Fish Fry scaled back, but not gutted

Deirdre Newman

The Fish Fry returns Saturday, three years after a lawsuit put it on

ice.

The community event will be held at Lions Park, where it started

57 years ago. The lawsuit that put the Fish Fry on hold was settled

last May, clearing the way for the event to return.

Lions Club members, the event’s organizers, say they are anxious

to establish a longtime tradition that brings the community together.

“[This] is the only communitywide activity that we had and we’ll

soon have,” said Chuck Cassity, the master of ceremonies. “It’s like

a reunion. There are many people who don’t see each other at all

except at the Fish Fry.”

The Fish Fry started in 1946 when Rollo McClellan and some of his

buddies got together and started an event for the community. Little

did they know it would last so long.

“It grew like topsy. It kept getting bigger and bigger,” Cassity

said.

Eventually, a parade down Harbor Boulevard was added. The event

attracted about 100,000 in its heyday in the early ‘90s, McClellan

said. The parade was ultimately a victim of its own success and was

canceled in 1999 because it became too difficult to shut down Harbor

Boulevard.

The event floundered after Arlene Wolff claimed that she hurt her

ankle at the 2000 Fish Fry when she stepped off a curb at Orange

Coast College. The civil lawsuit was settled out of court for

$30,000.

The new Fish Fry is scaled-back. It will offer the basics -- fish,

a carnival, some community booths and entertainment.

For entertainment, Cassity has lined up Wanda’s Dance Studio,

which has performed at the Fish Fry for more than 20 years; the

Slimtones, a blues, jump and swing band; and the Fabulous Nomads,

Orange County’s oldest surf band.

There are some changes to the staple of the Fish Fry, though.

Icelandic cod has been featured in all the previous Fish Frys. This

year, the Lions Club switched to Alaskan cod.

“We’re trying to keep this all-American,” said Mike Scheafer,

chairman of the event. “It’s actually a lot cheaper.”

A snafu almost sidelined the secret batter that makes the fish

sing with flavor. The group that had made it in the past shut down

its kitchen, so the Lions Club had to find a quick replacement with a

60-quart mixer.

The group’s savior turned out to be the food services department

at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Scheafer said.

While the event is all about fish, even those who don’t like it

have been known to enjoy it at the Fish Fry, Scheafer added.

“I think the thing that’s really funny about the Fish Fry is even

people who don’t like fish like our fish,” Scheafer said.

The event raises money for schools and local organizations such as

the Boys and Girls Club and Little League.

In its strongest years, the Fish Fry raised $100,000.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa and may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.