Redondo Beach Mayor William F. Czuleger in 1966. (File photo)

William F. “Bill” Czuleger never lost a Redondo Beach mayoral election.

First elected in 1961, he was re-elected to three more terms before being forced out of office in 1977 by a term-limit measure.

Czuleger was born in Dallas, Pennsylvania, near Wilkes Barre, on March 4, 1909. His parents had emigrated from Nagyszolas, Hungary, in 1895.

He learned the furniture business from his father, a wood carver, in Wilkes Barre. 

The family moved to Redondo Beach in 1922. A year later, in 1923, William’s brother, Charles S. Czuleger,  bought and reorganized what would become the family business, the Redondo Beach Trading Post at 114 Diamond Street, turning a small variety store into one of the city’s first large appliance dealerships initially by adding stoves to its inventory.

The store moved to Guadalupe Street in 1969, then later moved to its Catalina Avenue location, where it currently does business as Redondo Marine Hardware.

Bill Czuleger would work in the family business for more than 50 years. He and his wife, Hilda, had two sons and a daughter, and lived for decades in a modest house that still stands on the Esplanade.

His career in public office began with a successful run for the Redondo Beach City Council in 1949.  He was re-elected in 1953, but lost a bid for another term in 1957.

With wife, Hilda, after winning his second mayoral term. Daily Breeze, April 14, 1965.

Running on a platform of law and order and increased police patrols in 1961, he won his first four-year term as mayor, easily carrying three of the city’s five voting districts. He would go on to win three more terms. 

The diminutive Czuleger was dubbed “The Little Flower” after another dynamic politician of an earlier era, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York. He even received the Eagle La Guardia award, a national commendation from the fraternal Eagles organization, in 1965.

During his tenure, Redondo Beach underwent tremendous changes., 

King Harbor in Redondo Beach is dedicated on Nov. 19, 1966. Left to right: Redondo Beach City Manager Francis E. Hopkins, Mayor William F. Czuleger, and harbor director Harrison Day. (Daily Breeze file photo)

His first major undertaking was assisting in the development of King Harbor, a major construction project begun in the late 1950s that took years to complete. Whole streets disappeared under the new configuration. Czuleger, ever the civic booster, believed wholeheartedly that the project would turn Redondo into a major destination for recreational boating, and bring additional business to the city as a result.

King Harbor was dedicated on Nov. 19, 1966.

Daily Breeze, April 11, 1966.

Other projects Czuleger helped see to completion during his terms as mayor included the building of a new city hall, post office and police department, the establishment of the International Surf Festival, the continuing development of the Riviera Village shopping area, and the transformation of a former Nike missile base into one of the crown jewels in Redondo’s parks system, the 11-acre Wilderness Park.

Among Czuleger’s countless public appearances was a cameo on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” on CBS on Oct. 6, 1968. Redondo Union HIgh alums Tom and Dick Smothers asked Czuleger to appear to donate $19.68 to the spoof presidential bid of the show’s deadpan comic, Pat Paulsen, after the city had passed a resolution asking that Paulsen kick off his “campaign” in Redondo.

Daily Breeze, June 10, 1971. The last words of the caption read “… it’s better than X MAYOR.”

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Czuleger became increasingly involved in approving the development of major apartment and condominium complexes in the Catalina Avenue corridor in South Redondo. The rows of high-rise residential complexes currently lining that street were approved and built during his tenure.

Czuleger’s relationship with the city council began to become more fractious in the early 1970s. He tussled with them over a merit raise plan for city employees, an attempt to rezone Elvira Avenue into a lower density designation and finally, in 1975, a measure that passed over his objections that limited the holder of the mayor’s office to two terms, ending his time in office in 1977.

He also did battle with Concerned Citizens of Redondo Beach, an advocacy group that favored slow-growth development.

On May 19, 1977, a tribute dinner to honor Czuleger’s years of service was held at Lococo’s Restaurant, where he was presented with a boatload of commendations, awards and plaques. 

One of them was a City Council proclamation declaring May 19 “William F. Czuleger Day.” It noted that during his tenure as mayor the affable Czuleger had “cut 832 ribbons, attended 4,160 meetings, pledged the flag 46,080 times and ate 2,026 breakfasts, 3,325 lunches and 4,862 dinners away from home.”

Daily Breeze, Jan. 31. 1974.

Czuleger loved making public appearances, especially at grand openings and dedications, whether it was for King Harbor or for a new shop specializing in window treatments.

His public career wasn’t done, however. After leaving office in 1977, he was appointed to the the city’s Planning Commission, where he served until 1985, where he once again fell victim to a term limit measure passed to  bar commission members from serving more than two terms.

Czuleger expressed vocal opposition to the ballot measure, Proposition FF. “I say if you get a good man, keep him,” he told the Daily Breeze in 1984, but the measure passed on June 5 of that year.

While on the Planning Commission, Czuleger suffered a rare election loss when he failed to capture one of the three seats on the South Bay Hospital District Board of Directors, losing out to Eva Snow and incumbents Mary Davis and Virginia Fischer.

In 1990, the city honored him by dedicating 2.1 acres of green space near King Harbor as William F. Czuleger Plaza, also known informally as Plaza Park.

The former city councilman, mayor and planning commissioner died on Aug, 11, 1997 of heart failure, two days after being admitted to Centinela Medical Hospital Center in Inglewood.

Longtime friend Chester Powelson: “He was Mr. Wonderful. The only way they could get rid of him was passing term limits. He showed up to everything — every ribbon cutting, every funeral, every luncheon.”

“He was a doer. He had a great personality,” said longtime city clerk Fred M. Arnold.

Czuleger was laid to rest at Pacific Crest Cemetery in Redondo Beach.

William F. Czuleger Plaza park in Redondo Beach in 2010. (Daily Breeze file photo by Chuck Bennett)

Sources: 

Daily Breeze files.

Old Redondo: A Pictorial History of Redondo Beach, California, by Dennis Shanahan, Legends Press, 1982.

The pond area at Averill Park. (June 2016 Daily Breeze photo)

With its lush greenery, ponds and waterfall, the 10-acre Averill Park in San Pedro has been recognized for decades as among the most beautiful small parks in the greater Los Angeles area.

From a 1934 Los Angeles Times article on outstanding small parks in the city, referring to Averill:
“Butterfly vines cover a picnic pergola, and peppers, rubbers, cedars deodara, willows, pines and sycamores are scattered over the rolling hillsides.”

So who was this Averill for whom this gem of a park was named?

Horace Lowell Averill was born in Lincoln, Maine, on Nov. 13, 1873, a long way from Southern California. He moved to Boston in 1890, where he became involved in the real estate business.

After more than a decade in Boston, he headed west to Portland, Oregon, in 1911, then to San Francisco. In September 1917, he arrived in Los Angeles, where the real estate market was wide open and thriving.

Averill set up his real estate office at 725 South Olive Street in downtown Los Angeles.

He also had two brothers, Herbert O. Averill and Dr. George G. Averill.

George, who had little interest in the real estate business, had come out from Maine in 1918 to visit Horace, and the two of them were driving around the San Pedro area scouting possible land to develop when they came across the 872-acre tract on the eastern slope of the Palos Verdes hills just east of Western Avenue.

The stone bridge over the ponds at Averill Park in San Pedro. (June 2016 Daily Breeze photo)

Horace saw the land’s potential, and, as Ella A. Ludwig tells it in her book, “History of the Harbor District of Los Angeles,” they tracked down the land’s owner, Mrs. Rudecinda F.S. de Dodson, daughter of Jose and Maria Sepulveda, owners of the Palos Verde Rancho. Ludwig says that Averill bought the parcel from her that very afternoon.

Horace called the tract Vista del Oro, and its borders roughly stretched from 9th to 25th streets on the north and south, and Western Avenue and Gaffey Street on the east and west.

Button from the early 1920s promotes the Averill-Weymouth Co., and its Vista del Oro development.

Selling the undeveloped land would be a major undertaking, one that would draw two more family members west from Maine, third brother Herbert, and the Averill men’s brother-in-law, Harry Lee Weymouth, who had married their sister, Effie.

In 1919, the four men formed the Averill-Weymouth Company based at 915 9th Street in Los Angeles, and undertook a campaign to sell lots to potential buyers.

After a slow start, the venture became profitable. In 1924, Horace sold his interest in the property. By 1927,  the project had made more than $750,000, even though 500 acres of it still remained undeveloped.

Herbert Averill became the man in charge of the physical development of Vista del Oro, the subdividing and grading of the land, planting of trees, and general design of the area. He receives credit for laying out Averill Park, which the brothers deeded to the city of Los Angeles in 1920, and he is cited as being the Averill brother after whom the park was named.

Averill Park was deeded to the city of Los Angeles in 1920. (June 2016 Daily Breeze photo)

In addition to the park, two streets are named for the brothers, Averill Park Drive and nearby Averill Avenue, and one, Weymouth Avenue, for the brother-in-law.

The park quickly became a popular picnicking and barbecue spot, with many social gatherings and an increasing number of weddings being held on its picturesque grounds.

Then-15th District Councilman Rudy Svorinich stepped into a hornet’s nest of protest in 1997 when he had crews begin construction of a playground on one of Averill Park’s hillsides.

Wildlife gathers on and around a small rock island in the middle of the Averill Park pond area. (June 2016 Daily Breeze file photo)

Opposition to the plan came quickly. Construction was haled in November 1997 after the councilman’s office was presented with a petition of protest signed by 882 residents. To this day, the park remains without playground equipment.

The park had a rash of problems in the early 2000s as use of it increased. Graffiti and vandalism became more prevalent.

A serious incident occurred in July 2005, when vandals managed to drain the park’s pond, and several ducks and duckling were cruelly killed. Nearby vegetation also was destroyed.

Police had to increase patrols around the popular park following the incidents.

Overuse and age had also caused problems with the park, most notably with the water system, but other parts of its structure also had begun to show their age.

In 2009, Averill Park received Quimby funds in the amount of $681,688 to repair a broken pond pump, improve walkways and the park’s gazebo, and install pedestrian lighting. 

The work was completed in 2010, and the improvements have made the park more popular than ever.

The most recent visitors to Averill Park, coyotes, have been less than welcome. Residents have reported numerous coyote sightings in the area recently, and fear that they have been preying on the once-numerous flocks of ducks and geese, as well as the turtles in the pond area.

A coyote photographed on the gazebo side of Averill Park in San Pedro at about 8 a.m. May 23, 2016. Several ducks and geese have reportedly been killed this spring by coyotes that have been seen frequently in and around the popular neighborhood park. ( Photo by Nicole Juckes)

Councilman Joe Buscaino, who in May 2016 took photos of a coyote on his neighbor’s roof in San Pedro, has urged the city’s Department of Animal Services to “step up its game” with regard to coyote management.

On June 24, 2016, the department issued its revised plan, which proposed little change in its current approach to urban coyote management.

It calls for more community education, warning signs and covered trash cans in affected city parks, but not for trapping or removal of coyotes.

The growing number of coyote sightings seems to be just one more side effect of Averill Park’s popularity and enduring beauty: Everyone, even the coyotes, enjoys visiting there.

A young girl poses for photos in her pink quinceanera dress beneath a tree in Averill Park in San Pedro. (June 2016 Daily Breeze photo)

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

“Descendants of John Averell” (family history), http://www.averillproject.com/documents/william1william2john3.pdf.

History of the Harbor District of Los Angeles: Dating from its earliest history, by Ella A. Ludwig, Historic Record Company, 1927.

Los Angeles Times files.

A beloved pair of geese, top, at the Averill Park pond were removed in late May 2016 when residents feared they might fall victim to coyotes seen in the area. (May 2016 photos by Donna Littlejohn)

This building at 1327 Cabrillo Avenue in Old Torrance is where N.W.A. recorded its landmark “Straight Outta Compton” album. (June 2016 Daily Breeze photo)


Property records show that the irregular, 2,237-square-foot building situated on Cabrillo Avenue just east of La Capilla restaurant in Old Torrance where rap group N.W.A. created its landmark “Straight Outta Compton” album was built in 1929.



Its first tenant was the Torrance Chamber of Commerce, which was established in the city in 1913. The Chamber moved into the building in 1929, and was there until about 1937, before its move to 1345 El Prado.



The Torrance Upholstering Company opened up shop at 1327 Cabrillo in 1938, promising that visitors in its ad that they could see “THE MIRACLE OF MAKING OLD FURNITURE INTO NEW … WORK DONE IN OUR BIG WINDOW RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES!” 



The excitement generated by that prospect lasted for about a year. In 1939, the National Fireplace Damper Co. began a short stay in the space, until June 1940, when the National Home Appliance Co. moved in for the next few years.

(Credit: Google Maps)



Maxie’s Rendezvous Cafe moved into 1327 Cabrillo in 1944, and it had a long and occasionally checkered run in the space over the next couple of decades.



In May 1963, Cruz Guerra was murdered in the Rendezvous by Warren R. Heaton after a dispute over a bet on a shuffleboard game. Heaton was convicted in the case, which made local headlines.

In September 1963, the Rendezvous Cafe was among many establishments raided by vice squads from various law enforcement agencies throughout Los Angeles County. Police arrested owner Max Winsberg and announced that the raids would produce charges “ranging from felony bookmaking and conspiracy to sell dangerous drugs to lesser charges of liquor violations,” according to the Torrance Herald.



Winsberg also had been arrested on bookmaking charges back in 1951, for allegedly accepting horse racing bets.



The Rendezvous Cafe closed in the late 1960s, and after that, the trail on 1327 Cabrillo runs dry for a few years.



Donovan “Dirt Biker” Smith ran the Audio Achievements recording studio at 1327 Cabrillo Avenue in Torrance. (File photo)

The building did return to action in the late 1970s, when a company called Audio Achievements, Inc., which was incorporated in 1978, built a recording studio at the site. It would bring the location international fame.

Its owner was Donovan “Dirt Biker” Smith, an audio engineer and producer whose affection for dirt bikes got him the nickname. He began recording all kinds of music at the Cabrillo studio, including rap and hip-hop.



One of the first projects released commercially was a 1984 12” single by the Wreckin’ Cru, later renamed the World Class Wreckin’ Cru. It was started as a group of mobile DJs gathered together by Compton club owner Alonzo Williams. 

Influenced by the German electronic band Kraftwerk, they recorded “Slice” and “Kru Groove,” and released it on the Macola Records label. They eventually sold at least 5,000 copies of the single, mostly from the trunk of Williams’ car to indie record stores.



Poster from the 2015 film.

Among the Cru’s 7 members were Antoine Carraby and Andre Young, better known by their stage names, DJ Yella and Dr. Dre.

They were part of a group of local DJs and rappers who hung out at the Roadium Drive-In swap meet in Torrance, prowling through the overflowing record bins maintained by vendor Steve Yano. Yano himself became locally renowned for being able to obtain the latest, coolest sounds from all over, recordings that were sometimes so new they were pressed without identifying labels.

After Dr. Dre hooked up with Eric Wright, who would go on to greater fame under the name Eazy-E,
the seeds of N.W.A. were in place. Eazy-E started his own label, Ruthless Records, and Dre agreed to produce records for it. One of his first projects was an album  by CIA (Criminals in Action), which included his protege, O’Shea Jackson.

Under the name Ice Cube, Jackson would later join the collective forming in the studio that included Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, Arabian Prince (Mik Lezan) and Eazy-E. M.C. Ren and The D.O.C. would substitute for and later replace Ice Cube and Arabian Prince, both of whom would eventually leave the group for solo careers.

N.W.A.’s 1988 debut album sold 3 million copies.

Eazy-E come up with the name, N.W.A., for “Niggaz With Attitude,” and the group hooked up with manager Jerry Heller, and went on tour with female hip-hop trio Salt N Pepa.

N.W.A.’s first real album, “Straight Outta Compton,” was produced at Audio Achievements in Torrance. The group liked working in the cozy little air-conditioned studio, with its wood paneling and distinct 1970s vibe.

N.W.A.’s debut became an immediate underground hit, selling 3 million copies without airplay, MTV exposure, or traditional distribution channels. Its sometimes violent and profane lyrics, particularly on the song, “F— the Police,” brought notoriety — including a condemnation letter from the FBI — and contributed to the album’s commercial success.

Ice Cube left for a solo career in 1989. N.W.A. put out two more albums, then Dr. Dre split from Ruthless Records to help form the Death Row label run by Suge Knight, where he recorded his classic solo album, “The Chronic,” in 1992.

Eazy-E’s “Eazy Duz It” album was released in 1988, and has sold 2.5 million copies in the U.S. to date.

Eazy-E died of AIDS in 1995.

Donovan “Dirt Biker” Smith continued to work with dozens of groups of all types at the Audio Achievements studio on Cabrillo, though none of them met with the same level of success as N.W.A. 

Smith then closed up shop in Torrance in the late 1990s, and moved Audio Achievements, Inc., to its current location in Kailua, Hawaii (on Oahu). 

In the early 2000s, a recording entity known as 45 Productions did business at the 1327 Cabrillo building. Its current occupant is Sweet Sounds Posse Productions, another recording company.

After years in development, the film “Straight Outta Compton” hit theaters in 2015, and was a commercial success. It detailed N.W.A.’s story, and outlined the incongruity of such explosive music being created in an unassuming building in sedate Torrance.

In 2016, N.W.A. was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.


Dr. Dre, from left, Ice Cube and MC Ren of N.W.A pose in the press room at the 31st Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Barclays Center on Friday, April 8, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP)

Sources:

Los Angeles Times archives. especially the essential “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics: No One Was Ready for N.W.A.’s ‘Straight Outta Compton.’ But It Sold 3 Million Records and Transformed the Music Industry,” by Terry McDermott, April 14, 2002, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Page 12.

Ruthless: A Memoir, by Jerry Heller, Gallery Books, 2006.

Torrance Herald archives.

Note: Special thanks to Kwan Luu.

A brief look at the members of N.W.A. inside the Audio Achievements studio. (Note: Video contains graphic language.):

The South Bay History blog is on vacation this week. It will return on June 17.

The original San Pedro Elks Lodge building opened at Palos Verdes and 7th streets in 1911. (Undated 1920s postcard)

The fire that engulfed the San Pedro Elks Lodge building on April 15, 2014 destroyed more than just some buildings.

It ruined one of San Pedro’s most long-lived and revered social gathering places.

San Pedro B.P.O.E. (Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks) Lodge No. 966 began its 111-year run on June 6, 1905, with the installation of its first officers.

Lodge members came from all over the Los Angeles area for the festivities, which included the induction of 60 charter members and the installation of Exalted Ruler M.J. McDermott and other officers. (Real estate magnate George Peck was one of the trustees selected.)

Along with Assemblyman William Wickersham, McDermott had been the driving force behind starting the new chapter, which he pushed for after growing tired of commuting from his home in San Pedro to Elks meetings in downtown Los Angeles.

Lodge 966’s first quarters weren’t fancy. The group met in a room on the second floor above a Beacon Street grocery store.

In 1909, the lodge held funeral services for one of its most esteemed members. Aurelio Sepulveda, son of Diego and Maria Sepulveda, the first non-native settlers on the Palos Verdes land grant.

Following the services at the Elks Lodge, a mass was held for Aurelio in Wilmington on Nov. 21, 1909, before he was buried in Wilmington Cemetery.

The lodge’s growing popularity led to plans for a new meeting place, which came to fruition in 1911. The building that went up at the corner of Palos Verdes and 7th streets, official address 207 W. 7^th Street, cost an estimated $50,000.

It had three floors. The lower floor contained store rooms, a billiard room, café, kitchen and pantry. The 36-by-36-foot lodge hall, with seating for 400, was on one side of the second floor, and the the other side had a large smoking room and the ladies’ reception room and parlor. The third floor consisted of  apartments for lodge members.

Undated postcard circa 1920s shows the interior of the San Pedro Elks Lodge meeting room on Palos Verdes and 7th streets.

The building actually was completed in early August 1910, but some of its furnishings were damaged in transit, delaying a formal dedication until May 19, 1911.

The dedication turned into the event of the fraternal season. The B.P.O.E.’s national Grand Exalted Ruler, August Herrmann, made the trek by train from his home town of Cincinnati to officiate at the dedication.

He was met at the Southern Pacific train station in San Bernardino by a delegation led by Fred A. Hines, the Imperial Potentate of the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. That’s right, the Shriners and the Elks came together to help dedicate the new lodge.

The gala day and evening event found the elegant new lodge awash in Elks from lodges throughout Southern California.

The new building served Lodge 966 well for the next half century, but by the mid-1960s, it had begun to deteriorate, and the Elks set about to build themselves a new lodge.

Artist rendering of the planned San Pedro Elks Lodge. Daily Breeze, Feb. 16, 1968.

After a ten-year fundraising effort, they purchased an 11-acre site overlooking Los Angeles Harbor at 1748 Cumbre Drive in San Pedro for $60,000.

Plans were drawn up for an estimated $1 million, 33,150-square-foot facility that would include a banquet room, 150-seat dining room, cocktail lounge, main lodge room (featuring some furnishings from the old lodge), health club facilities, a gymnasium, swimming pool, locker rooms and saunas.

(Note: Video is five minutes long and has no sound.)

A groundbreaking was held on Dec. 31, 1966, with Elks and their guests asked to meet at the old lodge and form a motorcade to the new site.

Dignitaries on hand included the national Grand Exalted Ruler Raymond C. Dobson, Assemblyman Vincent Thomas, L.A. Councilman John S. Gibson and city officials and planners and representatives from the Port of Los Angeles.

Some neighbors objected to the tall pagoda-style roof atop the San Pedro Elks Lodge meeting room building at 1748 Cumbre. (1968 Daily Breeze file photo)

Not everyone was thrilled with the final results when building was completed in 1968. Some nearby residents thought the 50-foot roof tower atop the main structure was too big and ostentatious, and didn’t belong aesthetically among their “$50,000 houses.” (Note: House value not adjusted for inflation.)

The building became a local landmark, even though a spokesman for the Elks told the Los Angeles Times in 1968 that surrounding homeowners had put up an eight-year battle to block the building of the lodge.

The pool and other facilities have yet to be added in this 1968 Daily Breeze file photo.

The grand opening for the facility was held on March 25, 1968. The cost of construction had risen to $1.5 million by the time it opened.

A glimpse at the meeting room inside the giant domed roof at the San Pedro Elks Lodge, before the 2014 fire. (Daily Breeze file photo)

Judging by the response of its members, the cost was worth it. By 2004, the lodge had grown to 2,400 members, making it the seventh largest Elks lodge in the country.

Two years earlier, in 2002, it became the second-to-the-last lodge in the country to accept women into its ranks, a change mandated by the Elks’ national leadership.

The San Pedro Elks roster contains familiar names – Bogdanovich, Peck, Papadakis, Dodson, Domancich. “They’re the fathers of San Pedro. Everyone who’s anyone in San Pedro belongs to this club,” Vanessa De Luca told a reporter in 2004.

So the fire call that came at 2:30 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, April 15, 2014, came as a shock to almost everyone.

An arson investigator leads his arson dog through the charred San Pedro Elks Lodge on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. The Lodge overlooking the Port of Los Angeles was destroyed in an early morning fire on Tuesday, April 15. (Chuck Bennett / Staff Photographer)

Firefighters arrived within minutes, but the structure was fully involved when they got there. The blaze finally was knocked down at 4:45 a.m.

The lower level and swimming pool escaped mostly unscathed, and the once-controversial pagoda which contains the Elks’ meeting chamber suffered smoke damage but was not destroyed. But the rest of the top level of the lodge, including the dining room, banquet hall, cocktail lounge and other public spaces, burned to the ground.

Heartsick lodge members gathered in the parking lot at 7 a.m. to survey the smoking embers in disbelief.

Little remained of the buildings affected by the blaze at the San Pedro Elks Lodge. August 16, 2014. (Photo by Brittany Murray / Daily Breeze)

Exactly two weeks after the blaze, arson investigators arrested former Elks member Nick Pecarich, a 78-year-old retired dockworker, charging him with setting the blaze that cause an estimated $3.2 million in damage.

Pecarich, who allegedly had a bitter falling out with the lodge over a card game shortly before the fire, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His case has yet to be heard due to continuing questions over his mental fitness to stand trial.*

In August 2014, the Elks hired the L.A. architectural firm SRK to design a new building, one that uses space more efficiently, takes more advantage of the spectacular views and is more environmentally friendly.

San Pedro Elks Lodge, artist rendering of the new structure. (Credit: SRK)

Groundbreaking for the new facility was held on Saturday, April 11, 2015. Rebuilding the Elks Lodge continues, with members hoping to have the work finished in another year or two.

For updates on the group’s progress, visit the San Pedro Elks Lodge #966 page on Facebook or the lodge’s website, www.sanpedroelks.com.

*Update: On Aug. 3, 2016, the Los Angeles City District Attorney announced that charges against Pecarich had been dismissed due to his lack of mental competency to stand trial. The case may never come to court.

The swimming pool and tennis courts were restored following the blaze at the San Pedro Elks Lodge. Aug. 16, 2014. (Photo by Brittany Murray / Daily Breeze)

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Herald files.

Los Angeles Times files.

San Pedro Elks Club website, www.sanpedroelks.com.

The fire:

Bruce’s Beach. (May 2016 Daily Breeze photo)

Bruce’s Beach, the terraced 270-by-200-foot hillside park at 26th Street and Highland Avenue in Manhattan Beach, has a stunning view of the ocean.

It also has a tragic history.

The story of Bruce’s Beach begins with South Bay pioneer landowner George Peck, who owned large swaths of property in San Pedro as well as the northern half of Manhattan Beach.

When Manhattan incorporated in 1912, the progressive Peck set aside two blocks of beachfront area between 26th and 27th streets to be available to minorities, who otherwise were denied access to local beaches.

Charles and Willa Bruce, undated wedding photo.

Charles and Willa (sometimes known as Willie) Bruce were the first African-Americans to buy land at the beach, moving from New Mexico to purchase two adjacent seaside lots in 1912.

“Colored people’s resort met with opposition,” read the headline of a June 27, 1912, Los Angeles Times article, describing the resistance faced by the Bruces before they even started building their planned resort.

“Wherever we have tried to buy land for a beach resort we have been refused, but I own this land and I am going to keep it,” Willa Bruce was quoted as saying in the story.

Despite community opposition, the Bruces set about establishing a resort at the site for all to use, beginning construction of a beach lodge in December 1915.

Willa Bruce at Bruce’s Beach. Undated 1920s file photo.

Work proceeded slowly. Building materials would disappear and various “accidents” would occur at the site. Eventually, even with the setbacks, Bruce’s Lodge was completed.

Peck also helped the couple build a fishing pier on the property.

In 1920, the Bruces bought another adjacent lot with a two-story building on it that they refurbished for dining and dancing purposes, and their resort was complete.

The area began to attract other African-American families; several others had moved in to the neighborhood by 1920.

Their fellow Manhattan Beach residents viewed the situation with growing alarm. The Bruce’s Beach area was cordoned off, and its users were harassed if they ventured outside of the beach’s boundaries.

The Ku Klux Klan, at its powerful peak in the 1920s, was rumored to be behind some of the harassment.

Mrs. Willa Bruce, right, and son Harvey Bruce with his wife Meda, at Bruce’s Beach. Undated 1920s file photo.

An attempt was made to plant liquor was planted on the premises so that the owners could be charged as being in violation of prohibition. Mysterious fires occurred, and the fire department always seemed slow to respond.

When these various underhanded attempts to dislodge the Bruce’s Beach residents failed, the city turned to a plan offered by a North Manhattan real estate agent. He told officials that the property could be condemned by the city through the eminent domain process, on the pretext that the city wanted the land for a public park.

On January 7, 1924, the Manhattan Beach City Council passed just such an ordinance, even though Live Oak Park, a much larger and less hilly park had been built nearby just recently.

Four African-American families, including the Bruces, sued the city, alleging that the ordinance was aimed at forcing them out. 

The legal battle came to a head in the summer of 1927. Even though the resort officially was closed because of the condemnation, African-American families continued to flock to the beach.

Police began making arrests, taking 25 beachgoers into custody on Memorial Day. On July 4, 1927, 19-year-old  UCLA student Elizabeth Cately was arrested. She later sued, saying she had been held for five hours in jail in just her wet bathing suit with no charges being filed.

Four more men were arrested on July 17 for using the beach.They challenged the arrest in court and were convicted of trespassing.The city later dropped the case after the men appealed.

Finally, the whole resort was torn down in 1927, and the only beach in the county at the time allowing blacks was no more.

The lawsuit finally was settled in 1929 for far less than what the plaintiffs in the case had asked for. Some of the families bought other non-beachfront property in the city, a condition set down by the judge as part of the settlement, but the embittered Bruces left town.

The land remained undeveloped for the next three decades. In the 1950s, fearing that the Bruces’ heirs might sue to get their land back if it wasn’t being used for a park, city planners decided to go ahead with building one.

In 1962, a contest held for the public to rename the park, which had been known informally first as City Park, then Beach Front Park, since the 1929 takeover by the city.

Residents chose the name Bayview Terrace Park, which remained its name until 1974, when the City Council decided to rename the park for its then-sister city, Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Parque Culiacan, before the name change. (March 2003 Daily Breeze file photo)

On March 16, 1974, dedication ceremonies were held to introduce the park’s new name, Parque Culiacan. Mayor Mariano Carlon of Culiacan was on hand, along with the usual passelful of local dignitaries.

Over time, disenchantment with name began to grow.

During the 1980s, Culiacan became known as the headquarters city for the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world. It was an association Manhattan Beach didn’t anticipate when it formed the sister city bond in March 1963.

Manhattan Beach selected another sister city in 1989, Santa Rosalia in Baja California.

Another factor for the renaming was the growing realization of what had happened to the original Bruce’s Beach in the 1920s.

In 1956, Manhattan Beach resident Robert Brigham wrote his Master’s thesis, “Land Ownership and Occupancy by Negroes in Manhattan Beach, California, which told the  story of Bruce’s Beach in depth, and local historians began to reference it. Jan Dennis retold the saga eloquently in her 1987 book, “A Walk Beside the Sea: A History of Manhattan Beach.”

The civic group Leadership Manhattan held another public contest to try and pick a new name for the park in 2003.

From the submissions, the group came up with Freedom Park, Harmony Park and Friendship Park as possibilities,  but the city council turned all of them down in April 2003. It decided to keep the Parque Culiacan name, but to install a plaque acknowledging its history as Bruce’s Beach.

The renamed Bruce’s Beach was dedicated in 2007. (May 2016 Daily Breeze photo)

As knowledge of the park’s past began to spread, an even stronger movement to change the park’s name gathered steam in 2006. After a period of public debate, the City Council voted 3-2 on July 5, 2006, to change the name to Bruce’s Beach.

On Saturday, March 31, 2007, the dedication ceremony renaming the park was held with Bernard Bruce, Charles and Willa Bruce’s grandson, in attendance.

“Growing up, Bruce’s Beach was part of my dreams. When I told folks that my family once owned the beach here, they would laugh at me. They didn’t believe African-Americans owned beaches. Now everyone knows about Bruce’s Beach,” Bruce told the audience at the dedication.

A movement to get George Peck’s original Manhattan Beach summer cottage on Alma Avenue and 27th Street preserved and moved to Bruce’s Beach failed in April 2015, and the house was torn down to make way for condominiums.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files

“Land Ownership and Occupancy by Negroes in Manhattan Beach, California,” By Robert Brigham, Master’s thesis, 1956.

Los Angeles Times files, including “Resort Was an Oasis for Blacks Until Racism Drove Them Out,” by Cecilia Rasmussen, July 21, 2002.

A Walk by the Sea: A History of Manhattan Beach,  by Jan Dennis, Janstan Studio, 1987.

Poster for “The National Barn Dance” film (1944). The radio show began in 1924.

Before line dancing, there were barn dances.

In the old West, barn dances were social events usually held on weekend evenings in rural settings where folk and square dancing took place on a large scale.

The family-friendly dances would take place in large barns, usually with a band or orchestra playing traditional music to a crowd of freshly scrubbed farm folk.

At least that’s how they were remembered when revived in the 1920s on a large scale.

Radio station WLS in Chicago is credited with the revival of barn dances, and the germination of modern country music, with the development of “The National Barn Dance” radio show by program director Edgar L. Bill. The show’s first installment aired on April 19, 1924.

George D. Hay was the show’s host. In 1925, Hay moved to WSM in Nashville, Tennessee, and took the barn dance radio show idea with him, calling his Nashville version “The WSM Barn Dance”. It first aired on Nov. 28, 1925, and would eventually evolve into  “The Grand Ole Opry,” a country music institution still in operation today.

Poster for “The Old Barn Dance” (1938).

Hay’s format, an announcer introducing a variety of acts with Western-themed names playing down-home music, was extremely popular, leading to a raft of similar shows throughout the country: the Louisiana Hayride, Ozark Jubilee, and dozens of others.

The 1930s also brought Hollywood’s version of the phenomenon, with the advent of singing cowboys such as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and others.

Autry even made a film in 1938 called “The Old Barn Dance.” The image of the singing cowboy hero dressed in fancy clothes for the big barn dance mixed elements of reality and Hollywood show biz in an appealing way.

The “National Barn Dance” show became popular enough to spawn a movie of the same name, “The National Barn Dance,” in 1944, though it starred Ernest Tubb and his Texas Troubadours instead of the acts made popular by the original WLS show.

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys pose in front of their tour bus in this undated photo. (Credit: Wikimedia)

A rural offshoot of big band music rose to wide popularity in the early 1930s: Western swing featured a smaller bands with fiddles, steel guitars and other traditional country music instruments. Former Light Crust Doughboy Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys became its most popular practitioners of the sound, forming in 1934 and gaining a large following in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Another Light Crust Doughboy and Western swing pioneer, Milton Brown, left the Doughboys before Wills to form Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies.)

Bob Wills

Wills’ music featured jazz-inflected arrangements of traditional tunes played in an infectious, highly danceable style. Wills played the fiddle but did not sing the lead vocals, though he can be heard calling out band members’ names to take solos and occasionally whooping and hollering on the band’s recordings.

The popularity of barn dance events featuring musicians such as Wills, the Hoosier Hot Shots, Spade Cooley, Roy Acuff and Jimmy Wakely quickly spread to California, finding a foothold among defense plant workers in the early 1940s starved for entertainment after getting off their shifts in the evenings.

An entrepreneur named Foreman Phillips (real name Bert A. Phillips), Cooley’s manager at the time, began promoting shows under the “County Barn Dance” banner in Southern California in the early 1940s.

Torrance Herald ad, Oct. 28, 1943. (Credit: Historical Newspaper  Archives database, Torrance Public Library)

His chief venue was the Venice Pier Ballroom in Venice, which regularly drew weekend night crowds of 10,000-15,000 people at the dances featuring performers such as Wills and Cooley.

In 1944, Phillips even began holding all-night dances at the Venice location to cater to defense workers on the swing shift who didn’t get off work until 11 pm.

In addition to Venice, Phillips had a number of other spots where he held his barn dances, including the Riverside Rancho, the Town Hall in Compton, the Baldwin Park Ballroom and the Plantation in Culver City.

His major outlet in the South Bay was the Redondo Barn, located in the Pavilion building at the old Redondo Beach pier. In 2011, we wrote about the Redondo Barn’s popularity as a South Bay hub for barn dances on Friday and Saturday nights which showcased house band Texas Jim Lewis and His Lone Star Cowboys and a slew of famous guest stars. The Barn was the focal point of the Western swing movement in the South Bay.

Phillips also held shows at Wilmington Hall, the entertainment hall that opened on the grounds of the new housing development built for port-area defense workers in 1942 at 435 Neptune Avenue. It currently is known as the Wilmington Recreation Center.

Bob Wills and Spade Cooley appeared at the Wilmington Hall in successive months. Torrance Herald ads, April 20, 1943 (Wills), and March 11, 1943 (Cooley). (Credit: Historical Newspaper Archives database, Torrance Public Library)

In addition to the large Barn Dance events promoted by Phillips, smaller venues also featured the popular Western bands of the day.

Roy Rogers on the cover of the first issue of Barn Dance magazine, August 1947.

In Hermosa Beach, Western swing found an occasional home at Zucca’s, a large restaurant/nightclub at Pier Avenue and The Strand, where Pier Plaza stands today.

Torrance Herald ad, April 1, 1943. (Credit: Historical Newspaper Archives database, Torrance Public Library)

In March 1943, Jimmy Wakely and His Rough Riders played at Zucca’s Barn Dance. Wakely’s band had three former members of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, as well as hotshot fiddler Tex Atchison from the National Barn Dance radio show in Chicago.

Attebery’s Ranch in Torrance was a large farm/ranch owned by Martha Ellen Attebery at 4166 Sepulveda Boulevard, near Ocean Avenue.

Attebery held social events of all types at Attebery’s Barn on her property during the 1940s and early 1950s, including barn dances as well as community sings, ice cream socials and church services. The weekend dances featured square dancing and Western swing bands.

Torrance Herald ad, Feb. 8, 1951. (Credit: Historical Newspaper  Archives database, Torrance Public Library)

Originally from Texas, Attebery settled in Torrance in 1922, living on her farm until her death on May 3, 1960.

Al Royer’s Hitching Post on Western Avenue in Gardena also featured regular Western swing dance acts, as did the Shamrock Ballroom at 1952 Pacific Coast Highway in Lomita.

The barn dance phenomenon even spread to local social and service clubs, who frequently held barn dance events on a smaller scale at VFW halls and club lodges throughout the area.

The mass popularity of barn dances died out with the advent of other forms of entertainment that arose in the 1950s, most notably television.

Country music continued to grow in popularity, along with rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll. The Town Hall shows in Compton continued, but rockers such as Gene Vincent, the Collins Kids and Eddie Cochran began to show up alongside the more traditional country acts in the late 1950s.

By then, the barn dance craze had run its course, though square dancing remained popular and has its adherents to this day.

Spade Cooley (Publicity photo)

Spade Cooley starred in a long running local country music variety show on KTLA in Los Angeles, known as “The Hoffman Hayride” and later “The Spade Cooley Show,” before his tale took a tragic turn that we recounted in the Redondo Barn blog post. He died in 1969.

Bob Wills continued to record into the 1960s. He dissolved the Texas Playboys in 1965, and recorded some albums as a solo act until a debilitating stroke ended his career in 1969. He died in 1975.

Wills influenced a generation of country performers, and is credited with inspiring country music’s “Bakersfield Sound,” made famous by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Willie Nelson also cites Wills as a major influence, and modern country swing band Asleep at the Wheel has spent its whole career paying tribute to Wills and his music.

Sources:

“Bert (Foreman) Phillips,” Hillbilly-Music dawt com website.

Internet Movie Database.

Torrance Herald archives.

Wikipedia.org.

The Scattergood Generating Station near El Segundo. (May 2016 Daily Breeze photo)

In past posts, we’ve written about two other large plants on the South Bay coastline, the AES power plant in Redondo Beach, and the Hyperion sewage treatment plant a bit further up the coast in Playa del Rey.

So the time seems right to look into another major plant along the coast, the Scattergood Generating Station, located right next to Hyperion on city of Los Angeles land, just west  of El Segundo.

Ezra F. Scattergood. Undated file photo. (Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles)

Before we tackle the plant, though, we need to find out just who “Scattergood” was. The answer: only one of the most important figures in the history of electric power in Los Angeles.

Ezra Frederick Scattergood, “the father of municipal power” in Los Angeles, was born on a New Jersey farm on April 9, 1871. He graduated with an electrical engineering degree from Rutgers University in 1893, earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell, and taught the subject for several years at the Georgia School of Technology.

He married Lulie Chilton in 1901, and they moved to Los Angeles in 1902, where he worked as an electrical engineer. 1902 also marked the year of the founding of the first public water agency in Los Angeles, when the city purchased the private Los Angeles Water Company for $2 million and renamed it the Bureau of Water Works and Supply.

In 1906, the city of Los Angeles hired him as a consultant on the Los Angeles Owens River Aqueduct project, designed to bring water from the Owens Valley south to the growing metropolis.

Scattergood devised a key part of the plan involving placing hydroelectric power plants at Elizabeth Lake. They provided needed power, and revenues from them helped finance the project.

The process taught him about the area and its needs: “Water and hydroelectric power are fundamental and vital necessities in our Southwestern country, with its slight rainfall and both limited and costly fuel supply,” Scattergood said. “These utilities are the basis and measure of our progress. They are locked up in our natural streams and to possess the key is to control the destiny of our people.”

In 1909, Scattergood officially joined the city’s staff when he was named chief electric engineer of the Bureau of Los Angeles Aqueduct Power. In 1911, voters approved the creation of a consolidated power agency called the Bureau of Power and Light, and Scattergood became its chief engineer.

Undated photo from the 1920s shows Ezra F. Scattergood, seated, center rear, meeting with his staff. (Credit: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles)

On Nov. 3, 1916, the city began delivering electricity to its residents. Scattergood began negotiations to acquire the Los Angeles City operations of Southern California Edison, a business deal consolidating electric power distribution in the city that became a reality in 1922.

In 1920, he proposed the Boulder Canyon Project, which involved the construction of Hoover Dam and its hydroelectric plant, which would bring more electric power to Los Angeles.. It would be approved in 1928, and Scattergood set about financing the construction of the 266-mile-long electric power transmission lines running from Nevada to Los Angeles, one of the largest and longest such lines in existence at the time.

At 7 p.m. on Oct. 9, 1936, Elizabeth Scattergood, his daughter, pressed the button that started juice flowing down the lines from Hoover Dam to L.A., and the $38.2 million project begun during the last days of the administration of President Herbert Hoover became a reality.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt speaks at the dedication of Hoover Dam on Sept. 30, 1935. Ezra Scattergood can be seen in the lower right behind the chair with just the hat on it. (Credit: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles)

In 1937,  the Bureau of Power and Light and the Bureau of Water Works and Supply consolidated to form the modern-day Department of Water and Power (DWP). With the addition of the electrical system of the Los Angeles Gas and Electric Corporation, the DWP became the lone provider of power in the whole city.

In 1938, Scattergood became involved with planning for a proposed 1942 World’s Fair in Los Angeles. The event was to be held in Chavez Ravine, three decades before the opening of Dodger Stadium, and would have celebrated the 400th anniversary of Juan Cabrillo’s voyage to the West Coast of America. World War II would intervene and end those plans.

Scattergood’s work in Los Angeles did not escape the notice of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who appointed him to the National Power Policy Committee on Preparedness in 1938.

FDR was intrigued with Scattergood’s idea of creating power grids for large metropolitan areas, separate but interlocking regional areas of power supply supporting each other. Under the idea, which was being used in Great Britain, if one cell were to go down, the others would remain operational and provide the backup power needed.

Scattergood’s command of the Los Angeles power system ended after 31 years with his retirement in 1940, though he remained active as an adviser with the DWP.

He also helped form the American Public Power Association during the 1940s, becoming its president in 1947, shortly before his death. The industry group established an award, The E.F. Scattergood System Award, in his name in 1959.

Scattergood died of a heart ailment on Nov. 15, 1947. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale in a mausoleum crypt right next to that of water mogul William Mulholland. It only makes sense, since, for all that the more well-known Mulholland did to bring water to the city, Scattergood did at least as much to ensure the city would be supplied with electric power.

Artist rendering for Scattergood Steam Plant. Undated, ca. 1955. (Credit: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles)

On Sept. 10, 1959, the $65 million Scattergood Steam Plant, later to be known as the Scatterhood Generating Station, was dedicated. Scattergood’s widow, Lulie, and daughter, Elizabeth, were among the dignitaries present. It was the fourth steam generating plant to be built by the DWP. (Lulie died on Jan. 23, 1968, at the age of 100.)

The plant was built on a 57-acre site facing the ocean front at 12700 Vista del Mar, just west of the El Segundo city limit in Los Angeles. Construction began late in 1956, and the plant first became operational on Dec. 7, 1958.

Sea water pumped into the DWP Scattergood Generating Station is used to cool the giant steam turbines which produce electricity. The cool water runs through sealed tubes in a condensing unit, and then is sent back out to sea. (2003 Daily Breeze photo by Brad Graverson)

Its condensers were cooled by circulating water pumped from the ocean through a tunnel 12 feet in diameter and over a third of a mile long long. The now-heated water then was returned to the ocean through a second pipe.

Environmentalists later would decry the ocean water cooling process, as the hot water returned to the ocean kills marine life in the area. The intakes also trap sea life, especially rays and crustaceans, who are unable to return to the open ocean. (A sea lion caught there had to be rescued by divers in April 1980.) The plant is set to phase out ocean water cooling completely by 2024.

Other changes to the plant include the replacement of its Unit 3 generator that was built in 1974, and the moving of Scattergood’s main entrance from Vista del Mar around the corner to Grand Avenue, though its address remains 12700 Vista del Mar.

There have been few accidents at the plant over the years. A boiler exploded in a generating unit on May 15, 1972, causing serious damage to Unit 2 at Scattergood. It was repaired at a cost of $7 million, and returned to operation in June 1973.

Ground was broken for a major $950 million modernization project at Scattergood on Aug. 29, 2013. The project aims to improve efficiency, reduce air pollution emissions and begin the process of eliminating ocean water cooling.The rebuilt Unit 3, part of the project, is now nearing completion.

Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, left, and Police Chief William Bratton inspect the Scattergood Generating Station, the striped smokestack at left, one of several Los Angeles Department of Water and Power installations, during a helicopter tour of possible terrorist targets in the Los Angeles area Thursday, March 20, 2003. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

“Ezra Scattergood biography,” Water and Power Associates website.

Los Angeles Times files.

Aerial view looking east at the Scattergood Steam Plant in 1968. Note its lone tall smokestack.  (Credit: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles)

Note: This post has been corrected to give the proper location of the plant, which is located on Los Angeles city land west of El Segundo.

Hawthorne Municipal Airport’s control tower in 2013. (Daily Breeze staff file photo)

Hawthorne Municipal Airport, one of the busiest, most thriving general aviation airports in California, began as a dirt landing strip built by the city of Hawthorne in 1939. It was part of a deal the city made the year before to entice an aviation entrepreneur to build his factory there.

Jack Northrop acknowledges an ovation at a luncheon on Aug. 2, 1978. He died at 85 in 1981. (Daily Breeze staff file photo)

The one- mile long, 700-foot-wide landing strip, located between Prairie Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard just south of 120th Street, was built for aviation pioneer Jack Northrop, who had spent the summer of 1939 forming his new independent aviation manufacturing firm Northrop Aircraft, Inc. Its home was to be a 72-acre site leased with option to buy from the city, and the airstrip was christened Northrop Field.

Northrop had begun his career in aviation in 1916, working as an engineer for the Loughhead brothers in Santa Barbara. He joined with Allan Lockheed (who changed his name from Loughhead because it was easier to spell) and other partners in 1927 to form Lockheed Aircraft, where he developed the Lockheed Vega, a small, fast general aviation monoplane flown by the likes of Wiley Post, Amelia Earhart, and other early aviators.

He left Lockheed in 1928 to form the Avion Corporation, a small firm where he felt more free to develop his creative ideas, including the very first iteration of the Flying Wing, a concept he would return to throughout his career. We wrote about the Flying Wing in a 2011 post.

Boeing became interested in Northrop’s ideas and brought Avion into its corporate structure under the Northrop Aircraft Corporation name. When Boeing’s owners, United Aircraft, wanted to move Northrop’s firm to Kansas, he split off and formed another Northrop Corporation in conjunction with Douglas Aircraft of Santa Monica.

But he became restless again, splitting off from Douglas in 1938 to finally form a truly independent firm with the Northrop name.

Northrop met with a group of engineers and managers at the Hotel Hawthorne to form the new firm, designing a 122,000-square-foot factory for which they broke ground on Sept. 30, 1939.

Northop’s plant, right, still has wartime aerial camouflage in this 1946 aerial view looking east, with runway at left. (Photo from “Northrop: An Aeronautical History”)

The adjoining airstrip was crucial to Northrop’s plan, as he needed it in order to roll planes off the factory’s assembly line and fly them directly to Muroc in the Mojave Desert for testing. (The Muroc airfield would become Edwards Air Force Base in 1949.)

Northrop moved into its new Hawthorne home in February 1940. The company grew rapidly, from its original six to 109 employees in just a few months. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Northrop Field was taken over by the U.S. government’s War Assets Administration for use in the war effort.

The government returned Northrop Field to the city in November 1946, when it declared the 40 airports it had taken control of in Southern California and Arizona during the war as surplus property.

Credit: Google Maps

On April 24, 1948, Hawthorne Mayor Harold E. Crozier issued an official proclamation renaming Northrop Field as Hawthorne Municipal Airport, and opened it to private aircraft. Northrop deeded its share of the property to the city, and continued to use it under a lease-back agreement, a provision of which was that the land must continue to be used as an airport or title would revert to Northrop.

Northrop and the airport prospered under the arrangement during the 1950s, even though the airport’s tower only operated during daylight hours. For nighttime flights, air controllers at Los Angeles International Airport had to guide planes in and notify Hawthorne so it could turn on its runway lights.

The new control tower under construction at Hawthorne Municipal Airport. Daily Breeze, July 15, 1961.

The city pushed to get approval for a new control tower that would be staffed by Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) personnel and be open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the busy airport, which logged more than 143,000 flights in 1960. Ground was broken for the new $135,000 tower on April 15, 1961, and the 50-foot-tall structure was dedicated on Oct. 28, 1961.

Further development plans had been set in motion by the city, including the addition of more hangars and the construction of a two-story airport terminal building that would house a large restaurant as well as offices and an observation deck.

Glenn Anderson speaks at the dedication for the new terminal at Hawthorne Muncipal Airport on April 2, 1966. Daily Breeze, April 3, 1966.

It would take a few years to become a reality, but the new building was dedicated on April 2, 1966. California Lt. Gov. Glenn Anderson, who later served as the area’s congressman for decades, delivered the keynote address before 1,200 attendees. At the time, Hawthorne Municipal Airport was ranked as the 7th busiest such facility in California and the 23rd busiest in the nation.

Though aerospace and private business dominate its activities, the airport has its appeal to the general public. In 1983, airport director Robert Trimborn started the popular Hawthorne Air Faire, which was held there for the next 22 years.

The airport also was home to the Western Museum of Flight for 24 years, until that facility lost its lease in 2006. It reopened in 2007 in smaller quarters at the Torrance Municipal Airport.

The airport has had its detractors over the years. City Finance Director Sam Takata noted in 1984 that the airport cost about $450,000 a year to maintain and produced only $100,000 in revenue. As the city’s financial fortunes began to ebb, the airport started to be seen as a drain on its coffers.

In 1999, Pacific Retail Trust, a development firm, proposed leveling the 80-acre airport and turning it into a shopping center complex that would generate $3 million in profits instead of the $80-100,000 produced annually by the airport.

In June 2000, Arden Realty of Los Angeles proposed building a 70,000-seat pro football stadium with a hotel, theme park, museum and restaurants on the site, saying that it would generate $9.4 million annually in revenue.

The city decided to put the fate of Hawthorne Municipal Airport in the hands of voters in 2001. File photo, June 25, 2001. (Robert Casillas / Staff Photographer)

Another developer, Paladin Partners, began negotiations with the city that September to build its version of an entertainment and retail complex on the site.

Pilots and aviation buffs denounced all the plans, and the national lobbying group the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association pledged opposition.

Heated discussions about the airport’s future continued, until the bitterly divided Hawthorne City Council decided to put the matter to the city’s voters in a November 2001 advisory ballot measure that brought the debate to a head.

Developers outspent airport proponents by more than 12 to 1 during the campaign, but on Nov. 6, 2001, more than 70 percent of the city’s voters rejected Measure A and sided with continuing to keep the airport.

With that decision made, the city decided to stop wringing its hands over the airport and to start investing in renovating the aging facility. Plans were made to add new hangars, an executive terminal, more restaurants and industrial space.

The airport shut down for 28 days to refurbish its runway completely in October 2007. New offsite developments such as the neighboring Century Business Center were built. A fledgling startup firm known as Space Exploration Inc. – better known Elon Musk’s SpaceX – as well as the design offices for Musk’s Tesla Motors auto firm were among the new companies that moved into the development.

Motorists drive by SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. File photo. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

By 2010, the transformation had become complete. Private jets were allowed to use the airport thanks to the refurbished runway. Top executives such as Musk and famed investor T. Boone Pickens began to fly their corporate jets out of Hawthorne Municipal Airport.

In May 2013, Eureka! restaurant brought gourmet dining to the airport, replacing Nat’s Airport Cafe.

The grand opening VIP party for Eureka! Tasting Kitchen at Hawthorne Municipal Airport on Tuesday, May 14, 2013. (Daily Breeze staff file photo)

“The airport has always been a jewel in Hawthorne, we’ve always loved it. Even in this economy, it’s thriving. We’re trying to pump fresh blood into it,” said airport manager Arnie Shadbehr at the time.

In December 2015, the first new commercial hangars to be built at the airport in 50 years opened, and the airport seems primed for a bright future, even as general airports in Torrance and Santa Monica are discouraging new aviation business development because they come with increased noise and pollution concerns for the closely packed in nearby residents.

Hawthorne Municipal Airport, looking north with the Century Freeway at upper right. 2001 file photo. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files.

Northrop: An Aeronautical History, by Fred Anderson, Northrop Corporation, 1976.

Air traffic controllers Tom Morris, left, and Derk Kuyper monitor activity at the Hawthorne Airport in this March 2013 photo. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)

Bub Thomas, 1958 photo taken onstage at The Roaring 20s nightclub in Torrance. (Credit: www.harmonize.com)

Putting labels on the varied career of Charles David “Bub” Thomas takes a little while. The baker, bartender, boxer, sports cartoonist, ventriloquist, professional barbershop quartet singer, stand-up comic, night club owner and caricaturist spent a couple of decades entertaining the South Bay during the 1950s and 1960s.

Thomas was born in Lewiston, Montana on July 1, 1911, but the family moved to Long Beach, California, while Bub was still a preschooler.

His father started a bakery in Long Beach where Thomas worked while going to school at Long Beach Poly.

One day, an old-time vaudeville dancer came in, taught Bub a few steps, and convinced him to learn tap dancing and join him on the vaudeville circuit on the side. Bub loved it, but since vaudeville had already begun dying out by 1929, this part of his show business career was brief.

While working for his dad, he did learn enough about the bakery trade to get a job with a bigger firm, Weber’s, where he eventually put his artist skills to use designing packaging and advertising for the company’s loaves of bread.

Undated photo of Bub Thomas with one of the dummies from his ventriloquist act. (Credit: www.harmonize.com)

He also tried his hand at boxing, losing only one of his 17 amateur fights. He loved the sport, and also loved using his drawing talent to sketch portraits of his favorite fighters. He also specialized in caricatures, quick, while-you-wait  sketches of people, a skill that he would later use in his professional career.

His bakery career ended with the advent of World War II. Not drafted because he was married with two children, Thomas went to work for the war effort painting ships at the Consolidated Shipyards in Wilmington.

One of his paint crew members was Dave Rightsell, who introduced Thomas to barbershop quartet singing. Thomas caught the bug in a big way, hooking up with a variety of quartets, including the 4 Barons of Harmony and The Four Dandies, groups that would tour bars and small clubs in the area.

Business card for the “4 Barons of Harmony,” with caricatures of members drawn by Bub Thomas, including himself, third from left. (Credit: www.harmonize.com)

After the war ended, Thomas decided to go out as a solo act doing stand-up comedy and ventriloquism. He played at joints such as the Bomb Shelter in Long Beach and The Colony in Gardena. The drummer in the band at The Colony was Sonny Anderson, who would go on to be a talent scout for Walt Disney, and play a key role in Thomas’ later career.

Stand-up comedy led to bartending, and Thomas found a niche combining the two at area watering holes. The wisecracking bartender eventually entered the club-owning business in 1954.

Together with partner Frankie Lieberman, Thomas opened The Band Box Cafe at 1528 Cravens Avenue in downtown Torrance on March 26, 1954.

The club was described as “Torrance’s newest palace of fun,” and offered music and comedy along with its food and drink.

Torrance Herald, April 1, 1954. (Torrance Newspaper Archives database, Torrance Public Library)

After a few years at the Band Box, Thomas convinced his partner to help him start a more ambitious venture in 1957.

The Roaring 20s nightclub, located at 166th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard in North Torrance, 16612 Crenshaw to be exact, offered full shows nightly. These included musical numbers as well as Thomas’ comedy routines.

The club, also sometimes known as The Original Roaring 20s, was a hit in its early years.

Thomas even released albums on his own record label featuring his comedy routines, which were considered risque in the day and marketed as adults-only fare, though they sound somewhat tame in hindsight.

Bub Thomas’ 1960 comedy album.

“Smoker Stories,” by “Mr. Entertainment” Bub Thomas, was recorded live at the Roaring 20s in Torrance in 1960, and released on Thomas’ own Roaring 20s label for sale at the club.

It’s still available on CD from Amazon.com.

Thomas ended up having a fairly prolific comedy recording career. Following “Smoker Stories, Vol. 2” on his own label, he went on to record several adult comedy albums for the Laff label during the 1970s. Laff specialized in raunchy comedy and racy album covers, featuring releases by Redd Foxx and an early album by Richard Pryor.

But we’re getting ahead of the story.

Roaring 20s sign. (Credit: www.harmonize.com)

While he was running the Roaring 20s club, Thomas became very active in the Torrance community. He played a key role in the first presentation of the Torrance Lions Club production, “The Lions Roar,” a family-oriented old-time vaudeville revue featuring singers, dancers, jugglers and magician Dell O’Dell, with Thomas serving as emcee. “The Lions Roar” debuted at the Torrance High School Auditorium on April 14, 1960.

He also never lost his love for barbershop singing, performing locally with groups such as the Terpsichords at area community events and barbershop quartet shows.

Business at The Roaring 20s dropped off when entertainment tastes changed in the mid-1960s, and Thomas sold off his interest in the club.

Torrance Herald, Dec. 27, 1959, Page 14. Thomas misidentified as “Bob.” (Torrance Historical Archives database, Torrance Public Library)

He joined the USO, performing in 1968 with a troupe in hot spots in Vietnam that the more famous entertainers doing shows for the troops found too dangerous.

When he returned home, his old friend, drummer Sonny Anderson, now with Disney,  contacted him about putting together a new version of the Dapper Dans, the barbershop quartet that had been entertaining at Disneyland since 1959. Thomas put together a group that included Torrance city engineer Buddy Seeberg, and they worked at Disneyland during the summer of 1969.

When that job ended after one summer season, Disney expressed an interest in hiring the Dapper Dans for their new park, Disney World in Orlando, Florida, when it opened on Oct. 1, 1971.

Cover of the March/April 1979 issue of The Harmonizer, devoted to barbershopping, shows the Disney World Dapper Dans. Top left: Bub Thomas, with Bob Mathis (bottom left), Jerry Siggins (top right), Dick Kneeland (bottom right).

Thomas moved to Florida to take the new job, ending his tenure in the South Bay.

A three-month contract with Disney in Florida turned into a longtime gig with the Dapper Dans, just over 25 years to be exact. He became a fixture at the Florida park’s Main Street USA, and spent much time corresponding with people he’d met there, sending them letters and humorous sketches he’d drawn.

In his later years, Thomas returned occasionally to the South Bay for barbershop singing events, appearing at the annual show held by the South Bay Coastliners Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America in 1989, 1991 and 1992.

Sadly, Bub Thomas was killed in an automobile accident in Orlando on Jan. 28, 1997, at the age of 85.

This brief snippet shows The Dapper Dans in action at Disney World in Florida in 1988. From left to right: Charles “Bub” Thomas, Joe Judkins, Neel Tyree and Steve Culpepper:

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

“Friends remember Main Street legend,” by Christine Shenot, Orlando Sentinel, Jan. 20, 1997, Page D-1.

“In Memoriam: Charles David “Bub” Thomas (1911-1997),” www.harmonize.com, a barbershop quartet site.

“A Song, a Grin and a Talented Pen,” by Donna Morgan, Disney World Public Relations Dept., The Harmonizer, March/April 1974, page 20.

“Song and Dance Man: Profile of a professional Barbershopper,” By Bud Harvey, The Harmonizer, March/April 1979, Page 4.

Torrance Herald files.