Oil boom was in full swing in 1924

JERRY PERSON

During one of the guided tours of the Newland House Museum, I

overheard a little one asking her mother what life was like back when

the Newlands lived here.

Of course, her mother was far too young to answer her daughter,

but to the little girl, everything seemed old, including her mother.

This week, we’ll go back to a time when the Newlands were alive,

and see what our town’s people were doing some 80 years ago, in 1924.

To begin, we should know who our elected officials were that year.

Lawrence Ridenour was our mayor and his trustees (council)

included Richard Drew, Charles, W.R. Wharton and James Macklin.

Jack Tinsley was our town’s marshal and fire chief, W.R. Wright

served as city clerk and Lew Blodgett held the position of city

attorney. At this time, our city was in the midst of its oil boom,

and wooden derricks were popping up all along our coastline.

Ruth Meyer and the members of her music department at Huntington

Beach High School were putting on a production of “The Firefly”

inside the Central Elementary School’s auditorium.

Participating in the musical production were Opal Dowty, Edna

Hearn, Irene Crilay, Alberta Van Winkle, Fern Kuhry, Frankie Windle

and Kathryn Thomas. Several listeners in the audience compared

Dowty’s singing to that of opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci.

I’ve heard recordings of Galli-Curci, and if Dowty’s soprano voice

sounded anything like the great opera star, then she must have been

very good.

It was on Feb. 22, Washington’s Birthday, that the Ladies

Auxiliary of the Oil Workers Union held a dance supper in the beach

dance pavilion for its members near our pier. They would be able to

dance to the music of a live orchestra throughout the evening.

Famous World War I soldier and street speaker Sgt. Webber, came

into Huntington Beach to speak against communism and was granted

permission by the city to hold street meetings here.

During one of these meetings, Webber received a donation of $25

after he challenged those who advocated the overthrow of government

and the establishment of bolshevism. Huntington Beach building

contractor George Souter wanted to see a “Roller Race” with five

steamrollers driven by Jim Macklin, Al Onson, Charles Andrews and

R.L. Obarr on street rollers.

He wanted this race to happen on Pacific Coast Highway as a stunt

during the opening of the Coast Highway celebration occurring this

year.

Huntington Beach High School track coach Ray Walker volunteered to

be in charge of the event, but it didn’t take place. Chamber of

Commerce member John Barlow suggested placing signs on the new coast

route as mileposts telling motorists the distance to Huntington

Beach. He suggested a design be a round metal sign with a seascape of

our oceanfront, a sugar beet and an arrow pointing the way to

Huntington Beach.

The reorganized Huntington Beach Municipal Band was now ready and

willing to perform at the opening of the band pavilion on the beach.

The La Bolsa Tile factory was keeping busy making drainage tiles for

the local ranchers to use on their farms.

In August, the Kelso Brothers’ Aerial Circus was planning to be

part of the entertainment in a grand celebration, which included wing

walkers and plenty of fireworks.

The Huntington Beach Athletic Club’s program at the Fifth Street

Arena included a boxing match between Lefty Cooper and Frankie

Tierney.

Included on the card were also Huntington Beach’s Harry Lee versus

Johnny Grella and Eddie Montana against Harry Foley, and the last

bout pitted Knockout Brown versus Johnny Fellers.

In October, C.E. Morris and 10 local boy scouts traveled to Santa

Ana to be part of an Orange County rally to be held at Walker’s

Theater. Russell Robb and William Gallienne’s service station is

being painted a canary yellow and navy blue, as they now were

handling Richfield gasoline and products.

The Moose Heart Legion of the World were planning a dance on Oct.

27 at the Odd Fellows hall on Main Street. In November, the Woman’s

Club would hold a luncheon that includes each member bringing a

25-cent gift for drawing in the grab bag event. Stella White was

given charge of the grab bag.

Pioneer baker John Eader was erecting a brick building next to his

bakery on Main Street, and when finished it became home of his new

modern bakery.

The Huntington Beach Winter League baseball team would play the

Petroleum Midway Winter League in a baseball game that included

pitchers McGuire and Bromley on the Huntington Beach team.

The First Christian Church’s Pastor’s Aid Society would be

presenting a play for the children entitled “Tom Thumb’s Wedding” at

the Municipal Auditorium and would include more than 50 children in

the cast.

Architects were preparing the plans in December for a new $12,000

home for A.W. Brown to be on California Street. The plans called for

the home to be in the new “Airplane” style of two stories and to be

strictly modern in every way.

The Rubber Products Co. purchased the property of the old linoleum

factory here and manufactured a floor covering using old auto casings

and tires as the raw material. We come to the end of the year to find

Santa Claus making an appearance at the Methodist Church as it

presented a cantata titled “Santa Listens In,” which featured A.B.

Hitterdahl as that overweight man in the red suit.

Many more events happened in 1924, which time precludes some major

and many minors ones just as we have today.

The one thing that both the people of 1924 and the people of 2004

have in common is that these events happened in our wonderful

Huntington Beach.

* 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.