Author Archives: Sam Gnerre

If you look closely, remnants of past military readiness can be found all along the south-facing South Bay and Harbor Area coast. The strategic importance of the Palos Verdes coastline had been recognized as early as the 1920s, when the U.S. Army installed a series of small bunkers along the coastal hillsides. Their purpose wasContinue reading “Coastal military readiness at Long Point in Rancho Palos Verdes”

Though the Ku Klux Klan normally is associated with the Deep South, its immense popularity in the 1920s caused its reach to increase throughout the country. Its first incarnation began in Tennessee as a Southern reaction to Reconstruction following the end of the Civil War in 1865. A second wave began in 1915 in Atlanta,Continue reading “The 1922 Ku Klux Klan Inglewood raid”

Jim Thorpe was one of the most amazing athletes of the 20th Century. Some say he was the best of them all. He was born a member of the Sac and Fox Tribe on May 22, 1888 in Indian territory in what become Oklahoma when that state joined the Union in 1907. Thorpe’s meteoric riseContinue reading “Jim Thorpe’s days in the South Bay”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn’s place in history seems secure, even though a 1960 attempt to form a new city bearing his name ended in failure. Hahn is a crucial figure in the history of Los Angeles County government. After a five-year stint on the Los Angeles City Council starting in 1947, he servedContinue reading “The City of Hahn fails to materialize”

When Bob Hare saw a vacant Hudson Shoe Store for rent one day in 1958 at 53 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, right across from Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse jazz club, he knew what he had to do. He borrowed $2,000 to put towards refurbishing the shoe store, and began paying its $150 monthly rent soContinue reading “Hermosa Beach’s Insomniac coffeehouse was a Beat Generation haven”

The pre-dawn events of June 11, 1948 that centered on the Hi-Spot Drive-In restaurant in Hermosa Beach ended up taking one policeman’s life and destroying another’s. Hermosa Beach Radio Patrolman Robert McCaulley, 32, and Redondo Beach acting Sgt. Fred L. Taylor, 37, were good friends, having worked together on the Hermosa Beach police force beforeContinue reading “Wild 1948 joyride ends in tragedy for two South Bay policemen”

The Beatles’ first appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show” on Sunday, Feb. 9, 1964 sent shock waves throughout the American pop culture landscape. South Bay youths were not immune to the charms of the Liverpudlian quartet, proceeding to go pretty much as batty for them as everyone else in the months that followed. Impressed byContinue reading “Beatlemania hits the South Bay”

The first attempted airplane hijacking is a matter of debate, but most sources cite an incident in Peru on Feb. 21, 1931. Pilot Byron Rickards had landed his Ford Tri-Motor in Arequipa when he was accosted by armed revolutionaries demanding that he use his plane to drop anti-government propaganda leaflets. Rickards refused, and a standoffContinue reading “Former Torrance man becomes first person imprisoned for airplane hijacking”

When Beverly Aadland was only two years old in 1944, her mother, Florence, was priming her for a career in show business by enrolling her in voice lessons. She already had been an Ivory Soap baby at six months old. The Aadlands lived in Hermosa Beach, first on the corner of Manhattan Avenue and SixteenthContinue reading “The Hermosa Beach girl who fell in love with Errol Flynn”