Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176 pp., 1890s
4. Riding High: The Stowell Block
"The 1890s ushered in the era of the "boosters," a remarkable set of business giants who turned Los Angeles from a bustling town into a thriving metropolis and converted Southern California into an agricultural and industrial empire. They accumulated huge personal fortunes, were active in civic life, and, almost to a man, were devoted members of the LAAC.
"Their heyday began after the decline of the land boom of the eighties when the railroads abandoned their promotional role in attracting tourists and settlers to the Southland. At the instigation of Colonel Harrison Gray Otis, the gap was filled in 1888 by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. The newly formed group assembled exhibits, sponsored lectures, subsidized writers and photographers, published books and pamphlets and produced a "California on Wheels" train to bring the sun-kissed message to every city in the Midwest.
" . . . Among those in the top echelon were Colonel Otis and Harry Chandler of the Times publishing empire; railroad tycoons Eli Clark, Moses Sherman, and Henry Huntington; oil men Edward L. Doheny and Charles Canfield; Senator Stephen White . . . and Mayor Fred Eaton, father of the Owens River Aqueduct-all LAAC members." p. 33
" . . . (1893) . . . It was estimated that there were more bicycles in Los Angeles than in any other city in America . . .
"The most famous of the early cycling contests was the Annual Santa Monica Road Race, sponsored by the Los Angeles Wheelmen, who were now affiliated with the LAAC. The first race was held on July 4, 1891, on a course that began in front of the Club and ran by way of Pico Boulevard to the Hotel Arcadia in Santa Monica-a distance of seventeen miles. A gold medal with the Club insignia and other trophies were donated by the Tufts-Lyons Arms Company . . .
" . . .
"When [the bicylists started] the judges dashed for the train. The cyclists reached Santa Monica first, led by W.A. Tufts in 1:15:14 . . . Miss Marguerite Lloyd . . . was unofficially timed for 16 miles at 2:06. The following year (1892), thirty cyclists competed over an 18 1/2 mile course, while the spectators sped to Santa Monica on two rival rail lines in time to see H.B. Cromwell of the LAAC [win.]
"By 1894, the number of entries had increased to 218 . . . Passengers filled twenty-six special trains, and vehicles of every description made the trip, including a railroad handcart . . . Emil Ulbrecht set a record of 57:07 and outclassed the field again in 1895.
" . . .
"Amateur competition in cycling suffered with the subsequent rise of the professional sport. Much of the early enthusiasm drained away when such favorites as Burke, Ulbrecht, and McCrea joined the pros, and the first professional races were uneven in quality and poorly attended.
" . . . cross-country walking began to attract its share of followers. The Tramper's Annex was formed in 1894 . . .
"A favorite junket . . . was the weekend trip to Wilson's Peak (Mt. Wilson, preferably by moonlight . . .
"In 1894 the Great Sandow appeared for two nights at the Los Angeles Theatre under the management of Flo Ziegfield. His feats of strength, however, were overshadowed by the Trocadero Vaudeville Company, who appeared on the same bill and presented a whistler, lady songsters, a juggler, and Elsie Arden in her great skirt dance . . .
". . . the first Fiesta de las Flores, held in April, 1894 . . . in 1895 L.E. Behymer was enlisted to sell tickets, launching the famous impresario's . . . career.
". . . 1896 Fiesta Week vaudeville show . . . included the Venetian Lady Mandolin Orchestra, banjo and guitar groups, and a minstrel show with turns by the members." p. 39
5. Disaster in the Wings: The Wilson Block
". . . on Spring Street . . . the building included a "wheel room". . . a hundred bicycles . . .
" . . . Before the end of 1897 . . . private athletic clubs were going bankrupt due [in part] to competition from the moderately priced YMCA movement . . .
"In cycling, the old-style professional races were still held at Agricultural Park, but the war between the factions [League of American Wheelmen and the California Association of Cycling Clubs] and indifferent performance . . . Amateur competitions now preferred endurance runs, while scores of pleasure riders took off on Sunday excursions into the countryside or attempted long-distance treks . . .
"Agricultural Park burgeoned into a major racing and amusement center offering saloons and gambling, trotting races, and Sunday coursing (the pursuit of live rabbits by dogs) to supplement cycling and the winter thoroughbred racing season. Sharpshooting and gun clubs grew in popularity, while the most fashionable sports for both men and women were golf and tennis.
" . . . Los Angeles Country Club . . . 1897
"Tennis was already well-established. According to LAAC member Boyle Workman, the first court in the city was built on the grounds of the Childs mansion, and the first Southern California Lawn Tennis Association tournament was held in Santa Monica on the Casino courts in 1885. . . .
" . . . the Spanish-American War was declared in April 1898 . . . patriotic fervor caused the cancellation of Fiesta Week and the Fourth of July parade, but the Santa Monica Road Race was run as usual . . .
[Photo page 44: The Santa Monica Cycle Path, proceeding west from Third Avenue and Washington Street in the late 1890s.]
"By the end of the century there were 30,000 cycles in Los Angeles, creating a need for more adequate paths and roads. The LAAC Wheelmen and other organizations helped finance the Santa Monica Cycleway in 1899 by selling lapel buttons . . ."