Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990. 1953
Chapter 5: Santa Monica Pier on the Skids (1941-1974)
"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 . . ."