Seeing Double can be Fun

A LOOK BACK

Can you imagine walking along Main Street and suddenly seeing two

of everybody? You think to yourself, no, I haven’t been out in the

blazing sun too long, and I’m still sober. And then it comes to you

that there is only one explanation-- it must be September and time

for the city’s annual twins convention.

This week we’ll look at the 16th annual Southern California Twins

Convention that was held here on Sept. 6, 1953. This special event

brought sets of twins from all corners of the country to Huntington

Beach.

The event was held at the Pav-a-lon and at the outdoor

amphitheater down by the pier. This year was a special year because

not only were they having twins in the contest but also triplets.

Thousands of people would attend his city and chamber sponsored

event to see if they could pick the winners. Our own Bill Gallienne

would spend many hours at his office at the Huntington Beach Chamber

of Commerce planning this event and most of the events held during

the year in our city.

Gallienne was looking forward to this year’s event because he was

able to pull together 226 pairs of twins for the Twins Convention of

1952 and was looking to top that record this year.

Nicknamed the “Twinorama,” as most everything in those years had

some “orama” tacked on to their events, this year promised to out-do

the largest one held here in 1941.

Helping Gallienne with the convention was Dr. Douglas Hough of the

chamber’s entertainment committee. The two were kept busy lining up

the judges and the master of ceremonies for the event.

Anyone who grew up in the shadow of Los Angeles television in the

early 1950s will remember Dick Lane and his famous expression “Whoa

Nellie,” from KTLA Channel 5. He would serve as the event’s master of

ceremonies. His face was as familiar to viewers of sports programs as

the announcers of today’s sports programs.

One of the judges Gallienne had lined up for 1953 was Roberta Linn

the Champagne Lady on the Lawrence Welk’s musical show.

Western singing star Eddie Cletro promised he would come down and

be a

judge. Cletro was the leader of the Round-up Boys band on

television.

When one thinks of the organists and pianists of early television,

there could be only one name and that was Korla Pandit, who would

fascinate the ladies by the organ wearing his trademark turban. He

was the first Hindu television stars in the Los Angeles area.

The last celebrity judge picked for the contest was a featured

singer on the Jack McElroy television show and he was Les “Carrot

Top” Anderson, who would become a star in western music and my dad’s

favorite western singer.

When the day arrived for the event, our fickle weather brought

cold morning clouds to the beach and kept many people home. Gallienne

arranged for newspaper, television and newsreel coverage that would

highlight the best of Huntington Beach.

There were 43 categories for the judges to consider and they had

to do it before the noontime luncheon.

The twins were provided a buffet luncheon at noon by the American

Legion Auxiliary. After lunch around 1:30 p.m. the public was

entertained with a concert by the El Toro Marine Band under the able

leadership of Warrant Officer Victor Shul. A twins parade from the

Pav-a-lon to the open-air amphitheater was made.

Although the Star Spangled Banner was to have been sung by Mrs.

William Power, a Long Beach twin, instead it was sung by Josephine

Courreges of Huntington Beach.

It was now time to award the prizes for the best in category. The

Grand Sweepstakes prizes went to a Norwalk twins Marian and Martha

Neff, 25, who had won the prize in prior years and to John and Thomas

Conrad, 4, of Compton.

The Conrad twins won additional honors as the handsomest boy twins

in their category.

One of the least interested competitors were the Filadelfia twins,

Ginny and Louise. They fell asleep during the judging, of course,

they were only 17 months old.

The best boy and girl twins in the 10 to 21 year old category came

from Huntington Beach and they were Denis and Doris Jahn. The most

freckled twins were Ray and Ronald Rice of Huntington Beach and the

oldest twins were J.A. Flaws of Huntington Beach and his sister

Jessie Batemen of El Monte, 80 years young. Flaws had lived in

Huntington Beach since 1904 when the town was only a spot on the map.

This event brought out 208 sets of twins and eight sets of

triplets, less than Gallienne had hoped for, but none-the-less

everyone had a great time of it especially the winners of the twins

amateur show. Gallienne gave the winners silver dollars as prizes and

this was the time when those dollars were made with real silver.

The twins convention would continue on with Gallienne at its head

for several more years and the city owes much to the work of

Gallienne.

I wonder how many of those twins are still living today, and

wouldn’t it be fun to have them back, maybe on a float in our Fourth

of July parade or something.

* JERRY PERSON is a historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.