Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987, 176 pp., 1924, 1923, 1922, 1920
Chapter 4: Setbacks, Rebuilding, & Political Confusion (1920-1924)
[p. 72 postcard of Lick's Dome Pier, 1922; Frolic ride on the Pickering Pier, 1920]
[p.73 photo of Dentzel Carousel on the Pickering Pier in Ocean Park, 1920]
". . . Ocean Park Pier owner, Fredrick Pickering, and amusement ride designers Fred Church and Frank Prior, who took over after his father's death . . . [razed] the old 'Rapids' ride to make space for a new roller coaster designed by John A. Miller . . . the 70 foot high 'Big Dipper' featured dips on the curves as well as the straight-aways . . . opened May 8th, 1920 . . .
"Leonard Crandell was busy razing his Scenic Railroad and planned to move it to Ocean Park. The 1500 seat California Theater was to be built on the former coaster site. New attractions near the end of the pier included the Bug House, an illusion ride where one sat in a swinging chair that appeared to swing higher and higher. In reality the walls rocked back and forth, higher and higher, until the room turned upside down around the nearly stationary customers. With the nearby Pig Slide the player had to throw a ball through a circular hole to start the animal performers. The little pigs that were released from their pens slid down an incline and were then herded back to their pens by a trained fox terrier. In addition, a Noah's Ark attraction depicting the biblical story opened near the pier entrance.
"Construction began in March on the expansion of Ocean Park's Pickering Pier and the addition of five exciting new rides. Pickering . . . was doubling the size of his pier to 400,000 square feet. It would be the largest pier in the world . . .
"Crandell decided to design and build a brand new racing roller coaster on the old Ben Hur site instead of reconstructing his outdated scenic railroad. His new Blarney Racer wasn't a very fast ride . . . It shared the site with a Ye Old Red Mill ride whose course ran under the arches of the racing coaster . . . On the far end of the site was a rather unique attraction, the Monkey Speedway Auto Races. It was a game in which monkeys would peddle miniature autos along three tracks and people could bet on the winner of each race." (pp. 73 and 76.)
"Pickering rebuilt and enlarged the pier's dance hall and placed new rides around it. The Captive Aeroplane and Tango rides were built directly opposite the Crackerbox Dance Hall. Over the Top, a big hit at Luna Park in Coney Island, was installed by Henry Riehl in the area west of the dance hall. It was a cross between a Virginal Reel and a small spiral coaster. The rotating saucer shaped cars, traveling up, over, and down the 30 degree slope, steadily spiraled inward until they exited through a tunnel to the outer loop's station.
"The 'Frolic' ride was placed directly across from the "Ye Old Red Mill." Twenty four people rode chariots that whirled around a circle 200 feet in circumference. The chariots tipped forward and backwards at a 45 degree angle, and swayed outward with centrifugal force.
"William Dentzel's beautiful 72 animal 'Carousel' occupied an 80 foot square building between the Frolic and the new Rosemary Theater. This Philadelphia-made ride along with its mechanical organ cost $22,500. Other attractions making their debut that season were Over the Rockies, a ride in a tub in and out of dark tunnels., The Bug House, a shooting gallery, and the 'Kentucky Derby' game.
"Ocean Park residents were proud of their new pier, and realized that they needed a convention center to accommodate thousands of visiting delegates. They approved $375,000 in bonds in the May election to build a new auditorium, bandstand, and auto park on the north side of the Pickering Pier. The bandstand plaza in front of the auditorium could entertain 10,000 people, and the auto park set on pilings behind the building could accommodate 500 autos.
"Two hundred men worked diligently to finish the pier, buildings and attractions in time for the June 18, 1920 grand opening. It was a weekend of celebration in which all the rides operated at capacity throughout the day until midnight, and the dance hall was full of happy couples. Twenty five thousand people came on Saturday; 60,000 people on Sunday. Their fun filled day was capped with a 30 minute fireworks display each evening.
"Stockholders were certainly pleased with business that summer. Pickering declared and paid one percent dividends on a monthly basis. In August he hired Barr's Illuminated Aerial Circus to entertain nightly. The plane had lights outlining it as it did tricks. Seventy five thousand people watched the show the first night." p. 76]
[page 74 schematic of the Pickering/Lick Piers 1923]
[p. 75 photos of 1920 Blarney Racer roller coaster at the Pickering Pier and an aerial view of the 1920 Pickering Pier in Ocean Park.]
"Ocean Park got a big boost in September when Charles Lick, Austin McFadden and George Leihy invested $250,000 in the construction of a new pier behind the Dome Dance Pavilion. The proposed Lick Pier at the foot of Navy Street adjoining the south side of the Pickering Pier was almost entirely within Venice's boundary.
"The 800 foot long, 225 foot wide pier was to have a roller coaster, dance hall, 40 car Dodge 'em, Caterpillar, Captive aeroplanes and Limit rides. McFadden, who was in charge of construction, hired John A. Miller to design his roller coaster. Plans were for the longest and steepest pier roller coaster in the Bay area. Each of its dips would be double instead of single; down 75 feet, up 60 feet, down 58 feet. They called the 600 foot long coaster the 'Zip' when it opened in time for Easter in 1922.
"Lick's new 22,000 square foot Bon Ton Ballroom featured an oval-shaped dance floor for better acoustics. The hall was large enough to be split into two separate ballrooms with different orchestras. Major Baisden's twelve piece orchestra was the first to entertain dancers when it opened. The old Dome Dance Hall was converted into a theater, and a Casino was under construction across from it on Ocean Front Walk just north of Navy Street. It too would have a dance hall and shops, with billiards and bowling in the basement.
"Pickering made only a few changes to his pier that spring. He added the Double Whirl, Dodge 'em, and the Witching Waves rides to round out the amusements . . . People rode a boat shaped car around an oval track, propelled by the down grade of a moving mechanical wave. Bell cranks and huge connecting rods imparted the wave motion to the ride's flexible metal flooring.
"The Double Whirl had cars set on a figure eight track with a slight incline where the two circular sections crossed. The cars were pushed by radial arms, rotating around the two fixed hubs. When the cars approached each other at the top and collision appeared inevitable, each car would glide into the other circle." p. 83
". . . As the Windward business district proved to be too small to accommodate the city's rapid growth, other business centers developed including the Ocean Park Pier business district centering around Marine Street, the area next to city hall where Shell Avenue met the Short Line Track and on an area near the Center Street Pier. The existence of these centers and the lack of any central hub created political factionalism that weakened and often paralyzed Venice's municipal government." p. 86
"There were other problems such as an undependable supply of fresh water delivered by three water companies, a city owned incinerator whose volume of garbage had outgrown capacity and an inadequate municipally owned sewer system that had been designed in 1912 for 3000 people. The sewer system was so badly overloaded that at times the State Board of Health quarantined much of the ocean and beach on both sides of the outfall at the Center Street Pier. A new treatment plant had been designed, but voters did not approve the sale of bonds in the April 11, 1922 election." p. 86
[p. 87 picture looking north from Venice Plunge tower, 1922 toward O.P. Piers]
[p. 88 Picture of the Ocean Park Bathhouse and beach, 1924; people seem to be watching people entering the bathhouse.]
[p. 89 Picture showing Lick Pier and the Bon Ton Ballroom and Zip roller coaster, 1922.]
February 20, 1923 new charter and bond measures defeated in election.
July 10, 1923 annexation to Los Angeles vote defeated, 1849 to 1503.
Gambling, Bingo and Prohibition
"Overt gambling had always been an integral part of Venice's fun zone. Razzle dazzle and layout games, where spinning wheels determined the prize winners, proliferated along the boardwalks and piers. Sometimes the games were rigged as fireman discovered after the 1915 Ocean Park Pier fire. When they were cleaning up, they pulled down some of the Japanese gambling games wheels and found intricate electrical wiring on the under side of the spindles. These games' legality were also questionable. Arrests were made periodically by crusading district attorneys and local police.
"Larger scale gambling was also de-rigueur. Whether the gaming took place in private dining rooms at the Ship Cafe or in small casinos in the basements of various hotels and restaurants, if one were looking for a place to lose money it was easily found.
"In September 1923 the police raided a gambling club that occupied the quarters of the Submarine Garden, once a high class cafe beneath the old Dome Pier. They found a maze of tunnels connecting a labyrinth of gambling rooms, cards and $150 on the tables, then arrested fifteen alleged gamblers.
"The place was very difficult to raid. It looked like a pool room, but the back of the room led to a long tunnel with branches leading every which way. Exotic futuristic paintings, water stained and covered with cobwebs decorated the walls, and secret doors opened behind angles in the tunnel. Sand, covering the tunnel floor concealed secret buttons which operated a system of buzzers and colored lights in the main rooms of the labyrinth. The system of tunnels was so involved that it took two hours to find the fifteen arrested, and at least that many more were believed to have escaped. As soon as Charles Lick found out about it, he closed the club.
"During the years that Prohibition was in effect, (1920-1933) Canadian liquor was smuggled into Venice from off-shore rumrunners by high-powered motorboats that docked beneath the pier in the dead of night. Mobster Tony Cornero ran the operation. Kinney's underground utility tunnels along the alleys on either side of Windward Avenue proved handy to the smugglers who delivered to "speakeasy" bars in the basements of the business district. There were a few newspaper accounts of police engaging in shoot-outs with rumrunners along the beach near the Ocean Park Pier.
"It was an open secret that there were "speakeasy" in the basements of the Antler Hotel on the lagoon and beneath Menotti's Grocery store and other businesses on Windward. A man lift in the back alley behind the store carried those that gave the right password from the hide-away street level door to the sinful caverns below. Considering the amount of police corruption in those days, it isn't surprising that there were rarely any raids and arrests at these places. "Dry agents," however, did crack down and raid various houses in the area, especially along the sparsely populated Venice peninsula, where they confiscated huge caches of liquor." p. 90
[Page 91 picture of Ocean Front Walk at the Pickering/Lick Piers; 1923]
"Another disastrous fire occurred in early 1924. This time both the Pickering and Lick piers in Ocean Park were totally consumed in an early morning blaze on January 6th. The fire was believed to have stared at 9:30 a.m. in the Ritz Cafe kitchen, but it didn't explain how the fire spread so rapidly. Some thought that rubbish was set ablaze beneath the pier near the restaurant.
"When the firemen first arrived it seemed like the Municipal Auditorium was doomed. Fire trucks laid hoses but before the water could be turned on, flames burst up from underneath and the entire walk was ablaze and the hoses burned. Another fire truck broke and the water stopped.
"The wind blowing offshore toward the southwest rose to its height and all of Ocean Park was threatened. Rumors that they were going to dynamite scattered the the huge crowd who lined up on every street to watch,. They became panic stricken. Many on the concessionaires who became trapped on the pier dove into the cold water.
"Ten fire companies fought the blaze. The shift of the wind by several points at 11 a.m. had firemen worried. Had it blown parallel to the beach, it would have devastated the entire business district. Luckily the Dome Theater's concrete structure at the northeast corner of the pier contained the fire and prevented it from leaping across Ocean Front Walk. By 11:45 a.m. firemen had the fire under control, and not one building east of Ocean Front Walk had burned.
"The losses were enormous, $2,000,000, with only $100,000 of the loss insured. Both the Rosemary and Dome Theaters were destroyed, the latter's loss alone was set at $500,000. All of the pier's rides and concessions were completely destroyed, with the exception of the sea end section of the Giant Dipper coaster. Frank Prior thought he could rebuild it because the ride's most difficult section was intact. They and everyone else would have to await new owners." p. 92
[p.92 pictures of the OP fires and remains, 1924]
[p. 93 picture of smoldering ruins, January 6, 1924.]
Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987. 176 pp., 1929, 1927, 1926, 1925, 1924, 1920, 1920s, 1919
Chapter 5: Annexation & Ruin (1924-1929)
"The Venice Investment Company and West Coast Theaters acquired Pickering's beach holdings for $2,000,000 just two weeks after the fire. The sale was a windfall for Pickering, who took a terrible loss and would have had difficulty financing a new concrete and fireproof pier that Santa Monica would have insisted upon. The new owners got a 50 year lease on the beach property, or at least they thought they did.
"When they applied for a building permit in mid February, city officials in Santa Monica informed them that they wouldn't grant a permit but would instead lease the sand which they claimed the city owned. Santa Monica officials intended to advertise for bids for a pier franchise on their property. The stunned new owners filed for an injunction to stop the bidding.
"The auction took place at City Hall on March 18, 1924. The Venice Investment Company, intent on regaining control of the pier property, out bid several other companies. Their winning bid was $2,000/month. The next day they announced plans to rebuild the pier at a cost of $3,000,000 and begin work one week later. Other than clearing the site, little was accomplished that spring. Work would begin in earnest on the pier in the fall.
"Owners of both the Dome and Rosemary theaters on Ocean Front Walk put higher priority on reopening than the Venice Investment company did. The Rosemary Theater began operating immediately in temporary quarters on the promenade at Kinney Street. The new 1600 seat Dome Theater, rebuilt in only 23 days, opened May 30th at the proposed entrance to the pier. The original interior had a Spanish design, but the following spring they redecorated it with an Egyptian motif to match the theme of the new dance hall. They also added a $65,000 organ.
"Lick, whose pier resided across the Venice boundary line, was able to begin reconstruction almost immediately after the fire. Work on his pier progressed rapidly, and by May 14th the Bon Ton Ballroom was ready for paying customers. The interior of the enlarged ballroom was decorated in a modified Louis XV motif. Caryle Stevenson and his orchestra entertained nightly and day on weekends." page 94
[Page 94 photo of the rebuilt 1925 OP Pier. Playing at the Rosemary was Milton Sills "Men of Steel"]
[Page 95 Schematic of the 1929 OP/Lick Piers]
[Pages 96 and 97 1926 view of the South side of the Lick Pier.]
"Lick's new pier was basically the same layout, as his old pier, the Bon Ton Ballroom, Dodge 'em ride and a few concessions along the south side of the pier, with space for a roller coaster behind. Lick needed a new roller coaster for the summer so he contracted Prior and Church to rebuild their famous Giant Dipper coaster on the site formally occupied by the Zip. The 85 feet high ride opened July 4, 1924.
"The 1924 spring election brought to power an administration that seemed bent on self-destruction. The Civic Betterment League slate, C, Gordon Parkhurst, H.L. Anderman and Thomas Thurlow, gained control of the Board of Trustees and had no ties to the Kinney Company. They were committed to local government only if public confidence could be restored to enable financing of a comprehensive series of civic improvements. However, one of their ideas of improving Venice in the name of progress was to build more roads. That meant paving the Pacific Electric's right of way on Trolley Way and filling in the canals . . ." page 98
[Page 98 photo of the Lighthouse slide and midway looking east on the OP Pier.]
[Page 99 photos of the Egyptian Ballroom on the OP Pier, 1925, and the entrance to the Hi-Boy roller coaster on the OP Pier.]
" . . .
"Nearby in Ocean Park 200 men began working on the 960 foot long, 275 foot wide concrete pier. Work was progressing steadily and the owners expected it to open for Easter." p. 99
[Page 100 photo of the Toonerville Fun House on the Ocean Park Pier, 1929]
[Page 101 photo of the Parker carousel on the Ocean Park Pier before it was moved to the Venice Pier in 1929.]
"The Egyptian Ballroom on June 27, 1925 was the first to open on the new Ocean Park Pier. The owners made a point of emphasizing the word 'fireproof' in all their advertising. They built the structure entirely of reinforced concrete and steel. The pier, too, was fireproofed with a concrete deck. Eight fire hydrants were connected to a 200,000 gallon tank on the roof of the Dome Theater.
"The ballroom's interior was a replica in miniature of the temple of Rameses III, King of Egypt. Carvings on the wall painted in soft Egyptian colors depicted the likenesses of all the kings of the ancient kingdom on the Nile, and sketches depicted its historic highlights. There were scenes of Cleopatra and the death of Karasan, soul god of the Nile. Dance music was provided by Dave Snell's orchestra.
"Jone's Fun Palace on Ocean Front Walk on the north side of the pier opened several days later. The large fun house style structure contained slides, rotating barrels, a miniature coaster, various kiddie rides and a large ornate Parker carousel. It was a large machine on a 48 foot diameter platform with 45 horses set three abreast. It also had two chariots and one row of very small horses." p. 101
"The pier celebrated its grand opening with a ten day festival beginning on Saturday August 29, 1925. One hundred thousand people visited the pier on opening day and watched entertainers like Jack Cox make a fire dive into a tank of water. There were numerous new rides and attractions to suit people of all ages including the 75 foot tall Hi-Boy roller coaster, (another Miller design), an Aerial Swing, Speedboats, Flying Planes, the Rosemary Theater and a bowling and billiards center. The Lighthouse Slide towered 150 feet above the bay and almost beneath it was the Miniature Auto Speedway where pint-sized autos raced through tunnels and over hills.
"Toonerville, the new fun house, looked from the midway like a village of dilapidated, possibly haunted shacks. Inside among its mostly dark winding passages were slides, rotating barrels and creepy things that scared you in the dark.
"A Loof carousel was installed inside the Merry-go-round building. The three abreast menagerie style machine was an old model built in 1916. It had beautifully carved giraffes, rabbits, ostriches, lions and stags among its rows of fancy white prancing horses." Venice continued to become more and more politically impossible to govern . . . The trustees called a special annexation election for October 2, 1925 . . .
" . . . opponents charged that the amusement businesses were only concerned that Los Angeles' stiff 'Blue Laws', which contained anti-gambling statutes and also banned Sunday and all night dancing, could close one-third of the piers . . ." p.102
[P. 102 photo of Aerial view of the OP Pier, Bristol Pier and SM Pier, 1929]
[p. 103 photo 1927 midway of the OP Pier]
" . . . Annexation won 3130 to 2215.
". . . Venice became part of Los Angeles as scheduled on November 25, 1925.
"Venice's amusement zone was affected immediately by Los Angeles' Blue Laws. The Sunday dancing ban and anti-gambling statutes went in effect and pier business consequently suffered. The effect was most pronounced in the Ocean Park area. Huge Sunday crowds thronged the Ocean Park Pier, while few patrons wandered over to Venice's Lick Pier side where the Bon Ton Ballroom and other game concessions were closed. After two danceless Sundays amusement owners decided to campaign for a special amusement zone." p. 103
[p. 104 photos of The Chutes on the OP Pier, 1929]
[p.105 Venice Beach looking north to the Lick Pier, I suppose]
"There was a big debate over the Sunday Blue Law measure. Its opponents were mostly churches aligned with ultra-conservatives. The Venice Chamber of Commerce countered that the blue laws drive business out of Venice into the unrestricted amusement zones in Santa Monica. It was definitely affecting business as 24 places went out of business and one-third of Edison's meters were idle in the amusement zone. They pointed out that Sunday was the only day a working person in Southern California could get away for pleasure.
"The majority voted for the special amusement zone with all night and Sunday dancing: 112,305 for it, 77,832 against it. The Venice vote was more than three to one in favor and Venice dance halls reopened for Sunday business May 16th.
"The Venice Ballroom was once again crowded with Sunday dancers. Ben Pollack and his Californians occupied the ballroom bandstand. Customers, who bought forty dance tickets for a dollar, danced the charleston, fox trot, waltz and pivoting, a dance where the couple turned continuously as they moved rapidly about the dance floor.
"Attendants walked the floor and enforced the law against dancing 'cheek to cheek' by tapping the offending couple on the shoulder and instructing them to move apart. At the end of each five minute dance, attendants used a big long rope to herd the couples off the dance floor and keep them separate from the new group coming onto the floor. Single girls would watch from the side until an eligible male would ask them to dance, while couples who came together usually occupied the loges."
"Venice's first spring as part of Los Angeles was a quiet one, until the disappearance of evangelist Aimee Sempre McPherson thrust it into the national limelight. She checked into her suite at the Ocean View Hotel on May 18, 1926. The she and her secretary walked to the beach. Aimee waded into the surf while her secretary read a bible. When she failed to return an intensive search making national headlines was launched.
"Airplanes and deep sea divers were called into the search. Thousands of 'Sister Aimee's' followers came to the beach to help and to pray. One mourner committed suicide and a lifeguard drowned during the search for her body.
"Of course it was rumored that local amusement interests were involved in foul play. The evangelist had advocated a referendum to ban Sunday dancing in Venice.
"A month later they held a memorial service at Venice beach. Then two days later Aimee reappeared outside Douglas, Arizona, and told a tale of kidnapping, torture, and escape across the Mexican desert. When contradictions in her story surfaced, charges were filed against her for obstructing justice. However, prosecution was suddenly halted, and all charges against the evangelist were dropped in 1927.
"Ocean Park amusement interests enjoyed the unexpected publicity and as usual prepared for the busy summer season by adding new attractions to their Ocean Park Pier. The Whip and Scooter rides were place between the Merry-go-round building and the Dome Theater. Other new attractions in 1926 included the Pig Slide, Freak Slide Show, Captive Aeroplanes, Tango and Rabit{sic} Racer.
"One of the most unusual attractions added that year was the 'Chinatown and the Underworld' waxworks. Each of the 29 separate exhibits, designed by F.R. Glass of New York City, featured realistic scenes such as McGurk's suicide hall in the Bowery, a Chinese opium den and a wedding showing slave girls and tong hatchet men.Underworld scenes included gambling dens with the capture of drug smugglers, an electrocution at Sing Sing, crimes in the Parisian sewers, Brooklyn's black hand kidnapper's in action, the Furnail murder and several dramatically portrayed beheadings and torture scenes. They were a complete replica of the noted New York City Mott and Tyler streets inside. The entire wax exhibit was a work of art." p. 113 and p. 118
"Ocean Park held their Mardi Gras festival and water carnival over the Fourth of July weekend. The three day festival climaxed with a presentation of 'Ocean Park on Fire', a grand firework display that held spectators spellbound. Apparently tourists who missed last year's fire, could watch a reenactment of the disaster in miniature.
"Ocean Park's parades and celebrations during the twenties were an alternative to those of rival Venice, somewhat offbeat and different. While the Children's Floral Parade had been an annual event since 1920, the Male Beauty Parade was first staged in the late twenties. Males of every type from Hollywood Sheiks with oily pomaded hair to big he-men competed for the $300 in prize money. There were burly men and puny men, ones that were fat and short, others that were tall and lean. There were prizes for the most perfect figure, most handsome male, most athletic male, homeliest male, and even a comic division." p. 118
"The roaring twenties ended with one last pier expansion in Ocean Park. In April 1929 E.P. King, general manager of Ocean Park Realty Corporation, announced $3,000,000 worth of improvements to the Ocean Park Pier. They lengthened the pier 500 feet and built five new buildings and attractions.
"Foremost was C.L. Langley's $150,000 Shoot the Shoots ride at the very end of the pier. It was the highest amusement chute ever built, and the only one on a pier. The 56 foot wide pool at the bottom contained 150,000 tons of water. Although the ride first appeared back in 1895 at Sea Lion Park in Coney Island and was a standard feature at most amusement parks, it wasn't built in the Venice/ Ocean Park area until concrete piers were built strong enough to support its huge weight.
"Flat bottom boats would make a thrilling descent down a 120 foot high 30 degree sloped water runway into a three feet deep pool. In charge of every boatload of passengers was a competent oarsman whose duty was to bring the boast to the landing stage after the boat ran out of momentum. They stood erect in the rear of the boat and maintained their balance with one heavy single oar in hand as the craft struck water at the bottom and bounded in the air. When the boat stopped the oarsman sculled it to one side of the pond where passengers landed.
"Other rides installed nearby were a Ferris Wheel with seats in pairs facing each other, some kiddie rides and an Aero Glider, Jone's Fun Palace on Ocean Front Walk was converted into a roller skating rink. pp. 123, 124, 125