Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176 pp., 1910s
7. Seventh and Olive
" . . . the new building opened from June 13 through 15, 1912 . . . Twenty-five thouse people attended the opening . . . met by Garland, Garbutt, Kenny, Harry Haldeman and others . . . Arendt's orchestra played . . . Harry Marston Haldeman-a gentleman of rare warmth and burly charm . . . joined in 1911 . . . appointed chair of the new Good Fellowship committee . . . given the disciplining of a member for being drunk and boistrous, Haldeman along with L. Frank Baum formed the "Uplifters" a club within the LAAC. . . . (1914) . . .
8. Spotlight on Sports
" . . .
"The LAAC began developing its own top-flight competitors in 1913 when they engaged the celebrated George Freeth as swimming instuctor. Born and raised in Hawaii, he was discovered in 1907 by Henry Huntington who brought him to Redondo Beach as the ideal attraction for his new Moorish-stype plunge and pavilion. Freeth revived the old Hawaiian custom of riding the waves stand up, using a shorter version of the heavy wooden surfboard. Throngs arrived on the Big Red Cars to watch him perform this magical feat twice a day, followed by an exhibition of fancy diving in the pool.
"Freeth was full of new ideas. He started swimming classes, developed the trudgeon stroke, organized water polo and water basketball teams. As the area's first official lifeguard, he assembled the first volunteer lifesaving corps in Southern California and developed the familiar cigar-shaped metal rescue kit which he mounted on a motorcycle sidecar.
"After leaving Redondo, Freeth taught at Venice, and by the time he reached the LAAC he had attracted an enthusiatic retinue of pupils. He taught spear-fishing and surfboard-riding, introduced the Australian crawl, . . .
"Duke [Kahanamoku] . . . recalled that Freeth had been awarded national honors for saving several Japanese fishermen from a capsized boat near Malibu. To express their appreciation, they named their fishing colony "Freeth Village" in his honor.
"Freeth moved to San Diego in 1915 . . . [He died in the 'flu epidemic of 1918.]
"Interest in motoring also remained high. George Retzer expanded the scope of his monthly hiking expeditions to include auto trips to such remote spots as Lake Tahoe and Yosemite . . . For the speedsters, road races to Santa Monica were inaugurated in 1910 . . . Oldfield wa a frequent contestant after his suspension was lifted in 1912 . . .
" . . .
" . . . Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, who was an Uplifter and active LAAC member, proposed dancing as the best exercise to develop strong and virile young men."
" . . . (World War I) . . . The Retzer brothers were in motor transport, and Ted Shawn had his portrait painted in his soldier's uniform. . . ."
" . . . 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 competions 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 . . .
"On January 5, 1901, the old Club officially died . . .
6 " . . .
"In June 1916, arrangements were made with J.J. Jenkins of the Brentwood Country Club. . . . 300-acre site . . .with a small but cozy clubhouse on San Vicente Boulevard . . .
"In 1920 the Uplifters, . . . found their own bucolic hideaway in Rustic Canyon, midway between Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades . . The original clubhouse burned down in 1922 and was replaced with a Spanish-style. .