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Tag: Seal Beach businesses

  • June 29th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1969, S&S Homes targeted demanding and astute executives with this ad for College Park homes starting at $32,000 in the Long Beach Independent Press Telegram.

    – 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.

     

  • June 27th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1956, the Long Beach Independent ran a story under the headline of “Burger Derby Entry Poop-out.” Fifteen year old Glenn Tuttle had attempted to eat twenty hamburgers at one sitting in front of the Seafarers Restaurant at 907 Ocean Avenue in Seal Beach (currently occupied by the Pierside Press Sandwich Shop).

    The story ran two photos of Glen’s adventure into burger gluttony, which he cut short at seven burgers.  You can see a better photo from this event in this 2010 post. 

     

    The 2010 post was written before I discovered the Long Beach Independent story, so I was not able to pinpoint the date.  Read the comments in the 2010 post for more information about the tragic end of the unfortunate Mr. Tuttle.

    – 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.

     

  • May 28th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1950, a teeny, tiny ad appeared in the Gift Shops section of Long Beach Independent for the Friendly Nook at 137 ½ Main Street offering 24 hour service on hemstitching.May_28_1950_Friendly_Nook_adI received an e-mail from Michelle (Ward) Williamson in 2017 with a little more information about the owner of the Friendly Nook:

    “My grandmother Grace Marie (Ward) Knighten was a longtime resident of Seal Beach until her death in 1986. Her first marriage was to Kenneth Lenton Ward. Her second marriage was to Sperry Knighton, who eventually became the Fire Chief for Seal Beach. She told me once that she had a store called “The Friendly Nook” it was probably open around 1940 to 1949.”

    Ms. Williamson also believes it’s possible the store may “have been a craft store centered around Native American beading, rugs and such.”

    I can confirm that the Friendly Nook was around from at least 1950 (when these ads ran to 1954 (when a news story about three juvenile burglars on a minor crime spree broke into Vogler’s Market at 1510 Pacific Coast Highway, Joe’s Market at 216 Main Street, and the Friendly Nook.)

    Here are two Main Street photographs that include the Friendly Nook from the same era as the one included in this May 15 post.

    – 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.

  • May 22nd in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1917, the following ad ran in the Los Angeles Times listing vendors that carried Christopher’s “always dependable Ice Cream.”

    What is this ad’s connection to Seal Beach history? Two “wide-awake Merchants” in the vendor list were located in Seal Beach. The Seal Beach Concessions Company, which ran the amusement zone on the east side of the pier, and the Seal Beach Drug Company, located on Main Street.

    The Christopher’s ice cream brand started as ice cream parlor in Los Angeles in the 1890s, expanded to offering their ice cream in concession stands at fairs and exhibitions in the late 1890s, and then shifted to supplying ice cream to drug stores, ice cream parlors, and stands throughout Southern California around the turn of the century.

    There are hundreds of Christopher’s newspaper ads during the first three decades of the twentieth century, many of them as well designed and exquisitely drawn as the one in this post. The company that brought the “Cream of Health” to Seal Beach in 1917 seems to have faded away in the late twenties, perhaps bought out by a larger brand.

    – 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.