Category Archives: Uncategorized

Last week, we delved into the problems of reaching Los Angeles International Airport by ground transportation. This week, we remember a firm that looked to the skies, using helicopters to achieve the same goal. Aviation engineer Clarence M. Belinn founded Los Angeles Airways in 1944, with the goal of becoming the first private firm to Continue reading “Los Angeles Airways pioneered mail delivery, then passenger service, via helicopter”

For the first couple of decades after Los Angeles International Airport began operations in the late 1940s, linking up to your airport flight wasn’t much of a concern. You just drove up, pulled into one of the large central parking lots and parked before catching your plane. As the airport and its surrounding metro areaContinue reading “The direct link between public transportation and LAX finally is coming. No, really!”

The United States Coast Guard has one of the most reassuring mottoes in the military: “Semper paratus,” Latin for “always ready.” Whether by sea, air or land, the military branch serves to protect our coastal areas from natural and manmade disasters, foreign attacks, crime and a myriad of other threats. It traces its roots toContinue reading “U.S. Coast Guard has had a Harbor Area presence for more than a century”

The pinball machines of the 1930s were different and far more primitive devices than the ones that became ubiquitous in bowling alleys and arcades during the 1970s and 1980s. The first versions from the 19th century, known as bagatelles, were tabletop devices, and none of them had flippers, which weren’t invented until 1947.  The nameContinue reading “Pinball wizards sidelined by gambling enforcement bans in the 1940s and 1950s”

Dictatorial studio head Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio from 1924-1951, may not have been the most beloved movie mogul of Hollywood’s Golden Age, but he was downright angelic compared to his little brother Rudolph. Rudolph W. Mayer was born Rubin Mayer in Long Island, New York, on April 17, 1889, to Jacob andContinue reading “Developer Rudolph Mayer knew how to stir the pot in Torrance in the early 1950s”

In 1911, landowner/developer George Peck first subdivided the 27 acres of oceanfront land between Manhattan Beach and El Segundo that would become El Porto. He ran a large ad about the new tract in the Los Angeles Times of Nov. 5, 1911, above, using the Cooper-Culler Co. in Los Angeles as his agent. He designedContinue reading “Manhattan Beach’s El Porto area retains its own distinctive identity”

In the crazy quilt of jurisdictions that make up southwest Los Angeles County, one can at times detect some strains of logic to its street names. Every incorporated city’s planning department has some control over how its streets are named, which helps to explain both the consistencies within city limits, and the inconsistencies in theContinue reading “Cities, communities have differing reasons for keeping or changing street names”

Real estate developer Daniel Freeman tried hard to convince people to buy lots in the  Inglewood area after he acquired the Rancho Sausal Redondo and the Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela lands in the 1880s. He became a central figure in the development of Inglewood through his Centinela-Inglewood Land Company, formed in 1887. Freeman eventuallyContinue reading “1920 earthquake brought mandatory urban renewal to Inglewood”

Hap Jacobs has popped up from time to time in past entries on this blog, but his life and role as one of the founding fathers of surf culture in the South Bay cries out for a more detailed exploration. Dudley George “Hap” Jacobs was born in Los Angeles in 1930. His father was aContinue reading “Surfing pioneer Hap Jacobs helped shape surfboard creation into a fine art”

Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church has played an important role in the San Pedro community ever since its founding in 1889 by Bishop Francisco Mora i Borell. The Spanish  priest, known as Bishop Mora, headed the Monterey-Los Angeles diocese in the late 1800s, and helped establish the modern Catholic Church in California. HisContinue reading “Mary Star of the Sea church, schools a vital part of San Pedro community”