1973 (1972) (1974) (1960-1970) (1970-1980) Table of Contents
Dr. Demento Fan Club, Autographed Post Card, 1973 See Images and Text
Robert Gottlieb and Irene Wolt* Thinking Big: The Story of the Los Angeles Times, Its Publishers and Their Influence on Southern California, G.P. Putnam's Sons: NY, 1977. 603 pp., 1973 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, 1973, 1948 See Text
Stanton Macdonald-Wright [1890-1973] Chronology 2001, 1973 (updated) 2005 See Text
Jenny Pirie*, Peter Kastner* and Jeff Mudrick* A Short History of Ocean Park, Ocean Park Community Organization, 1982, (With a 1983 update.) 15pp. 1983, 1982, 1973, 1970s, See Text
Horst Schmidt-Brümmer Venice, California: An Urban Fantasy, Grossman Publishers: NY, (English trans., Feelie Lee) 1973 (Original German Text Verlag Ernst Wasmuth: Tubingen, 1972), 108 pp., 1971, 1966, 1950s, 1930s, 1925, 1904, See Text
Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1973 See Text
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1973 See Text
Notes:
Venice as Visual Text
" . . . The visible fact that the people respond to their environment by their particular, personalized, and original additions and changes creates an environment which, in turn, stimulates further responses; this fact illustrates the dynamic interaction that exists between the environment and its people. This sense of participation, of the possiblitity of writing on the evironmental text, becomes more visually evident by contrast to the determined, noninvitational, and restrictive character of the new Venice."
Horst Schmidt-Brümmer Venice, California: An Urban Fantasy, Grossman Publishers: NY, (English trans., Feelie Lee) 1973 (Original German Text Verlag Ernst Wasmuth: Tubingen, 1972), 108 pp., 1973, 1971
"City Manager Perry Scott, favoring the removing of the Santa Monica Pier . . . said city taxpayers were subsidizing . . . the pier. "There's a very substantial use of the pier by those who don't spend money. I'm talking about kids and the elderly who come out to dangle hooks. The pier might be charming to some folks-but I wonder how much the general public should pay for that charm."" Stanton, 1990, See Below
Documents
Dr. Demento Fan Club Autographed Post Card, 1973
Dr. Demento Post Card Letter, 1973
A post card from radio station KMET FM 94.7, sent May 23, 1973 and autographed by Dr. Demento, aka Barret E. Hansen, Reed '63, depicts Dr. Demento holding an Edison Record, the R side of Edison Record 51917-R, "Give me a Ukulele (and a Ukulele Baby) and Leave the Rest to Me" (Lew Brown and Gene Williams) Male Voices National Male Quartet.
Postmarked Burbank CA PM 23 May 1973 and franked with an 8c White House Flag stamp.
Robert Gottlieb and Irene Wolt* Thinking Big: The Story of the Los Angeles Times, Its Publishers and Their Influence on Southern California, G.P. Putnam's Sons: NY, 1977. 603 pp., 1973
Chapter 27 Down and Up in Washington
3. The Company Intervenes
"The Times was slow to get involved in Watergate coverage . . .
" . . . When the Justice Department learned of the interview, it threatened to withdraw [the former FBI Watergate lookout] [Alfred] Baldwin's immunity from prosecution and warned that he might be indicted if the Times story were published. That same afternoon Judge John Sirica, on request from government attorneys, signed a court order prohibiting any witness from commenting on the case and warned that Baldwin would be cited for contempt if the story ran.
" . . .
" . . . government subpoenas ordered the Times to hand over all material concerning Baldwin. At the opening of the court session Sirica ordered Lawrence [the Times editor] to comply with the order or to be sent forthwith to jail. To the shock of everyone in the bureau, when he refused, he was immediately taken off to prison. . . . ." p. 442
Chapter 30 Management Ideologies
2. Shades of Gray
"In the middle of the Watergate storm, on September 23, 1973 . . . an announcement . . . shifting Paul Conrad*'s cartoons from the editorial page to the op-ed page. "Because the cartoon occupies a prominent position on the page where the institutional voice of the newspaper is expressed . . . the cartoon tends to color both the opinions expressed in these editorials, and the dispassionate news coverage we attempt to achieve . . . It will come as no surprise to our readers to hear that sometimes Paul Conrad* speaks for the Times, and sometimes not. As he is fond of saying, he works in black and white; the editorial writers work in shades of gray . . . .
""The Times developed a criteria about my work," Conrad* commented . . . "If it's within the bounds of taste and makes sense then they run it." . . .
" In another discarded drawing, Conrad* had Spiro Agnew urinating on several newspapers and magazines-identified as the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, etc.-with the caption reading, "Leaks." . . . " p. 481
"The cartoon that touched off the uproar that helped push Conrad* off the editorial page portrayed H.R. Haldeman* as a monstrous robot, with the caption, "Son of Nixonsteen." Haldeman*, whose parents were Chandler intimates, was vintage upper-class Southern California, was a good friend of Franklin Murphy, and had numerous ties to the local business establishment. "Son of Nixonsteen" touched off a systematic attack against the Times cartoonist, as evidenced by a letter-writing campaign and delegations of leading businessmen coming to see the Times management with the complaint that the "outrageous" Times cartoonist "had stepped out of bounds."" p. 482
James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1973, 1948
"10. City Council Chambers. The City Council Chambers, located in the south wing of the second floor, contain two noteworthy items: a large unsigned portrait of Senator John P. Jones which hangs in the rear of the chamber, and a polished-brass replica of the City Seal, created by artist Franz Wambaugh* in 1973.
Santa Monica Pier-Arcadia Terrace
"The pier has special historical value, having been protected by an initiative in 1973 making its removal or alteration subject to a vote of Santa Monica citizens, and also having been designated an official landmark by both Los Angeles County and the City of Santa Monica. Frequently used for motion picture and television backgrounds, it was the site of the first live television broadcast of a musical variety program in 1948.
"Arcadia Terrace, the general area south of the pier between the Promenade and Ocean Avenue, derives its name from the famous Arcadia Hotel that once occupied much of the area. The hotel was named for Arcadia de Baker."
Stanton Macdonald-Wright (1890-1973) Chronology (updated), 1973, 2005
1890-July 8. Stanton Macdonald-Wright (SMW) born in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Archibald Davenport Wright, and Annie van Vranken Wright; an older brother, Willard Huntington Wright (WHW), was born 15 October 1887.
1900-SMW moves with family to Santa Monica, California.
1906-SMW begins study at the Art Students League of Los Angeles with Warren T. Hedges (1883-1910) and Joseph Greenbaum (1864-1940); befriends fellow student and modernist painter Rex Slinkard (1887-1918).
1907- Expelled from Harard Military School, Los Angeles
1908 -Marries Ida Wyman
1909-June 27. SMW leaves for Europe; arrives in Paris in the fall and takes a studio on rue Notre Dame des Champs. Meets fellow American art student Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), who becomes a close friend. SMW attends lectures at the Sorbonne and comes in contact with Henri Focillon (1881-1943), who introduces SMW to Asian art and philosophy. Briefly attends the Académies Julian, the Colarossi, and Casteluccho.
1910-Salon d'Automne, Accepted Stanton Macdonald-Wright's painting, 1990,
1911-SMW tours London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Antwerp, and Brussels. Meets Morgan Russell (MR; 1886-1953); Russell takes SMW to the atelier of Percyval Tudor-Hart (1873-1954), the Canadian painter and color theorist; MR and SMW study with and work for Tudor-Hart and during this time study color theory extensively and undertake the researches that lead to the founding of Synchromism. MR introduces SMW to Matisse, Rodin, and Gertrude and Leo Stein.
1912-Salon des Independents, Accepted Stanton Macdonald-Wright's painting,
1913- Exhibits in Munich and Paris with Morgan Russell; returns to New York; separates from his wife
1913-June 1-30. Two-person exhibition, Ausstellung der Synchromisten Morgan Russell, S. Macdonald-Wright, Der Neue Kunstsalon, Munich.
-27 October-8 November. Two-person exhibition, Les Synchromistes: Morgan Russell et S. Macdonald-Wright, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris. In his individual introduction in the exhibition catalogue, SMW writes: "We are incapable of imagining a form that is not the result of some contact of our senses with nature. Or at least the forms that issue from this contact are infinitely more expressive and varied than those born of the inventive labor of the intellect. So far as form is concerned, one must maintain a relationship with nature. In opposition to purely logical theories, we mean to stay true to reality. In it is the foundation of every pictorial work."
1914-March 2-16. Two-person exhibition, Exhibition of Synchromist Paintings by Morgan Russell and S. MacDonald-Wright, Carroll Galleries, New York. In their introduction to the exhibition catalogue, SMW and MR write: "Besides solving the problem of the inherent nature of colors in their relation to form, we have applied ourselves to a close study of the harmonious relation of these colors to one another. And, as a result of the incorporation of these colors into gamut-form, they convey the notion of 'time' in painting. They give the illusion that the canvas develops like music, in time, while both the old and modern paintings exist strictly in space. With one glance they can be felt in their entirety." Both return to Paris, moving on to London because of the War.
1915/18 Returns to New York; teaches; exhibits at Anderson and Daniel Galleries
1915. February. SMW collaborates with WHW on Modern Art: Its Tendency and Meaning, published in November.
1916-March 13-25. Group exhibition, The Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters, Anderson Galleries, New York. SMW and WHW are among the organizers of this important exhibition.
1917-March 20-31. One-person exhibition, Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by S. Macdonald-Wright at the Photo-Secession Gallery ("291"), New York.
1918-October 12. SMW leaves New York for Southern California.
1919 Returns to Los Angeles
1920-SMW begins work on a stop-motion color film process and completes a full-length feature that is destroyed in a fire at the Blum Laboratories, Hollywood.
-Marries Jeanne Redman; creates color film (destroyed)
-Exhibits in studio with Vysekal, Russell, Benton, Wm Yarrow, Preston Dickinson
-February 1-29. Group exhibition, Exhibition of Paintings by American Modernists, organized by SMW with the help of WHW and Alfred Stieglitz, at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, Exposition Park (the art division is now the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; hereafter referred to as the Los Angeles Museum). SMW gives several lectures there on modern art.
1922-Lectures at Chouinard Art Institute
1923-Teaches at Chouinard; Teaches and directs Art Students League; studies Asian arts and
-SMW begins teaching at the Los Angeles Art Students League; soon takes over as
-February. Group exhibition, The First Exhibition of the Group of Independent Artists of Los Angeles, Taos Building, West First Street, Los Angeles.
1924-SMW writes and privately publishes A Treatise on Color, which summarizes the synchromist method; "I have just gotten out a book on color, 60 copies with handmade charts of spectrums, which I hope to sell at $10 each. This is in the hands of God" (SMW to MR). 1925 Exhibits at Los Angeles County Museum, the Hollywood Library Art Gallery
1925-Modern Art Workers group of painters organized.
-5 October. Exhibit at the Hollywood Library Art Gallery; SMW writes manifesto and speaks at exhibition opening.
1927-Synchromism exhibition with Morgan Russell, Los Angeles County Museum and Oakland Art Gallery
-SMW writing, directing and staging Synchromist Theater in Santa Monica, makes use of projected color with a device related to his and MR's ongoing interest in building a kinetic light machine.
-April. SMW stars as Pancho Lopez, a Mexican bandit, in The Bad Man by Porter Emerson Browne, stage sets by Albert Henry King.
1930-Exhibits at Santa Monica Public Library 1931 Exhibits with Russell at California Palace of the Legion of Honor
1932-January 4-23. Two-person exhibition, Exhibition by S. Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell, New Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles.
-February. Show travels to Los Angeles Museum.
-October 3-29. One-person exhibition, S. Macdonald-Wright: 13 New Paintings, An American Place, New York. From SMW's artist's statement for that show: "To me reality exists within-hence my lack of interest in the topical."
1933-SMW writes A Basis of Culture, an unpublished survey of world art.
1934-January. SMW begins planning mural cycle for the Santa Monica Public Library, sponsored by the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP); finishes first section in April.
-Group exhibition at Los Angeles Art Association
1935- Show in Abstract Painting in America, Whitney Museum of American Art. -August. Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP) founded as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, under the direction of Holger Cahill.
-August 25. Santa Monica Public Library murals finished and dedicated to Archibald Davenport Wright and the City of Santa Monica. "They [the mural panels depicting the technical and imaginative pursuits of man] coalesce and fuse in what perhaps holds the greatest potentialities for art expression invented by man-the medium of the moving picture" (SMW, speaking on the occasion of the dedication).
"The subject is the two-fold artistic and technological development of mankind, in which the two streams flow together in the creation of the three-color motion picture. (Macdonald-Wright had invented a color film process, made films, and devised a color organ to play his synchromies.)" -Park, 2003, 1930s
-November. WPA/FAP established in California in November, SMW hired that month as a non-relief professional artist.
-December. SMW becomes WPA/FAP district supervisor for Los Angeles County.
1936-March 10-28. Group exhibition, "Ten Pacific Coast Painters: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Group," Carl Fischer Gallery, New York.
-Teaches at University of Southern California
1937-Group show: Federal Art Project: Paintings, Prints Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles
-Resigns from FAP/WPA
-Completed Landing of the Vikings, 20 x 40 feet, painted on a primed asbestos curtain, Stage Curtains for Barnum Theater.-Tours Japan, learning Japanese and Chinese, 1980
1938-Rejoins FAP/WPA as state director for Southern California
-Architectural murals in Southgate, Santa Monica, and Long Beach and perfected a mosaic compound that he termed Petrachrome.
1939-Group exhibition Southern California Art Project, Los Angeles County Museum
1941-29 August-3 September. Holger Cahill prepares a field report on the Southern California FAP and writes: "On the basis of production the Southern California Art Project not only leads the other projects of the Pacific Coast, but also all other WPA art projects. It has produced more creative work in proportion to employment than any other state art project, and it has maintained standards of quality in this production equal to those of any other art project in the country."
1942-June. SMW starts to write column for Rob Wagner's Script, continues for four years.
-Teaches at Lorser Feitelson's studio.
-November 12. SMW becomes lecturer for the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Eastern aesthetics and art history.
1942/43-Exhibits at Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles.
1944-Exhibits at San Francisco Museum of Art with William Gaskin.
1945-Exhibits at Stendahl Galleries with Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg.
-Exhibits at Los Angeles County Museum.
1946-Group exhibit Pioneers of Modern Art in America Whitney Museum, NY.
-At UCLA, teaching Asian art and seminar in contemporary art.
-9 April-19 May. Group show, Pioneers of Modern Art in America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
1948-22 October-12 November. Retrospective exhibition, Thirty-five Years of Creative Painting by Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Art Center School Gallery, Los Angeles.
1950-ExhibitsThree American Pioneers with Morgan Russell and Patrick Bruce at Rose Fried Gallery, NY.
1951-Wife, Jeanne, dies.
1952-Marries Jean Sutton.
-October 25. SMW travels to Tokyo under aegis of Fulbright scholarship to study Chinese and Japanese painting and sculpture; in Tokyo in December, teaches two courses on modern art.
1953-Exhibits Ten American Abstract Painters 1912-1952 Rose Fried Gallery, NY
-March. Health failing, SMW returns to America from Tokyo, where he had completed his unpublished manuscript, Beyond Aesthetics.
1954-Resigns from UCLA due to ill health.
1955-January 1. SMW elevated to rank of professor emeritus, UCLA, having retired officially as of 31 December 1954.
-Exhibits Stanton Macdonald Wright Rose Fried Gallery, NY
1956-19 January-19 February. Retrospective exhibition, A Retrospective Showing of the Work of Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Los Angeles County Museum. SMW says at the time: "At first I saw my new painting with a certain astonishment, for I had made a great circle, coming back after 35 years to an art that was, superficially, not unlike the canvasses of my youth. However, at bottom there was a great difference. I had achieved an interior realism. . . . This is a sense of reality which cannot be seen but which is evident by feeling."
-One person exhibition at Galerie Arnaud, Paris
-One person exhibiton at Duveen-Graham Gallery, NY
1957-Appears on Lorser Feitelson's NBC television show on art.
1958-One person exhibition, Galleria Schneider, Rome, Italy.
1959-SMW builds, after decades of experimentation, consultation, false starts and near-successes, the first version of the Synchrome Kineidoscope, a light machine first conceived of in Paris with MR.
1960-August. Group exhibition, Fifty Paintings by Thirty-seven Painters of the Los Angeles Area, San Francisco Museum of Art, curated by Henry Hopkins.
1961-Group Show Directions in 20th Century American Painting Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.
1962-Recovers from heart attack.
1963-27 February-14 April. Group exhibition, The Decade of the Armory Show, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
1964-One-person exhibiton "Evocation, Gods, Places, Things" Esther Robles Gallery, LA
-"Stanton Macdonald-Wright" Rose Fried Gallery, NY
-Group exhibition "Synchromism and Color Principles in American Painting 1910-1930" at M. Knoedler Gallery, NY
-"The Works of Stanton Macdonald-Wright" Esther Robles Gallery, LA
1965-January. In Kyoto, SMW conceives of the Haiga series of color woodblocks.
"Don't forget that when a well-known man dies, his historians write 'he was a universal genius-great as a poet, writer, theatrical director, painter, lecturer, high jumper, lover, gourmet, etc., etc.' The public loves to hear of a dead universal genius-it abhors, hates, distrusts a living one. A man must be a specialist in one field. He may write poetry and novels, he may paint and draw, and get away with it. But he becomes anathema when he paints and writes" (SMW to Jan Stussy, January 1965).
-Stanton Macdonald-Wright Rose Fried Gallery, NY
-12 October-6 November. Group exhibition, Synchromism and Color Principles in American Painting, 1910-1930, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, organized by William C. Agee.
1966-Completes Haiga series of 20 color woodblock prints with Clifton W. Karhu in Kyoto.
1967-4 May-18 June. Retrospective exhibition, The Art of Stanton Macdonald-Wright, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1970-16 November-20 December. One-person exhibition, Stanton Macdonald-Wright: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1911-1970, UCLA Art Galleries/The Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation.
-One person exhibition: Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica.
1972-Group exhibiton Color & Form 1909-1914, Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego
1973-22 August, evening. SMW dies at the age of 83 of a heart attack at his home in the Pacific Palisades; services at Chapel of the Dawn, at Gates, Kingsley and Gates Mortuary, Santa Monica.
1976-Lydia Modi Vitale and Steven M. Gelber, New Deal Art: California , Santa Clara, Calif.: de Saisset Art Gallery and Museum, 1976.
-Group exhibition Painting and Sculpure in California:The Modern Era San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Henry Hopkins.
-Memorial Exhibition at Foster Harmon Gallery, Naples, Florida
1977-Group exhibition Paris-New York Centre National d'Art Georges Pompidou, Paris.
-Group exhibition Perceptions of Spirit in 20th Century American Art Indianapolis Museum of Art
1978-24 January -26 March. Group exhibition, Synchromism and American Color Abstraction, 1910-1925, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
-Gail Levin Synchromism and American Color Abstraction, 1910-1925 George Braziller: NY, 1978
1979-Stanton Macdonald-Wright: Paintings 1903-1973 ARCO Center, Los Angeles.
1980-Nancy Dustin Wall Moure, Painting and Sculpture in Los Angeles, 1900-1945, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980.
Bruce Guenther, The Haiga of Stanton Macdonald Wright, Stanton Maconald-Wright: Prints of the Haiku, (All works on loan from Zara Gallery, 553 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, Ca. 94133) Western Association of Art Museums: 270 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 94108, 1980, 4 pp.
1981-Group exhibition An American Place The Parrish Art Museum, Southhampton, NY
1982-Stanton Macdonald Wright Forum Gallery, New York.
1983-Group exhibitionThe Forum Exhibition:Selections and Additions Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, NY
1986-Group exhibition Aspects of California Modernism 1920-1950 Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC
1990-Group exhibition Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists 1920-1956 Santa Barbara Museum of Art + five other museums.
-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.
1993-Robin J. Dunitz, Street Gallery: Guide to 1000 Los Angeles Murals , Los Angeles, Calif.: RJD Enterprises, 1993 (with maps).
1999-Will South, "Invention and Imagination: Stanton Macdonald-Wright's Santa Monica Library Mural," Archives of American Art Journal 39, nos. 3 & 4 (1999): 11-20.
2000-Peggy Clifford Santa Monica's Wright* Brothers: The Muralist and The Writer Santa Monica Mirror, 1 January 2000, 1 (29)
2001-Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Art
2003-Marlene Park A Romantic in a Frenzied Office: Macdonald-Wright and the Federal Art Projects, 1934-1943 New Deal Federal Arts Project, 2003 newdeal.feri.org/smw/ - 9k
2004-Phil Wayne Historic Mural Comes Home The Lookout News, 21 December 2004, 2004b
Jenny Pirie*, Peter Kastner* and Jeff Mudrick* A Short History of Ocean Park, Ocean Park Community Organization, 1982, (With a 1983 update.) 15pp. 1983, 1982, 1973, 1970s,
"In the early seventies, Ocean Park residents began organizing to resist the pressures of real estate development and to preserve Ocean Park as a seaside community affordable to low and moderate income people. Beginning in 1973, The Church in Ocean Park, on Hill Street, became a center of this activism and community spirit.
"There were some successes in these early organizing days: in 1973 the battle to save the Santa Monica Pier from demolition was won . . . "
Horst Schmidt-Brümmer Venice, California: An Urban Fantasy, Grossman Publishers: NY, (English trans., Feelie Lee) 1973 (Original German Text Verlag Ernst Wasmuth: Tubingen, 1972), 108pp.
Acknowledgement:
"The idea for this book was precipitated by a chance visit to Venice while I was teaching at U.C.L.A. From this initial encounter grew my interest in and fascination for the Venice community and, as a result, I spent the first half of 1971 taking pictures.
"But the real task of putting together this book did not lie with me alone. The valuable ideas and criticisms of my collaborator, Feelie Lee, served to clarify and sharpen the basic concepts of this work. I would like to thank Stephen O. Lesser and Christine M. Depaep for their much-welcomed support as well as Kent Brownridge and Masamori Kojima for their contributions.
"But it is to the people of Venice that I owe special thanks. For without their warm reception and open acceptance of me as a person and as a photographer the book would not have been possible. The openness, friendliness, and trust I received in Venice in contrast to the suspicion and hostility I met, for example, in the walled estates of Berverly Hills only confirm that special quality of the Venice community with which this book deals."--HSB p. 107
[p. 106 Photo of graffitti on a plywood bulletin board "Resist Exist"]
Preface:
"The people, rather than art treasures and historic sites, give Venice, California, its remarkable character. While the Old World Venice exists on its past glories, its New World counterpart celebrates an ongoing present.
"The original Venice fights to preserve its uniqueness as a living museum, while the inhabitants of the new Venice struggle to maintain their originality as a community. This vew Venice is not endangered by flood waters but rather by the threats of dehydration. . . . It is not the California sun but the interests of zealous land developers which are producing this drought.
"Venice, unlike its Italian predecessor, will die an American death, for Venice will be "renewed" out of existence at the costly sum of twenty-four-and-a-half million dollars. This amount-the highest assesssment in the history of California-reveals the real nature of the urban change. The alloted sum is not for renewal but for removal of the present Venice, a destruction of the identity as a community, and a reconstruction of Venice into a luxury resort of mini-marinas, expensive town houses, and boat docks. Correspondingly, with the replacement of small homeowners and tenants who can no longer afford to live there by an anonymous, well-heeled mass of apartment dwellers, Venice will face its final blow."
The Uniqueness of the Venice Community
"At first glance, Venice looks surprisingly out of place in the midst of the suburban sprawl of greater Los Angeles. On its streets one can see the conglomerate presence of widely disparate groups-blacks, browns, and whites; the very young and very old; the fantastically garbed and the decently suited; politicos and homeowners; professors and dropouts; religious cranks and straight citizens. These people live simply and unpretentiously alongside one another . . .
"Here, public life still exists . . . There exists the visible presence and density of people as well as the ever mobile and unexpected combinations of groups; in brief, one can visually detect a community of people. At the same time public life in Venice has not lost its intimate side.
"The heterogeneity of Venice crosses political, social, racial, and educational lines. What homogeneity exists lies in the renewal area-on the lower-income level that falls nearly three thousand dollars below that of Los Angeles. . . .
"This high degree of individuality characterizes the community and determines its openness . . .
"Venice's struggle as a community differs considerably from the causes of other communities undergoing the same process.
"The stuggle is not consciously political or enmeshed in political rhetoric, for Venice is not a politically and intellecturally sophisticated community. It does not assert the political self-consciousness or style of a community economically and educationally secure. . . .
" . . .
"Moreover, the struggle is not overtly economic. The economic facts of Venice run counter to the charges that the community fights to maintain certain privileges or tax advantages.
"Nor is the argument valid that the Venice community fights for its ethnic identity. The integration of Russian Jews, blacks, Mexican-Americans, and whites in the renewal area is a known fact. If any "ethnic" consideration is due, it is that the community fights the inundation of an upper-class white population.
"In short, Venice cannot be labeled a politically radical or counterculture community. Rather, it is a freewheeling, eclectic, and eccentric community of people.
"In a completely unprogrammed way, Venice has implemented in its daily practice certain basic cultural and political concepts which have been shared by the American subculture over the last ten years. Free legal and medical services, communal living and work collectives, community art and theater projects, and child care centers operate unpretentiously. The growing need in America for new human interrelations and new feelings of community and identification are quietly being practiced in Venice. Even though the ocean and the Mediterranean-like climate heighten the unconventional way of life in Venice, these aspects should not detract from the cultural-political significance of this community.
" . . . The California sun and its value to the leisure market have aroused capital interest, thereby precipitating the decline of community life in Venice. . . . What now undermines Venice is its very lack of self-consciousness-about itself as a community, about the implications of the forthcoming changes, and simply about what organizational strategy is necessary. . . the very attraction of the place has invited disreputable elements . . . Venice's open tolerance also has included tolerating indifference and even irresponsibility-both reveal how the community unwittingly participated in its own destruction."
Venice versus Los Angeles
"Los Angeles, the capital of dream production, has never had room, however, for unprofitable dreams. Thus, the outbreak of reconstruction marks the end of a series of disillusionments Venice has continuously faced in its relationship to Los Angeles. The demarcation line separating Los Angeles and its suburb Venice . . . resembles a battle zone where vision and business, dreams and profits clash.
"In 1904 Abbot Kinney began to implement his vision of an American Renaissance. With his wealth he attempted to recreate an Italian Venice in an American setting. . . . Kinney's dream to establish the new Venice as a cultural center failed. Venice deteriorated into an amusement park, an early Disneyland frequented by hordes of weekend pleasure-seekers.
"In 1925 Venice was incorporated into the City of Los Angeles. Thomas H. Thurlow, the last mayor of Venice, commented . . . in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1966: "We committed suicide. That's what we called it, and that's what it was."
"The city put its stamp on Venice. The major part of the canal system was filled in and turned into roads. When the land itself became more profitable than the gambling halls and miniature trains, the city opened the land to the oil companies. The oil derricks scattered throughout now transfomed the entertainment area into an industrial park. Because of oil sewage, the Venice beach became quarantined for years.
"It was only in the early fifties when the oil sources stopped-and Venice for the first time was going dry-tht the first indications of a new life, of a growing neighborhood, appeared and developed into a community that offered an alternative way of life to that of Los Angeles.
" . . .
" . . . Venice lives on a fluid interchange of human contact. . . . a more integrated urban community . . .
" . . . Health information, legal services, free clinics, and community centers are concerned with the problems of individuals regardless of income level.
"The same participatory directness characterizes the festivals, free concerts, film performances, and street theater. In contrast to the leisure-time activities in Los Angeles, where events are designed more often for the special taste and consumption of particular classes, artistic events in Venice are more democratic as well as non-ritualistic. More often they are happenings, spontaneous group events, or do-it-yourself efforts. In contrast to the commercial, art-market phenomenon in Los Angeles, Venice is the studio home of many inspiring and well-known artists. It is not unusual to see their works scattered throughout the community, especially to see murals and portraits-examples of public or community art-covering the walls of buildings and homes.
" . . .
"Whoever visits Venice today encounters the phenomenon of vanquished dreams. . . . Venice is an unprofitable dream.
"This has become an official fact. On June 15, 1971, the City Council voted in favor of the costly renewal. It is only a question of time as to when the city's second eyesore (the first is the Watts ghetto) will be removed, when the life of a community will be replaced by the life-style of a luxury resort.
"To a large degree Venice belongs in the hands of absentee landowners. By the time of the final City Hall hearings, many small homeowners had already sold their property because of the exorbitant assessments. Those who finally opposed the Master Plan were overwhelmingly renters, who represent approximately 70% of the Venice inhabitants. They came not to defend property rights but to claim their rights to remain a people, a community.
" . . .
" . . . the Venice community . . . was (un)able to communicate its interests in a language comprehensible to a world dominated by technocratic terminology. Words like "participatory democracy" and "communty control" fell on ears attuned more to such phrases as "efficiency," "cost index," and "capital investment."
"Time . . . gave free reign to real estate speculators. . . . a city official stated: "They thought they were getting an assessment district and instead they bought Pandora's box." . . .
" . . . the Council too profited from the passage of time. Powerless to solve community problems because of lack of public funds, . . . The influx of private capital now supplies the City Council's urgent need for revenue with the sale of land and the increased assessment.
" . . . The progressive, "planned" deterioration of Venice becomes the final excuse for the auction of the community."
Beyond the Community
" . . . In light of the foreseeable change in property ownership, the withdrawal of the land itself from public access becomes a crucial issue.
" . . . Venice occupies the last, still-undeveloped coastline along the Pacific in southern California. . . . clear sky, the water, and clean air- . . . the most basic assumptions of living . . . luxury items . . .
" . . . The quarantined beach of earlier times and now the removal of sidewalks along the canals indicate the public accesss to the land and the use of its natural resources become restricted and determined by the privileged hand of capital investment. . . . Who owns America? Certainly, it is not the people.
Venice as Visual Text
" . . . The visible fact that the people respond to their environment by their particular, personalized, and original additions and changes creates an environment which, in turn, stimulates further responses; this fact illustrates the dynamic interaction that exists between the environment and its people. This sense of participation, of the possiblitity of writing on the evironmental text, becomes more visually evident by contrast to the determined, noninvitational, and restrictive character of the new Venice.
" . . . "
[Norm's Shoe Repairing Sign at Main between Bay and Pico, p. 33, 1971]
[Arthur Mortimer* Portrait at Hart & Neilson, p. 36, 1971]
[Ocean Park Blvd. & Barnard Way, p. 40]
[Bob Dylan? p. 41]
[Portrait p. 44]
[photo of Cottages on Marine between Second and Third, p. 58]
[photo the Shearon Hotel Daily Week Month Challenge Fresh Milk Val's Rexall Drugs 1600 Pacific Ave., Ex.2-3937 Property Bay Area Joey Baker Real Estate Rentals-Property Management 1100? Washington Blv. Ex 9-7781]
[Santa Monica Tower, p. 104]
[Venice Fine Arts Squad, (Terry Schoonhaven ) Venice Beach Under Snow, Ocean Front Market, p. 37, p. 67]
[Brooks Av., Wash Fluff Dry, Brooks and Pacific, Cover, p. 61, 99]
Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1973
Chapter 5: Santa Monica Pier on the Skids (1941-1974)
" . . . "Save Santa Monica Bay Committee", headed by Pieter van den Steenhoven . . . asked for a referendum . . . City Attorney Richard Kickerbocker [technically refused]. . . ..
"The anti-island group's strategy was to stall for time while waiting for the passage of the California Coastal Protection Initiative (Proposition 20) . . .
"The Save . . . The Bay . . . filed their suit in Santa Monica Superior Court on September 8, 1972 . . ." p. 136
" . . . Even the Santa Monica Evening Outlook newspaper campaigned against the island. They said " Major harbor improvements is a highly desirable goal but linking it to the hoped for financial success of a towering hotel a few hundred yards offshore is a concept the public has made it clear they will not buy." Prop. 20 passed by 55% of the state voters and 61% of Santa Monica voters. . . .
"On Dec. 22, 1972 the Santa Monica City Council announced it would reassess its stand on the island . . . Mayor Anthony Dituri . . .
" . . .
"Two hundred Santa Monica island foes jammed the January 9, 1973 City Council meeting as a result of a misleading radio report that the island was on the agenda. . . .
"The Council . . . agreed to an island hearing plan to be held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Jan. 23rd [1973]. Leonard Clunes, who had been coordinating the petition drive to put the island on the ballot, yelled out at the meeting [where the real agenda item had been the pier lease and plans for tearing down the pier], "We have a legal right to the Pier!" . . . A group of young people let out repeated yells of "Save Santa Monica Pier" as [they] left the meeting." p. 137
"Many members of the anti-island group were young anti-war activists, UCLA students drawn to Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood by low rents and beach front living. The pier provided a focus for these radicals who were strongly conservation oriented and perceived Scott's plan as an outgrowth of a business-dominated municipal government. . . .
"The . . . [EIR] . . . favored the project, . . . there would be a . . . disruption of the southward drift of sand. . . .
"Councilman Arthur Rinck . . . announced his opposition to the proposed plan. "I'd like to see both piers removed and the beach returned to its natural state." He also said that the removal of the piers would make the beaches safer since it attracts many undesirables.
"Over a thousand people packed the Civic Auditorium for the January 23 Santa Monica Island hearing. . . . The council voted 4-2 to scrap . . . the Council's action amounted to termination of the contract.
"The boistrous partisan crowd was jubilant . . . Councilman Arthur Rinck made a motion to demolish both piers . . . Robert Gabriel, James Reidy, Arthur Rinck and Mayor Anthony Dituri [voted for], John McCloskey and Clo Hoover were opposed. . . .
"The following day, City Manager Perry Scott spoke out favoring the removing of the Santa Monica Pier . . . said city taxpayers were subsidizing the business operators on the pier. "There's a very substantial use of the pier by those who don't spend money. I'm talking about kids and the elderly who come out to dangle hooks. The pier might be charming to some folks - but I wonder how much the general public should pay for that charm."
"The pier's merchants . . . formed "Friends of the Santa Monica Pier" and began meeting daily at Al's Kitchen. Larry Barber, the restaurant's cook, became head . . . "We believe the pier is too central to the identity of Santa Monica to be destroyed. It's like family. You don't get rid of your grandmother because she is a little old."
"Jack Sikking, the manager of Al's Kitchen . . . Joan Crowne, owner of Al's Kitchen. . . . produced a Save the Santa Monica Pier booklet . . . would be losing a unique historic landmark . . .
"Diane Cherman was co-chair of "Save Santa Monica Pier Citizen's Committee" . . . produced petitions, brochures, radio and newspaper advertising and . . . bumper stickers . . .
"The four Councilmen refused to be intimidated . . . "The pier is a tired, old and dingy thing and the economics of fixing it up are not worth it," the Mayor asserted. "After it is down maybe the people will support a bond issue to put up something else. I'm not in favor of the taxpayer's subsidizing the businesses that have been drawing the criminal and drug elements to the city."
". . . the Council refused to hear the overflow 350 people who attended the February 13, 1973 City Council Meeting. . . p.138
" . . . on April 10, 1973 . . . Incumbents Robert Gabriel, James Reidy, Jr. and Arthur Rinck were defeated . . . electing Fred M. Judson, Donna Swink, John McCloskey and Pieter van den Steenhoven and an initiative that required voter approval of Santa Monica Bay development.
"The new City Council elected Clo Hoover as Mayor, and . . . decided not to renew Perry Scott's contract. . .
" . . .
" . . . Maynard Ostrow and his partner Harold Kleinman in August 1973 opened a bumper car ride on the site of the defunct La Monica Ballroom. . . . p. 141
" . . . City Manager James D. Williams . . .
" . . . March 4th, 1974 Carousel Fire set by two sixteen year old youths who were never apprehended. . . ." p. 144
" . . .
"The City Council voted 5-0 to approve the pier pact on June 29, 1974, [establishing its ownership, dissolving any liability for Mrs. Winslow and controlling its own liability.} p. 145
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1973
" . . . three new faces on council led to a new city manager, James Williams . . . took over late in 1973. . . .
Pp. 48, 49 [Photo captions: "Third Street as it looked from Broadway in 1888 and below in 1973 . . ."; "Santa Monica Mall, in addition to providing a stimulus for the downtown area, is widely known as a "people place," as this photo, taken at the time of an outdoor art exhibit, plainly shows. Citizens stroll on the mall at all hours, whether stores are open or not, enjoying the absence of vehicular traffic."]
" . . .
"First city engineer and public works director under the present form of government was . . . Maurice M. King . . . succeeded by Bartlett L. Kennedy . . . his deputy was Marcel Gentillon . . . a navy officer in World War II . . . .
"Police chiefs . . . Earl Reinbold . . . assistant Gerald Constable . . . retired in 1974 and was succeeded by George Tielsch.
Two fire chiefs stand out . . . Charles Carrel and John Sturges . . .
Kenneth O. Grubb has been city clerk, responsible for licenses and records . . .
" . . .
"Santa Monica has one of the few publically owned bus lines which does not operate at a loss . . .
" . . . the result of able management [by] William Farrell and his successor, John Hutchison . . . .
"Parks and recreation, under the direction of Donald Arnett, have helped enhance Santa Monica's reputation as a city having more than the usual number of trees, beautifully maintained parks, and recreational facilities to fit the needs of people of all ages. . . . the actual maintenance of parks was, until fairly recently, a function of the department of public works.
" . . . Ron Severeid lent the necessary expertise to the botanical side of the problem . . . .
"Administrative services . . . have been place under the supervision of Richard Aronoff. Wayne Higbee was personnel director for a number of years; the late Ashley Shaw was the purchasing agent who set up the program of central warehousing . . .
"Clyde Fitzgerald, airport director, and Jeremy Faris, manager of the Civic Auditorium . . .
"William A. Hard and later Frank Gaudio, directors of finance . . ."