Chronicles of Old Los Angeles

by James Roman

  The science of surfing evolved rapidly in LA. Kahanamoku’s disciple, Tom Blake, was a devoted surfer, the first to photograph the sport from the water. He also devised a hollow board with a redwood veneer that sent him soaring past the other surfers on old-fashioned planks. By adding a fin for navigation, Blake made daring new feats possible on lighter boards. Thrill-seeking Angelenos bought them up and headed to the ocean, plying their skills along the LA coast, where the sun shines 300 days a year. Communities of surfers invented their own lingo for board maneuvers and the characters who performed them. On uncrowded beaches, LA’s first generation of surfers enjoyed these idyllic years of discovery.

  From left: George Freeth; Johnny Weissmuller and Duke Kahanamoku at the 1924 Paris Olympics

  Tom Blake organized the Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championships, attracting the best surfers from California in an annual wave-riding competition for trophies and a place in the news. Miki Dora won acclaim for his speed and agility: He perfected the stance of keeping his arms below his waist while balancing on the lightweight board. With no extraneous movements in Dora’s turns and cutbacks, he earned the reputation as California’s greatest surfer.

  Duke Kahanamoku tandem surfing, 1920s

  It took a teenage girl, however, to set off the biggest surfing revolution. Kathy Kohner was a spunky 16-year-old who loved to hang out with the surfers on Malibu Beach. The guys even devised a slang name for her—Gidget: part girl, part midget. When Kathy gushed to her father, screenwriter Frederick Kohner, about those colorful characters and their escapades on Malibu beach, Dad got an idea. He’d write a girl’s coming-ofage story, and he’d call it Gidget. He even eavesdropped on his daughter’s phone conversations to get the lingo right. Kohner’s book was a best seller in 1957, then a screenplay for Columbia Pictures. Heartthrob Cliff Robertson and pop singer James Darren were cast as the surfer dudes; the role of perky, young Gidget would make a star of 15-year-old Sandra Dee.

  The problem: In 1959, surfing was still new. Few actors had surfboard experience. Cliff Robertson practiced with the locals and performed his own stunts in the movie, but James Darren? He could barely swim. Columbia Pictures spied an inexpensive solution. Hire Kathy Kohner’s beach friends to play themselves in the movie. Miki Dora, California’s greatest surfer, was cast as James Darren’s stunt double for the surfing sequences. Getting paid to surf on Leo Carillo State Beach in Malibu, the beach bums were in bliss, unaware of the changing tide they were witnessing. What follows next is a tsunami of commerce.

  Gidget was a terrific success; it spawned several sequels and countless knockoffs that kept Miki Dora and his friends employed for years. Millions of moviegoers were first exposed to surfing through Gidget, a scrubbed-up version of Kathy Kohner’s friends. Now, beachgoers everywhere wanted to ride the waves. Each movie endorsed a bohemian beach life while increasing demand for commercial products. Surfboard manufacturers raced into business, aloha shirts seen on Duke Kahanamoku became a fashion staple, and movie soundtracks sold millions of vinyl platters.

  The rising popularity of surfing mirrored the rising popularity of rock ’n’ roll. Surf music was a new genre, all reverb-heavy instrumentals; it had no lyrics, just music made by surfers for surfers. When groups like the Surfaris went from LA’s dance clubs to movie soundstages and finally to network television, surfing suddenly had fans in places nowhere near an ocean. Vocalists came next. Brothers Jan and Dean, and, of course, The Beach Boys grew up on LA beaches. Their appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 established LA’s surfer style as part of American popular culture.

  Miki Dora was appalled at the commercialization, unable to see that he was partially responsible for its genesis. With each successive paycheck, Dora and his friends effectively ended the lives they depicted in the movies. Their success crowded the beaches now; they had to compete for waves packed with wannabes swept up in a fad. They resented how their bohemian lives had been co-opted and packaged into frivolous movies that didn’t resemble reality. While beachgoers were dancing barefoot in LA, The Beach Boys were performing on television in matching neckties. Miki Dora’s achievements were now just statistics among the tournaments, movies, records, fashions, lotions, postcards and paraphernalia that were part of surfing lore. Dora snapped at the 1967 Malibu Invitational Surf Classic. During his competition heat, he spun around on his surfboard, pulled down his trunks and mooned the judges. It ended Dora’s career in the movies, of course, and his invitation to future tournaments. A vagabond for the rest of his life, Dora died of cancer in 2004.

  Kathy Kohner on the cover of the Gidget first edition, 1957

  Beach Boys debut album, Surfin’ Safari, 1961

  Other pioneers ebbed more gracefully as massive new waves crashed in. Today there are nearly two million surfers in the U.S., and about 23 million globally. Surfing industry revenue tops six billion dollars a year. Surfboards begat sidewalk surfboards, the multi-billion dollar skateboard industry, and the X Games competitions.

  The surfing pioneers found a new way to make their voices heard: the ballot box. In 2009, the surfing community elected Zuma Jay, proprietor of a prominent surfboard manufacturing company, to be the mayor of Malibu, California. That classic surfer in today’s promotions is not the lovable goof from a beach blanket movie, but a sharp Los Angeles businessman with political influence fueled by global commerce.

  Ever since George Freeth surfed on Huntington Beach, the surfing industry found exponential growth in Southern California. It’s so completely integrated into Los Angeles culture that some locals refuse to believe that the surfboard was not invented in Los Angeles.

  IN THE MOVIES:

  Leo Carrillo State Beach, where Gidget was filmed in Malibu, is the site for more than one thousand movies and television episodes. Other notable films include Inception (2010), Point Break (1991), The Karate Kid (1984), American Gigolo (1980), 10 (1979), Grease (1978), Easy Rider (1969), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Mildred Pierce (1945), Citizen Kane (1941).

  ON THE WALK OF FAME:

  Johnny Weissmuller 6541 Hollywood Boulevard

  Cliff Robertson 6801 Hollywood Boulevard

  Gidget, from left: Cliff Robertson, Sandra Dee, James Darren, 1959

  CHAPTER 21.

  BOBBY KENNEDY AT THE AMBASSADOR

  A NATIONAL TRAGEDY

  1968

  In 1968, while the Vietnam War raged overseas, it raged in the U.S. too. Thousands of young Americans protested on Los Angeles streets and campuses while young soldiers continued to die. The generational conflict over the war’s continuation tore American families apart. 1968 was also a national election year; no presidential candidate was more aggressive in his opposition to the war than Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy. He demanded the war’s end immediately, insisting that the divisive conflict was not what his slain brother, President John F. Kennedy, intended when the first “advisors” were sent to Vietnam in 1963.

  Angelenos not only embraced Bobby Kennedy’s message, they embraced Bobby Kennedy, the man. Returning the kindness, Kennedy insisted on little protection as he pressed flesh with well-wishers during his campaign spins through LA. On June 4, it all came to a climax when Kennedy won the California Primary. The populous state earned him the largest bloc of candidates to the upcoming Democratic Convention. Euphoria was in the air, as many Americans anticipated an end to the divisive war. Kennedy would make his acceptance speech late that night at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, the city’s grandest and most storied gathering place.

  The Ambassador Hotel

  Since the 1920s, the Ambassador was also home to the Cocoanut Grove, the glittering nightclub where Hollywood royalty cavorted nightly. Decades later, here was Kennedy, surrounded by an equally celebrated entourage of boosters, including singer Andy Williams, football star Rosey Grier, Olympic champ Rafer Johnson, movie producer Budd Schulberg, astronaut John Glenn and many others. They assembled at the Ambassador to witness Kennedy’s acceptance speech
.

  Hundreds of flashbulbs popped as Kennedy entered the Embassy Ballroom; a sea of arms reached for congratulatory handshakes. His speech reiterated the commitments he articulated during his campaign, including grateful thanks to voters and the campaign volunteers who made this big win possible. Kennedy’s momentum going into the presidential primary now seemed unbeatable.

  Balloons, confetti and near-deafening cheers filled the air. In the confusion on the crowded platform, Bobby Kennedy was separated from his aides. The Ambassador’s assistant maître d’ hotel took his hand and led him behind the gold drapes, off the platform and into the kitchen pantry corridor. Mrs. Kennedy and the aides struggled through the crowd to reach him.

  Kennedy stopped by the large ice-making machine to shake hands with members of the kitchen staff. Boxed in by the arms of animated supporters who continued to cheer “We want Bobby!” his eyes searched the crowd for Mrs. Kennedy.

  Then, witnesses report, they heard a single soft pop, followed by a rapid volley of pops. As hotel employee Jesus Perez later testified before the grand jury, “I was shaking hands with him, and then he let go and fell to the floor.”

  The unthinkable: An assassin’s bullets felled Robert Kennedy less than five years after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated by gunfire in Dallas.

  This night on Wilshire Boulevard changed the course of American history. Kennedy’s killer, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, was the first terrorist to bring the Middle East conflict onto U.S. soil. This date, June 5, 1968, marked the first anniversary of the Six-Day War, when Israel won a decisive victory, capturing the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. A Jordanian citizen, Sirhan stated at his arrest, “I did it for my country.”

  Robert Kennedy, the Senator from New York, was a strong supporter of Israel. On the campaign trail, he pledged that, as president, he would send 50 bomber jets as U.S. aid to Israel, a pledge that Sirhan was determined to prevent. As Sirhan would later state, he stalked Kennedy because of “his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians.”

  Kennedy’s hands flew up toward his face as he collapsed by the ice machine. Rosey Grier and Rafer Johnson pinned down Sirhan, whose bullets struck five additional people in the crowd (none mortally). At Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, Robert Kennedy’s brain activity ceased on June 5 at 6:30 p.m., then his body followed at 1:44 a.m. on June 6, 1968, nearly twenty-six hours after the shooting. His body was interred in Arlington National Cemetery beside his brother, President John F. Kennedy, on June 8, 1968. Robert Kennedy was 42 years old.

  From left: Robert Kennedy, Mrs. John F. Kennedy and her children depart the Capitol building, 1963; Sirhan Sirhan is detained after the assassination of Robert Kennedy

  Robert F. Kennedy, speaking at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in the early morning hours of June 5, 1968

  America was bluntly reminded of its involvement in other global conflicts besides Vietnam. Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic Primary but lost the election to Richard Nixon, paving a path for decades of Republican dominance in the White House. The war in Vietnam raged for another five years.

  Los Angeles was left with a heartbreaking eyesore. The once grand Ambassador Hotel went on a steady decline for decades, as hotel guests and Hollywood stars avoided the somber memories lurking there. When the hotel finally closed in 1989, preservationists lobbied to save the historic building. But, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. finally recommended its demolition, the 24-acre site was cleared to become the home of the new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools that opened in 2010. The schools are closed to the public.

  In true LA fashion, the stretch of Wilshire Boulevard where the Ambassador once stood is now renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Parkway.

  IN THE MOVIES:

  The Graduate, Pretty Woman, The Wedding Singer, Apollo 13, Forrest Gump, and many more have scenes at the Ambassador; Emilio Estevez’s film Bobby was filmed on the actual site of Kennedy’s assassination while the Ambassador was undergoing demolition.

  BARRYMORES AT THE COCOANUT GROVE

  Since its opening on New Year’s Day 1921, the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard was considered LA’s most elegant inn. Its sprawling grounds were also home to the Cocoanut Grove, a famous nightclub that sparkled nightly for decades.

  In the early years of filmmaking, when stars and producers didn’t have the opulent homes they have today, the Cocoanut Grove was the official place for movie stars to entertain in style, to be seen by the press, to find their next love, or cause a scene with an ex on the dance floor. It was twice the site of the Academy Awards ceremonies, where Howard Hughes wooed Katharine Hepburn, and where Mickey Rooney met his first wife, Ava Gardner. These actors under contract had demanding diets and early schedules on Hollywood movie sets. The Cocoanut Grove proprietors understood; their parties started early, too. The management at the Cocoanut Grove accommodated just about anything. One anecdote they confided:

  John Barrymore and his beloved pet monkey, Clementine

  Eccentric movie star John Barrymore frequented the swanky nightclub with his pet monkey. He’d release the live monkey inside the club to climb the famous palm trees that were salvaged from Rudolph Valentino’s famous film The Sheik. He’d tussle with the stuffed monkeys to the delight of the glitterati below. Determined to upstage his showboating brother, Lionel Barrymore arrived at the Cocoanut Grove one night with seven live monkeys. When the monkeys started swinging from tree to tree, the club went a little crazy. Patrons on the dance floor mimicked the monkeys in an effort to attract them. As the band played loud and fast, a dance called The Monkey was born.

  Is there a nightclub in any other American city that would admit live monkeys into the dining room?

  CHAPTER 22.

  NEW VIEW

  LA’S ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATIONS

  1921—2003

  LA was a boomtown in the early 20th century. Newspaper magnates, railroad tycoons, oil barons and movie moguls earned fortunes with breathtaking speed. Where should they live with their newfound wealth? They looked to European gentry for the answer—in castles, of course. Faux chateaus, English Tudor and Italian Renaissance-styled mansions sprang up in LA’s toniest enclaves simply because LA’s nouveau riche knew of no other options.

  Then modern architects discovered LA’s open spaces. They experimented with contemporary styles that exploited LA’s unique landscape, attempting dramatic new architectural feats. In the twentieth century, Los Angeles earned its reputation as a center for daring new architecture, setting trends that would be copied around the world. Here are three groundbreaking styles, born in LA, spanning three generations and nearly one hundred years.

  EARLY 20TH: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND FRIENDS

  In Europe, architects were embracing a new look in the early twentieth century, too. Known as the International style, designers returned to basic forms that “dared to be simple.” The logic: By stripping an interior of its busy ornamentation, there was a stronger focus on the humans within it. Architects everywhere eschewed the “gingerbread” to rediscover the straight line, the arch, the cube and the circle. Flat-roofed buildings became the rage.

  From left: Frank Lloyd Wright, 1926; living room of the Hollyhock House

  In America, architect Frank Lloyd Wright understood all that, but he was reluctant to remove all ornamentation. Instead, he made his ornamentation functional. By embedding a textured pattern onto precast concrete blocks that were stacked and repeated again and again for dramatic effect, the decorations actually held up the roof. Already renowned for his free-flowing Prairie-style houses in Arizona, Wright’s expansive designs were a natural fit for horizontal LA. When he landed his first LA commission in 1917, Wright stated that buildings in Los Angeles should “grow right out of the soil.” His Hollyhock House, completed in 1921, incorporates that California soil so ingeniously in its landscaped courtyard and patios that Wright’s first California r
esidence is a National Landmark today.

  Wright’s Hollyhock House, and four more houses in the area, all incorporate his pre-cast concrete block construction system. His designs made vivid use of the topography and climate, with an interior fireplace always prominent as the central congregating point. More than just luxurious homes, Wright’s modern lines were a radical break that encouraged occupants to embrace a new, free-flowing lifestyle that was determined by the open floorplans.

  While Wright’s residences were under construction in Los Angeles, he was also engrossed in an elaborate hotel project in Japan. During his frequent, lengthy absences from LA, Wright hired his son Lloyd Wright and Viennese architect Rudolph Schindler to supervise construction of the Hollyhock House. Both Schindler and young Wright later embarked on impressive careers of their own.

  Schindler’s first work was revolutionary, not just for Los Angeles, but for all of America. In 1921, in today’s West Hollywood, Schindler built one of the nation’s first, and severest applications of the International style. Like Wright, the Schindler House is constructed of concrete, but unlike Wright, the building is shockingly simple inside, for Schindler redefined the concepts of public and private spaces within a residence. The house has no conventional living room, dining room or bedrooms, but makes clever use of several L-shaped areas instead, credited as the first live/work design in America. Unappreciated at first, the building later became an inspiration and a reference point for a generation of architects worldwide. Today, the Schindler House is a National Landmark.