into her hum drum everyday life, never to step into spotlight again. It’s happened hundreds of times.

    Don’t worry we’ll get to the Seal Beach connection in a moment.

    Over the years, many Seal Beachers have probably seen a play or two at the Long Beach Community Playhouse on Anaheim Street in Long Beach. The playhouse hit its sixty-ninth anniversary at that location earlier this month, but The Long Beach Players have performed since 1929, first putting on shows at the Union Pacific’s Long Beach depot and then at the Unitarian Church on Lime Street when the depot was condemned. 

    Visit_to_a_small_planet_ad-3

    Back in September, 1958, the playhouse held try-outs for a production of Gore Vidal’s “Visit to a Small Planet,” a cold war satire about an outer space tourist who visits Earth and ends up staying with a 1950s newscaster and his family in their suburban Virginia home. (Yes, “My Favorite Martian,” “Mork and Mindy,” and “Alf” borrows a lot from this play.) The visitor is a smug and arrogant fellow with telepathic abilities and superpowers, including the ability to converse with the family’s pet cat, Rosemary. 

    This is when our actress and the Seal Beach connection finally makes an entrance into our tale. Cast as Rosemary was a year-and-a-half old, silky black, half-Siamese cat named Gregarious, owned by Seal Beach police officer Alfred Chafe. Gregarious was trained to meow on cue, had her own dressing room with her name on it, and developed a rapport with actor Salvatore Mungo, playing the alien Kreton. The two wowed playhouse audiences by having “conversations” about hunting mice and the propriety of shooting dogs as punishment for chasing “Rosemary.”

    Gregarious as Rosemary with Salvatore Mungo as Kreton

    Alas, the tale does not end with Gregarious becoming a star. Between the show’s opening on November 14, 1958 and closing on January 17th, 1959, the Chafe family moved to a different part of Seal Beach, and Gregarious was too fond of her old neighborhood and kept returning to the old house. Towards the end of the show’s run, it became more and more of a challenge to find Gregarious in time for the opening curtain. Ultimately, she couldn’t be found in time, and a white Persian played Rosemary in the last three performance.

    According to the Long Beach Independent, Gregarious was still having trouble adjusting to the move a month later and seemed to prefer the life of a small town free range kitty to the glamour of the stage. There are no reports of other Seal Beach pets ever being cast in any other Long Beach Community Playhouse production, but that’s certainly just a coincidence and not their judgement on the reliability of Seal Beach critters created by the flakiness of a diva cat named Gregarious.

    – 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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    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.