1963 (1962) (1964) (1950-1960) (1960-1970Table of Contents

 

 

 

Sources

 

 

Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg Virginia & Truckee: A Story of Virginia City and Comstock Times, Howell-North: Berkeley, California, 1949 (1963), Fifth Edition, 67pp. 1949, 1963, 1860's, 1850 See Text

Walter Mosley A Little Yellow Dog, W.W. Norton: NY, 1996, 300 pp. (1963) See Text

Storm Drain, Ashland Avenue and Neilson Way, 1963-64 See Image

Ocean Park Housing, 1963-64 See Image

Ocean Park Redevelopment, 1963-64 The Beach, See Image

Pico Storm Drain Installation Near the Santa Monica Civic Center, Pico and Main St., 1963-64 See Image

Pier Avenue Redevelopment, 1963, See Image

William Pillin Ocean Park Pavane For A Fading Memory, 1963 reprinted in To The End Of Time, Poems New And Selected (1939-1979), Papa Bach Editions: Los Angeles, 1980.  See Poem

Santa Monica Freeway Fourth St. Overpass Construction, 1963-64 See Image

Santa Monica Planning Division Santa Monica Landmarks Tour, 2003.
33. Santa Monica Pier  See Text

Amanda Schacter (ed.) Santa Monica Landmarks Santa Monica Landmarks Commission, 1990.
8 Santa Monica Municipal Pier See Text

Jeffrey Stanton* Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987, 176 pp., 1963, 1960s, 1959, 1958, 1956 See Text, Image, Links

 

 

 

Documents

 

 

 

Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg Virginia & Truckee: A Story of Virginia City and Comstock Times, Howell-North: Berkeley, California, 1949 (1963), Fifth Edition, 67pp. 1949, 1963, 1860's, 1850

     "The passing of the V & T will leave Nevada, in all truth, a graveyard of railroads whose only peer as a necropolis of short lines is Colorado. Forgotten by all but professional railroad historians is the Pioche and Bullionville which was to link that fabulous mining community with Senator John P. Jones' ambitious San Pedro and Salt Lake line. Gone, save in its vestigial remnant, is the Southern Pacific's Owens Valley branch across the state line in California, the once wistful and momentarily opulent Carson and Colorado. With the snows of yesteryear are the Nevada-California-Oregon narrow gauge, the Eureka and Palisade of fragrant memory and the once riotous Nevada Central. Only grade rights of way in the southern Nevada deserts serve to remind of the life that once flowed along the Tonopah and Tidewater, the Bullfrog-Goldfield, the Tonopah and Goldfield and the Las Vegas and Tonaopah. Dead in the surveyor's reports is the proposed Nevada and Utah Railroad that was to run from Tonopah to the southern littoral of the the Great Salt Lake. Closely associated, in California, was the unsinkable Senator Jones' short line, unsurveyed but actually financed, that was to run from San Bernadino over the Cajon to the foot of Surprise Canyon at the height of the fantastic Panamint boom." p. 67

 

 

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Walter Mosley A Little Yellow Dog, W.W. Norton: NY, 1996, 300 pp. (1963)

 
     " . . . "
     (p. 173) "Jackson was afraid to stay down in L.A. because he thought that he was open to any black man who knew the price . . . He was afraid of Hollywood and downtown because of the gangsters themselves.
     "So I took him to the Oasis Palms Motel on Lincoln in Santa Monica. . . .

     " . . . "

 

 

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William Pillin

 

Ocean Park

I confront the star-spell of the esplanade!
I walk as jaunty as a sailor
among fortune-tellers, dancers, gymnasts,
among gamblers, among all sorts of gypsies.
Necromantic presences mingle among us:
this cute whore is Phryne, sister of moonlights,
this old Jew under a streetlight is Merlin;
Shaharazad serves coffee and pancakes
and Sindbad lures the unwary with trinkets.
 
I have an illusion of freedom
and it may well be a prelude to trouble.
Who cares? This is a magical evening!
All things assume a novel succulence; clusters
of black grapes, sausages, pastries.
I am avid, like a cat in the jungle
seduced by a scent of musk or civet.
 
In blue-bright air flares are falling
to dissolve on restaurants, wineshops,
dance-halls and dimly lit interiors
from one of which (an obscure shrine of Pan?)
we hear a bacchic wail of clarinets.
Here is a café where Lesbians gather
and here is a place where, they tell me,
anything can happen. The unpredictable
lures like an unwritten poem. All else failing
one could shoot down a bomber or witness
a piquant disrobing in a penny arcade.
 
I turn sadly back to my curfewed suburb
of discreet doorways and subdued lamplights.
What is lacking here, what tang, what tonic?
Nocturnal laughters and musical whispers
have been exiled to the sea-edge
by the police and jeering merchants.
Held by a dangerous moonlight
between cold stones and colder water
life's subtle djinns clamor for release.

 

     -from Pavane For A Fading Memory, 1963

Reprinted in To The End Of Time, Poems New And Selected (1939-1979), Papa Bach Editions: Los Angeles, 1980.

 

 

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Images scanned from the

 

 

[The Ofice of the City Manaer, Santa Monica] Perry Scott, The Changing Face of Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica Annual Reprot, 1963-64, 38 pp., 1964, 1963

 

Storm Drain, Ashland Avenue and Neilson Way, 1963-64

 


 

 


 

Ocean Park Housing, 1963-64

 


 

 


 

Ocean Park Redevelopment, 1963-64 The Beach

 


 

 


 

Pico Storm Drain Installation Near the Santa Monica Civic Center, Pico and Main St., 1963-64

 

Ocean Park Redevelopment, 1963-64 The Beach, See Image

 


 

 


 

Pier Avenue Redevelopment, 1963

 


 

 


 

Santa Monica Freeway Fourth St. Overpass Construction, 1963-64

 


 

 


 

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Santa Monica Planning Division Santa Monica Landmarks Tour, 2003.
33. Santa Monica Pier
Foot of Colorado Avenue
Architect: Charles Looff {?}
Designation: 17 August 1976

     " . . . the famed La Monica Ballroom . . . was demolished in 1963, in its heyday the massive structure could accomodate as many as 10,000 people.

     "In 1953, the City took over the Pleasure Pier and leased it to a private operator. Since the 1970s, the Piers have been known collectively as the Santa Monica Pier. The entire Pier was named a County Historical Landmark in 1975. After the 1983 storms that destroyed the west end of the Santa Monica Pier, the structure of the Pier was strengthened.

 

 

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Amanda Schacter (ed.) Santa Monica Landmarks Santa Monica Landmarks Commission, 1990.

8 Santa Monica Municipal Pier
West end of Colorado Boulevard
Built: 1909, 1917, 1924
Designated 17 August 1976

     "The Santa Monica Pier was originally two separately owned, adjacent piers: the Municipal Pier built in 1909, and the Pleasure Pier, built in 1916 by Charles I.D. Loof and privately owned. While the Municipal Pier was for strolling and fishing, Loof constructed amusement and food establishments on the Pleasure Pier, including the exotic Hippodrome building to house the Pier's carousel. Loof sold the Pleasure Pier in 1924 to a corporation which lengthened it that year and built the famed La Monica Ballroom. Although the ballroom was demolished in 1963, in its hey (sic) day the massive structure could accommodate as many as 10,000 people. The City has owned both Piers since the 1950's and, in 1970, assumed direct management. Since the 1970's the Piers have been known collectively as the Santa Monica Pier.

     "The Hippodrome has housed three carousels over the years. The first carousel, installed by Loof, remained until 1939, when it was replaced by a carousel that had previously been located at the old Pacific Ocean Park Pier. The current carousel was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1922 and was moved from Nashville, Tennessee to the Santa Monica Pier in 1947. The Hippodrome building was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1988. In addition, the entire Pier was named a County Historical Landmark in 1975.

     "Other buildings of interest on the Pier include the Billiard Building, constructed on the the Pier in 1923, and the building know today as Sinbad's, originally constructed next to the Billiard Building in the early 1920s. The building remained there until 1929, when it was moved to its present location, adjacent to the site of the La Monica Ballroom. It served as the home of the La Monica Dancing Company and Hoyt's Chesapeake Cafe until the use changed in 1955 to "Sinbad's" restaurant."

 

 

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Jeffrey Stanton* Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987, 176 pp., 1963, 1960s, 1959, 1958, 1956

     " . . . It [Pacific Ocean Park] did, however, attract 1,216,000 paid customers in 1963.

      "It was sold in October 1963 to Irving Kay, a San Francisco real estate developer for $7.5 million. The deal included some other property. At first he leased P.O.P. back to management headed by Jack Roberts, but then in January he sold the park to Roberts' company, Amusement Purchase, Inc. for $2.5 million."

 

 

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