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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

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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 7th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1965, The Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram reported that a familiar Naval Weapons Station landmark on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Bay Boulevard (Seal Beach Boulevard today) would soon be gone.

    The landmark was the stack of anti-submarine buoys stored on the base since World War II. The buoys had once been an effective barrier for enemy submarine gaining entry into California harbors. Modern submarine technology no longer needed such close proximity for attacks, and the buoys were ultimately declared obsolete.

    For the better part of two decades, the buoys sparked fears that they would explode a scant few feet from Pacific Coast Highway traffic and opposition from developers and realtors who felt those fears hurt Seal Beach property values. But these were buoys, not weapons or munition, and the only thing explosive about them was the interest of photographers itching to use the buoys in cleverly composed images for newspapers and local publicity.

    In early 1965, the Department of Defense announced that the obsolete buoys would be auctioned off with the expectation that the winning bidders would have the buoys cleared from the Naval Weapons Station by late May. This expectation was partially fulfilled. 17,000 buoys were sold and carted off mostly to be used for scrap metal, and 5,000 remained in symmetrical stack formation to continue intriguing and vexing residents and motorists well into the seventies.

    I have a line out to the the weapons station to find out when the remaining buoys were finally removed. I’ll update this post if I get an answer.

    Can’t quite picture where the buoys were located? Click here to view a 2010 post that pinpoints the location.

    – 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.

  • March 1st in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1959, the Seal Beach Lumber and Supply Co. ran this ad in the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram, hoping, no doubt, to attract some trade from boaters using the Long Beach Marina.

    Those of us with fond memories of the lumberyard will confirm that it seemed to have “Everything to Build Anything.”

    – 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.

  • February 26th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1976, the Long Independent Press-Telegram ran the following ad for the Tiny Naylors restaurant in the Seal Beach Shopping Center, featuring a STEAK BONANZA” of daily steak specials.

    The Tiny Naylors (also once known as the Wooden Shoe) building was demolished a few years ago, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for “”A Mighty Meat at a Mini Price.”

    feb_26_1976_tiny_naylors_ad– 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.

  • February 6th In Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1937, the Seal Beach city council considered a number of matters in a long session, according to the Santa Ana Register.

    The first item considered was a petition with one hundred sixty-eight signers declaring an oil refinery operating at Fifth Street and Coast Highway a public nuisance and asking for the refinery’s removal. The refinery was owned by the California Refining Company and was leased to F. B. Cole Refining, plaintiffs in a $110,000 suit against the city. According to the petition, the refinery had a negative impact of the health and property of nearby residents.

    Another issue discussed was the installation of an additional power line from the steam plant operated by the Los Angeles Gas and Electrical Corporation to its new owner, the bureau of water and power (Today’s Department of Water and Power, also known as the DWP). The issue was ultimately tabled, but not before City Attorney B. B. Brown expressed concerns about the impact water outfall from the plant preventing build-up of sands on the west beach.  

    Representatives from Los Angeles expressed a willingness to work out a solution to the beach problem with the help of the Los Angeles county flood control district, but that would depend on the new owners. It was also mentioned that the Seal Beach steam plant would soon become a stand-by power plant as soon as the Boulder Dam plant went online, and that would probably diminish the water outfall from the Seal Beach plant.

    City Engineer Victor W. Hayes was instructed to remove old poles along East Ocean Avenue that had been abandoned for years by an amusement company. Hayes also reported that, after consulting the Coast Guard, removal of pilings from a collapsed section of the pier must be requested from the war department.

    The Pacific Electric Company reported that materials for work on the Twelfth Street grade crossing had been ordered and that the city could  begin paving between the tracks after the track and signal work was complete. Hayes submitted plans and an estimate for the city’s share of the costs for the project.

    Finally, a third reading of a “Walkathon” ordinance was made that would clear the way for an event to be held after the rainy season. The ordinance required a deposit of $500.

    Walkathons were dancing endurance contests that were both popular and controversial during the Great Depression. Read “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” by Horace McCoy or watch the film to get a flavor of what these events were like.

    This ordinance and the event it allowed would cause conflict and controversy in August and September of 1937. Watch this space.

    – Michael Dobkins

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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.

  • East Side, Before and After

    Aerial Seal Beach – 1936 and 1947

    We’re doing things a little different in today’s aerial photos.  Instead of presenting just one aerial photo,  we’d like to highlight the contrast between two similar shots taken eleven years apart.

    May 23rd, 1936

    This is what The area on the beach side of Electric Avenue and East of Thirteenth Street looked like almost eighty-five years ago.  Considering how jam-packed Seal Way and Dolphin Avenue is today, it’s startling to see so many empty lots.  The Pacific Electric line still runs to the end of Electric Avenue and crosses Anaheim Bay past Anaheim Landing and Surfside homes.

    July 27th, 1947

    Eleven years later, the Navy has transformed Anaheim Landing into a military harbor and almost all the homes that were there in 1936 have been relocated or demolished.  The Pacific Electric line has be re-routed at 15th Street to meet and follow the coast highway.  There are fewer vacant lots as the post-war economic and California real estate boom hits full stride.

    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?

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  • Flying Down to Seal

    Aerial Seal Beach

    Seal Beach Airport (Crawford Air Field) – January 11, 1943

    Today’s image is taken from an aerial survey of the Southern California coast from Long Beach to Seal Beach done by the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics.

    click on the image for a larger view

    Not many people today realize that Seal Beach once had its own airport.  Some locals still remember the air field personally, but, for the few Seal Beach residents who have only heard about it, the exact location of the airport seems to be a confusing mystery.  Some mistakenly believe the airport was located close to First Street and Pacific Coast Highway, probably because The Airport Club (later known as The Marina Palace) once stood at that intersection.   At first glance, this photograph adds to the confusion because none of the buildings in its 1943 landscape survives today to offer familiar landmarks for reference.

    click on the image for a larger view

    With a little labeling, it’s a now a little easier to place the airport’s location into our modern landscape.  The airport once stood at the corner of Seal Beach Boulevard (which was known as Bay Boulevard until 1970) and Pacific Coast Highway.  This is the same corner that was highlighted in our earlier post, Where The Buoys Are.

    To put the photo into a wider historical context, the United States was at war, and the attack on Pearl Harbor was still a current event, having taken place a mere thirteen months earlier.  By November of the year after this photo was taken, The Naval Ammunition and Net Depot at Seal Beach would be commissioned at this location.  I don’t have any hard proof that this aerial survey was a factor in Anaheim Landing being chosen for the depot, but it’s a likely possibility.

    click on the image for a larger view

    A closer look at the airport reveals a small lone figure standing at the edge of the landing strip and a vehicle parked next to one of the airport buildings.

    click on the image for a larger view

    It’s impossible to pick up the writing and symbols on this enclosure.  Perhaps some advertising for travelers motoring down the Southern California coast?  As for the enclosure itself, it might be a fuel dump.  Is there anyone out there from this era who can confirm this?

    click on the image for a larger view

    By magnifying the details in the original photo, we get a rare glimpse at The Glide ‘er Inn at its original location.  When the Navy took over Anaheim Landing in 1944, The Glide ‘er Inn moved to Pacific Coast Highway at 14th Street in the building where the Mahe seafood restaurant is today.  A small airplane from The Glide ‘er Inn days is still suspended above the building, a memento of the building’s historic past.

    click on the image for a larger view

    Here’s more detailed view of the businesses and buildings along Pacific Coast Highway between Bay Boulevard and 16th Street, including a gas station where Bay Liquor stands today on Seal Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.

    For more pictures and anecdotes about the Seal Beach airport, take a look at Libby Appelgate’s History of The Seal Beach Airport at The Sun News web site.

    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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  • Broken Highways, Gun Clubs and Mud Volcanoes

    Bonus Images of The Week

    Bolsa Chica Gun Club and Mud Volcanoes – March 11, 1933

    Today is the 77th anniversary of the Long Beach Earthquake, and I’m tossing up a few more bonus images of earthquake damage.

    The Bolsa Chica Gun Club off Pacific Coast Highway in the Bolsa Chica marshes is long gone, but it did survive the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake as shown in these photographs taken the day after the quake.

    Road between Seal Beach and the Bolsa Chica Gun Club. Pacific Electric Red Car tracks can be seen in the upper left corner.  Photo by W.W. Bradley.

    Bolsa Chica Gun Club bridge. Photo by W.W. Bradley.

    Bolsa Chica Gun Club. Photo from Mr. Merritt.

    Bolsa Chica Gun Club. Photo from Mr. Merritt.

    Mud volcano on the North end of Seal Beach. Photo by W.W. Bradley.

    You can see these and other photos of damage from the March 10, 1933 Long Beach Earthquake at the U.S. Geologic Survey photographic library by clicking here.

    Time permitting, I’ll share some more photos of earthquake destruction in Seal Beach (and perhaps an ironic tale of Seal Beach’s sinful past) later this week.

    We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses.   Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.

    Bookmark and Share– Michael Dobkins

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    .

  • Where The Buoys Are

    Image of The Week

    Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station – 1955

    Bonus ImageBonus Image

    These stacked buoys (without the guards) were once a familiar sight to motorists traveling on Pacific Coast Highway between Anaheim Landing and the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

    See the buoys?

    Eleven years later buoys are still being stacked in the same spot as shown in this aerial photograph taken on October 14th, 1966.

    We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses.   Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.

    – 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.