Celebrating over 32 Years!
WINTER 2018. Volume 32
CELEBRATING VENICE LANDMARKS
Articles by Betsy Goldman & Stephen Pouliot
A brief history about The Venice Canal System, Venice Branch Library, Venice of America House & Venice Breakwater.

THE BOARDWALK BOYS
By Wendy Fairbanks
The Boardwalk Boys now spend much of their time in a 1928 brick building on
Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Bob and Mark Libow run Elco Welding where they invent
and re-use thousands of metal pieces. The brothers grew up in Venice and have some wonderful stories to tell.

LITTLE KNOWN PLACES IN VENICE
By Joan Del Monte
What do you mean it's only got one tree? Did you ever hear of a city park with one tree in the middle of a 20' circle? This piece of land happens to be an official city park.

2017 SPECIAL PRESERVATION ISSUE
FALL /WINTER 2017-18. Volume 31
A CLOSER LOOK
By Sharon Cooper
What draws people to Venice? And how does it relate to historic preservation?
Did you know that historic preservation has economic and technical incentives?
Did you know that fraudulent demolition occurs in spite of Historic Cultural Monument status? This article answers these questions, and more, and informs you how important it is to preserve Venice's wonderful history.

Special Articles Included In This Issue
CITY OF LA SURVEY OF HISTORIC RESOURCES BEGAN 2007
THE MILLS ACT: Tax Breaks for Restoring Historic Properties
HELP PRESERVE THE HISTORIC CHARACTER OF VENICE
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOCAL, STATE & NATIONAL HISTORIC DESIGNATION
All these articles are designated to understanding historic preservation.

Celebrating our 30th Year!
WINTER 2016 – 2017. Volume 30
MUSCLE BEACH, CA
By Joan Del Monte
Few humans know the focused intensity of bodybuilding better than the citizens of Venice CA. The area's international reputation draws bodybuilders from around the world to compete here. Joe Wheatley runs the bodybuilding competitions three holidays a year. The first Muscle Beach, in Santa Monica, closed in 1958. Since then Venice is the place and Muscle Beach has become a world-wide attraction.

A RED CAR ADVENTURE
By Wendy Fairbanks
This is the story of two Venice High School seniors and their ride through Venice on the historic Red Cars of Los Angeles. Eventually the ever popular Red Cars closed down as the buses and cars overtook the rails.

PROFILE OF A LEADING HISTORIAN
Reprinted and edited from an article in the Santa Monica Star by Miceala Shocklee
The New Year's Day Rose Bowl Parade was the initial hook that drew Glen Howell to Pasadena, California. Eventually Glen and his wife moved to the Westside and became active members of their community where Glen became an extraordinary asset to the Venice Historical Society. He hasn't stopped!

Celebrating our 30th Year!
SUMMER 2016. Volume 30
VENICE'S COLORFUL CHARACTERS & LEGENDS
By Joan Del Monte
George Freeth, A Young God With A Sunburn, Jake Cox, The Man Who Made Himself A Comet In A Chicken Suit, Tom Moran, A Legendary Venice Writer, Sarah Bernhardt, A Famous Venice Performer, James T. Peasgood, Jr, The Infamous City Clerk, Arnold Springer, A Professor Of History At Long Beach State & Venice Advocate, and The Igorottes, Phillippine Tribesmen Who Brought Local Color To Venice – all highlighted in our quarterly issue, and part of a book the VHS is publishing.

A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO LONG-TIME VHS MEMBER RON ACCOSTA
By SMDP Writer Jack Neworth
Ron Accosta was an amateur historian of Ocean Park, Santa Monica and Venice. Read about his colorful life and how he became interested in our history. Ron sadly passed away in March. He will be missed.

Celebrating our 30th Year!
SPRING 2016. Volume 30
A COWBOY CAME TO VENICE
By Delores Hanney
Those whose memories sweep back far enough to embrace that on-screen cowboy Hopalong Cassidy no doubt remember him as an upright hero-type nattily rigged out in bodacious black western wear – from knee-high boots to spendacious Stetson: an itinerant good guy with impeccable timing, arriving on a handsome white horse to save the day.

LAST RUN
By Delores Hanney, Research by Samara Jacobs
It was ghastly! Young race guy around town, Hal Shain, was zooming along with an alarming absence of due diligence, even by daredevil standards. As he drove too close to the top of the cup-shaped track – known as the Dare Devil Race for Life – his 2500-pound Haynes automobile smacked into a post and reared backward. It threw Shain down 20-feet to the cup's bottom, falling on top of him, leaving him horribly mangled.

SANTA MONICA CONSERVANCY SHINES WITH PRESERVATION OF SHOTGUN HOUSE
Reprinted courtesy of Hollywood Heritage, March 2016 Issue
Congratulations to our preservation partner, the Santa Monica Conservancy, on the opening of its Preservation Resource Center in what is believed to be Santa Monica's last shotgun house. A very rare property type on the West Coast, shotgun houses are a part of a southern vernacular closely associated with the development of New Orleans. The acquiring of this historic house took years and it was well worth Santa Monica Conservancy's mission.

Celebrating our 30th Year!
WINTER 2016. Volume 30
The Island
By Delores Hanney & Research by Bill Hahn
It was a small lump of land triangulated by three of the original canals – the Lion, the Altair and the Cabrillo – in Abbot Kinney's Venice-of-America. In 1907 Kinney conceived the noble scheme to turn it into a botanical research station . This is the story of what became of Kinney's noble island.

Mary's Place
By Delores Hanney, Research by Tom Anderson
"It's so tucked away, like a speakeasy." It is indeed, tucked away. The hidden aspect of its entry configuration lends it a delicious air of the clandestine – a book lover's secret indulgence kind of rush. There is no secret about 'Small World Books' which originally opened in Marina del Rey. Now Venice is proud to have it.

Reprinted from the Venice Vanguard in 1924
Bailey Back to Face Trial After Eluding Law for Three Months
As suddenly and unexpectedly as he disappeared from his steel cage in the First National Bank of Venice early in July, Rubin R. Bailey, a 25-year-old former cashier of that institution, returned and surrendered himself after he vanished with missing bank funds – in the neighborhood of $40,000. What a journey he had before being convicted and taken to federal prison.

FALL 2015. Volume 29.
The Jewel of Ocean Front Walk: The Waldorf Hotel Story
By Bill Hahn & Delores Hanney
A century ago, May 8, 1915, a new 52-room hotel – christened the Waldorf – opened at Westminster and Ocean Front Walk in Venice. Here a doorman, who escorted them into the hotel's tastily appointed lobby, graciously greeted the guests. The Waldorf boosted an ocean view from every room and accommodations for bathers.

The Winebrenner Era
By Delores Hanney, Researched by Tom Anderson
His young son had asthma. California called. Harry Fielding Winebrenner packed less fame than Michelangelo certainly, but by the time he arrived to assume leadership of the Venice Union Polytechnic High School art department – in 1917 – this man already racked up a rather nifty rep as both teacher and artist. His impact on Venice was profound. He is best known for his sculpture in front of Venice High with Myrna Loy as the central figure.

Saluting an Unknown
By Delores Hanney
Charles Brittin wandered into Venice in 1951 and became an unconventional Beatnik. His photographs were praised as "incisive and powerful and poetic and tough".

SUMMER 2015. Volume 29.
Boosting Business
By Delores Hanney
All for the betterment and elongatin of the seaside community of Venice. venicechamber.net
Abbot Kinney is chiefly remembered as the dreamer who whipped up an ersatz Venice, Italy out of a saltmarsh and a fantasy, but, he was also a businessman. Thus, it is not too surprising that he was a pioneer in the formation of a volunteer organization of business boosting eighteen months after the grand opening of Venice-of-America.. the model was the chamber of commerce.

Memories of a Venice Boyhood
By William Carroll
I remember a Venice of mythic wonders, enjoyed as never-ending opportunities for mischief, pleasures found nowhere else and random accomplishments of questionable value. Bill's own words tell you of his Venice that began in 1920. Excerpted from "The Lure of a Land by the Sea".

The Electriquette
By Delores Hanney
A short excerpt about the wicker pushchairs used on Venice Beach from 1916.

WINTER/SPRING 2015. Volume 29.
Kids on a Roll
By Delores Hanney
Over the years, the Vanderbilt Cup Race was a big deal international automobile competition. It was inaugurated in 1904 by then 26-year old William Vanderbilt II. Initially it was laid out on public roads on Long Island, New York. A decade later the competition took place for the first time in Santa Monica. An interest was brewing for the Junior Vanderbilt Cup Races to be held in Venice one weekend in January. And so it was. Mack Sennett used this public occurance as a backdrop for his spontaneous movie shots shown in "Kid Auto Races" filmed on Main Street in Venice.

The Enticers
By Delores Hanney
Two and a half by four-inch photographic and lithographic souvenir cards of attractions and special events were commonly available as early as the mid-nineteenth century and awaiting the next stage of their evolution as commercially printed postcards. As the United States Post Office was trying to figure out a postcard definition, the cards exploded into a communication phenomenon. In 1916 the local Venice Chamber of Commerce observed "Postcard Day" February 19, 1916.

Where Was Barnes City?
By Glen Howell
Most people have never heard of Barnes City, and those who have, don't know where it was. It was the last incorporated city to be annexed to Los Angeles, but was it really a city? Barnes City was a political three-ring circus- a winter home for the Al Barnes Wild Animal Circus. This article tells the unique story of Barnes City taken from Venice Vanguard newspaper articles, 1926-1927.

FALL 2014. Volume 28.
Fun Park
By Delores Hanney
The just-published book, Pacific Ocean Park: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles' Space Age Nautical Pleasure Pier written by Christopher Merritt and Domenic Priore, tell the story of these quintessential rides. The authors have produced an account of P.O.P. that is loaded with satisfying details. Their narrative is further advanced by an astounding abundance of images. Tastiest of all, a plethora of concept renderings by Dave Constable. Pacific Ocean Park was, briefly, a SoCal pop culture phenomenon.

An Act of Reinvention
By Delores Hanney
"Move your hands, move your toes, move any other damned thing you want but don't move your head," the artist growled at his subject. Self-reinvention was always a major motivator when artist Gil Borgos moved to Venice, California in the early 1970s. He would gain a certain renown and would come to be loved by his chosen community and affectionately dubbed the Mayor of Venice Beach in salute to his ubiquity.

Saving Neighborhood Character
Courtesy of Adrian Scott Fine, LA Conservancy News
As the economy continues to rebound, we are already beginning to see increased development pressures on older and historic neighborhoods. This is a problem, as these neighborhoods help define the city, and each has its own very distinct physical identity that is important to retain and celebrate. 'Mansionization' has come to Los Angeles and can be particularly damaging. The Los Angeles Conservancy is watching this process of the City's early stages of re:code LA, a comprehensive revison of LA's outdated zoning code. This article will help you learn more about neighborhood conservation.

SUMMER 2014. Volume 28.
Hot Rod
By Delores Hanney
They were a clutch of Venice High School guys whose cohesion and self-definition found its glue in a shared passion for hot rods. They called themselved The Igniters and Craig Breedlove, a setter of world land speed records, was among them.

Mack's Beauties
By Delores Hanney
Mack Sennett was the king of silly, evidenced by his letting loose on the world the likes of the Keystone Cops. In 1912, he came to Los Angeles to make pioneering silent screen comedies. Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties loomed large on the Venice landscape.

New Venice Post Office To Be Dedicated
Reprinted from The Oarsman on February 7, 1940
Beloved principal Raymond E. Pollich, will represent Venice High School at the dedication. Also present will be Mr. Owen Kowen, Leo Strickland and John Dockweiler.

SPRING 2014. Volume 28.
Edward Biberman's Mural
By Delores Hanney
Since the recent slipping into private hands of the 1939 WPA-built post office in Venice, there has been anguish due to the loss of an almost constant availability of the pleasure afforded by an offhand gaze at its iconic mural, The Story of Venice, tucked inside the building. Read about the history of the Edward Biberman mural done in 1941.

The Daredevil Who Fell from the Sky
By Delores Hanney
An aero swashbuckler of the highest caliber, B.H. De Lay seemingly packed the precision of a neurosurgeon, the strategizing skills of an Army general, a choreographer's theatricality and nerves of steel. Before his tragic demise at the age of 31, De Lay had launched himself into aerial stunt crafting for the movies.

A Trip Back in History to Edward Clark, Venice High Principal
By Marilyn McClellan
In 1917, Edward Clark was appointed Supervising Principal of the junior and senior high schools of Venice Union Polytechnic High School, the original name for Venice High School. He served as principal for 19 years and retired in 1938.

WINTER 2014. Volume 28.
Rider on the Storm
By Delores Hanney
He would have celebrated his 70th birthday in 2013 except that like his mega rock star peers, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison was dead at the age of 27. Jim Morrison and his friends lived and wrote songs in Venice, eventually giving birth to the most provocative of rock bands, The Doors.

Memories of a Nonagenarian
By Delores Hanney
John Quincy Tabor, Jr. is a part of that sprawling, prominent Reece-Tabor clan from the bayous of Louisiana that seemed to be drawn to Venice, California. Tabor remembers family stories and how instrumental his family was in the early days of Venice.

The Pigeons of Venice
A short piece taken from the Venice Vanguard.

SPECIAL EXTENDED ISSUE • SUMMER/FALL 2013. Volume 27.
Etude on Elders
By Delores Hanney
She poodled into Venice in 1972: a USC anthropologist on a mission. Dr. Barbara Myerhoff came to marinate in the essence of the poor and marginalized Jewish old folks who hung out at the Israel Levin Senior Center on Ocean Front Walk. For more than a decade, Myerhoff defined her presence at the Center, never to be duplicated.

A History of the Venice Police Department
By Bill Hahn
These articles were researched from the archives of the Venice Vanguard and the Santa Monica Outlook telling the story of the Venice Police Department, originally part of the Ocean Park Police Department, until 1911, when residents voted to become the independent city of Venice. The Venice Police Department is a story of 'firsts' for State of California.

The Miracle Man Cometh
By Delores Hanney
In the summer of 1921 a faith healer came to Venice. His presence would throw the spotlight on our little city like nothing that preceded the affair had ever done, according to the advance announcement appearing in the Venice Vanguard on June 29th of that year. Charismatic Brother Isaiah had arrived.

SPRING 2013. Volume 27.
You Saw It Here First
By Delores Hanney
Marilyn Slater, possessed of degree in anthropology from UCLA, discovered this
lost gem of Venice movie-making history. It was announced in a special edition of The Photoplayers' Weekly of July 21, 1915, of the filiming of a great serial titled
The Broken Coin. This issue commenced with a rah-rah announcement of the filming to take place in Venice on July 25th. Some of the most thrilling scenes in this serial were filmed in Venice. The Weekly prophesized 'the largest number of
people ever assembled in the world to see movie pictures in the making.'

The Dream Spinner
By Delores Hanney
The man who would one day spin Venice-of-America from the sinuous strands of a dream into a curious reality, even as a kid possessed a restless, busy mind. Sickly with asthma, Abbot Kinney read voraciously to slake his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Like so many others during the last two decades of the 1800s, Kinney came to Southern California as a wellness seeker. What was once a soggy marsh, the development and shepherding of Venice-of-America would be the main focus of the last sixteen years of his life. Abbot Kinney was the source, the metaphoric sea from which Venus – in the form of Venice-of-America – arose in her full radiant glory. Then Venice morphed on.

A Matter of Diplomacy - U.S. Pacific Fleet Visits Venice
By William Hahn
A photograph was donated to the Venice Historical Society but no one knew its history. It peaked the interest of long-time member Bill Hahn, who immediately started researching this amazing donation. What he discovered was a wonderful story of U.S. diplomacy and Venice was foremost on the list. Warships were to visit Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica in March of 1908.

WINTER 2013. Volume 27.
Refuge on Rindge Street
By Delores Hanney
It's a Venice story. It's a Hollywood story. It's the story of a love affair but not, precisely, a love story. It's the story of movie actors Loretta Young and Clark Gable and their not-so-secret spawn, Judy Lewis, who drew her first breath beneath the roof of a small rental house owned by her grandmother on Rindge Street in Venice on November 6, 1935. The two stars were burning brightly when they came together
for the first time to make "The Call of the Wild" with Jack Oakie. From there our 'love' story continues...

A Certain Scent of Noir
By Delores Hanney
Back in the 1920s and 30s LA throbbed with the hardboiled urgency after which writer Raymond Chandler patterned his pungent fiction of the milieu's mean streets, where supposed law-enforcers were corrupt as the thugs. Tony Cornero was part of that intensely charged atmosphere. Clandestinely carting high-end Scotch whiskey from Canada into Southern California – via a fleet of fast boats – made him filthy rich . With evasive moves worthy of the escape sequence in an adventure film, he always avoided capture on his sea-riding casino, the Rex, off-shore just outside Santa Monica Bay.

The Lure of a Land by the Sea
A Book Review by Greta Cobar
Long-time Venice Historian Delores Hanney did it again; published yet another wonderful Venice memoir, made up of over thirty "vignettes," as she calls them. She tells funny and insightful stories from the times of Abbot Kinney's arrival in Venice all the way to more recent events that long-timers might remember. From inspirational stories of nation-wide relevance to funny anecdotes that might make you start laughing out loud as you are quietly reading from one chapter to the next. Hanney's vignettes abound, entertain, inform and mesmerize. Her book tells so many stories, divulges so many secrets, and sheds light on so much history. The book is sold at Small World Books on Ocean Front Walk and Beyond Baroque on Venice Blvd.

FALL 2012. Volume 26.
A Venice Centennial
By Delores Hanney
The first whisper of it came on April 14, 1912 via a little Venice Vanguard announcement of a brand new enterprise fixing to take form in Venice, California - a four-story rooming house called the Potter. The building is celebrating one hundred years and still operates as a rooming house of sorts.

Phillumenology
By Delores Hanney
Back in the 1960s lots of folks had way-over-sized brandy snifters or some such vessel parked on their coffee tables as a receptacle for a big bunch of matchbooks. The matchbook concept leapt from the mind of man to a position in reality's realm when a Philadelphia lawyer brought forth the paper match created from thin strips of cardboard. The history is fascinating as are the examples of Venice matchbooks displayed in this article.

Saving the Historic Post Office
By Adrian Scott Fine
The historic Venice Post Office at 1601 Main Street has become a poster child for the current national plight of the United States Postal Service. While the Venice Post Office fortunately has a preservation-minded buyer, film producer Joel Silver, it exemplifies the complexities involved in preserving one of America's great building types. The story of the fight to save the Venice Post Office is one of notability.

SUMMER 2012. Volume 26.
A Mural and A Movie
By Delores Hanney
There's a new mural in Venice. It holds sway from the east-facing exterior wall of Danny's on Windward Avenue and even on a sunny afternoon its image smolders with sinister darkness, literally breathtaking in the atmospheric vibe it exudes. It is a tribute to a great filmmaker and the artist who painted it.

Pix of the Past
By Delores Hanney
When he was in the third grade, Alan Reginald Stacey moved, with his parents, to Venice, California, where they would live in at least four different homes. The year was 1926. Thanks to Alan's daughters, Marilyn Stacey, Chris Stacey and Kathy Stacey Hall, we have an enchanting little collection of snapshots to savor, illustrating his iconic Venice boyhood.

Amazing Acquisitions
Friends of Will Raabe, owner of The Comeback Inn in Venice, have donated a huge scrapbook chronicling the wonderful history of the local hangout. Over 350 artifacts, dated around 1924 to 1949, have been recovered from a city project on Rose Avenue and donated to VHS. This marvelous and telltale collection will be the subject of a future meeting.

SPRING 2012. Volume 26.
Bathing Beauties Were Best
By William Carroll
For photographers participating in Venice's passion for publicity, presenting lovely young ladies on peaceful beach sand was the best of all assignments. A story by photographer Bill Carroll, who photographed countless Venice beauty pageants in the 1930s.

The Galleon & The Gambler
By Delores Hanney
It was ready for the July 4th, 1905 grand opening of Venice-of-America when 40,000 people poured into the new resort community by the sea; proudly riding the Pacific from its unlikely perch atop the Abbot Kinney Pier, a magnificent– if
make-believe– galleon. It was the famous and notorious Ship Café.

What's a Shotgun House?
By Sherrill Kushner
Elvis Presley lived in one, New Orleans is known for them, and Ocean Park used to have many. Now the Santa Monica Conservancy is rehabbing one of the last intact Shotgun Houses and turning it into a Preservation Resource Center.

WINTER 2012. Volume 26.
Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My!
By Delores Hanney
Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse had a special affinity with the four-footed ones of the earth. For some men this might have translated into life as a sheep shearer, contrarily he was the owner of the Al G. Barnes Circus & Wild Animal Zoo. Abbot Kinney invited the circus to winter in Venice in 1911 because it was the most popular type of public amusement.

Scott Joplin's Disciple
By Delores Hanney
Even in a place as well stocked with eccentrics as Venice, Sanford Brunson Campbell stood out as a character. He took up residence in the mid-1920s and opened a barbershop at 711 Venice Boulevard. Chasing after his dream, in 1899, at the age of 15 Campbell ran away from home and family. Eventually he established an acquaintanceship with a colleague of Scott Joplin's. This commenced a life-long obsession to play ragtime.

Celebrating the Holiday Season
Several VHS photos are displayed involving our year-end events- a Myrna Loy quarterly lecture, a holiday boutique sale and a Venice Chamber mixer.

SPRING 2009. Volume 23
Venice Courts Immortalize Early Black Residents
By Betsy Goldman
At one time in Venice there were streets named W. Washington Boulevard, Washington Way, Washington Boulevard and Washington Street. Not any more. Venice has acknowledged Oakwood's history, in its street names and its courts, as well as recognizing that Venice had African-American residents from the time of its 'founding.'

Venice Breakwater
By Betsy Goldman
Recently I was asked to name my favorite historic fact about Venice. If you go the end of Windward Avenue and continue on the beach until you come to the edge, you'll see a group of rocks. The history of these rocks began in 1904.

Flooding & Storms Threaten Venice - 1914
During January 1914, several vicious storms hit Venice. This article reflects on these stories and shows the damage in some incredible pictures.

Bungalows at the Beach
Many of the early visitors to Venice-of-America were day-trippers who'd taken the trolley from Los Angeles just to spend the day at the beach. For others, Venice was a longer stay and had to create Villa City to accomodate the visitors.

History of the Venice Pavilion at the Beach
By Beau Dakota Berdahl
When you walk toward the ocean on Windward Avenue, you find yourself standing on a very different plot of land than originally planned. This is where the Venice Pavilion once stood from 1960 until 2000.