Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1950s
Santa Monica Pier on the Skids (1941-1974)
"Spade Cooley "King of Western Swing" and his country-western dance band, which performed in the La Monica Ballroom on weekend evenings, had grown to enormous popularity. KTLA, Channel 5, began broadcasting the band in 1948 on Saturday night at 8 p.m. and by 1950 the show was the second most popular Los Angeles television program."p. 111
". . . His theme song was Shame, Shame on You. Spade's television guests included Tex Owens, Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Rodgers, Tex Williams, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Lane, Count Basie, Desi Arnez, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis and Jo Stafford.
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" . . . additional attractions were . . . . indefinitely postponed because of a Korean War imposed amusement building ban.
"The Department of Recreation in the fall launched a two phase program for harbor improvement . . . .
"The city . . . even considered transferring its lifeguard service to Los Angeles County control. It seemed the right thing to do since title to its beaches was transferred to the state in Fall 1949, but the City Council voted against 4-3 on July 26, 1950. The seventeen man full time lifeguard corps, which was founded in 1932 and remained under the control of the police department, was put under direct control of the City Council." p. 113
"But by January 4, 1951, the policies of Supervisor Frank Holborrow created a serious morale problem. He had set up an internal spy system. Captain George Watkins was asked to return to full command of the lifeguards to head off a threatened lifeguard 'revolt.' Three weeks later the city [asked] for the ouster of Holborrow, threatened to shift them to county control.
"Sane heads prevailed and instead a complete reorganization of lifeguard duties was effected. In addition to their guard duty, members of the corps were assigned equipment maintenance tasks and were required to teach classes on surf safety. Actually that was nothing new since they always assisted the Department of Recreation and the Red Cross in their summer water safety classes. Those nine week, weekday morning classes taught over 400 people aged 5-55 each summer how to swim and to protect themselves and others from water hazards.
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"An unusual attraction opened on the pier in March 1953 when Henry and Mary Freedman leased the former penny arcade building for the summer season. Henry Freedman, who looked like a balding, bespectacled college professor, had recently returned from the Amazon River in South America where he caught electric eels and piranha fish. Their tropical Fish Show and Electric Eel Aquarium featured six electric eels, one nearly five feet in length, displayed in large tanks.
"Henry would invite the audience to hold hands in a broken circle and would give the two participants on each end the wires from the end of two electric terminals. Then, using a pair of protective gloves, he would remove one of the larger eels from the tank, place it on a table and touch the two terminals against the creature. The audience often gasped as they received a shock when the current passed through them. Henry, to satisfy those in the crowd, who were still skeptical, then used the eel's current to light an electric bulb held overhead. . . ." p. 114
"The conclusion of the Korean War on July 27, 1953 . . .
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"O.J. Bennett, operator of the Sea Food Grotto, . . . Nov. 24, 1953. . .
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" . . . on June 15, 1954 the City Council by a vote of 4-3 chose the Civic Center site [for a new Civic Auditorium.] . . .
" . . . Walter Newcomb died . . . in Paris of a heart attack on June 12, 1954, . . . 63 years old. His widow, Mrs. Enid Newcomb, continued to run the pier, and her daughters Elizabeth and Betty helped her with the gift shop.
"That summer was Spade Cooley's last year at the La Monica Ballroom. With his popularity waning, he moved to Ocean Park's Casino Gardens for his last year on television. After several years of inactivity in Southern California he achieved notoriety in 1961 when he went on trial for the brutal torture killing of his 37 year old wife in the presence of his daughter. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at Chino prison a "Two teenagers identified a tall, bushy haired, toothless man with arms of a blacksmith as the man seen with the local lad shortly before the murder. When police found Stephen Nash, a thirty-three year old drifter and pervert, shortly afterwards, they discovered the blood soaked hunting knife on the man. He confessed to the sadistic knife slaying. and ten other murders in Long Beach and Sacramento.
"When he was taken back to the scene of the crime the next day, nearly one hundred menacing people gathered and would have lynched him on the spot. Nash said that he talked to the boy for five minutes, then pulled a knife. When the boy screamed he stabbed him in the stomach, then again and again. Nash was convicted and was executed in the gas chamber in 1959. The city, in an effort to prevent similar incidents, fenced off the area under the pier.
"Welton Becket & Associates completed the master plan for Santa Monica's beach improvements in March 1957. The $724,000 project included parking for 2002 cars between the two piers, demolition of Pound's Bathhouse, and the relocation of Muscle Beach between Bay and Bicknell Streets. When the weightlifters objected and the Recreation Commission sided with them, city officials decided to let the weight lifting platforms remain near the pier.
"Workers on October 7th began demolishing the old pier harbor office that was built in 1938. They began building . . . a new eight hundred square foot building at the end of the pier that would house the harbor and harbor master's offices, sleeping quarters, and a garage. The lifeguard headquarters were placed directly beneath the new building on the lower deck. About a month later the Santa Monica Recreation Commission approved construction plans for a new lifeguard headquarters just off Seaside Terrace, south of the pier.
" . . . " p. 123
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"The City Council . . . retained George F. Nicholson, a marine engineer to prepare a harbor survey . . .
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"Mrs. Enid Newcomb Winslow in the Fall of 1958 decided to form a corporation called Bay Amusement Company to manage the pier . . ." p. 125
" . . . She had recently remarried Charles Winslow. Her new husband helped her manage the company and run her gift shop, the skating rink in the La Monica Ballroom, and the parking lot. She consolidated her operations that year and sold the Philadelphia Toboggan Company carousel to George Gordon . . .
"The Gordon brothers had already expanded their operations the previous year by opening a second Playland Arcade in the old Billiard's building next to the carousel. The new arcade offered archery in addition to the usual variety of amusement devices.
"A scandal broke at Muscle Beach on December 10, 1958 when four muscle men were charged with statutory rape and having a sex orgy with two runaway Negro girls, aged twelve and fourteen. Three of the men, William G. Siddall, George C. Sheffield, and David J. Sheppard, former 1956 weight lifting champion, all lived together at an apartment on Appian Way. The fourth man, John J. Carper, was also charged with additional crimes. A warrant was also issued for a fifth man, but charges were dropped when the girls failed to implicate him.
"City Manager Randall Dorton closed Muscle Beach the following day pending a hearing and a decision at the next City Council meeting. Councilwoman Alys Drobnick, who was always one of the area's detractors, said, "I don't think Muscle Beach is a proper recreational facility. I've been saying this for the last five years. It attracts a bad element to the area. If the musclemen want a weight lifting club its up to them to provide their own facilities." Then she added, "the Muscle Beach crowd has been bragging about how much publicity they have brought the city. I wonder how they are enjoying the publicity now." Other Council members like Frantz and Mills felt that the area needed more control by the recreation department, and it should be given more attention by the police.
"A crowd of more than one hundred attended the two hour hearing on December 16th in the Council Chambers. Police Chief Otto Faulkner testified that Santa Monica has a "terrific sex deviate problem" and many are attracted to the city by Muscle Beach. He quoted statistics that arrests of pervert suspects each year were between 175-200. He concluded by saying, "I firmly believe that Muscle Beach is not an activity the city should provide. I also don't feel the city should provide a place for exhibitionists to show off.""p.126
"One emotionally distraught mother said that Muscle Beach had corrupted her son and that other mothers were afraid to speak out. One letter read at the meeting asked the Council to take into consideration all the thousands of people who had benefitted from Muscle Beach. "Don't close it - Think more of supervision," it implored.
"Despite the fact that the courts eventually dismissed the four statutory rape cases for lack of evidence, the City Council indicated that it wouldn't allow Muscle Beach to reopen until it was rebuilt as part of the new Beach Park #4. The city's concern was not the cost of a new weight lifting platform but the long term expense of full time supervision . . . that would be required to keep the park safe. Even the decision to install . . . adult gymnastic equipment (rings, bars, and vaulting horses) in addition to children's swings and slides was controversial. Mayor Ben Bernard and Councilwoman Alys Drobnick said that they believed the installation of the adult gym equipment in effect restored Muscle Beach without the weight lifting platform. But the new park opened in August and one lifeguard put it, "the creeps stayed away."
"Winter and spring storms during 1959 wrecked havoc in what remained of the city's harbor. The January 5, 1959 storm was the worst in eleven years. . . waves thirty feet high. The harbor master, Pat Lister, narrowly missed being tossed into the . . . waters . . . in a 70 mph wind gust . . . De Luca's Fish Market flooded . . .
" . . . Robert L. Marples was appointed acting chief. . ."
" . . ." p. 127