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  • September 3rd in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1917, Seal Beach held a fish barbecue and clambake with all the trimmings to celebrate Labor Day.

    Make no mistake, there was music, dancing, bathing, and fireworks.

    Sept_3_1917_Labor_Day_Fish_BBQ__Clambake ad

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 31st in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1972, the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram reported that President Richard Millhouse Nixon signed legislation to set up a wildlife refuge inside the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

    1200px-Nixon_edited_transcripts

    The refuge was described by the White House as “the last pristine salt water marsh on the Southern California coast.” The legislation allocated $522,000 through fiscal year 1977 for the Department of the Interior to develop the refuge to accommodate visitors.

    Nixon’s family used to visit the ocean at Seal Beach when he was a boy, and his Uncle Lyle once rented an odd and old-fashioned swimsuit that embarrassed young Nixon when other beachgoers laughed at the swimsuit, according Nixon’s book, “in the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal.” 

    RefugeHQ2013_512pix

    The Seal Beach Wildlife Refuge is still going strong forty-five years later. Click here to find out more.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 25th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1964, a sixty-year old evangelist preaching the bible in Seal Beach was assaulted by a band of teen-age delinquents.

    Mark Frank Forsyth of Huntington Beach told police that he had been preaching at 10th Street on the beach as he done many times before in the previous two years. This time, however, a group of at least five teenagers began to heckle him at approximately 2 p.m. 

    One of the teens grabbed Forsyth’s hat, and then the verbal assault escalated into violence. The other boys pelted Forsyth with rocks, hit him with their fists, and burnt him with cigarettes on the neck and left ankle. Forsyth’s clothes were torn as he tried to flee, and one boy grabbed his bible and tracts and begin to rip the pages of his bible. During the scuffle, no one came to Forsyth’s aid.

    Later, the police brought in a fourteen-year old Long Beach youth on charges of participating in a riot, assault and battery, and armed riot, but he denied taking part in the attack and refused to identify any of his fellow teens.

    When interviewed by an AP reporter, Forsyth said that he preached because he was “concerned for the spirit and physical well-being of the thousands of teenagers who flock to the beaches.”

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 21st in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1918, Barney Weaver spent the last night of his life in Seal Beach. 

    Details vary slightly from newspaper article to article. According to the Santa Ana Register, Los Angeles policeman Barney Weaver and an attractive young woman purported to be his wife choose Seal Beach as the site of a suicide pact. Barney Weaver had been drafted and was to leave on August 22nd, and the two had decided to die together rather than be separated. Weaver placed his revolver against her head a number of times, but couldn’t force himself to pull the trigger. Finally, he put the revolver to his own head and fired, killing himself instantly. The woman’s name was not mentioned in the story

    The Los Angeles Times story two days later added many details to the tale, but the article only deepened the mystery. According to Weaver’s relatives, he had received threatening letters from a woman and that the same woman had contacted the local draft board with information that resulted in his deferment due to dependents having been revoked.

    The woman on the beach with Weaver that night was now identified as twenty-one year old Theresa Marie Forgeron, and the Times makes a strong implication that she was one writing the letters and contacting the draft board. She had lived with Weaver for three months, although she was alleged to be married to another man. The two had separated recently after an argument, and Forgeron told the police that Weaver had been jealous of her and had even struck her once.

    Aug_21_1918_SB_Suicide_Pact___Theresa_Marie_Forgeron

    The police investigation discovered that Weaver had been ordered to appear before the draft board and that Forgeron had appeared before the board. The board ordered that Weaver should marry Forgeron that day and return on the 22nd for a physical examination, after which he would most likely be shipped to Camp Lewis. The two left the board hearing in tears.

    Their quarrel forgotten, Weaver and Forgeron hired an auto and drove to Seal Beach. A letter signed by Forgeron on the suicide scene stated that she  was pregnant and could not live on the $30 that the army would pay Weaver. Reading between the lines, it seems likely that Mrs. Theresa Marie Forgeron would not have been eligible for any spousal benefits because she was already married to another man and had been “living in sin” with Barney Weaver those three months. This was not spelled out directly in the Times article, but the truth was that the two lovers could not marry as ordered by the draft board.

    It’s possible that when the police questioned Forgeron that they received a fuller accounting of Weaver’s and her night in Seal Beach, but the Times says nothing in the story. Perhaps they had a last meal at Jewel Cafe or went dancing. Another mystery is why they choose Seal Beach. Did they have shared history there? Was it a romantic getaway that they had planned in happier times and this was their last chance to take it? There is so much of this story that exists only in the realm of speculation.

    What is certain is that around 2 a.m. that night, Barney Weaver took his life on the sands of Seal Beach. Mabel Thomas, who had been near the scene, testified before Orange County Coroner Winbigler at the  that she had heard a woman begging “Take me with you!” right before the shot. Four letters found in Weaver’s pocket described their suicide pact and Mrs. Theresa Marie Forgeron’s testimony lead the Coroner’s jury to rule Weaver’s death a suicide.

    One of the letters ended: “I am going to take Dot with me. Please bury us together, even if you have to bury us in the potter’s field.”

    There’s no one alive today who remembers Barney Weaver, and very few details about him survive. At the time of his death, he was nearing the end of his six month probationary period with the Los Angeles Police, but according to city directories and his draft registration card, his previous employment was as a conductor for Pacific Electric. It’s possible that he may have even worked on the red car trolleys traveling through Seal Beach. He was born on January 22nd, 1889 in Mansfield, Missouri. His draft card listed him as being of medium height and build with blue eyes and light hair. He had already served one and a half years of military service as a corporal for the Second Field Artillery. And in August 1919, facing an uncertain future as the father of a child with a woman still married to another man, Barney M. Weaver ended his life.

    After the inquest on the 22nd, Undertaker Montell took Forgeron to her grandmother’s home in Los Angeles. Later, she left and wandered the streets until nighttime and then went to her mother’s house where the police found her and brought her in for questioning (which seems odd since the death had already been ruled a suicide.)

    There is addendum to this sad affair that concerns Theresa Marie’s unnamed husband. In 1920, both the Los Angeles Times and the Santa Ana Register ran articles on a Willard W. Forgeron filing for divorce from his wife, Theresa Marie Forgeron. Willard had been a soldier in World War I when the suicide occurred and had only heard about it upon his return. He filed for divorce in 1919, but in August 1920 he was finally able to provide proof that his wife was the woman involved in the suicide pact by producing clippings of the Los Angeles Times story with the picture of his wife and providing testimony from Barney Weaver’s and Theresa Marie’s Forgeron’s landlady. Willard Forgeron got his divorce, later remarried, and died in 1964.

    As for Theresa Marie Forgeron, she disappeared after August 22nd. She isn’t listed in the 1920, the 1930, or the 1940 census under the Forgeron last name or her mother’s last name. In fact, her mother and her grandmother don’t show up in any city directory or census. Using the addresses given in the Los Angeles Times story about the suicide and Google street views, I was able to explore her 1919 neighborhood on the web. Her grandmother’s apartment, her mother’s house, and the apartment she shared with Barney Weaver were only a few blocks away from each other, although the 10 Freeway passes over where her love nest with Barney once stood. It’s hard not to imagine young Theresa Marie wandering those streets, wondering how it all went wrong and blaming herself for the tragedy and scared about her impending motherhood. I hope it didn’t end for her there. I hope that she went somewhere else, somewhere far away and rebuilt her life under a new name and found peace and happiness.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • June 6th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1924, the city of Seal Beach was to launch the summer season with a weekend celebration starting with a Friday night Grunion Dance, according to May 28 reports in both the Santa Ana Register and the Los Angeles Times. The night of June 6 was pinpointed by an almanac mentioned in both stories that predicted high tides and the arrival of a grunion run.

    It didn’t happen that night.

    As announced in those May 28 reports, Seal Beach’s Boosters’ Club planned to hire a brass band to arrival of grunions on the shore. Bonfires would would be lit, free marshmallows would be distributed, and a fun Friday night would be had by all but the grunions captured by beachgoers to be cooked and eaten.

    Grunions are two species of fish found off the California coast from Baja to Point Conception. They are slender, tiny fish with silver sides and bellies. From March through August, grunions spawn for a few hours on nights after a full or new moon by swimming as far as possible on high tide waves up on the sandy shores of California beaches. Without getting into the specific details, male and female grunions mate, leaving eggs buried in the sand before returning to the water minutes later. This is known as a grunion run.

    Consider a grunion run for a moment from a grunion’s point of view. You’re about to have the time of your life and fulfill your biological destiny when suddenly large creatures grab you and you get eaten. The human equivalent would be if a couple who had just paired up in a singles bar was grabbed and devoured by a great white shark in the parking lot on their way home to get lucky.

    So one cannot really blame grunions for not being punctual.

    In 1924, a predicted grunion in May run didn’t happen. Thousands of people with sacks showed up on Southern California beaches, but the grunions stayed in the water, perhaps exchanging the fishy equivalent of abstinence rings.

    Come early June, the predicted June 6 grunion run was adjusted for one date earlier at 10:30 pm on Thursday, June 5th.

    According to the June 7 Santa Ana Register, early in the evening, a mock wedding party left the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and made its way to Seal Beach. At the border, the party was met by the Seal Beach Mayor and city council and escorted to a raised platform at Central Avenue and Main Street where Miss Sealette Beach and Mr. L. Beach were married by Judge G. R. Morrison. This was a purely symbolic act commemorating the good will and co-operation between the two cities.

    The bride, played by Miss Elsie McClellan, “wore a lovely gown of orange and black, with an elaborate veil of lemon chiffon, pinned by orange blossoms symbolic of Orange County.” The groom, played by W. E. Mellinger, wore black.

    The best man was J. A. Armitage of Huntington Beach, and the matron of honor was Mrs. Walter Hilliker of Seal Beach. Flower girls were Seal Beach pupils and members of Miss Doris Greenwald’s dance class. Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Armstrong played the father and mother of the bride, and representatives from various beach cities were the maids of honor.

    After the ceremony, the wedding party moved down to the pier where three minute talks were given by local and visiting officials. Then the amusement zone boardwalk was transformed into a dance floor with Glenda Boston Smith’s orchestra providing music at one end of the boardwalk and an unnamed boys band at the other.

    Thousands of free marshmallows were handed out by a committee of Seal Beach women. Thousands of grunions also showed up in what was described as “one of the best runs of the season.” Reportedly hundreds of Seal Beach visitors left with bags of fish, and one assumes that a larger percentage of romantic and randy grunions successfully made woo and then escaped with their lives.

    So Thursday’s celebrations probably continued into the early morning of June 6th, and the participants probably spent the rest of the day resting and recovering from the event, no doubt to be ready for the upcoming weekend.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • May 27th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1926, the Santa Ana Register published this gushingly enthusiastic profile of Seal Beach with a photo spread.

    In my Seal Beach research over the years, I’ve come across some wild feats of hyperbole, but I think the first three paragraphs in this article have all other beat.

    In spite of its manic lack of restraint, this article provides a solid snapshot of what Seal Beach was in 1926 and what it was trying to present itself as to the world. (This does not include the whopper about the single drowning or the claims of safety. Whoof, such mendacity!)

    So I’m going to quote the entire article and include the photos with commentary after the article.

    SEAL BEACH’S NO UNDERTOW CLAIM BRINGS MANY VISITORS

    ———————–

    Safety Factor Is Stressed By Residents of Town; Commerce Body Active

    ———————–

    BIG POWER PLANT TO BE ENLARGED

    ———————–

    Vehicular Bridge Across Outer Channel of Bay Backed by Community

    ———————–

    When Mother Nature chiseled the coast line of what was destined to Southern California, she gave particular attention to one favored spot, saying: “Here I will create a beach that will provide safe bathing for mankind, especially the women and little children.”

    With this end in view, she formed two Inland bays with entrances from the Pacific ocean nearly a mile apart, and between these she made a gradually sloping sandy beach free from dangerous riptides and strong undertow.

    Neither time nor tides have changed this condition, and since the early days of civilization in Southern California, what is now known as the city of Seal Beach has been recognized as one beach where surf bathing is safe.

    Surf Bathing Safe.

    The greatest degree of safety in the surf is between two bays, Anaheim and Alamitos. Although thousands go into the surf there every season, so far as known there has been but one drowning, and that near the Alamitos bay channel, when a man who could not swim attempted to negotiate the breakers on a hastily constructed raft.

    The safe condition of safety exists in Anaheim bay inside the bridge, but bathers are warned to keep away from the outer channel with its deep water and treacherous currents.

    For these reasons, many inland people spend their summer vacations at Seal Beach and Anaheim Landing, which is a part of the city, and it is believed the greatest number of summer visitors will be accommodated this year, because there are many cottages and tents available for summer use.

    Arrange Housing Facilities

    The chamber of commerce has taken up the matter of providing housing facilities for summer visitors and complete details may be had by writing to Harry H. Newton, the secretary.

    Besides safe bathing, Seal Beach offers many other attractions, such as boating on the bay, excellent fishing and various amusements, one of these being a large dancing pavilion. There is also a roller coaster and other concessions in the amusement zone.

    Seal Beach derives its name from the large herds of seal that have made their home here since the memory of man. They can be seen at the mouth of Alamitos bay, near the big power plant, in their natural habitat, being an attraction for tourists from all over the world. Plans are forming for a seal park, this being a part of the scheme for a vehicular bridge across the outer cannel of Alamitos bay.

    History of Town

    In 1903 P. A. Stanton and I. A. Lothian purchased 200 acres of land on the ocean front between Anaheim and Alamitos bays. The land was platted and the new town given the name of Bay City. In 1915, It was incorporated as a city of the sixth class under the name of Seal Beach, in honor of the large herd of seals.

    Seal Beach has a municipal water system, sewers, electricity, gas and many miles of permanently paved streets.

    Although the incorporated limits of Seal Beach include approximately 800 acres, only 200 acres are in the platted portion, the balance being a part of the Hellman ranch. This ranch land will not be available for homesites until after the question of oil is determined. Drilling operations are being conducted on the property by the Associated Oil company, but so far without any favorable showings. Executors of the Hellman estate say if prospecting operations prove the land is barren of oil in paying quantities, they will subdivide the portion in Seal Beach and put it on the market for homesites. The Hellman hill is declared to be one of the most desirable places in Southern California for this purpose.

    Seal Beach is located on the South Coast highway. Within 15-mile radius of Seal Beach, there are 25 towns that, with intervening territory, have a combined population of more than a quarter of a million people.

    Bridge Project

    A project is under way for building a vehicular bridge across the outer channel of Alamitos bay that will connect Ocean boulevard in Long Beach with Ocean avenue in Seal Beach. Preliminary plans for the structure will soon be completed.

    Will Enlarge Plant

    On the point overlooking the entrance to Alamitos bay is located the Seal Beach electric generating station of the Los Angeles Gas and Electric corporation. The first unit of the plant was placed in operation last July. When completed the plant will consist of three units of 48,000 horsepower each and the total cost will be approximately $15,000,000. The second unit will be started next year.

    The three boilers of the first unit have a capacity of 175,000 pounds of steam each, and the giant smokestack stands 275 feet high, a landmark seen from many miles distant.

    Electric energy is generated here and distributed in Los Angeles over a high-power transmission line.

    Chamber Is Active

    Seal Beach has an active chamber of commerce, of which W. D. Miller, president of the California State bank, is president, and Harry H. Newton, secretary. The organization has accomplished much in the way of civic development and is taking a leading part in the project of a vehicular bridge across the Alamitos bay channel.

    Mrs. E. W. Reed is president of the Woman’s Improvement club and Mrs. Merle Armstrong is secretary. There is a Business Men’s club, of which A. W. Armstrong is president and Harry H. Newton, secretary.

    Seal Beach Is proud of its public school system. It has a fine group of buildings with a competent corps of teachers. The district at present has only a grammar school, being affiliated with the Huntington Beach high school district.

    Two churches, Methodist and Catholic, provide places of worship, and there is a growing Masonic lodge.

    R. E. Dolley is president of the board of trustees. Other members of the board are J. P. Transue, A. E. Walker,  J. R. John and C. O. Wheat. Mrs. Ollie B. Padrick is city clerk and Ira E. Patterson is treasurer.

    Altogether, Seal Beach offers unusual attractions for either the home seeker or the vacationist.

    Here are enlarged versions of the photos from the Santa Ana Register spread.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • April 19th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1924, the Santa Ana Register shared an odd little news item under the headline, “Seal Beach Not To Exhibit Seal At Orange Show.”  

    Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy of Seal Beach had rescued and adopted a deserted orphaned seal pup, and the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce had suggested that the seal represent the city at the Orange show. An unnamed (at least in the article) citizen heard of the plan and condemned it “in no mild terms as against California game laws.”  The plans were dropped and the seal remained in the care of the Kennedys.

    The Orange show in question was not the Orange Show that continues today as an annual tradition in San Bernardino, but most likely the 4th annual Valencia Orange Show that was to be held on May 16-25 in Anaheim. There were big plans for the event to be a massive celebration (and living advertisement) for Orange County’s agriculture, farming, real estate, industry, weather and so on. An Italian motif had been chosen for the design of the buildings on the show grounds, no doubt to evoke Southern California’s alleged resemblance to the Mediterranean, as extolled in thousands of colorful orange crate label illustrations.

    Alas, the 4th annual Valencia Orange Show was not meant to be.  An epidemic outbreak of foot and mouth disease force the organizers to cancel the event for 1924 a bare month before the opening. The event resumed in 1925, and the show’s tradition of not exhibiting seals also continued.

    A less happy continuing tradition is the issue of orphaned seal mammals, and over nine decades after Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy rescued theirs, it is probably a good idea to direct readers to the Pacific Marina Mammal Center’s page on Stranded Marine Mammals for tips on how to properly handle our aquatic pals in distress.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • March 28th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1914, the Guy M. Rush Company ran the following ad announcing to the world that “Seal Beach Is Moving Along” in both the San Bernardino News and The Free Press. The city would incorporate officially as Seal Beach in October of the following year, but the Seal Beach name was already being ferociously pushed as a new real estate brand in the hopes that lots in “Seal Beach” would sell better than lots in the bland and generically named “Bay City.”

    March_28_1914_Seal_Beach_is_Moving_ad-3

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • March 27th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1917, the Santa Ana Register took some swimwear instruction from Luella Rogers from Seal Beach. The article focused on women who put on brightly hued bath suits for a beach visit, but never actually went swimming. Apparently the Non-Bathing Bathing Girl was one of the great issues of 1917. Fuddy-duddies felt that women who had no intentions of entering the water should wear more conservative clothes while on the beach.

    Miss Rogers disagreed. “Wouldn’t a woman look fine running around the beach wearing a street dress? You’ve seen them try it and you usually see them trip and fall or they take a few steps and then stop for breath. Sometimes I like to go in swimming. Then I wear a close fitting bathing suit. But when I want to romp on the beach and do not want to go into the surf, I wear my latest, prettiest, stripped bathing costume, and I have a good time on the sand in spite of what I know the ‘old hens’ with their long black skirts say about me.”

    I think we all know which side won this fashion war.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • March 22nd in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1914, hundreds of people embarked on a Sunday excursion from San Bernardino to Seal Beach sponsored by the Guy M. Rush Company as represented by Edwin R. Post. If the San Bernardino Country Sun’s estimate is to be trusted, there were “over 125 people from San Bernardino, nearly as many from Redlands and nearly 225 from Riverside.”

    The sale of real estate is indelibly entwined in almost all aspects of Seal Beach history and this excursion, the first of two in the early part of 1914, was no different. In publicizing the excursion, Seal Beach was described as “growing rapidly and is one of the great attractions in the Long Beach district” and also as “one of the last close-in beaches of a desirable character.” Folks who were “interested in securing this class of property” were “were invited to see it and get first hand information as to its beauties and advantages.”

    The promotional copy style seems stilted today, but the sales concept is familiar to anyone who has ever sat through a timeshare sales presentation for a “free” dinner or chance to win a big screen television.

    The marketing plan was to entice potential buyers to Seal Beach with its new bathhouse and pavilions with promises of food and fun, but once they were stuck in town for the day, there were real estate salesmen close by, each ready with a hard sell pitch and a contract.

    For a mere dollar, excursionists would leave the Salt Lake station in San Bernardino at 8 am and ride to Riverside and then on to Long Beach. They would then take a Pacific Electric car for short ride a few miles east to Seal Beach. Waiting in Seal Beach was a free bathing suit for a dip in the ocean, a free lunch, and a free band concert, and you can bet that at every point where something free was given, somebody would be there to give a speech, make a pitch, or point out the available lots.

    (If you’re tempted by all this to feel a nostalgia for a simpler and more innocent times, take note of the the odious words, “Rigid race restrictions” openly listed as one of Seal Beach’s selling points in the last ad in this post. Nostalgia is a harsh mistress.)

    This excursion was just a few months after Bay City had been renamed Seal Beach and a year and a half before the city was officially incorporated by election in 1915. The roller coaster and the rest of the amusement zone attractions wouldn’t be built until 1916. Most of the features and landmarks that stood out from this era of Seal Beach’s past don’t exist yet.

    Still, to someone from San Bernardino and its typical inland high temperatures, just standing on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and feeling a cool sea breeze brush across your face must have been a treat.

    – Michael Dobkins

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