1913 (1912) (1914) (1900-1910) (1910-1920) Table of Contents

Sources

Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935, 1913, 1906 See Text

Catalina Island Post Card, Unknow Publisher, 1913,   See Image and Text

Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, Cal. Post Card, 697, The Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles, Cal., KR, 1913 See Image

Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1913, 1889, See Text

The Giant Safety Racing Coaster "The Race Thru the Clouds" Venice, California Thomas F. Prior, Vice President & Gen. Mgr., Post Card, Venice Poistcard Co., 21 Washington St., Venice, CA, 90291, GM; Unused." "The Race Thru the Clouds" roller-coaster on the Venice Lagoon-1913, See Image and Text

Laurence Goldstein, The American poet at the movies: a critical history , Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1994, 272 pp., Introduction, 1922, 1920s, 1915, 1913,  See Text

Among the distinctive poems of 1913:

The Forum (1913)

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, The Kallyope Yell    See Text

William Huntington Wright, What of the Night?    See Text

Smart Set (1913)

Willard Huntington Wright, Later       See Text

Paul J. Karlstrom and Susan Ehrlich Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists 1920-1956, Barry M. Heisler Introduction Santa Barbara Museum of Art 1990, 1913   See Text

James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1966, 1949, 1943, 1942, 1941, 1940, 1933, 1921, 1913, 1912 See Text

Esther McCoy Irving Gill 1870-1936 Five California Architects, 1960, Reprinted in Marvin Rand Irving J. Gill: Architect 1870-1936, Gibbs Smith, Publisher: Salt Lake City, UT, Design, Ahde Lahti; Photographs, Marvin Rand, 2006, 238 pp. pp. 219-227, 2006a, 1916, 1913 See Text

Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979) (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts) 1913 See Text

A Rose Hedge in Midwinter AB 227 On the Road of a Thousand Wonders Post Card Van Orne Color Print Co. Distrib. by the O. Newman Co., Los Angeles San Francisco KR 1913 See Image and Text

Santa Monica Planning Division Santa Monica Landmarks Tour, 2003.
50. Craftsman style Residence, 1913 See Text

Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1913, 1890, See Text

Comments:

Both Vachel Lindsay and Willard Wright, as S.S. Van Dyne, were fascinated with Egyptian hieroglyphics. As was Ed Sanders . . .

Documents

Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935

Chaoter XV Underneath the Surface

     "

     "[p.178] Sarah Bernhardt came here several times-usually to play in vaudeville. Life was never monotonous during the period of her visits. The first time [1906] she went to live in a hotel at Venice by the sea and insisted that she should catch the fish for her own dinner every night. The press agent of the Orpheum had to hire old sea-dogs to catch fish; put them in a tub under the wharf and see that Madam's fish-hook arrived in the tub. On her last visit they hired a floor of a Hollywoood hotel for her; but she was adamant; she would go back to Venice-by that time a wreck of the gay resort she had visited. Coming back to the theater for an evening performance, her car bumped into a truck loaded with iron pipe. She catapulted into the front seat of her car and hurt her knee. She finished the evening journey riding on the lap of the truck-driver. I was so unfeeling as to write a newspaper story about it and she hired bill-boards all over town to denounce me and my iniquities . . . the press agent following with a second detachment of bill-board stickers to paster over the [p. 179] denunciation. Madame Bernhardt never recovered from the injury to her knee. When she got to Paris, her leg was amputated-and this was the beginning of the end. She made one more visit, being carried onto the stage in a wheeled chair and supporting herself by a table as she went through the motions of acting. Her greatest rival, Duse, also made one of the last appearances of her life in Los Angeles. In those days my newspaper work was concerned largely with the world of sports as well as the theater.

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Catalina Island, Post Card Unknown Publisher, 1913

Catalina Island, 1913

Franked with a  green one-cent Washington, cancelled with 
World's Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco 1915
Date Marked Los Angeles, CA
May 24, 3-PM 1913

Master Merrill Roberts
R.F.D. No. 5
Roberta Farms.
Grand Rapids, Mich.

May 24th. 1913.

Dear Merrill;-

     Thank you very much for your post card. This postal shows Fred. Burdick and little Zoe at Catalina Island. We all had a fine time over there. Hope you are having a fine time and also having fine weather, for we are enjoying beautiful weather here. Remember me to everybody, and when you write, tell me all the news and how Rex, is getting along with his girl?

With love, Uncle Alva

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Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, Cal. Post Card, 697, The Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles, Cal., KR, 1913

Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, Cal. Post Card, 697, The Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles, Cal., KR, 1913

Postmarked June 2, 1913, 5:30 p.m., Los Angeles, Cal., Franked with the ! cent green Washington, with a banner advertising the 1915 World's Pan Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. Addressed to Mrs. G.A. Hull in Tulare, Calif., by her friend Chas. Walton

Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1913, 1889

     Garfield [Elementary at Michigan and Seventh] had the distinction of providing still another "first" in the Santa Monica schools. Because of the large number of working mothers in the neighborhood who were compelled to leave small children at home unattended, the need for a kindergarten became apparent. Thus, in the fall of 1913, the first kindergarten in Santa Monica was opened with one teacher. [30. Board Minutes, Aug. 9, 1913.] Increased enrollment soon required the employment of a second teacher, at which time a second classroom was converted to kindergarten use, offering an attractive, homelike environment in which to continue the program.

     " . . . First, although adult classes were held as early as 1889, it was only in 1913 that the adult education program and evening high school were officially organized."

     " . . .

     "The formal dedication of the new high school took place on February 23, 1913, at two o'clock in the afternoon. Mrs. D.G. Stephens, then president of the Board of Education, presiding. The Reverend Lislie Lebinger offered the invocation, Superintendent Horace M. Rebok presented the dedicatory address, and Mrs. Stephens made the formal dedication of the school. [59, Program, Dedication of Santa Monica High School, February 23, 1913; in files of Santa Monica Board of Education.]

     " . . .

     "Two memorial gateways, each costing $1000, adorn the high school grounds. The Williamson D. Vawter Gate and the Robert P. Elliott Gate were announced at the dedication ceremonies of the new high school on February 23, 1913. The Vawter Gate, erected on Fifth Street and Michigan Avenue, was dedicated by the children of W.D. Vawter. Vawter was one of the pioneer citizens of California, a man who had exhibited great interest in the schools of Santa Monica, and a man respected in the community for his civic, industrial, and moral worth. The Robert P. Elliott Gate was presented by Carl F. Schader in honor of his father-in-law who, in an earlier period, had served for two terms on the Board of Education and was an active civic leader. This gate opens to Pico Boulevard and Fourth Street.

     " . . .

     " [Santa Monica High School Principal, Frank W.] Thomas* resigned in 1913 to become president of Fresno State Teachers College, and the Board of Education accepted his resignation "with deepest regret." His successor was J.E. McKown (1913-1914).

     " . . .

Special Services

     Many special services have been introduced in the Santa Monica schools during the years, some of the earlier ones being these: [46: Martin, op. cit., p. 60.]

1913 Miss Elizabeth Hamlin* elected Elementary General Supervisor.

     " . . .

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The Giant Safety Racing Coaster Post Card

The Giant Safety Racing Coaster "The Race Thru the Clouds" Venice, California Thomas F. Prior, Vice President & Gen. Mgr., Post Card, Venice Poistcard Co., 21 Washington St., Venice, CA, 90291, GM; Unused." "The Race Thru the Clouds" roller-coaster on the Venice Lagoon-1913.

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Laurence Goldstein, The American poet at the movies: a critical history , Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1994, 272 pp., Introduction, 1922, 1920s, 1915, 1913, 

     "An article from a 1913 issue of Moving Picture World expresses the same sentiment:

     "The motion picture has emancipated the gallery. I might say the gallery is having its revenge on the boxes and loges, but there is no question of revenge. The facts merely show that no single factor in our modern civilization has done more to emphasize the brotherhood of man than the motion picture. No single factor has done more to create that sympathetic understanding between individuals and nations which is really an asset of the whole race and which does more for the preservation of peace among the nations that The Hague Tribunal or the Peace Society."

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The Forum (1913)          

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay

The Kallyope Yell

[Loudly and rapidly with a leader, College yell fashion]

I

II

III

IV

V

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Smart Set                

William Huntington Wright

Later

I addled my brain with the memories flown
Of Heatherby Kaiser and Muriel Moore;
I thought of the women and men I had known, --
The glittering eyes and the bolt on the door --

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The Forum, 1913                                    

Willard Huntington Wright

What of the Night?

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Paul J. Karlstrom and Susan Ehrlich Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists 1920-1956, Barry M. Heisler Introduction Santa Barbara Museum of Art 1990, 1913

     " . . . Macdonald-Wright* and Feitelson should share credit as the pioneering figures in California art. . . . Macdonald-Wright*'s notion of color harmony, developed with Morgan Russell in Paris about 1913, actually had much in common with Symbolist correspondences between the arts (music and painting), not to mention the contemporary work of the Orphists and Futurists. . . . after retuning to Los Angeles in 1919, Macdonald-Wright experimented with color wheels and a color machine, collaborating with ceramicist and movie special effects pioneer Albert King. . . . " p. 29

Stanton Macdonald-Wright (1890-1973), 1990, 1913, 1912, 1910, 1907, 1904, 1900, 1890      

     "By 1910 his work had attained showcase stature and was accepted to the Salon d'Automne; two years later it gained entry into the prestigious Salon des Independents. Between the two shows, Macdonald-Wright befriended American artist Morgan Russell, with whom he developed a close working relationship. Together they investigated the serpentine rhythms of Michelangelo, the broken brushwork of the Impressionists, and the spatial plasticity of Cezanne. At the same time they responded to Matisse and Picasso, whose work they encountered at Gertrude Stein's salon. While absorbing the lessons of these masters they studied the color theories of Chevreul, Helmholtz and Rood and took classes from the Canadian colorist Percyval Tudor-Hart. The latter formulated a scheme of chromatic triads by which works could be keyed to a dominant chord. Additionally, he compared painting with music, relating, for instance, luminosity, saturation, and hue to musical pitch, volume, and tone.

     "Convinced of color's preemptive importance, Russell and Macdonald-Wright developed a movement predicated on hue. Naming it Synchromism, meaning "with color," they introduced it in 1913 at Der Neue Kunstsalon in Munich and at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris.

     "Like the contemporary Orphist movement with which it has been compared, Synchromism joined the fragmented forms of the Cubists with the brilliant hues of the Fauves. Importantly, however, it pushed the Fauve revolt further by liberating color from formal depiction. Freed from the burden of representation, color, in theory, could work independently as the prime agent of formal expression.

     "To justify an art of pure color divorced from depiction, Russell and Macdonald-Wright invoked the example of music. Like Tudor-Hart, the Orphists, and Vasily Kandinsky, they allied the two arts metaphorically, pointing to their shared expressive and formal traits. In the catalogue for their 1913 Munich show, they argued that painting equaled music in its sublimity: "mankind has until now always tried to satisfy its need for the highest spiritual exaltation only in music. Only tones have been able to grip us and transport us to the highest realms. Whenever man had a desire for heavenly intoxication, he turned to music. Yet color is just as capable as music of providing us with the highest ecstasies and delights."

(Note the similarities to Charles Seeger's analogies between language and music.)

     "These high ambitions inspired the artists to exhibit thier works in London, Milan, and Warsaw in 1913 and in New York the following year . . . "

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 James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1966, 1949, 1943, 1942, 1941, 1940, 1933, 1921, 1913, 1912

     "15. Santa Monica High School, 601 Pico Boulevard. The cornerstone for the high school was laid on April 11, 1912, on what was once known as Prospect Hill; the campus has expanded over the years to its present size by incorporating the former Santa Monica College site.

     "The high school contains a great many points of interest, especially . . . Barnum Hall, dedicated to William F. Barnum*, who served as principal from 1913 to 1943 . . . Two special items of interest in Barnum Hall's lobby are a mosaic-tile mural depicting the landing of the vikings and a four-foot-tall concrete owl that stood atop the original high school from 1913 until 1933, when an earthquake caused its removal.

Ocean Park

     "42. Church in Ocean Park, 235 Hill Street. A United Methodist Church established in 1913, the present brick church building was built in 1923.

     "58. Los Amigos Park, Fifth and Ocean Park. This three-acre city recreation park is the former site of John Adams Junior High School, which was built in 1913 and abandoned after the 1933 earthquake when the new junior high school was built at 16th and Pearl. The land was leased to the city for park purposes in 1949 after having been used by the Army as a recreation center and by the Navy as a training site. It was for many years the location of the Morgan Theatre, which occupied the former Army recreation hall as a community theater until it was destroyed by fire in 1966."

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Esther McCoy Irving Gill 1870-1936 Five California Architects, 1960, Reprinted in Marvin Rand Irving J. Gill: Architect 1870-1936, Gibbs Smith, Publisher: Salt Lake City, UT, Design, Ahde Lahti; Photographs, Marvin Rand, 2006, 238 pp. pp. 219-227, 2006a, 1916, 1913

     "In 1913, Gill's chance to express himself fully in low-cost housing seemed on the point of fulfillment. He had just completed the Echo Park Court, a group of four-room, well-lighted houses which faced an off-street garden. This was believed to be the prototype of the court system, now so entrenched in California, until Pasadena claimed an earlier one of redwood. Echo Park Court was the urban counterpart of Sierra Madre Court.

     "Soon after Olmsted and Olmsted, sons of Frederick Church Olmsted, famous park planner, were commisssioned to lay out the model industrial town of Torrance, to the south of Los Angeles. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. proposed Gill as chief architect. Pacific Electric, Union Tool and Llewelyn Iron Works had received a franchise from the Dominguez Land Corporation for the use of 700 acres near Los Angeles, on which to build shops, a civic center, a railway station and houses for their employees.

     "Gill was ready for a major work. By this time his planning had matured to the point where he was perfectly capable of unifying a city. His plot planning in the Scripps Group for La Jolla was a great achievement in the creation of a leisurely and logical flow of space between buildings. He had arrived at a technical mastery over concrete; he had captured the plastic feel of the material, and successfully brought his forms into a single mass. The subject of his architecture was always man, and he had the insight to plan for many as well as one.

     "Gill's enthusiasm for the project was so great that he moved his office up to Los Angeles, leaving his young nephew Louis in charge in San Diego. A year went into the planning of Torrance. First to be built was Gill's bridge into the city, then the Pacific Electric Station and one office building. But of the hundreds of cottages planned, only ten were completed.

     "According to Frederick Gutheim, who recalled Gill's account of the affair, "The plan had been completely accepted by management and was in the course of execution when difficulties were encountered by the opposition of labor. They objected to the plan itself, from which many traditional work details had been eliminated, because of the extreme simplicity and economy which characterized the dwellings. The climax appears to have been a public meeting in which the design of the dwellings was criticized and the architect faced a hostile and unrelenting audience."

     "Work on Gill's concrete houses ceased and wood houses in traditional styles were erected.

     "Torrance now (1960) is the major industrial city in Los Angeles County and has a population of 100,000. The Olmsted city plan was octagonal in shape with the city hall at the center; industries were placed in an outer ring. Before the city hall could be built the large site was preempted by the Los Angeles Board of Education, which agreed to operate a school in the new city on condition that the building be erected there.

     "Gill's graceful three-arched viaduct is now used to carry freight into the city, and the long, low station is a freight office. No trains were ever visible from the street, for the tracks were behind the station and below street (p. 225) level. Across from the station were two three-story office buildings designed by Gill; they have been razed to make space for parking lots.

     "Gill's houses were set back over 25 feet from the street and the house walls extended to form garden walls. The off-street entrance was through an arch in the garden wall-a favorite device of Gill's which loses none of its graciousness with time.

     "The porches of the houses are now enclosed, rooms have been added, and the interior wall between living room and dining room removed. The skylights in the bathroom and in the interior hall are the features most appreciated by the owners. Few houses contemporary with Gill's in Torrance are still standing, and those built two decades later are already out of date."

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 Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979) (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts) 1913

Sarah Bernhardt

     "Sarah Bernhardt returned to the Venice Beach seven years (1913) after her Venice Pier appearance in 1906, and rented an entire floor of the King George Hotel."

The Beach

     "The King George Hotel, later the Ocean View Hotel . . . "

Boxing

     "The Venice Athletic Club was located on the second story of a Windward Avenue building. The gymnasium provided training quarters for many of boxing's early stars. Joe Rivers, Jimmy Clabby, "English" Freddie Welsh. But Anderson and Jack O'Brien were some of the professionals . . .

     "Luther McCarty, a "white hope" . . . trained in Venice and was popular among the ocean front crowds. He died from a ring injury in 1913.

     "McCarty's sparring partner, John "Bull" Young, who was engaged to a Venice girl, died that same year following a boxing match with Jess Willard at the Vernon Arena.

     "Ad Wolgast . . .

     " . . .

     "Boxing was banned in the city in 1913. Dick Donald and Tommy Jacobs both unsuccessfully tried to revive the sport.

     "In later years several Venice boxers became popular local attractions at the Ocean Park Arena and Olympic Auditorium, among them Kenny LaSalle, Phil "Babe" Brandelli, Ge Ge Gravante and Frank Duarte."

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A Rose Hedge in Midwinter

A Rose Hedge in Midwinter AB 227 On the Road of a Thousand Wonders Post Card Van Orne Color Print Co. Distrib, by the O. Newman Co., Los Angeles San Francisco KR Franked with a one cent Washington Green in San Pedro Jun 19, 5:30 pm, 1913. Addressed to Miss Bun Coon, Los Angeles Calif., 945 S, New Hampshire St. Dear Bun, Will just drop you a card as there is no news. Haven't heard from mama or Hazel in two days. Wish you would come down and stay a few days. I haven't been any place all week too lazy. Just going to the store. Come down!!! Ruby

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Santa Monica Planning Division Santa Monica Landmarks Tour, 2003.
50. Craftsman style Residence, 1913
502 Raymond Avenue
Architect: Unknown
Designation: 14 April 2003

     "The main structure on this property was built in 1913, and the rear unit was added in 1940. The house typifies the residential development of the Ocean Park neighborhood during the first quarter of the 20th century. The residence's Craftsman features include the low-pitched multi-gable roof, horizontal emphasis, shingle siding, exposed rafter tails and eave brackets, and wood frame windows.

     "The brick pillars on the front porch were restored in 2001, when the property was extensively renovated. The stained glass windows were not the original type used on this house, but are typically associated with the Craftsman style."

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Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1913, 1890,

7. Canyon School

     " . . .

     "The story of Canyon School at this time [1913] is eloquently told in tape-recorded reminescences by two of its teachers, Beulah Archer Asimont* and Theresa Sletten. Beulah June Archer* came with local credentials. She attended the South Side School in Ocean Park, which was founded in 1890-a one-room frame schoolhouse with a cupola, resembling Canyon School. Her teacher was Miss Hamlin* a very young, very tall woman with long black hair which was caught up by huge bone hairpins into a bun that shifted from side to side atop her head. She was impressive in the classroom and an inspiration to her students. Beulah later observed, "I thought that, next to God and Christ and my parents was my teacher, Miss Hamlin,* and I determined that I would be a teacher some day."

     "Miss Archer* attended Santa Monica High School and the Los Angeles Normal School on Vermont. After graduation in 1913, she came to Canyon School, position that paid seventy-five dollars a month, plus five dollars for janitorial duties. Her trip each day took her by streetcar to the canyon rim at Inspiration Point, then down a trail. The young teacher walked carefully, dressed in her long skirts. wearing cuban heels, and with her red hair up high in a bun-"not because of Miss Hamlin, but because that was the style.""

     "The thirty-odd pupils who made up her class ranged in age from five to fifteen years and included black Americans, white Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Japanese-and Russian-Americans-the latter coming from the fishing colony next to the Long Wharf. There, on a narrow strip of sand between cliffs and surf, families lived in small houses and shacks and in old street cars brought out from Los Angeles to provide housing at four dollars a month.

     " . . .

     "One of the boys lived in a streetcar and was very poor. . . . Miss Archer hated to see him walk over to Jefferson School in Santa Monica for classes in sloyd (woodworking), so she bought him an outfit and had him change in the shed that housed the mechanical toilet . . . " p. 61

9 The Lower Canyon as West Coast Bohemia

     " . . .

     "The eccentric style was set in 1913 when the subdivsion was brand new. A wealthy dowager named Mary Kyte,* who lived in one of the grand houses on Ocean Avenue, bought the large parcel of land inside the sweeping curve of Mesa Road. She enclosed it with a fence, built two brick restrooms inside, put in ponds and trees, and engaged Roman Marquez to work full time caring for the plantings. She brought groups of nuns and parochial school children out to go to the beach, but only once during her twenty-four years of ownership did she really entertain, with an elegant catered afternoon party in the garden behind the wall.

     "The strong-willed lady drove out to visit the property in her custom-built, chauffeur-driven limousine, sitting in the front seat and clutching the bulb of an air horn which she sounded vigorously while going up and down the Ocean Avenue grade. . . .

     "The Kyte property remained intact until the mid-1930s, when it was bought and subdivided by Robert Donovan. Architect Thornton Abell purchased a portion and built his own widely honored International-style home on the hillside and in the 1940s incorporated the two restrooms into a small house for artist Richard Haines.

     " . . ."

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