Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987, 176 pp., 1950, 1948, 1947, 1946, 1945, 1943, 1941
"America prepared for war in 1941. The draft was enacted and nearly 200 local youth were serving in the armed forces when hostilities broke out on December 7, 1941 . . .
"A blackout was immediately instituted, and National Guardsmen patrolled the beach. Helmeted air raid wardens took their duties seriously as they inspected their blocks nightly for any stray shaft of light that might become a beacon for enemy warships and subs. The Douglas Aircraft factory was completely camouflaged so that it looked like a harmless housing tract from the air.
"The amusement piers were open thorough out the war except at night. Soldiers and sailors came to the piers and boardwalk on weekend leaves. . . .
"Dancing was a favorite way to meet local girls. Harry James and Benny Goodman played swing music at the Casino Gardens on the Ocean Park Pier. The Venice Dance Hall offered country and western music by the best bands in the west.
"By 1943, threats of invasion had diminished sufficiently to permit near normal operation of the amusement zone during the evening hours. The piers were also a haven for young Mexican-Americans who adopted a style of dress distinctly their own. The boys wore ducktail haircuts, flat pancake hats, peg-top trousers, reet pleats, long glittering watch chains and long drape coats. The girls, dubbed 'cholitas' wore tight fitting sweaters and black hobble skirts that stopped above the knee line. Going out in your best attire was called 'zooting'.
"It was inevitable that tension would develop between the 'zoot suiters' and the servicemen that congregated at the piers on weekend nights. On the night of May 8, 1943 rumors circulated along the beach that one of the 'zoot-suiters' had knifed a sailor and a clash began. Several hundred soldiers, sailors and local teenagers ran the Mexican-Americans out of the Aragon Ballroom on the Lick Pier. They clashed again after midnight along Ocean Front Walk at Navy Street in front of a crowd of 2500 spectators. Thirteen 'zoot-suiters' were arrested and 28 more were taken into custody following the battle.
" . . .
"The stage was set for another round of fighting the following weekend. Police roadblocks intercepted over a hundred 'zoot-suiters' bound for Venice, and arrested eight local youths who were discovered carrying concealed weapons. It ended the Venice wars but the clashes soon moved to downtown Los Angeles where worse racial violence took place.
"The war years weren't very good for Venice. In 1943 the California State Board of Health quarantined the beach as far north as Brooks Avenue because Los Angeles was dumping raw sewage into Santa Monica Bay. [Lifted in 1950.] . . .
"The war ended on August 14, 1945. . . . ' p. 138
Chapter 7: Dismantling of Venice (1946-1972)
". . .
". . . the [Venice] pier closed at midnight on Saturday April 20, 1946." p. 139
"The beach widening project begun in 1947 resulted in the sluicing of over 14 million tons of sand from the dune site of the proposed Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant in El Segundo to as far north as the Ocean Park Pier. The width of the beach along the eight mile stretch was increased to a uniform 500 feet. But the summer of 1948 sluicing progressed as far as Brooks Avenue. It was strange to see the Sunset Pier completely landlocked, the beach stretching far beyond its outer pilings. The project, including the sewage plant, was completed in 1950. The beach quarantine was lifted the following year."