Developer Don Wilson was one of the biggest players in the Southern California's post-World War II housing boom. By 1962, Wilson had built more than 50,000 suburban homes and developed more than 50 complete communities.
Wilson was particularly active in the South Bay, having built more than 5,000 homes by that time in the city of Torrance alone. His developments would include parts of Southwood in West Torrance and Marble Estates, a huge housing tract southwest of Sepuveda and Crenshaw boulevards, in addition to many other such projects in the area.
In 1962, he opened model homes at his new Southwood Riviera Royale development near Anza Avenue and Calle Mayor in Torrance. It would lead to several months of controversy and tumult.
In March 1963, the California attorney general's office filed suit against Wilson for alleged violations of the Unruh Civil Rights Act of 1959 with regard to another project of his, the Dominguez Hills housing tract in Carson. The suit alleged that potential black buyers were denied purchase applications for the new houses being built there on six different occasions in September 1962.
In the wake of the suit, anti-discrimination demonstrators began to appear at the Southwood Riviera Royale offices at 23448 Evalyn Avenue, sponsored by the civil rights group the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They claimed that Wilson was refusing to sell Southwood tract homes to blacks.
Wilson countered by saying that he was building expensive homes, and that many would-be buyers failed to qualify financially to purchase them.
On June 16, 1963, Wilson himself made a citizen's arrest of 16 demonstrators at the tract near 243rd Street and Evalyn, claiming that the protesters were staging a sit-in on the floor and blocking access to his tract office. The arrested demonstrators told police, "We'll be coming from here on out. Next time we'll have 200."
CORE persisted in its efforts, staging daily protests that included more sit-ins, sing-ins and other activities. Neighbors were not pleased about the noise, growing intensity and crowds of onlookers generated by the demonstrations. More than 100 of them packed a June 25, 1963 Torrance City Council meeting to complain, but the demonstrators persisted.
Torrance Herald front page for June 27, 1963. Credit: Historical Newspaper Archives, Torrance Public Library. (Click to enlarge image.)
Torrance Mayor Albert Isen drew national attention at the June 25 council meeting when he responded to allegations that he had said that there weren't enough blacks in Torrance to appoint to an interracial committee to improve community relations.
"I said that if Torrance has any Negroes it has so few that I don't know whom I could appoint. I don't know how I could appoint an interracial committee," Isen was quoted as saying in the June 26, 1963 Daily Breeze.
It was announced on Friday, July 12, 1963, that black attorney Odis Jackson had put down a deposit to buy one of Wilson's homes. This information resulted in a two-week truce, during which CORE pulled back its protests and the neighborhood quieted down temporarily.
But it would all come boiling back to a head on Saturday, July 27, 1963. That previous Wednesday, July 24, Wilson announced that Jackson's down payment check of $500 had bounced, and that Wilson was unable financially to complete the purchase of the house. CORE countered by charging that Wilson never had intended to sell to Jackson in the first place.
Enter Marlon Brando. Rumors spread before Saturday's renewed demonstrations that Brando would appear, and he and actor Pernell Roberts kept their word. At 2 p.m., Brando joined over 100 pickets carrying signs and shouting protests in front of the Southwood Riviera Royale sales office on Evalyn Avenue.
Actor Marlon Brando, far right, marches at the head of a protest at the Southwood Riviera Royale housing tract in Torrance on July 27, 1963. Associated Press photo.
He didn't carry a sign, but did march at the head of the protest. In addition to the march, a sit-in was held near the office. In all, 47 protesters were arrested, including two Episcopal ministers, the Rev. Morris Samuel and the Rev. Herbert Yates. Though he wasn't arrested, 1960s activist Rev. Malcolm Boyd also participated in the march.
Brando caused quite a stir. The news media descended on him with questions as he marched, but he responded only in general terms when asked why he was participating, saying "Anyone who believes in civil rights should demonstrate."
Marlon Brando confers with march leaders during the July 27, 1963 Torrance protest. Associated Press photo.
He was cheered by some, and jeered by others. Members of the American Nazi Party who were present counter-demonstrated with signs such as "Brando is a stooge for Communist mixture" and others that were more racially offensive.
Charges against the 47 arrested protesters later were dropped. Though the July 27 march and protest was the emotional flash point of the Southwood incident, the demonstrations continued.
Superior Court Judge Alfred Gitelson's restraining orders issued on Aug. 13 and again on Nov. 4 greatly limited the scope of the demonstrator's activities, and the protests died down. CORE announced later that during its 13 months of picketing, 3,500 persons had participated, and 249 were arrested. (All charges against those arrested at various times during the 13 months later were dropped.)
On Dec. 5, the California Fair Employment Practices Commission filed suit against Wilson, charging racial discrimination against potential buyer Lloyd Ransom, a black chemist at Hughes Aircraft. The suit was dropped on June 10, 1964 when it was found that the home had already been sold before Ransom's offer.
Later that month, Ransom and his family were able to buy and take occupancy of a house in the Southwood Rivera Royale tract. A white intermediary purchased the house and signed it over to the Ransoms on June 17, 1964.
Wilson died on Aug. 10, 2001, at age 91. At the time of his death, real estate experts estimated that Wilson's firm had built about one-third of all the houses in Torrance.
Don Wilson Builders overcame the bad publicity from the 1963 protests and continues to operate its real estate development and management business in the South Bay.
Sources:
Associated Press.
Daily Breeze files.
Los Angeles Times files.
Torrance Herald files.
News media members surround Bob Hope and Racquel Welch, right, as his troupe prepares to depart on a Vietnam tour on Dec. 15, 1967. Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty is dressed as Santa Claus at left of Hope.
Comedian and American icon Bob Hope first performed for American troops when he did a show at March Field in Riverside, Calif. in 1941. He continued the practice under the auspices of the newly formed United Service Organizations (USO) banner, throughout World War II, then in Berlin during the airlift era, Korea, and other spots during the peacetime era that followed.
But it was the Vietnam War that brought Hope's USO work for the troops into the public eye in a major way. Between 1964 and 1972, Hope traveled to the war zone every Christmas, bringing entertainment to troops in Vietnam and surrounding areas in Southeast Asia.
Hope's USO caravans would leave from Los Angeles International Airport every year in mid-December for roughly two weeks. The resulting shows were filmed for the first time, and presented in the following January in commercial-free form as 90-minute specials on NBC, sponsored by Chrysler.
Bob Hope poses on Dec. 15, 1967, with female stars who are about to leave with him for shows in Southeast Asia. L to R: Hope (with his trademark golf club), actress Racquel Welch, actress/singer Elaine Dunn, Miss World Madeleine Bel and singer Barbara McNair.
The shows always included high-profile starlets and actresses of the day. Joey Heatherton, Ann-Margret, Raquel Welch and Jill St. John were among those making the tour, which also would feature a reigning beauty queen, usually that year's Miss Universe. Les Brown and His Band of Renown provided the music, with Hope's quips (tailored to fit whatever base or geographical location he happened to land) and bits by Jerry Colonna and other comics providing the humor.
Bob Hope (with eyes closed) reunites with his family upon returning from his Vietnam USO tour on Dec. 30, 1965. L to R: Sons Tony and Kelly, daughter Nora, Hope, his wife Dolores, and daughter Linda.
Daily Breeze photographers were on hand at LAX three times to capture Hope and his troupe on film. Jack Wyman caught Hope's return from Vietnam on Dec. 30, 1965 and his departure to Vietnam two years later, on Dec. 15, 1967. Bob Carrington took photos of Hope and company's departure on Dec. 14, 1968.
Bob Hope poses with Los Angeles Rams "Fearsome Foursome" member Rosey Grier above, as his group of entertainers prepares to leave for Vietnam on Dec. 14, 1968. Hope waves goodbye to media and well-wishers as he boards the plane, below, for the 1968 USO tour.
In the later years of the war, Hope's visits caused some controversy because of his hawkish stance in the face of growing opposition at home to the war, but his visits no doubt boosted morale to servicemen fighting a difficult war in a strange and hostile land.
Hope had many connections to the South Bay. Alice Hope, his favorite aunt, lived in El Segundo, as did his Uncle Fred and cousins Chad and Francis. "Aunt Alice" even convinced Hope to perform at a Junior Women's Club fundraiser in 1941 at the El Segundo High School auditorium. He also would record radio shows from El Segundo High on occasion.
Hope's lifelong devotion to entertaining servicemen through the USO led to his receiving many honors from the group. A small USO facility named for World War II hero Jimmy Doolittle had opened at LAX in 1984. In October 2001, it was announced that it would be expanded and renamed the Bob Hope Hollywood USO, and it continues to provide comfort for servicemen at the airport.
Hope died on July 27, 2003 at the age of 100.
Sources:
"Bob Hope's Vietnam Christmas Tours," by Judith Johnson, Dec. 23, 2009, http://www.historynet.com/bob-hopes-vietnam-christmas-tours.htm
Daily Breeze files.
Los Angeles Times files.
"South Bay salutes legendary comedian," by Josh Grossberg, Daily Breeze, Tuesday, July 29, 2003.
The Fox Theater in Redondo Beach, ca. 1956. Daily Breeze file photo.
When the Fox Theater in Redondo Beach opened on Friday, Feb. 22, 1929, it was the premier movie showplace in the South Bay. Only San Pedro's Warner Grand, opened in 1931, could rival its splendor. Built at an estimated cost of $300,000 at 103 W. Diamond Street, it had all concrete construction, a state-of-the-art sound and projection system and a large pipe organ.
The architect was John Paxton Perrine, who designed six other movie theaters in the Southern California area. The Fox Theater was built on the site of an earlier theater, the Art Theater, a Paramount theater which had been built in 1912 and torn down in 1928. Fox's movie theater arm West Coast Theatres acquired the Art Theater in 1920.
The Fox Theater's opening night was headlined by a showing of the new Fox film "The Ghost Talks," starring actress Helen Twelvetrees, shown at left in a publicity photo. The comic farce was only the second talkie ever produced by Fox. It was well reviewed by the New York Times, but unfortunately is now considered lost, with no prints known to have survived.
Twelvetrees was in attendance at the Fox Theater screening of "The Ghost Talks," which also included a second feature, a Fox Movietone newsreel, and five live vaudeville acts to round out the evening. In fact, the Fox was built to accommodate not only the screening of films, but also the staging of vaudeville shows.
The Fox Theater in Redondo Beach stands in isolation as the King Harbor redevelopment project goes on all around it in this March 31, 1961 Daily Breeze file photo. Walt Disney's original "101 Dalmatians" is advertised on the marquee.
The sturdily built theater remained a moviegoing landmark for 44 years. When redevelopment came to the Redondo Beach harbor area with the construction of King Harbor in the early 1960s, the Fox Theater was one of the few structures to survive. Though built right on the ocean, it was strong enough to withstand the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake as well as the occasional violent storms that rocked the area.
Fox Theater manager Hugo L. Holbach and Redondo Beach Mayor William Czuleger, center, pose inside the theater with rock 'n' roller Bobby Fuller, leader of the Bobby Fuller Four, before the band's August 1965 concert at the Fox Theater in Redondo Beach. Fuller and Czuleger hold a copy of the band's then-hit 45, "Let Her Dance." Daily Breeze file photo.
In addition to showing films, it would occasionally host other events. One such instance came in 1965, when the Fox Theater presented a live rock 'n' roll concert featuring the Bobby Fuller Four. The El Paso group had relocated to Los Angeles, where it became popular in the city's clubs. Its Redondo appearance came on the heels of its first big local hit, "Let Her Dance." The group would later record an even bigger hit, "I Fought the Law." Fuller's career ended suddenly with his mysterious death on July 18, 1966. He was found dead in his car but how and why it happened still remains a mystery. He was 23. (Watch for Fuller expert Miriam Linna's definitive biography of the rocker, "I Fought the Law, The Life and Strange Death of Bobby Fuller 1942-1966," co-written with Fuller's brother Randy and due out in Summer 2012.)
Redevelopment eventually did claim the Fox. One of its economic problems was lack of parking. Though it was built to accommodate both films and vaudeville acts, it was not built to accommodate automobile parking, and it became economically unfeasible to add it after the fact. The theater was purchased by the Redondo Redevelopment Agency for $201,000 in 1972, which planned to tear it down for new development.
The Fox Theater screened its last film, "Woodstock," on Dec. 5, 1972. Daily Breeze file photo.
A group of students from El Camino College staged a mini-protest before the Redondo Beach City Council the night before the Fox Theater showed its final feature on Dec. 5, 1972, but to no avail.
The theater wanted to get "The Last Picture Show" as its final feature, but it was unavailable, so they settled for a showing of "Woodstock." Operating the curtain that night was J.E. (Jim) McGinnis, the same man who operated the projection booth on the theater's opening night in 1929 when it showed "The Ghost Talks."
The wrecking ball brings down the wall at the Fox Theater in Redondo Beach in this March 1973 file photo.
Demolition of the Fox Redondo began on Feb. 26, 1973. A hotel had been planned for the site when demolition was completed later that spring, but it never was built, and the site currently is a parking lot.
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
"The Fox Theater: This Gem of Our History was Part of Our Lives," By Kathy McLeod, Redondo Beach Historical Society website, http://www.redondobeachhistorical.org/fox.html.
Los Angeles Movie Palaces website, http://sites.google.com/site/losangelesmoviepalaces/redondo.
Torrance Herald files.
The original Torrance High School auditorium opened in 1924. Undated Daily Breeze file photo from Torrance Historical Society.
The new auditorium at Torrance High School was a great source of pride for the community when it opened in 1924. The relatively ornate structure was designed by Los Angeles architectural firm Farrell & Miller, and was one of the first structures in the city used as a public meeting place. (It predated the city's Civic Auditorium, which was not finished until 1937. )
To celebrate the occasion, a three-act comedy called "The Charm School" was presented at the dedication ceremonies for the auditorium, which were held on May 2 and May 3 of 1924.
A major addition to the high school came in 1929. The $90,000 project included a new science building and a cafeteria. In an unusual bit of planning, the full-size cafeteria was built underneath the auditorium. Excavations were made to enlarge the area, which previously housed dressing rooms.
When the 6.4 Long Beach earthquake hit on March 10, 1933, the relatively new Torrance High auditorium was one of the South Bay buildings that suffered collateral damage. In fact, the structural damage was so severe that the auditorium could no longer be used.
Plans to build a replacement began to be floated soon after the earthquake damage was assessed in 1933, but it would be several years before the new building became a reality. After lying dormant for 3 years, the old auditorium was demolished in 1936.
Because of the auditorium's closure and subsequent razing, Torrance High students were forced to hold events such as plays, proms and other dances and graduation ceremonies in the Civic Auditorium.
Though the new auditorium's Moderne architecture resembled many of the public structures built during the 1930s under the auspices of New Deal agencies such as the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration, it actually was built without the use of federal government funds.
At the time, Torrance's schools were part of the Los Angeles school district, whose $20 million bond issue that would have replaced the auditorium was defeated in 1934. (Torrance would break away and form its own school district in 1947.)
The district's building projects may have been slowed by the defeat, but it was determined to go ahead with the project using its own funds. Construction of the $80,000 structure began early in 1938. Its architect was Wesley Eager, who previously had designed the boys gymnasium at Torrance High, which still is in use today.
The completed building was dedicated on Dec. 23, 1938. A crowd of more than 700 enjoyed an early English Yuletide festival presented by Mrs. Marjorie Eischen Cooke, the first performance in the new facility. Student a capella and choral groups also performed, as did the student orchestra led by Mrs. Florence Haffner.
In 1948, "Home Life in Old Taos," the Federal Art Project mural by A. Katherine Skeele that had been in storage since the 1941 earthquake caused its removal from the school library was pulled out of storage and reinstalled in the auditorium. The depiction of Pueblo Indian life underwent a major cleaning and restoration in 2002, and hangs in the auditorium to this day.
The Torrance High School Auditorium is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.
On Oct. 13,1983, the auditorium became the fourth building at Torrance High to be named to the National Register of Historic Places. The others include the old Torrance School building (now known as the Annex), the Home Economics building, and the school's main diagonal building on Carson Street.
In the early 1990s, the Torrance
Unified School District used the money it was paid by producers to film
exteriors for the TV series "Beverly Hills 90210" to pay for
a remodeling of the auditorium, which had grown somewhat shabby over
the decades.
The original bas relief sculptures can still be seen atop the Torrance High School auditorium. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
Torrance Herald files.
The Broadway, at left, was the first major store at Del Amo Shopping Center, shown in this undated early 1960s Daily Breeze file photo. The empty lot north of it across Carson Street would become Del Amo Fashion Center. The intersection of Hawthorne and Sepulveda boulevards is visible at bottom right.
The saga of Del Amo Fashion Center, Torrance's massive mall complex, begins with the December 1957 groundbreaking for the $40 million Del Amo Shopping Center. The outdoor shopping area was built over the next few years on land owned by the Del Amo Estate Co. Its boundaries included Carson Street and Sepulveda Boulevard to the north and south, and Hawthorne Boulevard and Madrona Avenue to the west and east.
The Broadway became the center's first major department store when it opened in February 1959, followed by a large Sears store later that year, and J.C. Penney's in March 1961. Dozens of smaller stores were added to the mix, and the center became an immediate success.
Bullocks department store, which already had opened other Fashion Square developments in Southern California, took notice and began to develop Del Amo Fashion Square, a separate shopping center directly across Carson Street to the north of the Del Amo Shopping Center. Bullocks opened its store there in 1966. The center soon added an I. Magnin's and a Desmond's.
Del Amo Fashion Square's plans grew more ambitious with the start of construction in 1970 of an indoor, air-conditioned mall adjacent to the Bullocks complex. This $100 million section included anchor stores Ohrbach's and Montgomery Ward, and opened on Aug. 9, 1971.
This 1976 Daily Breeze file photo shows a sidewalk sale at Del Amo Center, which had yet to become enclosed.
Across the street, Del Amo Center, as it was now known, remained an open-air shopping complex until it was purchased in 1977 by The Torrance Company, which already owned Del Amo Fashion Square. The new owners began enclosing the older mall with an eye toward eventually linking the two complexes. In the early years of the two malls, rivalry and rancor existed, but by the late 1970s, the long-term plan to join the two finally began to gain traction, and "The Marriage of the Malls" started to look like it might become a reality.
On Sunday, Sept. 11, 1977, Del Amo Fashion Center and Del Amo Center held a wacky public relations event to announce the plans to join forces and become the largest shopping mall in the U.S. Two couples who won a contest sponsored by The Daily Breeze, Linda Clement and John C. Hoffman of Los Angeles, and Oshia A. Wilson and Brian Rork of Wilmington, walked down "the aisle" of Carson Street before hundreds of onlookers. They had 225 wedding attendants, one for each of the newly united mall's 225 stores. The couples were then married amid much promotional hoopla.
(By the way, should anyone from the two couples who got married during this event read this, we'd love to hear how things turned out.)
The two happy couples pose in front of The Magic Pan on the day of their September 1977 nuptials. Daily Breeze file photo.
The joining of the malls took somewhat longer than the marriage ceremonies. The plan was to build an enclosed pedestrian walkway over Carson Street that would connect Del Amo Fashion Square with a newly constructed Robinson's store at Del Amo Center just south of Carson.
This August 1979 aerial view shows preliminary construction in progress on the $20 joining of the malls across Carson Street, center, with Del Amo Center to the left of Carson and Del Amo Fashion Square at right. Below, an August 1980 view of the construction from ground level. Daily Breeze file photos.
Construction on the $20 million project began in 1978, and the united malls officially opened at an invitation-only gala held on Saturday, Nov. 20, 1981. The mall's central passageway now led shoppers over Carson Street and right through the middle of the Robinson's store with exits on either end. (Robinson's has been converted into Macy's, as has the original Bullocks store on the other side of the street. The mall's main passageway still passes through the middle of the store.) Makeovers on the mall's interior included the addition of a completely remodeled International Food Court.
The resulting mall did indeed become the largest enclosed shopping center in the U.S., a title Del Amo Fashion Center would retain for the next 11 years, until the opening of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., on Aug. 11, 1992.
Del Amo Fashion Center underwent another major expansion with the opening of its outdoor Lifestyle Wing in Fall 2006, which added movie theaters, a retro bowling alley, several restaurants and dozens of other stores.
Del Amo Fashion Center currently ranks 15th among malls in America by retail square footage, and second in California behind Costa Mesa's South Coast Plaza. The King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Penn., is now the nation's largest.
The passenger walkway across Carson Street that was built to connect the two malls in 1981. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
"Largest Shopping Malls in the United States," American Studies at Eastern Connecticut State University, April 25, 2009.
Traffic streams through the Sepulveda Tunnel under the south runway at LAX. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.
When a set of water pumps in the Sepulveda Tunnel under LAX malfunctioned during rainstorms in mid-November 2011, a lot of drivers learned how vital this transportation link can be. The tunnel flooded, leading to massive traffic jams in the area that lasted for hours. The pumps were repaired a few days later, shortly before the busy Thanksgiving travel period.
Sepulveda Boulevard didn't always run under LAX's south runway. For years, motorists on Sepulveda had to use a bypass road 1500 feet west of Sepulveda to detour around the airstrip.
Funded by a half-and-half combination of a 1945 airport bond issue and a special federal grant, construction on the estimated $3.5 million (unadjusted for inflation) tunnel project began in October 1949.
It was an impressive engineering feat. The structure had to be strong enough to withstand airplanes landing on the runway above it. Complex lighting, ventilation and drainage systems had to be built, and the tunnel needed its own power plant to operate them.
The Sepulveda Tunnel in 1953, shortly after its completion. Photo: Flight Path Learning Center and Museum, LAX.
At the time of its completion in March 1953, the six-lane, 1909-foot-long divided tunnel was the only traffic tunnel under a large airport runway in the United States.
The tunnel's grand opening was held on April 21, 1953. L.A. Mayor Fletcher Bowron cut the ribbon (presumably with one of those giant pairs of scissors), and the LAPD band provided entertainment during the ceremony.
After the first 100 cars traveled through the tunnel, their drivers received mementoes of the aviation industry from stewardesses (flight attendants) who were stationed at the intersections of Sepulveda with Imperial Highway and Century Boulevard.
Almost immediately, complaints about dangers stemming from the dim lighting in the tunnel became commonplace, but it took until 1965 for money to be approved to overhaul the lighting system.
Lighting in the tunnel has continued to be an issue. Plans to replace the current conventional lighting with LED lights that will not burn out as quickly are scheduled to be implemented by 2012.
The current lighting in the Sepulveda Tunnel is expected to be replaced by an LED lighting system in 2012. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
Los Angeles Times files, especially "Tunnel At Airport Nears Completion," by Charles Hillinger, Oct. 26, 1952, Page B1.
Mae Marsh, then known as Mrs. Louis Arms, looks through her old photos in her Hermosa Beach home in this July 1964 Daily Breeze file photo.
Then 15 years old, she appeared in a number of short films directed by film pioneers D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett. Her first featured role was Lillywhite in the 1912 Griffith film, "Man's Genesis."
"Birth of a Nation" cost a then-whopping $82,000 to make, and the three-hour film was one of the first films to be played from city to city on a "road show" basis. Despite the accusations of racism, the film was a huge success, even though tickets cost $2, an exorbitant price for the era.
The laying of the cornerstone at the partially built El Segundo High School administration building occurred on June 18, 1927. Photo: El Segundo Historical Committee of the Friends of the El Segundo Public Library.
For the first few years of El Segundo's existence - the city was incorporated in 1917 - high school students attended Inglewood High.
But the growing city, which began to thrive with the arrival of the Standard Oil (now Chevron) refinery in 1911, knew that it needed a first-class high school to serve its population.
The cornerstone for El Segundo High School was laid on June 18, 1927. Los Angeles architects Alfred W. Rea and Charles E. Garstang designed the building in a neo-Romanesque style meant to evoke the classic design of buildings at East Coast Ivy League schools.
A $500,000 bond measure to finance construction of the core campus buildings passed in December 1925. Construction of the school began in February 1927, and the dedication of the new campus was held on Dec. 13, 1927, with State Superintendent of Schools John Cooper giving the keynote speech at the ceremony. El Segundo High's first 124 students began classes at the new school on Jan. 3, 1928.
The motto above the main entrance to El Segundo High's administration building reads, "Enter to Learn -- Go Forth for Service." November 2011 Daily Breeze photo.
In addition to traditional high school educational requirements, El Segundo High also had a strong shop program. So much so, that female students petitioned for and were granted classes in millinery, dressmaking, and, in 1934, dance, to help make up the emphasis on male-oriented class offerings.
Because of a change in the state educational code allowing districts to be formed that included elementary as well as high schools, El Segundo became one of the first cities in California to form its own unified school district in 1936.
After renovations following the 1933 earthquake, the school's auditorium became an in-demand facility for all kinds of productions. South Bay History blog readers might remember it as one of the South Bay sites where the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theater Project presented the play "Help Yourself" in 1937.
In 1940, a new swimming pool was constructed. In 1973, it would be renamed the Urho Saari Swim Stadium after the Finnish swim coach who won many championships and coached U.S. Olympic teams during a decades-long successful career at the school.
El Segundo High has become one of the South Bay's most highly regarded public high schools, with a reputation for academic as well as athletic excellence. Baseball coach John Stevenson became a legend during the course of a 50-year career with the school, during which he worked with such future major leaguers as Orioles pitcher Scott MacGregor and Hall of Famer George Brett.
Because of its picturesque location and classic architecture, El Segundo High has been used extensively over the years as a film location. The list of films that used the location is extensive, from "A Yank at Eton" (1942) to "Blackboard Jungle" (1955) and "Rock 'n' Roll High School" (1979). The school recently got extensive exposure in "90210," the revival of the popular 1980s television series "Beverly Hills 90210."
The school's buildings are employed so often by Hollywood that restrictions on the number of days when filming could take place were imposed in 2009, though the ordinance was modified later to help make up for revenue losses caused by the restrictions.
The picturesque El Segundo High School campus has been a favorite location for films and television. November 2011 Daily Breeze photo.
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
El Segundo: Seventy-Five Years: A Pictorial History of El Segundo, California, by Eileen Curry Hunter, H2 Limited Publishers, 1991.
The El Ja Arms, "The Perfect Hotel," near the corner of Diamond Street and Pacific Avenue in 1924. Daily Breeze file photo. Note the Red Car coming down the middle of Diamond Street.
The El Ja Arms Hotel was the second hotel to be built in Redondo Beach, though it was nowhere near as large as the city's first, the Hotel Redondo. Located on the southeast corner of Diamond Street and Pacific Avenue, The El Ja Arms had 24 apartments and 20 sleeping rooms.
Built by Louis J. Baumbeck for $50,000, the three-story structure opened on July 4, 1915.
From the first, the El Ja Arms carved out a niche as a luxury destination. Its rooms overlooked the El Paseo area of seaside Redondo, with its pier, saltwater plunge and the Pavilion with its dance hall. The lobby of the El Ja had a Victorian elegance, with murals, mirrors and a large crystal chandelier that was still there in 1970.
The crystal chandelier still stands in the lobby of the El Ja Arms in this Jan. 8, 1970 Daily Breeze file photo.
The hotel also had a dance hall upstairs that was converted into suites in the early 1940s, as well as its own restaurant, The Sea Gull Inn, which had sailing motifs throughout. All this and an elevator, too!
The El Ja became a favorite among movie stars and celebrities. Its guests during its heyday included Charlie Chaplin, Ramon Navarro, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Roy Rogers and many others.
Baumbeck operated the hotel until his death in 1938, when it was inherited by Mrs. Barbara Fitzgerald and her husband, who operated it for the next three decades.
Its grandeur faded somewhat over the years, and in the late 1960s, it fell victim to the redevelopment of the area, in which Pacific Avenue and environs were bulldozed to make way for King Harbor and associated developments.
The exterior of the El Ja Arms in January 1970, shortly before it was demolished. Sign in window says, "Furniture for Sale." Daily Breeze file photo.
The Redondo Beach Redevelopment Agency gained title to the property in June 1969. The hotel was vacated by March 1970.
The El Ja Arms was torn down in May 1970 to make way for the Redondo Plaza Project, a $52 million project that included the massive The Village at Redondo Beach condominium complex, which stands on the site today.
Diamond Avenue now ends at Catalina Avenue. Eventually, Pacific Avenue, which also was the home of the Daily Breeze before its move to Torrance Boulevard in the 1960s, ceased to exist, and the seaside glamour of the El Ja Arms became just a memory.
Only one wall of the El Ja Arms still stands in this May 1970 Daily Breeze file photo taken during its demolition.
Sources:
Daily Breeze files, especially "Historic Hotel Era Nears End," by Jerry Reynolds, Jan. 19, 1970.
Sheriff's deputies Lt. Jack Norris, left, and Sgt. A.J. Sully examine the abandoned mine shafts on the Great Lakes Carbon Corp. site in Torrance in this May 1964 Daily Breeze photo.
In the early 1900s, the Dicalite Company began mining diatomaceous earth in the South Bay.
Diatoms are single-cell organisms that settle to the bottom of the ocean, which at one point covered much of the region. After millions of years of heat and compression, diatomaceous earth is formed. The pumice-like substance can be used for everything from water filters to toothpaste, pest control, insulation and even kitty litter.
Dicalite's operations included an area of the Palos Verdes Peninsula that was turned into an open-pit mine when Great Lakes Carbon Corp. bought Dicalite and the rights to the operation in 1944. After the Crenshaw Boulevard operation shut down, part of it became the South Coast Botanic Garden and another portion remains the still-undeveloped former Palos Verdes Landfill.
As a part of the Dicalite Company's earlier operations, a series of mine shafts and tunnels were built in Torrance. At the time, Madison Street dead-ended in undeveloped land just west of what would become the Lomita Flight Strip and, eventually, Torrance Municipal airport.
A tunnel extending at least a half-mile from that point towards Palos Verdes was dug in the early 1900s. It was wide enough to accommodate mule teams that would bring out the earth, and had several side shafts and a large side branch with room for storage and supplies.
Dicalite abandoned the mine in 1933, after a worker was killed there during the Long Beach earthquake.
The Dec. 11, 1941 Torrance Herald suggested the abandoned mine could have served as an ideal civil defense shelter during wartime with the addition of lighting, ventilation and toilet facilities, though this idea never was pursued.
A mine shaft descends into the earth at the Torrance abandoned mine site in the May 1964 Daily Breeze file photo.
Over the years, the abandoned shafts and tunnels became a favorite place for kids to explore.
After 1944, ownership of the part of the site went to Great Lakes Carbon when it acquired Dicalite, with the rest of the land belonging to Los Angeles County.
Attempts were made to close off the dangerous playplace, but the area proved irresistible to youthful explorers. When a 14-year-old doing some digging of his own was trapped in a cave-in inside the mine in the fall of 1963, efforts to close off the mine shafts became more serious.
The boy survived, but the incident "scared us to death," said W.R. Smittle, Great Lakes Carbon's chief chemist at the time.
County officials and the company debated methods to close off the shafts. The county wanted to pour cement in the holes, but Smittle had found that resourceful explorers could either break parts of the concrete off, or just dig around it. So concrete chunks were dropped into the holes, with cement poured on top of those and dirt packed in on top of that.
Kids loved exploring the abandoned Torrance mines near the Torrance Municipal Airport. Here, a ladder descends to the floor of the mine in this May 1964 Daily Breeze file photo.
The fill-in operation began on May 12, 1964. The company had to post guards to keep trespassers away while the cement had a chance to set. A guard remained at the property afterwards to discourage future interlopers.
The problem went away permanently when that section of Madison Street was extended to Pacific Coast Highway and the entire mine shaft area was removed for projects such as the Skypark Development Project in the 1970s. But the half-mile long tunnel was never filled in, as it would have taken an estimated one million yards of earth to do so.
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
Torrance Herald files.
About this blog
Sam Gnerre has been digging through South Bay historical information for more than two decades as the archivist for the Daily Breeze. During that time, he has researched South Bay history stories for publication, compiled dozens of "Ten Lists" and written the paper's weekly news quiz. He thinks that what's there now often can be much less interesting than what used to be there, and that trying to find out those details is part of what can make the South Bay's history so elusive.
You can e-mail Sam at sam.gnerre@dailybreeze.com.
