Countdown to 2000: 1980s Lifestyles

Andrew Glazer

In the 1980s, million-dollar homes sprouted around Newport Beach as

quickly as dune grass.

It was the era of “women in gold lame’ bathing suits, big diamond

jewelry, high heels and cocktails. Lots and lots of cocktails,” said B.W.

Cook, editor of the Balboa Bay Club’s Bay Window Magazine.

Land developers, construction companies, car dealers, bankers and other

businesses swarmed the area, saturating Newport Beach with new wealth.

In the 1980s, Newport Beach attracted more tourists than ever. The number

of major hotels in the city doubled from three to six from 1980 to 1988.

The Fun Zone -- which was fading in popularity in the 1970s as a result

of the rising popularity of Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm -- was

remodeled, adding new shops and eateries to the carousel and Ferris

wheel.

Mom and pop dry-cleaning and dime stores were replaced by souvenir

vendors prospecting for tourist gold.

With the wealth and tourist dollars came a new breed of downscale but

chic and expensive restaurant. Golf shirts and shorts replaced blazers

and slacks at choice tables. Funky nouvelle California cuisine and sushi

shoved traditional French food off the menus.

Teenagers, also with leisure time and cars, cruised along Balboa

Boulevard creating enormous traffic jams, very much like Bal Week several

decades earlier. And police kept the cars moving, issuing citations much

like they did during the Spring Break celebrations of the 1960s.

Sources:

B.W. Cook; Gay Wassall-Kelly; “Newport Beach, The First Century

1888-1988,” James P. Felton, 1981.