JERRY PERSON -- A LOOK BACK

The year was 1939, and the World’s Fair was taking place on the

grassy fields of Flushing Meadows in New York.

On the West Coast, the San Francisco World’s Fair was drawing people

to Treasure Island (Yerba Buena Island) in the bay.

But while these two events were attracting hundreds of thousands of

visitors, an event much closer to home was captivating its own visitors.

It was in that year that our own Orange County celebrated its 50th

anniversary. And what better place to celebrate that special event than

in Huntington Beach?

A huge birthday party was planned and sponsored by the Orange County

Associated Chambers of Commerce on Aug. 29. The county’s Golden Jubilee

even brought the governor from Sacramento to help celebrate with

prominent Orange County residents at the Golden Bear Cafe on Pacific

Coast Highway.

Before the event, the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce’s secretary

and manager at the time, William Gallienne, sent out 500 invitations to

local notables and pioneer Orange County residents to come and celebrate

the Golden Jubilee.

A large two-tiered cake was ordered from Eader’s Bakery for the

occasion, with 49 candles around it and one large candle in the center. A

state delegation headed by Gov. Culbert Olson and Isadore Dockweiler of

the California State Parks Commission came to honor Orange County.

Around the Golden Bear’s banquet table sat many of Orange County’s

elite, including James Irvine II; Phil Stanton, founder of Seal Beach;

Fred Bixby of Long Beach; J.P. Greeley of Newport Beach; and Huntington

Beach Mayor Marcus M. McCallen.

Bill Little of California’s All-Year Club and Dockweiler spoke about

how Orange County separated from Los Angeles County in 1889 and also

related interesting tidbits about how Los Angeles County politicians

fought hard -- and sometimes dirty -- to keep the county as one.

Several Orange County supervisors and mayors came to help light the

candles on the Jubilee cake.

The Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce chose pioneer resident Mary

J. Newland as Woman of the Year. She had the honor of cutting the Jubilee

cake that evening.

When the Golden Bear was demolished, a requirement of the demolition

was that part of the Bear’s facade had to be saved and placed into the

new development. Parts of the old Bear were incorporated into the side of

Pierside Pavilion. But when the building owners remodeled a few months

ago, they removed all traces of the Bear’s existence.

When Main Street businessman Andy Arnold asked one of the workmen

there what had become of the Bear’s facade, the workman told Arnold “it

broke.”

But to those who attended that gala event of so long ago, those

memories of the Jubilee and of the Golden Bear remain as fresh as ever.

* JERRY

PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach resident. If

you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington

Beach, CA 92615.