Making Surf City a whistle stop

JERRY PERSON

Throughout our hundred-plus years of history, we have welcomed many

important citizens to our city. There have been several well-known

politicians who have stopped to say a few words to our residents, or

have ventured through our community.

There have been presidents, vice-presidents and governors who have

enjoyed our beautiful city, and this week we’ll look at four of these

individuals.

Our first important figure may have stopped and dined with one of

our early families.

Many years ago, I was talking to Ruth Robertson, the wife of Main

Street clothing storeowner Jack Robertson, and she related this

story, which I have not been able to substantiate yet. Ruth told me

that when she was a very little girl, her parents had dinner with the

Newland family at their home on the hill.

She told me that one of the guests at that dinner was the 26th

president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. Since the Newland

house is much older then-Pacific City (1901) and Huntington Beach

(late 1903), the story could be true -- Roosevelt was in California

around that time in Yosemite.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger launched his campaign for governor of

California, he chose Huntington Beach as his kickoff site. A huge

crowd of both media and local people stood on the sidewalk in front

of the Inka Grill in the third block of Main Street.

Finally, after a long wait, he entered the restaurant and spoke to

several members of our business community, including Steve Bone of

the Waterfront Hilton. Schwarzenegger stepped out onto the sidewalk

and was mobbed by a sea of people. He walked along Main Street to

Jack’s Surfboards and across to Huntington Surf & Sport and back up

Main Street.

He ended his visit to our town at the fountain in front of the

city’s parking structure.

It was Richard Nixon, a young congressman who pulled into town in

his station wagon on April 28, 1950. Nixon was traveling through

Orange County, with his wife Pat, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Nixon stopped his car at the corner of Main Street and Walnut Avenue

to address more than 200 people in a 15-minute talk.

We waited for Ted Bartlett, president of the Huntington Beach

Chamber of Commerce, to introduce him to the public. Climbing up on

the back of his station wagon’s tailgate, Nixon, with hand mike in

one hand, he spoke on two important issues of the day. One issue was

the unnecessary governmental expenditures and the other issue was

communistic infiltration in Washington.

While speaking about the hidden government taxes that support the

bureaucratic monstrosity now sloshing greedily about, his wife Pat

passed out useful thimbles to the ladies.

I’m not sure how our next story got started about our 32nd

president riding in our Fourth of July parade in 1938 and I am sorry

to say it just didn’t happen.

What took place happened 12 days after our parade when President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in our state campaigning for Senator

William Gibbs McAdoo. It was on July 16, 1938 that President

Roosevelt’s motorcade left Los Angeles for San Diego to dedicate San

Diego’s new civic center building.

He would make three stops in Orange County, but I am sorry to say

that Huntington Beach was not one of these. The towns FDR stopped in

were Seal Beach, Laguna Beach and San Clemente.

His caravan did travel slowly along Ocean Avenue (PCH) from one

city limit to the other. Huge crowds lined the sidewalks, jammed roof

tops and stood in second story windows and anywhere else they could

find to see the president. Several hundred kids climbed onto the roof

of the Pacific Electric depot at the pier entrance for a good view.

The steel arch across Main Street and Ocean Avenue had been

decorated 50 feet high with California flowers, and there were flags

flying all over town in his honor.

When Roosevelt’s car entered our city, a great roaring welcome was

heard and this would continue all along the three miles of our city

limits. Many of our patriotic organizations turned out in uniform to

greet our chief executive.

There have been many other notable people who have stopped in our

town, and I am sure that many more will follow, just for the thrill

of shaking hands with someone from Surf City, USA.

* 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.