A LOOK BACK:

Over the years, many noted visitors have appeared on the stage of the old Memorial Hall at Sixth Street and Orange Avenue in our former downtown civic center. This week we’re going back to look at two events at the hall that were sponsored in part by our American Legion Post.

Our first featured the son of Rudolph Friml and his band for a special musical program for the Disabled American Veterans (D.A.V.) Feb. 24, 1941.

Friml’s father was the composer of such musicals as “The Vagabond King,” “Rose Marie,” “The Firefly” and “The Three Musketeers.”

Having Rudolph Friml Jr. and his band play was another feather in our city’s cap, when he agreed to perform at the 13th Annual Disabled Veterans’ Military Ball.

Young Friml was born and raised around his father’s music where he was taught to play and accompany his father on the piano while still in grade school.

Friml went to school in Los Angeles, where he studied musical theory and composition.

After forming his own band, the group appeared at famous places including the Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City, Brighton Beach in New York, and in many small ballrooms and leading dance spots along the East Coast.

It was while the band was playing at the Los Angeles Biltmore and at the El Cortez Hotel that the popular bandleader was engaged to play at our event.

As the big night arrived, women in long gowns and men in black ties filled the hall as if it were opening night at the opera.

At the entrance, Huntington Beach Mayor Marcus M. McCallen was busy greeting the many prominent men and women who attended from all parts of Orange County.

As Santa Ana Mayor Plummer Bruns entered the hall, it was McCallen who was first to shake his hand in welcome.

Lt. W.H. Gallienne and his wife exchanged small talk with Mary Harmon, chaplain of the Jack Fisher Post of the D.A.V. in Santa Ana. A nervous Jenevie Andersen, hostess for the military ball, waited for the program to begin.

The ceremony began with a grand march in which many of our members of American Legion Post 133 took part.

At a given signal, members of the Huntington Beach drum and bugle corps, under the personal supervision of Joe Elliott, led the grand march.

Sgt. Hunter Leach, A.F. Moulton and J.B. Stephenson, all members of the Santa Ana Police Department, along with members of our local Joseph L. Rodman Post No. 133, formed the guard of honor with the last two rear guards carrying the California and American flags.

The old hall was decorated with flags and military decorations for this special black-tie event.

Judge Franklin West, past commander of the Santa Ana post, served as master of ceremonies that evening.

Elmer Sullivan, taking over as acting secretary and manager of the ball committee, announced that the money raised at this event would go toward rehabilitating those veterans who were disabled during World War I.

Sullivan thanked Frank Winterbourne, who could not attend because of illness, for making the ball one of the most successful ever given, and Mrs. A.G. Flagg was thanked for her many years of service to the veterans’ organization.

Flagg’s son-in-law, J. Riley Huber, was the person responsible for arranging Friml and his band to be there that evening.

During the program many members of the different committees were thanked, including Mrs. Charles Van Wyk and her committee who served punch to the guests, Floyd Mitchell and his flag committee for the decorations, and Mrs. Nelson Rogers and her committee for manning the checkroom.

The guests danced the night away to the music of Friml’s Band.

Three days later Memorial Hall was host to a civic program, the theme of which was Americanism and National defense and featured the Santa Ana Choral group of the W.P.A. Southern California Music Project, one of President Roosevelt’s popular programs to bring America out of the Great Depression.

This event was sponsored by our American Legion Auxiliary and was open to everyone without admission charge.

The 18-member choral group was under the direction of Dodley Page Harper and was recognized for its singing ability.

The choral group had just finished giving several concerts at the Gold Shell Memorial Park Amphitheatre in Pasadena.

But it was the talk by Major W.E. Robinson of Long Beach that much of the audience had come to hear.

Robinson told the audience that National Defense was vital in these unsettled times of 1941, and he would answer questions from the audience regarding our country’s defense program.

Today, Memorial Hall is no longer here to host these wonderful programs and events as it was demolished to make way for Frank Mola’s redevelopment project in the early 1980s.

JERRY PERSON is the city’s historian and a longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.