This image comes to us care of a past Seal Beach resident, Bob Robertson. The photo was taken by Bob’s father, Bill Robertson, owner of the Seal Beach Post and Wave newspaper.
click on the image for a larger view
The Bay Theatre was built in 1947 and survives today as a rare single screen survivor in the age of multiplex theaters and high definition home theaters.
Movie posters for “Jupiter’s Darling” and To Catch a Thief are hanging in the “next attraction” frames next to the box office. There’s a possibility that this is early 1956 since movies weren’t released as wide and stayed in circulation much longer than today. “Jupiter’s Darling,” released in February 1955, starred Esther Williams and Howard Keel and was a notorious box office flop for MGM. “To Catch a Thief,” released in September 1955, is considered a classic Alfred Hitchcock film by many and starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
Does anyone out there recognize any of the people in this photo or remember what the occasion was? And while we’re at it, why don’t you share your favorite memories of the Bay Theatre in the comments?
ADDENDUM: Does anyone remember a Hollywood film being shot on the hill before the homes were built, and then the film being shown at the Bay after it was released?
Be sure to check back every for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.
– Michael Dobkins
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Main Street in Seal Beach has been a favorite subject for photographers throughout its 95 years of history. Every Monday between now and the end of the Seal Beach Founders Celebration, we’ll be posting a different image of Main Street.
click on the image for a larger view
Another view of our beloved Main Street from Ocean Avenue, probably the late 1940s or early 1950s.
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.
– Michael Dobkins
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Here’s a new angle on the burger stand that once stood in front of the Bayside Land Company building at Main Street and Ocean Avenue. Ocean Avenue runs behind the stand in the darkness. This appears to be in the early days of the burger stand before the top was adorned with signs for Coca-Cola and Carnation ice cream. You can see this same building a few years later from the opposite angle in our earlier posts, Tramming It Up and Sleepy Afternoon on Main Street.
The poster in the window to the right reads, “The Flavor You Favor,” but the rest of the poster is obscured by the intense lighting used to take this photo. What product was being advertised, I wonder?
ADDENDUM:
A little fiddling on the poster in photoshop gave a little more detail in the poster:
Diced Cream was an ice cream product introduced in 1947 by Arden Farms. Chunks of different flavors of ice cream were sold separately in small boxes the same way a pint of Ben and Jerry’s is sold today. Diced Cream initially rolled out in a sales test in the Long Beach area in 1947 before being introduced to the entire Southern California market. According to the August 2nd, 1947 Billboard magazine the product sponsored “Hail To The Champ,” a local program on Long Beach radio station KGER. The poster in today’s photo was probably part of this initial sales test.
Here’s a better looking Diced Cream ad from Life Magazine in 1949:
Obviously, I have more important things to be doing. Otherwise I would not have allowed myself to be distracted by such a minor mystery.
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.
– 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.
Main Street in Seal Beach has been a favorite subject for photographers throughout its 95 years of history. Every Monday between now and the end of the Seal Beach Founders Celebration, we’ll be posting a different image of Main Street.
This is Main Street 48 years ago, not last year’s Seal Beach Car Show.
On the right, Marina Cleaners occupies the current location of Seal Beach Music. On the side of the building where Endless Summer operates today, a painted advertisement tells us, “Bathers Welcome,” apparently to come inside and enjoy “cold drinks” and “malts” and “sundaes” made from delicious “Mountain View ice cream.” Next door is Seal Beach Music, followed by the Edgewater Pre-School.
Further down, you can visit a rock shop, Vinzant’s Variety, and John’s Food King. In the distance, we see Brock’s Drugs (better known to many of us later as the Corner Drug) and further down, the Bay Theater.
On the left, it’s a little harder to make out the details. The Irisher Cafe now occupies the Bob And Chet’s Cafe and Cocktail Lounge location at 121 Main Street, Further down a Rexall drugs store occupies a familiar spot, but it’s probably a few years before it becomes Bob’s Rexall. The Walt’s Wharf building hosts the long gone Marina Market, and a cafe sign hangs in front of what was once the Green Pepper Mexican restaurant (and then BJ’s Pizza and now Woody’s Diner).
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.
– Michael Dobkins
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This photo is listed as being from the twenties, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually taken in the early thirties. Except for a few cars driving through past on highway along the top of the photo, Seal Beach is empty of any signs of life. The pier, Main Street, the roller coaster and Joy Zone all seem deserted. Maybe this was a chilly winter morning during the off-season, but this image seems to capture Seal Beach in a moment when it was well past its heyday as an amusement park attraction.
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach
– Michael Dobkins
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It’s Monday night, and I’m working on Tuesday’s post while listening to Steve Goodman music on the twenty-sixth anniversary of his death.
You may have heard one of his songs sung by other musical artists. His most famous song, “City of New Orleans,” was a hit for Arlo Guthrie in 1972 and has been covered by Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Judy Collins, and Willie Nelson. Jimmy Buffett recorded many songs by Goodman, including “California Promises” and a favorite of mine, “Banana Republics.” Or if you’re a baseball fan, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard at least one of the three songs written by Chicago-born Goodman for his beloved Chicago Cubs, “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request,” “When the Cubs Go Marching In,” or “Go, Cubs, Go.” He was a versatile songwriter of enormous talent and skill.
As good as Goodman’s songs are when covered by other singers, I still prefer Steve Goodman songs sung by Steve Goodman. He brings an affable intensity to his performing that is hard to resist, especially during live recordings. That’s where his charm and enthusiasm is irresistible. To give you a flavor of his performing style, I’ve found at clip from one of his Austin City Limits shows from the late seventies.
Since this is history blog, I think this song is particularly apt.
So why am I writing about Steve Goodman in a blog about Seal Beach?
Although he lived in the Chicago area most of his life, Goodman was a resident of Seal Beach during the early eighties. When I worked at The Bookstore on Main Street from 1981 to 1983, his wife, Nancy, was a regular customer, buying a copy of the Sunday Chicago Sun-News each week. His three daughters, Jessie, Sarah, and Rosanna, were all students at J.H. McGaugh School where Goodman gave a handful of classroom concerts to their lucky classmates. Red Pajamas Records, the Goodman’s private record label, was based in Seal Beach, and each day the Goodman family would cart mail order shipments to the Main Street post office.
Goodman also wrote a wistful song called, “California Promises” about empty promises. He once introduced it by saying, “This is a song about a couple who meet by the Seal Beach pier in Seal Beach, California, before the wind comes and destroys the pier. She says, ‘I’ll be right back.’”
California Promises by Steve Goodman, 1983
Beneath the moonlit sky Shadows walk beside the water Sad goodbye whispered on the shore Hear those wind chimes play They serenade the shadow lovers Ring and fade away Like California promises
I will never love another Wait for me, ’til I return But she never will He waits for her beside the water Faithful still To California promises
I will never love another Wait for me, ’til I return Though she never will He waits for her beside the water Faithful still To California promises
While the woman never comes back, the pier did get rebuilt. Sadly, Steve Goodman wouldn’t be around to see it.
(There isn’t a video of “California Promise” available for embedding, but you can listen to it directly on YouTube by clicking here.)
Back in Chicago, Steve Goodman was nicknamed “Chicago Shorty” and “The Little Prince,” but later he jokingly gave himself another nickname, “Cool Hand Leuk” in honor of his guitar prowess and the leukemia diagnosis he had been given in 1969. His illness was in remission during the seventies, and it remained a secret until the illness returned while he lived in Seal Beach. Steve Goodman was only thirty-six when he finally succumbed to the disease on September 20, 1984.
You can find more of Steve Goodman’s music atMusic Fans Direct or at iTunes if you’re a downloading sort of person. I recommend the No Big Surprise double CD album for a starter or the Steve Goodman: Live From Austin City Limits… And More! DVD if you want more of the concert shown above.
Next year in Wrigley Field, Steve.
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.– Michael Dobkins
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Main Street in Seal Beach has been a favorite subject for photographers throughout its 95 years of history. Every Monday between now and the end of the Seal Beach Founders Celebration, we’ll be posting a different image of Main Street. This week’s Main Street image comes to us from Linda Buell.
(l to r) Gordon Hooper, Bob Robertson (standing behind the tram) Alan Harbour, Doug Buell, Eddie Fritz & Jack Sauters. Driver: Frank Smith.
click on the image for a larger view
This image almost duplicates last week’s Main Street image except for a great view of the much missed pier tram and a better view of the Bayside Land Company Building in the background.
Painted on the side of the white truck behind the tram are the words, “Marines March of Dimes” and “Polio Fund.” This dates the photo to no later than 1958 because that was the year the March of Dimes shifted its mission from curing polio to preventing premature birth, birth defects, and infant mortality after Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine proved effective.
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.
– 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.
Main Street in Seal Beach has been a favorite subject for photographers throughout its 95 years of history. Every Monday between now and the end of the Seal Beach Founders Celebration, we’ll be posting a different image of Main Street. This week’s Main Street image comes to us care of a past Seal Beach resident, Bob Robertson. The photo was taken by Bob’s father, Bill Robertson, owner of the Seal Beach Post and Wave newspaper.
click on the image for a larger view
It’s been about forty years since last week’s image, and much has changed. Main Street is much more familiar with businesses that still run today.
On the right, the once familiar liquor arrow points to Seal Beach Liquor on the right at 112 Main Street, and across the street Clancy’s Saloon now fills the spot where Mamie’s and the Seal Beach Pharmacy once did business. Note that the service window from the Seal Beach Pharmacy is now only decorative, probably remodeled during the Mamie’s period or before.
Guy’s Burgers has been built where the red cars used to turn off Ocean Avenue on to Main Street, and the Bayside Land Company building still stands behind it. Both buildings are now long gone.
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.
– 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.
Main Street in Seal Beach has been a favorite subject for photographers throughout its 95 years of history. Every Monday between now and the end of the Seal Beach Founders Celebration, we’ll be posting a different image of Main Street.
click on the image for a larger view
This is probably my favorite historical photo of Seal Beach for a number of reasons. Firstly, this was the photograph I first blew up in Adobe Photoshop to discover new details not immediately apparent at the original size. The wealth of information waiting to be discovered in this image was enthralling, and I became obsessed with collecting more historical Seal Beach images and using computer imaging to uncover more hidden secrets and connections in each photo. Looking closer became my mantra for this new hobby.
For example, this photograph was undated when I first encountered it while I was editing the Seal Beach Historical Society’s newsletter. Judging by the vintage automobiles, it’s obviously from the teens, but pinpointing an exact year seems impossible. However, if one takes a closer look at the billboard behind the parked cars on the right:
click on the image for a larger view
“Your country needs your help!” narrows this down to after the United States had entered World War I, but the “Sunday July 15” allows us to check a calendar to find a specific year in the teens when July 15th was on a Sunday. So we can now date this photograph to some time in the Summer of 1917.
That’s not all. The billboard is also advertising dancing, a fireworks display, and the scintillators, the spotlight display which were installed on the end of the pier (we’ll reveal more about those in the next few weeks). The mention of the “Screen Beauties Bather’s Parade” connects this billboard with another famous Seal Beach photograph from panorama photographer Miles Weaver:
click on the image for a larger view
It looks like the parade ended at Anaheim Landing where all these winsome misses posed for a photo-op in front of the Anaheim Landing Bowling Alley.
Moving on from the billboard, let’s take a closer look at some of the details on the left side of the image:
There’s this building with some sort of odd metal work on top. When we flip the image:
We now see that the metal signage spells out “Lodge Cafe” to advertise the business to motorists and pedestrians at the other end of Main Street. Here’s a couple of postcards for the Lodge Cafe:
A wildly inaccurate view of Main Street obviously draw by someone who had never actually visited the location or seen a photograph of the building. I love all the trees and how Long Beach and Wilmington have been artistically removed from the landscape between Seal Beach and San Pedro.
Here’s a more accurate view of the interior of the Lodge Cafe showing the dining tables and the dancing floor.
When we move up closer to the foreground on the left side of the image, we see a business that was also featured in the background of the photo from last Friday’s post:
The Seal Beach Pharmacy once filled the storefront that Clancy’s Saloon now occupies. In 1917’s Seal Beach, it was your one stop shopping destination when you needed drugs, ice, Kodak film, Coca Cola, and a scale to weigh yourself to see if you were trim enough for the next screen beauties bather’s parade.
Judging by the flags flapping above, it seems like it was a windy day when this photo was taken. Is the women being escorted by the gentleman is holding her hat to prevent it from being blown off? Or perhaps she is camera-shy and doesn’t want her face captured on film?
Along the bottom of this close up, you can see two grooves in the road, which leads us to our last magnification of this Main Street image:
Saving the best for last, this is one of the three images showing a Pacific Electric red car traveling down Main Street that I’ve been able to find after years of searching. Those two grooves were actually the trolley tracks for the trolley.
– 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.
