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In 1966, director Bruce Brown’s surfing documentary, “Endless Summer,” became a breakout box office hit. Its narrative involved two surfers following the summer season around the globe in search of the best waves. The film broadened the sport’s appeal to a larger audience by weaving surfing action footage together with local color and humorous interludes.Continue reading “Indie surfing documentaries found an audience in the South Bay before ‘Endless Summer’”

Inglewood High School was founded when the new Inglewood Union High School District formed in 1905, three years before Inglewood was incorporated as a city in 1908. The area’s very first school had opened years earlier in 1888, on the second floor of a livery stable. A permanent building eventually was built on Grevillea Avenue.Continue reading “Inglewood High School has had a long and sometimes turbulent history”

Robert Rokuru Taira found his calling in Hawaii in the period after World War II, after serving in the U.S. military as an interpreter during the war. His parents had emigrated to the island of Hawaii in 1906, and Taira was born there on Nov. 5, 1923, as the ninth of 11 children. Before WorldContinue reading “King’s Hawaiian founder built an empire on those amazing sweetbread rolls”

Howard Kaylan was born Howard Kaplan on June 22, 1947, in New York City. He moved to Westchester near LAX with his parents when his father got a job with Hughes Aircraft in the late 1950s. The family lived at 5994 W. 96th Street in a house that no longer exists, having been torn downContinue reading “The Turtles began a meteoric rise to 1960s music stardom in Westchester”

With the arrival of another high school football season, it seems fitting to take a moment to remember longtime San Pedro High football announcer Bill “Tiger” Reese. William H. Reese was born at the Fort McKenzie military base near Sheridan, Wyoming, where his father was a civil service carpentry worker. In 1921, the family movedContinue reading “Bill “Tiger” Reese lived up to his billing as “The Voice of San Pedro””

In April 1967, a group of investors with German roots announced a plan to bring a bit of Bavaria to the South Bay. The members of the German South Bay Club Inc. planned to build a theme park of sorts on the eastern outskirts of Torrance that would celebrate German culture, food and drink, andContinue reading “Alpine Village: Bringing a bit of Bavaria to the South Bay”

When Greg Noll, then 66, spoke at his induction into the inaugural class of Hermosa Beach’s Surfers Walk of Fame in 2003, he observed how strange it was to be honored for spending his life doing what he loved. Modesty aside, few deserved the honors as much as Noll, who was not only a pioneeringContinue reading “Greg Noll’s legendary surfing exploits began in the South Bay”

Doak Aircraft Company operated in Torrance for only a little more than two decades, but the vision and innovations of its founder are held in high regard in aerospace circles to this day. Edmund R. Doak was born in San Antonio, Texas. on Jan. 6, 1898. Relatives remember that as a young boy, Doak wouldContinue reading “Doak Aircraft Company embodied the value of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit”

Noble Park on The Strand in Hermosa Beach covers a small city block directly adjacent to the beach. It’s a lovely little piece of much-needed green space, but why would the city choose to put a park, nice as it is, on such a prime piece of beachfront real estate? We’ll have to go backContinue reading “The long, strange journey of Hermosa Beach’s Biltmore Hotel”

Jack L. Warner and his fellow movie moguls from Hollywood’s Golden Age were no dummies. Even though the country had plunged into the Great Depression in 1929, Warner went ahead with plans to build several lavish movie palaces, shrewdly taking advantage, along with his competitors at Fox and other studios, of lower construction costs inContinue reading “San Pedro’s Warner Grand Theatre has become more than just a revered 1930s movie palace”