taurant 12. Hollywood Bowl
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pany's Studios 14. Hollywood Cemetery
6. Hollywood Post Office 15. RKO Studios
7. De Longpre Park 16. Paramount Studios
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HOLLYWOOD
236 I. OS ANGELES
a jade-green bronze roof supported by two coral-red octagonal columns
bearing wrought-iron masks; the pagoda shelters a great stone dragon
30 feet high.
11. The JAPANESE GARDENS (open 10-6; adm. 25$, children
with adults free}, Orchid and N. Sycamore Aves., were created in 1913
by Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer (see Tour 6), and enriched with
Oriental art objects housed in the 14-room YAM A SHIRO (castle on
the hill), designed in the manner of a Buddhist temple. In the eight-
acre garden, also known as the California Scenic Gardens and Home,
are more than 30,000 trees, including tropic and Arctic shrubs; a
pagoda from Japan; and a miniature garden with reproductions of
ancient dwellings, dwarf trees, canals, and waterfalls.
12. The HOLLYWOOD BOWL (open), end of Bolton Rd., one
block south of the Highland Ave. and Cahuenga Blvd. intersection, is
a 59-acre natural amphitheatre owned by Los Angeles County. It seats
more than 20,000, with sloping runways providing standing room for
an additional 10,000. The removable sound shell of the stage, de-
signed by Lloyd Wright and ornamented with shrubbery, supplements
the natural acoustics of the surrounding chaparral-covered hills and
makes the use of microphones unnecessary, an ordinary voice on the
stage being easily heard in the farthest row of seats. In the bowl the
"Symphonies under the Stars" series of summer concerts have been
presented annually since 1922; the annual Easter Sunrise Service is
also held here. Voluntary contributions for the support of the amphi-
theatre are dropped in a large kettle, or bowl, at the upper end of
Pepper Tree Lane, near the entrance.
North of the main entrance a 1 5-foot figure of a kneeling woman
plucking a lyre rises from a fountain and terraced pools. Inside the
entrance, on Bolton Road, is an n-foot male figure, with the tradi-
tional tragic and comic masks of the drama; to the north, on Highland
Avenue, is the third unit of the group, an n-foot female figure repre-
senting the dance. The granite figures are by George Stanley, in
collaboration with the Federal Art Project.
13. The SAMUEL GOLDWYN STUDIOS (no visitors), 1041 N.
Formosa Ave., formerly the United Artists Studio, affords production
and distribution facilities to Alexander Korda, the British producer;
Samuel Goldwyn, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chap-
lin, Walter Wanger, Selznidk-International, and Hal Roach; on its
i8^2-acre lot, which extends south from the buff-toned, stucco wall
and the office buildings along Santa Monica Boulevard, are eight huge
sound stages and 59 buildings. Samuel Goldwyn, the film-industry
pioneer whose name is now affiliated with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Studio (see Tour 5), owns all buildings on the lot; the land is owned
by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. The burden of the average
annual production of 12 pictures at United Artists at present falls upon
Samuel Goldwyn and Alexander Korda. The original United Artists
Corporation, founded in 1919 purely as a releasing organization, was
HOLLYWOOD
the first of the powerful mergers in the motion-picture business, and
originated the highly remunerative "block booking" system.
14. HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY, 6076 Santa Monica Blvd., is
the resting place of many film notables, including Rudolph Valentino,
John Gilbert, William Desmond Taylor, Renee Adoree, Karl Dane,
Barbara LaMarr, and Theodore Roberts. Here, too, are the graves
of Harrison Gray Otis, long-time publisher of the Los Angeles Times;
William Andrews Clark, Jr., patron of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Orchestra; and Col. Griffith J. Griffith, who gave Griffith Park (see
The Northwest Section) to the city.
Every August 23, on the anniversary of the death of Rudolph Val-
entino in 1926, the VALENTINO CRYPT is a mecca for several hundred
men and women, who file through the mausoleum to deposit floral
wreaths and bouquets. The unknown "Lady in Black," who for 12
years has come to kneel at the crypt and leave her garland of red roses,
is not the Memorial Day pilgrim to the Valentino monument in De
Longpre Park.
15. The is-acre STUDIO OF THE RKO PICTURES CORPO-
RATION (no visitors), 780 N. Gower St., consists of 19 buildings
and nine sound stages. One of the first "big" pictures produced in the
studio was Kismet, based on the life of Omar the Tentmaker. Between
45 and 50 feature pictures are produced annually at the studio.
1 6. The PARAMOUNT PICTURE CORPORATION STUDIO
(no visitors), 5451 Marathon St., occupies an office building, with red-
tile roof, and a heterogeneous group of 56 structures on a crowded
26-acre lot. The largest studio in Hollywood, with 20 sound stages,
it is the outgrowth of the nickelodeon firm established in 1902 by
Marcus Loew and Adolph Zukor, an orphan from Hungary. In 1912
it was reorganized under Zukor as the Famous Players Film Com-
pany, which presented such stars of the day as Mrs. Fiske, Ethel Barry-
more, and Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart."
Long Beach and Signal Hill
LONG BEACH
Railroad Station: Pacific Electric Ry., 156 W. Ocean Blvd.
Bus Stations: Union Bus Depot, 226 E. ist St., Greyhound Lines, Motor
Transit Lines, Motor Coach Lines; Central Bus Depot, 56 American Ave.,
National Trailways, Santa Fe Trailways; Union Pacific Bus Station, 49
American Ave., Union Pacific Stages, Interstate Transit; All-American Bus
Lines, 222 E. ist St.
Airport: Long Beach Municipal Airport, 3301 E. Spring St.
Piers: Municipal Pier No. i, Channel No. 3 Inner Harbor (Pico Ave. and
Water St.), Los Angeles and San Francisco Navigation Co. ships to San
Francisco Tues. 5 p.m. Municipal Navy Landing, between Piers A and B,
outer Harbor; visits to warships Sun. and national holidays, by Navy shore
boats, 2-4 p.m., free; by water taxi, 50^ round trip. Charter boats for harbor
trips at most piers.
Taxis: Rates by zones and meter; minimum charge, 15^.
Streetcar and Bus Service: Streetcar, 6^ ; bus, 5^.
Traffic Regulations: Meter parking zone, Ocean Blvd. to yth St. between and
including Pacific and American Aves., 5^ per hr. ; 2-hr, limit in business district
outside meter zone. State traffic laws prevail.
Streets and Numbers: Avenues run N. and S., streets E. and W. Numbers
E. and W. from Pine Ave., N. and S. from Ocean Blvd.
Shopping District: Between Pacific and Atlantic Aves., from Ocean Blvd. to
7th St.
Information Bureaus: Chamber of Commerce, 109 American Ave.; Travelers'
Aid, 156 W. Ocean Blvd.; City Hall, Pacific Ave. and Broadway; Public
Library, Lincoln Park, Pacific Ave. and Ocean Blvd.
Newspapers: Press-Telegram, eve. and Sun.; Sun, morn, except Sun.
Radio Stations: KFOX, 220 E. Anaheim St., KGER, 435 Pine Ave.
Churches: 98 churches and other places of worship, representing most de-
nominations and creeds.
Accommodations: 88 hotels, 1,375 apartment houses and courts, numerous auto
and trailer camps. Wide range of rates.
Theatres: 21 motion-picture houses, principally in downtown business district
and amusement zone.
Parks and Playgrounds: 24 public parks and playgrounds totaling more than
980 acres. Almost all types of recreational facilities and equipment available.
Swimming: 8 miles of beaches; still-water swimming at Marine Stadium,
Alamitos Bay, and lagoon enclosed by Rainbow Pier at foot of American Ave.;
238
LONG BEACH AXD SIGNAL HILL 239
salt-water plunge, Colorado Lagoon, Recreation Park; adra. free; indoor
plunge at foot of Pacific Ave. ; adults 40^, children 30^.
Golf: Recreation Park (municipal), E. yth St. and Park Ave., 2 courses,
9 and 18 holes, green fees 50^ and 75^ daily, $i Sun., holidays; $5 per mo.;
Lakewood Country Club (open to public], Cherry Ave. and E. Carson St.,
18 holes, fees 75^ daily, 50^ before 8 a.m. and after 3 p.m.; Meadowlark
Country Club (open to public], Coast Hwy. at Sunset Beach, 18 holes, fees
50^ daily.
Tennis: 10 municipal courts, 2 lighted. 23 school courts open to public after
school hours.
Fishing: Surf and pier fishing permitted. Boats from Pier B, foot of Santa
Clara Ave., daily at intervals from 2-7:30 a.m., returning about 3:30 p.m.,
$2-$3 per day. Barges reached by boat from Belmont Pier, foot of Belmont
PI., daily 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at ij4-hr. intervals, $i. (All prices include bait and
tackle.)
Annual Events: See Los Angeles Calendar of Events.
SIGNAL HILL
Railroad Station: Pacific Electric Ry., Los Angeles-Newport Beach Line, on
private right-of-way, between Walnut and Cherry Aves.
Bus Station: Lang Bus Co., Clearwater-Long Beach line stops on signal at
Cherry Ave. interstections.
Taxis: Taxis on call from Long Beach stands. Long Beach zone and meter
rates prevail.
Traffic Regulations: State traffic laws prevail.
Streets and Numbers: Avenues and streets in the level area south and west
of the hill are continuations of Long Beach thoroughfares. Avenues run
N. and S., streets E. and W.
Information Bureau: Signal Hill City Hall and Justice Court, Cherry Ave.,
between 2ist and Hill Sts.
LONG BEACH (47 alt., 164,271 pop.), a seaside resort, a busy har-
bor, home port for some 40,000 officers and men of the U.S. Navy,
and one of the world's great oil centers, stretches for eight miles along
San Pedro Bay. The fifth largest of California's cities, it lies 20 miles
southeast of Los Angeles. Along the ocean is the long beach for which
the city was named a wide band of white sand, to which come hun-
dreds of thousands every year to bask in the sun, swim, dive into the
curving breakers, row or sail boats, and fish from piers or barges an-
chored offshore. Along the strand, at the foot of Pine Ave., the city's
main street, is the Pike, a raucous amusement area, with roller coasters,
side shows, hot dog stands, and similar attractions; staid townspeople
rather frown upon it as rowdy and noisy, but they overlook this for
the sweet music played by tourists' and children's dimes and quarters
as they clink at the change booths.
To the west, set off by the Los Angeles River, is the industrial
section and the harbor, protected by a breakwater built in 1928. It
consists of both an inner and an outer harbor, dredged to accommodate
24O LOS ANGELES
ocean-going ships; marine traffic approximates $50,000,000 a year.
Close to the wharves are some 400 industrial plants which produce
gasoline and other petroleum products, canned fish, clothing, tools,
soap, vegetable oils, and ships. Offshore, for many months of the year,
lies the U.S. Battle Fleet, a formidable steel-gray armada by day, at
night an eerie line of blinking lights cut by beams of powerful search-
lights. The fleet is an important factor in the city's economic life.
Almost all of the officers maintain homes in Long Beach, and thou-
sands of blue jackets visit the city regularly on shore leave.
To the east are parks, the newer residential sections, eucalyptus
groves, and the lagoons of Alamitos Bay, as the city trails off into open
country. On the north, bristling with tall oil derricks, rises Signal
Hill, the center of an independent municipality of the same name.
The downtown district of tall office buildings and hotels, shops and
theatres, extends northward from the beach along Pine and other
streets. Beyond, the city is laid out in rigid rectangular pattern,
squared to the main points of the compass; cafes, garages, used-car lots,
stores, and markets line the main thoroughfares; along the quiet side
streets, shaded by palm and pepper trees, stand frame and stucco bun-
galows, for the most part, although there are many larger and more
elaborate white stucco houses along East Ocean Blvd., which swings
in an arc on the yellow bluffs above the beach, and on the sandy slopes
overlooking the ocean, lagoons, and winding canals around Alamitos
Bay.
Much of the architecture reflects the origin and the ideals of the
elderly Midwesterners, who constitute a large part of the population.
The annual Iowa Picnic held in Bixby Park attracts more than 100,000
people. Having come here to spend their declining years, they are
conservative, Protestant, church-going, and home-loving, although ven-
turing forth frequently to attend Sunday School picnics and Ladies'
Aid bazaars. They are inveterate "joiners," supporting some 200 civic
and social organizations. Many men play horseshoes daily in Lincoln
Park, while others join heated sessions of the "Spit and Argue Club"
on the Municipal Pier, to discuss politics and religion. For many years
dancing, card playing, drinking, and modern bathing suits were regu-
larly and vehemently denounced here, with no appreciable effect on the
younger generation, which, unimpressed by jeremiads on fire and brim-
stone, went its own light-hearted way and here, as elsewhere, the
"shocking" has now become usual. Since the depression the traditional
political conservatism of the older generation has broken down, ship-
wrecked on the hard rock of reality, for many a retired farmer, trades-
man, and country doctor found his savings of a lifetime wiped out in
the economic collapse. It is no accident that Dr. Francis E. Townsend,
an elderly local doctor from the Middle West, started his old age pen-
sion scheme here.
In 1784, three years after the establishment of the pueblo of Los
Angeles, Governor Pedro Fages began to distribute land in the name
of the King of Spain and to one Manuel Nieto, a soldier, allotted all
LONG BEACH AND SIGNAL HILL 24!
the land between the Santa Ana and San Gabriel Rivers, a grant of
300,000 acres, extending from the sea to the northeastern foothills; the
grant was later split into five ranches. On Nieto's death, Don Juan
Jose Nieto, his son, succeeded to Rancho Los Alamitos (the little cot-
tonwoods), and Dona Manuela Nieto inherited Rancho Los Cerritos
(the little hills) ; these two ranches embraced the present site of Long
Beach.
In 1840 Abel Stearns (see The Historical Background) bought
Rancho Los Alamitos, and three years later John Temple, a Los Angeles
merchant, became the owner of Rancho Los Cerritos through his mar-
riage with Dona Rafaela Cota, descendant of Don Manuel Nieto. The
two Massachusetts Yankees lived as Spanish dons and were the only
ranch owners in the entire district. They became friendly rivals, and
staged barbecues, rodeos, and bullfights, as well as an annual inter-ranch
horse race, the course running from Signal Hill straight to the sea. But
the drought years of 1862-64 put an end to the prosperity of the two
Yankees; during those years, it is said, 50,000 cattle died on Rancho
Los Alamitos alone. Stearns and Temple mortgaged and sold their
properties, and by 1878 all of what is now Long Beach had passed into
the hands of the Bixby family.
In 1880, W. E. Willmore, an Englishman, secured an option from
Jotham Bixby on 4,000 acres, organized the "American Colony," and
advertised Willmore City, as he called it, throughout the nation. He
offered 5-, 10-, 2O-, and 4O-acre farms at $12.50, $15, and $20 an acre;
and at $100 an acre he offered 3- or 4-year-old orange trees, 70 to the
acre. The venture failed, however, and in 1884 Willmore relinquished
his option. But the plans of the city remained, for it had been sur-
veyed and laid out in 1882, with its present streets and Pacific Park.
The Long Beach Land and Water Company then took over the
settlement, renamed it Long Beach, improved the water system, built
a hotel and wharf, instituted a horse-car line, and connected the town
with the Wilmington line of the Southern Pacific. Thereafter de-
velopment was rapid. During the boom of the i88o's Long Beach
became a popular seaside resort. With the completion of the Pacific
Electric Railway line to Long Beach in 1902 its growth became even
more rapid. In 1908 Long Beach adopted its first charter, which
provided for a mayor and council form of government. This was suc-
ceeded in 1915 by a commission plan; and the present managerial sys-
tem, under which a city manager is appointed by the council, was
adopted in 1921.
In 1906 the Los Angeles Dock and Terminal Company, organized
locally, developed the inner harbor by dredging channels and building
jetties, and three years later John F. Craig established the first large
shipyard in southern California, and dredged a channel from it to the
sea. Plans to develop a large port were facilitated in 1911 when the
state granted to Long Beach all tidal flats and submerged lands along
its boundaries. In 1917 the Los Angeles Dock and Terminal Com-
pany deeded all its navigable channels to the city, and the next year
242 LOS ANGELES
Federal development of the harbor began. Shipping was highly stimu-
lated in 1921 by the discovery of a phenomenally rich oil field on Signal
Hill. A further grant of tidelands along the extended boundaries of
the city was made in 1925, and Long Beach developed into an impor-
tant port and naval base.
The Long Beach earthquake of 1933, in which 118 persons lost
their lives and $40,000,000 worth of property was damaged in Long
Beach and the surrounding communities, only momentarily broke
the city's stride. This earthquake, the second most destructive in the
history of the United States, began about dinnertime on March 10 and
continued with lessened violence for several days; it was produced by a
fault slip in the ocean off Newport Beach. Long Beach, like other
communities in the devastated area, had most of its schools leveled by
the shock. Faulty building construction was responsible for much of
the damage; steps have been taken to see that such a condition does
not exist in the future.
SIGNAL Hill (364 alt., 3,184 pop.), a small independent munici-
pality, economically a part of Long Beach, occupies the hill down
which Don Juan Temple and Don Abel Stearns once started their
horses in races to the shore and back again. Streets and roads wind
through a forest of oil derricks, with here and there a cluster of cot-
tages near grimy palm trees.
Here, on June 23, 1921, a discovery or "wildcat" well driven by
the Royal Dutch Shell Company came in, but like many discovery wells,
with a small production. By the end of the year some 500 greasy
derricks spindled skyward; by midyear 1922, 500; by the end of 1923,
more than 1,000 on an area of little more than two square miles,
making the field one of the most intensively developed in the world.
Almost overnight, "million dollar views" became million dollar leases
as production mounted to a daily average of almost 250,000 barrels.
Thousands poured in to work in the field or to speculate in leases;
there was a frenzied boom in surrounding real estate. Within two
years the number of ships using the Panama Canal was doubled by
the increase in tankers carrying California oil. Los Angeles became
one of the great oil ports of the world. Within a decade the popula-
tion of Long Beach tripled as the flow of "liquid gold" from Signal
Hill was piped to its wharves and refineries. The field reached its peak
production in 1923 with sixty-eight million barrels, the output for the
first ten years being more than four hundred million barrels. Since
discovery it has remained one of the largest producing oil fields in
California.
After the completion in 1859 of the Drake well, the first in the
world, at Titusville, Pa., prospectors sought likely localities around
the oil and tar seepages and natural asphaltum deposits in Humboldt,
Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Kern Counties. By 1867 some 50
wells had been drilled but produced only 5,000 barrels of oil, valued
at $10,000. In 1873, C. A. Mentre, a Pennsylvania driller, secured
LONG BEACH AND SIGNAL HILL 243
leases in Pico Canyon (see Tour 7), and with primitive equipment
drilled a hole 30 feet deep, from which oozed a barrel or two of oil a
day. In 1883 the production of crude oil in the State totaled a mere
2,500 barrels a day.
The Brea-Olinda field (see Tour 4), the first in the Los Angeles
Basin, was opened in 1897; U P to I 9 I 9 nfi w discoveries in the Los An-
geles Basin were confined to the eastern section of Los Angeles County
and the northwestern corner of Orange County, consisting of the fol-
lowing fields: Whittier and Coyote, 1912; Montebello, 1917; Rich-
field- Yorba Linda, 1919; Santa Fe Springs, 1919.
In 1920 development shifted to the coastal strip of Los Angeles
and Orange Counties, where 13 new fields were opened prior to 1937.
The field at Huntington Beach (see Tour 5), discovered in May 1920,
followed on June 23, 1921, by Signal Hill, were among the richest
ever discovered. The upper sands in the field were soon depleted, but
late in 1923 other oil-bearing sands were struck below 5,ooo feet,
and derricks spread northwest to the Chateau Thierry district and
southwest to Reservoir Hill; in 1938 a well was brought in at 10,000
feet. The extraordinary depth of the sands account for the phenomenal
aggregate production per acre of the Signal Hill field. The 21 fields
in the Los Angeles Basin produced more than half of the State's
250,000,000 barrels of crude in 1938, which represented more than
12 per cent of the national and roughly 8 per cent of the world total.
At the same time the fields supplied 267,292,000,000 cubic feet of
natural gas.
Refining of crude oil constitutes the greatest single division of in-
dustry in Los Angeles County; its 35 refineries had an output in 1937
valued at $228,500,000. In addition, 52 plants produce casing head
gasoline from natural gas by a process of evaporation and condensation.
This process was discovered in 1911 when it was found that in a gas
pipe line laid along the bottom of the Los Angeles River gasoline ac-
cumulated in those sections of pipe under water but not at other points
on the line. Crude oil is refined by a heating process, which boils out
gasoline, kerosene, gas oil, lubricating oil, fuel oil, wax, and asphalt,
each of which vaporizes at a different temperature; during the process
temperatures range from 200 to 575 degrees. Crude oil is graded by
its specific gravity; the higher the gravity, the greater the gasoline,
kerosene, and naphtha content. Los Angeles Basin crude oil brought
an average price of 99 cents a barrel in 1938.
Drilling was begun on the ocean floor in 1894, a d derricks rise
in the waters west from Long Beach to Wilmington. Drilling for oil
is not the haphazard business it once was. The geologist, paleontologist,
and geophysicist have reduced it to a science by a study of the conditions
under which oil is likely to be found. It remains for the drill, how-
ever, to prove the accuracy of their deductions on the possible presence
of oil in untested territory. Many a well driven at their advice has
been a "duster," or dry hole.
When a "wildcat" well is to be driven to test a suspected field, a
244 LOS ANGELES
derrick is erected over the chosen spot ; most derricks in the Los Angeles
Basin are of the combination-rig type, 122 feet high, of wood or steel;
steel is frequently required by law in fields lying within incorpo-
rated limits of a town or city, to lessen fire hazard. For wells deeper
than 6,000 feet some go down as far as 14,000 feet huge derricks
of 200 feet or more are used. When the derrick has been completely
rigged with machinery, boilers, cables, and crown block of wood or
metal, fitted with large pulleys, the well is ready to be "spudded,"
either with a drill that bores into the earth or with a percussion drill
that literally pounds its way down. After a depth of 100 to 2OO feet
has been reached, the drill is withdrawn and a casing is inserted to
wall the hole, and this process is repeated at regular intervals.
Operations are interrupted now and again by the necessity of doing
a "fishing job" to recover drills or casing lost in the hole. In the
coastal area, where subterranean channels of sea water are sometimes
encountered, cement is forced down the hole under high pressure;
when it hardens, it forms a solid plug, through which the well is then
bored. The entire procedure is supervised by a driller, who operates