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Abe Lincoln, Steve Martin and Knott's Berry Farm

April 17, 2015, 6:47 pm
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Steve Martin as Asa Trenchard in Our American Cousin, 1965.
A couple days ago, Janet Whitcomb, who usually writes about South O.C. history, emailed me a great North O.C. story taken from her own childhood memories. It was so interesting, in fact, that I asked if she'd let me share it here. So without further ado,...

Wednesday, April 15, 2015
From: Janet Whitcomb:
Subject: With apologies to Sgt. Pepper: It was 150 years ago today...

This morning I suddenly realized, while listening to my car's radio on my way to work, that I knew exactly where I was 50 years ago.

Knott's Berry Farm!

More specifically, my mother and grandmother took me to see an abridged production of Our American Cousin at Knott's Berry Farm's Birdcage Theater. And it may well have been that we attended on April 14th instead of the 15th . . . but read on, and I’ll go into that issue a bit later.

Our American Cousin was the play President and Mrs. Lincoln attended the evening of April 14, 1865. And as anyone who has studied American history knows, during the play's performance—halfway through Act III, Scene 2, to be a bit more exact—John Wilkes Booth gained access to the theater box where the Lincolns and their guests were seated and assassinated President Lincoln.
Martin's rustic character proves out-of-place in Victorian England.
As for our presence at Knott's Berry Farm's Birdcage Theater . . . We arrived in the afternoon (it was a school day, after all) with the express purpose of attending the play. (These were the days when both entrance to and parking at Knott's were free of charge.) Soon we'd found seats in the theater and, once the lights went down, saw to our immediate right—where a "box seat" would've been located—the silhouetted figure of Lincoln. This silhouette remained lit until the third act, when immediately after the following line:
"Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap."
—a single shot rang out and the entire theater went dark. Then the lights came up, one of the play's actors rushed out and very nervously announced: "On this day, one hundred years ago, the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was shot."[Or died, depending on which day we were there, as Lincoln was shot on April 14th and died April 15th. I simply remember my mom made sure I was aware that we were attending on a Very Important Anniversary.] The actor then added a few other words to the effect that Lincoln would live forever in the hearts of Americans, and that the play would now resume.

Which it did . . . minus the illuminated silhouette.

Obviously all of this made an impression on me, for as I was driving to school this morning I heard about commemoration ceremonies at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. At which point I recalled that my mother and grandmother were thoughtful enough to give me a Lincoln memory of my own.

And here’s a postscript to this “memory play”: Upon looking up the Birdcage Theater’s production of Our American Cousin online, I found information  indicating that actor/comedian Steve Martin may well have been in the production we saw. This link takes you to [Dave DeCaro's website], Daveland, which displays a very young Steve Martin, in photos from the production dated June 1965. So perhaps Steve was on stage in April as well.  I certainly remember the barn backdrop with the exaggerated perspective. At the time, however, I was far more interested in animals and drawing than I was in actors!
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A visit to the Fountain Valley Historical Society

May 17, 2015, 8:06 pm
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New officers sworn in at Fountain Valley Historical Society.
 I spoke today at the Fountain Valley Historical Society (17641 Los Alamos St.). They were a fun audience and very gracious hosts. I must admit that I've never been over there when the clubhouse was open, so I was very pleased to find some interesting artifacts and collections. But naturally, my eye always goes to the "fun stuff " first, like this (possibly circa 1950s?) hand-lettered poster, donated by the Courreges family:
Talbert Whiskerino Contest /P.T.A. fundraiser poster
Like all historical societies, they have some items that they can't identify. Perhaps you can help by identifying one or both of the people in the following pastel portraits:
These are believed to be Fountain Valley residents, and both portraits are dated 1970.
The image below -- which hangs in a frame on the clubhouse wall -- depicts the "world's champion draft stallion 1902-1906." I can't quite make out the rest of the faint pencil notes written on the upper left of the photo. But on the lower right, the following is written in what appears to be Thomas B. Talbert's scrawl: "Owners Fred H. Bixby, W. J. Newland, S. E. Talbert, T. B. Talbert." Of course, these are all familiar pioneer names, but what's the story on this fat, bob-tailed horse?
 I'm pretty sure he's related to the horse (shown below) in "What's Opera, Doc?"
"Oh Bwunhilda, you're so wuv-wee..."
In his memoir, My Sixty Years In California, Tom Talbert wrote about various horses he owned, traded, sold and even raced. But I can't find a mention of this Rubenesque equine.

Speaking of horses, the exhibit shown below is a rather unique approach to displaying a historic saddle.
The panel attached to the plywood horse reads, "History from Eddie Booth. Story of the Silver Saddle. This famous saddle was owned by the Gisler  family. It was shown and enjoyed in many parades. The family donated it to the Fountain Valley Historical Society. It was displayed in the old barber shop building. Next, it was moved to Knott's Berry Farm for a few years. I was retiring from the Farm and the President of the Historical Society requested [that it] be returned. In the meantime, the Knott family sold the farm. I was told by the new owners that they purchased everything. A secretary discovered a letter stating the saddle was on loan. The owners honored the letter and I was able to return [it] back to Fountain Valley. It was placed on display in the lobby of the City Hall. It [has] now found its home in the Historical Society Building. Enjoy!!!!  Ed Booth"

Yet another Knott connection! (They're everywhere!)

Anyway, my thanks again to FVHS for having me over for lunch, conversation and a tour!
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Old Courthouse time capsule contents revealed

May 28, 2015, 5:27 pm
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Evan Krewson gingerly carries the "Japanned" metal box.
An important event in Orange County’s Centennial Celebration took place on the front lawn of the Old Courthouse on the morning of Nov. 10, 1988. The photo above shows a time capsule from 1900 being removed from the cornerstone of the courthouse by Evan Krewson, who’d recently completed overseeing the historic building’s restoration. What treasures would be found inside?

Supervisor Roger Stanton acted as master of ceremonies for the event, O.C. Historical Commission Chair Jane Gerber made some opening remarks, and historian Jim Sleeper oversaw the opening of the time capsule.

An article in the next day’s Orange County Register, by Dawn Bonker, described events as they unfolded. Excerpts follow:
     . . . A lot more than old dust was jostled free in the ceremony to retrieve a time capsule planted July 4, 1900, an open the Orange County Centennial Corporate History Exhibit. Signatures of county supervisors, a blank marriage license and a newspaper advertising daily milk delivery for $1.50 a month were among the historical treasures.
     But the highlight in the eyes of historians and archivists was the 200-year-old Spanish coin from the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano.     
     And though some of the documents had disintegrated into a pile of flakes and crumbs, archivists – dressed in white gloves to sift through the trove – were pleased that much of the box’s contents had survived their interment without benefit of hermetic seals or air-tight plastics.
     . . . Several hundred people were interested enough to attend the Orange County Historical Commission’s opening of the time capsule on the grounds of the newly restored Old Orange County Courthouse in downtown Santa Ana. . . . Many boasted an Orange County heritage older than the courthouse.
     Before the capsule was lifted from the granite stone in which it has rested for 88 years, county Supervisor Roger Stanton called for audience members whose families had been in Orange County 100 years or more to stand and say the names of their forebears.
One-by-one, the mostly white-haired children and grandchildren of county pioneers recounted stories of elders who had farmed, homesteaded and worked in Orange County a century ago.
     . . . Masons slid the cornerstone out and a rectangular indentation covered with a scrap of metal and a thin slab of concrete were spotted.
     As for the condition of the documents inside, there was some disappointment. At the time the capsule was buried, the Santa Ana Standard newspaper had reported that the capsule was hermetically sealed. But the newspaper was obviously mistaken, county historian Jim Sleeper said as the decaying box was placed before him. Two holes had rusted through the metal cash box, allowing dampness to enter and destroy some of the papers rolled up inside.    
     “Well, it looks like the county went low bid,” Sleeper quipped.
     The documents were put on temporary display in the courthouse museum and were expected to be removed today so they could be dried out and examined by [County Archivist Gabrielle] Carey and other archivists who will preserve the documents. Once properly preserved, the documents will be displayed publically, she said.
     Meanwhile, the Historical Commission is planning to fill the cavity left by the 1900 time capsule with a state-of-the-art, $1,000 stainless-steel box. Among the items that will go into it are photographs and records related to the courthouse’s restoration, current maps of Orange County and mementos and buttons from the Orange County centennial celebration.
When the Old Courthouse was new.

A more complete listing of the 1900 time capsule’s contents follows:

NEWSPAPERS:
  • Anaheim Weekly Gazette (6/30/1900)
  • Santa Ana Evening Blade (7/2/1900)
  • Orange County Herald (7/4/1900)
  • Orange Post (6/30/1900)
  • Santa Ana Bulletin (6/26/1900)
  • Santa Ana Standard (6/30/1900)
ORANGE COUNTY GREAT REGISTER OF VOTERS:
  • Great Register, 1890
  • Great Register, 1896
  • Supplement to the Great Register, 1898
MAPS:
  • Map of the Town of Santa Ana, Los Angeles County, 1887
  • Map of Orange County, California by S. H. Finley, C. E.
PAMPHLETS:
  • “Orange County, California – Its Progress, Resources, Prosperity”
  • “Orange County and the Santa Ana Valley” (Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, 1900)
  • “Orange County, California – History, Soil, Climate, Resources, Advantages” (Santa Ana Board of Trade, 1891)
  • “Southern California Paradise” (1887)
  • “Orange County and the Santa Ana Valley, Southern California” (Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, 1887)
LETTERS WRITTEN FOR TIME CAPSULE:
  • James H. Hall, County Auditor wrote about the assessed value of real property in O.C., 1890-1900.
  • M. A. Forester to F. P. Nickey, explaining the origin of the Spanish coin in the capsule.
  • J. P. Greeley, County Superintendent of Schools wrote a summary of the county school system.
  • John J. Overton, O.C.’s oldest citizen, 103 years old, of Westminster. Tells of his remarkable health and his extensive military service in three 19th Century wars. (6/26/1900)
  • W. A. Beckett, County Clerk, gives a summary of County formation, elections, and the construction of the Courthouse. (7/4/1900)
AUTOGRAPHS:
  • Orange County officials (1900)
  • Officers of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce (1900)
LISTS OF OFFICIALS (& RELATED MATERIAL):
  • Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, list of officers, directors and members (1900)
  • Anaheim elected officials (1870-1900) with notes about the city’s incorporation, charter, and city buildings and infrastructure. (1900)
  • City of Orange city officials and incorporation date.
  • Time capsule ceremony executive committee members and Santa Ana Fire Dept. (7/4/1900)
OTHER MATERIAL:
  • Marriage license form (blank)
  • Crop and chattel mortgage list (fragment)
  • Public School Manual, Orange County, California
  • Chamber of Commerce Minutes of Annual Meeting (fragment, from unknown city)
  • Silver Spanish 1788 coin found in the rubble of the Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano
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How Little Saigon ended up in central Orange County

June 6, 2015, 10:55 pm
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Asian Garden Mall (1987), 9200 Bolsa Ave., Westminster
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. From Orange County’s perspective, this was a critical turning point: Not only was it a major moment in world history, it was also the spark that led to the creation and growth of Little Saigon -- now a key part of our cultural landscape.

The Orange County Archives has assembled a display entitled, “Orange County’s Little Saigon: Evolution of a Community,” located in the first floor lobby of the Old Orange County Courthouse, 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana. (Open Mon-Fri.) It should be up for at least the next few months.
The first part of the exhibit uses a selection of photographs to give a brief overview of the subject. A larger case of artifacts then highlights Vietnamese culture, including holidays, folklore, history, and also features one of the first Little Saigon street signs (on loan from the Westminster Historical Society).
"This area along Bolsa was the most economically deprived area in Westminster,” said former mayor Joy Neugebauer. “Within a few years of Vietnamese arriving it became our highest value area, and it remains so today."
An enormous panel centered on two aerial photographs – showing the center of Little Saigon both today and prior to 1975 – depicts in detail the transformation of an underutilized and economically depressed area into the thriving commercial and social center it is today.

The “before” map highlights small communities like Bolsa and Silver Acres, landmarks like the Zenith Aircraft Corp and Post Bros. tractor shop, and everyday roadside scenes. The current map highlights key businesses, temples and other institutions that played a significant role in the development and growth of Little Saigon since the end of the Vietnam War.
Flags of freedom fly over Little Saigon.“The Communists took over South Vietnam in 1975, and that is too long," Soc Nguyen of Garden Grove told the O.C. Register. "A couple of more years and the Communists will fall. The people have no freedom.” (Photo by DHN)
Hanging over the whole exhibit are the flags of the former Republic of Vietnam, now a symbol of ethnic unity and cultural identity; and of the United States, which is proudly displayed in Little Saigon seemingly more than anywhere else in Orange County.
A CIA agent helps evacuees into a helicopter on a Saigon rooftop, hours before the city fell to North Vietnamese troops.
After the fall of Saigon, on April 30, 1975, (a.k.a. “Black April”), several waves of refugees fled Vietnam’s hostile new Communist regime. Those who had supported a free Vietnam feared being sent to “re-education camps,” or worse.

Although a small number of Vietnamese arrived while the war was still ongoing, the vast majority arrived afterward. The first big wave of refugees arrived immediately after Black April. Many more – held up in foreign refugee camps, escaping on small boats, or waiting for other opportunities to flee Vietnam – came in later waves.

“In Saigon,” the saying went, “even the lamppost wants to go to America.”
Refugees at temporary housing facility at Camp Pendleton, May 1, 1975.
In 1975, about 50,400 refugees were brought to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, abutting the southern end of Orange County. Pendleton was the first and largest “reception center” for refugees seeking to resettle in the United States. It was nicknamed “Little Saigon.”

Orange County families and religious organizations sponsored about 75% of the Vietnamese who came through Camp Pendleton, giving them their first taste of everyday life in Southern California.
Today, our first Vietnam-town is “graced” with an unconvincing statue of President Obama outside a Mexican nightclub.
"Vietnam Town" at 2331 W. First St., in Santa Ana, predated Little Saigon as Orange County’s first Vietnamese business center. As early as 1975, this small Vietnamese-owned shopping center featured the Saigon Market, the Vietnamese Book Exhibition, and a service club for refugees.

Apartment complexes in Garden Grove near the refugee center at St. Anselm Episcopal Church became one of the first identifiable clusters of Vietnamese residents in Orange County. It was well north of what became Little Saigon.
The Vietnam War Memorial (2003) at Sid Goldstein Park in Westminster was designed by sculptor Tuan Nguyen.
A handful of immigrant business owners – most of whom arrived in the earliest waves – began buying affordable under-utilized land along Bolsa Avenue in Westminster for the specific purpose of creating an “Asiantown” or Vietnamese business district.

Among the early businessmen who developed much of Little Saigon’s commercial core was Frank Jao, who created such landmarks as Far East Plaza, Asian Village Center, Bolsa Mini Mall and the iconic Asian Garden Mall. Others included Dr. Co D. Pham, Tony Lam, and Danh Quách. There were thirty Vietnamese-owned businesses in Orange County in 1979. There were 350 by 1981 and about 750 by 1988.
1980s strip malls like this one typify much of Little Saigon’s commercial district.
 Initially, the existing population of Orange County seemed uncomfortable with Little Saigon. There were the usual barriers of language and cultural differences that face any new group of immigrants. And in the wake of losing a brutal and controversial war, many Americans also had a negative knee-jerk reaction to any reminder of Vietnam. A few were even openly hostile to the newcomers.

But Little Saigon proved to be a vital part of Orange County, driven by a people who value family, education, hard work and freedom. In very little time, the Vietnamese – many of whom arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs – have joined the ranks of Orange County’s teachers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, elected officials, doctors and more.

The Communists may have erased the name Saigon from maps of Vietnam, but both the name and the spirit of a free and determined people are alive and well in sunny Orange County. 
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Cow Punching in Old Orange County

June 8, 2015, 8:42 pm
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Roundup at the Forster Ranch, San Juan Capistrano, 1900
I just wrote a short article on the history of cattle in Orange County for the June 2015 County Connection (county employee) newsletter. (Link.) You'll notice I give somewhat short shrift to the Rancho Era, but that story will be covered in the next installment of the series. Meanwhile, here's something to think about:

Mission San Juan Capistrano ran about 14,000 head of cattle during peak years and Mission San Gabriel had around 16,000. The ranchos covered the hills and plains of O.C. with cattle. And in the decades prior to World War II, Orange County was home to about 30,000 head.

Today, lawyers outnumber cattle by more than thirty to one in Orange County. (Insert your own joke involving "a lotta bull" here.) We have more freeway call boxes -- even in this age of mobile phones -- than cattle. And despite efforts to stamp out both carbon emissions and fun, Orange County has more beach fire rings than bovines.

In fact, there are more dogs at “Corgi Day” at Huntington Beach’s Dog Beach than there are cattle remaining in the hills of O.C.

Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little doggies.
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The Green Cat, Santa Ana

June 18, 2015, 8:39 pm
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Illustration from an ad for The Green Cat, Santa Ana Register, Jan. 15, 1937.
Like other felines, Orange County's popular Green Cat had more than one life. This is the story of its first incarnations in Santa Ana. A future post will tell the story of a later incarnation in Westminster.

The Green Cat Cafe started as a confectionery, lunch counter and soda fountain at 300 N. Main (at 3rd St.), in Downtown Santa Ana. It was the sort of place where office workers could get an affordable lunch, where soda jerks assembled malts and phosphates with appropriate panache, and where children stared into glass candy displays before slowly and painstakingly making their selections.
The Green Cat's first incarnation is shown on the left, 1920s.
It began in June of 1927, when Navy veteran and Kansas native Lambert James "Jim" Detrixhe (1888-1973) moved to Santa Ana from El Monte with his wife Alice and young son Billy. At the same time, he bought the Roth Drug Store at the northwest corner of Third St. and Main. He’d previously run a soda fountain and had been in the catering business for 17 years. As such, he put a lot of stock in the drug store’s fountain business and immediately invested in a refrigeration system that allowed him to make his own ice cream. The store came with seven stools, but within a year, Detrixhe expanded the number to twenty four. To reflect the new focus on treats and lunches, he changed the name to The Green Cat, and he purchased signature green jadeite glasses and dishes.

Long ago, green cats – like flying broomsticks and bubbling cauldrons – were associated with witches (a tradition that dates to at least the 1500s). In a short 1915 comic movie entitled, “The Green Cat," a presumably witchy “old maid” with a green cat plays tricks on two buffoons. A longer comedy of the same name, featuring Snub Pollard, was released in 1923 and played the following year at Walker’s West Coast Theatre, two doors up from Roth’s Drug Store. A fictional “Green Cat Café” also served as the opening setting for the play, "The Good Little Bad Girl." So perhaps one of these instances explains the name Detrixhe gave his café. Or it may also have been a riff on an earlier Santa Ana institution: the popular Green Dragon Confectionery.
Advertisement in the Santa Ana Register, Feb. 27, 1932
In any case, “The Green Cat,” seemed to have caught on as a name for businesses, as there was also a place called The Green Cat on Rural Route 2 near Orange.

In 1931, Detrixhe moved the popular café up the street to a larger space at 415 N. Main, added a dance floor, and expanded the menu to include heartier fare. The already popular business became even more popular. Women's clubs, charitable organizations and the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce met there. The mayors of local cities gathered there to plan how to approach the County government about needed road improvements. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce held a meeting there to rally people against the PWA and other New Deal make-work programs. The Eddie Martin Pilots Association met there to screen films on aviation. The Republicans met there. The Democrats met there. Presidential candidates stumped there. And the County Council of Epic Clubs met there for a special dinner in 1936 with L.A. County Supervisor John Anson Ford as their speaker (after listening to a radio broadcast of FDR).
A 1947 view of the second Green Cat location, at 415-417 N. Main St.
On May 17, 1935 a banquet was held by Santa Ana’s city leaders to honor the good citizenship of Orange County's Japanese Americans and the friendship between the nations of Japan and the United States. Representatives of five local Japanese organizations attended. No one in the room could have predicted that the next decade would bring Pearl Harbor, World War II, the interment of California’s Japanese-Americans, and the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan. In retrospect, this evening of brotherly love at the Green Cat was a rather poignant moment in Orange County history.

W.H. Spurgeon, Jr., president of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, acted as M.C. for the evening; Santa Ana High School football star Kiyoshi Higashi introduced a group of girls performing traditional Japanese dances; and Japanese Consul to Los Angeles Tomokazu Hori shared his thoughts on friendship and commerce.

"I am especially happy to see... hearty friendship toward each other between the Americans and Japanese,” said Hori. "World peace and harmony is largely a matter of personal friendship. As long as the peoples have friendly regards toward each other, their countries will be friends no matter what political or financial difference there may be between them. ...These two countries have every reason to stand together and work together for the peace, progress and prosperity of mankind."

Sadly, Emperor Hirohito didn’t get the memo.

Prominent local rancher Hisamatsu Tamura, Jr. gave a talk on "the growing friendliness between Americans and Japanese." Speakers lauding their Japanese-American neighbors included Postmaster Terry E. Stephenson, Judge James L. Allen, and Stuart Strathman of the Placentia Chamber of Commerce.
Banquet facilities at the Green Cat, shown in the Register, Sept. 13, 1939.
In the early 1930s the Green Cat fielded an excellent baseball team, the uncreatively-named Green Cats, which played churches, businesses, fraternal organizations, the Irvine Beanpickers, and others in the Orange County Nightball League.

In February 1936, the Green Cat Café reopened after a brief refurbishing. It could now seat 118 in new leather booths on the spacious first floor, and 250 in rooms for private parties on the second floor. (The walls on the second floor could also be folded back to create an enormous banquet hall.) New refrigeration, ventilation and a sound system were installed as well.

It was this new and improved Green Cat that Detrixhe sold to established restaurateur Stanton "S. S." Hinegardner and his son, Orval "O. W." Hinegardner in October 1936. S. S. Hinegardner had operated the Santa Ana Cafe at Sixth and Main in the 1920s. His son would now become the active manager of the Green Cat. They kept the old staff (of 22), but made a few changes, including operating the place 24 hours a day. 
Advertisement in the Santa Ana Register, Oct. 19, 1935
But selling the restaurant didn’t mean Detrixhe had given up on the Green Cats baseball team. In fact, immediately after selling his restaurant, he doubled down, starting an additional Green Cats women's softball team. This team was initially managed by “Bomo” Koral (who was later instrumental in the development of Santa Ana’s park system) and did battle with such rivals as Tiernan's Typists and the phone company's Hello Girls. Some of these Cats, like Amateur Softball Association Hall of Famer Ruth Sears, later went on to join the more famous Orange Lionettes.

Within a year, Detrixhe would uproot and run another restaurant in Santa Monica. Meanwhile, the Green Cat Café continued its popularity. They added an adjoining Kit Kat Cocktail Lounge next door, where bartender Al Crowne added a novel twist to mixology by playing musical spoons.

Despite this juggernaut of pure entertainment, the Cat was in trouble. In July 1939, the state came after O. W. Hinegardner, saying he hadn’t made a single payment into the state unemployment insurance fund since taking over the Green Cat. Even a good restaurant with customers can fall victim to poor management. On January 17, 1940 Hinegardner sold his interest in the operation to his father and closed the place.
The original Green Cat building still stands near the West Coast Theatre.
Since that time, the Green Cat's second, larger location has been torn down for the First American Title Insurance complex. But the original location has continued on as a series of cafes. In recent memory, it was El Nidito and retained the look of an old lunch room. Today, with a remodeled interior, it serves as The Little Sparrow, where a hip crowd dines on international fusion cuisine. It’s a rare case of a sparrow following after a cat. 

(Stay tuned for a follow-up post about the Green Cat's revival…)
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Pat Hearle, 1931-2015

June 19, 2015, 11:57 am
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Pat Hearle teaching kids about archaeology at Santiago Oaks Regional Park, 1986.
I'm sad to report the passing of Pat Hearle. She was a regular at the County Archives and an active member of the Orange County Historical Society, the Orange County Pioneer Council, the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society, and the Old Courthouse Museum Society for many years. Hardly  a week went by when I didn't have a conversation with Pat. She is already missed.

Pat had a few favorite stories, which I will attempt to retell as best I can:
  • Pat was a member of Orange County's pioneer Greenleaf family. Her ancestor, Dr. Edward F. Greenleaf was from the same little town in Clark County, Missouri as William H. "Uncle Billy" Spurgeon. After Spurgeon founded the town of Santa Ana, he wrote to Greenleaf, inviting him to come and serve as the town's first doctor. Pat said she once visited that small Missouri town and said she could see exactly why both Spurgeon and Greenleaf both wanted to escape.
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  • When she was a girl, Pat's family owned a large parcel of land on Greenleaf Street in Santa Ana. Somewhere on that land was "the largest pepper tree in Southern California." How large was it, you ask? It was large enough that it appeared on aeronautical charts and aviators used it as a navigation landmark. Sometimes pilots, while trying to get their bearings, would circle the tree again and again. Pat remembered climbing this giant tree and watching the planes circle.
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  • Pat was on the faculty of Walt Disney Elementary School in Anaheim when it opened in 1957. Walt Disney himself was on hand for the opening. He'd had his artists paint a mural of Disney characters all around the school's multi-purpose room. He also gave free one-day Disneyland passes to all the students and teachers and their families. School was dismissed early. Pat went home, collected her sons, and spent the day with them at Disneyland -- on Walt's nickel.
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  • Pat enjoyed the annual Orange County Pioneer Picnics, and recounted how people at each table would brag about how early their families arrived in O.C. "My family arrived in 1918," one would say. "Well," huffed another, "my family came here in 1902." If asked, Pat would say her family arrived in Santa Ana in 1882, which usually ended that particular line of conversation. She got a kick out of the awkward silence thereafter.
Pat had many lifelong friendships, she loved her archaeological trips to China Ranch in the Mojave, and at the end of her life she worked hard to remain as independent as she could for as long as she could. She was a strong woman with many interests and it was hard not to like her.

Here's Pat's obituary from the June 16, 2015 issue of the Orange County Register:
Leonore Patricia "Pat" Hearle, late of Anaheim, died May 23, 2015 of natural causes at age 83. Born December 21, 1931 in Santa Ana, she was the only child of Leo Patrick Flaherty and Hazel Greenleaf Flaherty. A lifelong resident of Orange County, Pat grew up on Greenleaf Street in Santa Ana, and graduated from Santa Ana High School and Santa Ana College where she sang and performed leading roles in numerous productions. She earned her B.A. and teaching credential at Cal State Long Beach, and, after her 1954 marriage to Herbert David Hearle, she taught briefly at the newly opened Walt Disney School in Anaheim. After the birth of her third son, she went back to teaching at Cambridge Elementary School in Orange where she taught kindergarten and first grade for thirty years. In 1960, she was Vice President of the Long Beach State Alumni Association, and at different times was a longtime member of the Orange County Sports Car Club, Junior Ebell of Santa Ana, and the Pioneer Council of Orange County. After her 1977 divorce, she served four terms as President of the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society. She was always active on the planning committee for Santa Ana High School Class of 1949 reunions, and also served as a member of the Old Courthouse Museum Advisory Committee for many years. Her longest and favorite residence in adulthood was in Bluebird Canyon in her beloved Laguna Beach. She is survived by her sons, Patrick (his wife Sally), Kevin (his wife Libby), and Michael; two granddaughters, Ashley and Amanda; and one great-granddaughter, Austin. A Celebration of Life will be held June 20, 2015 [at 12:30 p.m.] at the Clubhouse of Harbour View Park at 16600 Saybrook Lane in Huntington Beach. In accordance with her wishes, she will be buried in the last of the Greenleaf family plots in Santa Ana Cemetery.
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The Green Kat, Westminster

July 15, 2015, 11:24 pm
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Photo courtesy Westminster Historical Society, with image editing by Bob Ash.
When I set out to find the story of a tavern, I never expected to find an anemic chimp, illegal gambling, witchcraft, women’s softball stars, and a pre-World War II affirmation of brotherly love between Japan and America. But here we are…

A month ago, longtime Westminsterite Chris Garland asked me about the Green Kat Café. This led me to discover TWO convoluted tales that turned out to be part of the same story. My previous green-feline-related post actually intertwines with the following tale, although that tale was set in Santa Ana and this one takes place in Westminster.

The Green Kat began as the Green Gables Cafe, built at the southwest corner of Beach Boulevard and Westminster Boulevard in "New Westminster" in the late 1920s or the early 1930s. New Westminster, was a highway town composed of about 10 subdivisions developed about a mile east of “old” Westminster between 1927 and 1929. The area was later incorporated into the City of Westminster. On a prominent corner of the highway, surrounded by miles of flat, open fields and few buildings of note, the Green Gables almost immediately became a landmark.

"It was very well known in the early years," said Westminster historian and former mayor Joy Neugebauer, "because it was exactly the midpoint between Downtown Santa Ana and Downtown Long Beach. People would use it to give directions."

And so it was that Westminster – founded by a minister as a temperance colony in 1870 – ended up with a tavern as probably its most recognizable landmark.
Ad from the Santa Ana Register, June 2, 1941
The Green Gables appears in the local directories around late 1935, and the first owners were Allen and Marjorie Vorhis (or Voorhees). Along with a service station just across Beach Blvd., its architectural style was an early example of Westminster's spotty Tudor Revival architectural theme.

Tony W. Shackles, a charter member of the Midway CityAmerican Legion Post, bought the café in Fall 1937. In April 1940, he sold it to easterners Mrs. Jean Reynolds and Mrs. Josephine Smith, although it was primarily Smith who managed the place. She also remodeled and refurbished the dining areas and kitchen and began calling it the Green Gables Inn. Soon after, the Long Beach Independent wrote, "Dancing is on every week night until 2 a.m. Sunday, dancing is from 3 p.m. to 10. Ray Chapman and his dance band play. Jam session is a feature every Monday, amateur night is every Friday. The popularity of Green Gables Inn is growing steadily as indicated from week to week." In 1941, they were busted for having illegal slot machines.

In October 1944 the Green Gables Inn became The Normandy. Mr. and Mrs. Ray Smith of Westminster were the new owners and Harry Greenwood was the manager. By 1951, the proprietors were L. C. Arnold and C. W. Ahlbin.

Meanwhile, Orval W. Hinegardner (1910-1991), who’d closed his Green Cat Café and Kit Kat Cocktail Lounge in Santa Ana in 1940, was still ricocheting around the Southern California restaurant scene. This was nothing new for Orval. Even when he was proprietor of the Green Cat, he also operated McNee’s Café on Whittier Blvd. in Whittier, where his father, (Stanton), was the cook and another Hinegardner, (Clifford), was assistant manager. Orval had a penchant for hopping from one thing to another – a trait that probably wasn’t lost on his four (or more) wives.

Later in the 1940s he would live in El Monte (no wife listed in the directories), and worked at the oddly-named Hi-Knees Party House in Monterey Park.
From the Register, Nov. 7, 1941. I would pay to see a "startling dance band."
But in 1952, The Normandy became the Green Kat Café, and Orval – now living in sunny Corona del Mar– was the new owner. Unlike Santa Ana’s Green Cat, which had once held a fine reputation even among Orange County’s civic leaders, Westminster’s Green Kat was a less-reputable tavern.

“It was a dive,” said longtime Orange County Historical Commissioner Don Dobmeier. “It was a large nondescript structure, painted green. I never went in, but there always seemed to be a lot of cars in front of it, even at 8:00 in the morning.”

It appears Orval wasn’t too hands-on this time. The new Green Kat was managed by "Jeanne"(according to newspaper ads) and by custom motorcycle genius/hellraiser Herk Currie.  

"It was the most popular night spot in the area," said Neugebauer.

It was a landmark, but was also a pretty rough-and-tumble place and a mildly notorious as a pick-up bar. But it was also, in the words of Nick Popadiuk, "the crown jewel in the string of watering holes along Westminster Blvd. during [the town's] classic Dive Bar Era (late '50s-60s) ."
Westminster Ave., New Westminster, Feb. 1957
Soon, Orval and his wife Lorene moved to Midway City, not far from the café.  And they added a new family member: a young female chimp named Sara Heartburn. When she was 13 months old she was found to be anemic, and Garden Grove veterinarian Dr. Stanley L. Baldwin performed a blood transfusion from Chester, a chimp from Long Beach. "The transfusion between chimpanzees may be unique in the annals of veterinary medicine," said the Long Beach Independent.

In 1962, the Green Kat was torn down and replaced with future Orange County Supervisor Ron Caspers'Keystone Savings & Loan -- a building that made dramatic use of the Old English half-timbered look suggested by the city's name.

Caspers' story -- from his meteoric rise in business and politics to the day he disappeared at sea – is far more interesting than that of the Green Cat or Green Kat. But that’s a tale for another time.

[This entry updated 7/17/2015 with new information and photo provided to me by Nick Popadiuk.]

(Click here to go back and read PART I of this two-part series.)
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Disneyland turns 60!

July 17, 2015, 8:23 pm
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Walt Disney with Peter Ellenshaw's 1954 concept map of Disneyland.
Today is the 60th anniversary of the TV show and press preview that opened Disneyland. Tomorrow, July 18th, will be the 60th anniversary of the first day the general public was allowed into the park. To mark the occasion, the great architectural historian Alan Hess left a great post on Facebook. But since Facebook posts are (in some ways) so ephemeral, I am reposting it here, with apologies:
The single most important piece of Modern architecture and planning in the twentieth century opened July 17, 1955. Walt Disney's brilliant insight was to design it with his own studio animators and set designers -- masters of the 20th century's premier technology, the movies. They went far beyond International Style architects' fixation on structural expression to shape space and form using the techniques of film -- editing, sequencing, framing, imagery, color, story telling -- to tap into the heart of modern life.
In just three sentences, Alan manages to say what needs to be said. But I'll prattle on now anyway,...

It's disturbing how little substantive historical research/writing has been done about a place as important and beloved as Disneyland. But I'm very thankful for those who have provided us with what little meaninful work we do have. David Mumford, Bruce Gordon, the Jantzen brothers, Sam Gennawey, Werner Weiss and a handful of others come to mind. It's hard to research a corporation that controls its image and records so tightly. They manage their history like a valuable asset, which I suppose it is. Thus, anything written that goes beyond the depth of a press release is a notable achievement. Kudos to our Disneyland historians!
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Jewish History and early O.C. Baseball

July 22, 2015, 4:34 pm
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The Heritage Museum of Orange County (3101 W. Harvard St., Santa Ana) has been hosting some great historical programs in their speaker series. These Saturday events begin with refreshments at 9am, followed by a program at 10am. The next two are,...
  • July 25, 2015: Dalia Taft, Archivist, Orange County Jewish Society— “Celebrating 158 Years of Jewish Orange County: The Early Years”
  • Aug. 15, 2015: Luis Fernandez, Professor of History, Santa Ana College - “America’s Favorite Passtime: Early Orange County Baseball”
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Mission Viejo, 1967

July 25, 2015, 5:51 pm
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Here's a 20-minute film from 1967, marketing the new community of Mission Viejo. In his indispesable book, Orange County Place Names A to Z (2006), Phil Brigandi writes, "In 1963, the O'Neill family and a group of investors formed the Mission Viejo Company to develop a master planned community on the northern end of the old Rancho Mission Viejo. The first families arrived here in 1966, and the City of Mission Viejo was incorporated in 1988."

The film footage here includes La Paz Plaza, schools, parks, rolling hills, grazing sheep, Mission Viejo's first church (Lutheran), the then-new Orange County Airport terminal, UCI, Fashion Island, Newport Harbor, and aerial views of the contruction of Dana Point Harbor. For further memories of childhoold there's a  shot of the contruction of Old MacDonald's Farm and an Indian Guides pinewood derby. Interior views of "Spanish Modern" (or perhaps Man of La Mancha Modern?) tract homes will also take you back.

Observant viewers will notice both Richard O'Neill and Tony Moiso of theRancho Mission Viejo in planning meeting scenes. And just to make sure you know it's the late 1960s, it's backed with easy listening version of Beatles hits. My thanks to Hedy Henderson for pointing out this great footage!
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The Orange and the Dream of California

July 29, 2015, 5:28 pm
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Fruit crate art (1920s), extolling twin miracles: Oranges and California.
Author David Boulé will speak on “The Orange and the Dream of California” at the Orange County Historical Society’s season kick-off program, Sept. 10, 2015, at Sherman Library & Gardens, 2647 E. Coast Highway, in Corona del Mar. A social hour and optional potluck of appetizers and desserts will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by the program at 7:30 p.m. The event is free to the public, and I hope to see you there!

In his presentation, Boulé will explore the five hundred year, intertwined history of the orange and California and how these two iconic entities have built upon one another to feed the imagination and conjure both a compelling fantasy and a remarkable reality.
David Boulé
 “The image of California as paradise and the orange as unique among all fruit has endured for centuries because, partially, these things are true,” Boulé writes. “These truths, recognized by chroniclers, journalists, scientists, growers and other objective observers, have then been magnified by poets and boosters, artists and hucksters, songwriters and bureaucrats – with both artistic and commercial motivation – to appeal to people’s continuing desire to believe that such exceptional perfection can really exist.”

A third generation Californian, Boulé has a lifelong fascination with the history, culture, achievements and uniqueness of the region. For decades he has scoured paper ephemera shows, flea markets, antique stores, the Internet, libraries, museums and bookshops to collect items and information relating to the California citrus industry.  A career in marketing communication has given him particular interest and insight into how the orange helped enhance the popular image of California as a place of potential, reinvention and fulfillment.

1915 brochure promoting Orange County
Explaining how collections and research like his can fill in gaps left in more general, academic approaches, Boulé adds, “I believe an individual zeal and a personal focus can help not only gather materials that might otherwise be dispersed and kept out of context, but add depth and texture to more traditional research approaches.”

David’s collection includes historic photographs, hundreds of postcards, rare advertising and marketing materials, books, phonograph records, posters, journals and personal papers, newspapers and press clippings, and many California orange-themed souvenirs and promotional items.  His collection has been featured in exhibits, he has given numerous presentations. His book, The Orange and Dream of California, was published in 2014 by Angel City Press and will be available for sale at the event.
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Come to where the flavor is,... Mission Viejo!

July 30, 2015, 6:58 pm
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Look! It's another great Mission Viejo promotional film from the 1970s! Watch for those Philip Morris product placements! (*cough!*)

What? You didn't know that the Mission Viejo Co. was once owned by an enormous tobacco company?

The Mission Viejo Co. was founded in 1963 by Donald Bren and the O'Neill family. Later, Bren sold his part of the company and bought the Irvine Co. instead. In 1969, Philip Morris invested in the Mission Viejo Co. and in 1972 they bought it outright. The company developed Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, and some communities in other states. The cancer people finally sold the company to developer J.F. Shea Co. in 1997.

(Previous Mission Viejo film posted here.)
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Malls and shopping centers, 1977

August 9, 2015, 12:43 am
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Fashion Island, Newport Beach.
Today I stumbled across a copy of the Shopping Center Development Handbook, a 1977 book about the planning of malls and large shopping centers published by the Urban Land Institute. It's fascinating reading if you're interested in such things, and it uses examples from all over the country. I thought I'd share the book's few Orange County images here on the blog.

Westminster Mall sits on a 93-acre triangular site.
Nostalgia is to history what pine-tree-shaped air fresheners are to forests. But that doesn't mean I don't have something nostalgic hanging from my rearview mirror. Nostalgia has its place, and sometimes it makes us stop and think about the larger and deeper scope of history.

Little inspires more nostalgia in Orange Countians than the shopping malls and shopping centers they grew up with. For me, it's memories of The Broadway, B. Dalton Books, Big Boy Jr., and the fresh-squeezed lemonade stand at Huntington Center (before it became the mess that is "Bella Terra"). It's also Silverwood's, koi ponds, Modernist playgrounds, and tostadas in the Robinson's lunchroom at Fashion Island. For you, it may be fond memories of shopping with your parents or friends at the Mall of Orange, the Laguna Hills Mall, or Fashion Square.
La Paz Plaza, Mission Viejo

I hope at least a few of our local malls survive. It's hard to get nostalgic over cookie-cutter big box stores.
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Who owned O.C.’s roads in 1918?

August 21, 2015, 1:30 pm
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Motoring in Orange County, 1910s
The history of our roads is fascinating, and today I came across a curious 1918 newspaper article that sheds some light on that history.  But first, a bit of background…

Abel “Horse Face” Stearns (and his Stearns Rancho Company) was once the largest landholder in Southern California. He had vast holdings across today’s Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange Counties. Here in O.C., his lands included the following ranchos: La Habra, Los Coyotes, San Juan Cajón de Santa Ana, Las Bolsas and Bolsa Chica. But the drought of the 1860s devastated the cattle industry and Stearns was forced to throw in with a real estate partnership to get out from under crushing debt. The partnership, called the Robinson Trust, successfully brought Stearns back into the black by selling land. Stearns died in 1871, but his company went marching along.

The following article, from the May 13, 1918 Santa Ana Register, refers to a document in Orange County’s Book of Deeds 324, page 193:

DEEDS COUNTY ALL OLD TIME RIGHTS IN COUNTY ROADS

The county has received an unusual, rather remarkable deed. It covers strips of property from Yorba to the sea, and it slides into deeds given as far back as 1868. The deed, presented to the Board of Supervisors today by the Stearns Rancho Company, is for all interest that the company has in strips of land reserved for road purposes.

As deeds were given by Alfred Robinson, trustee for the ranch company, from 1868 on down to the present day, there were reservations made for sixty-foot roads at township and section lines and for forty-foot roads at quarter-section lines. These reservations left title in the ranch company. Since then, whenever a new road was needed to which the county did not have a deed, the ranch company has been called upon to give deeds.

The matter has been of considerable annoyance to the ranch company as well as to others. The ranch company decided to give over to the county every right it has in the reservations, and to that end it has offered the county a deed. That deed is a blanket deed. It merely says that to the county it deeds all of its reservations for road, natural stream and ditch purposes.
Whittier Blvd. in the La Habra area, looking west, circa 1918

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"Flogged like a beast" in Dana Point!

August 22, 2015, 7:36 pm
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Book cover art appealing to a, um, ... niche audience. 
It's pulp non-fiction! I've never before seen a book related to Orange County history presented with a cover quite like this. Two Years Before the Mast is, of course, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.'s classic memoir of life as a sailor in the 1830s (published in 1840). It was a muckraking book, intended to shine a light on the terrible treatment of common sailors and to inspire reform. Locally, however, it is now sometimes misidentified as primarily being a romantic adventure tale.

The section of the book that's retold most often in O.C. is the part where Dana described his visit to the cove below San Juan Capistrano that we now call Dana Point. He arrived as a crew member aboard the Pilgrim, which had come to collect cow hides from the mission. He described the area and recounted the process of flinging hides down from the bluff-tops to the beach below, where they were gathered and taken by rowboat to the waiting ship. He famously called this cove "the only romantic spot on the coast."

Every year, the Dana Point Historical Society does a nonstop public reading of Dana's book. In Dana Point Harbor, there's a replica of the Pilgrim, which is visited by thousands of school children each year. The harbor also hosts an annual Tallship Festival. And a larger-than-life statue of Dana (which looks nothing like him) seems to gaze out toward the horizon. But seldom do you see the Chamber of Commerce using the sort of language you find on this book cover:
The back cover. Only slightly less lurid than the front..
This 1953 paperback edition from the Almat Publishing Corp. was "edited for modern reading" by Marshall McClintock. Almat's Pyramid Books imprint had a knack for churning out pulps with half-naked people on the covers. They featured titles like The Shame of Mary Quinn, The Heavenly Sinner, and The Divine Passion. It's sort of hilarious that they gave the same treatment to Dana.

My thanks to Mark for sending this copy along to the Orange County Archives. One never knows what amazing O.C.-related curiosities he's going to send our way. Just when I think I've seen every form of Orange Countiana, he or one of our other friends/patrons surprises me with something obscure. And that's a very good thing. It's a slow day when you don't learn something new.
Promotional slug from inside the book.
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Knott's, Modern architecture, Irvine, Bowers, etc.

August 26, 2015, 9:14 pm
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So the good news is you're finally tall enough to go on the Sky Jump and the Corkscrew at Knott's Berry Farm. The bad news is the Corkscrew (the world's first inverting steel roller coaster) left the farm in 1989 and is now at Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho. Also, the parachutes of the Sky Jump ceased operation in 1999. Ah, well,... We like the Calico Mine Ride better anyway.

Architectural historian extraordinare Alan Hess has two upcoming speaking engagements you can attend. First, tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. at the Laguna Art Museum, Alan will discuss California Modern architecture. Next month, to celebrate the City of Irvine's 50th Anniversary, Alan will speak at the Great Park Gallery, Sept. 19, 1:00 p.m. You may still have trouble saying "Great Park" with a straight face, but this is a darn good reason to drive out there.

I noticed two more articles on the Bowers Museum Blog that I hadn't noticed before. One is about the amazing coffered ceiling in their Rancho Room. The other describes the background on a photo of a burst solar heater during the "Big Freeze" of 1937. Yes, that "technology" has been around since at least 1891.

And you thought Al Gore invented solar panels! He did not. That's the Internet you're thinking of.
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Knott's Halloween history event at OCHS

October 3, 2015, 7:05 pm
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Boot Hill, Knott's Berry Farm, 1990. Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.
Love Halloween? Love theme park history? Boy, have I got the event for you! Join the Orange County Historical Society and authors Ted Dougherty and Eric Lynxwiler for some Halloween fun and holiday history on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. This event is open to the public at no cost.

Halloween is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Yet long before costume-shop chains and Halloween stores cropped up every October, the Halloween season was far more innocent and simple. Many remember when the season entailed trick-or-treating in home-made costumes among a few illuminated porch decorations. That all changed in the 1970s when Halloween's popularity began to explode. One of the pioneers of the now-global Halloween industry was Orange County's own Knott's Berry Farm. Take a trip back in time with authors and historians, Ted Dougherty and Eric Lynxwiler as they share how the family-friendly Knott's Berry Farm theme park was at the forefront in creating a spooky form of entertainment that has been emulated at theme parks around the world.
 
Ted Dougherty is a historian and author of the award-winning book, Knott's Halloween Haunt: A Picture History. In addition to scaring thousands of guests for ten seasons as a "werewolf" at Knott's, Ted has also consulted, provided historical tours and trained characters for the longest running Halloween theme park in the world, Knott's Scary Farm's Halloween Haunt. Due to his expertise of things that go bump in the night, Ted has worked as an Associate Producer for the documentary, Season of Screams, and featured in numerous media outlets, including Newsweek, the History Channel and CNN. 

Urban anthropologist J. Eric Lynxwiler is the co-author of Knott's Preserved:  From Boysenberry to Theme Park, The History of Knott's Berry Farm, and Wilshire Boulevard:  Grand Concourse of Los Angeles.  Neon enthusiasts may know Eric as the affable host of the Museum of Neon Art's Neon Cruise. Downtown L.A. preservationists know him as an L.A. Conservancy docent for the Broadway Theater district.  While attending UCLA, he spent one school year behind the counter of Knott's shooting gallery and, more recently, worked as theme park's graphic designer on signage, brochures, and its new series of Berry-Market-labeled preserves.
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O.C. narrowly averted counter-culture uprising

October 6, 2015, 5:35 pm
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Crazed beatniks Lera Chapman and Bobby Schaal stick it to the man!
Howdid Orange County survive the tumultuous youth movement and violent social upheaval of the 1960s? It wasn't easy, as this Oct. 1, 1965 Los Angeles Times article by Jack Boettner starkly illustrates...

The wide tie fad has been stopped before it could get rolling in the Orange Unified School District’s junior high schools.

Students in the 9th grades at Yorba and McPherson junior high schools began showing up in dad’s old four-in-hands of the mid-1940s with the opening of the fall term. But it did not set well with the administration.

Thursday was the last day the broad and bold neck wear could be worn at Yorba.

Homer Jurgens, Yorba vice principal, said the ties “just don’t fit in with the school’s dress code. We feel they are inappropriate for school wear. They are apt to be disturbing in the classroom situation. We know fads do exist, but we have to be careful with certain ones. The dress code was established by a combination of parents, faculty and students last year.”

Jurgens said there has been no formal announcement that the ties must be discontinued, but that the administrators had made the decision after conferring with several teachers. He said he has been breaking the word to the students individually.

George Osborn, principal and McPherson, said the wearing of the wide tie was brought to a halt because they are unacceptable and might cause a “commotion” in class. He said they did not meet the criteria of a dress code drawn up by staff and students.

 “We try to keep the dress within reason,” he said, “yet leave the individual his freedom. If we allowed the  ties, pith helmets might be next.”

Portola Junior High School reported none of its students had joined the wide-tie trend.

Bobby Schaal, 13, one of the Yorba students who has taken to the ties, said one student brought 84 ties to school and was selling them at 10 cents apiece.

Why does he wear them?

“It’s something different,” Bobby said. “I guess you could say it’s a way to chop the old timers.”

He said he was not disappointed that the school had put an end to the mounting fad.

Thus was chaos and rioting averted in Orange County. And indeed, pith helmets never got a chance to wreak their special brand of counter-cultual mayhem. But the kids in Orange were ahead of their time. The following year, British fashion designer Michael Fish would bring back wide, loud neckties. By the late 1960s and early 1970s much of the Western world was wearing them. Even (or perhaps especially) junior high school vice principals! Along with avocado-colored appliances, brutalist architecture and bad men's hairstyles, it was part of what historians now call the "Uglification of America."
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Halloween in the Santa Ana Register, 1910-1920

October 29, 2015, 5:15 pm
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Halloween spot art from the Santa Ana Register, 1911.
As a local historian, I spend a lot of time rummaging through the old Santa Ana Register (now known as the Orange County Register) and other newspapers of yore. In the process of looking for specific things, I always end up running across other cool stuff that seems worth copying and saving for future reference. Some of latter is related to Halloween because,... well,... because I love the holiday!  Here are a few glimpses of Orange County Halloweens past...
Green Dragon Confectionery ad, S.A. Register, Oct. 11, 1912.
The Green Dragon Confectionery had a great name -- One that was especially well suited to a holiday full of scary imaginary creatures. As of 1912 this stalwart Downtown Santa Ana business was offering a wide array of holiday-specific goodies and decorations. Most of the advertised goods above are familiar, but I had to turn to Merriam-Webster to discover that Jack Horner Pies are "an ornamental pie-shaped container from which favors or toys are extracted often by pulling a ribbon at a party." So that would go nice with the party favors, baskets for salted almonds and assorted Halloween candies, pies and cakes. I want to go to a party like this on Halloween!

Balboa Pavilion ad, Santa Ana Register, Oct. 28, 1910.
The Balboa Pavilion isn't the first place I think of at Halloween. Today, it's the folks across the water on Balboa Island who get all the attention with their elaborate holiday "yard" displays. (Sans yards.) But in 1910, and for a number of years before and after, the Pavilion was host to a big annual Halloween Dance. Sounds like fun! 
Party decorations ad, Santa Ana Register, Oct. 25, 1920.
Halloween and book stores are both pretty high on the list of things I'm fond of, and here they are together in the same place! In fact, the Santa Ana Book Store was long a major local supplier of Halloween decorations and party favors in the early Twentieth Century.

By the way, this year's Anaheim Halloween Parade  -- a local tradition since the 1920s -- was a real corker. (Photos here.) Hope you didn't miss it. If you did, see it next year!
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