Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987, 176 pp., 1958, 1957, 1951, 1949, 1941
Chapter 7: Dismantling of Venice (1946-1972)
" . . . the Ocean Park Pier entered a period of renovation just after World War II and kept the area's amusement park tradition alive. First they installed a double ferris wheel near the end of the pier. Edmund Marine's huge Strat-o-liner ride was also nearing completion. He and chief designer Bob Goldworthy had started working on it in 1941 but the war had interrupted their endeavor. When its four large sleek cars were finally attached to the tower's long swivel arms in 1946, pier people predicted the cars would fly off and land in the ocean.
"The Chute the Chutes closed permanently in late summer after an accident claimed the life of a little boy. He stood up and fell out of the boat as it slid down the ramp. Four years later Harry Cooper's Kiddy Town opened at the bottom of the ramp where the pool stood. This enclosed area had a miniature roller coaster, an airplane ride and several small kiddie car rides.
"But even these changes did little to increase business or the waning popularity of the old-fashioned amusement pier. Teenagers and young adults with families were indoors watching television or driving their cars to outdoor movie theaters for entertainment. Also, the closing of the bingo games in 1949 deprived the pier, especially the Lick Pier side, of much of its income. Pacific Electric's decision to shut down 'red car' service to the Venice/ Ocean Park area on September 15, 1970{?} didn't help either.
"By 1951 Lick Pier's Aragon Ballroom had fallen on hard times. The most recent orchestra to play there only drew eight couples, and KTLA television dropped its weekly telecasts. Its manager, Gordon 'Pops' Sadrup, in one last effort to salvage his declining dance business, hired band leader Lawrence Welk to perform a miracle. Welk's brand of light popular danceable music had drawn crowds at the Aragon back in 1946 despite the competition of Tommy Dorsey at the nearby Casino Gardens.
"Welk played at the Aragon and KTLA was persuaded to resume the telecasts. His first televised show on May 2, 1951 drew numerous viewers despite the late midnight hour. Before long the Dodge dealers of Southern California became sponsors, and Welk's 'Champagne music', live from the Aragon Ballroom, became a popular national television show.
"The Venice area continued to deteriorate physically throughout the fifties. Pawnshops and liquor stores replaced the souvenir shops and bingo parlors. Tourist were replaced by derelicts, drug addicts and motorcycle gangs, and winos passed out laid beneath the sheltered colonnaded archways on Windward Avenue. Property values. far from rising, dropped dramatically.
"On June 23, 1957, the Urban Renewal Agency in Los Angeles announced that a portion of the city's $100 million in federally allocated funds would be available for redevelopment in the Venice area. . . . The majority of Venice's property owners were against relinquishing title to their property. . . . In March, 1958, they voted against it . . .
"In the late fifties a new group of people began to settle in the Venice area. They adopted a new lifestyle that rejected the bland contemporary values of work and success in favor of a Bohemian life centered on poetry, jazz and art. Jack Kerouac's novel called them the 'Beat Generation'.
"The Beats were lured by Venice's low rent, mid climate and toleration of their lifestyle. They included painters like John Altoon, Ben Talbert, Tony Landreau, George Herms {and Wallace Berman} and Fowad Magdalani - 'the mad artist of Venice West' who experimented with the limits of abstraction and new forms of assemblage works. . . . The poets included Stuart Perkoff, Frank Rios,Tony Scibella, Lawrence Lipton and James Ryan Morris. They wrote about disenchantment and nuclear overkill. Others included folksinger Julie Meredith, light show impresario Jimmy Alonzi and sculptor Tati.
" . . .
"Lawrence Lipton chronicled the coffee houses, personal searches, artists, poets and others of 'Venice West' in his book 'The Holy Barbarians'. He called Venice the 'slum-by-the sea'. . . ." p.142
[p.143 photo of OP Pier concession Felix the Cat.]
[p.144 photo of the OP Pier Midway, 1950]
{p. 145 photos of the Skooter ride and the Looff carousel on the OP Pier, 1952]