Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176 pp.
Foreword-Frank Garbutt Hathaway
The Los Angeles Athletic Club . . . own(s) bound volumes of Mercury, its magazine, started in 1911. Also see Betty Lou Young Rustic Canyon and the Story of the Uplifters, 1975, Dedicated to Frank Alderman Garbutt, President of the LAAC from 1937-1947.
1. Pueblo to City
" . . .
" . . . In 1880, when the LACC was founded . . . Los Angeles (for its ninety-nine year history) had been isolated-first as a colony of Spain, then as a rough-and-tumble frontier town . . . Little remained of the pueblo . . .
"(In those days) social life and sports centered around the Plaza . . . bullfights, bearbaiting . . . cockfighting . . . horse racing . . . and card games . . . Californios were inveterate gamblers; every game and contest carried some kind of wager.
". . . first Yankee settlers in the 1820s . . . John Temple and Abel Stearns . . .
"(Visitors) were mainly interested in local bars and gambling . . .
". . . billiards-introduced by Joseph Paulding of Maryland in 1833 . . .(in 1843) the first social club, the Amigos del Pais, met in an adobe building which housed a dance hall, reading room, and card tables.
The 1850s brought settlers. Banning, Mellus, Foy, Winston, and Downey. Jewish settlers included John Jones, Newmarks, Cohns, and Hellmans . . . whose leisure time pursuits included church socials, parlor games, songfests, gymnastics, footraces and baseball . . .
"It took a series of disasters in the 1860s to tilt the social and economic balance in favor of the Americans. A major flood in 1861 was followed by two years of drought and an epidemic of smallpox. These events, combined with a sharp decline in business and problems of establishing title to their lands, forced many rancheros into bankruptcy. By 1870 the Americans had taken over large tracts of land, and most of the old town houses around the Plaza either stood empty or had been converted to other uses.
"During these turbulent years, Los Angeles earned its reputation as the "wickedest town" in the U.S.A. Bandits, wanton killers, and common drunks roamed the narrow streets and frequented the saloons near the Plaza. In the name of frontier justice, the Rangers and other vigilante groups retaliated with lynchings and hangings . . . after the transcontinental railroad line to Sacramento was completed in 1869 and scores of Chinese laborers from Northern California moved into the adobe huts east of the Plaza. . . . in 1871 . . . nineteen . . . Chinese were massacred by a . . . mob in an alleyway called the Calle de los Negros, between Los Angeles Street and the Plaza.
". . . homes and businesses . . . toward the south . . . along with commercial nurseries and European wine and beer gardens offering outdoor dancing and games.
"The old Spanish sports-such as bullfighting, bearbaiting, and cockfighting-were outlawed in 1860 . . .
"The most visibly athletic and gregarious of the new arrivals were the Germans, who encouraged A.F. Tilden to establish the city's first gymnasium in 1860 (after) the Teutonia Verein in 1859, a singing and social club based at the Round House [an amusement center called the "Garden of Paradise."]
"By 1869 . . . 5,600 residents . . . a Dr. Kurtz and eleven others organized the Los Angeles Turnverein . . .
". . . 1871 . . . Turn-Verein Germania . . . built the Turn Halle, a large frame clubhouse which provided the best gymnasium and concert stage in the city.
". . .
"The final phase of the Americanization of the city came after the transcontinental railroad line was extended to San Francisco in 1870, and a connection to Los Angeles was completed in 1876 . . .
". . .
". . . Washington Gardens at Main and Washington streets, the most elaborate of the private amusement parks, provided year-round fun [band concerts, picnic grounds, games and a menagerie] for the whole family. Santa Monica also learned early to cater to tourists and visitors, accommodating campers and bathers, staging old-time equestrian events, and sponsoring the first polo match played in the Southland.
"Competitive foot-races in the seventies often had a carnival air and were little more than an excuse for betting. Walking, on the other hand seemed to dovetail more naturally with the growing interest of the average man in health and physical culture. Amateur and professional walkers were turned loose in "walkathons"-endurance contests lasting for five or six days.
"Dedicated outdoorsmen began to head for the hills, emulating John Muir who made the first vertical ascent of Mount Wilson from Pasadena in the late 1870s, a three-day venture. Carrying three loaves of bread, half a pound of tea, and a blanket, it took him one full day to reach the mouth of Eaton Canyon; from there it was a stiff climb up a waterfall and through dense brush to reach the summit.
"Roller skating succeeded walking as a fad and was in turn eclipsed by the bicycle in the 1880s. The first velocipedes, unstable contraptions with a tall front wheel and a small one behind, were seen briefly in Los Angeles in 1869 . . .
"Baseball . . .
"Boxing . . .
". . . By 1880 . . . in the fall, the circus came to town as it had each year since the 1840s . . . "Frank Gardner's famous double somersault over 3 elephants and 9 camels."
Page 15: Poster for W.W. Cole's Circus The Only Electric-Lighted Sun-Eclipsing Big Show That Ever Crossed the Great Divide "Cheer after cheer rent the air at each surprising feature." Nashville American. The Grandest and Best Circus Ever in California at Los Angeles Wedn'sday Sept. 15. Reproducing and Reflecting All Earth's Grandest Marvels! Under the resplendent glare of the Brush Dynamo Electric Light, used exclusively with W.W. Cole's Great Concorpation of Circus, Menagerie, Aquarium, and Congress of Living Wonders. "The best trained horse in the world"-Quincy Daily Herald The Only Show that Faithfully Keeps its Word. "A better show never existed."-Lincoln Daily Journal.
2. "The Best Young Men": The Arcadia Block
(Sept., 1880) Fifty-three original members formed "a purely American,"as opposed to a Germanic, Los Angeles Athletic Club, renting Stearns Hall, on the second floor of the old Arcadia Block at the corner of Los Angeles and Arcadia Streets, built in 1858 by Don Abel Stearns and named in honor of his wife, Doña Arcadia Bandini . . . "In recent years the rooms had been used for dancing classes and as a skating rink, while the ground floor was occupied by the firm of "Harris Newmark and Co., Wholesale Grocers and Liquor Merchants." Across Los Angeles St. from the Calle de los Negros. The three-story Baker Block, immediately to the rear, contained shops, offices and the . . . apartments of Arcadia Bandini de Baker herself . . . By November the club had installed a trapeze, long horse, flying rings, parallel bars, dumbbells and Indian clubs, and turnverein trained teachers were teaching the beginners. Boxing was introduced.
". . .
"[Ed] A. Preuss [a charter member of the Turnverein, and an accomplished athlete, served as the LAAC gymnastics instructor] was co-owner of the Preuss and Peroni Drug Store . . . which advertised . . . nostrums, "the Lion Malaria and Liver Pad, with body and foot plasters and three remedies in one, and only one dollar for all." The shop included a soda fountain . . .
" . . . In 1881 . . . Los Angeles celebrated its own centennial . . . population 11,183 . . .
3. Blazing New Trails: The Downey Block [1882-1889]
"The new quarters included a carpeted billiard room, as well as showers and dressing rooms and a reading room, along with new athletic equipment . . .
". . .
"Gradually the mania for cycling overshadowed public interest in track and field as well as other sports. This phenomenon had its beginning in 1882 when a group of young men who had formed the Century Club for cross-country horseback riding tried to decide to continue . . . In a flip of the coin, cycles won . . . the name of the club was changed to the Los Angeles Wheelmen . . .
". . .
"In spite of the danger involved in riding the old-style velocipedes, cycling quickly became a recognized sport. Within the year, a season of races sponsored by the LAAC on a course between Los Angeles and Santa Monica proved . . . successful . . . the safety bicycle was invented with wheels of equal size in 1886 . . .
"Interest in amateur sports and physical fitness continued to grow as the boom reached its height (1887). Trainloads of tourists and new residents arrived daily on the competing Southern Pacific and Santa Fe lines, paying as little as a dollar for a ticket from the Midwest. Excursion parties of tired travelers who had been recruited en masse in their home towns were often met at stops along the way with offerings of flowers and fruit, band concerts, and the blandishments of land promoters.
"The new Angelenos were a remarkable lot: they were cultured, conservative, affluent, and most of them were health-seekers. Afflicted with a variety of real and imaginary ailments, droves of these self-proclaimed invalids had heard the promises of the railroad publicity agents and came to California seeking the benefits of the climate and miraculous cures . . .
"The influence of the Club and the recently introduced science of "physical culture" balanced "the salves, tonics and nostrums." . . .
". . .
4. Riding High: The Stowell Block
"The 1890s ushered in the era of the "boosters," a remarkable set of business giants who turned Los Angeles from a bustling town into a thriving metropolis and converted Southern California into an agricultural and industrial empire. They accumulated huge personal fortunes, were active in civic life, and, almost to a man, were devoted members of the LAAC.
"Their heyday began after the decline of the land boom of the eighties when the railroads abandoned their promotional role in attracting tourists and settlers to the Southland. At the instigation of Colonel Harrison Gray Otis, the gap was filled in 1888 by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. The newly formed group assembled exhibits, sponsored lectures, subsidized writers and photographers, published books and pamphlets and produced a "California on Wheels" train to bring the sun-kissed message to every city in the Midwest.
". . . Among those in the top echelon were Colonel Otis and Harry Chandler of the Times publishing empire; railroad tycoons Eli Clark, Moses Sherman, and Henry Huntington; oil men Edward L. Doheny and Charles Canfield; Senator Stephen White . . . and Mayor Fred Eaton, father of the Owens River Aqueduct-all LAAC members." p. 33
". . . (1893) . . . It was estimated tht there were more bicycles in Los Angeles than in any other city in America . . .
"The most famous of the early cycling contests was the Annual Santa Monica Road Race, sponsored by the Los Angeles Wheelmen, who were now affiliated with the LAAC. The first race was held on July 4, 1891, on a course that began in front of the Club and ran by way of Pico Boulevard to the Hotel Arcadia in Santa Monica-a distance of seventeen miles. A gold medal with the Club insignia and other trophies were donated by the Tufts-Lyons Arms Company . . .
". . .
"When [the bicylists started] the judges dashed for the train. The cyclists reached Santa Monica first, led by W.A. Tufts in 1:15:14 . . . Miss Marguerite Lloyd . . . was unofficially timed for 16 miles at 2:06. The following year (1892), thirty cyclists competed over an 18 1/2 mile course, while the spectators sped to Santa Monica on two rival rail lines in time to see H.B. Cromwell of the LAAC [win.]
"By 1894, the number of entries had increased to 218 . . . Passengers filled twenty-six special trains, and vehicles of every description made the trip, including a railroad handcart . . . Emil Ulbrecht set a record of 57:07 and outclassed the field again in 1895.
". . .
"Amateur competition in cycling suffered with the subsequent rise of the professional sport. Much of the early enthusiasm drained away when such favorites as Burke, Ulbrecht, and McCrea joined the pros, and the first professional races were uneven in quality and poorly attended.
". . . cross-country walking began to attract its share of followers. The Tramper's Annex was formed in 1894 . . .
"A favorite junket . . . was the weekend trip to Wilson's Peak (Mt. Wilson, preferably by moonlight. . . .
"In 1894 the Great Sandow appeared for two nights at the Los Angeles Theatre under the management of Flo Ziegfield. His feats of strength, however, were overshadowed by the Trocadero Vaudeville Company, who appeared on the same bill and presented a whistler, lady songsters, a juggler, and Elsie Arden in her great skirt dance . . .
". . . the first Fiesta de las Flores, held in April, 1894 . . . in 1895 L.E. Behymer was enlisted to sell tickets, launching the famous impresario's . . . career.
". . . 1896 Fiesta Week vaudeville show . . . included the Venetian Lady Mandolin Orchestra, banjo and guitar groups, and a minstrel show with turns by the members." p. 39
5. Disaster in the Wings: The Wilson Block
". . . on Spring Street . . . the building included a "wheel room". . . a hundred bicycles . . .
" . . . Before the end of 1897 . . . private athletic clubs were going bankrupt due [in part] to competition from the moderately priced YMCA movement . . .
"In cycling, the old-style professional races were still held at Agricultural Park, but the war between the factions [League of American Wheelmen and the California Association of Cycling Clubs] and indifferent performance . . . Amateur competions now preferred endurance runs, while scores of pleasure riders took off on Sunday excursions into the countryside or attempted long-distance treks . . .
"Agricultural Park burgeoned into a major racing and amusement center offering saloons and gambling, trotting races, and Sunday coursing (the pursuit of live rabbits by dogs) to supplement cycling and the winter thoroughbred racing season. Sharpshooting and gun clubs grew in popularity, while the most fashionable sports for both men and women were golf and tennis.
". . . Los Angeles Country Club . . . 1897
"Tennis was already well-established. According to LAAC member Boyle Workman, the first court in the city was built on the grounds of the Childs mansion, and the first Southern California Lawn Tennis Association tournament was held in Santa Monica on the Casino courts in 1885 . . .
". . . the Spanish-American War was declared in April 1898. . . . patriotic fervor caused the cancellation of Fiesta Week and the Fourth of July parade, but the Santa Monica Road Race was run as usual . . .
[Photo page 44: The Santa Monica Cycle Path, proceeding west from Third Avenue and Washington Street in the late 1890s.]
"By the end of the century there were 30,000 cycles in Los Angeles, creating a need for more adequate paths and roads. The LAAC Wheelmen and other organizations helped finance the Santa Monica Cycleway in 1899 by selling lapel buttons . . .
"On January 5, 1901, the old Club officially died . . .
6 Born Again
". . .
"In June 1916, arrangements were made with J.J. Jenkins of the Brentwood Country Club. . . . 300-acre site . . .with a small but cozy clubhouse on San Vicente Boulevard . . .
"In 1920 the Uplifters . . . found their own bucolic hideaway in Rustic Canyon, midway between Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades . . . The original clubhouse burned down in 1922 and was replaced with a Spanish-style . . .
"Although LAAC bigwigs Garland, Garbutt, Chandler, and Hall were all Uplifter members and attended some of the social functions, they took no active part in the organization. It was Harry Haldeman who reigned supreme as the "Grand Muscle" of the Social Club from its inception in 1913 until 1925 and as president of the Uplifters Country Home Corporation until 1921 to 1927. . .
"In 1930, Harry Haldeman died . . .
"In 1923 (while the purchase of Santa Cruz Island was being considered), Uplifter Joe Musgrove suggested [the Riviera tract] 640 acres to be purchased from Alphonzo Bell who had acquired extensive westside holdings from Robert C. Gillis and Arthur H. Fleming of the Santa Monica Montain Park Company. In 1925 LAAC loaned the Riviera Corporation the funds to subdivide the property and donate the Country Club to LAAC.
". . . [For the Country Clubhouse] A fifth design by J. Bernard Richards of Santa Monica was ultimately chosen . . .
"In 1925, the builders of the Olympic Auditorium defaulted and the property reverted to the LAAC . . .
". . . In 1924 negotiations with Alphonzo Bell for 7,000 feet of ocean frontage just beyond Santa Monica Canyon were abandoned when a parcel further west became available, including over a mile of beach at the mouth of "Topango" Canyon and 1,800 acres of mountainous interior . . .
". . .
"Several Santa Monica beach clubs also found themselves in difficulty and sought help. Requests from the Gables and Edgewater clubs were denied, but, in July, 1929, the five-year-old Santa Monica Athletic Club was taken over. It had 150-foot beach frontage valued at $150,000 [and] an additional 140 feet on temporary lease, anda building worth $100,000, against an indebtedness of $80,000. With LAAC backing SMAC president Robert Curry and architect J.B. Richards began immediate work . . .
". . .
"In July, 1930, a block of stock was purchased in the Santa Monica Deauville Club, a romantic Norman structure built in 1926 as an adjunct to a projected city club at Sixth and Flower streets. Reputedly patterned after the famous Casino in Deauville, France, the building had a choice location between the SMAC and the Santa Monica pier, a beach frontage of 250 feet, and was valued at a million dollars. No courtesies were exchanged with the LAAC, however, until full affiliation took place in the mid-thirties.
11. The Tenth Olympiad
". . . winning four AAU championships in 1930 . . . the gymnasts, led by Leo Vandendaele in tumbling and Paul Krempel in the flying rings.
"At the July swimming meet, Buster Crabbe won two freestyle events and the medley . . .
". . . 1932 . . . The LAAC water polo team, which was chosen to represent the U.S., was unfortunately weakened when three of its strongest members were disqualified under AAU rules for working as lifeguards." p. 127
". . . the Riviera Country Club was busy welcoming the visiting equestrians . . .
"Los Angeles greeted each national contingent in the spirit of La Fiesta: the Czechs were entertained at the Deuville, the Germans at the Surf and Sand . . .
12. Faith in the Future
". . .
"The Wheelman of the Past Century held annual dinner meetings at the Club from 1926 to 1942, reliving their past heroics . . . In 1936 Sheriff Biscailuz was installed as chairman and served until the group disbanded.
". . .
"The Depression also brought renewed emphasis to the physical and spiritual benefits of body-building. A Life Extension Department . . . "Why suffer from auto-intoxication, lowered vitality, colds, constipation, despondency?"[Memories of Sandow, who died in 1925, were revived in the thirties as part of the physical culture movement.]
". . .
"The sixth Allied Club, the Santa Monica Deauville, was added to the chain in 1935 when the mortgage (held by the LAAC), interest, and taxes all came due simultaneously. Architecturally attractive, the new club was famous for its handsome esplanade and for its plunge, the largest fresh water indoor pool on the coast.
"The original design for the Deauville had included a tower with athletic facilities and guest rooms. When the City of Santa Monica decided not to let any structure interfere with the view from the palisades, however, the tower had to be deleted, taking away much of the beach club's year-round appeal. Joined in management with the Santa Monica Athletic Club, the two clubs could at least cooperate. The SMAC provided a limited number of rooms and some athletic facilities, while all of the food preparation was transferred to the modern Deauville kitchens.
"In summer business was brisk. "Club hopping" was a popular pastime in the thirties when a dozen beach clubs lined the strand, and swimming pools had not yet become backyard commodities. The Deauville provided a rendezvous for college students on Friday nights with dancing to Ted Miller's orchestra, a complete dinner for $1.50, and an economy-minded supper for $1.15." p. 142
". . .the conversion to a wartime economy brought unexpected financial relief.
"The Yacht Club was taken over by the Coast Guard, the Deauville by the Federal Government, and the Hermosa Biltmore by the National Youth Administration. The SMAC was sold to a private buyer . . .
13. Pursuit of Excellence
". . .
"The Deauville Club, meanwhile, was having more than its share of troubles. First it lost its shorefront to accretion; now it was in danger of being hemmed in by city parking lots built on the artificially created land. Conversations were held with the city attorney to stop the construction, but a change in the law opened the way for the city to proceed.
"In spite of these drawbacks, the Deauville was sold to a group of local investors in 1947 and was operated briefly as the California Cabaña Club, an ambitious venture which ended in bankruptcy. Two years later it was acquired by a wealthy Texan, Frank S. Hofues, who owned the nearby Del Mar Club. He confided that he had sailed past the Deauville one day, saw it as a potential competitor, and decided to take it over.
"After Hofues died in 1956, another Texas group purchased an interest in the club as a legal springboard for a land development and golf complex in Tarzana to be called the Deauville Golf and Beach Club. The exact ownership status was still subject to dispute in April, 1964 when fire broke out and gutted the structure in a spectacular blaze.
". . .
14. The Club Today
". . .
"Today, with a population of the City of Los Angeles at a record 2,936,900 . . .
LAAC and LAACO . . .