Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1920s
9. The Exuberant Twenties
" . . .
"A group of business men under the leadership of Harry Chandler formed the All Year Club in 1921 to attract a new and potentially rich crop of winter tourists to Southern California . . . Los Angeles itself annexed large chunks of territory to become a paragon of urban growth, its population increasing from 576,673 in 1920 to 1,238,048 in 1930.
" . . ."
10. Growth and Expansion
"The boom of the twenties fragmented Los Angeles into a cluster of suburbs and kindled Frank Garbutt's dream of a chain oof affliated sports facilities throughout the Southland. He envisioned yacht clubs and beach clubs along the Pacific shore, at least one golf course and country home, a gun club, and satellite town clubs, plus courtesy privilieges at independent clubs . . .
"One tempting opportunity followed another as clubs sprang up all over Southern California, publicized by tantalizing ads and brochures. Many were organized by promoters who sold life memberships and built lavish facilities. They maneuvered . . . local business leaders into executive positions, then disappeared with the cash . . . making such financially distressed properties available on attractive terms.
" . . .
"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 . . .
"Although LAAC bigwigs Garland, Garbutt, Chandler, and Hall were all Uplifter members and attended some of the social functions, they took no active part in the organization. It was Harry Haldeman who reigned supreme as the "Grand Muscle" of the Social Club from its inception in 1913 until 1925 and as president of the Uplifters Country Home Corporation until 1921 to 1927. . .
"In 1930, Harry Haldeman died . . .
"In 1923 (while the purchase of Santa Cruz Island was being considered), Uplifter Joe Musgrove suggested [the Riviera tract] 640 acres to be purchased from Alphonzo Bell who had acquired extensive westside holdings from Robert C. Gillis and Arthur H. Fleming of the Santa Monica Montain Park Company. In 1925 LAAC loaned the Riviera Corporation the funds to subdivide the property and donate the Country Club to LAAC.
" . . . [For the Country Club] A fifth design by J. Bernard Richards of Santa Monica was ultimately chosen . . .
"In 1925, the builders of the Olympic Auditorium defaulted and the property reverted to the LAAC . . .
". . . In 1924 negotiations with Alphonzo Bell for 7,000 feet of ocean frontage just beyond Santa Monica Canyon were abandoned when a parcel further west became available, includig over a mile of beach at the mouth of "Topango" Canyon and 1,800 acres of mountainous interior . . .
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"Several Santa Monica beach clubs also found themselves in difficulty and sought help. Requests from the Gables and Edgewater clubs were denied, but in July, 1929, the five-year-old Santa Monica Athletic Club was taken over. It had 150-foot beach frontage valued at $150,000 [and] an additional 140 feet on temporary lease, and a building worth $100,000, against an indebtedness of $80,000. With LAAC backing SMAC president Robert Curry and architect J.B. Richards began immediate work . . .
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