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Tag: 1960

  • September 25th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1960, the following photograph was published in the Long Beach Independent’s fashion section.

    There were a number of photos showing off current fashions available at local shops, but this ensemble was available at Seal Beach’s very own Village Bazaar, located at 137 1/2 Main Street.

    As the Long Beach Independent caption copy writer so enticingly put it:

    PICCOLO STRIPES set of gay capris by Pants Internationale. One hundred per cent wool and fully lined. Sizes 8-16 are perfect with knit wool tops, and come in assorted colors. Serape wrap completing outfit is hand-loomed Mexican Imports discovery. 


    Is it wrong to want capris and serape wraps to come back into style? 

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • 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

    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.

  • July 31st in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1960, La Scarpa ran this ad in the Long Beach Independent targeting the lucrative feet and toe loving market.

    La Scarpa was another fondly remember Main Street that operating during the sixties and into the seventies. The store’s advertising had a unique style of its own:

    In addition to these ads, the Long Beach Independent ran fashion columns focusing on new clothing styles. These stories also featured fashion illustrations with descriptions that listed stores where the outfits could be purchased. La Scarpa was mentioned a number of times underneath these illustrations.

    You won’t find any Capezio shoes at 133 Main Street today, but you can satisfy all your Italian delicatessen needs at Angelo’s Italian Deli. 

    Source: Honey Kennedy
    Source: HoneyKennedy.com

    Capezio still sells shoes today — specializing primarily in dance shoes. You can find out more about the company’s 128 year history here, or, if you feel a retro hankering to wear a 1960 specific Capezio shoe style, the company offers a custom-made shoes service that will recreate the company’s past fashion glories for your specific feet and toes.

    – 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.

     

  • July 14th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1960, the new lifeguard headquarters went into service on the Seal Beach pier. 

    The new headquarters enhanced lifeguard effectiveness in two ways. The higher vantage point from the pier allowed better visibility of distant swimmers and sharks venturing near to shore. The new headquarters and the seven lifeguard towers on the beach were also equipped with telephone for faster and more detailed communications and coordination between the stations. Previously the lifeguards used signal flags to communicate with each other.

    2019 Addendum: I received this response from Steve Seymour to this post when it ran originally in 2017:

    I think the tower in the pic is the 10th St Hq on the beach. Then it moved to 8th St on the beach, and after that to the current location, except it was single story with a rooftop observation deck accessed from street level where police bldg is now.   The tower on the pier, tower “zero”, was built mid 70’s I believe, and was never a headquarters.

    The image above is from a July 14, 1960 Los Angeles Times story. The photo caption identified it as the new pier tower, and the article refers to it as a new headquarters that will help coordinate with the beach towers.

    What Steve suggests seems likely when you consider the odd angle the jeep is parked. It makes more sense as being parked on the beach that being awkwardly positioned on the pier. Perhaps an editor who was never on the scene misidentified the photo and assumed that the pier tower was the new headquarters.

    As for the pier tower, it might have rebuilt or remodeled in the 70s, but it was definitely there in the sixties as shown in the aerial photos below.

    An added benefit for obsessive Seal Beach history buffs (like myself) is that photos showing the pier without a lifeguard tower can now be dated to no later than 1960. For example, this popular postcard was postmarked in 1962, but I’ve always suspected the photo itself was taken a few years earlier in the late 1950s. Now we know it was taken before the tower was built on the pier. 

    The tower stood on the west side of the pier as shown in this November 1963 photo.

    Here’s a closer view of the pier from the same photo.

    This tower was destroyed in 1983 when the pier was washed away by high surf. The current tower on the rebuilt pier was moved to the east side where it still stands today.

    – 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.